“I know that my plainness of speech makes them hate me,
and what is their hatred but proof that I am speaking the truth?”
– Socrates, in "Plato’s Apology", before he ingested hemlock.
So, we rise from the rubble...
Thursday, March 14, 2024
Free Download: George Orwell, "Animal Farm"
"Animal Farm"
by George Orwell
Biographical note: "George Orwell, 1903-1950, was the pen name used by British author and journalist Eric Arthur Blair. During most of his professional life time Orwell was best known for his journalism, both in the British press and in books such as "Homage to Catalonia," describing his activities during the Spanish Civil War, and "Down and Out in Paris and London," describing a period of poverty in these cities. Orwell is best remembered today for two of his novels, "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four."
Description: Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely- and this is vividly and eloquently proved in Orwell's short novel. "Animal Farm" is a simple fable of great symbolic value, and as Orwell himself explained: "it is the history of a revolution that went wrong." The novel can be seen as the historical analysis of the causes of the failure of communism, or as a mere fairy-tale; in any case it tells a good story that aims to prove that human nature and diversity prevent people from being equal and happy, or at least equally happy.
"Animal Farm" tells the simple and tragic story of what happens when the oppressed farm animals rebel, drive out Mr. Jones, the farmer, and attempt to rule the farm themselves, on an equal basis. What the animals seem to have aimed at was a utopian sort of communism, where each would work according to his capacity, respecting the needs of others. The venture failed, and "Animal Farm" ended up being a dictatorship of pigs, who were the brightest, and most idle of the animals.
Orwell's mastery lies in his presentation of the horrors of totalitarian regimes, and his analysis of communism put to practice, through satire and simple story-telling. The structure of the novel is skillfully organized, and the careful reader may, for example, detect the causes of the unworkability of communism even from the first chapter. This is deduced from Orwell's description of the various animals as they enter the barn and take their seats to listen to the revolutionary preaching of Old Major, father of communism in Animal Farm. Each animal has different features and attitude; the pigs, for example, "settled down in the straw immediately in front of the platform", which is a hint on their future role, whereas Clover, the affectionate horse" made a sort of wall" with her foreleg to protect some ducklings.
So, it appears that the revolution was doomed from the beginning, even though it began in idealistic optimism as expressed by the motto "no animal must ever tyrannize over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers." "When the animals drive out Mr. Jones, they create their "Seven Commandments" which ensure equality and prosperity for all the animals. The pigs, however, being the natural leaders, managed to reverse the commandments, and through terror and propaganda establish the rule of an elite of pigs, under the leadership of Napoleon, the most revered and sinister pig.
"Animal Farm" successfully presents how the mechanism of propaganda and brainwashing works in totalitarian regimes, by showing how the pigs could make the other animals believe practically anything. Responsible for the propaganda was Squealer, a pig that "could turn black into white." Squealer managed to change the rule from "all animals are equal" to "all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." He managed to convince the other animals that it was for their sake that the pigs ate most of the apples and drank most of the milk, that leadership was "heavy responsibility" and therefore the animals should be thankful to Napoleon, that what they saw may have been something they "dreamed", and when everything else failed he would use the threat of "Jones returning" to silence the animals. In this simple but effective way, Orwell presents the tragedy and confusion of thought control to the extent that one seems better off simply believing that "Napoleon is always right".
Orwell's criticism of the role of the Church is also very effective. In Animal Farm, the Church is represented by Moses, a tame raven, who talks of "Sugarcandy Mountain", a happy country in the sky "where we poor animals shall rest forever from our labors". It is interesting to observe that when Old Major was first preaching revolutionary communism, Moses was sleeping in the barn, which satirizes the Church being caught asleep by communism. It is also important to note that the pig-dictators allowed and indirectly encouraged Moses; it seems that it suited the pigs to have the animals dreaming of a better life after death so that they wouldn't attempt to have a better life while still alive...
In "Animal Farm," Orwell describes how power turned the pigs from simple "comrades" to ruthless dictators who managed to walk on two legs, and carry whips. The story may be seen as an analysis of the Soviet regime, or as a warning against political power games of an absolute nature and totalitarianism in general. For this reason, the story ends with a hair-raising warning to all humankind: "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again: but already it was impossible to say which was which."
Description: Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely- and this is vividly and eloquently proved in Orwell's short novel. "Animal Farm" is a simple fable of great symbolic value, and as Orwell himself explained: "it is the history of a revolution that went wrong." The novel can be seen as the historical analysis of the causes of the failure of communism, or as a mere fairy-tale; in any case it tells a good story that aims to prove that human nature and diversity prevent people from being equal and happy, or at least equally happy.
"Animal Farm" tells the simple and tragic story of what happens when the oppressed farm animals rebel, drive out Mr. Jones, the farmer, and attempt to rule the farm themselves, on an equal basis. What the animals seem to have aimed at was a utopian sort of communism, where each would work according to his capacity, respecting the needs of others. The venture failed, and "Animal Farm" ended up being a dictatorship of pigs, who were the brightest, and most idle of the animals.
