Debt Rattle June 20 2023

 

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  • #137300

    Vincent van Gogh Fishing Boats on the Beach at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer 1888   • We Need a Peace President (Ron Paul) • Blinken Says US Does
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle June 20 2023]

    #137302
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Curtis Yarwin, a writer who strikes me as being almost ridiculously smart and educated, has some things to say about communists, progressives, and “seemingly referring to Democrats”:

    “Either the Communists win and destroy America, or we destroy the Communists,”

    #137303
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    But… that would mean taking the law into my/our own hands. Don’t you have to get a degree or something to do that?

    #137304
    Germ
    Participant

    When you wreck the immune system of a populace ….

    Canberra hospitals smashed with ‘unprecedented combination of respiratory viruses’

    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8237147/hospital-smashed-with-unprecedented-combination-of-viruses/#comments

    Comments section is a hoot — “Get vaxxed”

    TVASSF

    #137305
    Germ
    Participant

    BELLATOR’S CRIS LENCIONI IN ICU AFTER SUFFERING CARDIAC ARREST

    “As you can imagine this was completely unexpected considering he is only 28 and in peak physical condition,” Angela Hibbard said on a GoFundMe page set up for Lencioni.

    https://www.tmz.com/2023/06/19/bellator-cris-lencioni-icu-cardiac-arrest/

    TVASSF

    #137306
    Germ
    Participant

    TFN!
    Kids dropping dead at school.

    TVASSF

    #137307
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    In our new digs (we moved a few months ago), a neighbor lady about my age (mid-late 60s) has pancreatic cancer. Doctors are surprised: she doesn’t fit the profile or whatever they associate with pancreatic cancer.

    I didn’t ask her if she was vaccinated. Probably so, and probably the cause of her cancer, which struck two Mays ago, around the time the USA vax campaign was peaked and starting to wind down, but telling her that vax probably caused her cancer would at this point be needlessly stressful and counterproductive to her chances of surviving. Poor dear. I need to learn how to cook tasty food in the narrow dietary spectrum she can handle with compromised digestive capability.

    A quote from the Canberra hospital article:

    “t is appalling to see people in shopping centres coughing and sneezing without tissues, handkerchief or a mask. Then use their hands as a face wipe. This germ collection is transferred to travelator banister rails, grocery items, sorting through fruit and vegetable selections. Hygiene is fundamental.”

    First, there is such a thing as a “travelator”, it seems.

    Second, the reversion to normal public hygiene behavior (“coughing and sneezing without tissues, handkerchief or a mask. Then use their hands as a face wipe”) is probably going to bring out a ton of influenza, quite possibly very virulent. A grey swan coming our way.

    I suspect that Ukraine will prove to be a major hotbed for influenza: “Ukraine’s vaccination program started on 24 February 2021 and from that day to 12 September 2021 18% of the adult population of Ukraine had been vaccinated against COVID-19.[1] (About 44% of those vaccinated had been fully vaccinated.[2][3]) On 7 January 2022 the Ministry of Health announced that 44.9% of the adult population had undergone a full course of vaccination.[4] By 2022, the Ministry of Health plans to vaccinate 70% of the country’s adult population, including 80% of the elderly.[5]”

    Considering the lack of sanitation happening over there, I suspect that Ukraine will simply fold and become a giant Red Cross tent of a nation.

    Hope for Healing

    #137308
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Tyranny:

    Actually, no. The Constitution expressly does NOT say that. That would be illegal. However, the Declaration of Independence does. That would also be the result of Enlightenment thinking, but why go there? It’s also cave man thinking, and it’s been done regularly for all the millennia in between, for reasons far less than today.

    “European Values”

    Luongo points out, there are no “European values”: everyone disagrees. That’s doubly true for “Western values”. So why say the phrase since every day some nation or other disagrees and disproves it? It’s part of the “It’s the sound of the inevitable, Mr. Smith. You will join our club/buy our un-working software/give us your money eventually, so why not today? It’s the right/wrong side of history.”

    No it isn’t. They’re full of crap, their products are s—t, and I’m not “resisting” them – although of course I am – I’m just not so stupid as to buy something that’s garbage, install it in my life, get bled white, then complain about it. It’s not inevitable at all. Say no to dumb ideas and lousy, deceitful products. It ain’t hard!

    “• Blinken Says US Does Not Support Taiwan Independence (JTN)

    It’s an even-numbered day. No, we officially support the “One China” policy and reunification. However, we (they, the insiders) posted Cheng on Formosa in 1949 (or something) as capitalists who will take the country back in a frozen war. So they think Taiwan will invade and back-conquer China (socially). Whatever, dude, you guys still think it’s 1963. “Taiwan Strait?” You do know anyone on the planet can sink every aircraft carrier we own in 10 minutes, right?

