Full screen recommended.
Liquid Mind, "Laguna Indigo"
So, we rise from the rubble...
Saturday, October 19, 2024
"A Look to the Heavens"
“What will become of these galaxies? Spiral galaxies NGC 5426 and NGC 5427 are passing dangerously close to each other, but each is likely to survive this collision. Typically when galaxies collide, a large galaxy eats a much smaller galaxy. In this case, however, the two galaxies are quite similar, each being a sprawling spiral with expansive arms and a compact core. As the galaxies advance over the next tens of millions of years, their component stars are unlikely to collide, although new stars will form in the bunching of gas caused by gravitational tides.
Close inspection of the above image taken by the 8-meter Gemini-South Telescope in Chile shows a bridge of material momentarily connecting the two giants. Known collectively as Arp 271, the interacting pair spans about 130,000 light years and lies about 90 million light-years away toward the constellation of Virgo. Recent predictions hold that our Milky Way Galaxy will undergo a similar collision with the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy in a few billion years."
- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130825.html
"There Are Simply No Answers..."
“How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.”
- Barry Lopez
Adventures With Danno, "Massive Nationwide Listeria Recalls!"
Adventures With Danno, PM 10/19/24
"Massive Nationwide Listeria Recalls!"
Comments here:
"Essential Reading"
"The 5 Stages of Economic Collapse”
by Dmitry Orlov
Excerpt: “Elizabeth Kübler-Ross defined the five stages of coming to terms with grief and tragedy as denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, and applied it quite successfully to various forms of catastrophic personal loss, such as death of a loved one, sudden end to one’s career, and so forth. Several thinkers, notably James Howard Kunstler and, more recently John Michael Greer, have pointed out that the Kübler-Ross model is also quite terrifyingly accurate in reflecting the process by which society as a whole (or at least the informed and thinking parts of it) is reconciling itself to the inevitability of a discontinuous future, with our institutions and life support systems undermined by a combination of resource depletion, catastrophic climate change, and political impotence.
But so far, little has been said specifically about the finer structure of these discontinuities. Instead, there is to be found continuum of subjective judgments, ranging from “a severe and prolonged recession” (the prediction we most often read in the financial press), to Kunstler’s evocative but unscientific-sounding “clusterf**k,” to the ever-popular “Collapse of Western Civilization,” painted with an ever-wider brush-stroke.
For those of us who have already gone through all of the emotional stages of reconciling ourselves to the prospect of social and economic upheaval, it might be helpful to have a more precise terminology that goes beyond such emotionally charged phrases. Defining a taxonomy of collapses might prove to be more than just an intellectual exercise: based on our abilities and circumstances, some of us may be able to specifically plan for a certain stage of collapse as a temporary, or even permanent, stopping point."
Please view this complete article here:
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“The 12 Rules of Survival”
by Laurence Gonzales
Excerpt: “As a journalist, I’ve been writing about accidents for more than thirty years. In the last 15 or so years, I’ve concentrated on accidents in outdoor recreation, in an effort to understand who lives, who dies, and why. To my surprise, I found an eerie uniformity in the way people survive seemingly impossible circumstances. Decades and sometimes centuries apart, separated by culture, geography, race, language, and tradition, the most successful survivors–those who practice what I call “deep survival”– go through the same patterns of thought and behavior, the same transformation and spiritual discovery, in the course of keeping themselves alive.
Not only that but it doesn’t seem to matter whether they are surviving being lost in the wilderness or battling cancer, whether they’re struggling through divorce or facing a business catastrophe– the strategies remain the same. Survival should be thought of as a journey, a vision quest of the sort that Native Americans have had as a rite of passage for thousands of years. Once you’re past the precipitating event– you’re cast away at sea or told you have cancer– you have been enrolled in one of the oldest schools in history. Here are a few things I’ve learned that can help you pass the final exam."
View this complete article here:
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"The Collapse Of Complex Societies"
"Political disintegration is a persistent feature of world history. The Collapse of Complex Societies, though written by an archaeologist, will therefore strike a chord throughout the social sciences. Any explanation of societal collapse carries lessons not just for the study of ancient societies, but for the members of all such societies in both the present and future. Dr. Tainter describes nearly two dozen cases of collapse and reviews more than 2000 years of explanations. He then develops a new and far-reaching theory that accounts for collapse among diverse kinds of societies, evaluating his model and clarifying the processes of disintegration by detailed studies of the Roman, Mayan and Chacoan collapses."
Freely download “The Collapse of Complex Societies” here;
"Economic Collapse = Societal Collapse"
"Economic Collapse = Societal Collapse"
It’s deliberate so that we can have “order out of chaos”,
as in New World Order, also known as the tyranny of the ruling sociopaths.
by Milan Adams
"Other than the obvious consequences, what might we expect from a partial economic collapse? A total collapse of the economy would throw the nation into utter chaos. But what if we endure an economic depression, or a severe and long-lasting downturn? I think that some of the effects are not so obvious.
