“10 Things You Should Know About Life’s Most Important Questions”

“10 Things You Should Know About Life’s 

Most Important Questions”

by Marc Chernoff

“It’s a harsh fact that every one of us is ignorant in some way. Although we tend to pretend otherwise, it’s impossible to know it all. Ignorance is our biggest collective secret. And it’s one of the scariest and most damaging realities of life, because those of us who are most ignorant – and thus most likely to spread ignorance – are also the ones who often don’t know it.

Here’s a quick test: If you have never changed your mind about one of your learned beliefs, if you have never questioned the fundamentals of your opinions, and if you have no inclination to do so, then you are likely ignorant about something you think you know.

What’s the quickest solution? Get outside and find someone who, in your opinion, believes, behaves, and handles certain aspects of life very differently from you, and just have a simple, honest conversation with them. I promise, some of life’s most important questions will become clearer by doing so. And it will do both of you lots of good. Once you’ve done that, here are some key things to remember:

1. Many of the biggest misunderstandings in life could be avoided if we would simply take the time to ask, “What else could this mean?”

2. An expert is not a person who gives all the right answers; she’s the one who asks the right questions. (Be aware of emotional manipulation.)

3. Very few of us actively seek new knowledge in this world on a daily basis. We get comfortable with what we know, and we stop questioning things. On the contrary, we try to squeeze from the unknown the answers we have already shaped in our own minds – judgments, justifications, validations, forms of consolation without which we might feel incomplete or off-center. To really ask something new is to open the door to the storm.  And the answer just may blow us away.

4. If someone can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about how they answer you.

5. Monsters do exist in the real world, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous in the long run. More dangerous are the common people with good intentions who are instantly ready to believe and act without asking questions.

6. At the end of the day, the questions you ask of yourself determine the type of person you will become.

7. Courage doesn’t happen when you have all the answers. It happens when you are ready to face the questions you have been avoiding your whole life. 

8. When it comes to your relationships: Does he/she treat you with respect at all times? That’s the first question. The second question is: If he/she remains the exact same person ten years from now, would you still want to be in a relationship with him/her? And finally, does he/she inspire to be a better human being? When you find someone that you can answer yes to all three questions, you know you’ve found yourself a relationship worth having.

9. Regardless of how much you know, or how many incredible questions you ask, you can never know it all. To believe that you do, is proof of the contrary. The wilderness around us always holds answers to more questions than we have yet learned to ask. And that’s a beautiful thing.

10. Although life will always be filled with unanswered questions, it’s the courage to seek the answers that counts – this journey is what gives life meaning.  Ultimately, you can spend your life wallowing in frustration and misery, wondering why you were the one who was chosen to deal with your problems, or you can be grateful that you are strong enough and smart enough to grow from them. 

Your turn: Be present and have patience with everything that remains unexplained in your heart and mind. Try to love life’s questions. Like locked doors or like good books written in foreign languages, respect their nature. Don’t expect all the answers to come easy. They cannot be given to you right now because your present understanding isn’t ready yet. It’s a question of experiencing everything first. Right now you need to hold on to the questions – explore, learn, and live your life. Perhaps, as you do, you will gradually find yourself experiencing the answers you always wanted.

So with that said, which of the reminders above hit home the most? Why? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts and insights with us.”

- http://www.marcandangel.com/

The Poet: Czeslaw Milosz, “Hope”

“Hope”

“Hope is with you when you believe

The earth is not a dream but living flesh,

That sight, touch, and hearing do not lie,

That all things you have ever seen here

Are like a garden looked at from a gate.

You cannot enter. But you’re sure it’s there.

Could we but look more clearly and wisely

We might discover somewhere in the garden

A strange new flower and an unnamed star.

Some people say we should not trust our eyes,

That there is nothing, just a seeming,

These are the ones who have no hope.

They think that the moment we turn away,

The world, behind our backs, ceases to exist,

As if snatched up by the hands of thieves.”

- Czeslaw Milosz,

“Hope”, from “The World”

"We All Got Problems..

"We all got problems. But there's a great book out called "Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart." Did you see that? That book says the statute of limitations has expired on all childhood traumas. Get your stuff together and get on with your life, man. Stop whinin'about what's wrong, because everybody's had a rough time, in one way or another."

- Quincy Jones

○

"If the sun is shining, stand in it, yes, yes, yes. Happy times are great, but happy times pass - they have to, because time passes. The pursuit of happiness is more elusive; it is life-long, and it is not goal-centered. What you are pursuing is meaning, a meaningful life, and there are times when it will go so wrong that you will be barely alive, and times when you realize that being barely alive, on your own terms, is better than living a bloated half-life on someone else's terms."

- Jeanette Winterson

"The War Against Will"

"The War Against Will"

by Paul Rosenberg

"The modern world will allow you to join any of a thousand collectives, but it will punish you for standing on your own, as a self-willed entity. People who commit this crime understand that they are outlaws in the present world. And if at first they don’t understand that, the world makes sure they know.

The world as it is, then, is the enemy of will. This is nothing new, of course, governments have been at war against will since they began: How else can you get people to blindly obey you, to hand over half their income, and to thank you for it? People who possess a full and active will must be convinced to do things, and governments couldn’t function if they had to do that.

The present world is built around the restraint of will, and not just on the government level. Advertising, for example, is more or less devoted to implanting subconscious desires and subverting the will with them. In dysfunctional families, manipulating one another – whether by guilt, ridicule, being left out of Papa’s will or whatever – is the currency of the realm.

And so obedience, consumption and acquiescence have become cardinal virtues, and the avoidance of immediate pain the prime directive. As we might paraphrase an old apostle, this world’s God is the belly.

The Willful, For Whom Heaven And Earth Were Created: All human creativity functions on individual will. Everyone interested in creativity knows this, and here are just a couple of passages to make the point:

"Everything that is really great and inspiring is

created by the individual who can labor in freedom."

