Jeremiah Babe, PM 12/29/21:
“Banks Seizing Cash And Gold; Illinois Destroyed;
California Exodus; Social Media Big Shots”
So, we rise from the rubble...
Wednesday, December 29, 2021
Gregory Mannarino, "The Economic Freefall Is Gaining Speed As The Stock Market Hits A New Record High"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 12/29/21:
"The Economic Freefall Is Gaining Speed As
The Stock Market Hits A New Record High"
"China Is Panic Buying For The Coming Famine, But The U.S. Is Taking A Completely Different Approach"
Full screen recommended.
"China Is Panic Buying For The Coming Famine,
But The U.S. Is Taking A Completely Different Approach"
by Epic Economist
"We're living in an era when scarcity continues to aggravate all over the world. Global food supplies are at alarmingly low levels while prices keep reaching new highs with each passing month. Extreme weather events and ravaging natural disasters have been affecting food production all across the planet, and the health crisis has undoubtedly pushed global supply chains over the edge. The situation is incredibly chaotic right now, and every time the supply chain crisis seems to be easing a new disruption emerges to take things back to square one. As a consequence, the UN is warning that the world is currently battling the worst hunger crisis in this century, and conditions are expected to get even worse in 2022. Unfortunately, this tragic crisis is far from ending. For a very long time, experts and economists have been sounding the alarm about global trends that indicated we were heading toward a terrifying global famine, and this is where we are now.
That's why we have been relentlessly stressing the importance of getting prepared for the challenges ahead and sharing the insights of experts that know the food industry from within. Apparently, the Chinese government is already aware that we're on the verge of a massive food crisis and they can see what is coming next. China has always been very concerned about preparing in advance for potential adversities. For that reason, officials have decided that that now is the time to hoard food, energy supplies, and other commodities. In fact, a recent article published by Nikkei Asia revealed that the Chinese government is hoarding food on an unprecedented scale. All over the country, government officials are issuing stockpiling orders for grains and other food supplies. And the amount of food that they are stockpiling right now is simply staggering. New data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture exposed that China is about to have 69 percent of the globe’s maize reserves by the end of the first half of crop year 2022, as well as 60 percent of its rice, and 51 percent of its wheat.
If things spiral out of control in 2022 or beyond, the Chinese government will have enough food supplies in their reserves for the entire population. Meanwhile, here in America, our government is taking a completely different approach. Once again, our leaders are failing to assess the severity of the problem. In the past, we did have programs in which the U.S. government stockpiled significant amounts of food to ensure supplies in times of crisis, but all of those programs have been terminated in recent years. Our current strategy is to let agricultural surpluses perish and go to waste 'not to disrupt trade flows and prices in the global market' -- which is as insane as it sounds.
Today, all we have are some seeds, a very limited amount of food, water, generators, and other commodities purchased for aid programs that are widely scattered across several distribution centers around the country. That's why we all should start building our own reserves while we still can because it is safe to say that our leaders aren't going to help us get out of a crisis like this. At this point, we can already see that food prices continue to climb higher with each passing day. Food inflation is a serious issue affecting millions of Americans. Over 24 million households reported facing food insecurity this year as prices rose to the highest level in decades.
According to a UN report, global food prices soared more than 30 percent over the past 20 months, the highest ever recorded in nearly four decades. The increase was partly driven by strong demand and worse than expected harvests. As global food supplies get tighter and tighter and production collapses due to supply chain problems and climate change, we have seen supermarkets and grocery stores all around the world struggling to keep their shelves fully stocked throughout this entire year. Don't be caught off guard when hunger crises start to erupt all over the world. The Chinese government is already working hard to prepare for that time, while the U.S. government is letting our economic conditions go from bad to worse. So if you're hoping our leaders will come to our rescue when things go downhill, you're going to be bitterly disappointed."
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Riding high in the constellation of Auriga, beautiful, blue vdB 31 is the 31st object in Sidney van den Bergh's 1966 catalog of reflection nebulae. It shares this well-composed celestial still life with dark, obscuring clouds recorded in Edward E. Barnard's 1919 catalog of dark markings in the sky. All are interstellar dust clouds, blocking the light from background stars in the case of Barnard's dark nebulae. For vdB 31, the dust preferentially reflects the bluish starlight from embedded, hot, variable star AB Aurigae.
