Friday, July 9, 2021

"How It Really Is"


Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 7/9/21"

"Weekly News Wrap-Up 7/9/21:
More Jab Deaths, Trump Sues Big Tech, Greatest Financial Crash Ever"
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

The CDC has released the latest adverse reactions and deaths from people getting shots for CV19. Now, nearly 7,000 are dead from the so-called jab, with more than 400,000 reported injuries. Please keep in mind, a 2011 Harvard Health Care study says “fewer than 1% of vaccine adverse events are reported.” The jab is, in fact, an experimental gene therapy human drug trial that they would like to be approved as a “vaccine.” None of the so-called vaccines are approved, and they are only labeled “Emergency Use Authorization” (EUA) by the FDA.

President Donald Trump strikes back at Big Tech after they removed him from all social media platforms. Trump says he’s suing Twitter, Facebook, Google and their executives for “illegal unconstitutional censorship.” What will the discovery look like is my big question.

The so-called “reflation trade” looks like it is losing steam. The Fed is acting like it is finally going to taper the easy money as inflation heads much higher. Some bigtime investors and market experts like Dr. Michael Burry says we are headed for the “mother of all crashes” because of “the greatest speculative bubble of all time in all things.” Burry called the 2008 financial crisis at the top. I would not bet he’s wrong this time either.”

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these 
stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up 7/9/21:

Jim Kunstler, "Is Reality 'Baseless,' Too?"

"Is Reality 'Baseless,' Too?"
by Jim Kunstler

"Advice to the mindf**k-hesitant: When “Joe Biden” and Kamala Harris come to your door selling vaccines, treat them as you would, say, a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses proffering Watchtower magazines: “Thank you, but I’m not interested in your organization… and please take me off your mailing list. Have a nice day!” Cue: sound of door clicking shut.

Something tells me there are still too many sane people with a sense of humor left in this tormented land for the flunkies of “progressive” Wokery to achieve the total control they seek over the hundred-million, give or take, who are starting to think: Y’know, I’d kind of like my country back. And what country was that? It was the country we were before the Intel “Community” took over, in the service of an utterly corrupt political elite running the system like it was their personal cash register.

About that country I would like back… for starters, the country that valued the rule-of-law. Yes, I know, that’s awfully high-toned — the rule of law — as if one is invoking some clichéd bronze blindfolded babe in a negligee, hoisting a scale in one hand and a sword in the other. I’m thinking, rather, of a flesh-and-blood judge, perhaps a corpulent fellow with bad knees, of, say, the DC federal court, who would dare to throw out the malicious political prosecution of figures like General Flynn or the journalist Julian Assange… or an FBI that would make a criminal referral for sedition against Senator Mark Warner… or a newspaper editor who might be interested in the connection between Marc Elias’s Lawfare outfit at Perkins Coie and the Central Intelligence Agency. One could go on endlessly with the pungent hypotheticals. So much evil mischief has not been seen in one polity since Berlin, 1938.

Anyway, the country we live in now no longer observes the rule of law because it has become a security state like the former Soviet bloc states, with a rogue Intel “Community” that has hijacked the truck that the wheels of justice run on. Here’s a thought: do we know for sure whether the CIA might have been involved in the late, lamentable 2020 election? Wow, that’s outside the box! But, hey, why not? Think of all the fakery they are so capable of engineering, and consider how avid they were to get rid of that pain-in-the-ass Donald Trump (who wanted to get rid of them!), and also consider that there is really no check on their activities whatsoever because the supervising authorities are 1) Adam Schiff’s House Intel Committee (bwaha!), and 2) the aforementioned seditious scoundrel Mark Warner’s Senate Intel Committee. These two are so owned by the CIA that they must have a standing weekly TGIF session to peel grapes for the C-suite at Langley.

Some savvy 2020 election skeptics are pointing at China as possibly having interfered in the election that installed their pre-paid errand-boy “Joe Biden” in the White House - but what if the real action was actually closer to home? And why wouldn’t the CIA queer the election and then set up China to take the blame, since China is already in America’s dog-house for gifting the world with SARS-Covid-19 and its lovely variants? Just wondering… just asking… maybe the thought has crossed your mind, too.

Have you groked that the virus affords such wonderful opportunities for exercising state coercion over a spooked public? Just yesterday, Sec’y of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra declared that it is, “absolutely the government’s business to know who’s been vaccinated.” Of course, it’s as much the public’s business to know what the correct figure is for Covid cases and deaths, as well as adverse mRNA reactions and deaths. And, just for instance, two counties in California recently revised down their overall case numbers for the whole virus melodrama by 20 percent - so many cases were just hospitals gaming the federal bureaucracy for higher subsidy pay-outs keyed to the virus. And, after a month of getting bashed around for lying about this and that, America’s chief Covid-19 health officer, Anthony Fauci (“The Science”) has gone back on cable TV telling the country to “get over it.” Their vax “hesitancy,” he means. Why would anyone besides the sebaceous Chris Hayes on MSNBC believe him?

