So, we rise from the rubble...
Sunday, December 22, 2024
"National Self-Perception"
"National Self-Perception"
by Jeff Thomas
“This above all: to thine own self be true.” Bill Shakespeare had a talent for phrasing basic truths well, and this quote is no exception. (Even if you lie to others, don’t lie to yourself, or you’re in real trouble.) Much has been said about the American self-image, going back to its inception as an upstart nation that imagined it could succeed as a republic, as Athens had failed to do. And, indeed, the US encountered the same basic problem as Athens: having once created a republic – a nation in which the rights of the individual are foremost. Maintaining that condition is not only a constant battle, but extremely unlikely over time.
As a form of governance, a republic serves its people well; however, since it doesn’t provide its leaders with much in the way of aggrandizement or profit, its leaders are likely to do all they can to degrade the republic into a democracy. Once having accomplished that, they’re likely to do all they can to degrade it to tyranny. As Thomas Jefferson said, “History hath shewn that, even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” He anticipated that, given enough time, the nascent United States would devolve into a tyrannical oligarchy. It has now had that time and has become a tyrannical oligarchy.
It must be said that the US still displays the accoutrements of a proud republic, but, at this point, it’s for show only. The inner workings of the US are not that of a republic, nor even a democracy. The US is quasi-capitalist/quasi socialist amalgam that’s run by a corporatist oligarchy. Whilst it still has an elected president and congress, those individuals are, at this point, cardboard cutouts who are only allowed to pursue their personal pet projects if they fit in with the unelected Deep State that’s truly in charge.
It’s important to mention that the challenge to the republic began in George Washington’s first cabinet, through regular squabbling between the three cabinet members. But, although the deterioration continued for another hundred years, the US did not abandon its principle to stay out of world affairs for its first hundred years. That occurred by 1900, under the voracious nationalist appetite of one Teddy Roosevelt. The US government began its foray into empire and never looked back.
Through two world wars, the US wisely held back as European nations beat each other to pieces. Instead, they supplied the combatants with armaments and charged them in gold. In each war, by the time the US jumped in to win the day, their troops were fresh, their armaments were substantial and much of the wealth of Europe had been transferred to them, assuring that they’d prevail at the end of the war. Consequently, they ended the war the richest nation on earth, whilst the other nations lay in ruins, both physically and economically.
And so began the next era, one in which Americans saw themselves as the “winners” of the wars, as well as the king of the mountain. By 1958, Eugene Burdick and William Lederer had written their novel, “the Ugly American,” which accurately presented American diplomats as presumptuous and arrogant. Although Messrs. Burdick and Lederer were both American, they were highly objective, and made the effort to see the US and its government as outsiders saw them.
Since that time, the US government has, if anything, expanded upon its presumption and arrogance, declaring in no uncertain terms that it regards itself as the world’s policeman and will enforce its power wherever it sees fit, globally. In recent decades, it’s demonstrated that conviction, by invading numerous far-flung nations, often for flimsy reasons and, indeed, sometimes for reasons that later proved erroneous. Tellingly, even when the US has been caught destroying a country for a trumped up reason, the US offered no apology, but continued its aggression.
Americans themselves appear to be of mixed opinion on this behavior. Some Americans recognize the presumptuous and arrogant manner of their leaders and decry such behavior and even fear where it may ultimately lead the US. Yet, others parrot their government’s position that a bit of milk may need to be spilt if the US is to “make the world safe for democracy.” (They often proudly take this stance, even though invading a country halfway round the world, destroying its cities, killing its people and destroying its economy, only to install a puppet government, can hardly be called democracy.)
But, how does the world outside the US see the US? Well, many assume all Americans resemble their leaders – dangerous sociopaths, who represent a threat to the rest of the world. Others are more objective and recognize that the American people and the American leadership are not one and the same. This latter group tend to have greater sympathy for Americans themselves, whilst remaining guarded about their leaders.
However, generally speaking, the world at large observes US national behavior and sees the US as a whole as a potential (if not current) threat. Americans who might nod their heads at this statement are likely to think in terms of the Middle Eastern and Asian countries and they would be correct. However, it goes further than this.
As the “world’s policeman,” the US government frequently decides to punish nations that fail to kowtow to it by applying economic sanctions. The US then advises its allies that they will be expected to do the same. It is at this point that those who had thought themselves allies of the US say, “Hang on, it may not cost you anything to apply these sanctions, but it costs us a great deal.”
As Thomas Jefferson said, “History hath shewn that, even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” As an example, when the US applied sanctions to Russia, then required those sanctions to be supported by countries in the EU, Europe said, “But we get most of our gas from Russia. If we support US sanctions, they may understandably cut off our gas. Unless the US can replace that gas, our people will freeze this winter.”
