Lacombe, Alberta, Canada. Thanks for stopping by!
So, we rise from the rubble...
Friday, March 18, 2022
"Streets of Philadelphia, March 18, 2022"
Full screen recommended.
"Streets of Philadelphia, March 18, 2022"
○
"Violent crime and drug abuse in Philadelphia as a whole is a major problem. The city’s violent crime rate is higher than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas. Also alarming is Philadelphia’s drug overdose rate. The number of drug overdose deaths in the city increased by 50% from 2013 to 2015, with more than twice as many deaths from drug overdoses as deaths from homicides in 2015. A big part of Philadelphia’s problems stem from the crime rate and drug abuse in Kensington.
Because of the high number of drugs in Kensington, the neighborhood has a drug crime rate of 3.57, the third-highest rate by neighborhood in Philadelphia. Like a lot of the country, a big part of this issue is a result of the opioid epidemic. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed over the last two decades in the United States and Philadelphia is no exception. Along with having a high rate of drug overdose deaths, 80% percent of Philadelphia’s overdose deaths involved opioids and Kensington is a big contributor to this number. This Philly neighborhood is purportedly the largest open-air narcotics market for heroin on the East Coast with many neighboring residents flocking to the area for heroin and other opioids. With such a high number of drugs in Kensington, many state and local officials have zoned in on this area to try and tackle Philadelphia’s problem."
○
“We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.”
- Oscar Wilde
○
“So this is Hell. I'd never have believed it. You remember
all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and
brimstone, the "burning marl." Old wives' tales!
There's no need for red-hot pokers. Hell is - other people!”
- Jean-Paul Sartre, "No Exit"
○
Coming soon to a neighborhood near you...
Prepare yourselves...
"Sorry, Inflation Isn’t Going Back to Normal This Year - Chaos Economy"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, AM 3/18/22:
"Sorry, Inflation Isn’t Going Back to Normal This Year - Chaos Economy"
"We suffer from complete and utter economic chaos around the globe. Because of the ridiculous decisions by The Fed inflation will be here for quite some time. Between the supply chain problems and the inaction by our fed we are going to see inflation just go through the roof."
○
Related... "Chaos Economy" indeed...
"Isochronic Tones: Clear Focus Space Voyager Mix Study Music"
Full screen recommended.
"Isochronic Tones:
Clear Focus Space Voyager Mix Study Music"
Headphones are NOT required for this video.
by Jason Lewis - Mind Amend
"Ambient electronic space music with low-intensity beta and alpha wave tones for clear focus. Clear focus space voyager mix study music with a space style theme. Play during long study sessions, especially if you're feeling stressed or under pressure. Helps to clear your mind of distraction and keep you in a relaxed focused mental state. Includes low-intensity beta and alpha wave isochronic tones plus amplitude entrainment effects embedded into the music.
How does it work? This is a brainwave entrainment music track using isochronic tones combined with music. The music has also been embedded with amplitude entrainment effects, where the music is subtly distorted and vibrates in unison with the same frequency of the isochronic tones. This helps to add further strength to the entrainment effect. This brainwave entrainment session cycles through a frequency range of between 10Hz in Alpha, (which can help with memorization and learning), and up to 14Hz in the Beta range, (which will help with increasing focus and concentration)."
○
If brainwave entrainment is a new concept for you,
there is information about it here:
○
I use these daily, and suggest you do, too. This one is
particularly excellent. We're fighting for our lives, folks,
and I'll take any edge I can get. You should too...
- CP
Jim Kunstler, "Shadows Within Shadows"
"Shadows Within Shadows"
by Jim Kunstler
The regime behind “Joe Biden” appears to relish the prospect of dragging out this crisis as long as possible, despite the fact that we have about zero national interest in the fate of Ukraine, except perhaps for our fears about the dark secrets that reside there….
Amid an all-out campaign of contrived World War Three hysteria, our country aims to send about $14-billion in aid to Ukraine post-haste, including more javelin anti-tank missiles and weapons described as “kamikaze drones,” posing some thorny questions for curious observers.
How do we propose to get these things into Ukraine? Fly the stuff in on USAF C-17 Globemaster transport planes? To what airfield, exactly? And with what assurance that they can make delivery without encountering, shall we say, induced mechanical failure before landing? Drive the weapons across the border from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, or Moldova? Do you not suppose that Russia has satellite surveillance of the limited number of road crossings along that frontier, and will be watching for truck convoys?
More likely, that dollar number and the weaponry talk are fantasies intended to propitiate the roughly thirty percent of Americans whom, pollsters report, are avid for an apocalyptic nuclear showdown with Russia. Thirty percent, by the way, is the estimate by psychologists of any given population susceptible to mass formation psychosis - the transfiguration of anxiety-and-anomie-driven persons from something like harmless grasshoppers into ravaging human locusts.
That group derangement phenomenon has been managed artfully by America’s Deep State in recent years starting with the Russia Collusion hoax against the alleged monsterdom of Mr. Trump, then shifted to the frenzy around Covid-19 virus, with all its sickening rituals of obedience and submission, and now segued seamlessly to the melodrama of Vladimir Putin cast as King Kong manhandling Fay Wray as personified by Ukraine.
Readers assure me that Russia is “getting its ass kicked” in that sore-beset, yawning expanse of wheat and mud that has been, one way or another, a domain of Russia longer than the USA has been nation - except the past thirty-odd years when it has been a playground for homegrown oligarch-looters, US State Department and CIA gamesters, and grift-seeking rogues such as Mr. Hunter R. Biden and the relatives of John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi.
America’s gift of javelin missiles by former president Trump, has reportedly taken a heavy toll on Russian tanks and helicopters, confounding their advance. That is hardly the whole story. The Russians have surrounded the hardiest units of Ukraine’s army in the contested Donbass region. These include the alleged neo-Nazi Azov brigades dug-in around Luhansk and Donetsk for eight years, and busy all that time shelling the Russian-speaking population there with American-supplied munitions. Those Azov brigades now face the choice of surrender or annihilation. They have no contact with whatever remains of Ukrainian military command.
