Vangelis, “Alpha”
So, we rise from the rubble...
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
"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.”
"How Are Things Going, Joe?'"
"You go up to a man, and you say, 'How are things going, Joe?' and he says, 'Oh fine, fine... couldn't be better. ' And you look into his eyes, and you see things really couldn't be much worse. When you get right down to it, everybody's having a perfectly lousy time of it, and I mean everybody. And the hell of it is, nothing seems to help much. "
- Kurt Vonnegut, "Mother Night"
"People are sad. People are broke. People are worried about money, people are worried that they're not enough and not amounting to anything and they don't feel good about themselves. People have rough times, and everybody's pretending it's not true, and we need to break that veneer."
- Eve Ensler
The Poet: Carl Sandburg, "Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind"
"Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind"
“The past is a bucket of ashes.”
1
"The woman named Tomorrow
sits with a hairpin in her teeth
and takes her time
and does her hair the way she wants it
and fastens at last the last braid and coil
and puts the hairpin where it belongs
and turns and drawls: Well, what of it?
My grandmother, Yesterday, is gone.
What of it? Let the dead be dead.
2
The doors were cedar
and the panels strips of gold
and the girls were golden girls
and the panels read and the girls chanted:
We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation:
nothing like us ever was.
The doors are twisted on broken hinges.
Sheets of rain swish through on the wind
where the golden girls ran and the panels read:
We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation,
nothing like us ever was.
3
It has happened before.
Strong men put up a city and got
a nation together,
And paid singers to sing and women
to warble: We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation,
nothing like us ever was.
And while the singers sang
and the strong men listened
and paid the singers well
and felt good about it all,
there were rats and lizards who listened
…and the only listeners left now
…are…the rats…and the lizards.
And there are black crows
crying, “Caw, caw,”
bringing mud and sticks
building a nest
over the words carved
on the doors where the panels were cedar
and the strips on the panels were gold
and the golden girls came singing:
We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation:
nothing like us ever was.
The only singers now are crows crying, “Caw, caw,”
And the sheets of rain whine in the wind and doorways.
And the only listeners now are…the rats…and the lizards.
4
The feet of the rats
scribble on the door sills;
the hieroglyphs of the rat footprints
chatter the pedigrees of the rats
and babble of the blood
and gabble of the breed
of the grandfathers and the great-grandfathers
of the rats.
And the wind shifts
and the dust on a door sill shifts
and even the writing of the rat footprints
tells us nothing, nothing at all
about the greatest city, the greatest nation
where the strong men listened
and the women warbled: Nothing like us ever was."
- Carl Sandburg
Bill Bonner, "History's Most Aggressive Crusade"
"History's Most Aggressive Crusade"
News from the frontlines of mankind's
most ambitious, hubristic undertaking yet...
by Bill Bonner
Baltimore, Maryland - "We left Ireland yesterday. The airport was packed. Where are they all going, we wondered. Old, young… fat, slim… we didn’t think Covid had left so many alive.
Airline traffic is returning to normal. Unfortunately, the airline industry is not ready to handle it. Lines were long, with makeshift barriers set up to guide the sheep. This too is a consequence of the Covid Lockdowns. An economy is not a machine. You can’t turn it off and then flick a switch to turn it on again. Pilots retire. New ones have to be hired and trained. And air traffic controllers, too. Ticket agents. Stewards. And baggage handlers. How could they be trained when the planes weren’t flying? Now airlines are short-handed… and passengers wait. Airlines also rely on long supply chains – fuel, caterers, cleaners, parts. How many went broke when the travel industry closed up?
The same is true for many other industries. They are living things. You can’t cut off their oxygen for months without causing some brain damage. And now, they have to learn how to walk again… and how to speak.
Unseen Trillions: The full costs of the Covid Panic have not been tallied. Never will be. All most of us felt was inconvenience. Our favorite restaurants were closed. And we had to wear masks. In our case, we got ‘locked down’ in Argentina, where we spent some of the happiest months of our lives. But when the final accounting is done the tab will be massive – trillions of dollars’ worth of lost output… millions of poor people who die prematurely because food and energy prices rose… and record levels of suicide, drug addiction, depression and violence as young people emerge like rats from a flooded basement.