    You have less than no chance in the strait or the whole China Sea. Probably no chance of survival until 300 miles past the Philippines.

    ““We have to brace ourselves that the Russian [special military operation] act could last for a long time,”

    With what men? Are they getting birth rates and training Europe to walk in there? Or are you hoping to foot-drag long enough that your Self-driving, AI, Drone-T2-Terminator robots will do it for you? That’s a long time indeed, akin to McCain’s “100 year war”. Especially when AI can’t figure the simplest things and has an existential meltdown every 20 minutes, shooting their owners sometimes (this has already happened).

    “decided to increase defense spending by twp percent of GDP.”

    Yes, but Germany has collapsed and that’s now about $50. Let’s say they were giving $2B on a $40B economy. Now they are a $20B economy, so…$1B. Up that another 2%… You see the math here. It’s not more. It might even be less, down 48%.

    ““The United States has been for decades maintaining a large arsenal of its nuclear weapons in Europe.”

    That is to say, 5,000 miles outside their borders, no possible defense, offensively placed 500 miles from Russia.

    “We lost the wars in Vietnam. We lost the war in Afghanistan. We lost the war in Iraq,” Wolff said.

    The People lost the war. The leaders won those wars. Their bank accounts are bigger than ever, and they have all the power.

    “33%, vs 29%”

    Wildly more than that as the whole West GDP is 1/3 check-kiting using Treasuries and Bonds, and we also mine, grown, make, and do nothing. Selling iPhones is not the same as making them, having jobs to make them, and having the industrial capacity to convert those factories and people to war. They’re a zero. And it’s the times that they had to wait so long to act because the weapons are so dangerous the West would – and has – mash the Nuclear-n-smallpox button until it’s blue. Ask Bush. Muh yellowcake. Depleted Uranium. CovidCovidCovid.

    ““The economic war between Russia and Europe is being lost by Europe, not by Russia, which was not the intent,”

    WAS it not the intent? Are you sure? I remember Trump going there and telling them just before it happened. We said we were leaving, pulling back to “America First”. It’s a strange way to do it, but the other ways weren’t working.

    “paid a US company to carry out the necessary repairs, but 13 of them were still “not suitable for combat missions”

    Classic middle management. “I wrote it on a spreadsheet”. Where do you think the parts come from? The parts fairy? As above, WE MAKE NOTHING. We have no manufacturing, no steel. That means we have no parts factories running, nor munitions, which is impossibly more complicated. (Imagine an assembly line where if you put the door screws in wrong, the whole “B” wing, the whole assembly line, and half the building blows up, and everyone is evacuated for 18 hours while EOD shows up)

    So those guys might be crackerjack and not wasting your time or money at all. They might have hot-rodded that howitzer in no time flat like “West Coast Choppers”. But even they can’t get around no production, no parts.

    “With all those millions/billions missing, let’s spend more, and faster…”

    Yes, exactly. Because they’re not competing in a war, they’re outrunning a debt collapse. That’s compounding interest, and needs clean collateral to hypothecate or die.

    This sort of pyramid speculation is often confused with Capitalism, none of us having seen anything else in our lifetimes, but I assure you, you can create a company and buy new assets with this amazing thing called “cash”, and no debt at all. No debt, no debt collapse. No boom-bust, and no Disaster Capitalism. And who wants that? Then people who work would get rich, instead of people who make nothing. (“I make…nothing. I do…nothing. I own.” — Gordon Gekko, Wall Street.)

    “They’re probably making deals for a Ukraine that includes the Donbass (the richest part) and Crimea.”

    It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter bc that’s reality, and we don’t do that. BlackRock can CLAIM to hypothecate all Ukraine at 300:1. Then they can outrun the debt collapse on their books. So long as the people play along with confidence, the game is in play.

    “German Armor Too Wide To Transport – Bild (RT)

    This wasn’t supposed to be a problem, as the tanks were supposed to STAY HOME, in your own, relatively small country. (article sez otherwise) Same choice with the “Armada” tank. It’s like 2x size, but it’s in China, and the world’s largest continent, so who cares? It’s only if you have to airlift them they need to be smaller. STAY HOME. Defending is way cheaper.

    ““..if Harris were flat-out forced to resign, then Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) would automatically become president..”

    Hard to imagine all these things. I’m sure it will go far different. The great part to the White Hats is that it reveals all this to The People, which is painful but necessary.

    “On the contrary, Western countries are more tolerant of racial, religious and sexual minorities than ever before. To take one example, the percentage of Americans who approve of marriages between white and black Americans has risen from 4% in 1958 to 87% in 2013 to 94% in 2021.”