Orwell's mastery lies in his presentation of the horrors of totalitarian regimes, and his analysis of communism put to practice, through satire and simple story-telling. The structure of the novel is skillfully organized, and the careful reader may, for example, detect the causes of the unworkability of communism even from the first chapter. This is deduced from Orwell's description of the various animals as they enter the barn and take their seats to listen to the revolutionary preaching of Old Major, father of communism in Animal Farm. Each animal has different features and attitude; the pigs, for example, "settled down in the straw immediately in front of the platform", which is a hint on their future role, whereas Clover, the affectionate horse" made a sort of wall" with her foreleg to protect some ducklings.
So, it appears that the revolution was doomed from the beginning, even though it began in idealistic optimism as expressed by the motto "no animal must ever tyrannize over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers." "When the animals drive out Mr. Jones, they create their "Seven Commandments" which ensure equality and prosperity for all the animals. The pigs, however, being the natural leaders, managed to reverse the commandments, and through terror and propaganda establish the rule of an elite of pigs, under the leadership of Napoleon, the most revered and sinister pig.
"Animal Farm" successfully presents how the mechanism of propaganda and brainwashing works in totalitarian regimes, by showing how the pigs could make the other animals believe practically anything. Responsible for the propaganda was Squealer, a pig that "could turn black into white." Squealer managed to change the rule from "all animals are equal" to "all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." He managed to convince the other animals that it was for their sake that the pigs ate most of the apples and drank most of the milk, that leadership was "heavy responsibility" and therefore the animals should be thankful to Napoleon, that what they saw may have been something they "dreamed", and when everything else failed he would use the threat of "Jones returning" to silence the animals. In this simple but effective way, Orwell presents the tragedy and confusion of thought control to the extent that one seems better off simply believing that "Napoleon is always right".
Orwell's criticism of the role of the Church is also very effective. In Animal Farm, the Church is represented by Moses, a tame raven, who talks of "Sugarcandy Mountain", a happy country in the sky "where we poor animals shall rest forever from our labors". It is interesting to observe that when Old Major was first preaching revolutionary communism, Moses was sleeping in the barn, which satirizes the Church being caught asleep by communism. It is also important to note that the pig-dictators allowed and indirectly encouraged Moses; it seems that it suited the pigs to have the animals dreaming of a better life after death so that they wouldn't attempt to have a better life while still alive...
In "Animal Farm," Orwell describes how power turned the pigs from simple "comrades" to ruthless dictators who managed to walk on two legs, and carry whips. The story may be seen as an analysis of the Soviet regime, or as a warning against political power games of an absolute nature and totalitarianism in general. For this reason, the story ends with a hair-raising warning to all humankind: "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again: but already it was impossible to say which was which."
Freely download George Orwell’s “Animal Farm" here:
"Unequal Pigs"
"Unequal Pigs"
And the long-suffering citizens,
from South America to Europe, rising up against them...
by Joel Bowman
“Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.”
(The more things change, the more they stay the same.)
~ Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1808-1890)
The End of the World - "It’s a rainy ol’ day in Argentina’s capital city. The parks and plazas are empty. The sky overhead broods in somber, slate gray. In corner cafés, the local porteños huddle over their cortados and paperbacks, blissfully unaware that “nobody reads books anymore.”
Meanwhile, peering out from our damp outpost down here at the fin del mundo, we notice great change afoot. In Americas North and South, across the European continent, in Australia, New Zealand and all over the western world, there appears to be quite an awakening underway. Fed up with self-serving politicos, the rotten ilk to which Argentina’s president refers to as the ‘political caste,’ honest, hard working people are finally pushing back against their would-be overlords. As one dear reader put it recently: “Our snout-to-farmer ratio is simply too high!”
Of course, porcine actors are loath to surrender their wealth and power. And why would they? To their way of thinking, such as it is, they stole it fair and square! Never mind all that “We the people” nonsense. In the vacuous noggins of the world improver class, power is the only currency that counts. That they should employ violence to achieve their stated aims should come as no surprise to peaceful, private citizens. As their hero, Chairman Mao, famously observed: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
So do the globalists... World Economic Forum parasitoids... do-gooders and petty meddlers... war profiteers and their lackeys in the media... Big Tech censors and Big Pharma paymasters... justify their horrendous actions. At the core of their philosophy, each and every one of them believes, as did the pigs in Orwell’s classic, Animal Farm: “All animals are created equal... but some animals are more equal than others.”
Ordinarily, most decent people are content to steer clear of the rancid swamp that is politics. They prefer dry socks to muddy puddles... cooperation to coercion... peace and prosperity to warmongering and bloodshed. But pushed to the brink, honest folks will defend kith and kin. They’ll stand by their property. They’ll fight.