Of course, a similar story could be told about almost all government programs. The benefits are few – and always directed towards a few privileged groups. The costs are spread out… nearly invisible, unpredictable, and incalculable.
In these pages we’ve been wondering about the collateral damage coming from the most aggressive crusade in history – the attempt to control the world’s weather by reducing carbon emissions. At this stage of human progress fossil fuel use and standards of living are nearly co-terminus. When one goes up, the other goes up too. Over 150 years, as nations used more oil, gas, and coal… they got richer. Still today rich people use a lot more energy than poor people. Most energy comes from stored up sunshine, in the form of gas, oil or coal. And when you reduce your use of it, standards of living go down too.
Could we use less fossil fuel and still live well? Maybe. Were prices for fossil fuel to rise… and those for ‘renewables’ to decline… people would adjust. But can a whole world economy – supporting 8 billion people – shift to alternative sources of power – on command? We saw what happened in the Covid lockdowns, when key industries were taken off-line temporarily. What happens when you shut them down permanently?
Oxygen Deprivation: In that regard, the climate controllers are getting some good news: thanks to their policies – lockdowns, sanctions, war, tariffs, money-printing, inflation, and central banks’ attempts to control it – the world’s industrial economies are showing signs of oxygen deprivation. Even in Switzerland. Bloomberg: "Swiss Inflation Hits 29-Year High on Ukraine War, Supply Chains." "Inflation in Switzerland accelerated to the fastest pace in nearly three decades, hitting 3.4% in June. The pace is up from 2.9% in May, and well above the Swiss National Bank’s 2% target. Based on the European Union-harmonized measure, it was at 3.2%, compared with 8.6% in the surrounding euro area."
All over the world, prices are on the rise. CNBC: "Inflation in Turkey rose close to 79% last month, the highest the country has seen in a quarter of a century." Friends in Argentina report that the inflation rate there is now over 70%... and the peso lost nearly a third of its value – in dollar terms – over the weekend.
And it’s no coincidence that, as governments are becoming more activist, the economies they attempt to ‘manage’ are becoming less efficient, less productive... giving individuals less of what they want when they want it. That goes for the basics, too... like food. Al Jazeera reports:
"Farmers in the Netherlands have blockaded supermarket distribution centres in continuing protests against new environmental rules on nitrogen emissions that are likely to put many of them out of business. Fishers on Monday blocked ports in a show of support for farmers. The blockade prevented ferries from sailing to almost all the Wadden Islands off the country’s northern coast and caused lengthy delays, shipping companies reported. The action had been announced in advance, with farmers calling for “the entire country to be paralyzed”.
Germany is facing paralysis too. Bloomberg: Top German industries could face collapse because of cuts in the supplies of Russian natural gas, the country’s top union official warned before crisis talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz starting Monday. “Because of the gas bottlenecks, entire industries are in danger of permanently collapsing: aluminum, glass, the chemical industry,” said Yasmin Fahimi, the head of the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB), in an interview with the newspaper Bild am Sonntag. “Such a collapse would have massive consequences for the entire economy and jobs in Germany.”
But at least, under pressure, America’s leader is still his charming simpleton self: "Companies running gas stations," tweeted POTUS, should "bring down the price you are charging at the pump." The US Oil & Gas Association responded: "Please make sure the WH intern who posted this tweet registers for Econ 101 for the fall semester."
Put Up… or Shut Up! And so… the world’s energy engine slows down. The steel furnaces are cooling… Autos remain at home. Trucks are idle. Hallelujah… the planet will suffer less damage from C02.
Yes, people will suffer. But maybe “we” should accept a lower standard of living in exchange for freeing us from dependency on fossil fuel. Like the Covid Lockdowns, the program will probably be little more than an expensive inconvenience to most of us – healthy people in rich, healthy countries. As for poor people in poor countries, Madeleine Albright may have had the right idea. Asked about the estimated 500,000 children who died because of US sanctions on Iraq, she said it was “worth it.” And maybe, just this once, the feds will lead us, marching over the bodies of millions of starving people, to a promised land – greener, poorer… but more ‘sustainable,’ whatever that means.
