"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous
by letting the government take care of him,
better take a closer look at the American Indian."
- Henry Ford
So, we rise from the rubble...
StatCounter
Thursday, February 27, 2025
"This Is The Motive..."
Full screen recommended.
"All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves."
- Blaise Pascal
The Poet: Robert Service, "Prelude"
"Prelude"
"In youth I gnawed life's bitter rind
And shared the rugged lot
Of fellows rude and unrefined,
Frustrated and forgot;
And now alas! it is too late
My sorry ways to mend,
So sadly I accept my fate,
A Roughneck to the end.
Profanity is in my voice
And slag is in my rhyme,
For I have mucked with men who curse
And grovel in the grime;
My fingers were not formed, I fear,
To frame a pretty pen,
So please forgive me if I veer
From Virtue now and then.
For I would be the living voice,
Though raucous is its tone,
Of men who rarely may rejoice,
Yet barely ever moan:
The rovers of the raw-ribbed lands,
The lads of lowly worth,
The scallywags with scaley hands
Who weld the ends of earth."
- Robert Service
"The Sociopath Next Door"
"The Sociopath Next Door"
by Martha Stout
"Imagine - if you can - not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken. And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown to you, except as a burden others seem to accept without question, like gullible fools.
Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from other people that your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless. You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-bloodedness. The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience, that they seldom even guess at your condition. In other words, you are completely free of internal restraints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please, with no pangs of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the world.
You can do anything at all, and still your strange advantage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their consciences will most likely remain undiscovered. How will you live your life? What will you do with your huge and secret advantage, and with the corresponding handicap of other people (conscience)? The answer will depend largely on just what your desires happen to be, because people are not all the same. Even the profoundly unscrupulous are not all the same. Some people - whether they have a conscience or not - favor the ease of inertia, while others are filled with dreams and wild ambitions. Some human beings are brilliant and talented, some are dull-witted, and most, conscience or not, are somewhere in between. There are violent people and nonviolent ones, individuals who are motivated by blood lust and those who have no such appetites. Provided you are not forcibly stopped, you can do anything at all.
Maybe you are someone who craves money and power, and though you have no vestige of conscience, you do have a magnificent IQ. You have the driving nature and the intellectual capacity to pursue tremendous wealth and influence, and you are in no way moved by the nagging voice of conscience that prevents other people from doing everything and anything they have to do to succeed. You choose business, politics, the law, banking or international development, or any of a broad array of other power professions, and you pursue your career with a cold passion that tolerates none of the usual moral or legal encumbrances. When it is expedient, you doctor the accounting and shred the evidence, you stab your employees and your clients (or your constituency) in the back, marry for money, tell lethal premeditated lies to people who trust you, attempt to ruin colleagues who are powerful or eloquent, and simply steamroll over groups who are dependent and voiceless. And all of this you do with the exquisite freedom that results from having no conscience whatsoever.
You become unimaginably, unassailably, and maybe even globally successful. Why not? With your big brain, and no conscience to rein in your schemes, you can do anything at all. If you are born at the right time, with some access to family fortune, and you have a special talent for whipping up other people's hatred and sense of deprivation, you can arrange to kill large numbers of unsuspecting people. With enough money, you can accomplish this from far away, and you can sit back safely and watch in satisfaction. Crazy and frightening - and real, in about 6 percent of the population.
The high incidence of sociopathy in human society has a profound effect on the rest of us who must live on this planet, too, even those of us who have not been clinically traumatized. The individuals who constitute this 6 percent drain our relationships, our bank accounts, our accomplishments, our self-esteem, our very peace on earth.
Yet surprisingly, many people know nothing about this disorder, or if they do, they think only in terms of violent psychopathy - murderers, serial killers, mass murderers - people who have conspicuously broken the law many times over, and who, if caught, will be imprisoned, maybe even put to death by our legal system. We are not commonly aware of, nor do we usually identify, the larger number of nonviolent sociopaths among us, people who often are not blatant lawbreakers, and against whom our formal legal system provides little defense.
Most of us would not imagine any correspondence between conceiving an ethnic genocide and, say, guiltlessly lying to one's boss about a coworker. But the psychological correspondence is not only there; it is chilling. Simple and profound, the link is the absence of the inner mechanism that beats up on us, emotionally speaking, when we make a choice we view as immoral, unethical, neglectful, or selfish. Most of us feel mildly guilty if we eat the last piece of cake in the kitchen, let alone what we would feel if we intentionally and methodically set about to hurt another person. Those who have no conscience at all are a group unto themselves, whether they be homicidal tyrants or merely ruthless social snipers.