1. The college and university system will collapse: As I explained in this previous post, the system of higher education is a house of cards. The cost of getting a college degree has risen sharply and steadily, while real income has remained relatively flat. The price rise is due to the easy availability of grants and loans for education. But with so many persons getting a college degree, its value in the marketplace has plummeted. Many college grads are out of work, or they are working in a job that does not require a degree. Eventually, this practice of paying more and more, for something that is worth less and less, will collapse the system. Colleges and universities will not have enough paying students, and professors will not agree to a drastic pay cut. Overhead expenses are far too high. All that is needed is an economic collapse, or partial collapse, to topple this house of cards. Many universities and colleges will be forced by economics to shut down.
2. Agricultural yields will plummet: The current U.S. agricultural system is based on the expectation of high yields. But high yields are obtained by high inputs - all the things that go into growing the crop, including lots of fertilizer, perhaps irrigation, herbicides, pesticides, labor, machinery. Then those high yields are sold and the money is then used to fund the inputs for the next crop cycle.
An economic collapse will mean that farmers will not be able to afford all the inputs needed for high yields. And when yields fall, the amount of money from that crop will be less. Then the next crop cycle will have even less money for inputs, resulting in even lower yields. And the process will continue — lower yields, less money, lower inputs — until many farmers are out of business and a food crisis results.
3. Violent crime will increase: When people lack money and food, they become desperate. And desperate people do desperate things. Theft and robbery will skyrocket, and people will be afraid in their homes, and afraid to go out in the community. Even a quick trip to the market will become risky. Sales of most goods will plummet, causing the economic crisis to worsen. Protests will turn violent. Home invasion robberies will become much more common. Many people will be killed or injured as a result of this increase in violent crimes.
4. Law enforcement will be overwhelmed: The law enforcement system in the U.S. is commercial. Officers are paid. We don’t keep a large excess of officers on the payroll, just in case crime sharply increases. So it is relatively easy for the system to be overwhelmed. And that means a call to 911 might not bring the police to your door in time, if at all. Those who have firearms for home defense will be much better off than those who rely solely on the police. But many households have no firearms. And that means that robberies will increase, and so will the economic damage and the number of injuries and deaths.
5. The healthcare system will be overwhelmed: The healthcare system is also commercial, and lacks a safety margin in the form of excess doctors and nurses. Hospitals operate at close to capacity. A sudden increase in persons who are sick or injured will overwhelm the system. The aforementioned increase in violent crime will undoubtedly increase injuries. But it is less obvious that a disruption to the food production and distribution system will increase illnesses. Plenty of good healthy food is the first line of defense against illness. Malnourished persons are much more likely to get sick. So an extended disruption to the food supply will cause an increase in illnesses.
6. Travel anywhere will become dangerous: As a result of all the above described problems, travel will be dangerous. Want to make a quick trip to the supermarket? You risk having your house robbed, if it is left unoccupied. And you risk being attacked on your way back from the market. Robbers might wait outside the market and follow anyone who looks like they purchased a lot of food.
There will be protests in many places, and violence will often break out. People who are hungry and afraid do not make the best decisions. Then there is the cultural aspect of the situation. We live in a culture that tells us to expect the government to take care of us, and to protest whenever anything doesn’t go our way. Ironically, self-sufficiency is abhorrent to our narcissistic culture. I expect that the roadways will be dangerous, as violent criminals will see travelers as easier targets than homes.
7. The death rate will jump higher: People will be malnourished because of the disruption in the food supply, so they will get sick more easily. Violent crimes and violent protests will result in many more injuries than usual. And yet healthcare will be much more difficult to access. There will be a shortage of hospital beds. It will be difficult to get a doctor’s appointment. There may be a shortage of prescription and OTC medications.
All of these factors will make life a riskier endeavor. Now if you are a seasoned prepper, who has long considered the dangers inherent in an economic collapse, you may have anticipated some of the above consequences. But I hope I’ve added to your understanding of the possible problems that we may soon face."
Dan, I Allegedly, "Another Bank Goes Down For The Count"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 10/19/24
"Another Bank Goes Down For The Count"
"Brace yourself, because we've got breaking news: Another bank collapse has hit the headlines, and it's crucial for you to know what's really going on. This time, it's the First National Bank of Lindsay in Oklahoma that has crumbled, highlighting the fragility of our current economy. The farming industry is struggling, bad loans are piling up, and this small bank just couldn't keep afloat. This is a wake-up call for us all - more banks could follow suit. Do you know how to protect your assets? It's time to spread your money around and be prepared for what's coming."
Comments here:
"How It Really Is"
And how about you, Good Citizen? How's that job going? Current with all the bills? Health insurance affordable, keeping you well? If you're in Appalachia I hope you're wisely spending that $750 they gave you to replace losing your home and everything you owned, if you could even apply... But of course your own food stamp balance and available cash balances look like this, right?
