So, we rise from the rubble...
Friday, February 16, 2024
Dan, I Allegedly, "Dining Out is a Luxury"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 2/16/24
"Dining Out is a Luxury"
"It’s getting more and more expensive by the week for anyone to go to a restaurant. It makes no difference if you go to a high-end restaurant or fast food the prices are absolutely astronomical. No one can afford to eat out."
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Bill Bonner, "Pareto's Foxes"
"Pareto's Foxes"
From millions of private triumphs to trillions in public folly...
by Bill Bonner
"There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation. Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never." ~ John Adams
"The reckoning hour approaches. Charlie Bilello: "The Leading Economic Index has now declined for 16 consecutive months, the longest down streak since 2007-08. What are some signs pointing to economic weakness?
a) Industrial Production, which declined on a YoY basis for the 2nd straight month.
b) Retail Sales, which after adjusting for inflation have fallen for 9 straight months.
Both Target ($TGT) and Home Depot ($HD) reported lower revenue than a year ago, a sign that the US consumer may be pulling back.
Foxes and Clucks: Market timers wait for the sell-off. Economists wait for the recession. Here at Bonner Private Research, we are on suicide watch. In the rich muck beneath the news is the story of the rise of America’s elite – the rich men north of Richmond. It’s the real story of America…a story of power and how it is abused by those whom the famous Italian economist, Wilfredo Pareto, called ‘the foxes.’ They are the clever ones. They are at the top of the heap. Whatever you call your government – they are the ones in charge.
Why bother to look at it like that? Because there are still chapters to be written…and, most likely, it won’t end well. What’s good for the foxes isn’t necessarily good for the clucks in the henhouse.
What we’ve seen, in the story of the USA, is a tale of millions of triumphs – from Powerglide steering to Post-it notes to cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay. But we’ve seen failures too – and a particular kind of flop (described by Adams, above): the foxes are corrupted by power…and their desire to dominate sucks up more and more of the nation’s wealth. Pointless foreign wars…unproductive ‘investments’…bureaucracy…taxes…inflation…and futile ‘programs’ whose only real consequence is to make the rich richer and the powerful even more obnoxious – democracy cuts its own wrists…and bleeds out its vital capital.
The major political parties squabble over bathroom rights…and can’t be bothered to balance the budget. The geniuses at the Fed bring disaster after disaster by pretending to improve a $25 trillion, global economy. America’s military/industrial complex has become a $1.5 trillion/year colossus that can’t win a war. Its pharma/medical complex shuts down the whole economy… delivering drugs that don’t work…and life expectancies fall.
The Vainglory of the Elites: For while the Democrats were on TV howling furiously at the Republicans…and the conservatives were making obscene gestures at liberals in Congress…while the rights of the unborn were debated…the rights of the gender-affirming millennials were assured…. ‘hate’ speech was condemned…women were trained for combat roles.. .TV talk show hosts are ‘called out’ for saying the wrong thing…while pasteurization, vaccinations, and standardization were undertaken by armies of regulators…while the habits of the halibut were studied…while the fat, the lame, smokers and drug abusers were cared for…the idle were subsidized…reckless bankers were excused from bankruptcy…imprudent investors were rescued… incompetent generals were promoted, along with insufferable jackasses, such as Victoria Nuland and Anthony Blinken... US troops dispatched to nearly every woebegone sh*thole country in the world…lobbyists rewarded…bribes offered and taken…reputations built…the stock market pumped…sinecures secured…connivers connived…ill-gotten gains gotten…and trillions in tax money, loans, and printed money handed out to unworthy causes and shady characters…while all this was going on…the rich men north of Richmond grew richer and more powerful than ever.
Little by little…then by huge bounds…energy drained away, out of things that really matter – work, saving, investment, innovation, generosity, courtesy, humility – and into the precincts of the rich, so as to enhance the vainglory of the elites. Yes, America could dominate the world. But she was never mistress of herself; never could she control her elites’ drive for dominion."
o
"Pareto’s Foxes”
by Bill Bonner
"Let’s start with the government, which controls – directly or indirectly – about half the U.S. economy. It was not intended to be so big, so powerful, and so intrusive. But then, it hardly resembles the blueprint described in the Constitution. Elections matter a whole lot less than you think.
As the great Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto explained, no matter what you call your government, over time, it will be taken over by the cunning insiders and hustlers he called “foxes.” There are always some smart people able to manipulate, control, and subvert the government and use its police power (governments claim a monopoly on the use of violence) to get what they want. What do these foxes want? Money. Power. Status. The usual.
