“Knowing..."

“Knowing can be a curse on a person’s life. I’d traded in a pack of lies for a pack of truth, and I didn’t know which one was heavier. Which one took the most strength to carry around? It was a ridiculous question, though, because once you know the truth, you can’t ever go back and pick up your suitcase of lies. Heavier or not, the truth is yours now.”

- Sue Monk Kidd

"It's All Getting Worse - Energy, Supply Chains and Inflation"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly, AM 10/13/21:

"It's All Getting Worse - Energy, Supply Chains and Inflation"

"The ports are showing no sign of easing the congestion with the cargo ships. Gas, coal and oil prices are sky high. The Fed is finally admitting that inflation is going to continue well into 2022."

Gerald Celente, "Watch What You Say Or They Will Send You To Guantanamo"

Gerald Celente, Judge Andrew Napolitano

"Watch What You Say Or They Will Send You To Guantanamo"

"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."

- https://trendsresearch.com/

Gregory Mannarino, AM 10/13/21: "The US Economy Is Collapsing FASTER"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 10/13/21:

"The US Economy Is Collapsing FASTER"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Greg Hunter, "Just 72 Hours from Anarchy"

"Just 72 Hours from Anarchy"

by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Financial writer and precious metals expert Bill Holter has long predicted the bloated indebted financial system, at some point, was going to go down. According to Holter, the wait is over, and he says, “It’s imploding now. When will it fully go down? It could be few days a few weeks or maybe a few months, but the system is coming down now. ”

The $62 trillion “Ponzi scheme” real estate market in China is imploding and reportedly has at least $6 trillion in sour debt. In America and the rest of the world, they are printing more just to keep the system afloat. It’s in the process of sinking, and that could unleash a financial crash no one alive has ever seen before. There is big unretractable inflation, labor shortages and severe supply chain disruptions, and it’s going to get worse. It’s a nightmare of deflation and inflation at the same time. Holter explains, “In Chinese real estate, the volume has dried up and prices are now following. That’s obviously a deflation. Just look worldwide at goods that people need like food and basics. There is inflation everywhere throughout the entire world. That inflation is a function of the money supply that has been pumped into the system. Now, the problem is central banks have put too much money into the system, and you are obviously seeing the inflation. 35% of all dollars outstanding today have been created in the last 12 months.”

Holter paints a picture of a near perfect storm for crashing the economy while inflation has been set on fire. The labor situation is just throwing gas on the inflation fire. Holter points out, “Of course, inflation is being exacerbated now by the supply chain problems. You had economies start and stop and start and stop all over the world. That hurt supply chains. Now, you have these ridiculous mandates where people value their lives more than they value getting stuck with a clot shot. So, you’ve got workers that are walking off in the middle of a supply chain crunch only making it worse.”

In closing, Holter says, “At this point, every day you wake up you are only 72 hours away from anarchy. The reason being is 72 hours is three days. A person can go three days without food and then pretty much lose it. If you have a system that goes down and store shelves are empty or stores are closed or whatever, you are going to see anarchy. Compared to two years ago, this is night and day. We are on the doorstep of total tyranny, and at the same time, you have supply problems and obvious financial problems. You have a broke U.S. Treasury talking about spending another $5 trillion. Really? Where is the $5 trillion going to come from? Oh, we’ll just print it.”

Holter’s advice, “Buy real stuff now,” and “stock up on everything you think you are going to need for the next few years.” Holter also likes gold and silver, especially silver because “it is the most undervalued asset on the planet.” (There is much more in the 34 min. interview.)"

https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with financial writer, 

precious metals expert and broker Bill Holter of JSMineset.com.

- https://rumble.com/

“California Just Decimated The Working Class; Expect Runaway Inflation; The FED Has Lost Control”

Jeremiah Babe, PM 10/12/21:

“California Just Decimated The Working Class; 

Expect Runaway Inflation; The FED Has Lost Control”

"Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Ave, October 12, 2021"

Full screen recommended.

"Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Ave, October 12, 2021"

"The most dangerous street in Philadelphia. Violent crime and drug abuse in Philadelphia as a whole is a major problem. The city’s violent crime rate is higher than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas. Also alarming is Philadelphia’s drug overdose rate. The number of drug overdose deaths in the city increased by 50% from 2013 to 2015, with more than twice as many deaths from drug overdoses as deaths from homicides in 2015. A big part of Philadelphia’s problems stem from the crime rate and drug abuse in Kensington.