Exploring the environs of AB Aurigae with the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed the several million year young star is itself surrounded by flattened dusty disk with evidence for the ongoing formation of a planetary system. AB Aurigae is about 470 light-years away. At that distance this cosmic canvas would span about four light-years.”
"Compassion..."
“Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what
it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge
that there can never really be any peace and joy for me
until there is peace and joy finally for you too.”
- Frederick Buechner
"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassions, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen. "
- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
"Ten Rules For Being Human"
"Ten Rules For Being Human"
"Rule One: You will receive a body. You may love it or hate it, but it will be yours for the duration of your life on Earth.
Rule Two: You will be presented with lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called 'life.' Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or hate them, but you have designed them as part of your curriculum.
Rule Three: There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of experimentation, a series of trials, errors, and occasional victories. The failed experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that work.
Rule Four: A lesson is repeated until learned. Lessons will be repeated to you in various forms until you have learned them. When you have learned them, you can then go on to the next lesson.
Rule Five: Learning does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.
Rule Six: 'There' is no better than 'here'. When your 'there' has become a 'here,' you will simply obtain a 'there' that will look better to you than your present 'here'.
Rule Seven: Others are only mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.
Rule Eight: What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you.
Rule Nine: Your answers lie inside of you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
Rule Ten: You will forget all of this at birth. You can remember it if you want by unravelling the double helix of inner knowing."
- Cherie Carter-Scott, From "If Life is a Game, These are the Rules"
The Poet: David Whyte, "Sweet Darkness"
"Sweet Darkness"
"When your eyes are tired the world is tired also.
When your vision has gone no part of the world can find you.
Time to go into the dark where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.
There you can be sure you are not beyond love.
The dark will be your womb tonight.
The night will give you a horizon further than you can see.
You must learn one thing: the world was made to be free in.
Give up all the other worlds except the one to which you belong.
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness
to learn anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you."
- David Whyte
"More Hospital Nurses Blow Whistle On “Overwhelming” Number Of Heart Attacks, Blood Clots Occurring In The Fully Vaccinated"
"More Hospital Nurses Blow Whistle On “Overwhelming” Number
Of Heart Attacks, Blood Clots Occurring In The Fully Vaccinated"
by Ethan Huff
(Natural News) "There is a wave of vaccine-induced illnesses sweeping Southern California hospitals, and a few brave nurses have come forward to talk about it. In Ventura County, located to the north of Los Angeles, cases of “unexplained” heart problems, strokes and blood clotting are skyrocketing at area hospitals. And many local doctors are refusing to link these events to Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) injections.
A critical care nurse at a Ventura County ICU came forward to tell the Conejo Guardian that he is “tired of all the B.S. that’s going on” as the medical establishment refuses to acknowledge the elephant in the room. “It’s crazy how nobody questions anything anymore,” this person, named Sam, is quoted as saying. Sam says that there has been a noticeable surge in young people experiencing these types of severe health problems after they get needled with the injections from Operation Warp Speed. “We’ve been having a lot of younger people come in,” Sam added. “We’re seeing a lot of strokes, a lot of heart attacks.”
In one case, a 38-year-old woman came to the emergency room with occlusions, or blockages of blood flow, in her brain. “They [doctors] were searching for everything under the sun and documenting this in the chart, but nowhere do you see if she was vaccinated or not,” Sam added. “One thing the vaccine causes is thrombosis, clotting. Here you have a 38-year-old woman who was double-vaccinated and she’s having strokes they can’t explain. None of the doctors relates it to the vaccine. It’s garbage. It’s absolute garbage.”
The vaccine-damaged are the ones flooding hospitals: In another instance, a 63-year-old woman with no previous cardiac history suffered a heart attack. Tests revealed that her coronary arteries were clean, however she had just taken a Moderna injection. “One doctor actually questioned the vaccine, but they didn’t mention it in the chart because you can’t prove it,” Sam said.