Wait, you say ‘C02 doesn’t hurt the planet?’ You say ‘plants love it and crop yields are improved by it?’ You say ‘CO2 levels were once much higher… long before the Industrial Revolution?’ You say, ‘trying to control C02 output may do more harm than good?’ Well you can just shut up! That’s misinformation!"
"Streets of Philadelphia, July 5, 2022"
Full screen recommended.
"Streets of Philadelphia, July 5, 2022"
"Violent crime and drug abuse in Philadelphia as a whole is a major problem. The city’s violent crime rate is higher than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas. Also alarming is Philadelphia’s drug overdose rate. The number of drug overdose deaths in the city increased by 50% from 2013 to 2015, with more than twice as many deaths from drug overdoses as deaths from homicides in 2015. A big part of Philadelphia’s problems stem from the crime rate and drug abuse in Kensington.
Because of the high number of drugs in Kensington, the neighborhood has a drug crime rate of 3.57, the third-highest rate by neighborhood in Philadelphia. Like a lot of the country, a big part of this issue is a result of the opioid epidemic. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed over the last two decades in the United States and Philadelphia is no exception. Along with having a high rate of drug overdose deaths, 80% percent of Philadelphia’s overdose deaths involved opioids and Kensington is a big contributor to this number. This Philly neighborhood is purportedly the largest open-air narcotics market for heroin on the East Coast with many neighboring residents flocking to the area for heroin and other opioids. With such a high number of drugs in Kensington, many state and local officials have zoned in on this area to try and tackle Philadelphia’s problem."
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Full screen recommended.
"Documentary by SBC News Covering Streets
of Philadelphia, Kensington Ave."
Comments here:
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Full screen recommended.
Bruce Springsteen, "Streets of Philadelphia"
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Wipe that stupid, smugly contemptuous look off your face!
Coming soon to a neighborhood near you...
"JP Morgan Contemplates $380 Oil - You Need To Contemplate No Gas, No Groceries, No Job and No Home"
"JP Morgan Contemplates $380 Oil -
You Need To Contemplate No Gas, No Groceries, No Job and No Home"
by Stan Szymanski
"Bloomberg has reported that JP Morgan Sees ‘Stratospheric’ $380 Oil if US and European retributions prod Russia to exact punitory crude output cuts. The article goes on to state that because of the new found economic strength of Russia, Putins’ nation could afford to cut production as much as 5 million barrels a day. JP Morgan proposes that a cut of 3 million barrels/day could push oil to $190 a barrel. A cut of 5 million barrels may catapult crude to as much as $380.
The current United States administration and NATO want a war with Russia. Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene urges the US to leave NATO to avoid a war with Russia. Will our government leaders listen to her? Very doubtful. What does $380 oil and war with Russia mean to we, the American people? If Russia were to cut oil production that would result in $380 oil, the purpose of that would be to weaken America before it was attacked.
$380 oil means $20+ per gallon diesel. $380 oil means $17+ per gallon gasoline. If gasoline is $17/gallon, will you be able to afford to drive to work? If you drive an SUV and it gets 17 MPG between city and highway driving and you have to drive 25 miles each way to work, that’s basically a use case of 3 gallons/day times $17 a gallon or a cost of $51/day just to gas up for the day. That is $1,000 per month just to drive back and forth to work. Add in maintenance and insurance and all of a sudden 50-75% of American will not be able to afford the cost of simply going to work. At that point, how will you make a living for your family? Better get a bicycle now, get into shape and hope it doesn’t snow in the winter (turn off sarcasm now). Additionally, if Russia cuts 5 million barrels of oil a day from the markets, will there even be any gas to be had in a land where the strategic petroleum reserve has been drawn down to 25 days?
If diesel is $20/gallon, will over the road truckers roll if it cost between $3,000 and $4,000 a day to fill up their rigs? I hardly think so. If semis don’t move, how will groceries-meat, milk, eggs, grains, bread and vegetables get to your supermarket? They won’t. If there are no groceries to buy, what will you do for food? Better learn how to make ‘sawdust sourdough’ like the inhabitants of St. Petersburg did during the siege of Leningrad during World War 2.
