Thursday, December 12, 2024

A Cherokee Prayer Blessing

"May the warm winds of Heaven blow softly upon your house.
May the Great Spirit bless all who enter there.
May your mocassins make happy tracks in many snows,
and may the rainbow always touch your shoulder."

~ A Cherokee Prayer Blessing

The Poet: John Donne, "For Whom the Bell Tolls"

"For Whom the Bell Tolls"

"No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee."

- John Donne

Canadian Prepper, "Alert! U.S. Govt. Prepares For Nuclear Emergency!"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 12/12/24
"Alert! U.S. Govt. Prepares For Nuclear Emergency! 
Russia Prepares IRBM Attack; Drones At Nuclear Sites"
Comments here:

The Daily "Near You?"

Arvada, Colorado, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Dan, I Allegedly, "The NFL Is Dead"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 12/12/24
"The NFL Is Dead"

"In this eye-opening investigation, we examine how skyrocketing parking costs ($120 at LA Rams games!), outrageous concession prices, and declining TV ratings across 25 of 32 teams are creating a perfect storm for the NFL. You won't believe the shocking ticket prices at recent games - some going for less than a cup of coffee! We also explore similar issues affecting the NBA and MLB, breaking down why major sports leagues are struggling to connect with fans. 

From aging audiences to unaffordable ticket prices, learn why these entertainment giants might be in serious trouble. #NFL #NBA #MLB #iallegedly Get an insider's perspective on why season ticket holders are questioning their loyalty, and what this means for the future of professional sports in America. Whether you're a die-hard sports fan or just interested in the business side of athletics, this analysis reveals the uncomfortable truth about where professional sports are headed."
Comments here:

Bill Bonner, "Something Wicked This Way Comes"

"The Wizard of Oz"
"Something Wicked This Way Comes"
The ‘bad thing’ we think these election results foretell is 
that post-WWII mainstream models - welfare states in 
Europe/a welfare-warfare state in the US - are running out of juice.
by Bill Bonner

Baltimore, Maryland - "In France, the voters turned against Macron’s ruling coalition. In Germany, they turned against the centrist Social Democrats and Christian Democrats in favor of more extreme alternatives. Anatol Lieven: Europe's center is not holding. The collapse of the government in France and the ruling coalition in Germany spells continued crises In America, too, voters selected the ‘insurgent’ Donald Trump over the media-approved Kamala Harris. Something wicked this way comes?

Executive Summary: All the world’s major nations - China, Japan, the US, France, Britain and Germany - are facing a debt crisis. Too much spending. Not enough revenue. And now, there’s about $330 trillion of debt worldwide... much of which will never be paid. Responsible governments try to cut back. But they can’t. The primary beneficiaries - the rich - undermine them. And then, the victims - who have come to depend on handouts - abandon them. The trend - towards more debt, bigger government, and more inflation - continues until a ‘bad thing’happens, effectively cutting off the money.

In France, the voters turned away from the center and moved towards the right and left, each one offering more radical solutions. In Germany, too, the ‘right-wing’ Alternative for Deutschland and the ‘left-wing’ Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance have greatly weakened the more mainstream parties.

And, of course, Donald Trump’s Republican Party is not at all like the old conservative, centrist Republican Party of Robert Taft and Ronald Reagan. It is now a ‘populist’ party combining elements of dollar-store nationalism with old-fashioned sticky-fingered socialism.

The ‘bad thing’ we think these election results foretell is that post-WWII mainstream models - welfare states in Europe/a welfare-warfare state in the US - are running out of juice.

There was something fraudulent about them from the very beginning. In the welfare states, the promise was that by supporting the ruling elites, the voter would get more out of the system than he could by his own honest, cooperative efforts. This seemed to be true as long as populations were growing and technology and trade increased productivity. Richer, younger generations could afford to support their parents in grand style. Pensions, real estate values, medical coverage - all went up. But it was fake. Government was just redistributing wealth, not creating it.

And then, birth rates declined. And the benefits of the Industrial Revolution - which converted heat energy into useful kinetic energy - reached declining marginal utility (meaning... you get a big bump in productivity with your first tractor... not so much with the 10th).

Young people now struggle to match their parents’ wealth, not to surpass it. And though the internet, Facebook, Google and AI promised more wealth, in terms of useful bill-paying GDP, they delivered little. This left voters with a big gap between what they had come to expect from their governments and what they will actually get. Austerity was not what they had bargained for.

The American warfare state, meanwhile, had its own scams. It pretended that the US was in imminent danger from foreign and domestic enemies... and that it could only protect itself by transferring huge amounts of money to the firepower industry. Rather than a modest ‘defense’ budget, it insisted on ‘full spectrum dominance,’ that would allow it to meddle in whatever conflicts, wherever and whenever it wanted. In addition to the costs of projecting armed force worldwide, the US too has an extensive welfare state at home to support. As in Europe, at current levels of expenditure, it is unsustainable.

In order to avoid financial catastrophe, the feds need to cut about $2 trillion from the annual budget. That is the goal of the new DOGE headed by Musk and Ramaswamy. But to get there, they need to cut back on both the warfare state and the welfare state — on military muscle as well as civilian fat.