The presence or absence of conscience is a deep human division, arguably more significant than intelligence, race, or even gender. What differentiates a sociopath who lives off the labors of others from one who occasionally robs convenience stores, or from one who is a contemporary robber baron - or what makes the difference between an ordinary bully and a sociopathic murderer - is nothing more than social status, drive, intellect, blood lust, or simple opportunity. What distinguishes all of these people from the rest of us is an utterly empty hole in the psyche, where there should be the most evolved of all humanizing functions."
o
"Don't Wonder..."
"Don't wonder why people go crazy. Wonder why they don't.
In the face of what we can lose in a day, in an instant,
wonder what the hell it is that makes us hold it together."
- "Grey's Anatomy"
"U.S. Caught in Death Trap"
"U.S. Caught in Death Trap"
by Brian Maher
"Imagine a fellow…This is a wastrel sunk impossibly in debt - credit card debt. Spiraling interest payments begin to swamp him. He must take on an additional credit card in order to satisfy interest payments on the original. Yet he must soon take on another credit card… to service the interest on the card he previously took on… which he took on to service the interest on the first. That is, he must borrow money to service previously borrowed money. Reduce the thing to its essentials and you will find: The money he borrows is dead money. It lacks all productive purpose. He is merely shoveling it into a roaring fire. Yet Pelion goes heaping upon Ossa. That is, his situation deteriorates further yet…
Rising Interest Rates: To his fantastic alarm, interest rates begin to gallop on him. That means he must pay more and more money to service his debt. Before he knows what has struck him… he is undone… bankrupt. Well friend, here you have the government of the United States.
It is the reckless and improvident fellow just described - who opens new credit cards to service the interest on existing ones - who is the slave of nonproductive debt. Projected interest payments on the nation’s debt presently exceed $1 trillion annually. And the cost to service that debt has doubled in the past 19 months alone - doubled! The nation is far along the ruinous path. How far down the ruinous path has the United States wandered?
The Day of Reckoning Is in Sight: Mr. Alasdair Macleod, economist: "The day of reckoning for unproductive credit is in sight… Malinvestments of the last 50 years are being exposed by the rise in interest rates, increases which are driven by a combination of declining faith in the value of major currencies and contracting bank credit. The rise in interest rates is becoming unstoppable…
The interest bill is already growing exponentially. We can see that the funding requirement for new debt will be $2 trillion in excess spending, plus at least another $1.3 trillion of interest (allowing for the $7.6 trillion of debt to be refinanced), totaling over $3.3 trillion in total. Clearly, it won’t take much more of a credit squeeze and the increasing likelihood of a buyers’ strike to push the interest bill to over $1.5 trillion…
Irrespective of central bank policy, the shortage of credit is driving borrowing rates higher, and the cost of novating maturing debt is rising, if the credit is actually available - which increasingly is rarely the case. It is an old-fashioned credit crunch, not really seen since the 1970s. And it has only just started… The big picture is of an asset bubble which has come to an end. And by any standards, this one was the largest in recorded history."
It is our sincere hope that you are wrong. It is our profound fear that you are correct. Yet cannot the Federal Reserve and its brother central banks reach into the deep trick bag into which they reached last decade - interest rate suppression, quantitative easing and the rest? Will not these magic tricks prove adequate next time? No says Mr. Macleod…
The Black Hole of Extinction: Thus we are informed: "The era of interest rate suppression is over. G7 central banks are all deeply in negative equity, in other words technically bankrupt, a situation which can only be addressed by issuing yet more unproductive credit. These are the institutions tasked with ensuring the integrity of the entire system of bank credit. This is not a good background for a dollar-based global credit system that is staring into the black hole of its own extinction."
Just so. Yet with the highest respect, sir, we have heard this “doom and gloom” before. In fact, we have heard it issue from an orifice upon our very face, the one directly beneath the nasal bas. For three decades - at least - these cries have come issuing. And for three decades it has been a cry of wolf.
In each instance the financial system has been knocked horizontal… it has shortly regained the vertical. Whether under its own steam or assistance from the financial authorities, it has gotten up. Why should next time prove different?
Why This Time Is Different: Here Mr. Macleod inform us why “this time is different”: "This time, the Global South, the nations standing to one side of all this but finding their currencies badly damaged by unfavorable comparisons with a failing dollar, a dollar forced into higher interest rates in a world that knows of nowhere else to go - this non-financial world is on the edge of abandoning American hegemony for a new model emerging from Asia."