Global Revolution: In Europe, it took the so-called ‘Green Lobby,’ a secular cult of environmental catastrophizers hell bent of ‘saving the planet’ by de-industrializing the continent and sending its good citizens back to the Dark Ages, before farmers from Germany to France, Holland to Belgium, Greece to Czech Republic, Italy to Poland and more, finally said (in their various mother tongues) “enough is enough!”
And yet, to get the story from the crumbling pillars of the disgraced Fourth Estate, salt of the earth farmers are not downtrodden citizens raging against the political machine...but Russia’s useful idiots and good for nothing sh!t-sprayers:
Brussels: "Farmers protest leaves streets in chaos." – cried the BBC. "Europe’s farmer protests have been fertile ground for Russian propaganda." - moaned Politico. And our personal favorite, from the bedwetter brigade over at the Associated Press... “Protesting farmers spray Brussels police with liquid manure near EU’s base in a new display of power”
Over in El Salvador, meanwhile, it took the country reaching the highest murder rate in the world before the people declared “¡Basta ya, no mas!” Now the good folk of that beleaguered Central American country have exercised their democratic right and elected (with ~85% of the vote!) their own leader. Of course, the mainstream presstitues were at the ready with all the lazy slurs and hoary epithets their chia seed brains could muster: "Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's would-be dictator, re-elected president ."- from WSWS. "Authoritarian drift in El Salvador." - fretted El Pais. "Nayib Bukele has all the right enemies, including Ilhan Omar." - declared the #brave Washington Examiner.
Here in Argentina, it took 75-years of creeping Marxism, oozing out of the nation’s polluted academies and into her political institutions, for the long-suffering people to elect a leader who promised to take a chainsaw to the putrefying administrative state. “¡Afuera!”
A Timeless Battle: We’ve been following what we’re calling, with modest understatement, “The Greatest Political Experiment of Our Time.” And we’re delighted to see the message spreading...to witness a rising challenge to “The Message”... to hear and to read, on the streets and online, a growing chorus of upright individuals revolting against their self-described “elites”...Slowly but surely, and despite the best efforts of the aforementioned Propaganda Ministry, the wheel is turning...
But as always, there’s more to the story here... much more. What we’re witnessing around the world, from Tierra del Fuego to Toronto, San Salvador to Stockholm, Athens to Antwerp, is symptomatic of a far more profound phenomenon...At its heart lies the age-old tension between liberty and tyranny, violence and voluntarism, collectivist claims and individual rights.
The balance between these competing concepts is, of course, as old as mankind itself. Down through the ages, from the ancient pre-Socratics to the medieval scholastics to the bulging craniums of the Age of Enlightenment, leading thinkers of the day sought to weigh each side, to examine the merits of force versus the benefit of self-determination, to measure “essential liberty” against “the purchase of temporary safety,” as Benjamin Franklin once had it.
The battleground of Man vs. State is thus not a new one...though the political sands are beginning to shift once again in the western world. Until recently, the huddled masses have looked to revolution for their emancipation, an action which, by definition, only begins the cycle anew. But might those who wish to see liberty in their lifetimes discover a new arrow in their quiver, one that could shift the paradigm entirely?"
"Is It Any Wonder..."
"Thomas Edison said in all seriousness: "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the labor of thinking" - if we bother with facts at all, we hunt like bird dogs after the facts that bolster up what we already think - and ignore all the others! We want only the facts that justify our acts - the facts that fit in conveniently with our wishful thinking and justify our preconceived prejudices. As Andre Maurois put it: "Everything that is in agreement with our personal desires seems true. Everything that is not puts us into a rage." Is it any wonder, then, that we find it so hard to get at the answers to our problems? Wouldn't we have the same trouble trying to solve a second-grade arithmetic problem, if we went ahead on the assumption that two plus two equals five? Yet there are a lot of people in this world who make life a hell for themselves and others by insisting that two plus two equals five- or maybe five hundred!"
- Dale Carnegie
Bill Bonner, "A Good Place to Die"
"A Good Place to Die"
Motoring Ireland's rugged, windswept County Clare...
by Bill Bonner
"Ireland is a good place to die."
~ Elizabeth Bowen
Youghal, Ireland - This is perhaps not the best season to visit County Clare in Ireland. The wind blows. The rain comes in torrents. It is foggy in the morning. And at midday. And the evening too. At least, that was our experience when we explored the Burren yesterday.
We were ‘motoring’ through County Clare, taking in the sights…reading up on the O’Briens…and trying to keep dry. “Motoring” used to be much more common. Visitors drove on small roads, slowly, stopping at local restaurants and bars along the way. Nowadays, the highways have made motoring obsolete. People drive to get somewhere as fast as possible. And many of the cheerful little pubs and eateries have closed down. But in this part of Ireland, motoring is about all you can do.
To put our trip in further context, Elizabeth is a curious and intrepid traveler. Informed that there is a standing stone or a fallen church somewhere in yon cow pasture, she pulls on her boots and sets off…no matter the weather. And so it was that we discovered one of the most appealing graveyards in Ireland, down the hill and across a field from the castle, known as Dysert O’Dea.