It is certainly possible to do so; Milei shows us that. For the warfare state, it would mean only redirecting military spending towards protecting the homeland rather than romping all over the globe. And for the welfare state, the feds could simply subject beneficiaries to means testing, reducing support for people who don’t really need it.

Theoretically, it wouldn’t be difficult to bring the budget into balance and avoid a fiscal disaster. But can it be done without a ‘bad thing’ – war, depression, hyperinflation, revolution or a natural disaster - happening first? Can it be done before the people become desperate? We’ll see."

Adventures With Danno, "I Was Not Impressed At Kroger Today"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 12/12/24
"I Was Not Impressed At Kroger Today"
Comments here:

"How It Really Is"

"It Was Ironic..."

"It was the essence of life to disbelieve in death for one's self, to act as if life would continue forever. And life had to act also as if little issues were big ones. To take a realistic attitude toward life and death meant that one lapsed into unreality. Into insanity. It was ironic that the only way to keep one's sanity was to ignore that one was in an insane world or to act as if the world were sane."
- Philip José Farmer

"Against All Odds...""

"There's a little animal in all of us and maybe that's something to celebrate. Our animal instinct is what makes us seek comfort, warmth, a pack to run with. We may feel caged, we may feel trapped, but still as humans we can find ways to feel free. We are each other's keepers, we are the guardians of our own humanity and even though there's a beast inside all of us, what sets us apart from the animals is that we can think, feel, dream and love. And against all odds, against all instinct, we evolve."
- "Grey's Anatomy"

"You Are My Brother..."

“You are my brother, but why are you quarreling with me? Why do you invade my country and try to subjugate me for the sake of pleasing those who are seeking glory and authority?

Why do you leave your wife and children and follow Death to the distant land for the sake of those who buy glory with your blood, and high honor with your mother's tears?

Is it an honor for a man to kill his brother man? If you deem it an honor, let it be an act of worship, and erect a temple to Cain who slew his brother Abel.

Is self-preservation the first law of Nature? Why, then, does Greed urge you to self-sacrifice in order only to achieve his aim in hurting your brothers? Beware, my brother, of the leader who says, "Love of existence obliges us to deprive the people of their rights!" I say unto you but this: protecting others' rights is the noblest and most beautiful human act; if my existence requires that I kill others, then death is more honorable to me, and if I cannot find someone to kill me for the protection of my honor, I will not hesitate to take my life by my own hands for the sake of Eternity before Eternity comes.

Selfishness, my brother, is the cause of blind superiority, and superiority creates clanship, and clanship creates authority which leads to discord and subjugation.

The soul believes in the power of knowledge and justice over dark ignorance; it denies the authority that supplies the swords to defend and strengthen ignorance and oppression - that authority which destroyed Babylon and shook the foundation of Jerusalem and left Rome in ruins. It is that which made people call criminals great men; made writers respect their names; made historians relate the stories of their inhumanity in manner of praise.

The only authority I obey is the knowledge of guarding and acquiescing in the Natural Law of Justice.

What justice does authority display when it kills the killer? When it imprisons the robber? When it descends on a neighborhood country and slays its people? What does justice think of the authority under which a killer punishes the one who kills, and a thief sentences the one who steals?

You are my brother, and I love you; and Love is justice with its full intensity and dignity. If justice did not support my love for you, regardless of your tribe and community, I would be a deceiver concealing the ugliness of selfishness behind the outer garment of pure love.”

- Kahlil Gibran

"The Cry Of Their Mothers..."

"Humanity is the spirit of the Supreme Being on earth, and that humanity is standing amidst ruins, hiding its nakedness behind tattered rags, shedding tears upon hollow cheeks, and calling for its children with pitiful voice. But the children are busy singing their clan's anthem; they are busy sharpening the swords and cannot hear the cry of their mothers."
- Kahlil Gibran
U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman HM1 Richard Barnett, assigned to the 1st Marine Division, holds an Iraqi child in central Iraq in this March 29, 2003 file photo. Confused front line crossfire ripped apart an Iraqi family after local soldiers appeared to force civilians towards positions held by U.S. Marines.

“My heart broke on its shame and sorrow. I suddenly knew how much crying there was in me, and how little love. I knew, at last, how lonely I was. But I couldn’t respond. My culture had taught me all the wrong things well. So I lay completely still, and gave no reaction at all. But the soul has no culture. The soul has no nations. The soul has no color or accent or way of life. The soul is forever. The soul is one. And when the heart has its moment of truth and sorrow, the soul can’t be stilled. I clenched my teeth against the stars. I closed my eyes. I surrendered to sleep. One of the reasons why we crave love, and seek it so desperately, is that love is the only cure for loneliness, and shame, and sorrow. But some feelings sink so deep into the heart that only loneliness can help you find them again. Some truths about yourself are so painful that only shame can help you live with them. And some things are just so sad that only your soul can do the crying for you.”
- Gregory David Roberts, "Shantaram"

"My Internal Exile"