    That’s why they’re more oppressed than ever! and there’s a trans genocide going on while they’re rounding up black people in cattle cars. …Because we’re the most progressive, tolerant, inter-racial society in the last 10,000 years.

    “The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), for instance, recently published a study that concluded that antisemitism was increasing on Twitter.”

    …Thanks to TAE. Just kidding. Translated: ISD says people used “words” on the “internet”. Oooooohhhh! I’m shaking. So did any of these “words” cause any actions, or are Jews still about 100x more tolerated and integrated than any time in the last 1,000 years? Uh, yeah, that.

    We live in #Oppositeland!

    Where’s Lira? Hope to see him appear sometime, not very friendly that everyone just forgot.

    #137310
    Germ
    Participant

    TFN!

    Former Dundalk and Waterford player Karolis Chvedukas dies suddenly aged 32

    https://www.the42.ie/karolis-chvedukas-dies-suddenly-aged-32-6097507-Jun2023/

    TVASSF (tick … tock …)

    #137311
    Germ
    Participant

    Teen who died in hotel bathroom while on Bulgaria holiday had ‘ticking time bomb’ illness, heartbroken cousin reveals

    “Doctors found he had this irregular heartbeat, called cardiac arrhythmia.
    “He was a fit and healthy 19-year-old boy otherwise.
    “It was just one of those things.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22748258/teen-found-dead-hotel-bathroom-no-idea-illness-bulgaria/

    TVASSF (it’s just one of those things LOL)

    #137313

    The people who write are dancing on fingers.
    Much is forgotten, but some of it lingers,
    Gathering like dust in the nooks of the brain.
    Though everything passes, the words will remain.

    #137314
    Oroboros
    Participant

    AI generated potraits

    #137315
    aspnaz
    Participant

    BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase are reportedly aiding the Ukrainian government in setting up a reconstruction bank that could see rebuilding projects being heavily invested in by private entities.

    Wow, it is like hyenas after the corpse. At least we know that these companies – who have, more than likely, been running this war scam from the very beginning – are now coming in for the kill. Not evil, just greed, like the people who killed millions to make billions off of a vaccine … looking at you Bill Gates.

    #137316
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Drones are the future of warfare

    Here is a glimpse of WWIII

    Think of a swarm of hornets that can find you anywhere then explode next to you

    Wait for it, it’s coming

    It starts out as entertainment then is evolves with AI at the helm

    #137317
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    When I recently saw an illustration of the flags of the BRICS countries it struck me how extremely unlike one another they are in culture and religion.

    The ‘West’ is comparatively uniform by comparison.

    #137318

    The canary sang too well.
    His cage was moved to hell.

    #137319
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Skynet mini drones

    All seeing

    #137320

    Spartacast #10
    Ted K lauded. MKultra created a martyr.

    #137321
    Alexander Carpenter
    Participant
    #137322
    zerosum
    Participant

    Ignorance is fertile ground for manipulation
    —————
    The Biden Administration is sharing your wealth with the Ukraine neo-Nazi

    ————
    ” Making sure Taiwan has the ability to defend itself.” – Blinken
    (Correction – The only threat is from USA)

    “Stand up for the interests and values of the American people.” – Blinken
    (Correction – There are no invasion threat to the USA from anyone)

    The US does not seek conflict or a new Cold War with Beijing, and has no intention of trying to change China’s political system. – Blinken
    (Correction – There are no intention, there are only preparations)
    ————

    #137323
    morongobill
    Participant

    Bernhard @ moon of Alabama thinks the Biden administration may be looking to bail.

    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/06/us-admits-defeat-in-war-on-russia-and-china.html#more

    #137324
    aspnaz
    Participant

    The thing that amazes me is that these corporations can get away with stealing a whole country. You know that the wealth gap between rich and poor has become toxic when individuals can hijack the government of millions. Of course, there is only one solution: eradicate the rich by either removing their wealth or killing them. Removing their wealth is difficult, they control the people making the rules. Killing them involves a small army of experts, numbering probably something like 500, to overcome their own private army. Of course, there is the terrorist approach where anyone who works for a billionaire ends up in a ditch with their head in a different ditch: this is the most effective, cheapest and successful method and is why the billionaires tell the government to implement total monitoring of everybody, so that they can rest easy while they fuck you up the ass. Life is complicated, terrorism is effective, which is why the deep state persues terrorism as if it were sin itself.

    #137325
    aspnaz
    Participant

    The Jews used terrorism to get what they have today, what better reference do you need?