The regime behind “Joe Biden” appears to relish the prospect of dragging out this crisis as long as possible, despite the fact that we have about zero national interest in the fate of Ukraine, except perhaps for our fears about the dark secrets that reside there - especially the full story behind those recently discovered Pentagon-run bio-labs, stuffed with dangerous disease-based science projects. Looks at least suspicious, a little bit, to the casual observer. What did we have in mind with all that? Is it not bad enough that the human race shares the planet with many opportunistic micro-organisms that like to periodically kill off multitudes? Is it a good idea to enhance them, to play lab games with them? And why there, close to Russia’s border? And why so many labs?
Western Civ has suffered the consequences of that Frankenstein-style science for two-plus years. And is it a coincidence that “Joe Biden” provoked Russia to invade Ukraine just as the Covid-19 crisis was veering toward the discovery that the touted vaccines are found to disable and kill off large numbers of people in the prime of their lives. The terrible news of all that can’t be squelched despite the mainstream media’s calculated indifference to it. Between an engineered die-off and a wrecked economy, the “Joe Biden” government and its Deep State enablers don’t have a whole lot to brag about.
Only Wednesday at his podium, the “president” laid down a string of bizarre hypotheticals saying, “everybody knows somebody” subject to blackmail. That may have been an overstatement about Americans’ general state of moral relations. But then, whaddaya know? Twenty-four hours later, The New York Times - of all parties - very conspicuously walks back its two-year-old claim that the existence of Hunter Biden’s laptop, stuffed with incriminating memos and emails about the Biden family’s global bribery and racketeering operations - was a Russian ploy to make then-candidate “Joe Biden” look bad.
Do they mean to say no such Russian ploy happened? And that the fifty former-and-current US intel officers who signed a letter to that effect were lying? Is damaging info busting to come to the public’s attention now? Were both “Joe Biden” and The Times trying to get ahead of a story? And if, say, Hunter Biden happens to face some federal charges, will they somehow implicate his dad? Or perhaps some other party, Russia or maybe China, has possession of a Hunter Biden laptop - there were more than a few of them loose in the world - and may be on the verge of releasing its contents. Maybe wagging the tail of that Ukrainian dog wasn’t such a bright idea after all."
Gregory Mannarino, "The FED Is Back Playing Its Usual Game; Now... Watch For This To Happen!"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 3/18/22:
"The FED Is Back Playing Its Usual Game;
Now... Watch For This To Happen!"
Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 3/18/22"
"Weekly News Wrap-Up 3/18/22:
"Dollar Kill Shot; Lethal Stupid; Fed Can’t Fight Inflation"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"The US dollar is under serious threat to be steeply devalued. How is that going to happen? Looks like Saudi Arabia is considering accepting Chinese yuan for oil instead of only US dollars. Maybe this is a reaction to the US nuclear deal with Iran being pushed by the Biden/Obama Administration. Iran and Saudi Arabia are bitter enemies. If Saudi Arabia does accept yuan for its oil, there is nothing stopping other OPEC nations from doing that either. This has the very distinct possibility of crashing the value of the dollar and delivering a kill shot to its use, at least in a large part of the world. Inflation would skyrocket even more than already occurring now in the USA as unwanted dollars would return home.
The Obama/Biden Administration is sending $13.6 billion to Ukraine. It is also sending an additional $800 million in what is being called “lethal aid.” Lindsey Graham is still calling for the assassination of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, but other than that, there has not been a single plan or goal revealed by any one Republican or Democrat about how this massive spending is going to end the conflict in Ukraine. I ask what are the goals and plan for sending billions to Ukraine? There are zero answers coming from anyone in the Washington swamp. You might as well call this hairbrained move “Lethal Stupid.”
The Fed is talking about raising interest rates in the face of 40-year high in inflation. It’s 7.8% officially, but people like economist John Williams of Shadowstats.com says it’s really 16%. Williams also says the economy is not spiking, it’s tanking. Williams says rate hikes will tank it even faster than it’s already going down. Brace for impact because inflation is here to stay, and it’s going to get much worse."
Join Greg Hunter as he talks about these stories and
more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 3/18/22.
Thursday, March 17, 2022
"Countdown To Collapse Of The Petrodollar"
"Countdown To Collapse Of The Petrodollar"
by Mike Adams
"Project Sandman" describes a 100+ nation agreement that, when triggered, will see those nations simultaneously dump the dollar and abandon the "petrodollar" status that has allowed the USA to enjoy 50 years of fiat currency counterfeiting and material abundance at the expense of everyone else. When this decision is triggered, the dollar and all dollar-denominated assets will plunge to near-ZERO literally overnight.
This means all dollar-denominated bank accounts, bonds, pension funds, treasuries and other investment vehicles will essentially be worth zero for the simple reason that all banks and markets will freeze operations. (This is the James Rickards "Ice-9" scenario.)
Any funds you have in the stock market will be stuck in those markets, and the entire infrastructure of banking and finance will suffer a catastrophic liquidity crisis that will "freeze" nearly all financial transactions.
Credit cards will stop functioning. Food stamp systems will go down and stay down. ATMs will not function. Wire transfers will be halted, checks won’t be honored and banks will appear to be offline when accessed through the internet, displaying “maintenance” messages to panicked users.
The dollar collapse is a deliberate plan to force the starving masses into a digital dollar control grid. This scenario has been engineered for a deliberate collapse of the dollar fiat currency and an attempted forcing of everyone into a digital dollar system run by the banksters. In the midst of the panic, people will be promised a Universal Basic Income (UBI) and food credits (food rationing will be strictly enforced), but only if they use the approved digital wallet system run by the very same criminals who spent the last 50 years looting the value of the dollar.
Desperate people will comply, and they will sell their souls (and their freedom) in exchange for a few more meals… even while their futures are obliterated by the Mark of the Beast financial system that will forever keep them enslaved and impoverished.
