Full screen recommended.
2002, "The End of the Journey"
Amazingly beautiful...
So, we rise from the rubble...
Saturday, September 21, 2024
"A Look to the Heavens"
"NGC 1333 is seen in visible light as a reflection nebula, dominated by bluish hues characteristic of starlight reflected by interstellar dust. A mere 1,000 light-years distant toward the heroic constellation Perseus, it lies at the edge of a large, star-forming molecular cloud.
This telescopic close-up spans about two full moons on the sky or just over 15 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 1333. It shows details of the dusty region along with telltale hints of contrasty red emission from Herbig-Haro objects, jets and shocked glowing gas emanating from recently formed stars. In fact, NGC 1333 contains hundreds of stars less than a million years old, most still hidden from optical telescopes by the pervasive stardust. The chaotic environment may be similar to one in which our own Sun formed over 4.5 billion years ago."
"The Right Time Will Never Come"
"The Right Time Will Never Come"
by Paul Rosenberg
"Lots of good people are frustrated with the world, and I understand that only too well. They are, furthermore, eager for the world to improve, and I respect that a great deal. Their problem arises, however, right on the heels of these desires, when they ask the question, “What should I do?” And that’s where the wheels fall off.
All the Popular Answers Are Wrong: The world is full of people who are glad to tell you what to do. They have elaborate arguments as to why their plan is the right one and why everyone else’s is wrong. They’ll encourage you to commit to them, and they’ll try to surround you with people who have already chosen their plan. If you join, you’ll get lots of pats on the back and assurances that you’re a good person. But all those ways are wrong. They offer you fast, cheap self-esteem. They offer you a fast track to feeling useful, important, and wanted. And all you have to do is join their very pleasant crowd.
Let me make this very clear: There is no blueprint for freedom. There will be no great plan to follow. People who say they have such a thing, while they may be well-meaning, bright, and even respectable, are moving in the wrong direction. (And I truly don’t mean to criticize here; we’ve all made our mistakes.) Here’s the core of the issue: If we want a world that is safe for individuals, we’ll have to create it as individuals, not as groups. Groups beget after their own kind, and individuals beget after their own kind.
I’m not the first person to decide this, by the way; here’s what Albert Schweitzer had to say on the subject many years ago: "The unnatural way of spreading ideas must be opposed by the natural one, which goes from man to man and relies solely on the truth of the thoughts and the hearer’s receptiveness for new truth."
The Easiest Thing to Do: Following someone else’s plan is the easy way. It saves us from responsibility. It allows us to deflect the blame, at least a little, if later we’re found to be wrong. This easy way, however, is a wrong way. There’s a great line from Steven Stills’s song, “The Southern Cross,” that goes like this:
"And we never failed to fail;
it was the easiest thing to do."
It will always be the easiest thing to go downward into servitude. That is the current condition of the world, with its dominance-obsessed and status-worshiping inertia. You can go downward quickly by handing your will to the status quo, or you can go slowly by standing still. But until you act, solely upon your own judgment, you’re not going to go upward.
Are You Saying…? Yes, I’m saying that you have to make your own decision, all alone, and that you have to raise the courage to start acting upon it by yourself, with no leader telling you the best choice, with no famous author guiding you, and with no authority sanctifying the path for you. You’ll have to choose, all by yourself. And you’ll have to face all the fears that hold you back from stepping out… you’ll have to push past them… you’ll have to make your own legs start walking. That, my friends, is the price of progress… and we each have to pay it, or not pay it, alone.
We Should Act Without a Plan? Emphatically yes. The central issue here is not following a plan, but dragging ourselves out of stasis and taking some kind of initiative. Unless you’re making some kind of wild, destructive choice, almost any choice you make is a good one. Your central necessity is to unfreeze yourself and start moving. Once you’re in motion, it’s easy to correct your course. But if you never move, you’ll just keep sliding down the majority’s path, regardless of how much you complain.
In our time, most of the good people in the world remain motionless. We complain about our local fiefdom’s abuses, of course, but that’s about all. That’s the seduction of “democracy,” you see: It magically turns complaints into progress. Except that the magic of democracy never really shows up. Still, it’s the easiest thing to do. And so we complain and we wait, but we do not act.
But again: There’s never going to be a perfect plan and there’s never going to be a right time. If you wait for them, you’ll wait forever. So, pick a spot and start. You probably already have choices in mind: Bitcoin, homeschooling, intentional communities, agorism, becoming a perpetual traveler, or something else. Whatever it is, get moving: your central necessity is to face the fear and to act anyway. And if you’d like to know my favorite choice, here it is: Sit at bus stops or train stations and talk to people. You can do that at almost any time and any place.