There is nothing underhanded about it. Nothing sinister or surprising. And you don’t need to believe in conspiracies to understand it. The subversion takes place right out in the open. But because it is so different from what we are looking for, we don’t even see it. But it’s really very simple: You spend your time earning money. The foxes spend their time figuring out how to get it from you – by taxation, legislation, regulation, or an ingenious phony-money system."
"Gregory Mannarino, AM/PM 2/16/24"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 2/16/24
"FED States It Will Defend The US Dollar As
World Reserve...Even If It Has To Kill Millions"
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o
Gregory Mannarino, PM 2/16/24
"Economic Disaster Is Worsening Faster!
Expect More Propaganda And Expanding War"
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Jim Kunstler, "Speed...and...Action"
$hit has really hit the Fani in Fulton County.
"Speed...and...Action"
by Jim Kunstler
“It’s like every other two-minute clip I watch of this
Fani Willis interview she admits to committing another felony.”
- Senator JD Vance (R-OH)
"Have you noticed yet that America has turned into a Coen Brothers movie? Everywhere you look, you see madcap characters disgracing themselves while doing their bit to burn the whole country down. It’s a panoramic extravaganza of everything gone wrong, with slapstick overtones, driving toward an apocalyptic climax - civil war, nuclear war, economic collapse, maybe all three. And all because the people on-screen just can’t stop lying.
Yesterday was Fani Willis’s turn, her big scene. The Fulton County, Georgia, DA, wasn’t even scheduled to testify, but she barged into Judge Scott McAfee’s courtroom and seized possession of the witness stand, like it was home-base in a game of ringolevio. This was after the morning vivisection of her boyfriend, the feckless Nathan Wade, testifying to the couple’s fun-filled romantic travels during the months they were supposedly busy constructing a racketeering case against Donald Trump and eighteen others scooped into their dragnet.
The reason the lovebirds could take so much time cavorting across the Caribbean and California - vineyard tours featuring “pairings of champagne, chocolate, and caviar,” Ms. Willis testified - is because their Fulton County case was entirely prepped for them out of DC by Mary McCord, the veteran blob lawyer active in every Get-Trump hoax cooked up since 2016. (And I’d bet cash-money that she had plenty of assistance from Lawfare blobsters Norm Eisen and Andrew Weissmann.) The complex particulars of the case were all teed up, ready to go. All Ms. Willis and her lead prosecutor, Mr. Wade, had to do was get the trial date set, raise the curtain, and follow the script.
Alas, the couple got carried away in the raptures of amour and, all of a sudden, we’re in something like "The Real Housewives of Atlanta". And then they lied about the details under oath, especially around the money involved. If they are not disqualified from participating in the Trump “racketeering” case - in which their own behavior would be centerpiece evidence of an ineptly tainted and malicious prosecution - and/or if the case is not tossed summarily, then it will have to be removed to another county and most likely delayed until after the 2024 elections. Nice work, Party of Chaos!
That little opéra bouffe is but one sub-plot in the larger scenario. Also this week, the scandal of the century was re-kindled when alt-news reporters Taibbi, Shellenberger, and Guttentag filed the story of how Barack Obama and CIA Director John Brennan, with his chore girls, Avril Haines and Gina Haspel, cooked up the RussiaGate caper and fed it to the FBI, with a major assist from The New York Times, the WashPo, CNN, and other useful idiot news media vectors. All of this had actually been well-documented for years, but the reporters dredged up new corroboration from disgusted blob insiders further clarifying the origins of the hoax.
The cast of characters in that part of the big movie has been consistent through eight full years of anti-Trump hysteria and the associated trips laid on our country. Ms. McCord, for instance, was U.S. Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security during the birth of RussiaGate; later served as counsel to the House Committee that kicked-off Trump Impeachment No. 1 (coordinating the Eric Ciaramella “whistleblower” scam); then became counsel to Rep. Bennie Thompson’s J6 committee investigation, and now turns up as Fani Willis’ legal tutor, and probably also tutor to New York State Attorney General Letitia James and her preposterous Get Trump real estate valuation case under Judge Engoron. (Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan DA on the Stormy Daniels case against Mr. Trump, was coached by then US Associate Attorney General Matthew Colangelo who was hired out of the DOJ directly into Mr. Bragg’s office for tutoring purposes.) All of this coaching post Jan 20, 2021, was coordinated by the “Joe Biden” White House.
Speaking of whom, the evermore spectral “president” was not having a great week either after DOJ Special Counsel Robert Hur painted him into a corner in his final report as either too demented to face charges in the purloined documents case (and, by inference, not mentally capable to be president), or else a criminal trafficking in top secret documents he was not authorized to possess as Senator and Veep. Looks like that puts an end to “JB’s” game of pretending to run for reelection (that is, lying about it) and leaves the Democratic Party holding a flaming bag of dog doo-doo.