"My Internal Exile"
by Edward Curtin

"Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far as day does night: it’s spritely waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mull’d, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children than war’s a destroyer of men.”
- Shakespeare, "Coriolanus"

"Long ago, but what seems like only yesterday, I didn’t go to the U.S. war against Vietnam but the war came to me. It was when my exile began. I am telling you this to try to shed some light on today’s wars and alarums since my tale is common for a small subset of Americans of my generation. We learned long ago that the USA was run by ruthless killers who reveled in war. Vietnam, the Phoenix Program, Cambodia, Indonesia, etc. Nothing was beyond them. We sensed that they would never stop and they haven’t. The genocide of Palestinians, the proxy war via Ukraine against Russia, the current US/Israel/Turkey bloodbath in Syria and Lebanon led by our ruthless terrorists – it is all nightmarish, malevolent, utterly evil, and conjures up hell on earth. And it will get worse in the future.

The mainstream media is claiming that the new savior of Syria is the terrorist “rebel” leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the founding leader of Al Qaeda in Syria, al-Nusra, and a former deputy to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

While there is truth in the view that the world has always been a butcher’s bench with wars, hatred, and strife being a common theme, “always” is meaningless to me. For I have never lived in “always.”

I have lived since birth in the United States during a period of time when it has been the world’s number one butcher, starting with the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then continuing waging non-stop wars, assassinating foreign and domestic leaders, including President Kennedy, executing coup d’états, supporting and arming ruthless dictators and terrorists, and creating an economy dependent on war.

All this has been sustained by lies and propaganda that most Americans have swallowed. It is a deeply ingrained Yankee doodle dandy ethos joined with American exceptionalism and a self-induced false innocence.

Just this as it did during the Vietnam war, The New York Times spewed out lies about the events in Syria, calling the U.S.-backed jihadist terrorists (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham/Al Qaeda, et al.) “rebels” and the overthrow of the Assad government a “civil war.” In doing so, the paper is just doing what it has always done as an organ for U.S. foreign policy, seemingly forgetting that it was the Obama administration that in 2012 launched Operation Timber Sycamore, a CIA program to, under the guise of a civil war, overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as part of a larger effort to undercut Iran and Russia for U.S./Israel/Turkey/NATO control of the region.

It is propaganda about a much larger war well underway, as the presence of Ukrainian forces in Syria and the usual Israeli bombing attest. Like a mountain ridge wildfire, the winds whip wildly now, and whether the fire spreads next to Iran or somewhere else, it is sure to spread.

To paraphrase Thoreau, there is no need to care for a myriad of instances and applications, the only thing you need is to be acquainted with the principle, which in this case is the long-standing demonic nature of U.S. foreign policy which is synchronous with waging perpetual war. Yet most people don’t want to go past such lying headlines that are repeated by all the mainstream media. They never did, except when the issues concerned them personally, as when there was a military draft.

Yes, government and media propaganda have contributed mightily to it, but so many of the country’s war crimes have been committed out in the open and accompanied by the public’s cheering and flag waving that propaganda is only part of the explanation. The will to believe and self-delusion are a large part of it. And people seem to like war, if it is far away and the cheerleaders are on this side of the water. It lends excitement to life like a real murder mystery, a sex scandal, or an approaching hurricane.

Furthermore, it provides roots for the national myth, the mythic home, the mythic womb, wherein one can root for the home team as one stands with tens of thousands of team people and sing along with the words “bombs bursting in air” while feeling a stirring of patriotic pride. This desire to be patriotically conventional, to support the national team in war and peace, is very powerful. Why else the creation of the mammoth bureaucracy called Homeland Security, the un-American word homeland taken straight from Hitler’s 1934 Nuremberg rally. Root, root, root for the home team.

I know the patriotic feeling. It left me back in 1967 when my exile began. For the most part, it has not been apparent to outside observers, for there are places difficult to reach, and the one within is the most distant. My youthful “normalcy” received its first body blow with JFK’s assassination in 1963. By 1967 I had joined the Marines and then declared myself a conscientious objector as I realized the evil my country was committing in Vietnam. I was on my way away.

In the years that followed, as Malcom X, MLK, Jr. and RFK, were assassinated and Johnson and Nixon lied and brutalized Vietnam, my understanding of history and politics deepened. Families and friends called me a communist for being a C.O. and opposing the war and a lying government. It was laughable but relentless.

Many years have elapsed, and the charges have risen and fallen as the years have gone by. For years now, the name of abuse is a “conspiracy” theorist or Russian sympathizer for daring to say that Russia Gate was a Democratic conspiracy and the war against Russia in Ukraine has been a U.S. project from the start. There is much more.

But my point about internal exile is that I had to adopt the motions of normalcy in everyday life – to create a pleasant persona – to get through the days. My teaching and writing continued as hard-hitting as before, but family, friends, academic colleagues, and acquaintances didn’t take my courses or read my writing, which they made sure to avoid.

These days, many more people have been forced to discover the twofold life where they can’t talk to the people in their lives about many issues – politics, wars, Covid, etc. Something has broken. Almost everything.