However, as the world’s policemen, the reaction by the US has been less than concerned and the US has remained insistent, causing Europeans to meet with Russia to explain that they want no part of the sanctions. Further, the US government is becoming increasingly pointed in its threats of warfare to those perceived adversaries that they’ve not yet invaded – a development that’s increased the nail-biting by both the governments and peoples of US allies.
So, what are we to make of all this? Well, such developments are nothing new historically. Throughout the ages, whenever an empire has become like the pawn in the photo above and has come to see itself as a king, arrogance and presumption have tended to have become the rule. As tensions build, old allies attempt to hold their positions, but, when the volcano eventually does blow, they tend to head for the hills. It’s for this reason that, if and when an empire makes the fatal mistake of seeing itself as omnipotent, it learns (the hard way) that, first, it’s not as strong as it presumes and, second, that its allies were not prepared to be sacrificed for the sake of the self-proclaimed king.
It’s for this reason that, as Doug Casey has said, “Countries fall from grace with amazing speed.” This can also be said for empires, and the US presently displays all the behavior of an empire that’s teetering on the brink of its own fall from grace."
The Poet: William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming"
"The Second Coming"
"Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"
- William Butler Yeats, January 1919
"Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world," indeed...
"How It Really Is"
"Alas, regardless of their doom, the little victims play!
No sense have they of ills to come, nor care beyond today.”
- Thomas Gray,
“Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College”
- https://www.poetryfoundation.org/
And everywhere you look faces buried in the phone...
"The Season for Living"
"The Season for Living"
by Sinéad Murphy
"In October 2020, Bob Moran published a cartoon privately on social media. Bob was still employed by The Telegraph newspaper, though he would soon be sacked from this position. Bob’s cartoon was of an old man and woman on a hill, overlooking rolling fields and a nestled homestead. It was titled ‘Never surrender your right to be with the people you love.’ The following year, Bob published a variation on his cartoon. This time, the fields are covered in snow and the man and woman stand closer to one another. The title was still ‘Never surrender your right to be with the people you love.’
Bob’s reputation for righteous resistance to Covid restrictions grew on the back of a #bobmorangetsit hashtag. And so Bob Moran did get it – the fulsome outlines of his first freelance cartoon cut through the amassing complexities of Covid messaging with a statement of searing simplicity: there are people and places that are of you and for you, always.
Pictures do not speak a thousand words. Their force derives from their not speaking any words at all. Words anaesthetize. We take them or leave them. We are not touched by them, or only rarely. And they betray us. Bob’s picture of the man and woman on a hill is denounced by the words beneath it. This old couple are not defending their right to be with one another. They simply are with one another – standing their ground because they are rooted there.
When we defend our right to a fundamental good, we diminish it. We admit as possible what ought to be impossible and thereby concede an essential point. Once being with those you love is made a right of life, it ceases to be a way of life. What had been organic becomes engineered; what had been unwitting becomes knowing. An overlay of cynicism obscures the innocence.
This cynicism dissolves horizons of possibility by relativizing what lies within them, creating scarcity where there had been plenty. Being with the people you love acquires a new limit even if your energies are spent in resisting that limit. Cynicism talks about that for which there had been no words. No matter what side it talks for, it fills what had been silence with words that are shared by all sides of the debate and that are therefore as likely as not to turn on those who use them.
‘Plastic words,’ Uve Pörksen called them, which dispel the unspokenness of what is shared among people – what goes without saying – with talk that is no less destructive of communities for its having the atmosphere of considered objectivity.
‘Rights’ is now such a plastic word, ready for cooption by any perspective on any issue, conferring solemnity on the most trivial arguments and equivocality on the most vital, outing the inconspicuous fundaments of ways of life so as to render explicit what can only be implicit.
The man and woman in Bob’s cartoon have no words for being with one another in their world because being with one another in their world is not up for discussion.
Bob depicts this with a directness that no words could achieve – by the unerring modesty of his lines, by the few elements of his composition, and by the unelaborated affinity between the curves of the woman’s back and the undulation of hills below and between the wisps of the man’s hair and the scatter of clouds above.
This man and woman fit with one another in their world as pieces in a human jigsaw. There is no other place and no other way for them. They are enchanting because they are enchanted. The words beneath them break the spell as words are wont to do. We may agree with them, we may repeat them; but thereafter is only disenchantment.
You can always tell this disenchantment, however righteous may be the cause it would support. It is dogged by fear and fervor – two emotions that will abound this Christmas, now sadly a festival of disenchantment. The fear stems from our latent sense that we have already given ground, that we have cut ties with the great counterforce of impossibility that sustains the man and woman in Bob’s cartoon, and the men and women in all ways of life. That we are not really with the people we love. That we must protest what can only be lived.
A low-hanging, mostly object-less anxiety overshadows our nervous talk, about next year when things will be as they should be or about this year when things will have been as they should be.