Sam says that hospitals all around the area are seeing a significant spike in myocarditis, a well-known adverse effect caused by Chinese Flu shots. “Everyone wants to downplay it – ‘It’s rare, it’s rare,'” Sam laments about how the medical establishment is not taking any of this seriously. “Doctors don’t want to question it. We have these mass vaccinations happening and we’re seeing myocarditis more frequently and nobody wants to raise the red flag. When we discuss the case, they don’t even discuss it. They don’t mention it. They act like they don’t have a reason, that it’s spontaneous.”
Another ICU nurse by the name of Dana told the Conejo Guardian that her facility has “never been this busy,” and that “none of it is Covid-19.” “We don’t normally see this amount of strokes, aneurysms and heart attacks all happening at once,” Dana says. “Normally we’ll see six to ten aortic dissections a year. We’ve seen six in the last month. It’s crazy. Those have very high rates of mortality.”
Almost never do the doctors at Dana’s hospital ever even consider the fact that Wuhan Flu shots might be responsible for all this. Instead, they are blaming things like “the holidays” for this sudden uptick, which makes zero sense “I don’t understand how you can look at what’s going on and come up with just, ‘Yeah, it’s the holidays.’ There’s been a big change in everybody’s life, and it’s the vaccine.” The vast majority of admitted patients are fully vaccinated, and yet an unprecedented number of them, Dana says, are “on pressers to keep their blood pressure up, people on ventilators, clotting issues, so we have a lot of Heparin drips to make sure they don’t stroke out.”
○
Related:
More of the latest news about Fauci Flu injections
can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.
"Beware of the Economic Flashpoints for 2022 - It's Time to Prepare"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, AM 12/29/21:
"Beware of the Economic Flashpoints for 2022 -
It's Time to Prepare"
"You need to be prepared for 2022. The Banks want you to believe that 2022 will be problem free. We all need to be aware of the Economic Flashpoints that are coming."
Gregory Mannarino, "U.S. Trade Deficit Rips Higher With The Economy In FREEFALL"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 12/29/21:
"U.S. Trade Deficit Rips Higher With The Economy In FREEFALL"
"Empty Shelves Everywhere At Target! What's Coming?"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 12/29/21:
"Empty Shelves Everywhere At Target! What's Coming?"
"In today's vlog we are at Target with empty shelves everywhere! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and to get a few items of course they don't have. It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
"Look To This Day..."
"Look To This Day..."
"Look to this day
for it is life,
the very life of life.
In its brief course lie all
the realities and truths of existence,
the joy of growth,
the splendor of action,
the glory of power.
For yesterday is but a memory,
And tomorrow is only a vision.
But today well lived
makes every yesterday a memory
of happiness,
and every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day..."
- Kalidasa
"China Is Feverishly Preparing For The Coming Global Famine, But The U.S. Is Taking A Completely Different Approach"
"China Is Feverishly Preparing For The Coming Global Famine,
But The U.S. Is Taking A Completely Different Approach"
by Michael Snyder
"We live at a time when global food supplies are getting tighter and tighter and global food prices just keep going higher and higher. Bizarre weather patterns and widespread natural disasters have been playing havoc with food production all over the planet, and the COVID pandemic has thrown worldwide supply chains into a state of complete and utter chaos. As a result, the world is “currently battling the worst hunger crisis this century”, and it is expected to get even worse in 2022. Of course this is just the beginning. For a very long time, I have been warning that global trends indicate that we are heading toward a horrifying global famine, and that is just one of the reasons why I have been relentlessly encouraging my readers to get prepared while they still can.
Apparently, the Chinese government can also see what is coming, because right now they are hoarding food on an unprecedented scale… "Less than 20% of the world’s population has managed to stockpile more than half of the globe’s maize and other grains, leading to steep price increases across the planet and dropping more countries into famine." The hoarding is taking place in China. If everything is going to be just fine, why would China be doing this? It simply would not make sense.
But if famine is on the way, the Chinese are being extremely prudent. And the amount of food that they are now stockpiling is definitely eye-popping… "According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, China is expected to have 69% of the globe’s maize reserves in the first half of crop year 2022, 60% of its rice and 51% of its wheat."