To accept the conclusion that the country is run by a bunch of ruthless warmongering imperialists is a step too far for most people. They must mean well or just make mistakes, for their hearts are in the right place, runs through so many minds. At least they assume that about the leaders they support.

A key way the endless wars roll on is the deadly political game of the lesser of two evils. If it is one’s political party waging the foreign wars, there are always many reasons to still find it better than the other party’s wars. “My leader may be a warmonger but he’s better than your warmonger” is the unspoken implication.

This neat trick is supported by a host of mitigating excuses to justify the delusion that one is for peace even as these wars occur non-stop throughout the decades as the Democratic and Republican leaders switch highchairs. Rather than dismiss the lot of them, the desire to feel that patriot heart-pump, however dim, and to reject the “extremist” conclusion that war is the life blood of the country, remains.

Throughout the sixty years of my adult life, the U.S. has been continuously waging wars, hot and cold, small and large, openly and secretly, all across the world, and its economy has increasingly become a military-industrial-national-security complex so vast and intricately linked to daily life that the country would collapse without it. Simply put: Beneath daily life lies a death cult, a river of blood. If that sounds too strong for you, give me another name for it.

It seems to me very clear that most Americans are today suffering from some sort of traumatic mental sickness, trying desperately to deny it in a multitude of ways. Scratch the surface of an everyday conversation or a greeting on the street and there’s the rolling of the eyes and the looks that say, “Let’s not go there, it’s all too crazy!” Something has broken, and people seem like walking desperadoes with the flag planted like a dagger in their hearts.

Even the alternative media, those writers with whom I share wishes for a peaceful world, have for a good while let their hopes trump realty by claiming the American empire is doomed, as is Israel and the neo-liberal, neo-con agenda. For many months now, I have noticed something amiss with these claims. Too much wishful thinking. Too little appreciation for the machinations of the CIA, M-16, Mossad, Turkish conspiracies. To think these devils would accept defeat without bringing the world down is naïve. I don’t relish saying all this. It is depressing. But I think it is true.

Some people who know me call me an extremist and claim I make no room for the middle ground. When it comes to U.S. war-waging, I say there is none. It is endless and integral to U.S. foreign policy no matter which party is in office. And the foreign policy is integral to the domestic policy. Without it, the country would be so different. Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden – to buy their lies is to be a fool.

To realize the difference between power and innocence is to come to understand the demonic nature of America’s Forever Wars. When in 2014 President Obama stood at West Point and said, “I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being,” he was revealing, consciously or not, a hard truth, just as when he received the Nobel Peace Prize and told the world he believed in war. But he smiled. For war is the lifeblood of this “exceptional” country. But if you keep repeating that, don’t expect smiles to come your way."
Full screen recommended.
James Blunt, "No Bravery"

"Global Food Prices Are Entering Very Dangerous Territory"

"Global Food Prices Are 
Entering Very Dangerous Territory"
by Michael Snyder

"What in the world is going to happen if global food supplies continue to get even tighter? During the second half of this year global food prices have been surging. A “perfect storm” of factors is suppressing production all over the planet, and meanwhile worldwide demand for food just keeps rising. Needless to say, higher prices hurt those at the bottom of the economic food chain the worst. Food prices have become a major issue in country after country, and if current trends continue it won’t be too long before widespread unrest breaks out. Here in the United States, the cost of living is absolutely eviscerating the middle class. If a way cannot be found to stabilize food prices, we will be seeing a tremendous amount of anger and frustration in 2025 and beyond.

Last week, it was being reported that global food prices had risen to “the highest level in 19 months”…"The world food price index, compiled by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to track the most globally traded food commodities, increased to 127.5 points last month from a revised 126.9 points in October, the highest level in 19 months and up 5.7% from a year ago. The vegetable oil index jumped 7.5% above levels seen a month ago and 32% above those seen a year earlier, driven by concerns over lower-than-expected palm oil output due to excessive rainfall in Southeast Asia."

Clearly, things are not heading in the right direction. But what could be coming next is potentially even more alarming. Insane global weather patterns are having a dramatic impact on the production of some of our most important staples, and as a result prices are rapidly trending higher. For example, the price of Arabica beans has risen over 80 percent so far in 2024…"Coffee drinkers may soon see their morning treat get more expensive, as the price of coffee on international commodity markets has hit its highest level on record. On Tuesday, the price for Arabica beans, which account for most global production, topped $3.44 a pound (0.45kg), having jumped more than 80% this year. The cost of Robusta beans, meanwhile, hit a fresh high in September."

It comes as coffee traders expect crops to shrink after the world’s two largest producers, Brazil and Vietnam, were hit by bad weather and the drink’s popularity continues to grow. If you love coffee, you are already feeling quite bit of pain. Unfortunately, it appears that coffee prices could become even more painful in 2025.