The Burren: The castle itself was closed; it is not the tourist season. But in the distance…over hill and dale…through the fog…we glimpsed the unroofed church. So, down a gravel path we went…then over a stone wall…through a very squishy cattle field…and finally, over another stone wall, with slippery stepping stones jutting out from the sides, to the abandoned complex.
The graveyard was bordered on all sides by the stone wall. It was small enough so trees around the edges must provide shade in the summer. Some of the grave stones were ancient and unreadable. Some, with celtic crosses, leaned in one direction or another. Fresher bodies must have been planted there in the last 30 years. “How lovely…it almost makes us want to die,” we mumbled to ourselves, hoping not to be taken seriously.
The headstones – McNally, McNulty, McNeill – all the Micks and Paddies were there…hundreds of years’ worth of them…lying peacefully and gracefully in the little stone-walled graveyard.
The church nearby was in ruins. So was a round tower next to it. Round towers were among the earliest Christian edifices…perhaps intended to save the monks and their treasures from Viking raiders. This one was part of a monastery dating to the 12th century, largely destroyed by Cromwell’s army in the 17th century.
We had been driving along frightfully narrow roads through the Burren. When we saw a car approaching from the opposite direction, we looked for a place to pull over. The roads are rarely wide enough for two cars to pass normally. Pulling over inevitably put us into the mud. Fortunately, our old Nissan Patrol has 4-wheel-drive.
The Burren lies on the West coast of Ireland not too far from Shannon airport. It is a land of surprises…and curiosities. It looks completely desolate, in many parts. And yet…for example, you drive for miles without encountering a sign of civilization and arrive at a ‘perfumery.’ Yes, stuck in the middle of what seems like a vast and unrelenting wilderness is a small business fabricating essences…and a very welcome tea room.
The Burren is a land of lakes and loughs, mountains, meadows, and swamps. Much of it is little more than barren rock. And yet, there are cattle or sheep grazing almost everywhere. And the river valleys have some of the most fertile soil in the country. The fields seem too hilly, too stony, too small to be very productive, but the farms appear to be prosperous.
Among the sites we visited was a dolmen at Poulnabrone (the pit of sorrow). Its exact purpose is unknown, and might have varied over the centuries, but it was surely the final resting place of several people, whose bones have been unearthed, from 4,000 – 5,000 years ago. We looked at it through the narrow openings of our hooded rain jackets…warmed by woolen sweaters underneath…wondering why ancient people would have chosen such a desolate spot.
Hunters and Farmers: “It was not always so desolate,” explained a helpful guide. “There used to be trees covering much of the land. We believe the first settlers cut them down…for firewood…or grazing land. And then, the soil here was always very thin. It washed away or blew away over the centuries. That’s why it is so barren today.”
Our guide was a young woman from Pittsburgh. Fresh faced…with a pleasant manner, she began by asking us if we were sure we wanted to go on the tour. The wind had picked up. The rain was not so much coming down…as in a hurry to get somewhere to the South…and ready to knock over anyone who got in its way.
Hearing that we were nevertheless game for the tour, she put on her parka and led us forth. She led us to a round fort called Caherconnell. Thick walls of stone were piled up (no mortar was used) about 10 feet high and 6 feet thick around a collection of interior low stone walls, all that was left of what once were houses, barns and workshops. “This is one of the houses inside the enclosure,” she explained, making a sweeping gesture across the grass. “As many as 20 to 30 people lived in this area (about the size of a modern bedroom).”
She had participated in archeological digs on the site over the last three years. They discovered that the place was built on a much earlier site in about the 10th century. That makes it fairly recent. People have lived in Ireland for about 10,000 years – first as hunters, chasing herds of reindeer…later, as farmers, with small fields of grain and small herds of cattle or sheep.
Timeless Battles: Irish legend (perhaps true!) tells us that the original residents of Ireland were known as the Firbolg and the Tuatha De Danann. Then, according to the ‘16th century scholar’ O’Flaherty, the island was invaded by the ‘Milesians,’ Celtic peoples from Northern Spain.
Ireland has a long history, filled with many pits of sorrow. “It is amazing how much war people are ready to put up with,” Elizabeth began a reflection. “Each invasion set off hundreds of years of warfare. The English invasion lasted off and on from the 12th century to the 18th century…accompanied by mass slaughters on both sides. And even when the country was supposedly at peace, the local warlords, and chiefs went at it…murdering each other. It’s amazing any of us survived.”
In Caherconnell, also, they discovered older graves – from about the 6th century – of a woman and two children – whom they believe got a Christian burial. Another surprise was the discovery of objects that came from far away. A bead of amber, for example, probably came from the Baltic. Pins looked as though they were made in France. Even many centuries ago, and even at what have been the western-most edge of European civilization, trade continued.
