Yanni, “World Dance”,
with Samvel Yervinyan, Victor Espinola, and Sayaka Katsui
So, we rise from the rubble...
Tuesday, December 28, 2021
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Find the Big Dipper and follow the handle away from the dipper's bowl until you get to the last bright star. Then, just slide your telescope a little south and west and you'll come upon this stunning pair of interacting galaxies, the 51st entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog. Perhaps the original spiral nebula, the large galaxy with well defined spiral structure is also cataloged as NGC 5194. Its spiral arms and dust lanes clearly sweep in front of its companion galaxy (top), NGC 5195.
The pair are about 31 million light-years distant and officially lie within the angular boundaries of the small constellation Canes Venatici. Though M51 looks faint and fuzzy to the eye, deep images like this one reveal its striking colors and galactic tidal debris."
“Life Lessons From a Psychiatrist Who’s Been Listening to People’s Problems For Decades”
“Life Lessons From a Psychiatrist Who’s Been
Listening to People’s Problems For Decades”
by Thomas Oppong
“How you approach life says a lot about who you are. As I get deeper into my late 30s I have learned to focus more on experiences that bring meaning and fulfilment to my life. I try to consistently pursue life goals that will make me and my closest relations happy; a trait that many individuals search for their entire lives. Nothing gives a person inner wholeness and peace like a distinct understanding of where they are going, how they can get there, and a sense of control over their actions.
Seneca once said, “Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.” “No people can be truly happy if they do not feel that they are choosing the course of their own life,” states the World Happiness Report 2012. The report also found that having this freedom of choice is one of the six factors that explain why some people are happier than others.
In his best-selling first book, “Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart: Thirty True Things You Need to Know Now”, Dr Gordon Livingston, a psychiatrist who’s been listening to people’s problems for decades, revealed thirty bedrock truths about life, and how best to live it. In his capacity as a psychiatrist, Dr Livingston listened to people talk about their lives and the many ways people induced unhappiness on themselves. In his book, he brings his insight and wisdom to the subjects of happiness, fear and courage.
“Life’s two most important questions are “Why?” and “Why not?” The trick is knowing which one to ask.” Acquiring some understanding of why we do things is often a prerequisite to change. This is especially true when talking about repetitive patterns of behavior that do not serve us well. This is what Socrates meant when he said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” That more of us do not take his advice is testimony to the hard work and potential embarrassment that self-examination implies.”
Most people operate on autopilot, doing the same things today that didn’t work yesterday. They rarely stop to measure the impact of their actions on themselves and others, and how those actions affect their total well-being. They are caught in a cycle. And once you get caught in the loop, it can be difficult to break free and do something meaningful. Past behavior is the most reliable predictor of future behavior.
If your daily actions and choices are making you unhappy, make a deliberate choice to change direction. No matter how bleak or desperate a situation may appear to look, you always have a choice. “People often come to me asking for medication. They are tired of their sad mood, fatigue, and loss of interest in things that previously gave them pleasure. ”…“Their days are routine: unsatisfying jobs, few friends, lots of boredom. They feel cut off from the pleasures enjoyed by others.
Here is what I tell them: The good news is that we have effective treatments for the symptoms of depression; the bad news is that medication will not make you happy. Happiness is not simply the absence of despair. It is an affirmative state in which our lives have both meaning and pleasure.” “In general we get, not what we deserve, but what we expect,” he says.
Most people know what is good for them, they know what will make them feel better. They don’t avoid meaningful life habits because of ignorance of their value, but because they are no longer “motivated” to do them, Dr Livingston found. They are waiting until they feel better. Frequently, it’s a long wait, he says. Life is too short to wait for a great day to invest in better life experiences.
Most unhappiness is self-induced, Dr Livingston found. “The three components of happiness are something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to. Think about it. If we have useful work, sustaining relationships, and the promise of pleasure, it is hard to be unhappy. I use the term “work” to encompass any activity, paid or unpaid, that gives us a feeling of personal significance. If we have a compelling avocation that lends meaning to our lives, that is our work, ” says Dr Livingston.
Many experiences in life that bring happiness are in your control. The more choices you are able to exercise, and control, the happier you are likely to be. “Happiness is an inside job. Don’t assign anyone else that much power over your life,” says Mandy Hale. Many people wait for something to happen or someone to help them live their best lives. They expect others to make them happy. They think they have lost the ability to improve their lives.
The thing that characterizes those who struggle emotionally is that they have lost, or believe they have lost, their ability to choose those behaviors that will make them happy, says Dr Livingston. You are responsible for your own life experiences, whether you are seeking a meaningful life or a happy life. If you expect others to make you happy, you will always be disappointed.
You can consistently choose actions that could become everyday habits. It takes time, but it’s an investment that will be worth your while. “Virtually all the happiness-producing processes in our lives take time, usually a long time: Learning new things, changing old behaviors, building new relationships, raising children. This is why patience and determination are among life’s primary virtues,”
Most people are stuck in life because of fear. Fear of everything outside their safe zones. Your mind has a way of rising to the occasion. Challenge it, and it will reward you. Your determination to overcome fear and discouragement constitutes the only effective antidote to that feeling on unhappiness you don’t want. Dr Livingston explains. “The most secure prisons are those we construct for ourselves. I frequently ask people who are risk-averse, “What is the biggest chance you have ever taken?” People begin to realize what “safe” lives they have chosen to lead.”