Because of the high number of drugs in Kensington, the neighborhood has a drug crime rate of 3.57, the third-highest rate by neighborhood in Philadelphia. Like a lot of the country, a big part of this issue is a result of the opioid epidemic. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed over the last two decades in the United States and Philadelphia is no exception. Along with having a high rate of drug overdose deaths, 80% percent of Philadelphia’s overdose deaths involved opioids and Kensington is a big contributor to this number. This Philly neighborhood is purportedly the largest open-air narcotics market for heroin on the East Coast with many neighboring residents flocking to the area for heroin and other opioids. With such a high number of drugs in Kensington, many state and local officials have zoned in on this area to try and tackle Philadelphia’s problem."

Full screen recommended.

Bruce Springsteen, "Streets of Philadelphia"

"Panic In The Sky: Southwest Airlines Cancels More Than 3,000 Flights As Disruptions Increase"

Full screen recommended.

"Panic In The Sky: Southwest Airlines Cancels 

More Than 3,000 Flights As Disruptions Increase"

by Epic Economist

"The US is suffering from a massive labor shortage and the situation is rapidly evolving into a major national crisis as more and more workers are either leaving or being fired from their jobs for not complying with President Biden's vaccination mandate. The federal government's response to the health crisis has certainly caused deep divisions in our society, and now the mandates are threatening to trigger widespread disruptions in our economy. One of the latest interruptions happened in Florida over the weekend and is still unfolding as we speak. Southwest airlines' pilots and air traffic controllers seemingly engaged in a sickout to protest against the vaccine mandate, prompting mass flight cancellations and leaving airports in total chaos.

Between Saturday and Sunday, nearly 2,000 flights were suddenly canceled, but the company cited weather problems as the reason for doing so. However, no other airlines in the area reported being affected by weather problems, which then started to raise suspicions that something else was going on behind the scenes. On October 4, Southwest CEO Gary Kelly announced that Southwest Airlines would join their industry peers in complying with the federal government’s vaccination directive, and explained that the company works as a federal contractor and needs to comply with the President's vaccine mandate for federal employees and contractors. As a consequence, Southwest’s pilot union, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, filed a lawsuit against the company and is seeking a court injunction against the mandate.

On Sunday morning, exceedingly long lines could be seen at Southwest’s ticket counter in the Tampa airport, according to local media. One passenger named B.J. Romero told Fox News: "I have two kids. I have appointments. I have work. I can’t miss work. I have people relying on me, so I have to be home. That’s not going to work for me.” When asked about Southwest’s claim that bad weather caused mass cancelations, Romero balked at the suggestion. “That sounds like baloney to me,” he said. “The weather is fine in all connecting areas, there’s no bad weather.” Weirdly enough, no other major airlines had been affected by the same issues, that's why discussions that Southwest airlines' employees had staged coordinated walk-outs intensified.

On Monday, the company was one more time at the top of the cancellation list. According to FlightAware data, almost 30% of Southwest airlines' flights were canceled that day, which led Senator Ron Johnson to tweet: "As a loyal Southwest customer who has been flying safely throughout the [past year] and is utterly opposed to vaccine mandates, I’m asking, stop the madness before more damage is done."

As the airline recently imposed a December 8 deadline for vaccinations, the Pilots Union protested the measure and said that it forces "new conditions of employment and threatens termination". What was a minor temporary event for other carriers devastated Southwest Airlines because our operation has become brittle and subject to massive failures under the slightest pressure," said Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association. "Our pilots are tired and frustrated because our operation is running on empty due to a lack of support from the company."

The situation now unfolding in our airports is also happening in pretty much every industry in America. In fact, the worker shortage plaguing our airlines is just a fraction of the overall picture. Nationwide, we're facing the most devastating labor shortage ever recorded. Our supply chains are falling apart due to the lack of personnel. Hospitals, schools, grocery shops - you name it, they're all incredibly short-staffed, and we just started to see the effects of these mandates. As workers are forced out of their jobs, more and more sectors become overwhelmed and our economy starts to slide back into recession again.