When the petrodollar ends, the riots won’t be far behind The illegitimate occupying “government” of America is currently pumping out trillions of dollars in fiat currency as its final, desperate act to loot the system before its final collapse. (You didn’t think that billions in “aid” to Ukraine was actually going to Ukraine, did you?) War with Russia is just the cover story for this engineered collapse and the long-planned takedown of America while the traitors at the top (Biden, etc.) fill their bank accounts with stolen loot.
When the petrodollar collapses and the banks freeze, riots will begin almost immediately in every major U.S. city. Total chaos will reign as the desperate, oblivious, unprepared masses murder each other while attempting to find food, water and ammunition. The collapse of the rule of law will be shockingly rapid, and no police or National Guard units will make a dent in the nationwide chaos.
Only the rural areas will be safe, as local citizens and law enforcement work together to protect local communities from wave after wave of refugees and violent gangs that will spread out from the cities. Justice will be swift for looters, rapists and child traffickers, while local churches will be overrun with refugees who previously lived in the (collapsing) cities.
The death wave will accelerate, and within just a few days after the collapse, millions will be at risk of death from lack of basic sanitation as the streets of Democrat-run cities flow with the feces of the crapping masses. With no functioning power grid, the municipal water supply will collapse as well. Entire cities like Los Angeles will be plunged into a deadly water scarcity scenario that’s combined with such violence and lawlessness on the streets that even humanitarian aid organizations will dare not venture into the fray.
The bottom line? Mass starvation, chaos, lawlessness, violence, disease and depopulation. In other words, everything the globalists have wanted for America all along. None of this is an accident. It’s all planned. The Bidens, the Clintons and even the neocons like Bush have been part of this plan from day one. This is the controlled demolition of the United States of America just like Building 7. Saudi Arabia is already moving in the direction of triggering this "Project Sandman" (which was named after the sand in the Middle East, by the way). The countdown clock on the dollar is ticking."
Get the full details in today’s Situation Update podcast:
Full screen recommended.
Gerald Celente, "Prepare For Dragflation And Human Annihilation"
Full screen recommended.
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, PM 3/17/22:
"Prepare For Dragflation And Human Annihilation"
"Shipping Crisis Aggravates As Chinese Port Shutdowns Trigger Shortages & 400% Freight Rate Spike"
Full screen recommended.
"Shipping Crisis Aggravates As Chinese Port Shutdowns
Trigger Shortages & 400% Freight Rate Spike"
by Epic Economist
"The supply chain nightmare continues: mass business shutdowns, port closures, shipping disruptions and a three-digit spike in freight rates are likely to exacerbate shortages all over the world, but industry insiders are warning that U.S. consumers will be the hardest hit. Port congestion is back with a vengeance at China’s ports as new restrictions halt operations and interrupt manufacturing, worsening shipping delays and pushing already-elevated prices to new record-highs. At the same time, Russia’s aggression in Ukraine is heavily weighing on supply chains and agricultural production globally. All around the planet, food supplies are collapsing while food inflation is on the rise.
Shipping companies, logistic firms, and analysts are reporting that there are huge queues of container ships outside key Chinese ports right now, as a new virus outbreak in manufacturing export hubs unleashed a fresh wave of global supply chain shocks. The ship traffic jam and the container backlog continue to grow by the day, they added. Over the past week, public transportation and traffic were interrupted, and mass business shutdowns occurred as the government completely suspended all production and operation activities in an attempt to prevent the outbreak from spreading further.
In terms of logistics business, several members of the Shipping Logistics Branch of the China Transportation Association have reported that the new measures of outbreak prevention and control have led 80% to 90% of warehouses in Shenzhen to close, which is causing massive delays for cargo ships arriving at the port. With the increase of queued ships, the port will face mounting pressure as the traffic jam worsens by the day. For shipping and logistics companies, this also means another increase in operating costs.
In January alone, shipping prices went up by $16,000 on the China-U.S. West Coast route, but Unctad data shows that the latest freight rate spike was much higher than that. According to Peter Sand, Chief Analyst at Xeneta, a freight analytics firm, consumers in the U.S. and shippers with cargo going for North America will be hardest hit. Furthermore, over the past few weeks, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has rippled through global crop markets, with major food producers warning that they won’t be able to offer grains to the global market this year as they ensure domestic supplies, while others won’t have means to harvest crops and distribute their products at all.
The new bottlenecks come at a time when global crop prices have already surged to historic levels, fueling inflation and hunger crises, while grain stockpiles have been shrinking all over the planet. Meanwhile, in the U.S., food is still in short supply, as consumers all across the nation can see with their own eyes. Analysts are alerting that food shortages might drag on for years. According to a new analysis published by RetailWire, food insecurity was already on the rise in the U.S. due to "various factors, including lower domestic production, wildfires, natural hazards, climate change and pests."
Adding increased transportation costs, labor shortages, supply chain snarls to that picture, it’s safe to say that U.S. food supply chains have never faced so much pressure. And conditions are set to aggravate this year given that our domestic supply of fertilizers is down by as much as 50%, and we’re in the middle of a conflict with the world’s biggest fertilizer exporter. Food insecurity is going to shake our country to the core in the coming months. And we will be extremely lucky if things do not start to fall apart in our economy and financial markets before that happens. Trouble is ahead, it's time to start planning a way out of this mess while you still can."
"Free Speech in Russia and America"
"Free Speech in Russia and America"
by Brian Maher
"A Russian anti-war protester - bearing a message in two languages - recently streaked across a Moscow newsroom:This woman in question had evidently labored for the very same “news” organization. The United States media instantly shrieked with glee…What a heroic soul, they gushed. She has defied Mr. Putin before the world’s watching eyes. Solzhenitsyn himself had nothing on her. In a pre-recorded video this First Amendment heroine explained herself: "Russia is the aggressor country and one person, Vladimir Putin, solely bears responsibility for that aggression… I am ashamed that I allowed lies to be broadcast from TV screens. Ashamed that I allowed others to zombify Russian people."