Who Happens to Whom? In other words, “Who acts, and who is acted upon?” As an old coworker of mine used to say, “He who hesitates is lost.” If you wait, you’ll be acted upon. And then you’ll have to re-form your plan, and you’ll hesitate again. And then you’ll be acted upon again… over and over, until you’re too old to do much of anything.
The ‘right time’ never comes. Either we let the world happen to us, or we transcend our fears and we happen to the world. So, I propose a simple motto for people who have courage enough to break stasis: The world doesn’t happen to us. We happen to the world."
Crosby, Stills & Nash, "Southern Cross"
"15 Major Restaurant Chains Are Being Wiped Out Right Now"
Full screen recommended.
The Atlantis Report, 9/21/24
"15 Major Restaurant Chains
Are Being Wiped Out Right Now"
"Restaurant chains have been a familiar part of American culture for decades, offering convenience, affordability, and a sense of familiarity. However, the industry has faced significant challenges in recent years, leading to the closure of several major chains in 2024. This raises concerns about the future of casual dining. Here are 15 major restaurant chains facing imminent closures."
Comments here:
Jeremiah Babe, "WTF? Squatters Overtake Another Mansion; 7-11 Trashed By Teens In Beverly Hills"
Jeremiah Babe, 9/21/2
"WTF? Squatters Overtake Another Mansion;
7-11 Trashed By Teens In Beverly Hills"
Comments here:
"This Is Your Life..."
“This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.
Every breath is a choice. Every minute is a choice.
To be or not to be.
Every time you don't throw yourself down the stairs, that's a choice.
Every time you don't crash your car, you re-enlist.
If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume
and come back as a new character...Would you slow down? Or speed up?"
- Chuck Palahniuk
"If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make,
who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?"
~ Stephen Levine
The Poet: Theodore Roethke, "In a Dark Time"
"In a Dark Time"
"In a dark time, the eye begins to see,
I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;
I hear my echo in the echoing wood -
A lord of nature weeping to a tree.
I live between the heron and the wren,
Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.
What’s madness but nobility of soul
At odds with circumstance? The day’s on fire!
I know the purity of pure despair,
My shadow pinned against a sweating wall.
That place among the rocks - is it a cave,
Or winding path? The edge is what I have.
A steady storm of correspondences!
A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon,
And in broad day the midnight come again!
A man goes far to find out what he is -
Death of the self in a long, tearless night,
All natural shapes blazing unnatural light.
Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire.
My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly,
Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I?
A fallen man, I climb out of my fear.
The mind enters itself, and God the mind,
And one is One, free in the tearing wind."
- Theodore Roethke
"The Great Beyond"
"The Great Beyond"
by Bill Bonner
"The heart has its stories… often best left untold. Jealousy. Hate. Betrayal. Desperation. Our beat is money. But on its own, money is worthless. It is the heart, with its wants and needs, it's vanities and mysteries, that gives money meaning. So, today, we will dig a bit further into the mush and muscle, in the hopes that we might learn something.
State-Sanctioned Suicide: An old friend, in Switzerland, committed suicide. This was a death of an entirely different sort. Premeditated. Assisted. Sanctioned by the government. Here’s the report (from a family member): “Marie got in touch with an organization called ‘Exit.’ Normally, they help terminally ill people kill themselves. But they will also do it for people who are severely depressed. Marie had cut herself off from her two children. I think it was over money. She had become a recluse. And she was very unhappy.
She called me about a month ago to say that she had contacted the Exit people and was planning to commit suicide. I didn’t know what to do. Or how to take it. She could be melodramatic. And very emotional. I figured she was just telling me how depressed she was. I knew she was taking antidepressants. I thought she had it under control. Then, she called to say she had a date – about a week ahead. She seemed very determined. Calm. Her mind was made up."
Apparently, the Exit group did interviews with family and friends to make sure that she was in her right mind and was unlikely to ever recover from her depression. Then, they came to her apartment, along with a policeman as a witness; they gave her a pill. I heard from her friend, who must have been with her, that she was smoking a cigarette, calmly and even making jokes. Then, she took the pill, fell asleep and died. Rest in peace. Another family member reported that the end was “serene”… and that “it was what she wanted.”
Total Control: But the news left others deeply disturbed. One offered a comment: “Rest in peace? What kind of peace is that? She was obviously at war with her own children… and it tormented her… drove her crazy… so crazy that either she wanted to escape by killing herself… or wanted to torment them by removing all possibility of a reconciliation. Either way, it was the wrong thing to do. Not just ‘wrong’ like a mistake… but wrong – sinful… selfish and mean."