10 MILLION illegals in the last year alone automatically get $5,000 pre-paid debit cards and free transportation wherever they like? Free health care and housing? While 600,000 Americans are homeless, including 60,000 veterans, 22 of whom commit suicide EVERY day?!!! 150,000 drug overdoses in the last year! $160 BILLION for Ukraine, God knows how many BILLIONS to Israel, and you, Good Citizen, what do they do for YOU?!
WTF, and I repeat WTF is wrong with this country?!
"The Final Countdown"
"The Final Countdown"
by Jeremiah Hosea
"As you may have noticed, I do enjoy lists. I suppose they appeal to my sense of order. The following is a list of fundamental principles that were strangely, as if by hypnosis, abdicated during the Convid Scamdemic. I hope you enjoy, as do I, the novelty (at least for this Substack) of presenting this particular list in countdown format!
8. Do Not Trust the Government - how anyone could not understand this principle by now is beyond me. You don’t need to refer to ancient history to reach this conclusion. You don’t even need to have read Machiavelli (although I highly recommend you do). Just look at recent history and you will be provided with numerous examples indicating that no private citizen should ever trust the government.
The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment* was even invoked by some of the poison pushers during Covid in patronizing efforts to assuage vaccine hesitancy. It was mentioned dismissively as though it were something that happened a million years ago and would never happen again. Yet every thinking person should take stock of this nightmarish event. It was medical torture that transpired over the course of 40 years and was presided over by the CDC. Yes - the same CDC.
Politically, since the turn of the new millennium, we have been treated to a continuous barrage of psyops and wars, wars and psyops. The dubious nature of the 2000 election, the unanswered questions surrounding 9/11, the lies about WMDs that resulted in catastrophic war in Iraq, the total bailout of the banks in 2008 with not as much as a life-raft for the people, the Flint Michigan water crisis, the annihilation of Libya - we could go on and on and on in reciting examples of negligence, malfeasance and heinous actions carried out by our government irrespective of which political party held the presidency at the time. (I insist they are one party pretending to be two.)
How could one claim to have observed history and then fail to notice that virtually every major government project done in opposition to an enemy whether literal or abstract, from all the senseless catastrophic wars against regimes to the fruitless and counterproductive “War on Drugs” and then “War on Terror”, have been entirely negative in both nature and results?
Whenever the government announces (or doesn’t announce) it is embarking on some grand new endeavor, usually something catastrophic is underway.
During Covid, I didn’t just see people fail to be suspicious of a government that had thoroughly earned our distrust, I had the even more harrowing experience of witnessing people I had known previously to be “critical thinkers” suddenly devolve into people incapable of any critical thought whatsoever.
7. Don’t Trust Major Corporations, Especially Big Pharma aka Big Harma - what is a corporation? It is an instrument designed to maximize profit in the marketplace. In capitalism ruthlessness, relentlessness and an amoral approach are all considered admirable traits.
The willingness of a corporation to poison, pollute, injure or even kill is requisite to compete in the upper echelons of the market place. Major corporations do not have a track record of admitting fault or confessing guilt. They do not have the tendency of “taking things down a notch” for the sake of the environment, or human dignity or being reasonable. The ends absolutely justify the means and therefore, nothing is off-limits in the pursuit of maximizing profits. If there is collateral damage, or if a few fines need to be paid along the way - so be it. That will all be neatly filed and tucked away under the label of “the cost of doing business.” This description shouldn’t shock anyone - I am merely describing the spirit of capitalism and the spirit of corporatism.
Big industry from the military industrial complex to Big-Agra is thoroughly out of hand, but there’s something particularly disturbing about the corruption of the pharmaceutical industry as it pertains immediately to our health, the health of our children and the health of our families and communities. We should all be more than concerned that the oath stating, “first do no harm” has been jettisoned entirely.
Giving legal indemnity to corporations (especially ones with felony backgrounds) is a recipe for guaranteed disaster. There should be a law against making such laws. The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 which gives liability protection to vaccine manufacturers needs to be overturned immediately and put in its historical place as an anathema to the proper drafting and passing of laws.
6. The Right to Question - the right to question should be unquestionable. We claim to value education and up until recently intellectual curiosity was considered a good attribute. When Covid came along all the sudden “doing your own research” aka reading was suddenly being demonized. Who has ever heard of such a thing? And how can the people discouraging critical inquiry consider themselves to be the intelligent ones? It’s adjacent to the question, “when were the censors the good guys in history?”
Questioning is good. Robust dialogue is good. The notion of sterilizing mistakes or incorrect ideas out of discourse is totalitarian. In fact, clarifying and the correcting of mistakes usually offers a great opportunity for education and enlightenment. Moreover, to attempt to gain an understanding even to venture into the taxonomy of an unfamiliar field or discipline does not mean that the inquirers suddenly become professionals in that field - no reasonable person would suggest that. It is simply to have gained some understanding in a new area. This is a good process and not a negative one.