Another feature about the country I would like back is the freedom to live without the harassment of Woked-up useful idiots working day and night to destroy the very meaning of language while hustling American culture, tradition, and heritage into its “anti-racist” gas chamber. The local school board in the next town over from here just voted last night to retain the name of the high school’s football team: the Indians. I take that small local act of chutzpah as a good omen telling us the tide has turned. We want our country back. We want the rule of law back. We want reality back. We want good faith back. As MLK might have said: from every hill and mole-hill, let freedom ring!"

Gregory Mannarino, AM/PM 7/9/21

Gregory Mannarino, AM 7/9/21:
"'Diaper Inflation.' More People Borrowing From 
Their Credit Cards To Make Ends Meet"
Related:
Gregory Mannarino, PM 7/9/21:
"Alert! The Fed. Is Already Moving Goalposts!"

Thursday, July 8, 2021

"5 Specific Reasons Why You Should Stockpile Food Right Now"

Full screen recommended.
"5 Specific Reasons Why You Should Stockpile Food Right Now"
by Epic Economist

"For the longest time, food prices remained stable in the United States, and consumers were not particularly concerned about price fluctuations each month. Even though there were readjustments to the cost of staples every year, those increases weren't exactly alarming, and back then, one could say they were truly temporary. Our supermarkets were packed with food and something that always made grocers proud was their ability to ensure an enormous variety for their customers. But now we can say that things are a whole lot different, and not in a good way. As the world tries to rebound from the global recession induced by the health crisis, a massive wave of inflation is dramatically hitting agricultural commodities, and food producers are having to pass those cost increases to consumers. 

However, many industry experts have been warning that the recent price hikes won't be the only ones. In fact, they are marking the beginning of a prolonged era of higher prices and low supply. This means that although we're already facing some painful food inflation, prices won't get any lower than they are at this moment for a long, long time. And when we look forward, several events that are unfolding right now will likely combine, and contribute to the acceleration of food price inflation in the coming months. In view of such a scary scenario, the best way to fight inflation is to get prepared in advance. That's why today we brought 5 specific reasons why you should start stockpiling food as soon as you can.

In a telling sign of what is coming for us in the months ahead, recent reports have been describing that supermarkets are feverishly stockpiling food in anticipation of the coming inflationary spike. According to the Wall Street Journal, several supermarket chains have started to stock up on everything from sugar to frozen meat before they get more expensive, bracing for what some executives anticipate will be "some of the highest price increases in recent memory". The move is a reversal from what happened last year when millions of panic buyers hoarded groceries because of concerns about food availability, triggering supply chain disruptions and acute shortages all across the country. Now, retailers themselves are buying and storing supplies to keep their shelves full amid stronger demand, in that way, they can have more control over rising costs and protect their profit margins. 

The latest price increases at the stores and the need to stockpile come as several key factors are pushing up costs all the way from farm to store. But one thing is certain: when inflation starts to run out of control, these companies will conveniently keep the price of their products significantly higher even though they have been stocking up on inventory before prices of inventory rise. When food retailers start to brace for the worst of inflation, that of course, is not a good sign for consumers. So it seems like a good option to start stockpiling too before essential products become unaffordable.

With gas prices hitting record highs every month, it has become way more expensive to transport food around the country. Supply transportation costs have already been going up due to a national shortage of drivers, but now that gas prices rose 56 percent compared to a year ago, those increases will also impact food prices. Moreover, the ruthless “megadrought” in the western states just continues to get worse. For years, people have been diverting water from rivers that flow into the lake to water crops and supply homes. And since there isn't enough water for everyone, millions of farmers are having to dramatically reduce the number of crops that they are currently growing. On top of all that, a devastating plague of grasshoppers is now causing massive headaches for our farmers in western states. Many local farmers have already started to report extremely painful crop losses. So far, Oregon and Montana have been the hardest hit by the insect plague, but fifteen other states are also facing grasshopper damage. All combined, the 17 states suffering from this pest have recorded a loss in agricultural produce of $8.7 billion. 