That’s what is wrong with our whole modern world,” she continued. “It has lost its soul. Imagine, people who come to your house… give you a pill… and watch you die. What’s wrong with these people? Didn’t anyone try to stop her? Didn’t anyone try to save her? Suppose you saw someone getting ready to jump off a bridge? Would you just say ‘oh well, that’s their business’? And didn’t it occur to anyone that killing people – even people who say they want to be killed – is wrong?
Look… I have no idea whether Marie should live or die. But neither do they. It’s one thing when people suddenly shoot themselves and there’s nothing you can do about it. But coming to her apartment with a pill?
This is so disappointing… and so sad. These people think they can make life or death decisions based on interviews and psychological profiles. How did they know what was really in her heart… or what Marie’s suicide would do to her children… or her friends? Why did they think she had any choice in the matter? She didn’t choose to be born; who gave her the right to choose to die? Those are things we shouldn’t decide for ourselves. How did they know whether she was meant to live or die… or whether she might some day see a burning bush… and get down on her knees to beg forgiveness… beg her children and her god… to take that iron corset off her heart and let her live?
I find it just overwhelmingly sad… crushingly sad… as if there really were no God at all… no real grace or beauty… no hope of redemption… as if we were now all at the mercy of soulless technicians with their crackpot theories on their power trips… with their charts and graphs… telling us the planet can only be 1.5 degrees warmer… or that we should have 2% inflation, not more, not less… and telling us when we can go a restaurant… and giving children vaccines that they don’t need… and censoring what we say…and insisting that we put their medicines into our bodies… you’re always going on about the Fed monkeying with interest rates and printing fake money… and I guess that’s part of it too… they think they can control everything and everybody…and now, they think they have the right to tell us who can die… and when."
“Very sad.”
"What Happens When We Die"
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"What Happens When We Die"
by Maria Popova
"When my atheist engineer grandfather died, my atheist engineer grandmother leaned over the body in the hospice bed that had contained half a century of shared life and love, cradled the cranium in which his stubborn and sensitive mind had dwelt, and whispered into the halogen-lit ether: “Where did you go, my darling?”
Whatever our beliefs, these sensemaking playthings of the mind, when the moment of material undoing comes, we - creatures of moment and matter - simply cannot fathom how something as exquisite as the universe of thought and feeling inside us can vanish into nothingness.
Even if we understand that dying is the token of our existential luckiness, even if we understand that we are borrowed stardust, bound to be returned to the universe that made it - a universe itself slouching toward nothingness as its stars are slowly burning out their energy to leave a cold austere darkness of pure spacetime - this understanding blurs into an anxious disembodied abstraction as the body slouches toward dissolution. Animated by electrical impulses and temporal interactions of matter, our finite minds simply cannot grasp a timeless and infinite inanimacy - a void beyond being.
Pillars of Creation, Eagle Nebula, Messier 16
Even Walt Whitman, who could hold such multitudes of contradiction, could not grasp the void. “I will make poems of my body and of mortality,” he vowed as a young man as he reverenced our shared materiality in his timeless declamation that “every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” It was easy, from the shimmering platform of his prime, to look forward to becoming “the uncut hair of graves” upon returning his own atoms to the grassy ground one day.
But then, when that day loomed near as he grew old and infirm, “the poet of the body and the poet of the soul” suddenly could not fathom the total disbanding of his atomic selfhood, suddenly came to “laugh at what you call dissolution.” And then he did dissolve, leaving us his immortal verses, verses penned when his particles sang with the electric cohesion of youth and of health, verses that traced with their fleshy finger the faint contour of an elemental truth: “What invigorates life invigorates death.”
I wish I could have given my grandmother, and given the dying Whitman, the infinitely invigorating "Mr g: A Novel About the Creation" (public library) by the poetic physicist Alan Lightman - a magical-realist serenade to science, coursing with symphonic truth about our search for meaning, our hunger for beauty, and what makes our tender, transient lives worth living.
Toward the end of the novel, Mr g watches, with heartache unknown in the Void predating the existence of universes and of life, an old woman on her deathbed, the film of her long and painful and beautiful life unspooling from the reel of memory, leaving her grief-stricken by its terminus, shuddering with defiant disbelief that this is all. “How can a creature of substance and mass fathom a thing without substance or mass?” wonders Mr g as he sorrows watching her succumb to the very laws he created. “How can a creature who will certainly die have an understanding of things that will exist forever?”