“Everything we are afraid to try, all our unfulfilled dreams, constitute a limitation on what we are and could become. Usually it is fear and its close cousin, anxiety, that keep us from doing those things that would make us happy. So much of our lives consists of broken promises to ourselves. The things we long to do — educate ourselves, become successful in our work, fall in love — are goals shared by all. Nor are the means to achieve these things obscure. And yet we often do not do what is necessary to become the people we want to be.”
As you increasingly install experiences of acceptance, gratitude, accomplishment, and feeling that there’s a fullness in your life rather than an emptiness or a scarcity, you will be able to deal with the issues of life better.
Closing thoughts: Dr Livingston’s words feel true and profound. The real secret to a happy life is selective attention, he says. If you choose to focus your awareness and energy on things and people that bring you pleasure and satisfaction, you have a very good chance of being happy in a world full of unhappiness, uncertainty, and fear."
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.”
The Poet: May Sarton, "Unison Benediction"
"Unison Benediction"
"Return to the most human,
nothing less will nourish the torn spirit,
the bewildered heart,
the angry mind:
and from the ultimate duress,
pierced with the breath of anguish,
speak of love.
Return, return to the deep sources,
nothing less will teach the stiff hands a new way to serve,
to carve into our lives the forms of tenderness
and still that ancient necessary pain preserve.
Return to the most human,
nothing less will teach the angry spirit,
the bewildered heart;
the torn mind,
to accept the whole of its duress,
and pierced with anguish…
at last, act for love."
~ May Sarton
"The Message of Pain: Valuable Information"
"The Message of Pain: Valuable Information"
by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM
"Both emotional and physical pain are messages that we need to stop and pay attention. When we feel pain, our first impulse is often to eradicate it with medication. This is an understandable response, but sometimes in our hurry to get rid of pain, we forget that it is the body's way of letting us know that it needs our attention. A headache can inform us that we're hungry or stressed just as a sore throat might be telling us that we need to rest our voice. If we override these messages instead of respond to them, we risk worsening our condition. In addition, we create a feeling of disconnectedness between our minds and our bodies.
Physical pain is not the only kind of pain that lets us know our attention is needed. Emotional pain provides us with valuable information about the state of our psyche, letting us know that we have been affected by something and that we would do well to focus our awareness inward. Just as we tend to a cut on our arm by cleaning and bandaging it, we treat a broken heart by surrounding ourselves with love and support. In both cases, if we listen to our pain we will know what to do to heal ourselves. It's natural to want to resist pain, but once we understand that it is here to give us valuable information, we can relax a bit more, and take a moment to listen before we reach for medication. Sometimes this is enough to noticeably reduce the pain, because its message has been heard. Perhaps we seek to medicate pain because we fear that if we don't, it will never go away. It can be empowering to realize that, at least some of the time, it is just a matter of listening and responding.
The next time you feel pain, either physical or emotional, you might want to try listening to your own intuition about how to relieve your pain. Maybe taking a few deep breaths will put an end to that headache. Perhaps writing in your journal about hurt feelings will ease your heart. Ultimately, the message of pain is all about healing."
The Universe
“Believe me, I know all about it. I know the stress. I know the frustration. I know the temptations of time and space. We worked this out ahead of time. They're part of the plan. We knew this stuff might happen. Actually, you insisted they be triggered whenever you were ready to begin thinking thoughts you've never thought before. New thinking is always the answer.”
“Good on you,”
The Universe
“Thoughts become things... choose the good ones!”
Gregory Mannarino, "Meltdown? Meltup? The Big Secret You Are Not Supposed To Know"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 12/28/21:
"Meltdown? Meltup?
The Big Secret You Are Not Supposed To Know"
"Cash is in Critical Condition - We are Living in Backwards Land"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, AM 12/28/21:
"Cash is in Critical Condition -
We are Living in Backwards Land"
“'Bidenflation' Is Systematically Destroying The Middle Class"
“'Bidenflation' Is Systematically Destroying The Middle Class"
by Michael Snyder
"Americans have more money in their pockets than they ever have before. That sounds like really great news, but it isn’t, because the cost of living is rising much faster than our incomes are. In addition, much of the “new wealth” that has been created over the past couple of years has ended up in the hands of the very wealthy, and this has caused the gap between the rich and the poor to grow even wider. As for the middle class, it is being systematically hollowed out by “Bidenflation”, and that process is only going to accelerate during the early stages of 2022.
Personally, I don’t like to use the term “Bidenflation” too much, because it is not entirely accurate. Without a doubt, the Biden administration has taken actions over and over again that have made the inflation crisis even worse. But it isn’t as if Joe Biden and his minions are the only ones responsible for this mess.
The creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 started us down the road that we are on today. Of course we could have exited this path at any time if U.S. voters had sent politicians to Washington that were committed to abolishing the Federal Reserve, but they didn’t do that.
In 1971, we reached “the beginning of the end” when President Nixon took the U.S. off the gold standard. Today, the value of the U.S. dollar is only a very small fraction of what it was back then.
The U.S. national debt hit a trillion dollars in the early 1980s, and it will hit the 30 trillion dollar mark in 2022. Our politicians have literally been committing national financial suicide, and both major parties are to blame.
In 2009, the Federal Reserve took the destruction of our currency to an entirely new level when they introduced “quantitative easing”. It was supposed to just be a “temporary measure”, but of course the Fed just kept doing it. Over the past couple of years the Federal Reserve has pumped more fresh money into our financial system than ever before, and this has greatly pleased investors. But it is also turning our currency into a joke.