Meanwhile, we are prone to peaks of fervor, awash with relief at every half-instance of seeming-being with the people we love, heralding fleeting simulations of belonging as if we have just been saved. We laugh with our mouths wide open. And talk too loudly when it is our turn to shine. And slump to inertia when the limelight moves on. As we lurch between vexation at what is not and euphoria at what is for a moment, we are pursued and in pursuit. Until the feast of fear and fervor is done with for another year.
The couple in Bob’s cartoon do not feel fear or fervor. Their Christmas will be right. Because their Christmas will be. Perhaps we look down upon them, even as we are charmed. Their assurance lacks the sophistication of our ambivalence, for which only words suffice. Ah bless, we say, as we turn from their scene of consolation to resume our battle in the real world.
Yet, in Bob’s picture of the old man and woman is represented the most realistic of all battle plans: lived resistance. We may say what we like, but if we do not buy our food from farm shops, and pay people with cash, and throw out our ‘smart’ devices, and teach our own children to be good and true, we will have lost our way – our way to eat, our way to trade, our way to interact, our way to hope.
And when we have lost our way, we will have only words – the plastic pillar words of ‘health,’ ‘value,’ ‘contact,’ ‘future’ – which we may bandy about to our heart’s content and little effect. It does not matter much what words we use. The furore about online censorhip and hate speech, the proliferation of pronouns and invented designators: all of that is mostly distraction, or temptation to use more words. The more words we use, the fewer ways we live. And living is the thing.
A muted thing, admittedly – standing determinedly at the unmanned checkout, waiting for a man to man it, is an obscure kind of fight. Hardly like the barricades at all. But how much the cosier! There is snugness in a small space that keeps cold and dark outside. So long, of course, as it can keep cold and dark outside.
Bob’s second version of his cartoon expresses this so well. The winds are biting now. The hills, laden with snow. But the distant farmhouse is all the more inviting, all the more a haven for its being a fortress against inclemency. And the old man and woman fit together all the tighter.
A merry chat at the human checkout is the merrier for its being surrounded by the leadenness of robotic exchanges. The human spirit appears to greatest advantage in an environment otherwise bereft. And if a merry chat cannot be amplified on the platforms that broadcast our plastic words, all the better! Those platforms are company platforms; we use them by others’ leave. When we live we make our own platform, chatting happily, smiling pleasurably, all the while drawing in those who stare with yearning. Humanity grows more tantalizing as inhumanity lays siege.
There is a happiness that only comes from keeping menace at bay. It is what has made Christmas so joyous – a festival of warmth and light reclaimed from the frost and the night. A hearth of all things human, with wind and rain out of doors. A good template, then. Truly the season for living. And for giving. Bob Moran has published his first book of cartoons, "Bob: 2020-2024." A fine restorative this Christmas for anyone keeping Empire at bay."
"Russian Typical Brand New Apartment: Could You Live Here?"
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 12/22/24
"Russian Typical Brand New Apartment:
Could You Live Here?"
"What does a Russian typical brand new apartment look like in Moscow, Russia? Join me on a tour of a Russian studio apartment only 5 km from Red Square. What does a Russian typical apartment look like, and could you live there?"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Scottish Guy in Moscow, 7/24
"Top 5 Futuristic Moscow Metro Stations, Shocking!"
Comments here:
"New Bill Social Security $1976 INCREASES to $3559 - Do You Qualify?"
"New Bill Social Security $1976 INCREASES to $3559 -
Do You Qualify?"
by Dr. Ed Weir, PhD, Former Social Security Manager
New Social Security Bill just passed. Social Security Fairness Act or HR82 and
some people may qualify for extra benefits and extra money. Find out if you qualify.
Comments here:
Dan, I Allegedly, "Free Cars for Sale - $0 Down $0 Payment"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 12/22/24
"Free Cars for Sale - $0 Down $0 Payment"
"Free Car Alert: Auto industry's desperate move exposed! Fiat 500e for $0 down, $0/month - is this the death of car sales? Shocking details on emissions scandals, EV incentives, and why dealerships are giving away cars. Plus: Ultra Air Heater sponsor - stay warm for less! Discover why Fiat is practically handing out cars and what it means for you. Learn about the hidden fees, mileage restrictions, and if this deal is too good to be true. Is this the beginning of the end for traditional auto sales? Don't miss out on insider info about living wages, Sears' downfall, and Tesla's massive recall. Get the scoop on gas station mishaps that could destroy your car!"
Comments here:
"Moscow's Magical Christmas Lights: A Winter Wonderland Experience!"
Full screen recommended.
Another View, 12/14/24
"Moscow's Magical Christmas Lights:
A Winter Wonderland Experience!"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Easy Walking Tour, 12/18/24
"Moscow Street Atmosphere! Walking Tour"
Comments here:
Incredible seeing what a sane, civilized society can achieve.