And then, as a faint smile washes across her face, she does die. Lightman writes: "At that moment, there were 3,147,740,103,497,276,498,750,208,327 atoms in her body. Of her total mass, 63.7 percent was oxygen, 21.0 percent carbon, 10.1 percent hydrogen, 2.6 percent nitrogen, 1.4 percent calcium, 1.1 percent phosphorous, plus a smattering of the ninety-odd other chemical elements created in stars.
In the cremation, her water evaporated. Her carbon and nitrogen combined with oxygen to make gaseous carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, which floated skyward and mingled with the air. Most of her calcium and phosphorous baked into a reddish brown residue and scattered in soil and in wind.
But then we see that every atom belonging to her - or, rather, temporarily borrowed by her - truly does belong to everything and everyone, just as you and I are now inhaling the same oxygen atoms that once inflated Walt Whitman’s lungs with the lust for life: "Released from their temporary confinement, her atoms slowly spread out and diffused through the atmosphere. In sixty days’ time, they could be found in every handful of air on the planet. In one hundred days, some of her atoms, the vaporous water, had condensed into liquid and returned to the surface as rain, to be drunk and ingested by animals and plants. Some of her atoms were absorbed by light-utilizing organisms and transformed into tissues and tubules and leaves. Some were breathed in by oxygen creatures, incorporated into organs and bone.
In a passage evocative of the central sentiment in Ursula K. Le Guin’s spare, stunning poem “Kinship,” he adds: "Pregnant women ate animals and plants made of her atoms. A year later, babies contained some of her atoms… Several years after her death, millions of children contained some of her atoms. And their children would contain some of her atoms as well. Their minds contained part of her mind.
Will these millions of children, for generations upon future generations, know that some of their atoms cycled through this woman? It is not likely. Will they feel what she felt in her life, will their memories have flickering strokes of her memories, will they recall that moment long ago when she stood by the window, guilt ridden and confused, and watched as the tadr bird circled the cistern? No, it is not possible. Will they have some faint sense of her glimpse of the Void? No, it is not possible. It is not possible. But I will let them have their own brief glimpse of the Void, just at the moment they pass from living to dead, from animate to inanimate, from consciousness to that which has no consciousness. For a moment, they will understand infinity.
And the individual atoms, cycled through her body and then cycled through wind and water and soil, cycled through generations and generations of living creatures and minds, will repeat and connect and make a whole out of parts. Although without memory, they make a memory. Although impermanent, they make a permanence. Although scattered, they make a totality."
Here we are, you and me, Walt and Alan, my grandmother who is and my grandfather who is no more - each of us a trembling totality, made of particles both absolutely vulnerable and absolutely indestructible, hungering for absolutes in a universe of relatives, hungering for permanence in a universe of ceaseless change, famished for meaning, for beauty, for emblems of existence. Out of these hungers, out of these contradictions, we make everything that invigorates life with aliveness: our art and our music, our poems and our mathematics, our novels and our loves."
"Walking the Path"
"Walking the Path"
by Paulo Coelho
"I reckon that it takes about three minutes to read my text. Well, according to statistics, in that same short period of time 300 people will die and another 620 will be born. It takes me perhaps half an hour to write a text: here I sit, concentrating on my computer, books piled up beside me, ideas in my head, the scenery passing by outside my window. Everything seems perfectly normal all around me; and yet, during these thirty minutes, 3,000 people have died and 6,200 have just seen the light of the world for the first time.
Where are all those thousands of families who have just begun to weep over the loss of some dear one, or else laugh at the arrival of a son, grandson or brother? I stop and reflect for a while: perhaps many of these deaths are reaching the end of a long, painful sickness, and some persons are relieved that the Angel has come for them. Besides these, in all certainty hundreds of children who have just been born will be abandoned in a minute and transferred to the death statistics before I finish this text.
What a thought! A simple statistic that I came upon by chance – and all of a sudden I can feel all those losses and encounters, smiles and tears. How many are leaving this life, alone in their rooms, without anyone realizing what is going on? How many will be born in secret, only to be abandoned at the door of shelters or convents? And then I reflect that I was part of the birth statistics and one day I will be included in the toll of the dead. How good that is to be fully aware that I am going to die. Ever since I took the road to Santiago I have understood that although life goes on and we are eternal, one day this existence will come to an end.
People think very little about death. They spend their lives worried about really absurd things, putting things off and leaving important moments aside. They risk nothing because they believe that is dangerous. They grumble a lot, but act like cowards when it is time to take certain steps. They want everything to change, but they themselves refuse to change. If they thought a little more about death, they would never fail to make that telephone call that they have been putting off. They would be a little more crazy. They would not be afraid of the end of this incarnation – because you cannot be afraid of something that is going to happen anyway.