A similar thing is happening to another very popular morning beverage. The price of orange juice is up 327 percent over the last 3 years, and thanks to Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton it is expected to go even higher in 2025…"As consumers struggle with higher prices for groceries, one staple of the American breakfast is about to get a lot more expensive. Plagued by diseased groves, uprooted trees to make room for housing developments, and severe weather that has decimated crops, the price of orange juice has skyrocketed in the past 3 years by 327% and is expected to climb even higher in the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton which swept through Florida less than three weeks apart. "Citrus Crisis: Florida's Orange Juice Production Slides To Lowest Level Since 1930"

According to industry data, Hurricane Milton destroyed over 3 million boxes of oranges in Florida, setting the state up for the smallest orange harvest in close to 100 years. Coupled with a protracted drought in Brazil, the world’s largest orange exporter, the price for frozen concentrated orange juice trading on the Intercontinental Commodity Exchange (“ICE”) has soared 80% to a record high of $5.25 per pound."

Many Americans like to have eggs with their orange juice in the morning, but the bird flu is sending egg prices into the stratosphere. In some areas of California, a dozen eggs will now cost you more than 4 dollars…"Economists said the bird flu is continuing to impact the supply chain, with California becoming the epicenter of the virus and the fallout. Gillian Thorp went to her local Trader Joe’s in Santa Clara in search for a dozen eggs that now costs her $4, assuming she could find some in the first place. “I stopped by the egg section and there were only two choices,” Thorp said. “It was pretty empty. I usually only purchase organic eggs and there was only one choice for that.” The bird flu isn’t going anywhere. In fact, a fresh wave is sweeping across the United States right now. So if you love eggs, that is really bad news.

Meanwhile, the size of the U.S. cattle herd has fallen to the lowest level since 1961…"America’s beef cow inventory has steadily declined over the last half-decade, reaching 64-year lows and signaling a deepening crisis across the cattle industry. As the cattle crisis worsens, consumers should brace for higher ground beef prices.

The shrinking beef supply has pushed the nation’s herd size to its smallest level since 1961. With severe droughts, high interest rates, costly feed prices, sliding farm income, surging farm debt, and a shifting consumer preference toward cheaper chicken, struggling ranchers have been culling heifers, preventing any meaningful recovery in the number of calves necessary to expand the nation’s herds."

There were 183 million people living in the United States in 1961. Today, our population is nearly double that figure. So we have the same amount of beef that we did in 1961 to feed almost twice as many people. If you were wondering why beef prices had gotten so high, now you know.

Instead of eating a steady diet of high quality food, we are being fed an endless stream of heavily-processed packaged foods that are loaded with extremely unhealthy filler ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup. Sadly, many Americans are in such financial distress that the heavily-processed packaged foods are all that they can afford. Of course even the heavily-processed packaged foods are quite a bit more expensive than they once were. We have definitely entered very dangerous territory, and I fully expect the trends that have been pushing up food prices to accelerate even more in 2025."

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

"15 Big Grocery Stores Collapsing All Around Us"

Full screen recommended.
Epic economist, 12/11/24
"15 Big Grocery Stores Collapsing All Around Us"

"With grocery prices at record highs, you might think that grocery chains are making loads of money right now. While some of them have strong business models and are doing well in this environment, several others have never recovered from the losses they faced during the pandemic or even earlier. In the past couple of years, many grocers have filed for bankruptcy to restructure their debt, faced changes in leadership, or been sold out to larger corporations, but these measures were no guarantee of success and that their core problems have been solved. Especially now that U.S. consumers are looking for the best deals they can find and competition is growing.

At the moment, many big grocery chains are finding themselves at a crossroads, navigating through uncertain times and staring at the possibility of disappearing from the market. Although some of them still have hundreds of stores open, others are closer to annihilation, with so few locations left that you can count them on your fingers.
Comments here:

"A Magical Musical Interlude: "Dark Legends"

Look at the news posts below...Every day we're hopelessly saddened and discouraged at just how truly bad it really is, and knowing there's nothing we can do about it. Of necessity we need to be aware of these things, but it's not and never will be enjoyable. Then, as now, you need a short break away from it all, and this very special musical interlude is precisely that. Now and then, very rarely, you stumble upon something simply extraordinary, something that's just so astonishingly, magically beautiful and well done it's unbelievable. This is one of those times... Savor these wonderful musical images...

Full screen recommended.
Dark Legend, "An Imaging of Tuesday Afternoon"
The Elves sing of the beauty of Tuesday Afternoon.
o
Full screen recommended.
Dark Legend, "An Imaging Of Nights In White Satin"
o
Full screen recommended.
Dark Legend, "An Imaging Of Forever Autumn"
o
Full screen recommended.
Dark Legend, "A Whiter Sade Of Pale"
o
I'm a harsh critic, have done this blog for 16 years with 
over 90,000 posts, thought I'd seen it all until finding this.
I simply cannot compliment or recommend this site highly enough.
Enjoy the magic...
YouTube Dark Legend Channel

The Universe

 

"What Is Hope?"

"What Is Hope?"

"What is hope? It is the pre-sentiment that imagination is more real and reality is less real than it looks. It is the hunch that the overwhelming brutality of facts that oppress and repress us is not the last word. It is the suspicion that reality is more complex than the realists want us to believe.