Not that we'd know anything about that...
Saturday, December 21, 2024
"Pink Slips Flood Workforce; Party Is Over For Party City; Big Lots Closing All Stores"
Jeremiah Babe, 12/21/24
"Pink Slips Flood Workforce; Party Is Over For Party City;
Big Lots Closing All Stores"
Comments here:
Greg Hunter, "Depression, Debt, Default & Destruction in 2025"
"Depression, Debt, Default & Destruction in 2025"
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong is back with a new round of predictions, and they are not going to make life easy for President Elect Trump. Armstrong says, “Our computer has been projecting that we are going into a depression in some areas and a recession in other areas. A depression most likely in Europe and a recession in the United States up until 2028. At my November conference, everybody was celebrating after Trump won. I stood up and told my clients, ‘I’m sorry, Trump is not going to have a blissful administration, and he’s not going to prevent the economic decline.’ (Please remember, Armstrong predicted Donald Trump would win in a landslide many months before the November 2024 Election.)
Armstrong goes on to say, “We have a serious, serious problem on a global scale. The sovereign debt crisis is really going to start percolating in 2025. It’s probably going to reach a major crisis by 2026 and 2027. Why? They have dictated all these banks and pension funds , ,70%, generally, must be invested in government bonds. They say it’s ‘safe,’ but it’s the worst debt possible. So, if the government goes into a sovereign default, what happens? You wipe out the banking system and the pensions.”
Does Armstrong think the governments around the world are going to go into a sovereign default? Armstrong says, “Oh yeah. How does a government default? We are in this Ponzi Scheme. They have to keep selling new debt to pay off the old debt. When you can’t sell the new debt, that’s when the default happens because you can’t pay off the old debt.”
What should the average guy do now? Does Armstrong think people should get to the bank and get cash? Armstrong says, “Yes, cash, physical paper money. We just had two hurricanes here in Florida. This idea of Bitcoin and CBDCs are very nice, but what’s the reality? The internet was down for 10 days. A credit card did not work. You wanted something, it was cash only. It was the same in Canada when they froze all the accounts of the truckers. They could not even buy food. Unless you had cash, you were dead in the water. This is why I am saying to have cash in this point in time.” Armstrong still likes physical gold, too.
Armstrong says the digital currencies that are getting a lot of attention lately are only a control mechanism. Armstrong contends digital money will stop bank runs. Armstrong still thinks the world will be at war by April or May of 2025. Armstrong says watch Turkey with its huge conventional army. Armstrong says Jordan and Lebanon may also be taken over, and like Syria, Turkey will be orchestrating this move. Armstrong says the Middle East is setting up for a major conflict starting in 2025, and there will be destruction. Armstrong also predicts Europe will be on the losing end of the next world war.
In closing, Armstrong says, “They can’t stop Trump from taking office, but they can delay him with martial law. Martial law has been enacted 60 times in the United States. The neocons are scared to death of Trump and really want to trap him in war before he takes office.” There is much more in the 56-minute interview.
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with Martin Armstrong
where he gives his analysis on a major debt crisis coming in 2025
with the defaults and destruction that come with it.
"Commercial Real Estate Crash Triggers 97% Property Value Drop, Hits 2008 Levels"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 12/21/24
"Commercial Real Estate Crash Triggers 97%
Property Value Drop, Hits 2008 Levels"
"The vortex of declining values in commercial real estate is getting wider and increasingly threatening. Imagine you bought a property for $300,000 expecting the investment would not only pay off overtime but also appreciate due to the normal dynamics of the real estate market. Fast forward to 10 years later, you find out that your property has become virtually worthless, even though there's nothing damaged on its structure and your neighborhood hasn't changed significantly. You are still paying off your mortgage loan, and after prices have plunged seemingly overnight, now you're buried on negative equity and stuck with a property no one seems interested in buying. Well, that's what's happening to commercial real estate owners and investors. But instead of $300,000, we’re talking about properties that were initially sold for between $3 to $300 million dollars or more."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Michael Bordenaro, 12/21/24
"7 Reasons You Should Not
Buy A Home In This Economy!"
"There are seven very important reasons you should not be buying a home in this economy, especially going into 2025. There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the future of the US economy and you have to ask yourself if you really want to be a new homeowner saddled with a whole new set of bills in such times. Most people are making it abundantly clear that they are not interested in taking on that extra responsibility with home sales currently at 30 year lows. Maybe they're onto something."
Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Massive stars, abrasive winds, mountains of dust, and energetic light sculpt one of the largest and most picturesque regions of star formation in the Local Group of Galaxies. Known as N11, the region is visible on the upper right of many images of its home galaxy, the Milky Way neighbor known as the Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC).