The Indians say: “Today is as good a day as any other to leave this world”. And a sorcerer once remarked: “May death be always sitting beside you. That way, when you have to do something important, it will give you the strength and courage you need.” I hope, reader, that you have accompanied me this far. It would be silly to let the subject scare you, because sooner or later we are all going to die. And only those who accept this are prepared for life."
"Something You Already Know..."
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now if you know what you're worth then go out and get what you're worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain't you! You're better than that!”
- Rocky Balboa
"How It Really Is"
Everywhere you look, faces in the phone. Several generations of idiots...
"The problem isn't that Johnny can't read. The problem isn't even that Johnny can't think. The problem is that Johnny doesn't know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling."
- Thomas Sowell
"America Is Being Absolutely Ripped Apart By Hate, And The End Result Will Be Unparalleled Chaos In Our Streets"
"America Is Being Absolutely Ripped Apart By Hate,
And The End Result Will Be Unparalleled Chaos In Our Streets"
by Michael Snyder
"The way that people are responding to the latest attempt to assassinate Donald Trump says a lot about where we are as a nation. There was a time when something like this would have been considered an attack on all of us. But today things are completely different. Many on the left are doing their best to downplay what just happened because it might help Trump get more votes. And just like last time, there are some that truly wish that he had been killed. They have worked themselves up into such a frenzy of hatred that they are actually hoping for the death of their political opponents.
Of course the same thing is true for some people on the right as well. There was so much hate for Joe Biden when he was the Democratic nominee, and now there seems to be even more hate for Kamala Harris. This is not the way to achieve anything.
We will never win by hating our enemies. We win by loving our enemies and using the truth to persuade them to come over to our side. If people perceive that you hate them, they will be extremely unlikely to listen to what you have to say. But if people perceive that you love them, they will be much more likely to listen to what you have to say.
To love someone does not mean that you agree with them. Personally, I fundamentally disagree with almost everything that our politicians do, and I express my opinions very strongly. But I am not against anyone. Ultimately, I want the best for everyone and for our society as a whole.
If we do not learn how to love one another, we simply aren’t going to make it as a society. Today, there are millions upon millions of Americans that deeply hate entire groups of people for one reason or another. I have never seen so much hatred, and this is the most divided that our nation has been in my entire lifetime.
Where do you think that all of this hatred is going to get us? Everyone can see that this election is going to end very badly. If we stay on the path that we are on, it is just a matter of time before we see uncontrolled chaos in our streets. Is that what you want? I sure don’t.One of the reasons why I write the way that I do is so that people will wake up and choose to change direction before it is too late. Because right now America is on a road that only leads to disaster. We are being fed a constant diet of hatred, and just look at what this has done to our society.
According to one recent survey, 41 percent of Americans are currently experiencing “peak stress”…"In a year marked by financial worries and political tension, a new survey has uncovered the staggering impact of stress on everyday Americans. The average person feels their head “spinning” from stress a whopping 156 times per year, translating to about three times a week. This alarming statistic is just one of many eye-opening findings from a recent study conducted by Talker Research for Traditional Medicinals. The survey, which polled 2,000 adults, also found that 41% of respondents are currently experiencing their peak stress levels for the year. That is almost half the country!
Another recent survey discovered that the percentage of Americans that have been clinically diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives is at the highest level ever…"According to survey data, three in ten people in the United States had been clinically diagnosed with depression at a point in their lives in 2023. As Statista’s Anna Fleck points out, this is the highest rate since the question started being asked, up 10.6 percentage points from 2015. The rate of increase was particularly steep in the first year of the pandemic, jumping up from 22.9 percent in 2020 to 28.6 percent in 2021.
Sadly, levels of depression are especially high among women and among young people. According to the survey, 36.7 percent of women report having been diagnosed with depression in their lifetimes versus 20.4 percent of men. For young people aged 18-29, 34.3 percent had been diagnosed with depression, while for 30-44 year olds it was 34.9 percent."
If we keep going down this path, our mental health is only going to get worse. At this stage, even many of our children are really struggling…"A recent study from the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital has uncovered an often-overlooked aspect of childhood development, finding a surprising number of children struggle to make friends. In fact, the poll finds one in five parents fear their children currently have no friends at all."