If millions of qualified workers are pushed out of their posts because of the mandate in the weeks and months ahead, we can expect unprecedented chaos all across the country. A weekend of canceled flights can be very inconvenient, but it is nothing compared to the complete and utter nightmare our society will be facing if workers start to walk away from their jobs en masse. Of course, it isn’t just the airline sector that is crumbling. Our entire economic infrastructure is falling to pieces, and experts are warning that things will continue to break down in the coming months."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com​

Musical Interlude: Ludovico Einaudi, "The Royal Albert Hall Concert" ( 2010 )

Full screen recommended.

Ludovico Einaudi, "The Royal Albert Hall Concert" ( 2010 )

"A Look to the Heavens"

"NGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula, is a about 25 light-years across blown by winds from its central, bright, massive star. A triumvirate of astroimagers ( Joe, Glenn, Russell) created this sharp portrait of the cosmic bubble. Their telescopic collaboration collected over 30 hours of narrow band image data isolating light from hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The oxygen atoms produce the blue-green hue that seems to enshroud the detailed folds and filaments. Visible within the nebula, NGC 6888's central star is classified as a Wolf-Rayet star (WR 136). The star is shedding its outer envelope in a strong stellar wind, ejecting the equivalent of the Sun's mass every 10,000 years. 

The nebula's complex structures are likely the result of this strong wind interacting with material ejected in an earlier phase. Burning fuel at a prodigious rate and near the end of its stellar life this star should ultimately go out with a bang in a spectacular supernova explosion. Found in the nebula rich constellation Cygnus, NGC 6888 is about 5,000 light-years away."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210617.html

don Miguel Ruiz, “Don’t Take Anything Personally”

“Don’t Take Anything Personally”

by don Miguel Ruiz

“Whatever happens around you, don’t take it personally. Using an earlier example, if I see you on the street and I say, “Hey, you are so stupid,” without knowing you, it’s not about you; it’s about me. If you take it personally, perhaps you believe you are stupid. Maybe you think to yourself, “How does he know?  Is he clairvoyant, or can everybody see how stupid I am?”

You take it personally because you agree with whatever was said. As soon as you agree, the poison goes through you, and you are trapped in the dream of hell. What causes you to be trapped is what we call personal importance. Personal importance, or taking things personally, is the maximum expression of selfishness because we make the assumption that everything is about “me.” During the period of our education, or our domestication, we learn to take everything personally. We think we are responsible for everything. Me, me, me, always me!

Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves. All people live in their own dream, in their own mind; they are in a completely different world from the one we live in. When we take something personally, we make the assumption that they know what is in our world, and we try to impose our world on their world.

Even when a situation seems so personal, even if others insult you directly, it has nothing to do with you. What they say, what they do, and the opinions they give are according to the agreements they have in their own minds. Their point of view comes from all the programming they received during domestication.

If someone gives you an opinion and says, “Hey, you look so fat,” don’t take it personally, because the truth is that this person is dealing with his or her own feelings, beliefs, and opinions. That person tried to send poison to you and if you take it personally, then you take that poison and it becomes yours. Taking things personally makes you easy prey for these predators, the black magicians. They can hook you easily with one little opinion and feed you whatever poison they want, and because you take it personally, you eat it up.

You eat all their emotional garbage, and now it becomes your garbage. But if you do not take it personally, you are immune in the middle of hell. Immunity to poison in the middle of hell is the gift of this agreement.

When you take things personally, then you feel offended, and your reaction is to defend your beliefs and create conflicts. You make something big out of something so little, because you have the need to be right and make everybody else wrong. You also try hard to be right by giving them your own opinions. In the same way, whatever you feel and do is just a projection of your own personal dream, a reflection of your own agreements. What you say, what you do and the opinions you have are according to the agreements you have made- and these opinions have nothing to do with me.

It is not important to me what you think about me, and I don’t take what you think personally. I don’t take it personally when people say, “Miguel, you are the best,” and I also don’t take it personally when they say, “Miguel, you are the worst.” I know that when you are happy you will tell me, “Miguel, you are such an angel!” But, when you are mad at me you will say, “Oh, Miguel, you are such a devil! You are so disgusting. How can you say those things?” Either way, it does not affect me because I know what I am. I don’t have the need to be accepted. I don’t have the need to have someone tell me, “Miguel, you are doing so good!” or “How dare you do that!”

No, I don’t take it personally. Whatever you think, whatever you feel, I know is your problem and not my problem. It is the way you see the world. It is nothing personal, because you are dealing with yourself, not with me. Others are going to have their own opinion according to their belief system, so nothing they think about me is really about me, but it is about them.