If things hit the fan in 2022 or beyond, Chinese officials have ensured that their people are going to be able to eat. In fact, they are estimating that their wheat reserves could meet demand “for one and a half years”… "China is maintaining its food stockpiles at a “historically high level,” Qin Yuyun, head of grain reserves at the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, told reporters in November. “Our wheat stockpiles can meet demand for one and a half years. There is no problem whatsoever about the supply of food.”
So what is the U.S. doing? Surely we must be stockpiling lots of food too, right? Sadly, we aren’t. There were times in the past when the U.S. government stockpiled large amounts of food, but those programs have mostly been eliminated… "The government has in the past stockpiled food, but these programs were mainly to support farmers hurt by low prices. For example, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) bought surplus dairy products, which it distributed to Americans via various welfare programs."
At this point, the U.S. government does not anticipate that there will be a need to supply food to the entire country. The U.S. does have some commodities that it has purchased for aid programs, and there is a very limited amount of food, water and generators at eight widely scattered FEMA distribution centers… "Today, the USDA still buys various commodities for both domestic and international food aid programs. It also maintains a vault in Fort Collins, CO, that houses thousands of plant species and genetic material of livestock in the event of a disaster. The SNS does not contain food reserves, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) stockpiles food, water, generators, and other resources in eight distribution centers located in the United States and its territories."
In the event of a major national emergency, the very limited amount of food that the U.S. government has on hand will be gone almost immediately. Once it is gone, you will be on your own. I would suggest that you prepare accordingly.
With each passing day, the price of food just continues to go even higher. According to a CNN report that was published in November, the global price of food had risen “more than 30% over the past year”… "The FAO Food Price Index tracks monthly changes across a range of food commodities. The index has risen by more than 30% over the past year."
Food prices are going to go even higher in 2022, and this is going to push millions more people around the globe into hunger. But don’t worry, because the elite in the western world have a solution. As our friends at Zero Hedge have pointed out, they are now encouraging all of us to eat bugs as global food supplies get tighter… "So without a doubt, Beijing has been stockpiling food to avoid a collapse as central bankers have yet to figure out how to print food from thin air. But don’t worry, as the global food situation worsens, we’re all likely going to be forced to eat crickets, worms, and grasshoppers."
Does the idea of chomping down on a crunchy grasshopper make you salivate? If not, you might want to stockpile food while you have the opportunity to do so. The past couple of years have shown us how vulnerable our supply chains really are, and the shortages we are now experiencing are not going away any time soon.
Eventually, there will be severe famines all over the planet. The Chinese are working really hard to prepare for that time, and the U.S. government is not. So if you are counting on the government to save you when things get really crazy, you are going to be severely disappointed."
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Related:
Visit here for article and larger size graphic:
Tuesday, December 28, 2021
The Poet: Maya Angelou, “Alone”
“Alone”
“Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home,
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone.
I came up with one thing
And I don't believe I'm wrong,
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone,
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.
There are some millionaires
With money they can't use,
Their wives run round like banshees,
Their children sing the blues.
They've got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone,
But nobody,
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone,
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Now if you listen closely
I'll tell you what I know...
Storm clouds are gathering,
The wind is gonna blow.
The race of man is suffering,
And I can hear the moan,
'Cause nobody,
But nobody,
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone,
Nobody, but nobody,
Can make it out here alone.”
- Maya Angelou
"Blinded By The Glare..."
"In 'The Republic', Plato imagines human beings chained for the duration of their lives in an underground cave, knowing nothing but darkness. Their gaze is confined to the cave wall, upon which shadows of the world are thrown. They believe these flickering shadows are reality. If, Plato writes, one of these prisoners is freed and brought into the sunlight, he will suffer great pain. Blinded by the glare, he is unable to seeing anything and longs for the familiar darkness. But eventually his eyes adjust to the light. The illusion of the tiny shadows is obliterated. He confronts the immensity, chaos, and confusion of reality. The world is no longer drawn in simple silhouettes. But he is despised when he returns to the cave. He is unable to see in the dark as he used to. Those who never left the cave ridicule him and swear never to go into the light lest they be blinded as well."
- Chris Hedges
“Father, O Father!"
“Father, O father! what do we here
In this land of unbelief and fear?
The Land of Dreams is better far,
Above the light of the morning star.”