- Albert Einstein

"This I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the

individual human is the most valuable thing in the world."

- John Steinbeck

It is the active will of individuals that has created everything good in this world. Really, life comes down to a choice between creativity and entropy:

• The world (the realm of officialdom, acquiescence and so on) is an incarnation of entropy, winding down and collapsing once the fuel left to it by creative men and women of the past is burned out.

• The creatives, who are willing to take blows in defense of their willfulness, and who bless the world in myriad ways

The willful, then, are creativity incarnate; the universe is and ought to be dedicated to beings of their type. It should also be populated by beings of their type, and I think someday shall be. This is not to say that entropic people can’t make their way out of entropy and join the creatives; in fact they can, and do, on a daily basis. Still, it is a gulf that must be crossed, and the only way across is to act on one’s own will, alone, and for purely self-generated reasons. That is the price.

The Automated War On Will: The great threat of the modern world is a system I call Descartes’ Demon, the Big Data/AI personalized manipulation system that is already in daily use. I held back talking about this for years, seeing that it was too much for people to bear, but the beast has progressed so far that I can’t see holding back any further.

The Matrix, as it turns out, was all too true, and its world is now the world of Facebook, Twitter and especially Google. The real-life version of The Matrix is functional, right now. (See here for explanation, or here for illustration.) What personalized manipulation is really all about is the subversion of individual will. And if you don’t think it’s happening, pull up YouTube on your smart phone, then ask your friend to pull it up on his or hers: You’re already receiving personalized pages. The world is deeply committed to passing this off as trivial and ridiculing those that don’t. But it isn’t trivial; it’s a present and actual war against free will.

We Are Inherently Creative: Humans are inherently creative beings. We cannot create matter out of nothing, but we can mold it to an infinite number and variety of uses. We are the fountains of new and beneficial action in the universe. And we ought to function that way.

I’ll leave you with a few words from Albert Schweitzer: "Civilization can only revive when there shall come into being in a number of individuals a new tone of mind independent of the one prevalent among the crowd and in opposition to it… It is only an ethical movement which can rescue us from the slough of barbarism, and the ethical comes into existence only in individuals." This is what we need… and we need it now."

- https://freemansperspective.com/

•

Full screen recommended.

"They Live"

Those who know, know...

•

"This I Believe...

“This I believe: That the free, exploring mind of the individual

human is the most valuable thing in the world.

And this I would fight for:

the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected.

And this I must fight against:

any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual.”

- John Steinbeck

Bill Bonner, "Pilot Error"

"Pilot Error"

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "According to analyst Ed Yardeni the average American family is now spending $3,000 more per year for food and fuel. Here’s the report from Fox News: "Gas prices hit a new all-time high on May 10, 2022, amid rising inflation and President Biden's restrictions on oil and gas production. According to AAA's average gas price calculator, the national average cost of a regular gallon of gasoline hit $4.374 on Tuesday, the highest since September 2014, when the average monthly cost hit $3.387."

According to Yardeni Research, increased oil costs suggest the average American household will pay almost $2,000 more for gasoline in 2022, according to a March research note. "In addition, we estimate that the average household is currently spending at least $1,000 [according to a seasonally adjusted annual rate] more on food as a result of rapidly rising grocery prices," Edward Yardeni, the president of the firm, wrote on LinkedIn. "That’s $3,000 less money that households have to spend on other consumer goods and services, which also are experiencing rapid price increases."

There are some 400 Ph.D. economists on the Fed payroll. Did any of them foresee the obvious consequences of printing up trillions of dollars’ worth of new money? Apparently not. Did any of them mention that it would make most Americans poorer?

But wait. Their job is not to speak truth to the powerful Fed governors, but to protect them from it. Armed with jackass theories and overblown conceits… they stand guard at the temple door. Like the vestal virgins, Fed governors are unblemished by the carnal facts of real life… untested by the give and take of real world commerce… uninstructed by the bid and ask of a real market economy. And with their own back-up team of like-minded Ph.Ds on the job, they never have to get a real job… never have to mingle with real businessmen… or sup with real investors.

Unhinged from Reality: Their imaginations, untethered by real world experience, are thus free to believe whatever they want… no matter how absurd. Such as...the idealness of 2% inflation (a total fantasy… supported neither by theory nor experience) …or the doctrine of data dependence (otherwise known as ‘driving by looking in the rear-view mirror’), which is how the Fed ran into 9% inflation. ‘Who could have seen that coming,’ they ask one another. But Fed governors were almost the only ones who didn’t see it coming.

In today’s news we find Loretta Mester again, the Fed governor we spotlighted yesterday. Ms. Mester has no idea whether inflation is coming or going. Here’s Bloomberg on the story: "Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester said she favors half-point interest-rate increases but would support bigger increments later if inflation doesn’t ease by the second half of the year.

“We don’t rule out 75 forever, right? The cadence we’re going now seems about right to me,” Mester said during an interview on Bloomberg Television with Michael McKee on Tuesday. “We’re going to have to assess whether inflation is actually moving down, and then we’ll be able to get more information after we do a couple of those to see,” she said, referring to 50 basis-point hikes."

That’s ‘data dependence.’ You spend your whole career on the Fed payroll, pretending you know what you’re doing… and then, when it becomes clear that you’ve made a mess of the economy, you try a little rate increase… and see what happens!

And there’s the ‘wealth effect.’ Behind it is the notion that if you can make some people richer, they will spend more money… and then the wealth will ‘trickle down’ to the rest of the population. But the whole idea is transparently ridiculous. If you could make some people richer… why not just make everybody richer? And if you can’t make people richer (which the Fed surely can’t), pretending to make them wealthier (by manipulating their stock prices, or their house prices, for example) is just a scam. There is no real wealth that can trickle anywhere… just fake wealth dripping like water from a leaky roof, rotting the whole house. And then, inevitably, the gimmie/stimmies come to an end and it’s pay-back time. Spending goes down… and the “The Wealth Effect” becomes a “Poverty Effect.”