As my friend Ryan Cristian of Last American Vagabond ( TheLastAmericanVagabond.com ) says at the end of every program, “Question everything.”
5. Freedom to Associate — the government has no right whatsoever to prevent us from seeing our families or friends when we are not engaged in criminal actions and are not meeting to engage in criminal conspiracies. Lockdowns (which varied in severity from country to country and county to county) were a flagrant violation of our natural rights. Just as the government cannot protect us from any act of God - the notion that they can protect us from a respiratory ailment by restricting our movements is not only blatant overreach, it’s medically and scientifically without merit.
The falsehood of the “asymptomatic carrier” was the fraudulent basis for movement restricting policies. It should be accepted, however, that policy makers have no influence, no sway whatsoever in regard to the virome. Even if they did, a declared emergency should not be grounds for the suspension or removal of our rights. Yet what transpired during Covid and the lack of resistance from the public that went along with it, has set the stage for future abuses.
4. Freedom of Religion - I feel an enormous spiritual feeling but I do not identify with any particular religion or religious text. My beliefs, however, as well as the beliefs or non-beliefs of every individual are irrelevant - our country, like every free society, allows for freedom of religion. It is not the job of the mayor, governor, president or any appointed or elected official to arbitrarily suspend the fundamental right to worship and practice one’s religion.
It makes no sense to impose policies to protect a religious person from illness, when most religions are rooted in the concept of preparing the practitioner for death. For most religious people their religious practices are part of their well being. It is not up to power brokers to determine when devout persons can practice their religions or when congregations can congregate.
Allowing liquor stores to remain open while churches and mosques were ordered closed, highlights the perfectly baseless and arbitrary nature of lockdown policies. (I cringe when I use the word “allow” because We The People should have never “allowed” the state to have as much as an impression that they could impose any of this unfounded rubbish.)
Just prior to Covid, religious exemptions for vaccines required to attend school were overturned in New York and California. (Looking back, that was a red flag and helped set the stage for the bio security State that was about to emerge.) How is that possible? How can the government arbitrarily decide that their rule is more powerful than your religious belief and conviction to God Almighty? Who do they think they are? Religious exemptions should never be overturnable.
3. Haste Makes Waste - Haste makes waste is a truism. It is well known that it is better to be well prepared than rushed. It’s a principle also known as the 6 P’s - proper preparation prevents piss poor performance.
It’s better to be a well-rehearsed band than an under-rehearsed band. It’s better to be a well practiced basketball team (like the Spurs) than a team that hasn’t practiced enough. It’s better to be a well-prepared actor than an unprepared actor. It is better to have an experienced surgeon and not a medical student. Everyone knows that haste makes waste, yet somehow this axiomatic principle was disregarded in the case of “Operation Warp Speed.”
“Warp speed” implies mistakes. It implies lack of regulation and oversight. More than imply, it means - no long term safety data. It means rushed-to-market. It means “safe and effective” is inherently a lie because they didn’t have sufficient time to confirm its safety or effectiveness.
It’s mind numbing that not only did supposedly intelligent people insist that such a massive undertaking (Operation Warp Speed) could be executed without any noticeable reduction in quality, but then proceeded to aggressively insult and gaslight those who raised this most obvious concern.
Despite the notion that anyone who refused the experimental injections was doing so based on elaborate conspiracy theories, I spoke to many people who told me firsthand that their hesitancy or outright refusal was based on the simple fact that the whole thing was done too damn fast.
2. Body Sovereignty - sovereignty over one’s own body is the most fundamental of fundamental rights. It is the right from which all other rights emanate. If your body sovereignty is compromised, you are a compromised individual and you are not a free person. You may aspire to freedom, but you are not free.
Mandating Covid “vaccines” (products falsely marketed as such) was a violation of the Constitution†, the Nuremberg Code†† and first and foremost natural law. No person should be forced to eat anything, watch anything, participate in anything - least of all an invasive medical procedure - against their will. It’s incredibly sad that this has to be discussed or debated whatsoever in the United States or any modern society for that matter.
1. No means No - I have most certainly emphasized this in previous articles. I will exercise here the literary technique known as sufficient redundancy and reiterate that - No is the most important word in the dictionary. No is sacrosanct.
We teach our children, and rightfully so, that they always have the right to say No. If something doesn’t feel right - No. If you don’t feel safe — No. If you are being asked to compromise your dignity - No. The word - No - by itself, is a complete sentence. This principle, of always having the right to say No, does not have an expiration date. It’s not just for children. It is fundamental to human dignity.
It is an abomination, that the right to say No was violated across the whole of society. What a terrible example for our children, and if we don’t change things now - what a terrible inheritance for them as well."