In the background of all these shenanigans in high places lurk three other smoldering bonfires: 1) all the lying, deception, and treason behind the Covid-19 operation that has left more than half the country susceptible to deadly vaccine injuries (and disordered our society); 2) the monumental mail-in ballot fraud of the last two elections (2020, 2022) enabled by the Covid-19 “emergency”; and 3) the War in Ukraine which is winding down towards another US humiliation, and behind which lurks a virtual off-gassing giant landfill of money-laundering, bribery, and something that smells like treason. Also looks like BlackRock will miss out on the colossal asset-stripping op it has been looking forward to there.
Oh, and by the way, this movie is not over. A lot of the people involved are going to end up in court themselves, perhaps in prison. Stay in your seats."
o
"What Is Life?"
"What is life?
It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs
across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."
- Crowfoot, Blackfoot Warrior and Orator
"Be Bold. Life Is Too Short For Anything Else"
"Be Bold. Life Is Too Short For Anything Else"
by John Wilder
“That’s a bold statement.” – "Pulp Fiction"
"One of the problems with life in Modern Mayberry is that it often moves at a fairly slow pace. Especially in the time when an adult is focused on raising kids, the days tend to blur one into the next. If your life is good, this isn’t really a problem. When I was younger, my life was spent going to weddings. Now that I’m older, more time is spent going to funerals. It is important to not get mixed up as to which you’re at, although sometimes “My condolences,” is appropriate at a wedding and I’d almost be willing to bet $20 that at least one person will say “Congratulations!” after my funeral. However, in the event that I’m wrong, collecting on that bet might be a problem.
One thing that facilitates this blur is reading stuff on the Internet. One blogger I read (LINK) is giving up doomscrolling (or reading the unending list of negative stories that are available in the news) for Lent. I suppose you could leave him a comment, but you’d have to wait a few weeks to get a response.
But when it comes to doomscrolling, there are huge numbers of these stories available. The business model is simple: scary stuff attracts eyeballs, and eyeballs means revenue. As I look at my own past posts, I’m thinking that, even though I talk about a lot of scary stuff, that I’m mostly relentlessly positive. I can even recall a comment section or two where I’m called a Pollyanna because I’m so positive.
I can live with that. Being positive, being for things and knowing that, in the end it’s all going to work out keeps me positive. In most cases (most, not all!) the things I write about don’t make me angry, either. Again, stress on the “mostly”. And I try not to get worked up about events occurring half-a-world away that I can’t control or even much influence. Things are what they are. And, for most of us, things are generally pretty good on a day-to-day basis, even when things aren’t perfect. Even on a bad day, most parts of the day are good. The thing that gets us is built into the doomscrolling: spending time worrying about things that simply have not happened.
I write about the coming Civil War 2.0 not in hopes that it comes, rather to make people aware that it’s coming. Do I sit and worry about it daily? No! That would take away from the time I spend thinking about the Roman Empire.
In this moment, there are things that I could let bother me. However, I realize that letting them bother me gives them power over me when that’s the last thing I want. “Take not counsel of your fears,” is attributed to George S. Patton, Jr. I’m sure other people said the same thing in similar ways in the thousands of years that people have been saying things, but when Patton says it, well, it’s been said.
“Better to fight for something than live for nothing.”
– GSP
If I let my fears fill me up, I live a life of fear regardless of if it’s a perfect 63°F, and I have a wonderful cigar, and a great book beside me while sitting in a comfortable chair. I think fear comes to people as they age. I certainly saw Pa Wilder get more and more cautious as he aged. I could give a few examples, but it doesn’t much matter. I did notice. And when I saw the tendency to do it start to crop up in myself, at least I understood what was going on and I could choose to be cautious or choose to be bold.
I think, however, that as I get older it is precisely the time to be bolder. Life moves in a blur, and days stack up faster, so they should mean something. If I knew I had only a year? What would I do? Something to make that year worthwhile. If a month? A day? The shorter the time left, the more that boldness matters and the less caution should. If I only had an hour of my life left, you can damn sure bet I’d do something with it, as much as I could.
But life is built on compound interest. The more I try to write, the better I get. The more I lift, the stronger I get. The time to start is now. The actions should be bold. While my days may pass fast, the more I can do with them, the more I will do.
When I pass, what will be left are the lives I’ve touched, the children that I’ve raised, the ways I’ve made the world better, and the words that I have written. Since the restraining order dictates who I can touch, and the lessons to the children are mainly done, that leaves making the world better and writing.