Now we see the elegant symmetry of real life, when those who got what they oughtn’t to have gotten get no more… and the awkward, distorted economy – as heavy as a freight train… as clumsy as a barge – comes in for a landing.

Wipe Out! Households are already upping their credit card and mortgage debt… desperately trying to maintain the standard of living to which the feds made them accustomed. The most richly-priced stocks are falling… 20%... 40%... 50%, while the flakey memes, NFTs, and cryptos are getting wiped out completely.

That is when we ask: what lever does Ms. Mester pull now? What dial does she turn to avoid a hard landing? As we explored last week, the problem is the metaphor. Fed governors see themselves as the press portrays them – expert pilots tasked with bringing the giant US economy down to earth without spilling a single drink in the first class section.

But not everything is as simple as flying a plane. When you have an argument with your wife, for example, there are no wheels you can turn or throttles you can open up to fix it. Nor are you likely to find a technical solution to the problems of laziness, stupidity, greed, vulgarity, ignorance or bad taste. Each one must be addressed in its own way.

A better metaphor for describing the Fed’s dilemma is this: The Fed wanted to liven up the party. As we saw yesterday, Ms. Mester and other Fed governors wanted higher rates of inflation. So, to get people moving, they set fire to the house. It was fun for a while... the flames gaily dancing in the living room…a warm glow in the parlor. But now the blaze is out of control. Instead of 2% inflation, they got almost 9%. And so now the Fed is faced with a challenge: putting out the conflagration without damaging the furniture.

It tossed a glass of water towards the flames last week. Next quarter, it may try another .05% rate increase. And then, maybe another spritzer in the third quarter… and so on… Until… still looking in the rear-view mirror… finally… Ms. Mester sees the house burnt to the ground."

- https://bonnerprivateresearch.substack.com/

"Do Not Buy A House Today; Stock Market Crashing; Inflation Ravages Households; Consumer Debt Surges"

Full screen recommended.

Jeremiah Babe, 5/11/22:

"Do Not Buy A House Today; Stock Market Crashing; 

Inflation Ravages Households; Consumer Debt Surges"

"Housing Bubble Threatens To Trigger 50% Property Value Drop As Mortgage Rates Soar"

Full screen recommended.

"Housing Bubble Threatens To Trigger 50%

 Property Value Drop As Mortgage Rates Soar"

by Epic Economist

"Nearly 14 years after the last housing bubble burst, inflated property values are about to face a brutal drop as rising mortgage rates and worsening affordability cool off the boom that sent home prices up by a staggering 34% over the past two years. According to the latest estimates, at least half of that gain can be lost this year as changing market conditions inevitably trigger a national home price correction. Homeowners are getting increasingly burdened by their loan payments, while first-time buyers simply can’t enter the market anymore. At this point, over 90% of the market is extremely overvalued, and experts are telling us that even a 10% crash would throw the U.S. economy into disarray.

According to the Moody’s Analytics proprietary analysis of U.S. housing markets, local income levels cannot support local home prices in 96% of housing markets across the country. This means that most local housing markets in the United States are currently at risk of a home price correction. Of the 392 metropolitan statistical areas the firm looked at, 376 are extremely overvalued. Among those 392 markets, 149 are overvalued by at least 25%, with the most overvalued being Boise, where home prices are 73% above what fundamentals would support.

On top of that, over the past two months, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate has spiked from 3.11% to 5.48%. Considering today’s extremely inflated prices, a 10% crash in the most overvalued markets would be more than enough to push the U.S. economy over the edge. Worse than that, it could set off a national home price correction that would hamper the market’s growth for years, if not decades. However, the firm’s estimates indicate that prices will likely plunge by 15%, reversing the past two year’s gains by more than 50%.

Right now, the average mortgage payment is $1,800 a month, which is 70% higher than before the health crisis hit. The only other time home payments were as high as they are today was in 2007 – right on the eve of the 2008 bubble burst and the Great Financial Crisis. Today, loan-to-income levels are rising just as it happened back then. This imbalance makes defaults more likely. “When a correction occurs, and home prices drop, borrowers will start to be pushed underwater with unpaid loans more outstanding than the house's value. They will walk away as millions of borrowers did in 2008 and 2009,” explains financial and economic writer Stephen Moore.

When the housing market peaks is like a runaway freight train without brakes. But when it runs out of power, things tend to derail very quickly. From one day to the other, multiple-offer listings become “for sale” signs that sit followed by price cuts. “Then, rather than chasing prices higher, prospective buyers wait to see how low price will go,” as highlighted by Investment Research Dynamics in a recent report.

The latest pulse reading is already showing signs of a major shift. The number of home sellers who dropped their asking price shot up to a six-month high of 15% during a four-week period ending on May 1 - up from 9% a year earlier. Given that most Americans live paycheck to paycheck and are already financially squeezed due to prices rising faster than paychecks, we can expect the downward trend for prices to accelerate from now on. The thing about bubbles is that they can only grow to a certain point before they break. And it is more than clear that we’re reaching a breaking point."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

"Celente & the Judge: Biden’s $40B to Ukraine - Better Spent Shoveling the Money into a Fireplace"

Full screen recommended.