Earlier today, I read an email from a reader that was quite alarmed that many new car dealers are now charging $5,000 to $10,000 above the sticker price for many of their vehicles. Of course the reason why they are able to get such prices is because we are now in a hyperinflationary environment.
Used vehicle prices have been rising very aggressively as well. In fact, Jim Bianco says that they have been going up even faster than Bitcoin… "Used auto prices are rising faster than bitcoin and other assets, according to market researcher Jim Bianco. “If you want to know what the best investment you probably had in 2021, it’s that car sitting in your driveway or in that garage,” the Bianco Research President told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Thursday. “It is appreciating faster than the stock market and lately faster than some cryptocurrencies.”
Isn’t that nuts? Over the past four months alone, the price of used vehicles has increased more than 20 percent… “In the last four months, they’ve gone up in price more than 20%. Not only is that more than the S&P, but over the last four months that’s more than bitcoin itself,” he said. “As of December 15, the latest set of data we’ve got, they’re just accelerating higher and higher right now. There’s no peak at least as of now.”
Home prices are going absolutely haywire as well. In fact, CNN is reporting that at the end of the third quarter U.S. home prices were up almost 20 percent compared to the same time in 2020… "Homeowners saw average home prices skyrocket nearly 20% through the third quarter compared to a year ago, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. It was the largest annual home price increase in the history of the agency’s House Price Index. And, in some hot markets, the price increase was double that." If your income hasn’t also gone up 20 percent over the past year, that means that you are falling behind.
Once upon a time, you could get a huge mansion for $500,000. Today, half a million dollars will get you a 700 square foot shack. And Zillow is projecting that home prices will soar even higher in 2022… "Over the next 12 months, Zillow foresees U.S. home prices rising 11% overall. While that would mark a slowdown from the 19.5% jump over the most recently measured 12-month window (between September 2020 and September 2021), the predicted price increase would still be a housing market that strongly favors sellers. For perspective, Fortune calculates the average rate of home price growth per year has been 4.6% since 1980."
The amount of money in our pockets is not what matters. Just look at Venezuela. Almost everyone in Venezuela is a “millionaire”, but almost everyone in the entire country is living in poverty because the money is virtually worthless. And we are headed down the exact same path.
The standard of living for the vast majority of Americans is eroding a little bit more with each passing day, but for the moment those at the very top of the economic food chain are doing great. In fact, they are buying more champagne than ever before… "Champagne sales are surging to record highs as 2021 comes to an end (back above what they were before the COVID pandemic hampered sales and kept people away from celebrations). Sales in 2021 are expected to top 5.5 billion euros ($6.2 billion), above a previous peak of 5 billion euros two years ago before the coronavirus pandemic, Jean-Marie Barillere, president of champagne industry group UMC, said."
I hope that they are enjoying these moments, because their laughter will turn to mourning soon enough. For years and years, people like me have been warning what would happen if we kept systematically destroying our currency. But our leaders in Washington just kept doing it anyway. Now a time of reckoning is upon us, and it is going to be so incredibly painful."
Gregory Mannarino, "Food And Energy Costs Continue To Surge Higher As The Economy Collapses Faster"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 12/28/21:
"Food And Energy Costs Continue To Surge
Higher As The Economy Collapses Faster"
"The Free and the Brave"
"The Free and the Brave"
by Todd Hayen
"Whatever happened to that (the free and the brave)? Whatever happened to the attitude that had Patrick Henry at the Virginia convention in 1775 say “give me liberty, or give me death”?
Whatever happened to the patriotic fervour and the uncanny commitment to face suffering and death that resulted in over two million young men volunteering for service in World War I, and five times that number volunteering to serve in World War II?
Whatever happened to the ability to conquer fear and ride on the excitement for adventure and potential for immeasurable success that drove hundreds of thousands of men and women into the wild, and dangerous, frontiers of the American West?
Whatever happened to the spirit that filled the souls of those that faced stark adversity, danger to life and limb, that lead over 50,000 hapless men and women (mostly men) into the jungles of Central America to build the Panama Canal? - ultimately killing over 5,000 of them as a result of accidents, all manner of diseases including malaria and dysentery?
What happened?
Yeah, this is about us, guys (me included!) Sure, women can be brave - any biological sexual orientation can activate the warrior archetype - but more commonly it is the gendered male that falls into this archetypal constellation. Bravery - a compulsion to protect those he loves, have a critical and logical assessment of a difficult situation, and the force and power, at the very least a potential force and power, ready to inflict whatever necessary to protect partner and family, community and nation. We, us men, have seemed to have lost much of that. Have we become a bunch of puss-balls?
Dr Mark McDonald, a prominent medical doctor with a speciality in psychiatry, doesn’t mince words when he says while describing the psychological state of men and women during this crises: "We essentially have men with no balls, and then we have histrionics, women who have no emotional containment, because there are no men to contain them anymore.”
Sexist? Maybe some will think so, but McDonald is not putting all the blame on one sex, or exclusively on the masculine or feminine archetypes, the responsibility here is rather well balanced.
What does this mean? Very basically it means we have created a culture that has done a pretty good job of emasculating men - the radical feminist movement, as well as a general lack of situations where men can express their “man-ness” in a healthy way, has been a big part of the problem.