All things considered, our long-term outlook is rather gloomy and quite scary. Each of these factors will severely impact our food supply chains and all of them are going to combine to drive prices to levels never seen before. If someone still believes inflation is going to be transitory, we're sorry to say that what we have seen so far was just the tip of the iceberg. So if you don't want to get caught off-guard by shortages and explosive prices, you should stock up on the supplies you need before they're long gone."

Gerald Celente, "Murder Rates Up Thanks To Murderous Politicians, Covid War"

Gerald Celente, 
"Murder Rates Up Thanks To Murderous Politicians, Covid War"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over hype and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in the increasingly turbulent times ahead."

Must Watch! "The Economy Has Collapsed - You Just Don't Know It; Surviving Great Depression 2.0"

Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, PM 7/8/21:
"The Economy Has Collapsed - You Just Don't Know It; 
Surviving Great Depression 2.0"

Musical Interlude: Supertramp, “The Logical Song”

Supertramp, “The Logical Song”

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Flight Through the Orion Nebula in Infrared Light"

"What would it look like to fly into the Orion Nebula? The exciting dynamic visualization of the Orion Nebula is based on real astronomical data and adept movie rendering techniques.
Full screen recommended.
Up close and personal with a famous stellar nursery normally seen from 1,500 light-years away, the digitally modeled representation based is based on infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope. The perspective moves along a valley over a light-year wide, in the wall of the region's giant molecular cloud. Orion's valley ends in a cavity carved by the energetic winds and radiation of the massive central stars of the Trapezium star cluster. The entire Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun."

"I See No Reason..."

"Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told- and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion."
- Michael Crichton, "The Lost World"

Dan, IAllegedly, PM 7/8/21: "Is this Economy a Pump and Dump? It’s About to Collapse"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, IAllegedly, PM 7/8/21:
"Is this Economy a Pump and Dump? It’s About to Collapse"
"Is our Economy the Classic Pump and Dump? We are constantly being told that it is great and full steam ahead. I am at Balboa Island, CA. There is so much to talk about between the precarious stock market and depending bitcoin crash."

Gregory Mannarino, PM 7/8/21: "Economic Freefall- Food Prices Skyrocketing, Consumer Debt Hits New Record"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 7/8/21:
"Economic Freefall- Food Prices Skyrocketing, 
Consumer Debt Hits New Record"

"Fake It Til You Take It"

"Fake It Til You Take It"
by Bill Bonner

YOUGHAL, IRELAND – "Picking up from yesterday… Ms. Rana Foroohar, writing in the prestigious Financial Times, proposed… simply bringing a smidgen of strategic and long-term foresight to the way America’s economy is run. In a world in which we have to compete with state-run giants like in China, that think on 50-year time horizons, quarterly capitalism simply doesn’t cut it any more (not that it really ever did).

It is easy to lament… and fun to mock… the shallow “thinking” of the thinking classes. Capitalism created almost all the wealth we enjoy. The only alternative is some form of political control over capital, business, markets, and people.

As we explained in our "Win-Win or Lose" book, there are only two ways to get what you want. Either you bargain, trade, and persuade for it – that is, providing goods and services to others in exchange for goods and services from them… Or you take it by force… otherwise known as theft, burglary, corruption, payoffs, giveaways, income redistribution, socialism, communism, facism, etc. You either make it… or you take it. There is no other way. And there is no example in all of history where a politically controlled, centrally planned economy (taking it) was more fruitful than a free economy (making it). But heck… we’ll try to keep an open mind.

Unknowable Future: The first problem with central planning is that it relies on the aforementioned force… and is therefore doomed from the get-go. As we will see, the planning is as fake as the dollar. The world improvers pretend that they are preparing for the future. What they are really up to is trying to change the future… which inevitably leads to taking things that don’t belong to them.

The second problem is that the plans all depend on the part of the time spectrum that is unknowable – the future. The planners are always trying to make better tomorrows, without knowing what tomorrow would have been like if they had left it alone. In one tomorrow, long ago, the automobile was invented. Suddenly, plans for more horse-watering troughs were obsolete. In another, along came the internet. World War I surprised all the future-facing thinkers of the early 20th century. COVID-19 seems to have gotten the drop on those of the 21st.

Ms. Foroohar seems to admire the “state-run giants,” who plan for 50 years ahead. But what is the likelihood that their plans actually work out? There are zillions of possible tomorrows. But the planners cannot plan for an infinite number of futures. They can only plan for one. So the odds are, approximately, a zillion to one that they will get it right. The future… as they have imagined it… will never exist. And their plans will not only be unwelcome… but unwise, untimely, and unprepared for the future that actually comes.