"Celente & the Judge: Biden’s $40B to Ukraine - 

Better Spent Shoveling the Money into a Fireplace"

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

- https://trendsresearch.com/

"Sold Down the (Dnieper) River"

"Sold Down the (Dnieper) River"

by Brian Maher

"The administration requested $33 billion to aid the nation of Ukraine. But Congress steeled its spine, summoned its nerve, recalled itself to its responsibilities… and refused the plea. A hulking majority of congressmen - a “bipartisan” majority - insisted that the $33 billion appropriation was unacceptable. And so they authorized a $40 billion “deal” instead. That is, they authorized $7 billion beyond the original request. Reports The Associated Press:

"The measure sailed to passage by a lopsided 368-57 margin, providing $7 billion more than Biden’s request from April and dividing the increase evenly between defense and humanitarian programs. The bill would give Ukraine military and economic assistance, help regional allies, replenish weapons the Pentagon has shipped overseas and provide $5 billion to address global food shortages caused by the war’s crippling of Ukraine’s normally robust production of many crops…

The new measure includes $6 billion to arm and train Ukrainian forces, $8.7 billion to restore American stores of weapons shipped to Ukraine and $3.9 billion for U.S. forces deployed to the area. There’s also $8.8 billion in economic support for Ukraine, $4 billion to help Ukraine and allies finance arms and equipment purchases and $900 million for housing, education and other help for Ukrainian refugees in the U.S."

“Our Sons of Bitches”: What percentage of this aid will slip through the dragnet of Ukraine’s “oligarchs?” They will likely siphon away quite a haul for themselves. We would remind you that Ukraine is among the most corrupt nations of Earth - more corrupt than Russia itself by many metrics.

Yet if it is principled consistency you seek, you will not find it in the foreign policy of the United States or any other power of Earth. As Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said of Nicaraguan strongman Anastasio Somoza: "He may be a son of a bitch. But he's our son of a bitch.” Ukraine’s oligarchs may be “sons of bitches.” Yet they are our “sons of bitches.” And in times of crisis… which we are told these are… there is little room for shade or nuance. There is little time for debate.

We Can’t Afford to Wait! As House Speaker “We Have to Pass the Bill so That You Can Find out What Is in It” Pelosi pleaded yesterday: "Time is of the essence - and we cannot afford to wait. With this aid package, America sends a resounding message to the world of our unwavering determination to stand with the courageous people of Ukraine until victory is won."

Madame Speaker is far from alone. Fellow Democrat Rep. Jason Crow argues: "The United States is not interested in stalemates. We are not interested in going back to the status quo. The United States is in this to win it and we will stand with Ukraine until victory is won."

Just so. Yet who precisely is “the United States”? Does it include the millions and millions of Americans who would stay out of Eastern Europe’s roils?

The Taxpayer Is on the Hook: Yet Speaker Pelosi and her mates appear willing to extend Ukraine a nearly infinite line of credit. They are in it “for the long haul.” Journalist Glenn Greenwald: "It is difficult to put into context how enormous these expenditures are — particularly since the war is only 10 weeks old, and U.S. officials predict/hope that this war will last not months but years. That ensures that the ultimate amounts will be significantly higher still."

Of course… behind this line of credit stands the poor beset American taxpayer. He goes upon the hook. But what if hostilities endure not months — but years? And what if victory is never won? Additional questions: What will the American taxpayer have won for his sacrifice? What - for the matter of that - did he win for his sacrifice in Afghanistan? In Iraq?

Perhaps he would be better served if the moneys were wasted on boondoggles at home… rather than wasted on boondoggles abroad. Domestic boondoggles are nonetheless boondoggles, it is true. Yet they do not eventuate in the detonation of atomic arms. Overseas boondoggles entrapping a nuclear-armed foe may. Yet the American taxpayer is not consulted. The decisions are removed from his hands.

Has Anyone Asked Why? Nor can he file his complaint at the ballot box in November— the business is overwhelmingly bipartisan, a joint fleecing. Against which party can he vote? He can merely stew. He is a man resigned. His most fundamental questions go unanswered. Greenwald: "We have long ago left the realm of debating why it is in the interest of American citizens to pour our country's resources into this war, to say nothing of risking a direct war and possibly catastrophic nuclear escalation with Russia, the country with the largest nuclear stockpile, with the U.S. close behind. Indeed, one could argue that the U.S. government entered this war and rapidly escalated its involvement without this critical question - which should be fundamental to any policy decision of the U.S. government - being asked at all."

A Community Service: The bipartisan Ukraine bill nonetheless performs a capital service. It reminds us that Republicans and Democrats stand more united than divided. The political combats they stage for public benefit often reduce to spectacle. It is a professional wrestling bout with its false feuds, artificial blows and imitation blood. They batten upon each other with superficially savage and vicious blows. But watch closer. The blows never go home. Backstage, off duty, away from fans and cameras, they are often the tightest friends.

We expect Democrats to spend grandly and gorgeously. Since FDR they have read the identical electoral blueprint. But Republicans traditionally existed for two purposes: to lower taxes - and to square the books. Like a sour old schoolmarm with steel in her eye and a rattan in her hand… they might not have been popular. But you knew where they were. And you could trust them with the checkbook.

But these Republicans are no more. They have gone the route of fedoras, monocles and spats. They turned away from their old-time fiscal religion, made their peace with big spending… and got elected. They labeled the old religion “root-canal economics.” Republicans instead sat at the feet of Mr. Arthur Laffer, with his famous curve. They could spend like Democrats without touching the taxpayer.

Sold Down the (Dnieper) River: Deficits do not matter in the new catechism. Only a few Republican holdouts remain… to keep the tablets. And so today we drop another tear on the ashes of fiscal responsibility.

As we have noted before, Republicans once defended the approaches to the United States Treasury. But they have since sold the pass. And both parties have sold us all down a river. In this latest instance, the Dnieper River…"

- dailyreckoning.com

Gregory Mannarino, "Fun Time! At The End Of This Video, My Best Bidenstein Imitation Ever!"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 5/11/22:

"Fun Time! At The End Of This Video, 

My Best Bidenstein Imitation Ever!"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Musical Interlude: The Rolling Stones, "Sympathy For The Devil"

Full screen highly recommended.

The Rolling Stones, "Sympathy For The Devil"

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."