“Toxic Masculinity” is a phrase and concept that has taken the world by storm, and contributes quite a bit to the confusion that men are experiencing while trying to ascertain what a “real man” is in today’s “anti male” culture. “Oh boo hoo” some of you may be saying. “Men, through their powerful patriarchal history of abusing women and treating them as inferior partners in relationships deserve a little pull back!” There certainly is truth to that, but two wrongs don’t make a right. You can’t carve out an essential part of being a “man” without some collateral damage, all the way around.
So what does being a “real man” have to do with bravery? A lot, actually. Facing adversity and danger, primarily in order to protect the physically weaker, is a very important attribute of the masculine archetype of warrior, or even king if you want to get more detailed about it. Historically and traditionally the man has been the protector, the physical, and sometimes intellectual (intelligence that is present in logic reasoning and critical thinking) found in masculine archetypes (again, archetypes both men and women have access to).
These attributes are primarily directed toward protection and outwardly projected as strength and resolve. This often stabilizes the more emotional feminine archetypal factors that again, typically, are activated by the female, or woman, in a relationship.
As a psychotherapist, and an archetypal psychologist at that, I see these archetypal powers and influences playing out in my clients every day. Most of the problems I find in a couple’s therapy stems from an imbalance, or a dysfunction, in these energies of masculine and feminine. Again, the “man” in a couple can be activating both masculine and feminine archetypes, as well as the “woman.” The problem comes in if the archetypes activated are inappropriate, out of balance, and create a result that is unexpected, undesired, or not beneficial. Most of these influences run in the unconscious, so very seldom are they consciously manipulated.
It wasn’t until I met Dr McDonald that I connected some very important dots. McDonald recently wrote and released a book titled "United States of Fear." The subtitle of the book, “How America Fell Victim to a Mass Delusional Psychosis” is the primary focus.
McDonald holds nothing back when he addresses what he believes to be a fundamental cause of this mass psychosis. He believes that women (feminine archetypes driving the woman’s behaviour) need a strong, and masculine man, to contain her emotionality (due to the unfettered expression of her feminine archetypes.) McDonald, in an interview given on Jerm Warfare, said:
"Do you think men with masks on make women feel safe? It only shows they have no balls. I’ve spoken with female police officers who see men in camouflage, tattooed, driving around in trucks with gun racks - wearing masks. They tell me, ‘this does not make me feel safe. This makes me afraid. If they are this scared of a virus, how will they react to a real threat - what’s going to happen when the bear comes out of the woods? What’s going to happen when a rapist tries to attack me? What’s going to happen when my children are going to be kidnapped by the man in the park, what are they going to do? With their mask on are they going to say, “Please stop. Please. Please.” They’re not going to put their lives on the line. They won’t even put their mouth on the line.’”
Harsh words, my brothers. Harsh words, but I think quite on the money. Is this the only thing that is driving the collapse we are seeing in those that cannot stand up to this current tyranny, and say “enough is enough, step back!” No, of course not, but, in my opinion, it is a large part of the problem.
Our culture, at least in the West, has been set up for this to happen. We have become more and more dependent on government taking care of us, thus losing our own personal drive to develop character and strength. We depend on government and authority to think for us, and tell us what is best for us, to, in a word, parent us. We comply, we stay children, and we ultimately suffer.
The brave hold onto what makes them free and are willing to fight for it. Freedom is a God given right, not one bestowed upon us by any other authority. The healthy masculine archetypes of warrior and king have at their side the symbolic sword representing their power over adversity and danger.
There is a time for the warrior to pull the sword from its scabbard just a few inches to allow the sun to glint off of its polished surface, flashing in the eyes of a potential enemy, letting them know who they are dealing with. And then there is the time to pull the sword completely free from its confines and slash what is seriously threatening the warrior and those he loves. Now is the time to fight."
○
“You cannot kill me here. Bring your soldiers, your death, your disease, your collapsed economy because it doesn’t matter, I have nothing left to lose and you cannot kill me here. Bring the tears of orphans and the wails of a mother’s loss, bring your God damn air force and Jesus on a cross, bring your hate and bitterness and long working hours, bring your empty wallets and love long since gone but you cannot kill me here. Bring your sneers, your snide remarks and friendships never felt, your letters never sent, your kisses never kissed, cigarettes smoked to the bone and cancer killing fears but you cannot kill me here. For I may fall and I may fail but I will stand again each time and you will find no satisfaction. Because you cannot kill me here.”
- Iain S. Thomas
"Stop and Assess"
"Stop and Assess"
by Jim Kunstler
"Reality is penetrating the fog and fury of propaganda spewed out over cable-TV news in what may be the last desperate full-out campaign to sell “vaccines” to the credulous. Omicron is a bust, despite the shrieking about overstuffed hospitals (they’re not) in The New York Times.
Just as there is a crack-up boom in the final stage of a financial crisis, there is a climactic surge of hysteria in the Covid-19 war against Western Civ. Now, Dr. Anthony Fauci is pushing proof-of-vaxx for US air travel because, “[a] vaccine requirement for a person getting on the plane is just another level of getting people to have a mechanism that would spur them to get vaccinated…” he laid it out on ABC News’s This Week show Sunday with Jonathan Karl.
Monday morning on NPR, Dr. Fauci was beating the drum about the unvaxxed being a menace to society as maxi-spreaders of omicron. Is it possible he hasn’t heard that the vaxxed are catching it at a greater rate despite their vaxxes than the unvaxxed? Do you know why? Because their previous vaxxes have de-tuned their immune systems, that’s why. By the way, so far, one death has been attributed to omicron in the US - and even that case is a muddle. And Dr. Fauci is beseeching the twice-vaxxed to go get boostered? Is he determined to wreck absolutely every immune system in the land? Kind of looks that way, a little bit.