The Global South’s rise is different you say. Do you care to elaborate, sir? "That the U.S. government is ensnared in a debt trap and is being forced to borrow exponentially increasing amounts just to pay the interest on its mountainous debt is not the fault of other nations. But many of them in turn are being forced to pay even higher interest rates, irrespective of their budgetary positions, and irrespective of their balance of trade. Yet their currencies continue to weaken even against a declining dollar."
A conundrum! They are chained to the dollar. It is a liability. They are prisoner to it. What can they do? The Global South, which is the new name for those either in the Asian hegemons’ camp or considering joining it will need to find an alternative… The pressure for a whole new monetary system for the emerging nations is increasing… There is only one answer, and that is to abandon the dollar. Perhaps the potential BRICS currency of which Jim Rickards so often speaks represents an omen - a straw swaying in the wind.
The Wages of Sin: Thus the United States confronts the wages of its monetary and fiscal sins. It has cast all restraint to the scattering winds. It has sacrificed the morrow upon the altar of the present. And it has made its dollar headache the world’s migraine.
A private concern would confront bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of United States Bankruptcy Code. The United States government will not confront bankruptcy proceedings of course. It does - after all - maintain access to a press that prints money. It can make all its shortages good… in nominal terms at least. The debtees will get their money. In reality they will get sawdust…
The Wicked: “I borrowed $100 from you, good sir? Well, here is your $100 back, as promised. I hereby discharge my fiduciary responsibility to you. I have fulfilled my contractual obligations.” “But the $100 I loaned you is now only worth $22.08, because of the vicious inflation you caused” comes the bitter reply. “You’ve robbed me blind! You’re a goddarned crook, that’s what you are.” “Your problem, not my problem,” answers the deadbeat.
That is Uncle Samuel for you. “The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again,” Psalms informs us. This uncle of ours is a cad. He is a bounder. He is a scoundrel. He is wicked…"
"17 Signs That America’s Long Economic Slide Threatens To Become An Economic Avalanche"
"17 Signs That America’s Long Economic
Slide Threatens To Become An Economic Avalanche"
by Michael Snyder
"Are you better off than you were four years ago? If you are, you should consider yourself to be extremely fortunate, because the vast majority of the population is not. The U.S. economy has been sliding the wrong direction for a very long time, and now our economic momentum in the wrong direction is accelerating. Retail sales are slowing down, the housing market is in a depressed state, mass layoffs are happening all over the nation, stores are closing at a staggering pace, the cost of living has become extremely painful, and debt levels have soared to unprecedented heights. Four years of deteriorating economic conditions have brought us to a breaking point, and now we are witnessing quite a bit of shaking in the financial markets. Even though many in the mainstream media are still trying to deny it, the truth is that we are in an enormous amount of trouble. The following are 17 signs that America’s long economic slide threatens to become an economic avalanche…
#1 The Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence just experienced the largest drop that we have seen since August 2021…"Consumers grew more pessimistic about the economic outlook in February as worries brewed about a slowing economy and rising inflation, the Conference Board reported Tuesday. The board’s Consumer Confidence Index slipped to 98.3 for the month, down 7 points and below the Dow Jones forecast for 102.3. This was the lowest reading since June 2024 and the largest monthly drop since August 2021."
#2 The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index just fell to the lowest level that we have seen since November 2023…"The University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers on Friday released its consumer sentiment index which dropped from 71.7 in January to 64.7 in February. That’s the lowest reading since November 2023 and was weaker than the preliminary reading of 67.8, which was the consensus expectation among economists polled by Reuters."
#3 Retail sales in the United States just fell “by the most in nearly two years”…"U.S. retail sales dropped by the most in nearly two years in January, likely weighed down by frigid temperatures, wildfires and motor vehicle shortages, suggesting a sharp slowdown in economic growth early in the first quarter."
#4 Walmart is warning us that it will experience a year-over-year drop in quarterly profit for the first time in 3 years…"Shares of Walmart Inc. were hit hard Thursday after the retail behemoth provided a disappointing earnings outlook, including a warning for the first year-over-year decline in quarterly profit in three years."
#5 Last month, sales of previously-owned homes dropped 4.9 percent…"The U.S. housing market continues to weaken, as potential buyers face stubbornly high mortgage rates, elevated prices and limited supply of listings. Sales of previously owned homes fell 4.9% in January from the prior month to 4.08 million units on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis, according to the National Association of Realtors. Analysts were expecting a 2.6% decline."