- William Shakespeare, "The Tempest"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Massive stars, abrasive winds, mountains of dust, and energetic light sculpt one of the largest and most picturesque regions of star formation in the Local Group of Galaxies. Known as N11, the region is visible on the upper right of many images of its home galaxy, the Milky Way neighbor known as the Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC).

The above image was taken for scientific purposes by the Hubble Space Telescope and reprocessed for artistry by an amateur to win the Hubble's Hidden Treasures competition. Although the section imaged above is known as NGC 1763, the entire N11 emission nebula is second in LMC size only to 30 Doradus. Studying the stars in N11 has shown that it actually houses three successive generations of star formation. Compact globules of dark dust housing emerging young stars are also visible around the image.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130211.html

Chet Raymo, “The Journey”

“The Journey”

by Chet Raymo

“Here’s a deep-deep sky map of the universe from the March 9, 2006 issue of "Nature". The horizontal scale is a 360 view right around the sky; the vertical gaps at 6 hours and 24 hours are the parts of the universe that are blocked to our view by the disk of our own Milky Way Galaxy. The vertical scale – distance from Earth – is logarithmic (10, 100, 1000, etc.) measured in megaparsecs (a parsec equals 3.26 light-years). Across the top is the Big Bang, and the oldest and most distant thing we can see, the cosmic microwave background, the radiation of the Big Bang itself. A few relatively nearby galaxies are designated at the bottom. All that stuff in the middle that looks like smoke or dusty cobwebs are quasars and galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

A smoke of galaxies! (2 trillion galaxies according to latest estimates.- CP) A universe cobwebbed with Milky Ways! Each galaxy itself a smoke of stars, hundreds of billions of stars, many or all of them with planets. My book, “Walking Zero,” is about the human journey from the omphalos of our birth into the world of the galaxies, a journey many of us are disinclined to make. Here is how the Prologue to the book begins:

“Each of us is born at the center of the world. For nine months our physical selves are assembled molecule by molecule, cell by cell, in the dark covert of our mother’s womb. A single fertilized egg cell splits into two. Then four. Eight. Sixteen. Thirty-two. Ultimately, 50 trillion cells or so. At first, our future self is a mere blob of protoplasm. But slowly, ever so slowly, the blob begins to differentiate under the direction of genes. A symmetry axis develops. A head, a tail, a spine. At this point, the embryo might be that of a human, or a chicken, or a marmoset. Limbs form. Digits, with tiny translucent nails. Eyes, with papery lids. Ears pressed like flowers against the head. Clearly now a human. A nose, nostrils. Downy hair. Genitals.

As the physical self develops, so too a mental self takes shape, not yet conscious, not yet self-aware, knitted together as webs of neurons in the brain, encapsulating in some respects the evolutionary experience of our species. Instincts impressed by the genes. The instinct to suck, for example. Already, in the womb, the fetus presses its tiny fist against its mouth in anticipation of the moment when the mouth will be offered the mother’s breast. The child will not have to be taught to suck. Other inborn behaviors will express themselves later. Laughing. Crying. Striking out in anger. Loving.

What, if anything, goes on in the mind of the developing fetus we may never know. But this much seems certain: To the extent that the emerging self has any awareness of its surroundings, its world is coterminous with itself. We are not born with knowledge of the antipodes, the plains of Mars, or the far-flung realm of the galaxies. We are not born with knowledge of Precambrian seas, the supercontinent of Pangea, or the Age of Dinosaurs. We are born into a world scarcely older than ourselves and scarcely larger than ourselves. And we are at its center.

A human life is a journey into the grandeur of a universe that may contain more galaxies than there are cells in the human body, a universe in which the whole of a human lifetime is but a single tick of the cosmic clock. The journey can be disorienting; our first instincts are towards coziness, comfort, our mother’s enclosing arms, her breast. The journey, therefore, requires courage – for each individual, and for our species.

Uniquely of all animals, humans have the capacity to let our minds expand into the space and time of the galaxies. No other creatures can number the cells in their bodies, as we can, or count the stars. No other creatures can imagine the explosive birth of the observable universe 14 billion years ago from an infinitely hot, infinitely small seed of energy. That we choose to make this journey – from the all-sustaining womb into the vertiginous spaces and abyss of time – is the glory of our species, and perhaps our most frightening challenge.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

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!”

- http://www.tut.com/

“There Is No Reality Anymore…”

“There Is No Reality Anymore…”

by Thad Beversdorf

“I‘d love to change the world, but I don‘t know what to do,

so I’ll leave it up to you…”

“What a great lyric that is from the late 60′s, early 70′s English band “10 Years After.”* I believe this describes that uneasy feeling of discontent that sits deep in the stomach, beneath the day to day exteriors, of so many people today. The world is like a black hole in that it seems to be getting smaller and smaller as the years go by but also heavier and heavier with each passing day.

When I was a teenager and my friends and I were taking reality obscuring substances, one of my buddies (this means you Nichol) would stop us at certain points throughout the night for a reality check. This was just a few moments where we ‘d all gather our senses to make sure the world was still right and then we’d venture back into obscurity. I feel that reality is an old world term. There is no reality anymore. With advances in technology came unending possibilities of if you can dream it they can make it so. The ubiquitous flow of information ensures that the truth is always available but never known with certainty. It means there is no such thing as a reality check. It’s like that dream inside a dream inside a dream. Which reality is real anymore? How deep does the rabbit hole go?

We are raised with pretty standard ideals of what the world is meant to be but these ideals seem to take place only in the movies. It must be incredibly difficult for our young people to reconcile the two worlds, I know it is for me. That which they learn as a child and that which they find has replaced it as a young adult. Our leaders are despicable, arrogant and egotistical fools who pretend we elect them because we don’t see them for what they are. But we elect them because we feel we have no choice. We know what we want the world to be. We know what it should look and feel like. And we know it is not the world in which we live today. I know I’d love to change the world but I don’t know how and so I’ll leave it up to you. And so we continue to move forward down this path, each step uneasy as though something ungood is lurking just around the next corner.