I confess I am torn between two views of this fiasco. The first is that the notoriously incompetent Dr. Fauci and his colleagues (read RFK, Jr.s book) simply blundered through the Covid-19 disaster making a series of reckless choices, and about halfway through the crisis made the dastardly decision to cover-up their errors by doubling and tripling down on these mistakes. For instance, the policy to suppress and ban cheap and effective treatments that would have un-horsed their stupendously profitable “vaccines” from the emergency use authorization that got the mRNA cocktails into the public’s arms without proper testing. Some months down the road we will learn that this Fauci combine caused millions of people to die unnecessarily both from treatments withheld and from the adverse effects of vaxxes themselves.
The other view - that is becoming ever-harder to disregard - is that the Covid-19 pandemic was a deliberate program by a gang of powerful international adventurers to install a regime of surveillance and extreme control over formerly free citizens - all in the service of “re-setting” the ailing global financial system, reducing the population of elder pensioners to relieve the West’s payment obligations, and stifling industrial economies as a cure for climate change. It has sounded a little preposterous to me that such manifest evil, as otherwise seen only in James Bond movies and newsreels of the Nazis, could actually be true.
But it is looking more and more of-a-piece with actions like the years-long mischief between Dr. Fauci and the Wuhan lab; the preparatory positioning of the pharma companies for just such a pandemic, including patent filings, to enable the quick release of their dubious “vaccines;” the janky mail-in ballot election of 2020 with the installation of an obvious puppet President “Joe Biden;” the insane legislation agenda of the Democratic Party; the long-running Woke insurrection against Western culture, values, and common sense; and the arrant bad faith of the news media reporting all the above as dishonestly as possible
It may turn out to be various combinations of both views, with a uniting overlay of mass formation psychosis. In any case, I’m serenely convinced that we will learn the truth about all this, and perhaps not too far down the line. At this point, the official narratives are crazier than anything out of Alice in Wonderland, leading with the nakedly absurd idea that the vaxxed must be protected from the unvaxxed - though all are susceptible to Covid and equally capable of spreading it.
Do the doctors actually still believe this f**king nonsense? The ones on TV, maybe, but the rank-and-file must be getting rather nervous about what they have been responsible for in following the diktats of corrupt public health officials. (Keep your eye on suicides among them.)
On Sunday night, a monster of stupidity named Dr. William Schaffner, professor of infectious disease at Vanderbilt University, came on CNN and importuned Americans to get their children vaxxed. Do you suppose he is unaware of what these mRNA shots will do to children’s hearts, brains, and immune systems (nothing good, in case you haven’t been paying attention) as weighed against their near-zero risk of getting sick from Covid? Wouldn’t you like to know how much grant money this rascal’s lab is getting from the NIAID, NIH, or from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation?
This traditionally blank week between Christmas and New Year’s, when almost, nothing gets done, is the opportunity to stop-and-assess the situation. Do you not see what is going on? Will you allow yourself to keep getting hosed by illegitimate authorities? Do you want your personal sovereignty back? Do you want your country back? Will you go along with obvious malevolence just to avoid standing out and risking your status, your livelihood, your special privileges? Do you actually believe in what’s known as your sacred honor? And what relation it has to reality? Do you understand that periodically in history the human race goes crazy and does terrible things that it later regrets? This is one of those times."
Monday, December 27, 2021
"They're Working Relentlessly To Transform Our Society Into A Dystopian 'Big Brother' Hellhole"
"They're Working Relentlessly To Transform
Our Society Into A Dystopian 'Big Brother' Hellhole"
by Michael Snyder
"The past two years have fundamentally transformed just about every nation on the entire planet, and there will be no going back if the elite have their way. For more than a decade, I have been warning about the rapid growth of the “Big Brother” control grid all around us, but in 2020 and 2021 things have gone to an entirely new level. The pandemic has given them the perfect excuse to impose lockdowns, mask requirements, vaccine passports and mandatory injections all over the globe. They have used fear of the virus to get the vast majority of the world population to accept measures that they never would have accepted during normal times. As a result, now they can monitor us, track us and control us like never before.
In many areas, it has already gotten to a point where you can’t even live a normal life without a “vaccine passport” or some other proof that you are up to date on your injections. In New York City, people have been getting arrested just for ordering food without showing proof of vaccination. As a result of such authoritarian measures, the vaccination rate in the city is up to about 85 percent, but that still isn’t good enough for those in charge. So now they are going to be sending vaccination teams around to “encourage” those that have not been vaccinated to get their shots. Oh, and if you give in they will hand you $100 for being a good little servant of the system.
Sadly, it sounds like door to door vaccination teams will soon be coming to the UK as well. "Door-to-door teams armed with Covid jabs will be sent to the homes of unvaccinated Britons in plans being considered by Ministers to reach the estimated five million people yet to be inoculated. Discussions between the Department of Health, NHS England and No 10 over the past week have looked at a nationwide drive to send vaccine teams to areas with low uptake rates as a crucial way to avoid lockdown and other restrictions."
But at least the injections have not become mandatory in the United States and the UK just yet. However, an increasing number of nations are starting to move in that direction. Ecuador just mandated the injections for everyone that is at least five years old, it appears that Germany could make them mandatory early next year, and Austria is actually hiring people to hunt down “vaccine refusers”.