The above image was taken for scientific purposes by the Hubble Space Telescope and reprocessed for artistry by an amateur to win the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures competition. Although the section imaged above is known as NGC 1763, the entire N11 emission nebula is second in LMC size only to 30 Doradus. Studying the stars in N11 has shown that it actually houses three successive generations of star formation. Compact globules of dark dust housing emerging young stars are also visible around the image.”
The Poet: May Sarton, “Now I Become Myself”
“Now I Become Myself”
“Now I become myself. It’s taken
Time, many years and places,
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people’s faces,
Run madly, as if Time were there,
Terribly old, crying a warning,
“Hurry, you will be dead before —”
(What? Before you reach the morning?
or the end of the poem, is clear?
Or love safe in the walled city?)
Now to stand still, to be here,
Feel my own weight and density!
Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I live
All of myself and do not move,
I, the pursued, who madly ran,
Stand still, stand still, and stop the Sun!”
~ May Sarton,
Collected Poems, 1930-1993
"Remember..."
“You think you will never forget any of this, you will remember it always just the way it was. But you can’t remember it the way it was. To know it, you have to be living in the presence of it right as it is happening. It can return only by surprise. Speaking of these things tells you that there are no words for them that are equal to them or that can restore them to your mind. And so you have a life that you are living only now, now and now and now, gone before you can speak of it, and you must be thankful for living day by day, moment by moment, in this presence. But you have a life too that you remember. It stays with you. You have lived a life in the breath and pulse and living light of the present, and your memories of it, remember now, are of a different life in a different world and time. When you remember the past, you are not remembering it as it was. You are remembering it as it is. It is a vision or a dream, present with you in the present, alive with you in the only time you are alive.”
~ Wendell Berry
"Time..."
“Space I can recover. Time, never.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte
○
“Lands can be reconquered, indeed in the course of a battle, a hill or a certain plain might trade hands several times. But missed opportunities? These can never be regained. Moments in time, in culture? They can never be re-made. One can never go back in time to prepare for what they should have prepared for, no one can ever get back critical seconds that were wasted out of fear or ego. Napoleon was brilliant at trading space for time: Sure, you can make these moves, provided you are giving me the time I need to drill my troops, or move them to where I want them to be. Yet in life, most of us are terrible at this. We trade an hour of our life here or afternoon there like it can be bought back with the few dollars we were paid for it. And it is only much, much later, as they are on their deathbeds or when they are looking back on what might have been, that many people realize the awful truth of this quote. Don’t do that. Embrace it now.”
- Ryan Holiday
○
Full screen recommended.
Hans Zimmer, "Time"
"I'd Still Swim..."
“If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was
a thousand miles away, I'd still swim. And I’d despise the one who gave up.”
- Abraham Maslow
"The Curse of Interesting Times"
"The Curse of Interesting Times"
Things are the most interesting they've been
in 80 years, 250 years, and, well, ever.
by Contemplations on the Tree of Woe
"The Chinese curse their enemies with the phrase “may you live in interesting times.” Or, rather, Americans think that Chinese curse their enemies like that; according to Infogalactic, “despite being widely attributed as a Chinese curse, there is no equivalent expression in Chinese.”
Fortunately, there’s an actual Chinese phrase that’s much more interesting. It’s found in a 1627 short story collection by Feng Menglong called "Stories to Awaken the World," and it states "better to be a dog in a peaceful time, than to be a human in a chaotic times.” And to be a dog in 17th China didn’t mean being a beloved fur baby with your own YouTube channel. It meant being a workbeast that got eaten when times were lean. The Chinese still have an annual dog meat festival.
Whichever adage you prefer, our times are both chaotic and interesting. In fact, they are monumentally interesting - they are so interesting as to beggar coherent description, to put to shame historical comparison, so remarkable that every single one of us would be justified in screaming from the rooftops in shock and awe. And yet we don’t. We keep calm and carry on, sturdily gripped by our bias for normalcy, by our human ability to adapt to even the most bizarre circumstances. It’ll be fine, we tell ourselves. This is fine.
But what if we put aside our normalcy bias for a moment and look at how just how “interesting” our times really are? What do we see then?
Once Every 80 Years…Once every 80 years, a country enters a crisis. That is, at least, the assertion of Strauss-Howe Generational Theory. According to Strauss and Howe, human history is organized into repeating patterns marked by four “turnings”: the High, the Awakening, the Unraveling, and the Crisis. Each turning is approximately 20 years long, and an entire cycle of four turnings is therefore about 80 years long. According to Strauss and Howe, American history looks something like this:
○ American Revolutionary Crisis, 1765 - 1785
○ American Civil War Crisis, 1855 - 1875
○ Great Depression and World War II Crisis, 1930 - 1950
○ You Are Here, 2010 - 2030
If we believe Strauss-Howe Generational Theory, we are in the midst of what they call a Fourth Turning - a moment of Crisis.