We are able to put that feeling out of our minds for the most part but our subconscious is always aware that things are off. We have all kinds of self help books and new age theories that attempt to make sense of it all and explain why we just aren t happy the way we envision happy should be. Perhaps the only reality is the reality that the world isn’t what we had hoped it would be and we don’t know how to make that right. I’d love to say that if we just stand up and do the right thing, act from our hearts and have good intentions that it could change the world. But quite honestly there are ill-intentioned people that are constructing this new world in which we sub-exist.It is them and us, but they’d never say it that way. Certainly though their intention is not for us to co-exist along side them.

But so we carry on and we, move forward, to the best of our abilities. We accept the good with the bad and acknowledge that everything is a trade off. We believe that if we go to college we stand a better chance in life and so we borrow our first 10 years of post college wages to get an edge over the next guy who is doing the same. When we get out of school we know that it is time to buckle down and get serious. We put our lives on hold in order to focus on the future with the idea that one day we will be sitting on the porch with the person we love, the one we put on hold for all those years, and we will then enjoy our life’s work then.

But then we get further in debt because we need a sleeker car and we need a bigger house but it’s ok because we can just work a little more. And then the kids come and as far as we got to know them they are great, I think. But it’s ok because they just finished college and now they’ve moved back in as the job market is tough out there and so we’re paying off their student loans. Eventually they get away and begin their life’s journey and they take their debt with them. And then we realize, god I’m almost 60. But it feels great because that means soon I’ll be there on the porch getting to know the one I love again and life will be grand at that point.

But then we turn 65 and we realize all those policies that were implemented by all those well-intentioned decision makers have actually left us with very little. And we say it’s ok because we’d be bored anyway just sitting on the porch. And so we take a job waving at people in Walmart but feel like OMG how did I get here. But the shift ends and we go home anxious to spend time with the one we love because, although it’s a terrible thought, we are aware we’re both getting long in the tooth. And so we arrive home only to realize the one we love is now sick and that it’s too late for our days sitting on the porch getting to know each other again. We do everything we can but we cannot afford to help that person who stood quietly behind us all those years as healthcare costs are unrealistically out of touch with reality. And then it hits us that despite taking all the right steps to ensure we have a great life we failed to ever really be happy, to really love and to really accept love. And then it really hits us, this world provides but one shot.

Well, then that feeling of uneasy discontent that shadowed us when we were young is now an intense pain in our heart. And we look out at the world and we ask ourselves how could this have happened? I did everything they told me I was supposed to do, I did everything right! And it becomes clear that life was a chance to change the world, but we didn’t know what to do, and so we left it up to…”

- http://www.zerohedge.com/

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"Some Oddities..."

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

- Douglas Adams

The Daily "Near You?"

Wesson, Mississippi, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Just Look At Us..."

 

Greg Hunter, "Fed Cannot Fight Inflation – Peter Schiff"

"Fed Cannot Fight Inflation – Peter Schiff"

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Money manager and economist Peter Schiff says all the talk you are hearing from the Federal Reserve is simply the Fed “pretending to fight inflation.” Schiff explains, “Everything I predicted with inflation breaking out and the way the Fed would react to it has come true. The next thing is the Fed is now pretending it’s going to fight inflation. I say they are pretending because they have no real intention of doing it because they can’t. If the Fed could fight inflation, it would have started the fight a long time ago. They would have acted preemptively when it was obvious it was a problem. I have been warning about this for over a decade. As the Fed was on this course of deliberately creating inflation, I always said this was going to come back and bite the Fed because they were going to let loose a monster that they were not going to be able to fight, like Frankenstein. The Fed used to say we don’t care if we have too much inflation, we know how to solve it. We have the tools, and I pointed out that they may have the tools, but they ain’t going to use them because it was like having a handgun as the tool for a headache.”

Schiff says there is record amount of debt in all sectors. Schiff points out, “Now, the Fed says it’s going to take away all that free money? The Fed is going to normalize interest rates? Everything that was built on that foundation is going to implode. We would have a financial crisis that would make 2008 look like a Sunday school picnic, and there will be no bailout if the Fed is fighting inflation. It wouldn’t be another ‘Great Recession,’ it would be a ‘Greater Depression.’ This is why the Fed can’t do anything. The Fed can’t do what Paul Volker did and raise interest rates to 20%.”

Schiff says the economy is going to tank no matter what the Fed does, and you will see this in the job market soon. Schiff says, “I see massive layoffs coming. It’s going to be like Covid except without Covid. Instead of the government shutting down the economy, the economy is going to shut itself down. Not because it’s been ordered to, but because the cheap money is gone. Fed Head Powell is going to reverse course, and when he does, the bottom is going to drop out of the dollar. Gold is going through the roof. You better be fully positioned in your portfolio when that happens. It’s probably going to happen while you are asleep because the dollar is going to collapse in Asia. That’s where our biggest creditors are, and that’s where the mass exodus is going to start.”

Schiff advises to stock up on everything you think you are going to need. Things such as toiletries, food, spare parts for your equipment and anything else you can store because everything is going up in price. It will never be cheaper, and in the future, you might not be able to get it at any price." There is much more in the 44-minute interview.

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with money manager and economic expert Peter Schiff, founder of Euro Pacific Capital and Schiff Gold.

- https://rumble.com/

"Leaner Times Ahead - Prepare Now as Inflation Surges"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly, 5/11/22:

"Leaner Times Ahead - Prepare Now as Inflation Surges"

"It’s time to prepare for what’s coming. No matter where you live in the world inflation is such a huge problem that people don’t want to really look at. Now is the time."