#6 The cost of living is absolutely crushing most Americans. At this stage, almost 70 percent of all single adults “struggle to afford their regular rent or mortgage payments”…"Nearly 70% of single, divorced or separated people struggle to afford their regular rent or mortgage payments, compared to just over half (52%) of married people, according to a recent Redfin-commissioned survey. More than three-quarters (76%) of respondents who live with their partner but aren’t married struggle with housing payments, making them the group most likely to struggle."
#7 Starbucks is telling us that they will be laying off more than 1,000 corporate employees…"Starbucks has announced plans to lay off 1,100 corporate employees as it looks to restructure its operations. CEO Brian Niccol sent out a letter on Monday revealing employees who have been laid off will be notified on Tuesday. Niccol stated, “Our intent is to operate more efficiently, increase accountability, reduce complexity, and drive better integration.”
#8 Southwest Airlines is giving the axe to more than 1,700 corporate employees…"Southwest Airlines said Monday that it is cutting about 15% of corporate jobs, or about 1,750 people, a move its CEO called “unprecedented” as the company scrambles to cut costs. The company said it expects savings from the cuts of $210 million this year and about $300 million in 2026. The layoffs will be mostly done by the end of the second quarter and include some senior leadership roles, CEO Bob Jordan said in a staff note, which was seen by CNBC."
#9 Blue Origin has decided to fire nearly 14,000 workers…"Blue Origin announced layoffs late last week. Almost 14,000 people work at the space company founded by Jeff Bezos, according to Reuters."
#10 Chevron has announced that it will be reducing the size of their workforce by about 15 to 20 percent…"Chevron Corp. Vice Chair Mark Nelson said it will lay off 15-20% of its workers in a bid to “simplify our organizational structure, [execute] faster and more efficiently, and position the company for stronger long-term competitiveness.”
#11 Estée Lauder is telling thousands of employees that it is time to hit the bricks…"Estee Lauder’s job cuts will impact a net of 5,800 to 7,000 roles. They came as part of an updated “profit recovery and growth plan” and restructuring program that the cosmetics company detailed Feb. 4 along with other measures meant to “further transform the Company’s operating model to fund a return to sales growth and restore a solid double-digit adjusted operating margin over the next few years.”
#12 So many federal workers are being fired that initial claims for unemployment benefits in Washington D.C. went up by 36 percent in just one week…"Since Trump has taken office, nearly 4,000 workers in the city have filed for unemployment insurance as part of a surge that began at the start of the new year, according to Labor Department figures not adjusted for seasonal factors. In all, just shy of 7,000 claims have been filed in the six weeks of the new year, or about 55% more than in the prior six-week period. Filings rose to 1,780 for the week ending Feb. 8, a 36% increase from the prior week and more than four times around the same period in 2024.
#13 Forever 21 has announced that it will be closing another 200 stores…"A clothing chain that was once a fixture in every mall across America is to close 200 more stores as it prepares for second bankruptcy in five years. Amid mounting debt, Forever 21’s US operator could file for Chapter 11 protection as soon as next month, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.
#14 Joann Inc. has decided to close all of their stores in the United States… Joann Inc., which has supplied crafty Americans with art supplies and fabrics for decades, recently announced that it plans to close all of its U.S. stores, just a month after filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In a statement obtained by Reuters on Sunday, the 82-year-old company announced its plans to sell all assets to a buyer group. Joann executives originally hoped that a buyer would continue its business, but the highest bidder is slated to start going-out-of-business sales at all locations.
#15 Overall, Coresight Research is projecting that an all-time record 15,000 stores will be permanently closed in the United States in 2025.
#16 Household debt in the United States has now crossed the 18 trillion dollar mark "Americans’ household debt — including credit cards, mortgages, auto loans and student loans — is at a new all-time high of $18.04 trillion, according to a report released Thursday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
#17 More than 26 trillion dollars has been added to the U.S. national debt since the start of 2009, and now we are shelling out more than a trillion dollars a year just in interest payments…
And the punchline is that no matter what Musk does, the USS Titanic is now more or less on autopilot because while a few billions in discretionary spending can be cut, interest on the debt can not be – without a default (it can however be inflated away… and it will be) – and in January, gross interest on the Federal debt hit a record $1.167 trillion in the past twelve months thanks to another $83.6 billion in interest spending.
The meltdown that so many of us warned about is happening right in front of our eyes. We piled up trillions of dollars in new debt in recent years, and that bought us some time. But now a day of reckoning has arrived. For those that haven’t figured it out yet, an extreme amount of pain is ahead of us. You can cheat the laws of economics for a while, but economic reality always catches up with you eventually."