Are we in a Fourth Turning? I certainly believe so. As I documented in "Running on Empty," the United States now stands at a financial precipice. US inflation is at its worst in 40 years because the monetary system we established under Truman and rejuvenated under Nixon is now about to collapse. With that crisis have come challenges from a resurgent Russia and burgeoning China that could lead to a Third World War or, at best, a post-American world order. The Thucydides Trap has never been so close to springing. It’s no wonder then that US fears of nuclear war have surged to levels not seen since the Cold War. But unlike the Cold War, no one wants to ‘ask what they can do for their country’ anymore. US Army recruitment is at its worst in 50 years. And why would they want to serve? Our nation is divided into warring camps. US partisan distrust of the opposing party is at its worst in 30 years.
All right. That all sounds bad. But if Strauss-Howe Generational Theory is true, the Fourth Turning will be over in about 5-10 years and we’ll move into the next Turning, the High. And those are awesome! But what if we won’t be heading into another high?"
Full, fascinating, most highly recommended article is here:
○
“5 Painfully Obvious Truths We Tend to Forget in Hard Times”
“5 Painfully Obvious Truths
We Tend to Forget in Hard Times”
by Angel Chernoff
“This is going to have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
We are going to get through this, I promise,
and we’re going to get through it together. “
- Dr. Jon LaPook
“You know how you can read or hear something dozens of times in dozens of different ways before it finally sinks in? The little truths listed below fall firmly into that category – timeless life lessons that many of us likely learned years ago, and have been reminded of ever since, yet for whatever reason we tend to forget in the heat of the moment. This, my friends, is my attempt at helping all of us, myself included, “get it” and “remember it” once and for all, especially as we collectively cope with the evolving reality of economic collapse and the drastic social and life circumstances caused by COVID-19…
1. Life is short, and nothing is guaranteed. We know deep down that life is short, and that death will happen to all of us eventually, and yet we are infinitely surprised when it happens to someone we know. It’s like walking up a flight of stairs with a distracted mind, and misjudging the final step. You expected there to be one more stair than there is, and so you find yourself off balance for a moment, before your mind shifts back to the present moment and how the world really is.
LIVE your life TODAY! Don’t ignore death – or the imminent dangers now becoming obvious – but don’t be afraid of life either. Be afraid of a life you never lived because you were too afraid to take positive action today. Death is not the greatest loss in life, neither is illness. The greatest loss is what dies inside you while you’re still alive and well. Even in these difficult times, be bold, be courageous, be a scared to death, and then take the next step anyway. Just change the way you do it.
Invest your heart and soul into whatever you have right in front of you. Bring passion into otherwise ordinary moments. You don’t have to be surrounded by lots of people. You don’t have to be going anyplace new. You can distance yourself and still passionately engage in each moment.
2. Everything will change again soon. Embrace change and realize in many ways it’s necessary. It won’t always be obvious at first, but in the end most forms of change are worthwhile because they force us to grow. So keep yourself in check right now.
What you have today may become what you had by tomorrow. You never know. Things change, often spontaneously. People and circumstances come and go. Life doesn’t stop for anybody. It moves rapidly and rushes from calm to chaos in a matter of seconds, and happens like this to people every day. It’s likely happening to someone nearby right now.
Sometimes the shortest split second in time changes the direction of our lives. A seemingly innocuous decision rattles our whole world like a meteorite striking Earth. Entire lives have been swiveled and flipped upside down, for better or worse, on the strength of an unpredictable event. And these events are always happening – as they are right now.
So just remember, however good or bad a situation is now, it will change. That’s the one thing you can count on. Accept it. Breathe. Be where you are. You’re where you need to be right now. There’s a time and place for everything, and every hard step is necessary. Just keep doing your best, and don’t force what’s not yet supposed to fit into your life. When it’s meant to be, it will be.
3. Changing your response is what puts you back in control. Have patience with everything that remains unresolved in your head and heart. And realize that patience is not about waiting, but the ability to keep a good attitude while working hard to stay true to your intuition and values. This is your life, and it is governed by your choices. May your actions speak louder than your words. May your daily choices preach louder than your lips. May your inner sense of satisfaction be your noise in the end.
And if your present life only teaches you one thing, let it be that taking a passionate leap is always worth it. Even if you have no idea where you’re going to land – even when there are so many unknowns – be brave enough to stand up and listen to your heart. Remember that the most powerful moments in life happen when you find the courage to let go of what can’t be changed. Because when you are no longer able to change a situation, you are challenged to change yourself – to grow beyond the unchangeable. And that changes everything! (Marc and I discuss this in more detail in the “Passion and Growth” chapter of “1,000 Little Things Happy, Successful People Do Differently.“)
4. Life’s storms can be a great source of strength. Hard times are like strong storms that blow against you. And it’s not just that these storms hold you back from places you might otherwise go. They also tear away from you all but the essential parts of your ego that cannot be torn, so that afterward you see yourself as you really are, and not merely as you might like to be.