American media naturally feared her transgression would ticket her for the gulag… if not the wall… once Vladimir’s goons collared her.
Fined $280 for an “Administrative Offense": Yet what happened to this anti-Putin, Russian subversive? Precisely this: She was fined 30,000 roubles (roughly $280) for an "administrative offense." She was released one day later to face future trial. We suspect our media were somewhat let down. We believe they inwardly yearned for a much rougher handling of her. They could then denounce the Russian brute for his strangulation of speech and strong-arming of dissent. Alas, the lady was cited for an administrative offense.
Let the record reflect: We concede at once that Mr. Putin is a propagandist and a geyser of lies. That is, he is a successful, if somewhat ungentlemanly, politician. We cite this example not to absolve Mr. Putin of his grave and multiplying atrocities - but to stand the American media before a mirror.
How Would the U.S. Media React? Imagine the scene… An American news anchor sits at a desk before a film camera. There she reads, stoically and dutifully, the latest communique issuing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Food and Drug Administration. Thus we are informed that novel mRNA vaccines are the only shield against the dreaded COVID-19. They are at once “safe” and “effective.” We are further informed that federal vaccine mandates are appropriate - and perhaps even lawful.
At that point an unauthorized person invades the television screen and disrupts the proceedings. She is armed with a placard. It bears this inscription: “My Body, My Choice. End the Tyrannical Mandates!”
This scalawag, an employee of this “news” network, pre-recorded a statement of explanation: "One person, Anthony Fauci, solely bears responsibility for thousands of deaths by suppressing the early use of effective treatments like ivermectin in order to push these experimental genetic therapies upon the American people. I am ashamed that I allowed lies to be broadcast from TV screens. Ashamed that I allowed others to zombify American people."
Questions: Now answer these questions, please: Would her brethren and sistren in the media empty hosannas upon her head? Would they hold this Joan of Arc out as a First Amendment crusader and sob about her bravery, her courage to confront Big Pharma and its propagandists? Or would they denounce her as a sort of bedlamite… as a believer of conspiracy theories… for propagating “misinformation” and “disinformation”… perhaps even for disseminating “Russian lies”?
We believe we have the answers. That is merely because we have observed their conduct for nearly two years. We know them snout to stem. Might certain members of the guardian media even yell for her jailing? We would not be one whit surprised if they did.
That’s Ridiculous! “You can’t compare the two situations,” you counter, continuing that: “Putin is a brutal dictator who has unjustifiably invaded his neighbor, killing many thousands of innocent people. That woman is a hero for doing what she did. You can’t compare Dr. Fauci to Putin. He’s trying to save lives, not take them.”
You are not yet through: “That protester you cite in your theoretical example is a nutjob. She’s spouting unsubstantiated claims, yes, fake news, that could actually kill people if they listened to her. She’s just an anti-vaxxer who shouldn’t have a public forum at all.”
Just so. But why are you so thoroughly convinced of her waywardness… and so thoroughly convinced of your correctness?
How Do You Know Which Experts to Trust? Are you not aware that multiple studies indicate these vaccines are poisons for many? They exist. Are you also not aware that multiple studies indicate such therapeutics as ivermectin are formidable and effective treatments? These studies likewise exist. You say you are not aware of them because they lack credibility. If they glowed with credibility, the media would have reported it.
Yet how do the media determine the credible from the incredible? Where are their doctorate degrees in the medical sciences? We can cite vastly conflicting information by equally credentialed medical men. The news people appeal instead to authority - to the authority of Dr. Fauci and his understrappers within the public health bureaucracies. After all, they are official agents of the United States government. They are not “quacks.”
Journalism Is About Covering Important Stories: Yet - yet - the same Dr. Fauci and his understrappers within the public health bureaucracies have repeatedly dispensed false “information.” A rascally and somewhat cheeky fellow might even label it “misinformation.” Perhaps “disinformation.”
In fact, the authorized experts have often been proven 100% wrong, falsified and discredited. And yet the American media kneel before them even now. All dissenting information is throttled, muffled and gagged. As one wag once observed: Journalism is about covering important stories - with a pillow. We believe there is hard truth in it. We also hazard that journalists are covering important stories on Ukraine with a suffocating pillow.
Here we speculate, though our spies report scandalous rumors. And let the record reflect: We do not stand Dr. Fauci beside Mr. Putin for comparison. The latter is vastly more practiced in the murderous arts and sciences. The former is merely a scoundrel.
The Limits of Free Speech: Our sights today are instead trained upon the United States media. We aspire merely to force arrogant people to their assumptions… and to turn their critical eyes upon themselves. Again, to stand them before a mirror. Our media like to croon about “free speech” and “the freedom of expression.” Yet their allegiance to these lovely ideals is conditional. They yell about the lack of free speech in Russia as they moan about excessive free speech in the United States of America.
We are with the incomparable Mencken: “I have believed all my life in free thought and free speech - up to and including the utmost limits of the endurable.”
The current run of American journalists turn Baltimore’s Sage upside down: “I have believed since the pandemic in free thought and free speech - up to and including the least limits of the permissible.”
"The Truth About The 2.5 QUADRILLION Derivatives Bubble"
Full screen recommended.
The Atlantis Report,
"The Truth About The 2.5 QUADRILLION Derivatives Bubble"
Full text here:
○
"Financial institutions such as JP Morgan love to buy derivatives because they are opaque, create fictional income that leads to real bonuses, and when, not if, they suffer losses so large that they would cause the bank to fail, they will be bailed out."
- William K Black
"A synthetic instrument has no real assets. It is simply a bet on the performance of the assets it references. That means the number of synthetic instruments is limitless, and so is the risk they present to the economy. Synthetic structures referencing high-risk mortgages garnered hefty fees for Goldman Sachs and other investment banks. They assumed an ever-larger share of the financial markets, and contributed greatly to the severity of the crisis by magnifying the amount of risk in the system.
Increasingly, synthetics became bets made by people who had no interest in the referenced assets. Synthetics became the chips in a giant casino, one that created no economic growth even when it thrived, and then helped throttle the economy when the casino collapsed."