Even a full human lifetime isn’t enough, because they are so very short. But I’ll make do. With the remaining decades (hopefully) of my life, how big a dent can I kick in the Universe? I guess I’ll see. And I’ll smile some, every day. And enjoy that cigar, and book, and chair when I’m not being bold. “L’audace, l’audace, toujours l’audace.”
Thursday, February 15, 2024
"Alert! Governments Rapidly Building Giant Bunkers; Subterranean Warfare Prep; Emergency Operations"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 2/15/24
"Alert! Governments Rapidly Building Giant Bunkers;
Subterranean Warfare Prep; Emergency Operations"
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"Brace For Impact, Total Collapse Is Coming! The Most Dangerous Time In US History Is Now, Prepare!"
Jeremiah Babe, 2/15/24
"Brace For Impact, Total Collapse Is Coming!
The Most Dangerous Time In US History Is Now, Prepare!"
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Gerald Celente, "Banks Go Bust As World War III Heats Up!"
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 2/15/24
"Banks Go Bust As World War III Heats Up!"
"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."
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Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "My Orchid Spirit (Extragalactic)"
Full screen recommended!
Liquid Mind, "My Orchid Spirit (Extragalactic)"
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Many spiral galaxies have bars across their centers. Even our own Milky Way Galaxy is thought to have a modest central bar. Prominently barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672, featured here, was captured in spectacular detail in an image taken by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. Visible are dark filamentary dust lanes, young clusters of bright blue stars, red emission nebulas of glowing hydrogen gas, a long bright bar of stars across the center, and a bright active nucleus that likely houses a supermassive black hole.
Light takes about 60 million years to reach us from NGC 1672, which spans about 75,000 light years across. NGC 1672, which appears toward the constellation of the Dolphinfish (Dorado), has been studied to find out how a spiral bar contributes to star formation in a galaxy's central regions."
The Poet: John Donne, "For Whom the Bell Tolls"
"For Whom the Bell Tolls"
"No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee."
- John Donne
"The Free and the Brave"
"The Free and the Brave"
by Todd Hayen
"Whatever happened to that (the free and the brave)? Whatever happened to the attitude that had Patrick Henry at the Virginia convention in 1775 say “give me liberty, or give me death”?
Whatever happened to the patriotic fervor and the uncanny commitment to face suffering and death that resulted in over two million young men volunteering for service in World War I, and five times that number volunteering to serve in World War II?
Whatever happened to the ability to conquer fear and ride on the excitement for adventure and potential for immeasurable success that drove hundreds of thousands of men and women into the wild, and dangerous, frontiers of the American West?
Whatever happened to the spirit that filled the souls of those that faced stark adversity, danger to life and limb, that lead over 50,000 hapless men and women (mostly men) into the jungles of Central America to build the Panama Canal? - ultimately killing over 5,000 of them as a result of accidents, all manner of diseases including malaria and dysentery?
What happened?
Yeah, this is about us, guys (me included!) Sure, women can be brave - any biological sexual orientation can activate the warrior archetype - but more commonly it is the gendered male that falls into this archetypal constellation. Bravery - a compulsion to protect those he loves, have a critical and logical assessment of a difficult situation, and the force and power, at the very least a potential force and power, ready to inflict whatever necessary to protect partner and family, community and nation. We, us men, have seemed to have lost much of that. Have we become a bunch of puss-balls?
Dr Mark McDonald, a prominent medical doctor with a speciality in psychiatry, doesn’t mince words when he says while describing the psychological state of men and women during this crises: "We essentially have men with no balls, and then we have histrionics, women who have no emotional containment, because there are no men to contain them anymore.”
Sexist? Maybe some will think so, but McDonald is not putting all the blame on one sex, or exclusively on the masculine or feminine archetypes, the responsibility here is rather well balanced.
What does this mean? Very basically it means we have created a culture that has done a pretty good job of emasculating men - the radical feminist movement, as well as a general lack of situations where men can express their “man-ness” in a healthy way, has been a big part of the problem.
“Toxic Masculinity” is a phrase and concept that has taken the world by storm, and contributes quite a bit to the confusion that men are experiencing while trying to ascertain what a “real man” is in today’s “anti male” culture. “Oh boo hoo” some of you may be saying. “Men, through their powerful patriarchal history of abusing women and treating them as inferior partners in relationships deserve a little pull back!” There certainly is truth to that, but two wrongs don’t make a right. You can’t carve out an essential part of being a “man” without some collateral damage, all the way around.