Hat tip to The Burning Platform For this material.
o
†First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Adventures With Danno, "I Almost Missed This, Tricky Prices At Kroger"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 10/19/24
"I Almost Missed This, Tricky Prices At Kroger"
Comments here:
o
Meanwhile, elsewhere...
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 10/19/24
"How Russia Is Changing The Way We Look At Fast Food"
"Life Mart is a Russian-owned convenience store chain based in Yekaterinburg, Russia. With over 350 locations, the stores combine fresh and healthy food with a coffee shop and dining area. Could this open-store concept work successfully beyond Russia?"
Comments here:
"Scott Ritter: Israel Faces Crushing Defeat! Hezbollah & Iran Dominate as IDF Struggles on All Fronts"
Dialogue Works, 10/19/24
"Scott Ritter: Israel Faces Crushing Defeat!
Hezbollah & Iran Dominate as IDF Struggles on All Fronts"
Comments here:
o
What must be done with a viciously rabid
excessively inbred mad dog? So be it!
Whether you like it or not, there's the truth...
Friday, October 18, 2024
"15 Signs Everyday Americans Are About To Break Financially"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 10/18/24
"15 Signs Everyday Americans
Are About To Break Financially"
"In 2024, tens of millions of Americans are going completely broke, and millions more are just barely scraping by, new data shows. You've probably noticed that the value of our money isn't the same anymore. In fact, the dollar has lost 95% of its purchasing power since the 70s. But recently, that decline has become even more pronounced. Today, households don't have enough money coming in, but bills are piling up. That's why debt levels are rising astronomically while people's savings accounts are running dry, which is putting thousands of U.S. banks at increased risk of failure. When the U.S. consumer isn’t in a healthy financial shape, bad things tend to happen. And now, conditions are eerily similar to what we experienced during the run up to the Great Recession. With higher living expenses and tighter access to credit, families and individuals in the U.S. are being hit from all sides. The following facts we compiled for you in this video are going to be an eye-opener about the current state of the U.S. economy and the challenges we are all facing."
Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Two stars within our own Milky Way galaxy anchor the foreground of this cosmic snapshot. Beyond them lie the galaxies of the Hydra Cluster. In fact, while the spiky foreground stars are hundreds of light-years distant, the Hydra Cluster galaxies are over 100 million light-years away.
Three large galaxies near the cluster center, two yellow ellipticals (NGC 3311, NGC 3309) and one prominent blue spiral (NGC 3312), are the dominant galaxies, each about 150,000 light-years in diameter. An intriguing overlapping galaxy pair cataloged as NGC 3314 is just above and left of NGC 3312. Also known as Abell 1060, the Hydra galaxy cluster is one of three large galaxy clusters within 200 million light-years of the Milky Way. In the nearby universe, galaxies are gravitationally bound into clusters which themselves are loosely bound into superclusters that in turn are seen to align over even larger scales. At a distance of 100 million light-years this picture would be about 1.3 million light-years across. "
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Related, highest recommendation:
"How Many Galaxies Are In The Universe?"
"The deepest image ever taken, the Hubble Extreme Deep Field, revealed ~5,500 galaxies over an area that took up just 1/32,000,000th of the sky. But today, scientists estimate that there are more than ten times as many galaxies out there than Hubble, even at its limits, is capable of seeing. All told, there are some ~2 trillion galaxies within the observable Universe. Here's how we know."
View this complete, extraordinarily fascinating, article here:
"For I Know One Thing..."
"Happily men don't realize how stupid they are, or half the world would commit suicide. Knowledge is a will-of-the-wisp, fluttering ever out of the traveller's reach; and a weary journey must be endured before it is even seen. It is only when a man knows a good deal that he discovers how unfathomable is his ignorance. The man who knows nothing is satisfied that there is nothing to know, consequently that he knows everything; and you may more easily persuade him that the moon is made of green cheese than that he is not omniscient."
- W. Somerset Maugham
"It takes considerable knowledge just to
realize the extent of your own ignorance."
- Thomas Sowell
"American Life During The 1930s"
Full screen recommended.
Old Photos Channel, 10/18/24
"American Life During The 1930s"
"Welcome back to the Old Photos Channel! Today, we're taking a journey back to one of the most challenging and transformative decades in American history – the 1930s. Through these incredible old photos, we'll explore what life was when the spirit of resilience and community defined everyday life in the United States.
The 1930s were marked by the Great Depression, a time when millions of Americans faced severe economic hardships. Many lost their jobs, homes, and savings. In these photos, you can see the somber faces of people standing in breadlines, searching for work, or living in makeshift shantytowns called "Hoovervilles." Yet, amid these struggles, there was a deep sense of perseverance. Communities came together to support one another, and families made do with what little they had.
These photos also reveal the strength of family bonds during the 1930s. Despite the hardships, people found joy in simple things: children playing in the streets, families gathering for meals, and neighbors helping each other. This sense of community was a vital part of survival during the Great Depression, showing us that hope and connection can thrive even in the toughest of times.