- Carl Levin, US Senator
Gregory Mannarino, "Crude Surges Higher... The Dollar Nosedives... And Stocks Gain"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 3/17/22:
"Crude Surges Higher... The Dollar Nosedives... And Stocks Gain"
○
"It was risk on again today, as stocks shook off their early losses and rally back into the green and went out near the highs. The SP and NDX are approaching the level of their latest failed rallies. This could provide a good test of bullies new resolve to buy. Gold and silver were higher. The Dollar and the VIX both fell on the risk appetite for equities. Quad witching option expiration tomorrow.
Every day we read and hear fresh stories of how the Russian military is experiencing disaster after disaster in the Ukraine. Their generals are dropping like flies, soldiers are abandoning their equipment and surrendering in tears. Every day it seems as though Russia is on the verge of admitting defeat and surrendering. And the Ukraine goes from victory to victory, triumph to triumph.
Just like the economy. One can only wonder.
Have a pleasant evening."
"A Look to the Heavens"
"These are galaxies of the Hercules Cluster, an archipelago of island universes a mere 500 million light-years away. Also known as Abell 2151, this cluster is loaded with gas and dust rich, star-forming spiral galaxies but has relatively few elliptical galaxies, which lack gas and dust and the associated newborn stars. The colors in this remarkably deep composite image clearly show the star forming galaxies with a blue tint and galaxies with older stellar populations with a yellowish cast.
The sharp picture spans about 3/4 degree across the cluster center, corresponding to over 6 million light-years at the cluster's estimated distance. Diffraction spikes around brighter foreground stars in our own Milky Way galaxy are produced by the imaging telescope's mirror support vanes. In the cosmic vista many galaxies seem to be colliding or merging while others seem distorted - clear evidence that cluster galaxies commonly interact. In fact, the Hercules Cluster itself may be seen as the result of ongoing mergers of smaller galaxy clusters and is thought to be similar to young galaxy clusters in the much more distant, early Universe. "
"Most People Are Good..."
"Most people are good and occasionally do something they know is bad. Some people are bad and struggle every day to keep it under control. Others are corrupt to the core and don't give a damn, as long as they don't get caught. But evil is a completely different creature. Evil is bad that believes it's good."
- Karen Marie Moning
The Poet: Maya Angelou, "A Brave And Startling Truth"
"A Brave And Startling Truth"
by Maya Angelou
"We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space,
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns,
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth.
And when we come to it,
To the day of peacemaking,
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms.
When we come to it,
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate,
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean.
When battlefields and coliseum
No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters
Up with the bruised and bloody grass,
To lie in identical plots in foreign soil.
When the rapacious storming of the churches,
The screaming racket in the temples have ceased.
When the pennants are waving gaily,
When the banners of the world tremble
Stoutly in the good, clean breeze.
When we come to it,
When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders,
And children dress their dolls in flags of truce.
When land mines of death have been removed,
And the aged can walk into evenings of peace.
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By the incense of burning flesh,
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake
By nightmares of abuse.
When we come to it,
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids
With their stones set in mysterious perfection
Nor the Gardens of Babylon
Hanging as eternal beauty
In our collective memory,
Not the Grand Canyon
Kindled into delicious color
By Western sunsets.
Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe
Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji
Stretching to the Rising Sun.
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor,
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores
These are not the only wonders of the world.
When we come to it,
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe,
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace.
We, this people on this mote of matter,
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence,
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor,
And the body is quieted into awe.
We, this people, on this small and drifting planet,
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living.
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow,
And the proud back is glad to bend.
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines.
When we come to it,
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body,
Created on this earth, of this earth,
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety,
Without crippling fear.
When we come to it,
We must confess that we are the possible,
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world.
That is when, and only when,
We come to it."
○
"The Human Condition"
"The Human Condition"
by Meanings of Life
"We are all of us born, live and die in the shadow of a
giant question mark that refers to three questions:
Where do we come from? Why? And where, oh where, are we going?"
- Tennessee Williams
"Man remains largely unknown of himself. What are we, in our innermost recesses, behind our names and our conventional opinions? What are we behind the things we do in our lives, behind what we see in others and what others see in us, or even behind things science says we are? Is man the crazy being about whom Carl Gustav Jung spoke ironically, when he demanded a man to treat? Is man the Dr. Jerkyll that contains in himself a criminal Mister Hyde, and more than a personality, and contradictory feelings?
Are we the result of our dreams, as Prospero, in the Shakespeare's "The Tempest" asked? Are we able to raise our nature and become the dignified beings evoked by Pico de la Mirandola (It's the seeds a man cultivates that "will mature and bear fruit in him. If vegetative, he will become a plant; if sensual, he will become brutish; if rational, he will reveal himself a heavenly being; if intellectual, he will be an angel and the son of God").
Almost two centuries ago, Spencer characterized the contradictory features of natives from the African east coast: "He has at the same time good character and hard heart; he is a fighter, conscientious, good in a precise moment, and cruel, pitiless and violent in the other; superstitious and rudely irreligious; brave and pusillanimous, servile and dominator, stubborn and at the same time fickle, relied to honor views, but without signs of honesty, niggard and economical, but careless and improvident".
It's probably a good definition of a certain primitive man, to whom we are undoubtedly connected. But we are also cultural and ethic beings. We are able to change our values and behaviors. As William James says, human beings can change their lives through their mental attitudes. We can grow ethically. We can dominate part of our own instincts. And that's why we can be different from the indigenous African described by Spencer. More: our thought dignifies us ("All the dignity of man consists in thought", says Blaise Pascal). We are, in many senses, the conscience of the Universe, and its utmost elaborated product. As Edgar Morin says, "in the core of our singularity, we carry not only all the humanity, all the life, but also all the cosmos, including its mystery, present in the heart of our beings".