A major attraction in County Clare is south of the Burren, Bunratty Castle. It was built near the Shannon estuary by the De Clare family in the 13th century. They were a Norman family, who were attacked periodically by the O’Brien clan. The castle was destroyed…and then rebuilt. But in 1318 Richard De Clare was killed in battle. His wife, hearing of his death, burned the castle…and the whole town around it. She left for England; the family never returned. But the fighting continued. A new castle was built and armies sent from England to subdue the MacCarthys and MacNamaras. One war after another. Siege. Battle. Butchery. Destruction. The Confederate Wars…Cromwell…Williamites…a rising and a beating down.
And there it is…still there. Castle Bunratty. The castle was a ruin until it was purchased by an Anglo-Irish couple in 1956 who decided to restore it. Today, it is a marvelous place to explore a medieval castle, but also to see local houses and workshops as they would have been hundreds of years ago. We stayed at another castle – Dromoland – converted into a fine hotel/resort. Even with the rain coming down outside, the castle is warm and comfortable."
Gregory Mannarino, "Disaster - The US Economy Is Coming Apart Faster!"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 3/14/24
"Disaster - The US Economy Is Coming Apart Faster!
JPM Warning; War Expands"
Comments here:
o
Adam Taggart, Thoughtful Money, 3/14/24
"David Stockman:
We've Hit A Fiscal & Monetary Dead End"
"To better understand the current economic environment we find ourselves in, it helps to better understand how we ended up here. And few have as detailed an understanding as today's guest, who has been a true insider in both Washington DC and Wall Street for his extremely long & accomplished career. We're fortunate today to speak with former Congressman, economic policymaker & financier, David Stockman.
He warns that after decades of profligacy, over increasing our debt 100x since 1970 while only growing our GDP by 25x, we've arrived at a fiscal & monetary "dead end" What does he see ahead? Higher inflation. Recession. Hard times for Main Street. A 50%+ correction for Wall Street. And he expects the pain to last for years because he thinks the Federal Reserve can't ride to the rescue in the same way it has in the past."
Comments here:
"Scott Ritter, Geopolitics 3/14/24"
Full screen recommended.
Gacha Gaming, 3/14/24
"Scott Ritter Spits In Netanyahu's Face
After Israel Strikes A UN Food Center In Gaza"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Scott Ritter, 3/14/24
"Israel Will Lose & Face Major Defeat in
Middle East Because US Scare of Hezbollah-Iran"
Comments here:
Adventures with Danno, "Outrageous Price Increases At Kroger!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 3/14/24
"Outrageous Price Increases At Kroger!
This Is Ridiculous! - What's Next?!"
"In today's vlog, we are at Kroger and are noticing some outrageous price increases on groceries! It's getting rough out here as prices continue to rise with no end in sight."
Comments here:
o
Meanwhile, elsewhere...
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 3/14/24
"Russian Typical (German Style) Supermarket: Da!"
"Join me on a tour of DA! Supermarket, which is Russian owned and has more than 220 stores in Russia. Owned in Russia by the O'key Group."
Comments here:
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Canadian Prepper, "Record 11 Russian Nuclear Subs Off East Coast; 300K NATO Troops On Alert"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 3/13/24
"Record 11 Russian Nuclear Subs Off East Coast;
300K NATO Troops On Alert"
Comments here:
Adventures With Danno, "Tyson Foods Closing Pork Plant In Iowa Leaving 1200 People Without A Job!
Adventures With Danno, 3/13/24
"Tyson Foods Closing Pork Plant In Iowa Leaving
1200 People Without A Job! What Now? What's Next?"
"Tyson Foods is closing another plant. This time in Perry, Iowa. This will leave over 1200 people without jobs, which could be devastating for this small town."
Comments here:
Bill Bonner, "Has America Lost Its Groove?"
"Has America Lost Its Groove?"
by Bill Bonner
Youghal, Ireland - "The wind came in such gusts, it nearly knocked the young woman from Pennsylvania off her feet. And the rain…driving at us like an attack of drones…forced us to take cover behind stone walls. We’re touring a fascinating corner of Ireland called the Burren. “No one comes here for the beautiful weather,” said a shopkeeper. More tomorrow…
Hotter than Expected: Meanwhile, between theory and practice is, alas, real life. And in real life, in America circa 2024, things are not at all as bright as Joe Biden might believe. First, the latest inflation data shows price increases are not disappearing. Here’s yesterday’s Wall Street Journal: "The latest reading of US inflation was hotter than economists expected…prices rose 3.2% in February from a year earlier, the latest installment in a string of recent data suggesting that inflation remains stubbornly high."
Higher prices mean lower real income. Breitbart: "Record Number Plunder Their 401(k)s in Biden’s America." “A record share of 401(k) account holders took early withdrawals from their accounts last year for financial emergencies,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “Overall, 3.6% of its plan participants did so last year, up from 2.8% in 2022 and a pre-pandemic average of about 2%.”