Ultimately, you realize you are here to endure these storms, to sacrifice your time and risk your heart. You are here to be bruised by life. And when it happens that you are hurt, or betrayed, or rejected, let yourself sit quietly with your eyes closed and remember all the good times you had, and all the sweetness you tasted, and everything you learned. Tell yourself how amazing it was to live, and then open your eyes and live some more.
Because to never struggle would be to never grow. You must let go of who you were so you can become who you are. Again, it is within the depths of the strongest and darkest storms that you discover within you an inextinguishable light, and it is this light that illuminates the path forward.
5. You don’t need all the answers right now. Accept the feeling of not knowing exactly where you are going, and train yourself to love and appreciate this sensation of freedom. Because it is only when you are suspended in the air, with no destination in sight, that you force your wings to open fully so you can fly. And as you soar around you still may not know where you’re traveling to. But that’s not what’s important. What’s important is the opening of your wings. You may not know where you’re going, but you know that so long as your wings are spread, the winds will carry you forward.
Truth be told, some of the greatest outcomes that transpire in your life will be the ones you never even knew you wanted. As long as you keep your mind open to new perspectives and yourself moving forward, there really are no wrong turns in life, only paths you didn’t know you were meant to travel. And you never can be certain what’s around the corner. It could be everything, or it could be nothing. You keep gliding steadily forward, and then one day you realize you’ve come a long way from where you started.
All details aside, someday all the pieces will come together. Unimaginably good outcomes will likely transpire in your life, even if everything doesn’t turn out exactly the way you had anticipated. And you will look back at the hard times that have passed, smile, and ask yourself… “How in the world did I get through all of that?”
"How It Really Is"
.jpg)
Oh no we haven't, not even close.
This is just beginning, and you ain't seen nuthin' yet, but you will...
Brace for impact...
Dan, I Allegedly, "I Want This Job - The Wienermobile is Hiring"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 12/21/24
"I Want This Job - The Wienermobile is Hiring"
Comments here:
Adventures With Danno, "Christmas Savings at Kroger"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 12/21/24
"Christmas Savings at Kroger"
Comments here:
Friday, December 20, 2024
Adventures With Danno, "Massive Job Losses Coming, Very Bad News"
Adventures With Danno, 12/20/24
"Massive Job Losses Coming, Very Bad News"
Comments here:
"Christmas Crisis: Where Did The Shoppers Go? More Restaurants Close, Stores Are Empty"
Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 12/20/24
"Christmas Crisis: Where Did The Shoppers Go?
More Restaurants Close, Stores Are Empty"
Comments here:
Canadian Prepper, "Alert, Urgent Message! Nuke Drones New Intel; Russian Doomsday Signals"
Canadian Prepper, 12/20/24
"Alert, Urgent Message! Nuke Drones New Intel;
Russian Doomsday Signals"
Comments here:
Judge Napolitano, "INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern: Weekly Wrap Up"
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 12/20/24
"INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern:
Weekly Wrap Up"
Comments here:
"It’s Not Us... It’s You"
"It’s Not Us... It’s You"
USG, we need to talk...
by Joel Bowman
“A reasonable formula to fix the U.S. government:
Milei-style cuts, on steroids.”
~ Vivek Ramaswamy, co-captain, D.O.G.E.
"It’s that time of the season, dear reader... when the government teases us with the only threat we wish it would actually carry out: shutting itself down. Apparently, Congress was “scrambling” on Friday, writhing in desperation to avoid the unthinkable. From USA Today: "A government shutdown, which would leave thousands of federal employees furloughed with just days until Christmas and Hanukkah, will set in at midnight on Friday if Congress doesn't act.
The House on Thursday rejected a deal backed by President-elect Donald Trump that would have kept the government's doors open, with dozens of Republicans joining with Democrats and voting against the proposal. That bill was a slimmed-down version of a bipartisan plan to temporarily dodge a government shutdown, known as continuing resolution, that Trump and his allies torpedoed earlier in the week."
Forever with the eleventh-hour antics, the State is like a psychotic ex that promises to stop stalking its former lover...only to show up at the ex’s wedding, drunk and flirting with the busboy, to spoil the whole celebration. Free advice to American voters: get a restraining order... and a chainsaw!
We Need to Talk: After all, there comes a time in every relationship where both parties need to take stock of the situation, to look ahead down the long and winding road of life, and decide whether to go their separate ways... or to forge ahead, “for better or worse, ‘til death do us part.” And let’s be honest with our American friends, if we may...