Surprisingly, the 1930s was also a time of cultural creativity. As we look at these photos, we see jazz clubs thriving, movie theaters offering an escape from reality, and artists like Dorothea Lange capturing iconic images of the era. Despite the economic downturn, Americans found ways to express themselves and find joy through music, film, and art. The 1930s was a decade of both struggle and resilience. These photos give us a glimpse into the lives of those who lived through the hardships, reminding us of the strength of the human spirit in times of adversity.
Comments here:
The Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke, "A Walk"
"A Walk"
"My eyes already touch the sunny hill.
going far ahead of the road I have begun.
So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp;
it has inner light, even from a distance -
and changes us, even if we do not reach it,
into something else, which, hardly sensing it,
we already are; a gesture waves us on
answering our own wave...
but what we feel is the wind in our faces."
- Rainer Maria Rilke
"Challenges..."
"When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. "
- Paulo Coelho
o
"Sometimes even to live is an act of courage."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"Against All Odds..."
"There's a little animal in all of us and maybe that's something to celebrate. Our animal instinct is what makes us seek comfort, warmth, a pack to run with. We may feel caged, we may feel trapped, but still as humans we can find ways to feel free. We are each other's keepers, we are the guardians of our own humanity and even though there's a beast inside all of us, what sets us apart from the animals is that we can think, feel, dream and love. And against all odds, against all instinct, we evolve."
- "Grey's Anatomy"
"Luddites Were Right, You Know…"
"Luddites Were Right, You Know…"
By Chris Black
"The term “Luddite” originated in the early 19th century and refers to a movement of English textile workers who protested against the increased use of machines in their industry. The term “neo-Luddite” was later applied to those who similarly oppose technology for similar reasons, but in a contemporary context.
Everywhere you go, you see people with their faces in their phones. Constantly, constantly, constantly. At the bus stop. On the train. In the driver’s seats of their moving cars. Their kid makes a bit of noise at the restaurant table? Shove the iPad in their face.
Boomerisms aside, it really can’t be overstated how f**ked up this is, and not because “people don’t interact” anymore. It’s actually much worse than that… Nobody ever allows themselves even a moment of peace inside their own heads. The real insidiousness of the smartphone is that it encourages you to constantly consume content, endlessly, never ever stopping. It’s common for people to spend their entire day with earphones in, listening to podcasts and watching Tiktoks literally constantly.
Our brains did not evolve to be bombarded with constant microbursts of hyper real stimulation this way. Attention spans are getting measurably shorter. Reaction times are getting longer. None of this sh*t is good for your brain.
Everyone always says, “Well, what about TV and the radio?” Inherently limited and fundamentally different because of the fact that they’re pre-programmed and don’t act as “magic mirrors” of you and your personal inputs into them. Your smartphone is designed to learn everything about you so that it can be as addictive as possible and maximize the amount of data it squeezes out of you. Nothing about TV or the radio - or even Web 1.0 internet - ever came anywhere close to this.
Even so, we have known for decades that TV is horrible for your brain on account of many of the same mechanisms that affect attention span and cognitive development. So imagine how much worse the smartphone is. Unfathomably worse. We already know it’s worse, but we won’t know exactly how much worse it is until at least another decade, when the younger Zoomers and Gen Alphas are a few years into adulthood after an upbringing that revolved around Web 2.0.
Millennials were lucky enough not to take the full brunt of the experience. We got our first taste as we came of age instead of growing up being marinated in it. The saddest part is that the only reason any of this even caught on or is the least bit operable is because of the fact that it hijacks the mechanisms that make us feel satisfied and good. We didn’t evolve to handle this level of stimulation, but BOY do we respond to it. It’s so excessive that it’s impossible for some people to resist. So there are no f**king brakes.
You have to cast The Ring into the fire or it totally consumes you. That’s the reality for most people. And that, my friends, is just sick.
Look at your screen usage on your phone and tell me I’m wrong, how you totally don’t need it and can stop whenever you want. You are no better than a crack head, and you won’t realize that until you actually do try to stop for real. It’s unprecedented in human history to think this way. We are truly in uncharted waters here. Just wait until the sensory overload most people are bathing in all day, every day becomes fully automated instead of just partially automated like it is now."
Judge Napolitano, "INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern - Weekly Wrap-Up"
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 10/18/24
"INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern -
Weekly Wrap-Up"
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"How It Really Is"
"Most ignorance is vincible ignorance.
We don't know because we don't want to know."
- Aldous Huxley
"Middle East Geopolitics: War"
Dialogue Works, 10/18/24
"Larry C. Johnson: Israel's Desperate Gamble,
Begging for a Crushing Defeat from Iran & Hezbollah?"