So what does being a “real man” have to do with bravery? A lot, actually. Facing adversity and danger, primarily in order to protect the physically weaker, is a very important attribute of the masculine archetype of warrior, or even king if you want to get more detailed about it. Historically and traditionally the man has been the protector, the physical, and sometimes intellectual (intelligence that is present in logic reasoning and critical thinking) found in masculine archetypes (again, archetypes both men and women have access to).
These attributes are primarily directed toward protection and outwardly projected as strength and resolve. This often stabilizes the more emotional feminine archetypal factors that again, typically, are activated by the female, or woman, in a relationship.
As a psychotherapist, and an archetypal psychologist at that, I see these archetypal powers and influences playing out in my clients every day. Most of the problems I find in a couple’s therapy stems from an imbalance, or a dysfunction, in these energies of masculine and feminine. Again, the “man” in a couple can be activating both masculine and feminine archetypes, as well as the “woman.” The problem comes in if the archetypes activated are inappropriate, out of balance, and create a result that is unexpected, undesired, or not beneficial. Most of these influences run in the unconscious, so very seldom are they consciously manipulated.
It wasn’t until I met Dr McDonald that I connected some very important dots. McDonald recently wrote and released a book titled "United States of Fear." The subtitle of the book, “How America Fell Victim to a Mass Delusional Psychosis” is the primary focus.
McDonald holds nothing back when he addresses what he believes to be a fundamental cause of this mass psychosis. He believes that women (feminine archetypes driving the woman’s behavior) need a strong, and masculine man, to contain her emotionality (due to the unfettered expression of her feminine archetypes.) McDonald, in an interview given on Jerm Warfare, said:
"Do you think men with masks on make women feel safe? It only shows they have no balls. I’ve spoken with female police officers who see men in camouflage, tattooed, driving around in trucks with gun racks - wearing masks. They tell me, ‘this does not make me feel safe. This makes me afraid. If they are this scared of a virus, how will they react to a real threat - what’s going to happen when the bear comes out of the woods? What’s going to happen when a rapist tries to attack me? What’s going to happen when my children are going to be kidnapped by the man in the park, what are they going to do? With their mask on are they going to say, “Please stop. Please. Please.” They’re not going to put their lives on the line. They won’t even put their mouth on the line.’”
Harsh words, my brothers. Harsh words, but I think quite on the money. Is this the only thing that is driving the collapse we are seeing in those that cannot stand up to this current tyranny, and say “Enough is enough, step back!” No, of course not, but, in my opinion, it is a large part of the problem.
Our culture, at least in the West, has been set up for this to happen. We have become more and more dependent on government taking care of us, thus losing our own personal drive to develop character and strength. We depend on government and authority to think for us, and tell us what is best for us to, in a word, parent us. We comply, we stay children, and we ultimately suffer.
The brave hold onto what makes them free and are willing to fight for it. Freedom is a God given right, not one bestowed upon us by any other authority. The healthy masculine archetypes of warrior and king have at their side the symbolic sword representing their power over adversity and danger.
There is a time for the warrior to pull the sword from its scabbard just a few inches to allow the sun to glint off of its polished surface, flashing in the eyes of a potential enemy, letting them know who they are dealing with. And then there is the time to pull the sword completely free from its confines and slash what is seriously threatening the warrior and those he loves. Now is the time to fight."
○
“You cannot kill me here. Bring your soldiers, your death, your disease, your collapsed economy because it doesn’t matter, I have nothing left to lose and you cannot kill me here. Bring the tears of orphans and the wails of a mother’s loss, bring your God damn air force and Jesus on a cross, bring your hate and bitterness and long working hours, bring your empty wallets and love long since gone but you cannot kill me here. Bring your sneers, your snide remarks and friendships never felt, your letters never sent, your kisses never kissed, cigarettes smoked to the bone and cancer killing fears but you cannot kill me here. For I may fall and I may fail but I will stand again each time and you will find no satisfaction. Because you cannot kill me here.”
- Iain S. Thomas
Judge Napolitano, "Prof. John Mearsheimer: Is Armageddon Coming in the Middle East?"
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 2/15/24
"Prof. John Mearsheimer:
Is Armageddon Coming in the Middle East?"
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The Poet: David Whyte, "The Truelove"
"The Truelove: Poet and Philosopher David Whyte on
Reaching Beyond Our Limiting Beliefs About the Love We Deserve"
By Maria Popova
"Few things limit us more profoundly than our own beliefs about what we deserve, and few things liberate us more powerfully than daring to broaden our locus of possibility and self-permission for happiness. The stories we tell ourselves about what we are worthy or unworthy of - from the small luxuries of naps and watermelon to the grandest luxury of a passionate creative calling or a large and possible love - are the stories that shape our lives. Bruce Lee knew this when he admonished that “you will never get any more out of life than you expect,” James Baldwin knew it when he admonished that “you’ve got to tell the world how to treat you [because] if the world tells you how you are going to be treated, you are in trouble,” and Viktor Frankl embodied this in his impassioned insistence on saying “yes” to life.