Your government is not the intelligent, happy-go-lucky, heart throb with whom you began your budding romance. Bright-eyed and full of wit, your sparkling flame was once the life of the party. Polite but firm... coquettish yet nubile... honest and hardworking... and with oh so much potential... your sweetheart was the envy of the international ballroom. But now, two-and-a-half centuries on... frankly, she’s let herself go.
First, and most conspicuous, are those extra pounds. A little leniency over the Christmas period is understandable, of course, but we’re talking about $36 trillion in national debt... $107k per citizen, or $271k per taxpayer. And with over $1.8 trillion stacked on this year alone!
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the scales (if they hold) are set to tip $45 trillion by 2028. But even that estimate may be wishful thinking. At the current rate of increase, the corpulent figure is likely to weigh in at a belt-busting $50 trillion. At that plus-size, the federal interest on the debt alone will top $4.5 trillion. For reference, that was the size of the entire federal budget way back in...wait for it... 2019.
Moreover, that gluttonous trajectory assumes no recession, no trade war and no hot war between now and then. No late night binges on Capitol Hill... no new cookie dough Plandemic... no cupcake climate catastrophe... no “temporary emergency” of any kind to inspire the president to force feed tens of millions of hand-signed checks to US citizens, dead and alive.
It’s beyond morbid obesity. Beyond the reach of Ozempic. Well past Atkins, Keto and Paleo, too. It’s gotten to the stage where you aren’t invited to pool parties anymore. And yet, one suspects your partner’s porcine gorge-a-thon is symptomatic of something far deeper... a pathological self-loathing that requires much more than a fad diet or a magic pill. Alas, that’s not the only red flag...
Psycho Killer: It would be one thing if your plump paramour was at least charming... or even polite. And yet, there is scarcely a guest at the global party that has escaped her wicked war games. Since things started going downhill – say, after WWII – your formerly-amicable inamorata has turned into something of a maniacal killer, having bombed the following countries (many of them on multiple, and even ongoing, occasions)...
Afghanistan 1998, 2001
Bosnia 1994, 1995
Cambodia 1969-70
China 1945-46
Congo 1964
Cuba 1959-1961
El Salvador 1980s
Korea 1950-53
Guatemala 1954, 1960, 1967-69
Indonesia 1958
Laos 1964-73
Grenada 1983
Iraq 1991-2000s, 2015-
Iran 1987
Korea 1950-53
Kuwait 1991
Lebanon 1983, 1984
Libya 1986, 2011-
Nicaragua 1980s
Pakistan 2003, 2006-
Palestine 2010
Panama 1989
Peru 1965
Somalia 1993, 2007-08, 2010-
Sudan 1998
Syria 2014-
Vietnam 1961-73
Yemen 2002, 2009-
Yugoslavia 1999
It’s worth noting, if only in passing, that these nations represent nearly a third of the entire planet’s population. Is it any wonder those cocktail invitations have dried up? And that non-comprehensive list only takes us through 2020... before the latest death squads of US-made rockets, missiles and weapons of mass destruction darkened the skies across the known world.
To be clear, these are countries many of your fellow compatriots have little to no interest in and probably couldn’t find on a map in any case. Of course, when you arrive at the soirée with the military industrial complex on your arm, everyone begins to look like a target. Bombs gotta go somewhere, AmIRight?
With so much aforementioned weight to throw around, your beloved war hound currently spends more on the so-called “defense” budget than the next ten governments (China, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan and South Korea)... combined. To put it bluntly, your date is a boor... and a bellicose one at that!
You Deserve Better: All told, between welfare and warfare spending, this year’s budget weighed in at a whopping $6.75 trillion in federal outlays, including $1.46 trillion on Social Security for a socially insecure state and $900 billion in Healthcare for the sickest population on the planet. As for those interest payments on the debt, they rocketed past $1 trillion for the first time ever last year, and now dwarf both Medicare and defense spending.
Finally, and one hates to be indelicate when it comes to matters of indiscretion, especially given the frequency with which the messenger becomes the victim, your significant other has been spotted in, shall we say, “compromised” positions with Big Pharma, Big Food, Big Finance, Big Tech, Big Media... and in lustful embrace with so many other Big suitors that even Will Smith is beginning to cringe. Indeed, horrified onlookers have long ceased wondering as to where the loyalties of your once-faithful maiden lie. (Clue: Wherever she does!)
No, no, no. Avaricious... aggressive... adulterous... it simply won’t do. You deserve better, dear reader. It’s time to let go. To shut it down for good. When it comes to the liberty and prosperity of your once and future great nation, let Messrs. Musk and Ramaswamy deliver the news to the putrefied politicos on Capitol Hill, on behalf of the long-abused American people: “We the People to Congress: It’s not Us, it’s you!”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)