Wrong Direction: We can get a hint of how the plans might go awry by wondering what kind of strategic plans the Nixon Administration might have come up with 50 years ago. For example, it might have tried to steal a march in the battle against climate change. But it probably would have been marching in the wrong direction. That is, it might have spent billions trying to make the planet warmer; global cooling was the bugaboo back then. “Another Ice Age?” asked TIME magazine in 1974, worrying about the spread of arctic temperatures.

Or perhaps Nixon would have begun making plans for strategic competition with China. But wait… China was not considered a rival back then; Mao’s central planning had just starved 20-30 million of his own citizens in the Great Leap Forward.

Back then, the “state-run giant” with a swell economy that seemed to threaten the U.S. was the Soviet Union. “We need more central planning in the U.S.,” said the Paul Krugmans of the 1960s. “We need it to keep up with the Soviets. They’re pulling ahead.” In the 1960s, the Soviets were definitely ahead in the “Space Race.” They had put their man, Yuri Gagarin, into orbit in 1961. It wasn’t until eight years later that the U.S. was able to definitively win the race by putting men on the moon. And by then, Gagarin was already dead at 34… in a plane crash. Even as late as the 1980s, the U.S. elite still thought it was in a dogfight with the Soviet Union. The Reagan Administration added $1.7 trillion to U.S. debt, largely to counter the threat.

Eastern Threat: But by the early 1990s, the Soviet economy – weighted down by five decades of central planning – was no longer airworthy. The Russians dragged it off the runway themselves in 1993, and went back to a basically capitalistic system. By then, the planners manques in the U.S. had turned their attention farther east. Japan Inc. was the bubble of the 1980s. And it had an “industrial policy.” “We need strategic planning to keep up with Japan Inc.” said America’s elite. But the Japanese economy blew up in 1989. Its stock market has never recovered.

Peak Oil: Strategic planning back then might have also included a big handout to the oil industry. Oil was essential to the U.S. economy. And the U.S. was running out. At least, that was the theory of American geologist M. King Hubbert, who believed the peak in U.S. oil production had been reached in the early 1970s. The U.S. created a Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in anticipation of running out. By the 1980s, the U.S. was awash in oil. Then, the fracking revolution of the 2000s made the U.S. energy-independent again. And in the COVID-19 crisis and lockdowns of 2020, the price of oil went negative. Producers had to pay to get rid of it. Instead of filling their SPR, the planners should have left it empty!

What else? The planners of the Nixon era might have wanted more freeways right through the inner cities to make it easier for commuters to get to work… and more gas stations, where they could fill their tanks… and more cigarette machines to make it easier for them to enjoy a smoke.

Grotesque Future: Of course, when you’re trying to prepare a whole nation for the future, you’re going to make mistakes. But what does it matter? The elites will do the planning. They will reward their favored clients, allies, and cronies. They will subsidize industries they like and punish those they don’t – with other people’s money, of course. They will give funding to universities to study the future they imagine… and cancel alternative opinions. Professors who describe the future as the elites would like to see it will get tenure.

Companies that enable their plans will get contracts. Planners will get sinecures. Busybodies will find lifelong employment implementing their plans. And day by day, little by little, the future will take shape. Not the future as it should be – full of surprises, growth, and innovation… nor even the future that the elites tried to create (you can’t really force the future to do what you want)…but a grotesque future – like the Soviet Union in 1989 – full of failed plans… bankrupt programs… and sour people."

The Daily "Near You?"

Elwood, Indiana, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"The Mystery Plague That Is Killing Countless Birds In 9 States And Washington D.C. Has Gotten A Lot Worse"

"The Mystery Plague That Is Killing Countless Birds In 
9 States And Washington D.C. Has Gotten A Lot Worse"
by Michael Snyder

"Large numbers of birds are dropping dead from a “mystery disease” throughout much of the eastern half of the country, and scientists still have absolutely no idea why this is happening. They have tested the dead birds for a whole host of known illnesses, but those tests have not revealed the cause of this plague. We are being told that a lot of the affected birds appear to develop neurological problems, and many of them go completely blind before they finally die. The “mystery disease” has spread to more states since I first wrote about this plague, and at this point the list of affected areas includes Washington D.C., Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. If authorities are unable to find a solution, will this plague eventually spread across the entire nation?

I don’t know why the mainstream media is not giving this story more coverage, because this is quickly turning into a major crisis. The following comes directly from a statement that was posted late last week on the official website of the USGS… "In late May, wildlife managers in Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky began receiving reports of sick and dying birds with eye swelling and crusty discharge, as well as neurological signs. More recently, additional reports have been received from Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. While the majority of affected birds are reported to be fledgling common grackles, blue jays, European starlings and American robins, other species of songbirds have been reported as well. No definitive cause(s) of illness or death have been determined at this time. No human health or domestic livestock and poultry issues have been reported.