Gregory Mannarino, "A Mushroom Cloud Economy, People Are Not Prepared For This"
Gregory Mannarino, 2/27/25
"A Mushroom Cloud Economy,
People Are Not Prepared For This"
Comments here:
Canadian Prepper, "Trump Leaks Plan, US Will Enter Ukraine! WW3 Reboot!"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 2/27/25
"Trump Leaks Plan, US Will Enter Ukraine!
WW3 Reboot!"
Comments here:
Dan, I Allegedly, "Car Companies are Doing U-Turn - Bumpy Road Ahead"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 2/27/25
"Car Companies are Doing U-Turn -
Bumpy Road Ahead"
"Big news from the automotive world – Mercedes and Porsche are rethinking their EV strategies, and in this video, I’ll explain why! With slumping EV sales, layoffs, and a shift back toward gas-powered vehicles, these industry giants are making bold moves to adapt. Plus, I’ll dive into the ripple effects on the car industry, Tesla’s latest recall, and what this all means for the future of electric vehicles. We’re also talking about the real estate market – from falling home prices to builders offering wild incentives. What’s happening in places like Las Vegas and beyond? I’ve got all the details. Add to that a discussion about staying prepared in uncertain times, and there’s a lot to unpack here today."
Comments here:
Adventures With Danno, "Stocking Up At Kroger"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 2/27/25
"Stocking Up At Kroger"
Comments here:
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Jeremiah Babe, "Prepare To Lose Your Job"
Jeremiah Babe, 2/26/25
"Prepare To Lose Your Job"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Market Gains, 2/26/25
"Everyone Is Getting Laid Off and Nobody Is Hiring"
Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
“This shock wave plows through space at over 500,000 kilometers per hour. Moving toward to bottom of this beautifully detailed color composite, the thin, braided filaments are actually long ripples in a sheet of glowing gas seen almost edge on. Cataloged as NGC 2736, its narrow appearance suggests its popular name, the Pencil Nebula.
About 5 light-years long and a mere 800 light-years away, the Pencil Nebula is only a small part of the Vela supernova remnant. The Vela remnant itself is around 100 light-years in diameter and is the expanding debris cloud of a star that was seen to explode about 11,000 years ago. Initially, the shock wave was moving at millions of kilometers per hour but has slowed considerably, sweeping up surrounding interstellar gas.”
- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120924.html
Paulo Coelho, "Killing Our Dreams"
"Killing Our Dreams"
by Paulo Coelho
"The first symptom of the process of our killing our dreams is the lack of time. The busiest people I have known in my life always have time enough to do everything. Those who do nothing are always tired and pay no attention to the little amount of work they are required to do. They complain constantly that the day is too short. The truth is, they are afraid to fight the Good Fight.
The second symptom of the death of our dreams lies in our certainties. Because we don’t want to see life as a grand adventure, we begin to think of ourselves as wise and fair and correct in asking so little of life. We look beyond the walls of our day-to-day existence, and we hear the sound of lances breaking, we smell the dust and the sweat, and we see the great defeats and the fire in the eyes of the warriors. But we never see the delight, the immense delight in the hearts of those who are engaged in the battle. For them, neither victory nor defeat is important; what’s important is only that they are fighting the Good Fight.
And, finally, the third symptom of the passing of our dreams is peace. Life becomes a Sunday afternoon; we ask for nothing grand, and we cease to demand anything more than we are willing to give. In that state, we think of ourselves as being mature; we put aside the fantasies of our youth, and we seek personal and professional achievement. We are surprised when people our age say that they still want this or that out of life. But really, deep in our hearts, we know that what has happened is that we have renounced the battle for our dreams – we have refused to fight the Good Fight.
When we renounce our dreams and find peace, we go through a short period of tranquility. But the dead dreams begin to rot within us and to infect our entire being. We become cruel to those around us, and then we begin to direct this cruelty against ourselves. That’s when illnesses and psychoses arise. What we sought to avoid in combat – disappointment and defeat – come upon us because of our cowardice. And one day, the dead, spoiled dreams make it difficult to breathe, and we actually seek death. It’s death that frees us from our certainties, from our work, and from that terrible peace of our Sunday afternoons."