"How It Really Is"

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"Reject New Energy Taxes With Prices Already Soaring"

by Phil Kerpen

"Energy prices are up 32 percent in the past year, causing pain at the pump, paying monthly utility bills, and buying everything that's grown, shipped, or manufactured. And yet, staring at this painful reality, many of America's largest corporations are elevating green wokeness over economic and business logic by calling – in the midst of record high energy prices – for new taxes on energy.

The major oil and gas producers themselves have been shopping a "tax our customers, please" slide deck around town in Washington, DC. According to the Wall Street Journal, "The nation’s biggest oil industry trade group has drafted a proposal urging Congress to adopt a carbon tax, which would put a surcharge on gasoline and other fossil fuels to discourage greenhouse-gas emissions. The draft proposal was approved by the American Petroleum Institute’s climate committee last month."

The assumption here is that becoming tax collectors for Washington politicians will somehow cause them to loosen their regulatory grip. There is a certain perverse logic here, perhaps modeled on the tobacco industry, which secured its long-term future by becoming one of the major revenue sources for state governments. But it unmistakably means higher costs for customers and more economic pain.

It's not just the oil and gas industry. The Business Roundtable, a group of corporate CEOs from across ever sector of the economy, published a "roadmap for U.S. energy policy," ostensibly to lower prices. But plank number six of their plan is to "establish a price on carbon," that is, impose an energy tax on fossil fuels. It is absolutely insane to call for higher taxes on energy in a plan to lower energy prices.

House Republican energy leaders Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, and Markwayne Mullin of Oklahaoma fired back: "At a time when skyrocketing inflation is hammering American families, it is shocking and tone-deaf that The Business Roundtable’s latest energy policy proposal calls for a new energy tax that would increase energy costs… We strongly oppose the BRT’s proposed energy tax that will hit lower-income families, small businesses, and those on fixed incomes the hardest while doing nothing to confront China, the world’s largest emitter of carbon… Advocating for an energy tax while soliciting massive government handouts for special interests is destructive, ineffective, and unaffordable."

That is a near-unanimous sentiment among House Republicans, but unfortunately Senate Republicans may be more susceptible to industry-lobbying for higher energy taxes. Several are in a bipartisan working group that appears to coalescing around on a plan to impose carbon taxes only on imports, seizing on the Trump-era GOP's friendliness toward tariffs. Bloomberg reported the plan "would place tariffs on fossil fuels and products such as cement and steel to prod countries that are moving too slowly to cut their greenhouse gas emissions."

Such a tax would directly raise costs for Americans on top of the budget-busting prices they are already experiencing – and it would likely spur other countries to retaliate, eventually leading to global carbon taxation. It should be a nonstarter.

Voters should demand candidates for office this year take crystal clear positions on new energy taxes, rejecting them in favor of real solutions. America needs a Congress that will scuttle the Biden administration's anti-energy regulatory agenda, find a way to reverse the de facto Wall Street ban on investing in new fossil fuel production, and greenlight stalled pipeline projects all over the country."

- https://www.cagle.com/

"Strange Prices At Big Lots! - This Is Crazy!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno, 5/11/22:

"Strange Prices At Big Lots! - This Is Crazy!"

"In today's vlog we are at Big Lots, and are noticing some strange price increases! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"

Gregory Mannarino, "Shocking! Nobody Expected This?! Really? Inflation Continues To Surge!

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/11/22:

"Shocking! Nobody Expected This?! Really?

 Inflation Continues To Surge!"

- https://traderschoice.net/

"Welcome To The Greatest Energy Crisis In History – Things Will Only Get Much More Painful From Here"

"Welcome To The Greatest Energy Crisis In History – 

Things Will Only Get Much More Painful From Here"

by Michael Snyder

"Just as the western world was accelerating the transition away from traditional forms of energy, the COVID pandemic caused the most epic supply chain crisis in history, and now the largest land war in Europe since World War II has thrown global energy markets into a state of complete and utter chaos. And if you think that things are bad now, just wait until a huge war erupts in the Middle East. Energy prices are ridiculously high now, but they will eventually go much higher than this. Needless to say, skyrocketing energy prices will have a catastrophic impact on worldwide economic conditions during the troubled months and years ahead of us.

Do you remember when Joe Biden promised that he would do all that he possibly could to drive down the price of gasoline? Yeah, that isn’t exactly working out too well…Retail gasoline prices in the United States rose on Tuesday and hit another all-time record, surpassing one set in March, as global refineries grappled with a bottleneck that has sent prices soaring ahead of driving season. The average cost of a retail gallon of gasoline hit $4.374 early Tuesday, according to the American Automobile Association, surpassing the former record of $4.331."

Ultimately, it really is a matter of supply and demand. We need more drilling, we need more refineries, and we need less regulation on traditional forms of energy all over the western world. But with the leaders that are currently in place, you shouldn’t expect any significant changes any time soon. So the price of gasoline will continue to rise.

And actually the price of diesel has been going up even faster…"Tom Kloza, head of global energy research at OPIS, said that in years past a barrel of diesel typically sold for $10 above the price of crude oil. Today, that differential – known as the crack spread – has surged to a record high above $70. “It’s become untethered, unmoored, a little bit unhinged. These are prices we’re not used to seeing,” he said, adding that there are large price differences across the U.S."

That is really bad news, because our economy runs on diesel fuel. As I pointed out yesterday, our trains and our trucks are powered by diesel, and so rapidly rising diesel prices are going to have a huge economic impact.

In addition, most farm equipment uses diesel as well, and this is yet another factor that is putting an enormous amount of financial stress on America’s farmers. One farmer that was asked about this admitted that he is “really concerned how bad it can get this next year”… “My family is preparing now and stocking up our freezers and pantry because we are really concerned how bad it can get this next year.” He estimates that fertilizer prices near him have increased 200 or even 300 percent, “dependent on what program you are running.” The rise in diesel prices has hurt him the most. “Farm equipment runs on diesel,” he pointed out."