Yes, our world really is becoming one huge science fiction movie.
In Canada, the government was actually “secretly tracking 33 million phones” in order to gauge “the public’s responsiveness during lockdown measures”… "Canada – which has a population of 38 million – has admitted to secretly tracking 33 million phones during the Covid-19 lockown, according to the National Post, citing Blacklock’s Reporter which first noted the disclosure. The country’s Public Health Agency (PHAC) did so to assess “the public’s responsiveness during lockdown measures,” according to the report."
Canada has gone completely and totally nuts during this pandemic. But the Canadians still have a long way to go in order to top the insanity in New Zealand. Not too long ago, an anti-euthanasia group asked the Ministry of Health if a patient that is in the hospital with COVID is “eligible” for euthanasia…
"In November, anti-euthanasia group #DefendNZ asked the New Zealand Ministry of Health (MOH) questions about the practice of the nation’s End of Life Choice Act (EOLC Act). One of these questions was, “Could a patient who is severely hospitalised with Covid-19 potentially be eligible for assisted suicide or euthanasia under the Act if a health practitioner viewed their prognosis as less than 6 months?”
The response that the group got back was extremely alarming… "Doctors receive a government fee of $1,000 plus expenses for each person they kill through euthanasia. The MOH confirmed that such patients with COVID could be killed by lethal injection under the new euthanasia law. This includes patients who are considered to be dying from COVID or those who have extreme suffering from its effects. The MOH stated, “A terminal illness is most often a prolonged disease where treatment is not effective.” If you live in New Zealand and you get COVID, you will want to be very careful to clarify what someone means when they ask you if you want to “go to sleep”.
Of course all of the rules, regulations and mandates that have been imposed upon us are not for the elite. They appear to be operating under their own special set of rules, and this should make all of us very sick. I really like how Emerald Robinson made this point in her most recent article…
"Meanwhile, my colleagues in the corporate media spent their time in 2021 telling you that you could fly on a packed airplane but that your church was closed. That you couldn’t walk into your favorite local restaurant but Target and Walmart were always open for you. That your schools were shut down but left-wing political rallies were safe to attend. They treated CDC “guidelines” as law. They repeated with a straight face that your civil rights were basically suspended indefinitely - unless you were a member of Congress or Bill Gates. The overwhelming majority of my so-called colleagues in journalism spent the entire year celebrating this state of affairs. The stench of their treachery to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights will never be washed away."
Our freedoms and liberties are being systematically destroyed all around us, but many Americans don’t seem to care. Instead, they just continue to allow fear of the virus to push them into doing very irrational things. For instance, a riot almost erupted in Brooklyn on Friday when officials started to hand out “free at-home COVID-19 tests”… "Cops had to step in Friday as a crowd mobbed a Brooklyn corner where the city was giving away free at-home COVID-19 tests. Tempers flared as the larger-than-expected crowd descended on Flatbush and Church avenues, one of five spots in the Big Apple where city health officials were doling out tests amid a surge in demand over the holidays and lack of supply."
People were so desperate to get those tests that the police had to be called in. It reminded me of scenes that we would see on Black Friday in the pre-pandemic days, but in this case people were ready to fight to get their hands on free COVID tests.
Have we really sunk this low?
I was really hoping that the pandemic was starting to subside, but now this new Omicron variant has caused a tremendous wave of fear. And politicians will inevitably respond to all of this fear by imposing even more authoritarian measures. I have been shocked by how easy it has been for much of the global population to accept the authoritarian measures that have been imposed so far. If they are not willing to stand up to tyranny now, what will happen when much greater tyranny comes along later?
These are such dark times, and I believe that they will get even darker in 2022. The fiery grip of tyranny is getting a little tighter with each passing day, but much of the population of our planet does not seem to think that this is a problem."
"One Event Away From A Massive Reckoning; Debt Addiction Destroying Economy; Fake Markets"
Jeremiah Babe, PM 12/27/21:
"One Event Away From A Massive Reckoning;
Debt Addiction Destroying Economy; Fake Markets"
"The Great Worker Shortage Is Causing Basic Services To Really Break Down All Across America"
Full screen recommended.
"The Great Worker Shortage Is Causing Basic
Services To Really Break Down All Across America"
by Epic Economist
"We're right in the middle of the worst shortage of workers in modern times. Where did millions of American workers go? That's a great mystery that remains without an answer. With each passing month, thousands more workers simply vanish from the system. But all over the country, we can see "help wanted" signs as businesses scramble to hire new personnel and resume their normal operations. The number of people currently employed is still close to four million below the peak of the health crisis last year. So what has really happened to all of those extra workers? Before you start thinking that they're probably unemployed, recent data shows that this isn't what's happening.
Unemployment claims are at the lowest level in decades. Even though seasonal adjustments and health-crisis-induced distortions can have an impact on official figures, economists are saying that today's low level of unemployment is not as rosy as it seems. It is not an indication of a strong and resilient labor market, but it can actually underscore that we have a weaker labor market, given that there are fewer participants helping businesses to provide goods and services for consumers. The labor market is facing a severe crisis, and our economic growth is on the line.
Over the past couple of years, millions upon millions of workers have completely disappeared from the system and never came back, even after government stimulus programs have expired. As a consequence, this lack of workers is impacting all of our major industries and sectors. For instance, some of the largest banks in the United States are closing thousands of branches around the nation due to a shortage of staff members. The fresh round of closures has already started to speak anger, frustration, and confusion among customers. Banks are telling us that if your local branch has closed recently, it may be quite a while before it opens again.