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o
Dialogue Works, 10/18/24
"Dmitry Orlov: Israel's Downfall - Uncontrolled Chaos"
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Dan, I Allegedly, "More Pain And Layoffs"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 10/18/24
"More Pain And Layoffs"
"Get ready for a wild ride in today's video on the gas price spike caused by California's costly shutdown! Join me, Dan, as we explore the shocking decision by Phillips 66 to close a major oil refinery and its impact on skyrocketing gas prices. The economic ripples are real, and it's all unfolding right here in California."
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Bill Bonner, "Inflation Nation"
"Inflation Nation"
The Dow/Gold ratio was 20 three years ago. It is 16 today; stocks
have lost 20% of their real value. They need to lose another
nearly 70% from here (in gold terms) before they are real bargains.
by Bill Bonner
Baltimore, Maryland - "MarketWatch: "Gold futures top $2,700 an ounce, on track to settle at a record high. Gold futures climbed above $2,700 an ounce on Thursday, with prices based on the most-active contract poised to settle at a fresh record high. "Uncertainty surrounding the U.S. economic outlook continues to drive up gold prices" and the risk of missteps in future Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes has increased, said Dilin Wu, research strategist at Pepperstone, in emailed comments. "Coupled with a massive $1.8 trillion U.S. deficit, these factors have intensified concerns over the economic trajectory, pushing investors toward gold as a safe haven amid rising volatility and unclear monetary policy."
Gold is doing what it should do. It is anticipating inflation... and protecting us. We caution Dear Readers, however. Gold bulls and gold bugs can become ‘irrationally exuberant’ too. Then, the price goes wild... and buyers pay too much. But so far, most of the buying is coming from foreign governments - BRICs - who aim to protect themselves from America’s credit money system.
There will come a time when people get giddy over gold. Cab drivers will tell you about the mining stock they just bought. People will brag about ‘when they got in.’ And they’ll tell you that gold is ‘going to the moon.’ The price will go up so high you’ll be able to buy the whole list of Dow stocks for just 5 ounces of gold. That’s when we will happily unload our gold and buy stocks. But that is (probably) a few years down the road. In the meantime, stocks and gold both set new records.
And yet, the fundamental picture hasn’t changed. The Dow/Gold ratio was 20 three years ago. It is 16 today; stocks have lost 20% of their real value. They need to lose another nearly 70% from here (in gold terms) before they are real bargains. And we’re counting on the Fed to get us there.
And Jerome Powell et al. are on the job. They had no reason to cut rates last month…except that they are trying to cause inflation, not eliminate it. Spread over the last three years, price inflation is more than three times what the Fed was supposedly looking for. That is, at a 2% annual gain, prices should be about 6% higher than they were in 2021. Instead, they are, officially, 20% higher. Unofficially, prices are even higher. This week’s Wall Street Journal, for example, tells us that cost of medical care insurance has gone up at a 7% rate for the last two years: "Health Premiums Soar Even as Inflation is Cooling." "Average cost of family coverage reached roughly $25,500 this year... projected to rise rapidly again in 2025."
Or, just look at transportation. The Ford F-150, the most popular pickup in history, left showrooms at $30,000 in 2021. At 2% inflation, the price of this year’s model ought to be $31,800. It’s not. It’s $38,000 - a 26% increase... or four times what it ought to be.
And how about housing? Lower mortgage rates suckered home buyers into big mortgages based on inflated prices and low monthly payments. Then, in 2008, housing prices fell... mortgage lenders went broke... and millions of families lost their homes.
So, the Fed lowered rates even further... and anchored them below zero, in real terms, for a 10-year period. This, of course, led to more housing inflation... and then, to the absurd situation where people had a hard time either buying or selling a house. With big mortgages, locked in at low rates, sellers couldn’t afford to sell. And with big, new mortgages at much higher rates, buyers couldn’t afford to buy. New housing starts are now back to the level of 1974 - fifty years ago, when the US had 120 million fewer people.
The average house cost about $300,000 in 2007. At 2% inflation, it should cost about $420,000 today. Instead, it’s close to $500,000. And now the Fed has begun a new loosening cycle to make it easier for people to buy a new house. The result? Anticipating more inflation, lenders increased long-term mortgage rates making housing less affordable than ever!
NPR: "Just 15.5% of homes for sale were affordable for a typical U.S. household, the lowest share since Redfin started tracking this a decade ago. A home is deemed affordable if the estimated mortgage payment is no more than 30% of the average local monthly income. Affordability plunged 40% from before the pandemic, and 21% from just last year."
In other words, real consumer price inflation is way beyond the Fed’s 2%. And in order to get it back to the target, the Fed would have to bring the actual price inflation rate below 2% for several years. Instead, as expected, it is inflating."
Jim Kunstler, "The Three Layers of Culpability"
"The Three Layers of Culpability"
by Jim Kunstler
"The migrant crisis has been the first issue to truly evocatively make obvious
that something extremely dark and sinister is happening to the country."