If you can’t afford to drive to your job, you will have no job. If you have no job, you will not be able to pay your bills. If you can’t pay your bills you will lose your home or apartment. If you lose your home you will be homeless.
Did you plant a garden? Are you thinking of another source of revenue that you can do from home? Do you have a ‘country cousin’ you can stay with when the major cities in this country erupt into violence when food riots are part of everyday life? Can you consider buying a piece of property in the country (that has a well) and putting a shed on it to have someplace to go to when even the suburbs become untenable and neighbors prey upon neighbors because there is no other option?
I don’t know what a war with Russia would exactly look like. But if America was in a weakened state it may be that Russia would nuke a few major US cities and strategic areas before we knew what hit us. You see, Russia has weapons known as ‘hypersonic’ missiles capable of deploying many warheads from one one missile that are too fast to intercept. The US does -not- have hypersonic missiles to currently compete with Russia and essentially, cannot defend against these high technology armaments. The US is working to catch up. But if you were the Russians, would you wait until your enemy caught up with your hi-tech, or would you punch them in the nose right now? The administration should listen to Represent Greene. But they won’t.
None of this adds up to anything good for the average American. $380 oil equates to no gas, no groceries, no job and no home for a lot of US citizens. Financial markets would be shredded except for the - physical - precious metals and commodities. Please carefully consider the ramifications of this potential scenario and do the best you can for your family. Now."
"Go Down Swinging..."
"We lose those battles as often as we succeed. The key, though, win or lose, is to never fail. And the only way to fail is not to fight. So fight until you can't fight anymore. Never let go. Never give up. Never run. Never surrender. Fight the good fight, you fight even when it seems inevitable you're about to go down swinging."
- "Amelia Shepherd", "Grey's Anatomy"
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“Don’t let fear keep you quiet. You have a voice so use it. Speak up. Raise your hands. Shout your answers. Make yourself heard. Whatever it takes, just find your voice, and when you do, fill the damn silence.”
- "Meredith Grey", "Grey's Anatomy"
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"Have some fire. Be unstoppable. Be a force of nature. Be better than anyone here and don't give a damn about what anyone thinks."
- "Cristina Yang", "Grey's Anatomy"
"The Devil's Work"
"The Devil's Work"
by The Zman
"There is an old expression that has fallen out of favor in the post-scarcity age, but it may be the key to understanding the current crises. That expression is, 'Idle hands do the Devil's work.' When people do not have anything productive and useful to do with their time, they are more likely to get involved in trouble and criminality. A variant of this is "The Devil makes work for idle hands.' The idea there is if you want to avoid Old Scratch, then make sure you keep yourself useful to God.
The source of these proverbs is unknown, but variations of them go back to the early middle ages, so it is probable they evolved with Christianity. It is not unreasonable to think the idea is universal to civilization. After all, every human society has had to deal with the idle, lazy, and troublesome. Making sure these people are kept too busy to cause trouble is one of those primary challenges of civilization. Every ruler has known that too many idle young men is bad for his rule.
Even in the smaller context, this is something we instinctively know. In the workplace, people with too much free time get into trouble. If the IT staff has too much free time, they start tinkering around with the stuff that is working and before long that stuff stops working and the system goes down. A big part of what goes on inside the schools is to keep the kids and the teachers busy. Home schoolers have known for years that the learning content is just a few hours a day. The rest is busy work.
The point here is that people of all ages need a purpose, something that occupies their mind and their time. If something useful and productive is not filling that need, then something useless or unproductive will fill the void. For most people this may be a hobby or leisure activity. For others, it often means a useless activity is turned into something important. Elevating the mundane to the level of the critical and then creating drama around the performance of the mundane activity.
This is what we see in our political class. The ruling class of every society has a ceremonial role, a procedural role, and a practical role. Outside of a crisis like a war or natural disaster, the political class is performing its duties in the same way a line worker in a factory preforms his role. In popular government this means the pol shows up at public events. He performs the tasks his office requires like signing papers and casting votes. He helps grease the wheels when they need grease.