The more vulnerable-making the endeavor, the more reflexive the limitation and the more redemptive the liberation. That difficult, delicate, triumphal pivot from self-limitation to self-liberation in the most vulnerable-making of human undertakings - love - is what poet and philosopher David Whyte, who thinks deeply about these questions of courage and love, maps out in his stunning poem “The Truelove,” found in his book The Sea in You: Twenty Poems of Requited and Unrequited Love (public library) and read here:
"The Truelove"
by David Whyte
"There is a faith in loving fiercely
the one who is rightfully yours,
especially if you have
waited years and especially
if part of you never believed
you could deserve this
loved and beckoning hand
held out to you this way.
I am thinking of faith now
and the testaments of loneliness
and what we feel we are
worthy of in this world.
Years ago in the Hebrides
I remember an old man
who walked every morning
on the grey stones
to the shore of the baying seals,
who would press his hat
to his chest in the blustering
salt wind and say his prayer
to the turbulent Jesus
hidden in the water,
and I think of the story
of the storm and everyone
waking and seeing
the distant
yet familiar figure
far across the water
calling to them,
and how we are all
preparing for that
abrupt waking,
and that calling,
and that moment
we have to say yes,
except it will
not come so grandly,
so Biblically,
but more subtly
and intimately in the face
of the one you know
you have to love,
so that when we finally step out of the boat
toward them, we find
everything holds
us, and confirms
our courage, and if you wanted
to drown you could,
but you don’t
because finally
after all the struggle
and all the years,
you don’t want to any more,
you’ve simply had enough
of drowning
and you want to live and you
want to love and you will
walk across any territory
and any darkness,
however fluid and however
dangerous, to take the
one hand you know
belongs in yours."
“The Truelove” appears in the short, splendid course of poem-anchored contemplative practices David guides for neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris’s Waking Up meditation toolkit, in which he reads each poem, offers an intimate tour of the landscape of experience from which it arose, and reflects on the broader existential quickenings it invites.
Couple this generous gift of a poem with “Sometimes” - David’s perspectival poem about living into the questions of our becoming, also part of Waking Up - then revisit the Nobel-winning Polish poet WisĹ‚awa Szymborska on great love and James Baldwin (who believed that poets are “the only people who know the truth about us”) on love and the illusion of choice."
o
Freely download "Poems Of David Whyte" here:
"Where Your Gaze Lingers..."
“Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that has nothing to do with you, this storm is you. Something inside you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, and walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up the sky like pulverized bones.
You have to look! That’s another one of the rules. Closing your eyes isn’t going to change anything. Nothing’s going to disappear just because you can’t see what going on. In fact, things will be even worse the next time you open your eyes. That’s the kind of world we live in. Keep your eyes wide open. Only a coward closes his eyes. Closing your eyes and plugging up your ears won’t make time stand still.”
- Haruki Murakami
“Closing your eyes won’t make the awfulness go away. It may be that nothing will. But dwelling on it, dreading the evil, playing out the misery in your head – doesn’t this feed the monster? You can’t close your eyes to life, but you can choose where your gaze lingers.”
- Richelle E. Goodrich
“Screw The Way Things Are, I Want Out!”
“Screw The Way Things Are, I Want Out!”
by Paul Rosenberg
“This is a beautiful planet, filled, in the main, with decent, cooperative humans. And yet, I want out. Give me any kind of functional spaceship and any reasonable chance, and I’ll take it. This place is anti-human. It chokes the best that’s in us, aggressively and self-righteously. I was struck not long ago by a comment of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s, in which he expressed the same kind of feeling: “I ought to have become a star in the sky. Instead of which I have remained stuck on earth…”
All of us who’ve had a moment of transcendence - who made some type of contact with what is truly the best inside ourselves - have also sensed that life in the current world is incompatible with it. I think we should stop burying that understanding beneath piles of “that’s the way things are,” “we should be realistic,” and “you can’t fight City Hall.”
Screw the way things are, screw “realistic,” and screw City Hall too. I was made for better things than this, and you were too.
Everywhere I turn, some kind of ruler, sub-ruler, enforcer, regulator, or “right-thinking” quasi-enforcer demands not only my money but also for me to make myself easy to punish, thus showing myself to be a good subservient. That’s not just wrong; it’s a disease. I don’t care whether such people are “following orders,” “just doing their job,” or whatever else they tell themselves to soothe their rightly troubled souls. That mode of living is perverse, and these people are enforcing a disease.