We are creators, creator beings, and, in a sense, we can create, or recreate ourselves. All goes through our mind. It is our mind that constructs our truths and errors, and also the most sublime things in the Universe. And yet evil and stupidity exist in us. Sometimes we fall, we are stroked, and life reveals its cruelty, and we may think as Mark Twain, and say that it was a pity that Noah had arrived late to the ark. In our innermost recesses, there is also the cruelty and the inhumanity of life. Charles Darwin showed that we are descendants of inferior life forms: we have been long ago a "bush and a bird, and a fish silently swimming in the waters", to use the poetic terms used by Empedocles in its "Purifications."
From a genetic and evolutionist point of view, we contain in us the survival reflexes and the aggressiveness of the life forms that preceded us: "All that threatened the cave man - dangers, darkness, famine, thirst, ghosts, demons all has passed to the interior of our souls, all troubles us, grieves us, threatens us from inside." (Morin). Besides, we are also beings that can differ significantly from each other. We are equal, but also different. "The awake involve a common world, but dreams deviate each one to its own world," Heraclites rather enigmatically declares. He thought we can't help sleeping and living in illusory worlds, even when awake.
For all these reasons, Blaise Pascal's celebrated definition of the human being, despite the hard language, not exactly agreeable to our ears, is undoubtedly one of the most powerful that can be applied to the rather unknown being that we can't help being to ourselves: "What a chimera then is man! What a novelty, what a monster, what a chaos, what a contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, imbecile worm of the earth; depositary of truth, a sink of uncertainty and error; the pride and refuse of the universe! Who will unravel this tangle?"
This website no longer exists, sadly..
○
Full screen recommended.
Billy Joel, "You're Only Human (Second Wind)"
"Words..."
"Words ought to be a little wild, for they
are the assaults of thoughts on the unthinking. "
- John Maynard Keynes
"You May Want To Figure Out Where You Want To Spend Your Days When World War 3 Fully Erupts"
"You May Want To Figure Out Where You Want
To Spend Your Days When World War 3 Fully Erupts"
by Michael Snyder
"The growing desire for war that we are witnessing in Washington D.C. right now should greatly alarm all of us. In this environment, voices of reason such as Tucker Carlson and Tulsi Gabbard are being accused of “treason” just because they are calling for peace. Well, you can add me to that list because I am calling for peace too. I don’t want nuclear war. I don’t want billions of people to die. You would think that we should all be able to agree on those things, but unfortunately the warmongers in Washington seem absolutely determined to keep escalating matters. That is a very dangerous game, and it is going to be way too easy for someone to make a huge mistake. Before that day arrives, you may want to figure out where you want to spend your days when global war fully erupts.
At some point, the shooting in Ukraine will end. Either Russia will achieve total victory, or more likely there will be some sort of a ceasefire agreement. But when the shooting in Ukraine stops, don’t be fooled into thinking that everything is okay. The truth is that a much bigger conflict between the United States and Russia has now begun, and both sides are beginning to realize that this is ultimately a struggle for all the marbles.
World War 3 is here, and now we must hope that we can keep both parties from “going nuclear” for as long as possible.
Of course there are some that would like to see the U.S. and Russia shooting at each other very soon. On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky begged Congress to establish a “humanitarian no-fly zone” over Ukraine… "The t-shirt-attired Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress by video on Wednesday and asked for the United States to send warplanes into the sky over Ukraine to create a “humanitarian no-fly zone” or, failing that, to provide Ukraine itself with warplanes."
“Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands of people,” Zelensky told Congress. Zelensky knows very well that the establishment of a “humanitarian no-fly zone” would require U.S. forces to shoot down Russian jets. And he also understands that this would spark a shooting war between the United States and Russia. But you can’t blame Zelensky for trying. He is trying to save his own skin, and the best way to do that is to drag the United States into the war.
Needless to say, the establishment media in the western world absolutely adored Zelensky’s speech. The following example comes from CNN… "Zelensky’s words are not only destined for the history books. They will likely energize support for Ukraine’s defense against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine and reverberate across the US. When America’s top Democrats and Republicans rose side by side to give Zelensky a standing ovation, we knew the Ukrainian President had made his mark. Zelensky, reminding Americans what freedom really means after the country has spent years devaluing it in petty political battles, proves there is a new seriousness in the nation."
And most members of Congress ate it up as well. Following the speech, Senator Jeanne Shaheen boldly declared that “more must be done to assist Ukraine”… “It is clear that more must be done to assist Ukraine and hold Putin to account,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire Democrat, said in a statement following Zelenskeyy’s virtual address. “The images we watched today underscore the horrific violence – the war crimes – being committed by Putin. He will pay for what he has done.”
And Senator Joni Ernst said that Zelensky’s speech made her want to put on a uniform and “go help”… ‘It’s hurtful to see anything like, you know, thinking about if it were my child, if that were my family, that were my people. You know, I’d be doing the exact same thing that President Zelensky is,’ Ernst said. "I would be appealing to every nation possible to get whatever it takes to defeat the Russians and get them the heck out of my country. You know, it makes me want to throw on my uniform, you know, and go help."
Actually, I would love to see that. In fact, I would love to see U.S., Ukrainian and Russian politicians all flown to an island where they would resolve this conflict “Battle Royale” style. But instead, all of the politicians are safe and warm while millions upon millions of Ukrainians deeply suffer.
One of the biggest warmongers in the U.S. Senate, Lindsey Graham, has decided that it is time to start calling Vladimir Putin “a war criminal”…“It’s time for him to go. He’s a war criminal,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, an erstwhile standard bearer for the Republican Party’s Reagan-era foreign policies, told reporters shortly after Zelenskeyy’s address. “I am asking the Russian people to rise up and end his rein of terror.”