Into the 20th century, most of our political offices were part-time jobs. State legislatures met for a short period during the year. Otherwise, the legislators were back home doing their jobs. Executive positions like governor and president were full-time jobs, as they were in charge of the civil service and in the case of president, commander-in-chief of the military. Within living memory, Washington DC would empty out in the spring and remain empty until the fall when Congress returned.
What we see today is politics at all levels has become a full-time job, but one with less to do when it was considered a part-time job. Congress, for example, is something close to a 24-hour drama now. The politicians and their retinues are now doing politics as a full-time obsession. Yet almost all of what they do is unnecessary. In fact, much of what they do is harmful. Very few things passed by Congress enjoy the support of the majority of the people or even a large plurality.
It is not just that these part-time jobs have been made into full-time obsessions. It is that much of what we used to need from government is now filled by individuals, ad hoc networks, and the private sector. Much of what government does is actually done by private contractors on government contracts. One of the ironies of the post-Cold War world is that the federal workforce has declined relative to the population, while the number of people employed in politics has gone up.
Then there is the fact that much of what government does could be automated or simply eliminated entirely. The services that are required like renewing licenses and paying fees can all be automated. In many cases they have been, but that did not result in fewer people, as we see in the dreaded private sector. Instead, it resulted in more idle hands looking for a purpose. On the political side, much of what Congress does could also be eliminated or automated.
What has happened in the last 30 years is we have grown the idle class at the top of our society and while decreasing their necessity. Much of what goes on in our politics is make work designed to get public attention. Think about it. If the cable news channels were shuttered and the social media platforms run by the oligarchs were closed, what would change in America? Nothing of practical importance. Our world would get quieter and there would be a boom in forgotten hobbies.
American political culture evolved during the Cold War to fight communism and prevent a nuclear war. Those were important tasks that occupied the minds and hands of the political class. Once those things went away, those idle hands searched about for a new crisis. Health care, Gaia worship, Islam and now invisible Nazis have been used to keep the idle hands of the political class busy. In the process, the political class has been driven mad and is threatening the rest of society."
"Economic Market Snapshot 7/5/22"
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Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
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"Economic Market Snapshot 7/5/22"
Market Data Center, Live Updates:
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Latest Market Analysis, Updated 7/5/22
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A comprehensive, essential daily read.
July 1st to July 5th
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Financial Stress Index
"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."
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Job cuts and much more.
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Commentary, highly recommended:
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"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
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Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...
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And now... The End Game...
Gregory Mannarino, "Stocks Poised To Fall; US Economy Slowing Faster Than Expected"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 7/5/22:
"Stocks Poised To Fall;
US Economy Slowing Faster Than Expected"
Comments here:
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Market Data Center, Live Updates:
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Related:
Click image for larger size.
"In the US, the May Consumer Price index was up 8.6% year over year. This is an under reported number as John Williams at ShadowStats reports that inflation is running at a rate of over 15%! What does this mean to someone holding cash as an investment? It means that the $100 in their bank account last year only buys $85 worth of groceries and goods this year."
"Choices..."
"Yes or no. In or out. Up or down. Live or die.
Hero or coward. Fight or give in.
I'll say it again to make sure you hear me.
The human life is made up of choices. Live or die.
That's the important choice. And it's not always in our hands."
- Derek Shepherd
Musical Interlude: Procol Harum, "A Salty Dog"
Procol Harum, "A Salty Dog"
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"Ulysses"
"There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me -
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads - you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Jim Kunstler, "A Great Endeavor"
Lil Miss Hot Mess, author and performer.
"A Great Endeavor"
by Jim Kunstler
"I wish I had a time machine. I would teleport a small delegation of Ben Franklin, Tom Jefferson, and Button Gwinnett from their sweltering labors at Independence Hall - then known as the Pennsylvania state house - to a Drag Queen Story Hour hosted by Lil Miss Hot Mess (“The People’s Drag Queen”) reading from her best-selling book, "The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish," to a roomful of six-year-old offspring birthed by America’s current Progressive ruling elite. Here, I would explain, is what it has come to.