You may even tell me, “Miguel, what you are saying is hurting me.” But it is not what I am saying that is hurting you; it is that you have wounds that I touch by what I have said. You are hurting yourself. There is no way that I can take this personally. Not because I don’t believe in you or don’t trust you, but because I know that you see the world with different eyes, with your eyes. You create an entire picture or movie in your mind, and in that picture you are the director, you are the producer, you are the main actor or actress. Everyone else is a secondary actor or actress. It is your movie.

The way that you see that movie is according to the agreements you have made with life. Your point of view is something personal to you. It is no one’s truth but yours. Then, if you get mad at me, I know you are dealing with yourself. I am the excuse for you to get mad. And you get mad because you are afraid, because you are dealing with fear. If you are not afraid, there is no way you will get mad at me. If you are not afraid, there is no way you will hate me. If you are not afraid, there is no way you will be jealous or sad.

If you live without fear, if you love, there is no place for any of these emotions. If you don’t feel any of those emotions, it is logical that you will feel good. When you feel good, everything around you is good. When everything around you is good, everything makes you happy. You are loving everything that is around you, because you are loving yourself. Because you like the way you are. Because you are content with you. Because you are happy with your life. You are happy with the movie you are producing, happy with your agreements with life. You are at peace, and you are happy. You live in that state of bliss where everything is so wonderful, and everything is so beautiful. In that state of bliss you are making love all the time with everything that you perceive.”

- http://www.livinglifefully.com/

"I Can'tConvince Myself..."

“I can’t convince myself that it does much good to try to challenge the everyday political delusions and dementias of Americans at large. Their contained and confined mentalities by far prefer the petty and parochial prisons of the kind of sense they have been trained and rewarded for making out of their lives (and are punished for deviating from them). What it costs them ultimately to be such slaves and infants and ideological zombies is a thought too monstrous and rending and spiky for them even to want to glance at.”

- Kenneth Smith

“If you want to tell people the truth,

 make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.”

- Oscar Wilde

"On the Sapient Regulation of Brats, Termagants, Races Half Devil and Half Child, and Other Such Curiosities as Afflict the Polity"

"On the Sapient Regulation of Brats, Termagants, Races Half 

Devil and Half Child, and Other Such Curiosities as Afflict the Polity"

by Fred Reed

"To start with “trans” people. What I think is, when I read about trans people, always hollering about their rights and sufferings, and how the world isn’t exactly the way they think it should be, is that someone should tell them to sit down and shut up. They have come to be nuisances. Additionally, they are ridiculous. I am not interested in their trivial problems. I wish them no harm, just wish they would put their right clothes on.

I hear that Bruce Jenner thinks he is a girl and wants to be governor of California. All right, I think I am a long-haired Schnauzer and want to be CEO of Microsoft. How is that going to work? I want to say, see, Bruce, wanting to be something and actually being it don’t always go together. Now, Bruce, I have some experience of girls, though not as much as I hoped for and, buddy, you just ain’t one. There just ain’t enough silicone.

Another weariness under which I suffer is poofters. Yes, they are harmless, usually bright and productive, often talented. I don’t want to do anything to them. May they flourish. For all I care, they can litter the earth with gay bars, like McDonald’s or Office Depot. I just don’t want to hear about them, or their problems. I have my own.

Nor do I have anything against Lesbians. They too have been around forever and don’t seem to have ruined the earth or anything. There were probably Lesbian trilobites, and dinosaurs too. Judging by some modern ones, there may be an evolutionary connection. I am just not interested in them. I wish they would just quiet down, and do whatever they do - each other, I think - quietly.

Further, college students and their moronic pieties. I am homicidally tired of moralisms from self-absorbed brats apparently in need of diapering. When a yearning world forces dictatorship on me, I will impose the death penalty on anyone who says “heteronormative.” There is too much noise from abnormatives, hetero or otherwise. Further, I will put a bounty on anyone who says “marginalized communities.” No bag limit. I figure marginalized communities need to be more marginalized, at least out of hearing distance.

I concede my ideas may not be up to date. I read about SJWs pulling down statues, and I thought it meant Single Jewish Woman, because that’s what it used to mean on dating sites. I wondered why they were toppling statues. Did they think they could get dates that way? Well, it seems SJW means Social Justice Warrior, which means a Gender Studies major with a dimly lit mind and the culture of a retarded twelfth-century night-soil collector.