That the frontiers of the possible are not determined by the limits of the actual; and in a miraculous and unexplained way, life is opening creative events which will light the way to freedom and resurrection. But the two - suffering and hope - must live from each other. Suffering without hope produces resentment and despair. But hope without suffering creates illusions, naïveté and drunkenness.

So let us plant dates even though we who plant them will never eat them. We must live by the love of what we will never see. That is the secret discipline. It is the refusal to let our creative act be dissolved away by our need for immediate sense experience, and it is a struggled commitment to the future of our grandchildren. Such disciplined hope is what has given prophets, revolutionaries and saints the courage to die for the future they envisage. They make their own bodies the seed of their highest hope." 

- Ruben Alves

The Poet: Jesús Papoleto Meléndez, "In a Grain of Sand"

"Life is the hyphen between matter and spirit."
- A.W. and J.C. Hare, 
"Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers," 1827
o
"In a Grain of Sand" 
 To see a world in a grain of sand … 
 from “Auguries of Innocence” by William Blake 

 "We are Starseeds, every one of us – 
 you & me, 
 & me and you 
 & him & her, 
 & them & they
 & those Who know of this are truly blessed … 

 True for all living beings, beings living – 
 not humans only, 
 but ants & trees & the open breeze, 
 things that breathe air or fire, water, 
earth all kinds of dust & dirt, 
 particles a part of all,
 all a part of 
 Everything that is in everything; 

 Thus, it Sings!!! 
 & its song is Life, 
 & Life is!!!  
 ... a seed of Stars, 
 the dust of Suns & Moons ,
rocks & dust & outer smoke in outer space, 
 Floating in a bath of timelessness, 
 counted, measured numbered by some species – 
 others caring not; 
 Science & Mathematics 
 trying to plot Poetry in motion, 
 Motion in a Helix’s curve, 
 And Life on Earth becomes visible
 to You through the naked I! "

- Jesús Papoleto Meléndez 
o
“We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of Infinity. Life is Eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in Eternity.”
- Paulo Coelho
o
Full screen recommended.

Free Download: Olaf Stapledon, "Sirius"

"But what a universe, anyhow! No use blaming human-beings for what they were. Everything was made so that it had to torture something else. Sirius himself was no exception, of course. Made that way! Nothing was responsible for being by nature predatory on other things, dog on rabbit and Argentine beef, man on nearly everything, bugs and microbes on man, and of course man himself on man. (Nothing but man was really cruel, vindictive, except perhaps the loathly cat). Everything desperately struggling to keep its nose above water for a few breaths before its strength inevitably failed and down it went, pressed under by something else. And beyond, those brainless, handless idiotic stars, lazing away so importantly for nothing. 

Here and there some speck of a planet dominated by some half-awake intelligence like humanity. And here and there on such planets, one or two poor little spirits waking up and wondering what in the hell everything was for, what it was all about, what they could make of themselves; and glimpsing in a muddled way what their potentiality was, and feebly trying to express it, but always failing, always missing fire, and very often feeling themselves breaking up as he himself was doing. Just now and then they might feel the real thing, in some creative work, or in sweet community with another little spirit, or with others. Just now and then they seemed somehow to create or to be gathered up into something lovelier than their individual selves, something which demanded their selves sacrifice and yet have their selves new life. But how precariously, torturingly; and only just for a flicker of time! Their whole life-time would only be a flicker in the whole of titanic time. Even when all the worlds have frozen or exploded, and all the suns gone dead and cold therewill still be time. Oh God, what for?"
 - Olaf Stapledon, "Sirius: A Fantasy of Love and Discord"
Freely download "Sirius: A Fantasy of Love and Discord",
by Olaf Stapledon, here:
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"Holy Books"

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Use the search function to find our free PDF ebooks or use the category list to browse books. All books on HolyBooks.com are Public Domain texts and free to download as pdf-files. This online library project is still under development and we are adding new e-books often. Suggestions are welcome. We are also maintaining Moral Paradigm – a similar site about moral and ethical questions."

"The Daily "Near You?"

Thomasville, Georgia, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Perhaps It Is Better..."

"Perhaps it is better to be un-sane and happy, than sane and un-happy.
But it is the best of all to be sane and happy. Whether our descendants
can achieve that goal will be the greatest challenge of the future.
Indeed, it may well decide whether we have any future."
- Arthur C. Clarke

"America’s Middle Class In 2024: Aging Vehicles, $300 Carts Of Groceries, And Mountains Of Credit Card Debt"

"America’s Middle Class In 2024: Aging Vehicles,
 $300 Carts Of Groceries, And Mountains Of Credit Card Debt"
by Michael Snyder

"Have things been getting better for the middle class, or have things been getting worse? Needless to say, the answer to that question is obvious. The cost of living is absolutely crushing us, we can’t afford to replace our rapidly aging vehicles, debt levels are exploding, and the proportion of the country that is living paycheck to paycheck has been steadily rising. Our economy is a mess, and America’s middle class is getting smaller and smaller. Sometimes I feel like I am watching a very tragic version of musical chairs. If you are still holding on to your chair, you should be very thankful, because more people are slipping out of the middle class and into poverty with each passing day.