Have today’s elites in our country, marinated in social justice and frantically signaling their goodness-and-virtue, gone perhaps a tad too far in their quest to liberate the populace from boundaries previously established for human behavior? It’s one thing, you know, to throw off the onerous yoke of a British King and his agents, with their vexing taxes, despotic harassments, abuses and usurpations. It’s perhaps another thing “empowering” children to bethink themselves monomaniacs of sexual confusion, years before they’re mentally equipped to devine the conundrums of sex. What, after all, is a “hot mess?”
Well, Google’s top search answer, from the Oxford Languages website, defines “hot mess” thusly: a person or thing that is spectacularly unsuccessful or disordered, especially one that is a source of peculiar fascination. Okay, I see: this metaphor signifies what the ruling elites would like our nation to become! And, more generally, western civ - that agglomeration of fusty creeds, shopworn traditions, oppressive laws, dubious virtues, and racist arts. Mission accomplished, then!
On July 4, 2022, America is a hot mess, but exactly! Are we not now spectacularly unsuccessful and disordered - in body, mind, polity, culture, mores, convictions, and aspirations? What is functioning in America these days? Absolutely nuthin’, ugh, say it again, to quote a song lyric of my bygone youth, when our project in Vietnam had gone off the rails. Of course, that was then and this is now. Back then, say 1970, we were the exuberant avatar of Modernity and the rest of the world was still a little groggy from World War Two. In that America, a man could easily support a family, we never gave a thought to our oil supply, and the doctor would see you now.
This birthday of the republic we are on track to going medieval, or something that at least rhymes with it. I’m regretful as anyone to leave so much baggage behind, but frankly it’s been a long time since all the Fun, Fun, Fun was over and Daddy took the T-bird away. Daddy himself is gone, along with all representations of him. Donald Trump tried to play the role in a movie called The Years before Covid-19 but the critics savaged him. Anyone who dares to try to be Daddy in America now will be Me-tooed and J-Sixed to a fare-thee-well, we’ve been warned. In your New World Order of Bill Gates and the Schwabenklaus’s Great Re-set, we are all expected to be a hot mess (so the exterminations can proceed without resistance).
I, for one, refuse to comply with all that insolent wickedness and urge you to join with me in making something decent, honorable, and workable in the vast salvage yard that America will be when we expel the degenerate maniacs who broke it to pieces. You do not have to be a hot mess. You can, for instance, be a man. Or, another instance, be a woman. These binaries of human reproduction can produce new humans. A man, a woman, and children will comprise a family, a good start in rebuilding the organism called a society.
The chief duty of men and women in this future will be doing everything possible to ensure that their children do not become hot messes. Their duties beyond that entail the search for purpose, meaning, and happiness, and building institutions to support those ends. We can start with the language we use amongst ourselves to make sense of who we are and where we are. Our language must have a rigorous correlation with reality, which makes it possible to determine what things are true and what are not true. The time will soon be at hand when it is possible to tell who is speaking the truth and who is not. A battle may ensue over this and those on the side of the truth will prevail. Consider these propositions as you flip your burgers and hoist your malty brews today. Think of the men who gathered at Independence Hall two hundred and forty-six years ago and the trepidation they felt facing the unknown as they signed their names, pledged their fortunes, and committed their sacred honor to a great endeavor."
Gonzalo Lira, "The Netherlands Is On Fire"
Gonzalo Lira, 7/5/22:
"The Netherlands Is On Fire"
Comments here:
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"Because I've lost access to all my accounts and channels to the SBU (Ukraine's secret police), I don't have any way to promote my content - so please be so kind as to share this video with anyone whom you think might learn something. GL"
My only other social media: - https://twitter.com/GonzaloLira1968
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Related:
"Dutch Farmers 'Desperately' Fighting Back
Against Government's 'Green' Agenda"
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"Worldwide Conflict Could Start in 6 Days"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 7/4/22:
"Worldwide Conflict Could Start in 6 Days"
"On July 10th the blockade of Kaliningrad will be fully implemented. The Russians have several options, one of which is military intervention in the Suwalki Gap. If this happens, Article 5 is invoked and global conflict begins."