When these earnest terrestrial tugboats are hauling away on a statue, they should be asked what the statue did. OK, probably nothing, but I mean who the statue is of. If they don’t know they should get a free vasectomy or Norplant or something.

On a British channel I saw a reporter ask a girl who was busily pulling on a statue of Churchill what she thought of him. She didn’t know, she said, she had never met him. The brains of a box turtle. We have come to this.

Now we come to affirmative action, which is the idea that you should get a job because you can’t do it. This is very woke and progressive, and probably inclusive. It is good for the economy, because anyone can find a job he can’t do, so he can get hired. As I understand it, the more you can’t do it, the more you ought to get hired. For example, I can’t do brain surgery, and I can’t be point guard for the Lakers. So I should get both jobs.

Now, racists and other realists say that affirmative action is for losers, that if you are good enough you don’t need it, and that if you need it you aren’t good enough. and if you get it anyway, you are a miserable parasite and ought to be flogged. This line of thought is quite shocking and reprehensible. But it would work like gangbusters.

Actually, I am probably overqualified as point guard as I am old, half-blind, and with a lousy jump shot. If I were actually dead, I would be a shoo-in. I would be the first Schnauzer on the Lakers. Koom bah yah, and all.

The reader should not think I am against affirmative action just because it is lunatic and bat-brained. Many things are, such as lunatics and bats. I just think we need a more inclusive and democratic affirmative action. Everybody should be eligible. If everybody got it, then racist conservatives couldn’t complain that it was racist, as otherwise it too obviously is. It is not fair to discriminate against people merely because they have a lower level of incapacity than others.

I can see other avenues for this enlightened approach. It might be applied to looting or, as it ought to be called, independently authorized acquisition. What I don’t get is, looters say they are looking for social justice, but when they come running out of stores, they usually have a TV or tennis shoes. Now, maybe they just can’t tell tennis shoes from social justice. Anybody can make a mistake.

Next, black activists also might sit down and shut up to the great furtherance of national comity. In fact this is a perfectly splendid idea. Especially about reparations. I have no interest in paying them for something I didn’t do and they have never been done to. (That was almost English.) I think blacks should pay me reparations for atrocities in the Tai Ping Wars in China. I wasn’t there, and blacks didn’t do it, so they owe me reparations. See?

A part of black culture that might use some work under warranty is mass murder. Every year in Chicago blacks kill about seven hundred of each other. I figure this is part of their culture, because if it wasn’t they wouldn’t do it every year. Now, I don’t want to see these people dead, or anybody else. I don’t want to meddle in cultural matters that are not my business. But it just seems to me that they might take up something else, like bowling.

Finally, I am weary unto death of Indigenous Peoples. I wish them no harm. They can be as Indigenous as they like, have all the Indigenicities or Indigenisms and suchlike as suits them. They can dance in circles and have Spiritually Significant Chants to gods they don´t really believe in and beat on logs with sticks and complain about Columbus while talking on smartphones invented by his progeny. Fine. I have no problem if they do it somewhere else.

Unlike the politically virtuous, I am not out to get the Indians. I don’t agree with all the woke who want to take Indigenous names off everything, like the Washington Redskins, and eliminate all traces of Indian past from America. Stone age savages are people too, and no worse than any other savages, such as ourselves.

OK, that’s todays sociological wisdom. Now I’m going to the local biker bar, which is the Iron Horse, for a double Beam and coke and talk about sensible things, like really bad-ass Harleys. A little social consciousness goes a long way."

- https://www.unz.com/author/fred-reed/

Gregory Mannarino, "IMF Warns Again On Surging Inflation And Cratering Global Economic Growth"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 10/12/21:

"IMF Warns Again On Surging Inflation 

And Cratering Global Economic Growth"

- https://traderschoice.net/

The Daily "Near You?"

Harare, Zimbabwe. Thanks for stopping by!

"Butterflies..."

“I think humans might be like butterflies; people die every day without many other people knowing about them, seeing their colors, hearing their stories… and when humans are broken, they’re like broken butterfly wings; suddenly there are so many beauties that are seen in different ways, so many thoughts and visions and possibilities that form, which couldn’t form when the person wasn’t broken! So it is not a very sad thing to be broken, after all! It’s during the times of being broken, that you have all the opportunities to become things unforgettable! Just like the broken butterfly wing that I found, which has given me so many thoughts, in so many ways, has shown me so many words, and imaginations! But butterflies need to know that it doesn’t matter at all if the whole world saw their colors or not! What matters is that they flew, they glided, they hovered, they saw, they felt, and they knew! And they loved the ones whom they flew with! And that is an existence worthwhile!”