Joe Biden also referred to Putin as a “war criminal” on Wednesday, and he announced that an additional 800 million dollars in military aid would be given to the Ukrainian government. To be honest, it is quite an impressive list that the Ukrainians will be receiving…
800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems
2,000 Javelin, 1,000 light anti-armor weapons, and 6,000 AT-4 anti-armor systems
100 Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems
100 grenade launchers, 5,000 rifles, 1,000 pistols, 400 machine guns and 400 shotguns
Over 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenade launcher and mortar rounds
25,000 sets of body armor
25,000 helmets
But of course this is not nearly enough for some of the warmongers in Congress. In fact, 40 Republican senators just signed a letter “in which they strongly disagreed with the decision to not transfer aircraft and air defense systems to Ukraine from Poland”. Biden was hesitant to take such a step because it might start a shooting war with Russia, but apparently that is a risk that most Republican senators are willing to take.
Thankfully, most Americans do not actually want a shooting war with Russia. But according to one new survey, more than a third of all Americans “would favor military action even if it risks nuclear conflict with Russia”… "However, most Americans (62%) say they would oppose the U.S. “taking military action even if it risks a nuclear conflict with Russia.” About a third (35%) of Americans say they would favor military action in this scenario. Comparable shares in both parties (36% of Republicans, 35% of Democrats) say they would favor military action even if it risks nuclear conflict with Russia."
Those of us in the majority need to be much louder than those in the minority, because if the warmongers get their way we could eventually find ourselves in the middle of a nuclear conflict. And if that happens, there won’t be a future for our country.
Speaking of World War 3, Joe Biden is also escalating matters with China by sending thousands of U.S. troops to Australia… "The Pentagon is to deploy over two thousand troops to Australia by September to join an established rotational force of 200 in anticipation of a conflict with China, according to reports. The Daily Mail notes that “The contingent is part of an ongoing US initiative in the Indo-Pacific region to prepare for a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan in coming years.” The report notes that 1000 marines have already arrived in the country. The battle lines are being drawn.
Once World War 3 fully erupts, it will be the United States on one side, and Russia and China on the other. If Americans truly understood what was at stake, there would be massive demonstrations in the streets of every major U.S. city right now. But the general population just doesn’t get it. They just assume that war is something that happens on the other side of the globe and that our leaders have everything under control.
Unfortunately, our leaders most definitely do not have everything under control, and when World War 3 fully erupts the death and destruction that we will witness will be absolutely unimaginable."
Bill Bonner, "Diaguita Lives Matter"
(The reservoir… Source: Bill)
"Diaguita Lives Matter"
by Bill Bonner
San Martin, Argentina - "Today, we leave the world of comedy and fantasy to take a look at real life. On Sunday, we went to visit the widow of a farmhand. Carlos drowned in a reservoir. We came to pay our respects… and find out more.
But first, let’s check the headlines. Here’s the latest from Bloomberg: "US Rent Inflation Hits New High, Led by Miami, with 39% Rate."
Another ‘Putin Price Hike!’ But don’t worry about it. The Fed is on the case. Bloomberg again: "Powell kicks off most aggressive rate tightening in decades. As expected, the Fed raised its inflation-adjusted key rate from around MINUS 7.7% to around MINUS 7.5%. And the plan is to keep raising it until it reaches MINUS 5% by the end of next year."
That ought to stop the Putin Price Hikes, right? The Fed chief also assured the world that the US is not going into recession: “The American economy is very strong and well positioned to handle tighter monetary policy,” said he." Tighter? At the present rate, even by the end of 2023, the Fed will still be operating an extremely inflationary money policy.
Meanwhile, in the real world… Alicia’s lip quivered when we greeted her. Then, tears appeared in her eyes, running down her cheeks. The widow had two children at her side. One, a boy of about 12, kept his head down. The girl, maybe 6 or 7, didn’t seem to understand what had happened. She looked at us expectantly, as if we could explain it to her.
“Your father was a good man,” we told them. “He was a good worker. And very strong. He helped me build that little casita.” We pointed to a house in the distance which we built ten years ago and now graces the labels for our Tacana wine. Carlos was on that job, part of the crew. It was hard work under the intense sun and, for us, with little air. We weren’t used to the altitude. But Carlos lived here all his life; if it was hard work, he didn’t notice. He had a ready smile, and often, a puzzled look. We assumed it was because he couldn’t understand what we were talking about. Our Spanish was even poorer then than it is today. And in this part of Argentina, they speak a local idiom; even people from Buenos Aires have a hard time keeping up.
“He was very strong. He was able to lift big stones that I couldn’t lift myself. I will miss him.” That was about all we knew about Carlos. Since we worked on the little house together, we hadn’t seen much of him. He was probably about 37 years old. Well-built and good looking. But the salient fact about him is that he was found under the water in our new reservoir two weeks ago.
It is very rare for someone to drown in this area; there is very little water to drown in. “I waited for him on Saturday night,” Alicia explained. “He never came home. The next day, I took the kids up the river. We found him in the reservoir. It was horrible. What am I going to do?” We tried to comfort her with small gestures and sympathetic tears. But Alicia had practical things on her mind. “I hope you will give me a widow’s pension,” she said, briefly restraining the tears and raising her head. “We will make sure you and the children are taken care of,” we replied. “It is the least we can do for one of our good men.”
We were standing in front of the house where Carlos and Alicia lived. Built of mud bricks, Carlos had been adding to it. He had worked as a mason and was making a substantial addition. This was slightly odd, because the house didn’t belong to him, but to us. As far as we know, he had never asked permission to add onto it.
Of course, we would have said ‘yes,’ but Alicia had turned him in a different direction. She calls herself an “originaria,” a person who doesn’t have to ask permission, because of her indigenous status. She told the police that Carlos was an originario, too, though he had never made that clear to anyone else. The ‘originario’ idea has brought conflict to the valley. It causes family break-ups, distrust, and disrespect. Gates have been broken; houses have been occupied. Two of our remote cabins – used by us and the originarios themselves – were set on fire.
Faux Tribalism: Except for maybe 10% of the population who are of pure European descent, everyone else is a mestizo… a mixture. In terms of culture, place of origin, tradition and genetic make-up, they are all about the same people. Alicia is one of them. But when the legislature in far-off Buenos Aires gave special status to “indigenous people” who lived in a “traditional way” on long-held “tribal” land, there were some people who recognized a good hustle when they saw one.