The second symptom of the death of our dreams lies in our certainties. Because we don’t want to see life as a grand adventure, we begin to think of ourselves as wise and fair and correct in asking so little of life. We look beyond the walls of our day-to-day existence, and we hear the sound of lances breaking, we smell the dust and the sweat, and we see the great defeats and the fire in the eyes of the warriors. But we never see the delight, the immense delight in the hearts of those who are engaged in the battle. For them, neither victory nor defeat is important; what’s important is only that they are fighting the Good Fight.
And, finally, the third symptom of the passing of our dreams is peace. Life becomes a Sunday afternoon; we ask for nothing grand, and we cease to demand anything more than we are willing to give. In that state, we think of ourselves as being mature; we put aside the fantasies of our youth, and we seek personal and professional achievement. We are surprised when people our age say that they still want this or that out of life. But really, deep in our hearts, we know that what has happened is that we have renounced the battle for our dreams – we have refused to fight the Good Fight.
When we renounce our dreams and find peace, we go through a short period of tranquility. But the dead dreams begin to rot within us and to infect our entire being. We become cruel to those around us, and then we begin to direct this cruelty against ourselves. That’s when illnesses and psychoses arise. What we sought to avoid in combat – disappointment and defeat – come upon us because of our cowardice. And one day, the dead, spoiled dreams make it difficult to breathe, and we actually seek death. It’s death that frees us from our certainties, from our work, and from that terrible peace of our Sunday afternoons."
"I think you will find, when your death takes its toll,
all the money you made will never buy back your soul."
- Bob Dylan
- Bob Dylan
The Poet: Rod McKuen, "A Cat Named Sllopy"
“A Cat Named Sloopy”
“For awhile
the only earth that Sloopy knew
was in her sandbox.
Two rooms were her domain.
Every night she’d sit in the window
among the avocado plants
waiting for me to come home,
my arms full of canned liver and love.
We’d talk into the night then,
contented,
but missing something.
She the earth she never knew,
me the hills I ran
while growing bent.
Sloopy should have been a cowboy’s cat,
with prairies to run,
not linoleum,
and real-live catnip mice,
no one to depend on but herself.
I never told her,
but in my mind
I was a midnight cowboy even then.
Riding my imaginary horse
down Forty-second street,
going off with strangers
to live an hour-long cowboy’s life.
But always coming home to Sloopy,
who loved me best.
For a dozen summers
we lived against the world.
An island on an island.
She’d comfort me with purring,
I’d fatten her with smiles.
We grew rich on trust,
needing not the beach or butterflies.
I had a friend named Ben
Who painted buildings like Roualt men.
He went away.
My laughter tired Lillian
after a time,
she found a man who only smiled.
But Sloopy stayed and stayed.
Winter,
Nineteen fifty-nine,
Old men walk their dogs.
Some are walked so often
that their feet leave
little pink tracks
in the soft snow.
Women, fur on fur,
elegant and easy,
only slightly pure,
hailing cabs to take them
round the block and back.
Who is not a love seeker
when December comes?
Even children pray to Santa Claus.
I had my own love safe at home,
and yet I stayed out all one night,
the next day too.
They must have thought me crazy
screaming SLOOPY!
SLOOPY!
as the snow came falling
down around me.
I was a madman
to have stayed away
one minute more
than the appointed hour.
I’d like to think a golden cowboy
snatched her from the window sill,
and safely saddlebagged
she rode to Arizona.
She’s stalking lizards
in the cactus now perhaps,
bitter, but free.
I’m bitter too,
and not a free man anymore.
But once upon a time,
In New York’s jungle in a tree,
before I went into the world
in search of other kinds of love,
nobody owned me but a cat named Sloopy.
Looking back,
perhaps she’s been
the only human thing
that ever gave back love to me.”
- Rod McKuen
"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."
- Rubin Alves
"Immanuel Kant: The 3 Most Important Questions In Life"
Immanuel Kant by J. L. Raab
"Immanuel Kant:
The 3 Most Important Questions In Life"
by Thomas Oppong
"How much should we know about ourselves and the world around us? What is the right way to lead a good and meaningful life? What is right and wrong? What can we hope for in the future? These questions have puzzled philosophers, theologians, and many thinkers for centuries. While there may not be a clear-cut answer, exploring these questions can lead to a better understanding of ourselves and our world. Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher who is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment era. In his works, Kant explored many fundamental questions about the nature of human knowledge, morality, and human existence. Kant’s 3 most significant questions were:
“What can I know?”,
“What ought I to do?”, and
“What can I hope?”.