- C. JoyBell C.

Dr. Seuss, "Oh, the Places You'll Go!"

"Oh, the Places You'll Go!"

by Dr. Seuss

"Congratulations!

Today is your day.

You're off to Great Places!

You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself

any direction you choose.

You're on your own. And you know what you know.

And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care.

About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."

With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,

you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any

you'll want to go down.

In that case, of course,

you'll head straight out of town.

It's opener there

in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen

and frequently do

to people as brainy

and footsy as you.

And then things start to happen,

don't worry. Don't stew.

Just go right along.

You'll start happening too.

OH!

THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!

You'll be on your way up!

You'll be seeing great sights!

You'll join the high fliers

who soar to high heights.

You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed.

You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead.

Wherever you fly, you'll be best of the best.

Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don't.

Because, sometimes, you won't.

I'm sorry to say so

but, sadly, it's true

that Bang-ups

and Hang-ups

can happen to you.

You can get all hung up

in a prickle-ly perch.

And your gang will fly on.

You'll be left in a Lurch.

You'll come down from the Lurch

with an unpleasant bump.

And the chances are, then,

that you'll be in a Slump.

And when you're in a Slump,

you're not in for much fun.

Un-slumping yourself

is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.

Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.

A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!

Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?

How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right...

or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?

Or go around back and sneak in from behind?

Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find,

for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused

that you'll start in to race

down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace

and grind on for miles cross weirdish wild space,

headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go

or a bus to come, or a plane to go

or the mail to come, or the rain to go

or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow

or the waiting around for a Yes or No

or waiting for their hair to grow.

Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite

or waiting for the wind to fly a kite

or waiting around for Friday night

or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake

or a pot to boil, or a Better Break

or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants

or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.

Everyone is just waiting.

NO!

That's not for you!

Somehow you'll escape

all that waiting and staying

You'll find the bright places

where Boom Bands are playing.

With banner flip-flapping,

once more you'll ride high!

Ready for anything under the sky.

Ready because you're that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done!

There are points to be scored. There are games to be won.

And the magical things you can do with that ball

will make you the winning-est winner of all.

Fame! You'll be as famous as famous can be,

with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don't

Because, sometimes they won't.

I'm afraid that some times

you'll play lonely games too.

Games you can't win

'cause you'll play against you.

All Alone!

Whether you like it or not,

Alone will be something

you'll be quite a lot.

And when you're alone, there's a very good chance

you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.

There are some, down the road between hither and yon,

that can scare you so much you won't want to go on.

But on you will go

though the weather be foul.

On you will go

though your enemies prowl.

On you will go

though the Hakken-Kraks howl.

Onward up many

a frightening creek,

though your arms may get sore

and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike,

And I know you'll hike far

and face up to your problems

whatever they are.

You'll get mixed up, of course,

as you already know.

You'll get mixed up

with many strange birds as you go.

So be sure when you step.

Step with care and great tact

and remember that Life's

a Great Balancing Act.

Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.

And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?

Yes! You will, indeed!

(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

So...

be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray

or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,

You're off the Great Places!

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting.

So...get on your way!"

“Be Unshakeable”

Full screen recommended.

RedFrost Motivation, “Be Unshakeable”

Powerful wisdom from Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus

Read by Chris Lines

"How It Really Is"

 

"America's Bottom 50% Have Nowhere To Go But Down"

"America's Bottom 50% Have Nowhere To Go But Down"

by Charles Hugh Smith

"One might anticipate that the bottom 50%'s meager share of the nation's exploding wealth would have increased as smartly as the wealth of the billionaires, but alas, no. America's economy has changed in ways few of the winners seem to notice, as they're too busy cheerleading their own brilliance and success. In the view of the winners, who just so happen to occupy all the seats at the media-punditry-Federal Reserve, etc. table - the rising tide of stock, bond and real estate bubbles are raising all boats. What's left unsaid is except for the 50% of boats with gaping holes below the waterline, i.e. stagnant wages and a fast-rising cost of living.