The whole point of a 401(k) is to keep that money out of reach until you reach age 59 ½ or above. Removing that money earlier is about the worst financial move anyone can make. The beauty of these retirement accounts is that 1) you defer your income tax on your contribution, and 2) you invest long-term and watch your money grow and grow over the decades.
The Price of Redemption: Yesterday, we allowed ourselves a little daydream. It was about what Mr. Biden might have said, if he were a decent man, with a reasonable intelligence, who wanted to make a lasting, important difference for The People he is meant to represent.
It is still ‘theoretically’ possible to reverse America’s slide into debt and chaos. But it’s not easy. Drug addicts ‘hit bottom’ before they reform. Alcoholics too. Sinners repent. Even former Defense Secretaries may shed tears and regret the misery they caused (Robert MacNamara is the only one we’ve ever heard of who did so). Redemption comes at a price.
In theory, a man might be ‘reborn’ at 90…but in practice, he dies. So too, like a grand old tree, cut into pieces to make common chipboard, an empire must be crushed and humiliated. It must hit some kind of bottom before it can be reconstituted as a law-abiding Republic.
But where does the ‘bottom’ lie? We keep an eye on Argentina, looking for a clue. If the gaucho republic has not actually found its bottom, it must be close. Sixty percent of the people in the country live in poverty. Compared to the rest of the world, it has been going downhill for 75 years. Doing business is such a challenge – with constantly-shifting financial lanes – that most people either crack up…or give up. GDP slumps. Ambitious people leave the country. And those who remain – including our own kith and kin – develop extraordinary financial survival skills.
Less Groovy: And now, from Argentina, comes a bit of hope. Milei says what Joe Biden doesn’t. He’s identified the real problem – the ‘political caste,’ with all its cons, tricks, and grifts. And he has a plan to correct things. He failed to win the support he needed in the Argentine parliament, so he’s gone to state governors and The People with something he calls the "25th of May pact". It’s a plan, with several key elements, inter alia – 1) the inviolability of private property. 2) a non-negotiable balanced budget. 3) government spending must be kept under 25% of GDP and 4) free trade.
In the US today, federal budgets haven’t been balanced in 50 years. The US balance of trade has been negative, too, for half a century. And the cost of government – including taxes, regulation and inflation – must be running over 30% of GDP. Things are becoming less groovy all the time.
But let us not despair. So far, no pompous, gold-braided military numbskull has seized power. No gangs of brownshirts or blackshirts ‘disappear’ their opponents at night. Shops are still full. The stock market is still near a top, not a bottom. And somewhere ahead, perhaps far ahead, lies the bottom. Sooner or later, we will find it."
"A Look to the Heavens With Chet Raymo"
“Reaching For The Stars”
by Chet Raymo
“Here is a spectacular detail of the Eagle Nebula, a gassy star-forming region of the Milky Way Galaxy, about 7,000 light-years away. This particular spire of gas and dust was recently featured on APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day). The Eagle lies in the equatorial constellation Serpens. If you went out tonight and looked at this part of the sky - more or less midway between Arcturus and Antares - you might see nothing at all. The brightest star in Serpens is of the third magnitude, perhaps invisible in an urban environment. No part of the Eagle Nebula is available to unaided human vision. How big is the nebula in the sky? Hold a pinhead at arm's length and it would just about cover the spire. I like to think about things not mentioned in the APOD descriptions.
If the Sun were at the bottom of the spire, Alpha centauri, our nearest stellar neighbor, would be about halfway up the column. Sirius, the brightest star in Earth's sky, would be near the top. Let's say you sent out a spacecraft from the bottom of the spire that travelled at the speed of the two Voyager craft that are now traversing the outer reaches of the Solar System. It would take more than 200,000 years to reach the top of the spire.
The Hubble Space Telescope cost a lot of money to build, deploy, and operate. It has done a lot of good science. But perhaps the biggest return on the investment is to turn on ordinary folks like you and me to the scale and complexity of the universe. The human brain evolved, biologically and culturally, in a universe conceived on the human scale. We resided at its center. The stars were just up there on the dome of night. The Sun and Moon attended our desires. "All the world's a stage," wrote Shakespeare, and he meant it literally; the cosmos was designed by a benevolent creator as a stage for the human drama. All of that has gone by the board. Now we can travel in our imagination for 200,000 years along a spire of glowing, star-birthing gas that is only the tiniest fragment of a nebula that is only the tiniest fragment of a galaxy that is but one of hundreds of billions of galaxies we can potentially see with our telescopes.
Most of us still live psychologically in the universe of Dante and Shakespeare. The biggest intellectual challenge of our times is how to bring our brains up to speed. How to shake our imaginations out of the slumber of centuries. How to learn to live purposefully in a universe that is apparently indifferent to the human drama. How to stretch the human story to match the light-years.”
The Times..."
