Two Steps From Hell, "Downstream"
Relax, and close your eyes.
As you listen, what images appear in your imagination?
What do you feel?
Look at the post below...
So, we rise from the rubble...
Saturday, January 9, 2021
"Nothing Happens..."
"Nothing happens to anyone that he is not fitted by nature to bear."
- Marcus Aurelius
Friday, January 8, 2021
"Could Be Worse..."
"I'd been in hairier situations than this one. Actually, it's sort
of depressing, thinking how many times I'd been in them.
But if experience had taught me anything, it was this:
No matter how screwed up things are, they can get a whole lot worse."
- Jim Butcher
Dig your way out, they said...
"Don't Wonder..."
"Don't wonder why people go crazy. Wonder why they don't.
In the face of what we can lose in a day, in an instant,
wonder what the hell it is that makes us hold it together."
- "Grey's Anatomy"
“Stock Market Euphoria Will Wipe Out Millions; Hit Job On Precious Metals; Bad News Gets Worse”
Jeremiah Babe,
“Stock Market Euphoria Will Wipe Out Millions;
Hit Job On Precious Metals; Bad News Gets Worse”
A Rousing Musical Interlude! Outlaws, "Green Grass & High Tides"
Outlaws, "Green Grass & High Tides"
Turn it up! lol
"Ironic, huh? "
"Thought is real. Physical is the illusion. Ironic, huh? "
- Robin Williams, "What Dreams May Come"
"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.”
Chet Raymo, “On Being Good”
“On Being Good”
by Chet Raymo
“Several years ago, I attended a seminar on the foundations of ethical systems. The participants quoted Plato, Jesus, Heidegger, and a host of other authorities; they trotted out every philosophical and theological reason why we can or should be good. Of course, prominent among the arguments was that old canard: Without the promise of eternal salvation or the threat of damnation, we would all be scoundrels.
No one mentioned that we are first of all biological creatures with an evolutionary history, and that altruism, aggression, fidelity, promiscuity, nurturing and violence might be part of our animal natures.
I looked around the auditorium and saw folks of every religious and philosophical persuasion, and of many cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and I thought, "Gee, I'd trust any one of these folks not to take my wallet in a dark alley." Sure, humans are capable of great evil, but most of us are pretty good most of the time, and I suspect that it has more to do with where we have been as a biological species than with where we hope to be going in some airy-fairy afterlife.
We are animals who have evolved the capacity to cherish our fellow humans and to resist for the common good our innate tendencies to aggression and selfishness, not because we have been plucked out of our animal selves by some sky hook from above, but because we have been nudged into reflective consciousness by evolution. When it comes to living in a civilized way on a crowded planet, I choose to put my faith in the long leash of the genes rather than fear of hellfire or the chance to walk on streets of gold.”
"The Only Consequence..."
"What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end,
of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do."
- John Ruskin
The Poet: David Whyte, "The Winter of Listening"
"The Winter of Listening"
"No one but me by the fire,
my hands burning red in the palms while
the night wind carries everything away outside.
All this petty worry while the great cloak
of the sky grows dark and intense
round every living thing.
What is precious inside us does not
care to be known by the mind
in ways that diminish its presence.
What we strive for in perfection
is not what turns us into the lit angel we desire,
what disturbs and then nourishes
has everything we need.
What we hate in ourselves
is what we cannot know in ourselves but
what is true to the pattern does not need
to be explained.
Inside everyone is a great shout of joy
waiting to be born.
Even with the summer so far off
I feel it grown in me now and ready
to arrive in the world.
All those years listening to those
who had nothing to say.
All those years forgetting how everything
has its own voice to make itself heard.
All those years forgetting how easily
you can belong to everything
simply by listening.
And the slow difficulty
of remembering how everything
is born from an opposite
and miraculous otherness.
Silence and winter
has led me to that otherness.
So let this winter of listening
be enough for the new life
I must call my own."
- David Whyte,
my hands burning red in the palms while
the night wind carries everything away outside.
All this petty worry while the great cloak
of the sky grows dark and intense
round every living thing.
What is precious inside us does not
care to be known by the mind
in ways that diminish its presence.
What we strive for in perfection
is not what turns us into the lit angel we desire,
what disturbs and then nourishes
has everything we need.