- William Blake, “The Land of Dreams”
○
"Dreams are true while they last,
and do we not live in dreams?"
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
"I'm Buying More Food And Gold Now; Economy Is Dead; Cheap Money Will Crash Housing Market"
Jeremiah Babe, PM 12/28/21:
"I'm Buying More Food And Gold Now; Economy Is Dead;
Cheap Money Will Crash Housing Market"
"It May Be Necessary..."
"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.
In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats,
so you can know who you are, what you can rise from,
how you can still come out of it."
- Maya Angelou
Michael Bolton,
"When I'm Back On My Feet Again"
"A Great Depression For The 21st Century: Gold, Silver, Bitcoin, Housing Will Crash"
Full screen recommended.
"A Great Depression For The 21st Century:
Gold, Silver, Bitcoin, Housing Will Crash"
by Epic Economist
"'Rich Dad Poor Dad's' Robert Kiyosaki is sharing a very gloomy prediction for the near-term outlook: The everything bubble has burst and now it's time for several asset classes to face a 'giant' crash. An economic depression is also looming on the horizon and the unprepared will be left empty-handed. In a series of new tweets published in his personal Twitter account, Robert Kiyosaki is once again warning about a devastating stock market crash. Only this time, the expert is saying that the event will be followed by an economic depression like no other.
While the S&P peaks, under the surface of the market, the bubble has started to deflate. Worries about inflation and the new variant are still rising, that's why Robert says that danger is lurking. The famous author is warning that investors should brace for a 'sweeping market crash and painful economic downturn' in the coming months. For a long time, the expert has been sounding the alarm about the 'biggest crash in the world’s history, arguing that we're witnessing a giant bubble and the U.S. economy cannot support current stock valuations, especially when considering inflation versus real growth numbers.
Although Kiyosaki remains very firm in his ultra-bearish position, he revealed that he's planning to scoop up several assets once prices go down and before the U.S. economy slides into a depression. In fact, in a recent interview, Kiyosaki claimed that we are already in a “technical depression,” meaning that we might already be in the initial stages of a major economic slowdown, so investors must stay alert. Unlike other bearish analysts, he openly admits that he has every intention to capitalize on the next sell-off, arguing that it is a buying opportunity, but also a very worrying prospect. "The good news is the best time to get rich is during a crash," the founder of Rich Global and Rich Dad Company tweeted earlier this year. "Bad news is the next crash will be a long one". "Be aware. Take care," he continued.
Kiyosaki disclosed how he is going to prepare for this inevitable downturn: Bitcoin, gold, silver, and real estate are going to be his investments of choice after prices crash. “I love Bitcoin because I do not trust Fed, Treasury, or Wall Street,” the expert tweeted last month. He also exposed that he was buying more Bitcoin and Ether as inflation concerns rise and prices fluctuate. Bitcoin is starting to be seen as an alternative to cash, as more and more people lose trust in fiat money. As opposed to cash, Bitcoin can’t be printed out of thin air. The same goes for gold, one of his other favorite assets. “I’m not buying gold because I like gold, I’m buying gold because I don’t trust the Fed,” the author highlighted.
Silver is also one of his preferred assets. For some, the grey metal may not seem as appealing as gold, but the author insists that it could be an even greater opportunity considering its price action. Just like gold, silver can be an effective form of wealth protection. But it’s much more than a safe haven asset. The metal is used in the production of solar panels and many components of electrical vehicles. Thus, the industrial demand and its hedging properties can make silver a very exciting asset class for investors to hold on to.
Last but not least, a real estate crash seems to be approaching. And when prices face a much-needed correction, investing in properties can provide protection and great returns to investors, according to Kiyosaki. This week, he warned that the Evergrande debt crisis will spill over the U.S. economy and collapse the price of U.S. stocks and real estate, resulting in bargains for smart investors to take advantage of, but a financial disaster for the reckless and unprepared.