According to AAA’s gas price website, diesel in Texas is running at an average of $5.231, up from $2.820 a year ago. Needless to say, you should be stocking up too, because things are going to look completely different a year from now than they do today.

Of course things are already getting quite crazy. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal warned that widespread electricity shortages in the U.S. could be coming as early as this summer…"From California to Texas to Indiana, electric-grid operators are warning that power-generating capacity is struggling to keep up with demand, a gap that could lead to rolling blackouts during heat waves or other peak periods as soon as this year. California’s grid operator said Friday that it anticipates a shortfall in supplies this summer, especially if extreme heat, wildfires or delays in bringing new power sources online exacerbate the constraints."

I am stunned that things have gotten this bad already. And the Ukrainians have decided to make things even worse for the western world by cutting off a key source of Russian natural gas that Europe depends upon…"Ukraine’s state-owned gas grid operator GTSOU said May 10 it had declared force majeure on the transit of Russian gas entering the Ukrainian system at Sokhranivka and would not accept gas at the entry point from May 11. The force majeure declaration, the first of its kind since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, sent European gas prices sharply higher."

As energy prices rise, so will prices for everything else, because it takes energy to produce and transport virtually everything that we buy and sell. So the inflation spiral that we are currently enjoying is likely to intensify even more in the months ahead.

At this point, economic conditions are already shifting so rapidly that some restaurants have decided to put stickers on their menus so that they can be easily changed…"It’s not the prices on the menu so much that’ll shock you. They’re actually still very cheap (and the tacos really good). It’s the fact that the prices were scrawled in pen on stickers slapped on the menu. Those stickers are a tell-tale sign that prices are going up at such a rapid-fire clip that the staff is struggling to print new menus fast enough. Rewriting prices on old menus is easier and cheaper, too.

A quick scan of the restaurant’s Facebook posts lays out the increases. The special, offered every Wednesday and Friday, had been $1 per taco for years. That changed in February of last year, when it was raised to $1.25. A month later, it went to $1.50. This January, it shot up to $1.75. And now it’s $2.00."

This is the sort of thing that happens in Venezuela. And now it is happening in the United States of America.

BIDEN: “The number one threat is the strength, and that strength that we’ve built is inflation.” pic.twitter.com/BfaJB8U6dC

- VINnews (@VINNews) May 10, 2022

In a desperate attempt to get inflation under control, the Federal Reserve has recklessly raised interest rates. This is going to absolutely crush the housing bubble, and financial markets appear to be poised to repeat history.

They say that every 90 years humans repeat the same behavior. 1916-1929 vs 2000-2022:

The end game… pic.twitter.com/enXVQieFPW

- HOZ (@MFHoz) May 5, 2022

When I bring up the years 1929 and 2008, what do you immediately think about? The answer to that question is obvious. Now we stand on the precipice of another major financial disaster, but this time around there will not be a “return to normal”.

The entire western world has been on a suicidal path for decades, and now a day of reckoning has finally arrived. And since the U.S. and Europe are the two core pillars of the global economy, the whole world will feel the pain of the coming collapse. So I would encourage you to buckle your seatbelts, because the road ahead is going to be exceedingly bumpy."

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"House Passes Bill For $40 Billion In New Ukraine Aid"

"House Passes Bill For $40 Billion In New Ukraine Aid"

by Dave DeCamp

"On Tuesday night, the House passed a nearly $40 billion bill for new Ukraine aid as Washington continues to escalate its role in supporting Kyiv in its war against Moscow. The measure passed in a vote of 368-57, with only Republicans voting against the bill. The legislation now moves to the Senate, which could hold a vote this week. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has said the Senate will “move swiftly,” although some Republicans in the chamber have complained that the massive aid package is not large enough.

President Biden asked Congress for $33 billion for the new Ukraine aid package, but congressional Democrats ramped it up to $39.8 billion. The package includes $11 billion in presidential drawdown authority, which allows President Biden to send Ukraine military equipment from US stockpiles.

The aid also includes $6 billion in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funding, which enables the US government to buy weapons from arms makers and send them to Ukraine. The Pentagon will receive $8.7 billion to replenish weapons stockpiles that have been to Ukraine, and $3.9 billion to pay for troop deployments in Eastern Europe.

"You can’t find baby formula in the United States right now but Congress is voting today to send $40 billion to Ukraine. Let’s put America First for a change."

- Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 10, 2022

In March, $13.6 billion for Ukraine aid was included in a spending bill signed by President Biden. The new $39.8 billion plan will bring total US aid for Ukraine in 2022 alone to over $53 billion.

The 57 House Republicans who voted against Ukraine aid package. 

https://t.co/BC5yWgNSpk

pic.twitter.com/y80quvZZbt

- Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 11, 2022

To put the enormous figure into perspective, Russia’s entire military budget for 2021 was estimated to be about $65.9 billion."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

- https://news.antiwar.com/

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Related:

"American Mothers Don’t Have Enough Formula For Their Babies,

 But Biden Wants To Give 40 Billion More Dollars To Ukraine"

"On March 28, 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration submitted to Congress a proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Budget request of $813.3 billion for national defense, $773.0 billion of which is for the Department of Defense (DoD)."

$813.3 billion for national defense... $40 billion more for Ukraine, $53 billion total...And how about you, Good Citizen? What? Lost your job, lost your home, inflation's eating you alive, can't afford gas or food anymore? Well, besides absolutely begging for a nuclear war, the psychopaths running the government have a message for you if you were desperately hoping for help: F**K YOU... and you better believe they mean it, too... - CP

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Related, highly recommended:

Meanwhile, The Chinese have been quite busy...

"China Accelerates Nuclear Buildup, Military Modernization; 

Biden Speeding US To Defeat"

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

- https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/