What we hate in ourselves
is what we cannot know in ourselves but
what is true to the pattern does not need
to be explained.
Inside everyone is a great shout of joy
waiting to be born.
Even with the summer so far off
I feel it grown in me now and ready
to arrive in the world.
All those years listening to those
who had nothing to say.
All those years forgetting how everything
has its own voice to make itself heard.
All those years forgetting how easily
you can belong to everything
simply by listening.
And the slow difficulty
of remembering how everything
is born from an opposite
and miraculous otherness.
Silence and winter
has led me to that otherness.
So let this winter of listening
be enough for the new life
I must call my own."
- David Whyte,
"The House of Belonging"
"Economic Market Snapshot PM 1/8/21"
"Economic Market Snapshot PM 1/8/21"
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"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will
do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone."
- John Maynard Keynes
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"Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
○
Gregory Mannarino, PM 1/8/21:
"MUST WATCH:
The New Puppet Biden Will Further Destroy America"
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"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
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MarketWatch Market Summary, Live Updates
CNN Market Data:
CNN Fear And Greed Index:
Daily Job Cuts
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And now, the End Game...
"Compared To What?"
"Life is hard? True- but let's love it anyhow,
though it breaks every bone in our bodies."
- Edward Abbey
"When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard,"
I am always tempted to ask, "Compared to what?"
- Sydney Harris
"Fake Revolutionaries"
"Fake Revolutionaries"
By Bill Bonner
"Aaahhh!
You say you want a revolution,
Well, you know,
We all want to change the world."
– The Beatles
WEST RIVER, MARYLAND – "The media is having a field day – showing, over and over again, the cockeyed videos. A crowd of yahoos gets hotted up. They make a break for the Capitol… bust through the windows and doors…
And there they are. One man sits at Nancy Pelosi’s desk and puts his feet up. Another – with horns on his head… and tattoos on his naked torso – stands on the dais of the Senate. And all over, they wander… aimlessly… pointlessly strewing papers and asking themselves… “What the Hell are we doing here?”
Myth Versus Reality: An “insurrection!” screamed the papers. An “invasion” said the commentators. A “revolution,” said the analysts. “Pearl Harbor,” opined Senator Chuck Schumer, surely losing his mind. “Domestic terrorists,” insisted Joe Biden. “A coup d’état,” said some other clown. And onto the news channel came Michelle Obama, who let out that it was a “desecration” of the Capitol. Yes… there… she had managed to find the right nail and give it a whack. For the only significant damage was there – to the myth…
According to the propaganda, the U.S. Capitol is the beating heart of American democracy. It’s where the peoples’ representatives get together to solemnly debate – with the golden oratory of Cicero and the unerring courage of Augustus – the important issues facing the American people. They carefully weigh the pros and cons, the costs and the benefits, and put aside their own self-interests and bugaboos so as to come to decisions that benefit us all.
Of course, the story is fake. Congress is a collection of 535 self-serving hacks. With rare exception, they pass laws involving trillions of dollars (not their own money), written by lobbyists and cronies, without even reading them. Few have any historical perspective. And no principles cling to them that would withstand a morning shower. And then, in their latest tomfoolery, they disappear “mothers,” “grandmothers,” “aunts,” and “uncles” from federal documents – as if they didn’t exist.
Selfie Time: But Ms. Obama is right. The Temple had been defiled. The holiest of holies… the St. Peter’s Basilica for America’s right-thinking True Believers… Mecca for its Democrats and Republicans… a revered shrine for summer visitors… its sacred walls were breached by a mob of left-behinds (we have it on good authority that there were few hedge fund managers or professors of social policy studies in this unruly horde)…
And there they were, taking photos of each other so the feds can arrest them for criminal trespass, vandalism, treason, drug possession, and whatever other charges they might stick onto them. What a jolly time for everyone!
Tourist Revolutionaries: And like almost everything else that passes for news or public affairs – no matter what your politics or perspective – it was a joke. A scam. The “revolution” was televised, but like reality TV or professional wraslin’, it was fake. These were no “terrorists”… no revolutionaries… no insurrectionists…They were just a hopeless, low-IQ mob… clueless… aimless… and thoughtless…
Real terrorists would have come with bombs, gasoline… and a plan. They would have killed a few members of Congress and taken the rest hostage… or simply burned down the Capitol Building.