Let me make this part very clear: The desire to control others is disease; it is corruption. Willing controllers are a morally inferior class. And the truly deranged thing is that these people rule the world! Forget about why this is so - we can debate that later - focus rather on the utter insanity of this: A minority of moral defectives, who think extortion is a virtue, rule people who are happy to live and let live, by force.
That’s outright lunacy. And to support the lunacy, we have lies, intimidation, and slogans: “In a democracy, you’re really ruling yourself,” “Only crazy people disagree,” “It’s always been this way,” and so on. To all of which I reply, How stupid do you think we are? You drilled that crap into us when we were children, but we’re not children anymore. And if “our way” isn’t as bad as North Korea, that makes it right? Only to a fool.
And the results of “the way it’s always been”… my God, the results… A study from the 1980s found that since 3600 BC, the world has known only 292 years of peace. During this period there have been 14,531 wars, large and small, in which 3.6 billion people have been killed.
This is what I’m supposed to serve with all my heart and soul? A Bronze Age system that can’t keep itself from slaughter? We’re talking about a 5,600-year track record of mass death, and yet fundamental change is considered unthinkable? Well, screw that too, because I think deep, fundamental change is called for, and was called for a long time ago.
Again, this is a wonderful planet and most of the people on it are decent, but it is ruled by insanity, and I want out. Yes, I know, there’s really nowhere to go. Every place I might go is dominated by the same diseased model, and dissent is punished the same, and in some places worse. That’s one of the reasons space appeals to me; it gives me a chance to escape this madness.
I’ll draw this to a close with a passage from C. Delisle Burns’s wonderful "The First Europe," describing why the Roman Empire collapsed: “Great numbers of men and women were unwilling to make the effort required for the maintenance of the old order, not because they were not good enough to fulfill their civic duties, but because they were too good to be satisfied with a system from which so few derived benefit.”
I, for one, am unwilling to expend any effort to maintain the present order. It is by its nature incompatible with the best that is in us, and always will be. Those of us who want to be more and better cannot support the current order without opposing what’s best in ourselves. Screw that.”
Adventures With Danno, ".99¢ Deals At Kroger!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 2/15/24
".99¢ Deals At Kroger!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Kroger and are noticing a lot of grocery items on sale for a dollar. With grocery prices continuing to rise, we need to take advantage of these sales while we have the opportunity! Get your notepad ready as I take you shopping with me to find these great bargains!"
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o
Meanwhile, elsewhere...
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 2/15/24
"Russian Typical (Low Cost) Supermarket:
Would You Shop Here?"
"What does a Russian typical budget supermarket look like inside? Take a walk through Маяк Supermarket to see what a low cost Russian supermarket really looks like. Would you choose to shop here?"
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Bill Bonner, "SuperCore Lies"
"SuperCore Lies"
A scammy new price metric for those who
live on the street and don't eat or heat...
by Bill Bonner
Cherbourg, France - "Inflation is running hot. This from Breitbart: "Economists were expecting a year-over-year increase of 3.0 percent. The 12-month price rise was 3.4 percent in December. The six-month annualized core rate rose to 3.6 percent from 3.2 percent. Both indicate a trend of rising inflation well above the level the Fed says is compatible with a healthy economy. The one-month rate annualized is 4.8 percent, an indication of how high the monthly inflation figure is. In other words, if inflation were to run at the same pace it did in January for 12 months, the annual inflation would be 4.8 percent.
But wait. The Fed has a new, scammy way to measure inflation. It’s called the “SuperCore CPI.” It takes out food. And energy. And housing. So it is useful information only for homeless people who don’t eat or buy fuel. The ‘SuperCore CPI’ was intended, we suppose, to provide a number that was suitably docile and seriously misleading. Something seems to have gone wrong, however. The latest reading is over 8%.
Lies, Damned Lies…But statistics always lie. Especially those with decimal points. It’s one thing to say ‘consumer prices are about 20% higher than they were in 2020.’ There’s some rough truth in it. But a 4.8% (annualized from January’s numbers) CPI is negative information. You have the impression that you know something…to the decimal. Actually, you know nothing at all. The data going in was garbage…coming out, it was ‘night soil.’
What we’ve been looking at for the last few days is the way “inflation” is far more than just a monetary phenomenon – and very difficult to measure. Many economists, for example, think the price hikes of 2022 were solely due to the money-printing of 2020-2021. Neat and simple. The feds print money; prices go up. But there’s more to the story. The price hikes we’re seeing now are a much more insidious kind of inflation…persistent, unrelenting…and not at all subject to decimal points.