Kiyosaki is clearly worried that investors are way too confident that the bullish run will continue and aren't repositioning their portfolios for a market meltdown that may come without warning. Considering the huge piles of money being poured into meme stocks and volatile assets, risks are extremely high. The financial guru admits that economic booms and skyrocketing asset prices are exciting, but cautioned that the subsequent slumps are horrifying to live through. "Booms are fun. Everyone is excited," he tweeted. "Busts are terrifying. Crashes are terrifying." Several asset bubbles have already burst and many more will do the same over the next few weeks. A 'terrifying' stock market crash is fast approaching, and we all should get prepared for the worst. Or, as Kiyosaki asked his followers, "If the market falls out tonight, will you be richer or poorer?"
"COVID and the Noble Lie"
"COVID and the Noble Lie"
by Brian Maher
"The concept of the “noble lie” was advanced by Plato millenia ago. The noble lie is a lie intended to serve a higher purpose. Zeus may not strike a man dead if he bludgeons his neighbor and steals his goods. But if the masses believed it, peaceful societal order was the result. Society’s elites therefore hold out the noble lie.
Today we republish an article we originally ran on May 19. It details how public health authorities hatched a noble lie to terrify citizens into accepting draconian social controls in response to the virus. In our estimation, the noble lie is alive and well in the age of COVID. Read on."
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"COVID-19 and the Noble Lie"
by Brian Maher
“Unethical”... “dystopian”... “totalitarian”... These are the words of the British government’s primary scientific advisory bunch - the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behavior, by title. These scientific advisors presently droop their heads in shame. For these are the very words they employ to describe their own conduct.
They concede: Last March their wicked counsel encouraged government officials to wildly inflate the true viral threat. Only a pitiless torturing of facts - argued these men and women of science - could terrify the public into locking themselves in, locking themselves up, locking themselves down.
The London Telegraph: "In March [2020] the Government was very worried about compliance and they thought people wouldn’t want to be locked down. There were discussions about fear being needed to encourage compliance, and decisions were made about how to ramp up the fear." Fear came ladling out by the ton. Millions and millions would perish in agonies scarcely describable, they howled. The hospitals would overflow into the streets, they screeched. Only the near-cessation of all public life could cage the menace. The halfway men, the men counseling a measured response… were drummed out of court.
“Using Fear Smacks of Totalitarianism”: Group psychologist Gavin Morgan, confessing his atrocities: "Clearly, using fear as a means of control is not ethical. Using fear smacks of totalitarianism. It’s not an ethical stance for any modern government. By nature I am an optimistic person, but all this has given me a more pessimistic view of people."
A pity, it is, that this fellow is not a Daily Reckoning reader. We would have squeezed the optimism from him long ago… and pumped in an implacable pessimism. It would have spared him an awful letting-down, a massacre of his innocent delusions.
Here another (unnamed) scientific advisor enters the confession booth: "The way we have used fear is dystopian. The use of fear has definitely been ethically questionable. It’s been like a weird experiment. Ultimately, it backfired because people became too scared."
Another member was “stunned by the weaponization of behavioral psychology.” Yet another head-shrinker likens his witchcraft to mind control: “You could call psychology ‘mind control.’ That’s what we do…” Might we suggest another term for what they do? Might that term be… ‘propaganda?
Propaganda: Let us consult Mr. Webster and his famous thesaurus. He defines propaganda this way: "Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view… ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause."
We will assume the Telegraph’s reporting in this instance is authentic. If true... has not the British government… purposefully broadcast propaganda? We are compelled to conclude it has. And since the United States government let out similar shrieks, can we conclude it too has broadcast propaganda - and for identical reasons? ‘Maybe it did,’ you argue. ‘But the government needed to exaggerate the threat, else too few people would take it seriously. More people would have died. They did what they needed to do.’
That is, you give a wink and nod towards what Plato labeled “the noble lie.” It may be a lie, you allow. But it is a lie conscripted in the service of a higher good. Perhaps your argument has juice in it. But is not a noble lie… nonetheless a lie? And should democratic governments lie to We the People, however nobly? As well heave the civics books into the hell box.
Noble Lies: The men gathered at Philadelphia in 1787 lacked authorization to draft a Constitution. Their mandate was to sand down the rougher edges of the Articles of Confederation, to rub on some polish, to give a slight renovation. They instead dynamited the thing to bits and pieces. The public was denied all knowledge of their mischiefs, denied all voice in the outcome. It represented - in essence - a coup, a treason against the United States.