Imagine being a kid without a buddy to share your favorite video game with or someone to sit next to on the school bus. It’s a reality for more children than we might think. The poll of 1,031 parents with kids between six and 12 years-old reveals that 20% of kids potentially feel lonely or isolated during crucial years of social development.
I could go on and on about what a giant mess our society has become. Needless to say, hating people is not the way out of this mess. There are a lot of people out there that seem to believe that if they are going to be truly radical for a cause they must have someone to hate.
No. If you want to be truly radical, become a person of great love. Of course a person of great love tells the truth, and when you share the truth with others you will often be hated for it. But if you respond with hate when others hate you, you will never win.
It is so easy to get pulled into all of the negativity that we see online and in the mainstream media these days. Often, those that are the most filled with hate are the ones that get the most attention. We must resist that temptation. If we keep going the same direction that we have been going, there is no future for our country. Love is the answer, but right now hatred just continues to grow all around us."
Dan, I Allegedly, "Don't Be Fooled! This is Not Going to Help"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 9/21/24
"Don't Be Fooled! This is Not Going to Help"
"Interest rate cuts are useless! Join me, Dan, as we dive into why these recent Fed moves won’t save our sinking economy. From restaurant closures to the real estate crisis and auto industry woes - David Rosenberg is spot-on about the recession hitting different markets hard. Let’s navigate this economic chaos together! Please be kind to everyone. Onward and Upward."
Comments here:
Greg Hunter, "Deep State Knows It Cannot Cheat Kamela In"
"Deep State Knows It Cannot Cheat Kamela In"
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong predicted less than a month ago that there would be another assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life, and the Deep State was going to do everything possible to start a war with Russia. He was right on both counts. All the chaos, debate fraud and push for World War III comes down to the Deep State knows it cannot cheat enough to put Kamala Harris into the White House in November. Forget the phony polls where they all say Kamala is running neck and neck with Trump. Armstrong says his “Socratees” computer program shows Kamala’s real approval rating is around 10%, and all his computer models say Kamala is going to lose big in November no matter how much they cheat. Armstrong says, “Just about everybody in politics looks at Socratees now because its track record on politics has been phenomenal for 30 years. They know what is going on.”
So, is the Biden Administration panicking with this second clumsy attempt to assassinate Trump while playing golf? Is our own government trying to kill Trump because they know they cannot win? Armstrong says, “I believe so. Look, these people have been warmongers. This is their power. They have gotten so close to destroying Russia, which is their end goal here. Handing long-range missiles to Ukraine, this is like hiring somebody to kill your spouse and then saying, well, he shot, I didn’t. Trump and RFK Jr. are against war. My concern here is they need to create war before January, if not even before the election. I think this is what all this stuff is about with the long-range missiles to shoot into Russia. If Trump does get in, they have to trap him into war. The whole nonsense about Russia Gate and all the rest was because Trump is against war. The neocons called Trump Putin’s puppet because Trump will not engage in war against Russia. This is what this is all about.”
Will the demonic Deep State try yet another assassination of Trump? Armstrong says, “I would not put it past them. Maybe next time they use Monkey Pox or Bird Flu. Look, Trump represents a real threat to their power. If Trump gets in, the neocons are out. Who wrote that recent article for the Washington Post that said Trump would be a “dictator”? It was Victoria Nuland’s husband. Why? Because Victoria Nuland was thrown out of Trump’s Administration. She has been in every administration except Trump’s. This is the neocons against the American people. The computer has been showing that this may be the very last election we have. Just look at the chaos that has been going on at this stage.”
Armstrong is afraid that Putin may be overthrown in Russia because his response has been too timid against NATO. Armstrong says, “Putin knows the neocons want war, and he won’t take the bait.” Armstrong is also afraid that if Putin does get booted out of office, then the people who replace him will be far worse, and brutal war would follow.
Armstrong says the evil people in Washington will hide in bunkers when the atomic weapons drop on the rest of America. He thinks a big problem coming will be shortages in everything –including food. If there is bigger war, the economy will plunge, and interest rates will skyrocket. Greatest Depression here we come.
In closing, Armstrong says, “The Deep State is scared to death of Trump winning in November because he now knows how to play the game, and Secretary of State Tony Blinken is running the country” because we know Joe Biden is not." There is much more in the 50-minute interview.
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with Martin Armstrong as he gives
his analysis on trying to kill Trump and starting a world war before the 2024 Election.