If you are old enough, you can still remember a time when many middle class families would purchase a new vehicle every few years. Sadly, today most of us are being forced to get as much mileage out of our rapidly aging vehicles as we possibly can. As a result, the average age of the passenger vehicles traveling America’s roads has reached an all-time record high…"This should be the best of times for the people who help keep America’s cars running.

There have never been as many on the road - around 290 million light vehicles - and they have never been so old. One reason for that is good news: They are better made. Getting the odometer past 100,000 miles has gone from being noteworthy to normal. Thirty years ago the average passenger car was about 8.4 years old and today that is 13.6 years."

Even keeping our aging vehicles repaired has become exceedingly difficult. These days, if the mechanic hands you a repair bill for less than a thousand dollars that is a reason to celebrate. In the old days, you could get a really nice used vehicle for a thousand dollars.

Of course groceries have become insanely expensive as well. Earlier today, I came across a USA Today article that discussed the fact that the average household in Miami spends 327 dollars at the grocery store per trip…"Many longtime Miamians say they’ve felt this way since the pandemic transformed much of their city. As New Yorkers and Californians faced lockdown orders and restrictions, many flocked to Florida, with the largest increase of New Yorkers moving to Miami where they could benefit from tax and mandate breaks while working remotely. But along with having the largest net population gain of any state in the country came exploding living and housing costs. Housing prices have risen almost 50%, according to the UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index released last month."

Grocery prices shot up. (An average household spent about $327 per trip). So did electric bills. A carton of eggs last year cost $5. 327 dollars used to be a lot of money. Now it will just buy you one cart of food.

I warned my readers that the economic conditions that we were witnessing in Venezuela would eventually come here, and now it has happened. As I discussed a few days ago, core consumer prices have actually risen for 53 months in a row. Our cost of living crisis is out of control, and there is no end in sight. As they struggle to pay their bills, many Americans are turning to credit cards for some relief. As a result, credit card debt balances have soared to record high levels…"The average American household credit card balance as of the third quarter of 2024 was about $10,757 after adjusting for inflation, according to a new study. The personal-finance website WalletHub onFriday released its new Credit Card Debt Study, which found that consumers added $21 billion in debt during the third quarter of 2024. Early results for the fourth quarter of the year show preliminary data for October at a new record high for credit card debt in the month, in absolute terms."

As credit card debt levels rose, it was inevitable that more Americans would start getting behind on their payments, and that is precisely what has happened…"Are you feeling financially stressed as 2024 comes to a close? You’re not alone, not even close. In fact, 7.8 million Americans have delayed payments on at least one of their credit accounts this year. That’s a million more than in 2023." This is really bad news for the economy as a whole, because our economy is highly dependent on consumer spending.

You can’t get blood from a stone, and restaurants all over the country are learning the hard way that most consumers simply cannot afford to eat out as regularly as they once did…"Seafood giant Red Lobster, Italian chain Buca di Beppo, fish taco eatery Rubio’s Coastal Grill and the owner of burger and pizza chains BurgerFi and Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza are among those that have sought to reorganize through bankruptcy this year. Hooters of America is also huddling with lenders and advisers amid revenue declines, Bloomberg reported.

Shares of Dine Brands Global Inc., the parent of Applebee’s and IHOP, are down about 30% year-to-date, while shares of Bloomin’ Brands Inc., which owns Outback Steakhouse, dropped to near 2020 lows last month after it reported a decline in US same-store sales." Yes, a “restaurant apocalypse” has begun. When I first started using that term, a lot of people thought that I was exaggerating. But of course I was not exaggerating one bit.

There was a time when it seemed like just about anyone in this nation could achieve “the American Dream” if they just worked hard enough. But now we have reached a point where only 31 percent of Americans believe that they have “made it” in life… Despite being the land of opportunity, the American Dream remains frustratingly out of reach for most Americans, with a mere 31% believing they’ve financially “made it” in life. Sadly, that figure is even lower for Baby Boomers

"However, the picture becomes less optimistic with age. Only 27% of baby boomers feel they’ve reached financial success, and among those who haven’t, just one-third believe they ever will. The survey found that Americans consider their path to financial success threatened by various external factors, including presidential elections (46%), interest rate changes (45%), and the job market (42%)."

After working so hard for so many years, only 27 percent of Baby Boomers feel like they have “made it” in life. Well, that is quite depressing. Things could have turned out far differently. Many of us ranted and raved for years that things would turn out this way, but most of the country did not want to listen. Bad decisions lead to bad results. Our leaders have been making tragically bad decisions for decades, and thanks to them we now have a complete and utter nightmare on our hands."

"Will They Go Out of Business? Kroger- Albertsons Merger Canceled"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 12/11/24
"Will They Go Out of Business? 
Kroger- Albertsons Merger Canceled"
"A federal judge just halted the $25 billion deal that would have created America's largest grocery chain between Kroger and Albertsons. Find out why this decision could spell trouble for both companies and what it means for grocery prices nationwide. In this packed episode, we're exploring the real impact of this merger block on consumers and workers. Plus, we're diving into Amazon's bold move into the pharmacy business, Macy's shocking real estate selloff in NYC, and the truth about holiday shopping trends at America's premier malls.