These questions are fundamental because they delve into the heart of human existence and the quest for knowledge, morality, and optimism. They challenge us to examine our beliefs, values, and aspirations and to seek a greater understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Whether you seek truth or are simply curious about the human experience, exploring these questions can be a profound and enriching journey. We all want to know what we can know about the world, what we should do with our lives, and what we can hope for in the future.
“The greatest human quest is to know what one must do in order to become a human being,” says Kant. One of Kant’s most famous contributions to philosophy was his theory of knowledge. In his Critique of Pure Reason, Kant argued that our minds limit our world knowledge. We can only know things per our mental categories, and we can never know things in themselves. Kant’s theory of knowledge has important implications.
What can I know? “All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.” - Immanuel Kant
Kant’s epistemology (theory of knowledge) is based on the idea that our knowledge is derived from our sensory experiences and mental structures. He believed that our knowledge of the world is limited to what we can experience through our senses and what our minds can understand through space, time, and causality. Kant argued that the mind plays an active role in organizing our perceptions of the world and that our concepts of objects and events result from our mental activity rather than simply being passive reflections of reality. These mental structures are what Kant called the “forms of intuition” and the “categories of the understanding.”
For Kant, the question of what we can know is central to understanding human existence. He argued that human knowledge is limited by the structure of our minds, which impose certain categories and concepts on the world around us. According to Kant, these mental structures allow us to know things about the world but also limit our ability to understand reality as it truly is. His famous distinction between analytic and synthetic propositions helps to illustrate this point. Analytic propositions are true by definition, such as “all bachelors are unmarried.”
On the other hand, synthetic propositions add new information to our understanding of the world, such as “the cat is on the mat.” For Kant, synthetic propositions are only possible because our minds impose specific categories and concepts on the world. However, these categories and concepts also limit our ability to know things beyond the realm of our mental structures.
You can know many things, but the scope and certainty of your knowledge will depend on various factors, such as your cognitive abilities, your education, your experience, and the methods you use to acquire and validate knowledge. What you can know is also determined by your thoughts and beliefs, such as what you value, desire, or believe to be true. We can know a great deal about the world around us, but our knowledge is always limited. We can know things we have experienced directly, such as the taste of chocolate or the feeling of pain.
We can also know things we have learned from others, such as the history of the world or the laws of physics. However, there are many things that we cannot know, such as what happens after we die or the scientific proof of religious beliefs. While it is true that there are limits to what you can know, it is also important to remember that knowledge is a constantly evolving and expanding field.
New discoveries, insights, and technologies are being developed all the time, which means that what was once considered unknowable or mysterious may one day become understandable and accessible.
What ought I to do? “Do the right thing because it is right.” - Immanuel Kant.
This is a question of ethics or morality, and there are many different answers depending on the philosophical tradition and the specific context of the situation. Kant believed that human beings have a moral obligation to act in accordance with the principle of the categorical imperative. This principle states that we should act only in ways that we would want everyone else to act in similar circumstances. In other words, we should treat others as ends in themselves rather than merely as means to our own ends. “Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end,” Kant said.
For Kant, this principle is the foundation of morality and separates moral actions from merely pragmatic ones. By acting in accordance with the categorical imperative, we are treating others with respect and dignity and upholding the fundamental value of human freedom. Some of the main theories of ethics are:
Utilitarianism: the view that the best action is the one that maximizes overall happiness or pleasure and minimizes overall suffering or pain.
Deontology: the philosophy that the best action is the one that conforms to a moral rule or duty, regardless of its consequences.
Virtue ethics: the belief that the best action is the one that embodies a virtuous character trait, such as courage, honesty, or compassion.
Some people believe that we should always follow our conscience, while others believe that we should follow the laws of our society. Still, others believe that we should follow a higher moral code, such as the teachings of a religion.
The decision of what we ought to do is always up to you. To determine what you ought to do, you should consider various factors, such as the consequences of your actions, the rights and interests of other people, the moral principles you believe in, and the virtues you want to cultivate in yourself.
One of the challenges of ethical decision-making is that there are often multiple and conflicting values, interests, and perspectives to consider. What is good for one person or group may not be suitable for another, or what is ethical in one culture or context may not be ethical in another. Approach ethical dilemmas with an open and reflective mind.
What can I hope? “Rules for Happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for.”- Immanuel Kant
A question of existential or religious significance, and the answer will depend on your worldview and beliefs. Kant believed that we should strive for a world where reason, morality, and freedom are valued above all else. He observed that by pursuing these values, we could create a more just, peaceful, and fulfilling society for all individuals.