Real revolutionaries would have a real revolutionary leading them… towards a real revolution. Donald Trump is no Vladimir Lenin. No Che Guevara. No Fidel Castro. No Maximilien Robespierre. He is no revolutionary at all. Had he broken into the Capitol, he wouldn’t know what to do either… which he proved in the White House. For four years, he led a fake MAGA program… neither draining the Swamp nor staunching the flow of wealth from the masses to the elite. Now, he’s the perfect person to lead a fake “coup.”
Real Revolutionaries: Real insurrectionists don’t just stroll about the temple… admiring its lavish works of art and leaving papers on the floor. They destroy it. Like Oliver Cromwell… using the Irish Catholic churches as stables for his horses and latrines for his men. Like Solomon’s Temple, razed to the ground by the Babylonians in 586 BC. Like Sitting Bull at the Little Big Horn, leaving no one left alive. And they don’t stop with the holy shrine.
In 1793, the city of Lyon, France, defied the revolutionaries. But it was soon conquered by them. Every house belonging to a “rich” person was to be torn down. And a real revolutionary rabble doesn’t content itself with acting like ill-bred tourists. It murders… rapes… hangs… burns… tortures… and loots.
Women are stripped and ravaged – in the streets. Men are gunned down, without trial… often just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Groups – Blacks, Jews, the rich, Catholics, gypsies, collaborators, counter-revolutionaries (almost any group you want) – are targeted for execution. At the Massacre of Badajoz, at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, for example, the revolutionaries held a solemn mass… and then murdered 4,000 local people who were still loyal to the government.
The mob in Washington on Wednesday held no mass. It didn’t intentionally murder anyone. It didn’t even massacre the Capitol Police… or cut off the head of its commander (as the French revolutionaries did at the Bastille) and put it on a pike. Nor did the barbarians violate a single fetching Democrat in the Capitol Building… or even so much as set fire to a trash can.
Real Insurrection: Finally, a real insurrection doesn’t happen when the stock market is at an all-time high… food is still abundant on the shelves… gasoline flows freely from the self-service pumps… you can get a mortgage at 2.5% interest… and the feds’ are still handing out money, which is still thought to have real value…
No, Dear Reader, we have a long way to go. The real revolution is still ahead. We are now only at the slippery, sloppy edge of our empire’s destruction, in other words. There’s a lot more to come. Stay tuned…"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 1/8/21: "Alert: Critical Must Watch - Total Meltdown"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 1/8/21:
"Alert: Critical Must Watch - Total Meltdown"
"Fog and Noise"
"Fog and Noise"
by Jim Kunstler
"Is there a game on? Consider: What you’re seeing may not be what you think you’re seeing. If an “orderly transition to the next administration” meant what you think it means, Nancy Pelosi would not be shrieking for an insta-super-quickie impeachment. By the way, what would that look like as a procedural matter? Think: Chinese fire drill.
The New York Times’s panties are on fire, declaring a national emergency. Headline this morning: "Democrats Demand Trump’s Removal.' Funny… they didn’t feel this exercised when Antifa attacked congressmen and senators on the streets of Washington last summer, leaving the president’s acceptance speech at the White House. Twitter and Facebook are busy throwing overboard anybody who dares to challenge the narrative they’ve helped to craft. Something’s up now and it’s making them even more hysterical than usual.
"Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday called for Vice President Mike Pence to immediately initiate the removal of President Donald Trump, declaring him a seditious threat to the country who can’t be trusted to finish even the last two weeks of his term." - Politico
Consider also: you and I are in that fabled fog of war, and that fog is going to hang around in the days ahead. You may see strange shapes moving around in that fog, and that’s about it. Eventually, the fog will lift and the battlefield will not look the same as it did a week ago. So, it’s hard to see right now, but I hear a lot and I’ll just report what I hear for what it’s worth. I can’t prove any of this is true right now. A lot of it may seem crazy, fantastical. What with the pitch of news media mind-f***ery we’ve been living under, there have probably never been stranger days in our America.