Where we live there are no real “indigenous” people. The valley was cleared out 3 centuries ago. Since then, the area has evolved, but the basic economy has remained much the same. Europeans bring in money and technology to try to make the big farms pay (usually, they fail). The ‘local people,’ who trickled in from other areas, work for them, or own their own small farms.
But along came an opportunist from another province. He re-invented a tribe – the Diaguita – and made himself its chief. He then told the locals that if they said they were members of the tribe, they wouldn’t have to obey the laws of Argentina... they could reclaim their ancestral land… and they’d get money from the government. Since then, there has been little money forthcoming, but enough to keep the activists in business. Alicia’s brother is one of them. He and she look to us to pay the salaries, fix the roads, put in irrigation canals, bring in tractors and other equipment…and to give the widows a pension. But she nevertheless believes that she is the rightful owner of the land. Diaguita lives matter. Others, not so much.
It is a familiar conflict. There are those who expect to get what is coming to them by their own efforts – generally, providing goods and services to others. And there are those who look to their tribal connections, their race, their color, their family, party affiliation, politics, ideology or religion for their identity… their sense of worth… and their income. There are those who are proud of what they do, in other words; there are others who are proud of who they are. The former hope to get what they are after by giving to others; the latter believe their status confers special rights and benefits.
This is the fundamental difference between civilization and barbarism… between a command economy and capitalism… and between the Old Testament and the New one. In the Old Testament, for example, being a Jew is the name of the game. In the New Testament, we are told that just being a Jew or a Gentile is not enough. It is our acts (love thy neighbor!) that count.
Likewise, in the modern world achievements – providing oil, inventing the laptop computer, teaching children, flipping burgers, investing shrewdly – that lead to self-esteem and wealth. But some people insist that they are entitled to special treatment…
The Final Scene: We expressed our sympathy to Alicia. We promised to help. And then, after hugs and kisses, we took our leave and headed up the valley. We wanted to see how Carlos died. “Very strange,” a neighbor had commented. “He lived here all his life. He knew that reservoir. It is not possible that he fell in and drowned. There is one end where the water is deep. But most of it is only about 4 or 5 feet deep. The whole thing just doesn’t add up.”
We drove up the rough road to where we could go no further. The river was too high to cross. Taking off our shoes and rolling up our pants, we waded across. The water rushed by fast and cold, we had to hold onto each other to avoid falling in.
The reservoir was just in front of us, up a hill. It is surrounded by a wire fence to keep the cattle out. You have to open a gate to get in. “As soon as we found out, we called the police,” said the farmhand who accompanied us. “Of course, it took a few hours for them to get here. They pulled him out of the water. They examined the body. No sign of injury. But look… you can see his footprints.”
The reservoir is new. It is lined with black plastic. Still relatively clean, the footprints were unmistakable. “See… they are Carlos’ footprints. And there are only one set of footprints. He started here, where we are. He walked around the edge to the deep side and that is where the footprints end. The police said they thought he slid on the plastic into the water. And since he didn’t know how to swim, he drowned. And they found his phone over by the fence, on the ground.”
“You mean, he put his phone down, and then by accident, slid into the reservoir?” “Yes… that’s what they said happened.” “What happened to the phone?” “They gave it to Alicia. She said there was nothing unusual on it.”
Carlos’ family is suspicious. They don’t like or trust Alicia. They are not ‘originarios.’ “They think they can do whatever they want,” an informant remarked, speaking of the originarios, on condition of anonymity, and looking around the corner to make sure no one was listening. “Alicia was never honest with them. (Her husband’s family.) She treated them like trash. She thought she was better than everyone else, because she was an ‘originaria.’”
Thus began a long list of grudges and further elucidation of the struggle between the self-proclaimed ‘Diaguita’ tribe members and everyone else. “That ‘Diaguita’ thing is a lie. There never was a ‘Diaguita’ tribe. It was just a term the Inca used to describe the local people in this region. They thought the tribes here were backward. It was an insult.
“Alicia and her brother thought that could take the grandmother’s place… just because they said they were ‘Diaguita.’” Carlos’ grandmother lived in a high farm way up in the hills beyond the reservoir. The mountains are dry and hostile. But in them there are oases, where a trickle of reliable water allows a family to eke out a living. A few cattle. A few goats. A few fruit trees. Not much more.
When she turned 80, the family decided that their grandmother could no longer stay by herself at her mountain farm. She was taken down to the town to live with a granddaughter. These little farms are owned by us. But by custom, and today’s political reality, the local people decide for themselves who lives in them. Typically, they pass down through a family.
The originarios, however, are eager to get control of the whole valley. If a farm is abandoned, they move in… and then they cannot be removed. You call the police. The police hear “originario” and the potato is soon too hot to handle. “She’s had her eye on that farm for years. And now, with Carlos out of the way, I think she’s going to get more originarios in there.”
“How did Carlos seem to you when you last saw him,” we asked. “We talked to him on Friday; he died on Saturday. He seemed fine.” The police say the case is closed. But there’s always more to the story. Stay tuned..."
"Time..."
“Space I can recover. Time, never.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte
○
“Lands can be reconquered, indeed in the course of a battle, a hill or a certain plain might trade hands several times. But missed opportunities? These can never be regained. Moments in time, in culture? They can never be re-made. One can never go back in time to prepare for what they should have prepared for, no one can ever get back critical seconds that were wasted out of fear or ego. Napoleon was brilliant at trading space for time: Sure, you can make these moves, provided you are giving me the time I need to drill my troops, or move them to where I want them to be. Yet in life, most of us are terrible at this. We trade an hour of our life here or afternoon there like it can be bought back with the few dollars we were paid for it. And it is only much, much later, as they are on their deathbeds or when they are looking back on what might have been, that many people realize the awful truth of this quote. Don’t do that. Embrace it now.”
- Ryan Holiday
○
Full screen recommended.
Hans Zimmer, "Time"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)