Friday, September 20, 2024
"Alert! Russia On Full Alert, 'In One Week NATO Will Cross Red Line'; Cyberwar Coverup"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 9/20/24
"Alert! Russia On Full Alert,
'In One Week NATO Will Cross Red Line'; Cyberwar Coverup"
Comments here:
Musical Interlude: Gnomusy, "Footprints On The Sea"
Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Footprints On The Sea"
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Why is the sky near Antares and Rho Ophiuchi so colorful? The colors result from a mixture of objects and processes. Fine dust illuminated from the front by starlight produces blue reflection nebulae. Gaseous clouds whose atoms are excited by ultraviolet starlight produce reddish emission nebulae. Backlit dust clouds block starlight and so appear dark.
Antares, a red supergiant and one of the brighter stars in the night sky, lights up the yellow-red clouds on the lower center. Rho Ophiuchi lies at the center of the blue nebula near the top. The distant globular cluster M4 is visible just to the right of Antares, and to the lower left of the red cloud engulfing Sigma Scorpii. These star clouds are even more colorful than humans can see, emitting light across the electromagnetic spectrum.”
- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120828.html
"Do Not Let Your Fire Go Out..."
“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the
hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all.”
- Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged"
The Poet: Shel Silverstein, “Where the Sidewalk Ends”
“Where the Sidewalk Ends”
“There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.
Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.”
- Shel Silverstein
“Al Swearengen's Take On Life"
Strong language alert!
"In life you have to do a lot of things you don't ****ing want to do.
Many times, that's what the **** life is... one vile ****ing task after another. "
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Strong language alert!
"Pain or damage don't end the world, or despair or f***ing beatings.
The world ends when you’re dead. Until then you got more punishment
in store. Stand it like a man, and give some back.”
- “Al Swearengen”, Ian McShane’s character on “Deadwood”
"Too Often..."
"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word,
a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring,
all of which have the potential to turn a life around."
- Leo Buscaglia
Jeremiah Babe, "The U.S. Economy Is On The Bridge Of Collapse - Society On The Brink Of Chaos"
Jeremiah Babe, 9/20/24
"The U.S. Economy Is On The Bridge Of Collapse -
Society On The Brink Of Chaos"
Comments here:
Travelling with Russell, "I Went on the Yekaterinburg Metro (Full Tour)"
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 9/20/24
"I Went on the Yekaterinburg Metro (Full Tour)"
"I recently travelled 2000km from Moscow to Yekaterinburg to ride their famous metro line. The Metro opened on 26 April 1991 and is 12.7 kilometers (7.9 miles) long and serves 9 stations. Discover the beauty and grandeur of the Yekaterinburg Metro with me."
Comments here:
Dan, I Allegedly, "Squatters Evict Homeowner - Homeowners Are Losing Control"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 9/20/24
"Squatters Evict Homeowner -
Homeowners Are Losing Control"
"This one is crazy. "Squatters Evict Homeowner: The Ugly Truth Revealed," we dive into the shocking story of Daniel Toma in Kentucky. Imagine inviting friends over only to find yourself kicked out of your own home! That's right - Daniel's generosity backfired when his guests, Amy and Tyler, claimed squatter's rights, leaving him homeless. As the economy spirals, this could happen to anyone!"
Comments here:
"Alert! Europe Votes Yes To Nuclear Armageddon! Israel Starts Major War Before Election"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 9/20/24
"Alert! Europe Votes Yes To Nuclear Armageddon!
Israel Starts Major War Before Election"
Comments here:
"How It Really Is"
"We do not rest satisfied with the present. We anticipate the future as too slow in coming, as if in order to hasten its course; or we recall the past, to stop its too rapid flight. So imprudent are we that we wander in the times which are not ours, and do not think of the only one which belongs to us; and so idle are we that we dream of those times which are no more, and thoughtlessly overlook that which alone exists. For the present is generally painful to us. We conceal it from our sight, because it troubles us; and if it be delightful to us, we regret to see it pass away. We try to sustain it by the future, and think of arranging matters which are not in our power, for a time which we have no certainty of reaching. Let each one examine his thoughts, and he will find them all occupied with the past and the future. We scarcely ever think of the present; and if we think of it, it is only to take light from it to arrange the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means; the future alone is our end. So we never live, but we hope to live; and, as we are always preparing to be happy, it is inevitable we should never be so."
- Blaise Pascal
"Every Normal Man..."
"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands,
hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."
- H. L. Mencken
Bill Bonner, "The Fed's Himalayas"
"The Fed's Himalayas"
The Fed began manipulating stock prices about thirty years ago.