You won't believe the numbers behind holiday spending this year - the average American is planning to spend HOW much on gifts? We're breaking down the latest retail trends and what they mean for your wallet."
Comments here:

"How It Reallly Is"

 

"What This Country Needs..."

"What this country needs... what this great land of ours needs is something to happen to it. Something ferocious and tragic, like what happened to Jericho or the cities of the plain - something terrible I mean, son, so that when the people have been through hellfire and the crucible, and have suffered agony enough and grief, they'll be people again, human beings, not a bunch of smug contented cows rooting at the trough."
- William Styron, "Set This House On Fire"

Oh, don't worry folks, 
something "ferocious and tragic" is indeed coming...

Bill Bonner, "Unwarranted Influence"

US President Dwight Eisenhower gives a speech.
"Unwarranted Influence"
In England, David Lloyd George came to power.
 In France, Leon Blum. FDR in the US. Mussolini in Italy.
 All of them shared the same idea - 
transfer wealth from those who earned it to those who did not.
by Bill Bonner

Baltimore, Maryland - "Juan Hipolito del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus Yrigoyen. With a name like that, it was obvious that he was destined for a fancy business card. And in the early 20th century, he became president of the Argentine republic. But he - no more than Franklin Delano Roosevelt nor Donald John Trump - did not create the tide that made him famous. He just swam in it.

As we’ve seen, events are not simply random reactions to the news... day by day. Instead, they are products of deep, unseen currents. Like old boots swept along the bottom of silent seas... they eventually wash up on a distant shore.

We’ve seen too that the problem with the democratic welfare/warfare state is that the more resources it gets... the more power it has... the more corrupt and parasitic its ruling elites become... and the more difficult it is to bring it under control. Each new program... each new dollar spent... adds more people who want to make sure the spending continues. This process continues until something bad happens... either something unexpected (like the Plague)... or something entirely predictable, such as bankruptcy.

We saw yesterday what happened in Argentina. After a wild and wonderful ride in the late 19th century, with a Primary Political Trend moving towards free markets and prosperity, Argentina had become one of the richest countries on earth. Then, like the US and European nations... it then came under the influence of a new trend - more interested in redistributing wealth, than creating it. In England, David Lloyd George came to power. In France, it was Leon Blum. FDR in the US. Mussolini in Italy. All of them shared the same basic idea - to transfer wealth from those who earned it to those who did not.

This new Primary Political Trend expressed itself in different ways. Germany, Japan and Italy relied on war to take valuable resources from their neighbors. The rest stuck with larceny. Argentina, beginning with the leadership of Yrigoyen, was among the most brazen.

But as Maggie Thatcher observed, other people’s money runs out. And a year ago, Javier Milei leveled with the nation. “There is no money,” he told the voters. The inflation rate had risen to an implied 3,700%. Bad things were happening. Chaos and catastrophe - a la Venezuela - were close at hand. And in last year’s election, what Milei called the ‘casta politica’ was happy to have someone take the problem off their hands (and take the blame for what happened next.).

Sooner or later, we presume the US will have to do the same. It will run out of money and be unable to continue. But not before it has fully exhausted its bag of tricks, feints, foolishness... and its credit. Its dollar is still considered a ‘strong’ currency. It still collects more than $4 trillion in tax revenue... which it can use to pay off elites and soothe the voters. It has plenty of rich people who could be sqeezed for cash…and plenty of loose ‘fat’ that could be easily cut from its budgets. It is not desperate; the ‘bad thing’ hasn’t happened, yet. That’s why we believe the US is still on the downswing of the Primary Political Trend... still headed for more government, more debt, more inflation, and more war.

Italy, Germany and Japan had the ‘bad thing’ happen to them in WWII. They were convinced - by ‘Bomber’ Harris and the Enola Gay - to give up their warfare state enterprises.

After Korea, Dwight Eisenhower believed the US military should stand down too. He cut the ‘defense’ budget by nearly 30% and when Britain and France invited him to join in their attack on the Suez Canal, in 1956, he turned them down. Eisenhower retired in 1961 - warning the nation against the ‘unwarranted influence’ of the ‘military/industrial complex.’ But the MIC already had so much influence that it was quickly back on a roll. Dean Acheson, Secretary of State in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, mongered the novel idea that the US was in a ‘cold’ war... and needed to be fully armed and ready.

The US firepower establishment also found that Europe - properly incentivized - would outsource its defense to the Pentagon, thereby increasing the latter’s market share. Thereupon, European and American democracies went their separate ways. Spared the burden of defense, Europe’s governments became welfare states, in effect, giant, compulsory insurance programs.

The US, meanwhile, could favor its firepower industry, becoming a warfare state. And then, as early as the 1960s, Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey were arguing that the US could be both - with guns and butter for everyone. But in 2024, voters in France, Germany, and the US turned against their ruling cliques…and all the world’s major governments seem to be headed towards a debt crisis. Is a ‘bad thing’ coming their way too? Tune in tomorrow."