- Simplicius on Substack
"The Great Fright among the elite of the party ruling our country steals across the land chillingly now from sea to shining sea - as if all those ghouls, werewolves, zombies, and tormented wraiths assembled in the front yard Halloween displays send up one mighty wail of despair: Donald Trump will seek revenge against his enemies if you elect him! they scream into the pale moonlight.
Well, he ought to, of course, and remember: they are your enemies, too - the FBI thugs battering down your doors at five in the morning, the malicious US attorneys manufacturing phony felonies, the Soros-owned DAs and party-owned judges, and the thousands of spooks from agencies both known and unheard-of surveilling your every move, every purchase, every journey, every thought. Consider that it is not whether Mr. Trump might seek revenge but whether justice, and the mental health of the nation, require an accounting for the real crimes of actual persons against the people of America lo these years of the Woke Jacobin Inquisition.
Finally, as the days dwindle down to November 5, you understand exactly what motivates the three layers of evil heaping America with malice and punishment. Layer one: the officers of the political establishment, a.k.a., “the blob” or Deep State, both current and emeritus. You know now that they are motived to stay out of courts-of-law (and, ultimately, prison). Figures such as John Brennan, Merrick Garland, Lisa Monaco, Chris Wray, Anthony Fauci, Alejandro Mayorkas, Barack Obama, and many more, exude culpability for doing real harm to US citizens. They do not want to do time. As Dr. Johnson famously said: “When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” They see Donald Trump’s poll number go hockey stick and they tremble in their Beltway mansions. On the Kubler-Ross transect of grief, they are just now wavering between the stages of anger and bargaining.
Second layer: the lawfare lawyer gang deployed to keep the blob safe from investigation and prosecution: Marc Elias, (the mail-in ballot fraud genius), Norm Eisen, Andrew Weissmann, Mary McCord (authors of every get-Trump legal brief), and many others who work with them, are motivated by the gigantic fees they command from the Democratic National Committee and other cut-out orgs that funnel payments to them. The Elias Law Group alone is rumored to have raked-in millions from one client, the Kamala Harris campaign. This is apart from whatever lawyerly zeal they exercise so enjoyably in their blood-lust for Mr. Trump and his associates. Remember: Jacobins are sadists who derive pleasure from cruelly punishing their adversaries. It probably motivates them more than the money involved, since ambitious Beltway lawyers can always and easily make bundles of money from the most mundane services to the blob.
Third Layer: the news media. The motives of these birds are the flimsiest: social status and professional stature. They operate within a self-referential reward bubble that provides psychological nourishment as long as they go along with the mumurations of their flock. They will be easiest to turn around as the national mood turns (and is now turning, sharply). A year from now, don’t be surprised if they treat Mr. Trump as a revered hero who saved the country from the malignant blob — and pretend that they never thought otherwise. By then, it will be too late for some, of course, and actual figures such as Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow of MSNBC, Maggie Haberman of The New York Times, NBC’s Nicolle Wallace, will be drowning in their own slime trails.
Now, whether Mr. Trump would actively seek revenge is a thing apart from the paranoia of his adversaries. On the one hand, he seems aware that his own place in history will rest not on looking backward to the harms inflicted on him as the sacrificial goat for the sins of “the deplorables” - the many Lawfare cases against him will likely be reversed in higher courts, or just dropped - but on attending to and fixing the many obvious, reality-based problems afflicting the nation: inflation, the horrendous debt, the libido for war induced by military contractors and neocons, the return of productive industry and jobs that pay living wages, sealing the border and expelling dangerous aliens, and stopping the race-and-gender hustles, to name a few things.
In 2016, Mr. Trump floated the idea of defaulting on US debt, or negotiating its terms. Sounded outrageous to some at the time. Now, with the BRICs org meeting to de-dollarize their trade arrangements, might be a ripe time to make such a move. He can reverse “Joe Biden’s” 2021 reversal of his border policies by executive order on day one, put a stop to the “sanctuary city” idiocy, and end all cash incentives to illegals currently inside the USA. He can negotiate a reasonable end to the Ukraine conflict that leaves that country neutral, as everyone knows it should be. He can incentivize the return of factory production with US companies. He knows (and you know) that there is a huge agenda of practical problems to face. Mr. Trump does not need the aggravation of stirring up further grievance and resentment among the defeated Wokesters. He needs them to get aboard a national reclamation project, get their minds right, and lend a hand.
Speaking of hands, on the other hand, remember that the signal weakness of Julius Caesar was pardoning his enemies. Since Mr. Trump is best known as a deal-maker, I believe he will seek to make a deal with the blob. The deal will be for them to cooperate in the prosecution of certain key figures in exchange for not demolishing their agencies altogether. Some of these people - Garland, Mayorkas, Fauci, Brennan, and Wray, for examples - really do need to do some ‘splainin’ in front of juries. That may be sufficient to clarify for history some of the damage the Woke insanity did to our country. We can’t pretend that nothing happened. Most of all, Mr. Trump has to defeat the sick belief that anything goes and nothing matters."
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