The chaos happening in our healthcare sector right now is even more alarming. Staffing shortages are pushing some hospitals to the brink of financial ruin. Thousands of hospitals around the country are having an extremely hard time delivering basic services right in the middle of this new upsurge of virus cases. The number of qualified workers has been steadily declining, and the cost of hiring replacements is pushing some facilities straight into bankruptcy.
In a recent Bloomberg report, analysts of the sector are telling us that the healthcare profession is suffering its own Great Resignation, and with each passing week, more and more hospitals are falling into deep financial distress just as a winter wave of the virus emerges. That's what has happened in the Watsonville Community Hospital on California’s Central Coast. The facility's costs became too much to bear, and at the beginning of this month, the hospital filed for bankruptcy.
Unfortunately, we can't say this crisis comes as a surprise to anyone. For years, healthcare workers have been struggling with chronic underpayment and exceedingly long work hours, and to make things worse, the vaccine mandates caused the lay-off of thousands of professionals before being annulled late last month.
And the situation is likely to get worse because many hospital staff members are threatening to quit their jobs in the coming months. A recent survey conducted by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses found that staffing shortages are about to intensify as two-thirds of nurses in the country said that their experiences during the health crisis have prompted them to consider leaving the field. Meanwhile, the air travel industry is also suffering from serious staffing shortages.
During the past week, many airlines experienced a nightmare scenario as millions of holiday travelers crowded airports, but a lack of enough workers led to mass flight cancellations. The new wave of disruptions comes after roughly 1,000 flights into, out of, or within the US were canceled on Christmas and more than 3,000 were delayed. This is another crisis that isn't going to be solved any time soon. We have been losing people at an extremely alarming pace, and the resurgence of the virus is making many professionals afraid of coming back to their posts.
Our entire society has already started to fall apart all around us, and we have only started to feel the impacts of that. We have just gotten to a stage where even our most basic services are starting to falter. And when it comes to 2022, we should expect for the worse because our ongoing crises are only aggravating and our leaders remain asleep."
Gregory Mannarino, "Expect Global Debt And Inflation To Surge Much Higher, Faster"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 12/27/21:
"Expect Global Debt And Inflation To Surge Much Higher, Faster"
Musical Interlude: Ronan Hardiman, "Take Me With You"
Full screen recommended.
Ronan Hardiman, "Take Me With You"
"A Look to the Heavens"
“These clouds of interstellar dust and gas have blossomed 1,300 light-years away in the fertile star fields of the constellation Cepheus. Sometimes called the Iris Nebula, NGC 7023 is not the only nebula in the sky to evoke the imagery of flowers, though. Still, this deep telescopic view shows off the Iris Nebula's range of colors and symmetries in impressive detail.
Within the Iris, dusty nebular material surrounds a hot, young star. The dominant color of the brighter reflection nebula is blue, characteristic of dust grains reflecting starlight. Central filaments of the dusty clouds glow with a faint reddish photoluminesence as some dust grains effectively convert the star's invisible ultraviolet radiation to visible red light. Infrared observations indicate that this nebula may contain complex carbon molecules known as PAHs. The pretty blue petals of the Iris Nebula span about six light-years.”
"1492..."
"Before our white brothers arrived to make us civilized men, we didn't have any kind of prison. Because of this, we had no delinquents. Without a prison, there can be no delinquents. We had no locks nor keys and therefore among us there were no thieves. When someone was so poor that he couldn't afford a horse, a tent or a blanket, he would, in that case, receive it all as a gift. We were too uncivilized to give great importance to private property. We didn't know any kind of money and consequently, the value of a human being was not determined by his wealth. We had no written laws laid down, no lawyers, no politicians, therefore we were not able to cheat and swindle one another. We were really in bad shape before the white men arrived and I don't know how to explain how we were able to manage without these fundamental things that (so they tell us) are so necessary for a civilized society."
- John (Fire) Lame Deer, Sioux Lakota - 1903-1976
•
"This we know ...
The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth.
All things are connected like the blood that unites one family.
Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web he does to himself."
- Chief Seattle
•
"Only after the last tree has been cut down;
Only after the last fish has been caught;
Only after the last river has been poisoned;
Only then will you realize
that money cannot be eaten."
- Cree Indian Prophecy
•
"This we know ...
The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth.
All things are connected like the blood that unites one family.
Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web he does to himself."
- Chief Seattle
•
Only after the last fish has been caught;
Only after the last river has been poisoned;
Only then will you realize
that money cannot be eaten."
- Cree Indian Prophecy
•
"Teachers of children in the United States of America wrote this date on blackboards again and again, and asked the children to memorize it with pride and joy: 1492. The teachers told the children that this was when their continent was discovered by human beings. Actually, millions of human beings were already living full and imaginative lives on the continent in 1492. That was simply the year in which sea pirates began to cheat and rob and kill them. The chief weapon of sea pirates, however, was their capacity to astonish. Nobody else could believe, until it was too late, how heartless and greedy they were.”
- Kurt Vonnegut
○
"How Many Native Americans Were Living in 1492?"
"Answer 1: Estimates of the number of Native Americans in 1492 vary widely - from eight million to more than one hundred million."
Answer 2: There have been two estimates done, 1) by the US Government that estimates 25 Million Native Americans (this study was discounted as highly inaccurate) and 2) By independent researchers that show between 75 and 114 million Native Americans."