The natural resource management agencies in the affected states and the District of Columbia, along with the National Park Service, are continuing to work with diagnostic laboratories to investigate the cause(s) of this event. Those laboratories include the USGS National Wildlife Health Center, the University of Georgia Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, the University of Pennsylvania Wildlife Futures Program and the Indiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory."

With each passing day, more birds are going blind and more birds are dying. In Virginia, an animal control professional named Jennifer Toussaint will never forget the first time that she encountered baby blue jays that had been afflicted by this mysterious illness… "Jennifer Toussaint, chief of animal control in Arlington, Virginia, can’t forget the four baby blue jays. In late May, worried residents had delivered the fledglings to her clinic just outside of Washington, D.C., within just a few hours. Each was plump, indicating “their parents had done a great job caring for them,” Toussaint says. But the birds were lethargic, unable to keep their balance, and blinded by crusty, oozing patches that had grown over their eyes.

Toussaint and her staff soon reached a gloomy diagnosis: the jays were the latest victims of a mysterious deadly disease that had emerged in their area just a few weeks earlier and had already killed countless wild birds. There was no known treatment, so they euthanized the jays. “It was difficult to feel so helpless,” Toussaint recalls."

Experts have never seen anything like this before, and they are in a race to try to find some answers. Whatever is causing this, it appears to be affecting a wide range of species… "Several species of birds have been affected by the mystery illness, according to the University of Pennsylvania: blue jay, European starling, common grackle, American robin, northern cardinal, house finch, house sparrow, Eastern bluebird, red-bellied woodpecker, Carolina chickadee, and Carolina wren."

And at this point, the “mystery disease” appears to have spread very widely. For example, in the state of Virginia there have been confirmed reports “in the counties and cities of Alexandria, Arlington, Clarke, Fairfax, Falls Church, Fauquier, Frederick, Loudoun, Manassas, Prince William, Shenandoah, Warren, and Winchester.” In Indiana, cases have now been identified in 53 different counties.

So if this is something that is spreading from bird to bird, it is spreading very easily and it is spreading very rapidly. But at this point we don’t know for sure that it is some sort of a disease, because so far all of the tests that have been done haven’t come up with much of anything… "Natural resource management agencies in all of the affected states and D.C. are working with the National Park Service to investigate this event.

So far, several infectious agents have not been detected in any of the birds that have been tested, including Salmonella and Chlamydia, avian influenza, West Nile virus and other flaviviruses, Newcastle disease virus and other paramyxoviruses, herpesviruses and poxviruses, and Trichomonas parasites."

Something other than a disease could potentially be causing this plague. We just don’t know. At one point it was being theorized that eating cicadas was causing these birds to become ill, but scientists appear to have ruled this theory out… "But the cicadas appear to be blameless. Birds tend to avoid eating fungus-ridden cicadas, and sick birds have been observed in areas where cicadas were rare. “It does not look like it’s a match,” says Brian Evans, a migratory bird ecologist with the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute."

So many strange things have been happening in 2021. As I discussed yesterday, right now we are witnessing a horrifying plague of grasshoppers in the western half of the country, and at the same time we have a nightmarish plague of dead birds in the eastern half of the country. On top of everything else, we are right in the midst of a “megadrought” which may end up becoming the worst in the entire history of our nation.

Many believe that it is just a “coincidence” that so many bad things are happening to us all at once, and perhaps they are correct. But nobody can deny that our world has gotten a whole lot crazier over the last couple of years, and I expect quite a bit more craziness during the second half of 2021."

"This Is Your Life..."

“This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.
Every breath is a choice. Every minute is a choice.
To be or not to be.
Every time you don't throw yourself down the stairs, that's a choice.
Every time you don't crash your car, you re-enlist.
If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume
and come back as a new character...Would you slow down? Or speed up?"
- Chuck Palahniuk

"If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make,
who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?"
~ Stephen Levine

"Some Oddities..."

"There are some oddities in the perspective with which we see the world. The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be."
- Douglas Adams

"The Invitation"

"The Invitation"

"It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. 
I want to know what you ache for,
 and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. 
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, 
for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. 
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, 
if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have 
become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain!
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own,
 if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you
 to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful,
 to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself;
if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul;
if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day,
and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand
on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up, 
after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, 
and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to
know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like
the company you keep in the empty moments."

- Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Musical Interlude: The Moody Blues, "Blue World"

Full screen recommended.
The Moody Blues, "Blue World"

"How It Really Is"