Comments here:
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- Jim Quinn
Monday, July 4, 2022
"Vast Stretches Of America Have Now Descended Into A State Of Deep Economic Hopelessness"
Full screen recommended.
"Vast Stretches Of America Have Now Descended
Into A State Of Deep Economic Hopelessness"
by Epic Economist, 7/4/22
"Have you ever been at such a low point in your life that it seems like no matter how hard you try you’re never going to be able to turn things around? If that’s the case, then you’re not alone. Right now, there are millions upon millions of Americans out there in a state of deep economic hopelessness. For a long time now, we’ve been facing one problem after the other, and since the start of the year, many of us are seeing our financial conditions worsening at a frightening pace. The cost of the things we need and consume on a regular basis is reaching levels that are simply out of the reach of many families.
Vast stretches of America have been seemingly taken over by an atmosphere of despair that only grows wider and wider. While the government gives us doctored numbers that show that the national unemployment rate is low - in an attempt to dismiss the severity of our problems, - the majority of American workers are actually living paycheck to paycheck or in extremely low-paid jobs. Most part of the population is struggling to get by - no matter how they bend and twist the statistics.
In fact, independent agencies, such as the anti-poverty advocacy group, Oxfam America, reported some numbers which reveals the reality hidden by the official figures. In June, 52 million U.S. workers – or about one-third of the country’s labor force - earned less than $15 an hour. “Soaring inflation, which has pushed up the prices of food, housing, gasoline, and other necessities, has made it even more difficult for lower-income families to survive on their wages,” Oxfam America highlighted. At this point, 150 million American adults – which represent roughly 58% of the country’s population – live paycheck to paycheck, LendingClub revealed in a recent survey.
At the same time, the rising interest rates that were meant to curb inflation growth are actually denting consumers’ purchasing power, and making it more difficult for Americans to buy big-ticket items, like appliances, cars, and most importantly, homes. Fannie Mae estimates indicate that since January, around 18 million would-be homebuyers have been priced out of the market. This has been a major setback for the finances of young adults. At this point, more of them have moved back home with their parents than ever before.
All of this also means that the current generation of adults isn’t able to start building wealth as early as previous generations did. As opposed to our parents and grandparents, today, the amount of money most of us make isn’t enough to invest in properties, or even to create a savings account, because, at the end of the day, we are all just struggling to survive. So it’s comprehensible why the U.S. middle-class is getting even smaller with each passing year. A separate Pew Research Center survey found that in June more than one-third of U.S. households reported difficulties in paying bills.
It feels like, from this point on, each one of us needs to start living like every single dollar really matters. Even those who are seemingly fine right now could be hit by a job loss, a major car repair, or a medical emergency that could push them over the edge financially. In this economic environment where most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, most of the country is literally just a step or two away from financial disaster.
Our living standards are decaying as our nation crumbles, and today, we’re going to expose why so many Americans have completely lost hope in the future of this country."
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"The Housing Bubble Has Hit Two of Three Critical Benchmarks"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 7/4/22:
"The Housing Bubble Has Hit Two of Three Critical Benchmarks"
"All bubbles follow a formula. History has shown us that there are three elements to a bubble. The current housing market has achieved two of these critical benchmarks. The final benchmark is about to start."
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"A Look to the Heavens"
“What are those red clouds surrounding the Andromeda galaxy? This galaxy, M31, is often imaged by planet Earth-based astronomers. As the nearest large spiral galaxy, it is a familiar sight with dark dust lanes, bright yellowish core, and spiral arms traced by clouds of bright blue stars.
A mosaic of well-exposed broad and narrow-band image data, this colorful portrait of our neighboring island universe offers strikingly unfamiliar features though, faint reddish clouds of glowing ionized hydrogen gas in the same wide field of view. These ionized hydrogen clouds surely lie in the foreground of the scene, well within our Milky Way Galaxy. They are likely associated with the pervasive, dusty interstellar cirrus clouds scattered hundreds of light-years above our own galactic plane.”
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
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