However, Kant also recognized that there are limits to what we can hope for in life. He believed that a fundamental tension between our desire for happiness and our recognition of the limitations of our knowledge and power marks the human condition. Despite these limitations, Kant thought we can still strive to create a better world and that this striving gives life its ultimate meaning and purpose.
You can hope for personal fulfilment and happiness, such as achieving goals, forming meaningful relationships, or finding inner peace. You can also hope for social and political progress, such as eliminating poverty, discrimination, and injustice or promoting democracy, human rights, and environmental sustainability.
Some people hope for spiritual enlightenment or salvation, the vision of God, or the union with the cosmic consciousness. We can hope for anything we desire, but there is no guarantee that our hopes will be fulfilled. We can hope for good health, happiness, and success. We can hope for peace and justice in the world. We can hope for a better future for ourselves and the people we care about. However, we must also be prepared for disappointment because life is indifferent to our plans and pains.
A concept worth understanding: Cromwell's Rule: Science is never settled, and certainty is the death of thought. Therefore, unless judging a self-evident statement (e.g. 2+2=4), always leave room for doubt in every assumption. Instead of thinking in certainties, think in probabilities: not “that is the case” but “that is likely the case”.
"Jeffrey Sachs: Zelensky Declares Surrender After Putin's Brutal Punch? EU Crisis As Nato Collapses"
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"Jeffrey Sachs: Zelensky Declares Surrender
After Putin's Brutal Punch? EU Crisis As Nato Collapses"
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$350 BILLION American dollars...
1 MILLION Ukrainian soldiers killed...
100,000 Russian troops dead...
For WHAT? WHY?
Cui bono?
o
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"The Cloak Of The Past..."
“The cloak of the past is cut from patches of feeling, and sewn with rebus threads. Most of the time, the best we can do is wrap it around ourselves for comfort or drag it behind us as we struggle to go on. But everything has its cause and its meaning. Every life, every love, every action and feeling and thought has its reason and significance: its beginning, and the part it plays in the end. Sometimes, we do see. Sometimes, we see the past so clearly, and read the legend of its parts with such acuity, that every stitch of time reveals its purpose, and a kind of message is enfolded in it. Nothing in any life, no matter how well or poorly lived, is wiser than failure or clearer than sorrow. And in the tiny, precious wisdom that they give to us, even those dread and hated enemies, suffering and failure, have their reason and their right to be.”
- Gregory David Roberts, “Shantaram”
"I Can't Convince Myself..."
“I can’t convince myself that it does much good to try to challenge the everyday political delusions and dementias of Americans at large. Their contained and confined mentalities by far prefer the petty and parochial prisons of the kind of sense they have been trained and rewarded for making out of their lives (and are punished for deviating from them). What it costs them ultimately to be such slaves and infants and ideological zombies is a thought too monstrous and rending and spiky for them even to want to glance at.”
- Kenneth Smith
“If you want to tell people the truth,
make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.”
- Oscar Wilde
Dan, I Allegedly, "Shocking Forecast: Zillow Predicts a Crash in Real Estate Prices"
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Zillow Predicts a Crash in Real Estate Prices"
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"The NSA's Secret Sex Chats"
"Tulsi Gabbard wants answers by Friday, or else. The new Director of National Intelligence has demanded that the federal employees who used the NSA's chat rooms to participate in "obscene, pornographic, and sexually explicit" discussions be identified by Friday so that they can be terminated and stripped of their security clearance.
Investigative journalists Christopher F. Rufo and Hannah Grossman discovered that NSA, CIA and DIA chatrooms were used for sexually explicit conversations regarding [brace yourself] genital castration, artificial vaginas, piss fetishes, sex polycules, and gangbangs—all on government time." The chats date from 2022.
The chats were not just about sex. They also had a recurring theme of hatred against Christians, conservatives, Italians, and heterosexuals. Italians? In this log, they celebrate the death of Christian leader Pat Robertson. In another, they discuss birthing "hermaphrodite babies in order to advance trans ideology."
THESE are the people who were running the surveillance state during the Biden Administration! But then again, how would they know any better? This behavior was encouraged during the Biden Administration but under Director Gabbard, it is most certainly not."
o
o
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The Economic Times, 2/26/25
"'Really Horrific Behavior…’: Tulsi Gabbard Fires
100+ intel Officers Over NSA Sex Chatroom Scandal"
"In a major crackdown, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fired over 100 intelligence officers for engaging in explicit chats on NSA’s secure platform. Calling it a ‘violation of trust,’ she vowed more action to clean up the intel community."
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