Yet it glows in history as the Miracle at Philadelphia. We label the plotters “Founding Fathers.” And they mounted Olympus rather than the gallows. For good or ill, we leave that verdict to you, our reader. Yet they had no warrant to craft a constitution.
The Good Guys Don’t Always Sport White Hats: Mr. Lincoln was no more determined to banish slavery than a bought policeman is determined to banish the narcotics trade. He would look away from Southern evil so long as he could count his tariffs at the ports of Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans. What does the noble lie mistell us? That Old Abe was monomaniacal against the scourge of chattel slavery… and that “every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword.”
Here is another noble lie: The Kaiser’s soldaten bayoneted Belgian babies during the First World War. In August 1914, the British scissored the undersea German communications cables running west to American shores. All trans-Atlantic flows would therefore issue from the British Foreign Office… the same British Foreign Office that sweated mightily to enlist the United States in its cause. Hence the dreaded Hun’s skewering of poor Belgian infants and similar atrocities.
Come now to Dec. 8, 1941… Dastardly, Yes. But unprovoked? Roosevelt - Franklin Delano - raged against Japan’s dastardly and unprovoked attack the morning prior. Yet was it entirely unprovoked?
In July 1941, the United States government froze all Japanese assets in its possession. In August 1941, the United States government embargoed oil and gasoline exports to Japan. Over 80% of Japan’s supply shipped in from the United States. Officials knew well that Japan might take a desperate armed lunge in response. These men believed war was all but assured. But it was critical that Japan deliver the initial blow… to incense the American public.
United States War Secretary Henry Stimson, reflecting on the wrecks of Pearl Harbor: “My first feeling was of relief... that a crisis had come in a way which would unite all our people.”
Picking Fights With Germans: Prior to Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy had also been initiating jousts against German U-boats along the Atlantic convoy routes. Was the United States a neutral power prior to December 1941? And did razzing German U-boats constitute a breach of this neutrality? Many historians will tell you Roosevelt was attempting to lure the Germans into another Lusitania trap. But Herr Hitler spotted the worm wriggling upon Mr. Roosevelt’s hook. He ordered his men to avoid all tangles with vessels flying the neutral flag of the United States. He laced into any U-boat man who gobbled the American bait - even in strictest defense.
Not Defending Japan or Germany: Let it go immediately into the record: We do not throw in with the Japanese Empire… or the Austrian corporal’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party. In our residence, Victory in Europe Day and Victory Over Japan Day are events of high revelry. They are third only to Independence Day and Flag Day.
Once, under the heavy instigation of liquor, we even hung Herr Hitler in effigy - and set his mannequin aflame. We additionally made a voodoo doll of Tojo… and gave his ghost a frightful jabbing. We merely wish to illustrate that truth is war’s first battlefield fatality. The lie may or may not be noble. But a lie it often is. Examples multiply and multiply.
The Noble Lie of Climate Alarmism: The noble lie lives yet… as the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behavior demonstrates. In recent years, the noble lie has also covered the planet itself - climate change. Alarmists insist we perch perilously upon the devil’s shovel. If man continues coughing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, Earth will catch a raging fever. Thus the world no longer confronts “climate change.” It confronts a “climate crisis.”
The noble lie writes the warrant for the mass merchandising of alarm. Stanford climate scientist Stephen Schneider: "On the one hand, as scientists we are ethically bound to the scientific method... On the other hand, we are not just scientists but human beings as well. To do that we need to get some broad based support, to capture the public’s imagination. That, of course, means getting loads of media coverage. So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest."
There, in a walnut shell, you have the noble lie.
Crying Wolf: The noble liars have yelled wolf so often, so loudly, they have cashed in their credibility. Here is the danger: One day the wolf may truly snarl at the door. An authentic plague or environmental cataclysm may menace us. But they have already squandered their credit. They will shout wolf and shout wolf and shout wolf again… telling a noble truth... Only this time... no one will heed them."
Musical Interlude: Yanni, “World Dance”
Yanni, “World Dance”,
with Samvel Yervinyan, Victor Espinola, and Sayaka Katsui
"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
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