We’ve seen that the feds cause inflation simply by spending more money. Federal deficits eat into the savings and spending of the real economy; the government grows, but real output goes down. Prices go up as there are fewer goods and services to buy. Likewise, the ever-expanding swamp of government regulations and controls leaves little dry land for the Main Street economy…leading to higher prices for the remaining output.
Higher and Higher Prices: Earlier this week, we looked at the whole phenomenon of ‘inflation’ through Joseph Tainters’ lens of collapsing civilizations. People meet challenges – real and imagined – by applying the power of the government. Laws, regulations, policies…year after year, they add up. The Federal Register records the rate of change…with about 86,000 new pages each year. Each of these is like the proverbial straw on the camel’s back. Eventually, the poor animal’s knees buckle.
Donald Trump promised to relieve the poor beast of some of its burden. And in his first year in office, the rate of new regulations did go down. It took the new team time to get its program in gear. By the last year of the Trump administration the Federal Register was as fat as ever, with new rules and regulations coming hot and heavy.
Regulations have an effect similar to more spending. They force people to do things they don’t want to do, rewarding privileged groups of cronies, lobbyists, or political donors at the expense of everyone else. Automakers, for example, may switch to making electric cars in order to meet political objectives. Edmonds reports: "California Mandates Electric Cars for 2035." The result is lower output of the cars people really want – and higher prices.
In an honest economy, prices should go down…as producers get better at what they do. But in a late, degenerate empire, corrupted by fake money lent at fake rates, they go up…as government reduces the supply of goods and services while increasing the supply of money and credit.
The True Cost: How much do the regulations cost? We ask AI: "In 2012, the estimated cost of U.S. federal government regulations was approximately $2.028 trillion (in 2014 dollars). This amount is equivalent to 12 percent of the GDP. These regulatory costs impact various aspects of business decisions, including hiring, salaries, capital spending, and dividends. For an average U.S. firm, the annual regulatory cost burden amounts to $233,182, which constitutes 21 percent of average payroll.
Additionally, research by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University indicates that the accumulation of rules over several decades has slowed economic growth, resulting in an estimated $4 trillion loss in U.S. GDP in 2012 (had regulations remained at 1980 levels)."
Forbes: "The Competitive Enterprise Institute noted that in 2015 the government issued over 80,000 pages of rules including 76 “major” rules costing more than $100 million to implement. They put the cost at $1.9 trillion, more than taxes collected by the federal government.
But much of the cost can’t be tallied at all. No 6s…no 7s…no 8s will tell the story. There is the frustration of trying to comply with nonsensical rules…paperwork…bureaucracy and delays. There are the dodges and workarounds people turn to in order to try to avoid them. And there are the businesses that are never started…careers that are never undertaken…innovations that are never attempted.
It is even worse for the victims of the government-sponsored firepower industry. Refugees fill the highways. Amputees fill the hospitals and rehab clinics. The dead fill the cemeteries. And what to make of it?"
o
ShadowStats Alternate Inflation Rate Feb. 2024
"The Collapse Of Complex Societies"
"Political disintegration is a persistent feature of world history. "The Collapse of Complex Societies," though written by an archaeologist, will therefore strike a chord throughout the social sciences. Any explanation of societal collapse carries lessons not just for the study of ancient societies, but for the members of all such societies in both the present and future. Dr. Tainter describes nearly two dozen cases of collapse and reviews more than 2000 years of explanations. He then develops a new and far-reaching theory that accounts for collapse among diverse kinds of societies, evaluating his model and clarifying the processes of disintegration by detailed studies of the Roman, Mayan and Chacoan collapses."
Freely download “The Collapse of Complex Societies” here:
Dan, I Allegedly, "Huge Hack! Your Info Is At Risk!"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 2/15/24
"Huge Hack! Your Info Is At Risk!"
"Another day and another huge hack. The Prudential insurance company just got hacked and had data stolen. This happened on a smaller scale in spring of 2023 and now it’s just gotten worse."
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Gregory Mannarino, "Be Ready For Anything! Now More Than Ever!"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 2/15/24
"Be Ready For Anything! Now More Than Ever!"
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Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Canadian Prepper, "Code Red Emergency: Pentagon In Panic, Biden Briefed, Russian 'Space Nukes Trigger Mass Panic"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 2/14/24
"Code Red Emergency: Pentagon In Panic,
Biden Briefed, Russian 'Space Nukes Trigger Mass Panic"
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Jeremiah Babe, "Evil Strikes Kansas City"
Jeremiah Babe, 2/14/24
"Evil Strikes Kansas City; Tax Refunds Crater;
What's Really Happening To The Economy?"
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