Answer 2: There have been two estimates done, 1) by the US Government that estimates 25 Million Native Americans (this study was discounted as highly inaccurate) and 2) By independent researchers that show between 75 and 114 million Native Americans."
○
"Native American Population 2021"
"According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the current total population of Native Americans in the United States is 6.79 million, which is about 2.09% of the entire population. There are about 574 federally recognized Native American tribes in the U.S."
"Untold Stories"
"Untold Stories"
Tales of nonsense, illusion, claptrap and fraud...
by Bill Bonner
Poitou, France - "It’s Monday. Time to get back to work. This week, in the lull between Christmas and the New Year, we’re going to look at the major news stories from 2021 that the press either denied without bothering to look… or simply failed to report at all.
One of the most important stories involved no more research than looking in the mirror. The corruption of the mainstream media was certainly worth a headline or two. Instead of reporting the news, the press practically became an active shooter itself… taking sides, right or left… scurrilously hiding, bending, or inventing the ‘facts’ to make its case, and gunning down any alternative views. In 2016, for example, the press claimed that the election was defiled by ‘Russian interference.’ Four years later, the election process was virginal again. Miraculous, no?
The World Atlas lists 4,416 cities with more than 150,000 population. The Covid 19 virus first appeared in the very one of them that was conducting research on it (the city of Wuhan in China). A pure coincidence, right?
The Biden administration says that evil corporations are conspiring to raise prices. They say the fastest price rises in 30 years for meat (up 20% for beef and 14.1% for pork - or Meatflation) is the result of a handful of greedy meatpackers. But prices are up just after the federales added about $5 trillion to the US money supply (Fed assets) in the last 24 months. Another coincidence?
You’d think the newshounds would want to know what was going on. But anyone who raises doubts or objections is quickly labeled a nut case or a conspiracy theorist.
Worlds, Old and New: Wait. Before we begin our week’s labor, let’s pause for a cup of coffee and a croissant. Here in France, half the people you meet are in a panic about the new Omicron strain of coronavirus. The other half are fed up with the hysteria and ready to move on. In public places, you are required to wear a mask inside. Restaurants and bars are supposed to check to make sure you are vaccinated or have a recent negative test result. Some do. Some don’t. And the gendarmes come along, occasionally, and ask to see your papers.
“First, the (Covid) tests were free,” says our local source. “Then they were free only if you were vaccinated. And now, they’re planning to eliminate the testing option; so you have to be vaccinated. Even if you have a negative test result, you still won’t be allowed in a restaurant. And even if you are vaccinated, you’ll need a negative test result too. “There’s a lot of faking going on,” our man continues. “You copy someone else’s ‘health pass.’ Shopkeepers are not allowed to ask for identification, so they have no way of knowing if those are your papers or not. Most don’t care anyway. They just want to see a paper so they can say they did their jobs.”
Surely, there’s an under-reported story there too. Or, at least an open question: Would people be better off if the politicians had kept out of it, leaving health issues to patients and their doctors? Again, curious minds will have to wait; the mainstream press won’t touch the story. And yes… life goes on in the Old World, much as it does in the New World – full of nonsense and illusions, claptrap and fraud.
US government debt now 122% of GDP:
Source: US Federal Reserve
And debt. Global debt rose by $20 trillion in the first six months of this year, according to the Institute of International Finance. It was the biggest year-over-year increase in debt since 1970. Total debt is now over $300 trillion.
Today’s enlightened democracies, all over the world, have extensive ‘nets’ meant to save Wall Street speculators, protect large corporations, and cushion the fall for anyone who can’t, or won’t, earn his own way in life... and, incidentally, keep the ruling elites in power by paying off the proles and insiders.
Over the Top: But nets cost money. And social distancing, lockdowns, and bailouts have taken trillions of dollars out of the global economy. To replace that, the feds everywhere have printed up new money – and spent it. And it’s led to huge deficits (tax receipts go down, ‘transfer’ payments go up)… and much more debt.
The whole planet produces goods and services (GDP) of about $90 trillion. In 2007, it already had huge debts, of nearly $150 trillion. But now, after the Wall Street and Covid bailouts, world debt is more than three times GDP. That alone tells you why ‘normal’ is no longer possible. At a normal-ish interest rate of 5%, just the interest on this debt would cost $15 trillion – or one-sixth of GDP – annually. Not possible.
In the US, public (government) debt has more than tripled since the beginning of the Wall Street Bailout after 2008. In the last two years alone, $5 trillion was added. And now, at nearly $29 trillion, and 122% of GDP, America’s government debt is fast approaching the bourne from which no monetary traveler returns.
That is, a country may be able to support an infinite amount of claptrap. But not an infinite amount of debt. And at a government debt/GDP ratio of 130% or more, a nation is almost guaranteed to crack up – with high rates of inflation, military takeover, depression, revolution… or some other man-made calamity.
And what’s this? The Congressional Budget Office says Biden’s Build Back Better Boondoggle program would add $4.7 trillion to the debt. That should do it! It should put us over the top… over the debt/GDP rate that spells doom.
One other thing the press has missed? The Fed’s so-called taper! The Fed’s balance sheet has grown by $125 billion since December 8th, according to its own data. Yet in early November it announced it would begin ‘tapering’ asset purchase by the end of the year. The total balance sheet is now at $8.79 trillion - up 107% since March of 2020.
Stay tuned… for more of the coincidences, oddities and time-bombs of 2021 that the press has largely failed to notice."
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