The game is a deadly one because there is so much at stake: careers, reputations, fortunes, lives, the climax of four years of seditious Gotcha. The “Resistance” threw everything it could at the Golden Golem of Greatness. It discommoded him in his duties, and wasted the nation’s precious time in a gathering crisis of civilization, but nothing stuck to him: RussiaGate, impeachment, not even Covid-19. The November 3rd election was the final play. Ever find, in a game of chess, that you’ve unwittingly blundered into checkmate?
Who, exactly, invaded the Capitol building on Wednesday when that mass of Trump supporters swarmed up the hallowed hill? Some Antifas and BLMs were on the scene for sure, probably in the vanguard, probably the one’s smashing the windows to break in. But somebody else went in there, too, and rounded up a whole bunch of congressional laptops, including several in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, foolishly left behind when members were evacuated in a panic.
Perhaps you’ve heard of the Italian job. A story circulating on the web from one Maria Zack, founder of a fair election monitoring org called Nations in Action, says that the election ballot fraud operation was run out of Italy through a set of that country’s communication satellites by a CIA team working with former Italian government officials, and one of Italy’s defense contractors. The story claims that former president Barack Obama was directly involved and that the operation was financed with dollars skimmed from the billions of dollars transferred to Iran under the terms of Mr. Obama’s No Nukes deal. Affidavits and depositions are filed. The UK’s MI6 may be involved, as they were in the RussiaGate shenanigans. Is this just another mind-f**k? Maybe. I guess we’ll have to stand by and find out. You can do that, can’t you? In the fog of the moment?
Did congress knowingly certify a fraudulent election? That will be a tantalizing question in the days ahead. Another rumor in the fog says that Director of National Intelligence Ratcliffe delivered a report on foreign interference in the election to members of congress following the conclusion early Thursday morning of their electoral college business. Was that the match that set Resistance panties on fire? Mr. Ratcliffe has been missing-in-action for more than a week. His report was originally scheduled for delivery to the president November 18. It was postponed and everybody forgot about it, especially the news media.
Let’s also just step back for a moment and ask: why did so many flag-waving MAGAs turn out Wednesday on the Mall in Washington DC? Answer: because they have been served one shit sandwich after another for four years by the Democratic Party and their captive news media, and the latest one featured vote tabulations getting erased in real time at ten-plus thousand vote increments right before their eyes on the flatscreen in the wee hours of November 4. And after that, and other balloting monkeyshines, the response from their government was a mere yawn. Total institutional failure. The ballot fraud that so many witnessed was never aired or adjudicated in a proper legal forum, and they were good and goddam pissed about it.
Mr. Trump is rumored to be at an air force base in Texas, having vamoosed the White House as being unsafe for him. Is he cornered by his antagonists or does he have a planned operation underway? Who knows (not me)? He certainly had enough time to plan it, and the king-post in the whole deal may have been that he had to exhaust all the ritual avenues in disputing the election fraud before he could launch a counter-coup. If his adversaries intend to run the 25th Amendment on him, he will have to act quickly.
The president didn’t appear panicked in the speech released on Thursday, in which he promised that orderly transition to the next administration, certainly not panicked in the inflamed manner of Nancy Pelosi. In the mythology of my people, the Golem was a giant fashioned out of clay by a rabbi seeking desperately to protect his village from a pogrom. I didn’t dub Mr. Trump the Golden Golem of Greatness for nothing. For the moment all is fog and noise."
"Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 1/8/21"
"Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 1/8/21"
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JAN 8, AT 7:50 AM: "Miami Doctor Dies After Receiving First Dose Of Pfizer Vaccine" "In my mind his death was 100 percent linked to the vaccine. There is no other explanation."
JAN 8, AT 7:15 AM: "US Tops 4K Daily COVID Deaths For 1st Time; UK Approves Moderna Jab: Live Updates"
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Jan. 8, 2021 7:54 AM ET:
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 88,201,100
people, according to official counts, including 21,689,734 Americans.
Globally at least 1,900,100 have died.
Jan. 8, 2021 7:54 AM AT:
Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count○
"The COVID Tracking Project"
Every day, our volunteers compile the latest numbers on tests, cases,
hospitalizations, and patient outcomes from every US state and territory.
- https://covidtracking.com/
○
Every day, our volunteers compile the latest numbers on tests, cases,
hospitalizations, and patient outcomes from every US state and territory.
- https://covidtracking.com/
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