Since then, each of the households in the top 1% has gained about
$32 million in wealth. Down below, the wealth gain has been negligible.
by Bill Bonner
Dublin, Ireland - "The Fed acted. Investors re-acted. MarketWatch: "U.S. stocks roared higher Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average topping the 42,000 milestone for the first time and the S&P 500 also surging to a record close, a day after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell repeatedly used variations on the word “recalibrate” to describe the decision to deliver an extra-large, 50-basis-point interest-rate cut to kick off a new easing cycle."
What does this mean? Were we faked-out by the stock market’s January 2022 sell-off? Are we still in the Great Bull Market, 1982 to Kingdom Come? You’ll recall, in January 2022, inflation was running hot and stocks turned down. It looked not just like another correction, but like a fundamental change of direction... a new Primary Trend. “The boom is over,” we wrote (or words to that effect). “From now on the Primary Trend is down. Because the Fed can no longer juice the market the way it used to. Any stock market gains from here forward are likely to be offset by inflation.”
In round numbers, yesterday’s new high put the stock market about 20% above its 2022 peak. And in round numbers, consumer prices are about 20% higher too. So, investors haven’t really made any real gains. In gold terms, they’re still losing money. While stocks went up yesterday, gold went up too... and is now 25% higher since the beginning of this year. In January 2022, the Dow/Gold ratio - showing how many ounces of gold it took to buy the thirty Dow stocks - stood at 20. Today, it’s just 16. As expected, inflation has undermined the stock market gains.
Most likely, the Fed will continue to cut rates. Stock prices may rise further, as inflation pressures build up in the economy. That is what the bond market seemed to be saying yesterday. Even though the Fed is now actively cutting rates, long Treasury bond yields went up. The 30-year bond now yields more than 4%.
As for what will happen next...We could see glittering new highs in the Dow. And it could turn out that the January 2022 peak was not actually the Everest of the Primary Trend... but just another peak in the Fed’s Himalayas. But for now, we’ll stick with our guess: Jan. 2022 marked a turning point. And the primary trend is down.
In any case, it makes little difference to us. This is not the time to go ‘all in’ into the stock market. The Dow/Gold ratio has been more than cut in half since the beginning of the century. In terms of gold, the Dow is now only worth about 40% of its 1999 peak. And as far as we know, stocks are still going down. Meanwhile, commentators explained that the Fed cut will ‘stimulate’ the economy. It will help guarantee a ‘soft landing,’ they said. It will ‘boost employment,’ they added. But so far this century we’ve seen more stimulus added to the US economy than in the entire 19th and 20th centuries combined. US debt - which only partially measures the stimulus efforts, rose from just $5 trillion to $35 trillion - a 7x increase.
Did the economy grow faster? No. Were people richer? Well... some of them were. The only reliable effect of artificially low interest rates and money-printing has been to increase prices of financial assets... and make the people who own them richer.
The Fed began manipulating stock prices about thirty years ago. Since then, each of the households in the top 1% has gained about $32 million in wealth. Down below, in the 90% of households that do not own financial assets, the wealth gain has been, relatively, negligible. This unfairness - not to mention the Fed’s drag on the economy - could be easily corrected. Let buyers and sellers of credit set their own rates. And, for good measure, don’t allow the Fed to ‘print’ money to lend to the federal government.
Problem solved. If the feds insist on spending beyond their means, they’ll have to borrow the money, honestly, from savers. Will either candidate suggest such a thing? Of course not. But let’s look at what they are proposing. Next week."
o
"There Comes A Time..."
"I make no bones about being partisan for my country. I also feel no shame whatever because of it. I absolutely disagree that "great thinkers don't let that affect the thoughts". I would say exactly the opposite: someone who refuses to let love-of-country affect their thoughts is a moral cripple irrespective of their intellectual prowess. I can look dispassionately at the situation, and I have done so repeatedly. But I will never forget which nation I love and support.
We Americans have a saying: “It’s more important what you stand for than who you stand with.” I do not rely upon peer opinion to decide what is right and what is wrong. I make those decisions for myself, and even if I discover that every other human alive chose differently, that doesn’t mean I was wrong.
There comes a time in every man’s life when he has to choose sides. I have chosen my side. I am comfortable with my decision. I do not think everyone on my side is a saint, but I know that those on the other side are much, much worse.
Sometimes a man with too broad a perspective reveals himself as having no real perspective at all. A man who tries too hard to see every side may be a man who is trying to avoid choosing any side. A man who tries too hard to seek a deeper truth may be trying to hide from the truth he already knows. That is not a sign of intellectual sophistication and “great thinking”. It is a demonstration of moral degeneracy and cowardice.”
- Steven Den Beste
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“Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and unexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country – hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of.”
- Mark Twain
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