"The times might be unpleasant, repulsive. The ghastly chaos, the abhorrent incivility might be intolerable, might force us into argument or leave us panic-stricken. On such occasions people build within themselves a conviction that the world outside is diabolical. The whimsical insults test our level of endurance, causing us to plead for mercy, wanting us to be pitied than exploited and victimized. Often this grief and shame form a delusion within us that there no longer exists good in this world, that good people are fictitious, and that goodness has lost its definition altogether. But such is not true because there are still people who are virtuous, unselfish, willing to help and possessing the ability of restoring our faith in humanity. To disregard them, their presence, would be as heinous as the deeds of the people who are unlike them. The times might be unpleasant, repulsive, but we'll come out it, unharmed and liberated."
- Chirag Tulsiani
o
Sam: "It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it's only a passing thing, this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something even if you were too small to understand why. But I think Mr. Frodo, I do understand, I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in the world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for."
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in the world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for."
- Samwise Gamgee, "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"
Jeremiah Babe, "The Dollar Store Apocalypse Has Left Thousands Without A Job; Home Sales Keep Plunging"
Jeremiah Babe, 3/13/24
"The Dollar Store Apocalypse Has Left
Thousands Without A Job; Home Sales Keep Plunging"
Comments here:
Epic Economist, "The Banking Crisis Of 2024 Has Already Started"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist 3/13/24
"The Banking Crisis Of 2024 Has Already Started"
"Since the beginning of the year, investors have been nervous as the bank system faces collapse. After March, the U.S. banking system will take a dark turn, and rates will go up. If rates go high, small banks that are holding all of these commercial real estate loans are on the brink of collapse. However, the failure has started with the New York Community Bancorp; it has crashed 45% to fresh 30-year lows."
Comments here:
"What Are The Facts?"
"What are the facts? Again and again and againwhat are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what the stars foretell, avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the un-guessable verdict of history - what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!" - Robert A. Heinlein
And always remember...
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains,
however improbable, must be the truth."
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "Sherlock Holmes"
Dan, I Allegedly, "Your Car is Spying on You"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 3/13/24
"Your Car is Spying on You"
"This is absolutely crazy. Your car company is giving your driving data to your insurance company. This is one reason why your insurance rates are going through the roof."
Comments here:
"Hang In There..."
“Using time, pressure and patience, the universe gradually changes caterpillars into butterflies, sand into pearls, and coal into diamonds. You’re being worked on too, so hang in there. Just because something isn’t apparent right now, doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. It’s not until the end do you realize, sometimes your biggest blessings were disguised by pain and suffering. They were not placed there to break you, but to make you.”
- “The Angel Affect”
“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly.”
- Richard Bach
“Why Albert Einstein Thought We Were All Insane”
“Why Albert Einstein Thought We Were All Insane”
by Simon Black
“In the early summer of 1914, Albert Einstein was about to start a prestigious new job as Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics. The position was a big deal for the 35-year old Einstein – confirmation that he was one of the leading scientific minds in the world. And he was excited about what he would be able to achieve there. But within weeks of Einstein’s arrival, the German government canceled plans for the Institute; World War I had broken out, and all of Europe was gearing up for one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history.
The impact of the Great War was immeasurable. It cost the lives of 20 million people. It bankrupted entire nations. The war ripped two major European powers off the map – the Austro Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire – and deposited them in the garbage can of history. Austria-Hungary in particular boasted the second largest land mass in Europe, the third highest population, and one of the biggest economies. Plus it was a leading manufacturer of high-tech machinery. Yet by the end of the war it would no longer exist.
World War I also played a major role in the emergence of communism in Russia through the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. Plus it was also a critical factor in the astonishing rise of the Nazi party in Germany. Without the Great War, Adolf Hitler would have been an obscure Austrian vagabond, and our world would be an entirely different place.
One of the most bizarre things about World War I was how predictable it was. Tensions had been building in Europe for years, and the threat of war was deemed so likely that most major governments invested heavily in detailed war plans. The most famous was Germany’s “Schlieffen Plan”, a military offensive strategy named after its architect, Count Alfred von Schlieffen. To describe the Schlieffen Plan as “comprehensive” is a massive understatement.
As AJP describes in his book "War by Timetable", the Schlieffen Plan called for rapidly moving hundreds of thousands of soldiers to the front lines, plus food, equipment, horses, munitions, and other critical supplies, all in a matter of DAYS. Tens of thousands of trains were criss-crossing Europe during the mobilization, and as you can imagine, all the trains had to run precisely on time. A train that was even a minute early or a minute late would cause a chain reaction to the rest of the plan, affecting the time tables of other trains and other troop movements. In short, there was no room for error.
In many respects the Schlieffen Plan is still with us to this day – not with regards to war, but for monetary policy. Like the German General Staff more than a century ago, modern central bankers concoct the most complicated, elaborate plans to engineer economic victory. Their success depends on being able to precisely control the [sometimes irrational] behavior of hundreds of millions of consumers, millions of businesses, dozens of foreign nations, and trillions of dollars of capital. And just like the obtusely complex war plans from 1914, central bank policy requires that all the trains run on time. There is no room for error.