The truth the self-satisfied winners don't include in their self-congratulatory rah-rah is there's no place for the bottom 50% of American households to go but down. All the winnings flow to those who already owned assets back when they were affordable - the already-wealthy -whose wealth has soared as assets have shot to the moon while the the burdens of inflation and debt service hit the bottom 50% the hardest.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is whining that inflation isn't high enough yet for their refined tastes. Boo-hoo, how sad for the Fed - inflation isn't yet high enough. Oh wait - didn't they each mint millions by front-running their own policies? No wonder they're not worried about inflation.

The reality few acknowledge is that globalization and financialization have stripped the American economy of low-skilled jobs that don't demand much of the employee. The reality is that a great many people don't have what it takes to learn high-level skills and work at a demanding pace under constant pressure - the description of the average job in America.

There were once millions of low-skill, low-pay jobs for people who for whatever mix of reasons were unable to muster the wherewithal to fulfill the fantasy of working extra hard, going to night school, soaking up high-level skills, moving quickly up the ladder to higher pay, buying the starter home and then moving up the food chain to middle class security from there.

The cost of living was low enough that those working these low-skill, low-pay jobs could still have an independent life. There were still low-cost rentals, often derided by the wealthy, in nooks and crannies of even the costliest cities. (I once lived in a room stuffed with old tax records in a poolside shack in an upscale neighborhood. The room had been cleared for a single bed and a path to the decrepit bathroom. Its most important attribute was that I could afford it on my low earnings.)

Affordable housing has vanished, eliminated by the financialization of America's economy. Once landlords pay double the price for the property, rents have to double to pay their higher expenses. The apartment didn't double in size or amenities - the rent doubled without any increase in utility to the renter. You get nothing more for double the price - nice.

Yes, people could make better choices, and some do. The point here is the game is rigged against those in the lower tier of the economy who can no longer afford a house or other stake in the only winning game in town--speculative asset bubbles. Go ahead and work a second job and go to night school - you'll still be left behind the already-rich.

Globalization opened every job in America to global competition via offshoring or the influx of undocumented workers so desperate to support their families back home that no pay was too low and no working condition too wretched to refuse.

Many overindulged pundits who never worked an honest day in their lives sneer about burger flippers without realizing how hard those burger flippers have to work. I doubt the well-dressed pundits, snobbish about their university degrees and general brilliance, could manage to work a single day in a demanding fast-food job.

As the price of housing and other assets have soared, enriching the already rich, they're out of reach for the bottom 50% who struggle to pay their bills as wages have stagnated and the costs of essentials have skyrocketed. The rising cost of parking tickets, junk fees, user fees, utilities and food don't impact the well-paid top 5% technocrat class, whose stake in the Everything Bubble keeps expanding by tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. But for the bottom 50%, those incremental increases are, when added to higher rents, absolutely crushing.

As for getting high-quality healthcare that includes mental health support - those are reserved for the rich. But no worries, self-medication is always a "choice." Getting a boost in pay from $12 an hour to $15 an hour is welcome, but that doesn't put the worker any closer to affording a house or equivalent stake in the Everything Bubble.

The new feudalism is masked by the glossy SillyCon Valley PR of a gig economy where (per the PR fantasy) bright, shiny and totally independent workers freely choose to serve the winners in the rigged sweepstakes for low pay and zero benefits.

In the SillyCon Valley PR, serfs freely choose to serve their noble masters for nothing but survival because they love the "freedom" and "choice" of kissing the nobility's plump derrieres. (After all, there were "choices" even back in the good old days of feudalism - one could join the brigands in the forest, or enlist in a poorly paid mercenary army where the odds of dying were high - you know, "choices" of "gigs.")

One might anticipate that the bottom 50%'s meager share of the nation's exploding wealth would have increased as smartly as the wealth of the billionaires, but alas, no - the bottom 50%'s share of stocks (equities) actually plummeted in the the glorious decades of Federal Reserve free money for financiers, stock buy-backs and asset bubbles.

All this suits the billionaires and those collecting the crumbs of the Everything Bubble just fine. So what if the bottom 50% have nowhere to go but down? There's plenty of room in the homeless encampment for another broken down station wagon or an old camper. There's lots of "choices." And no consequences for the winners, of course, because The Fed has our backs."

Click images for larger sizes.

- https://www.oftwominds.com/