This is nuts. Economies are comprised of billions of moving pieces that are beyond anyone’s control and often have competing interests. A government that’s $34 trillion in debt requires cheap money (i.e. low interest rates) to stay afloat. Yet low interest rates are severely punishing for savers, retirees, and pension funds (including Social Security) because they’re unable to generate a sufficient rate of return to meet their needs.
Low interest rates are great for capital intensive businesses that need to borrow money. But they also create dangerous asset bubbles and can eventually cause a painful rise in inflation. Raise interest rates too high, however, and it could bankrupt debtors and throw the economy into a tailspin. Like I said, there’s no room for error – they have to find the perfect balance between growth and inflation.
Several years ago hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio summed it up perfectly when he said, “It becomes more and more difficult to balance those things as time goes on. It may not be a problem in the next year or two, but the risk of not getting it right increases with time. The risk of them getting it wrong is clearly growing. I truly hope they don’t get it wrong. But if they ever do, people may finally look back and wonder how we could have been so foolish to hand total control of our economy over to an unelected committee of bureaucrats with a mediocre track record… and then expect them to get it right forever. It’s pretty insane when you think about it."
As Einstein quipped at the height of World War I in 1917, “What a pity we don’t live on Mars so that we could observe the futile activities of human beings only through a telescope…”
○
Freely download "Ideas And Opinions", by Albert Einstein, here:
Gregory Mannarino, "It's Over! The FED Is Winning On All Fronts, It's Totally Unstoppable!"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 3/13/24
"It's Over! The FED Is Winning On All Fronts,
It's Totally Unstoppable!"
Comments here:
o
"Middle East Geopolitics 3/13/24"
Full screen recommended.
Scott Ritter, 3/13/24
"U.S. Intelligence Report Suggests Netanyahu's
Far-Right Government Will Collapse"
Comments here:
o
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 3/13/24
"Phil Giraldi: How Dangerous Is Israel to the US?"
Comments here:
o
Scott Ritter, 3/13/24
"Israel Will LOSE The War And The IDF
Is Not Ready For What Comes Next"
"Former US Marine Corps Officer and UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter gives his assessment of Israel's ongoing war and how rising tensions in the region could be its doom."
"Alarming News: Orbital EMP Weapon Confirmed, Massive U.S. Troop Deployment Signals Impending Conflict"
"Alarming News: Orbital EMP Weapon Confirmed,
Massive U.S. Troop Deployment Signals Impending Conflict"
by Mike Adams
"We have disturbing new intel today that confirms the existence of an orbital EMP weapon that appears to be capable of taking out the entire U.S. power grid without warning. In addition, we have unconfirmed (but very concerning) intel that says up to 100,000 U.S. troops are being readied for deployment to the Middle East (not Ukraine). The U.S. is abandoning Ukraine and shifting to the Middle East. Additional rumors point to a CIA-led attempted political coup against Netanyahu, followed by U.S. troops in Gaza, Israel and the West Bank to enforce a cease fire."
Video here:
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
"Credit Crisis Worsens As 75 Million People Stop Paying!"
Full screen recommended.
The Atlantis Report, 3/12/24
"Credit Crisis Worsens As
75 Million People Stop Paying!"
"The U.S. economy is facing a severe credit crisis, as 75 million people have stopped paying their debts, according to a recent report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The report reveals that millions of Americans are struggling to repay their loans, mortgages, credit cards, student loans, and other debts due to the combined effects of the pandemic, the recession, the inflation, and the reserve ratio. This widespread non-payment of loans, credit card balances, and other financial obligations has sent shockwaves through the banking sector, raising concerns about the solvency of lending institutions and the potential for a cascading effect on the global economy."
Comments here:
Gerald Celente, "Trends Journal, Top Trends 2024"
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 3/12/24
"Trends Journal, Top Trends 2024"
"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.
Comments here:
"Inflation Report (More Bad News); Americans Are Going To Lose Everything; Ponzi Scheme Is Crashing"
Jeremiah Babe, 3/12/24
"Inflation Report (More Bad News); Americans Are
Going To Lose Everything; Ponzi Scheme Is Crashing"
Comments here:
"100% PROOF That The Fast Food Crisis Is About To Hit - $50 Per Meal!"
Full screen recommended.
The Atlantis Report, 3/12/24
"100% PROOF That The Fast Food Crisis
Is About To Hit - $50 Per Meal!"
"Once hailed for its affordability and convenience, the fast-food industry is now facing an undeniable crisis that threatens to reshape the way we eat on the go. The days of grabbing a quick bite for a few dollars seem increasingly distant, with reports of fast-food meals costing as much as 50 dollars. As inflation rates soar, dining out has become a luxury that many cannot afford."
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