    #137326
    Alexander Carpenter
    Participant

    For those of us not paying attention, those docs are referenced in
    https://www.theautomaticearth.com/forums/topic/debt-rattle-june-19-2023/page/2/#post-137309

    #137327
    Alexander Carpenter
    Participant

    aspnaz: The factual statement is “Some Jews used terrorism to…”
    Others didn’t.
    Also, perhaps it’s fair to mention that some
    non-Jews used terrorism to…
    And others didn’t.
    Gosh, how definitive.
    Are you a prisoner of your abstractions? Sure seems that way.

    #137328
    John Day
    Participant

    Substack isn’t working for me today, so this post is just going out on the Google blog this time.

    It is about a Ghandian-Activist USMC Ph.D economist who was at the core of US nuclear strategic decision-making and war planning from Eisenhower to tricky-Dick. He identified as an Ashkenazi Jew, but grew up practicing Christian Science. He was gonna be a grand pianist until his dad fell asleep at the wheel, and Mom got killed.

    #137330
    John Day
    Participant

    Daniel Elsberg’s Sacrifice https://www.johndayblog.com/2023/06/daniel-ellsbergs-sacrifice.html

    Daniel Ellsberg died at the age 92 from pancreatic cancer on June 16, 2023. I’m chagrined that I did not know more about Ellsberg’s life at the heart of American military decision-making until his death brought those stories forward. Daniel Ellsberg was at the core of American nuclear-war strategic planning from the Eisenhower through Nixon administrations.

    Daniel’s mother had wanted him to be a concert pianist, which career he pursued until she was killed in a car accident when Daniel was16. After her death he studied Economics at Harvard, graduating summa cum laude in 1952. That same year he married Carol Cummings ,the daughter of a Marine Corps Brigadier General. then began further studies of Economics at King’s College, Cambridge under a Woodrow Wilson fellowship Those studies were directed towards a Ph.D. upon his return to Harvard. However, in 1954, as the Korean war became fixed in an armistice, Ellsberg joined the US Marine Corps, earning an officer’s commission and serving until 1958, including responsibilities as a Company Commander.

    From 1958 through 1962 Ellsberg worked in Nuclear Strategy at the Rand Corporation, while completing his Economics Ph.D. at Harvard. His Ph.D. dissertation paper in the field of Decision Theory, “Risk, Ambiguity and Decision” was pertinent to economics and the prosecution of nuclear war. It describes what came to be known as the “Ellsberg Paradox”. This describes human aversion to uncertainty of risk. Given choices that are of basically equal risk, humans have a strong proclivity to choose the defined risk over the undefined risk, to choose the known evil over the unknwn evil. This leads to “non-utilitarian” decisions in both economics and war. and may reflect an underlying human assumption of deception risk whenever probabilities are not clearly defined.

    What we know Daniel Ellsberg for is his principled decision to reveal the 7000 pages of analysis he had done on the decision-making pertaining to the Vietnam War in 1967-1968, after he returned from two years in South Vietnam, where he worked for the US State Department. Ellsberg’s detailed analysis, showing pervasive irrationality, dishonesty and graft at all levels of decision making, throughout the war, came to be known as “The Pentagon Papers”.

    In early 1968 the American public was confronted directly with evidence that they had been lied to by the President and the military, and that the US was losing the Vietnam War, when the Tet Offensive broke out, and every major city in South Vietnam became embroiled in street fighting, some falling under Vietcong control. Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were both assassinated while taking popular anti-war political stances. Ellsberg began attending peace gatherings, while still working for Rand, and was deeply influenced by Ghandian activists from India.

    While listening to a draft resister, Randy Kehler, speak in 1969, Ellsberg was feeling patriotic pride for him and for America, when Randy calmly stated that “he was very excited that he would soon be able to join his friends in prison”. His two year prison sentence was about to commence. Ellsberg experienced a sobbing epiphany from Randy’s profound altruistic action, which brought him to consider revealing his own detailed knowledge of the corruption, immorality and hopelessness of the Vietnam War.

    By the end of 1969 Ellsberg and Rand colleague Anthony Russo had made multiple photocopies of the Pentagon Papers, and Ellsberg was visiting sympathetic Senators, urging them to enter the documents into the Senate record. When this was unsuccessful, he resolved to release the copies to newspapers and to temporarily go into hiding, both of which brought the Pentagon Papers very much to the attention of American voters. These Pentagon Papers, which Ellsberg had created through his research of classified DoD records, embarrassed the government by revealing presidential lies to the American people and also to Congress.

    Following over two weeks of this publicity, with the ongoing release of records still blocked by the courts, Ellsberg surrendered himself, to potentially face 115 years in prison under the Espionage Act, while Russo faced 35 years. The Supreme Court decided that the New York Times could no longer be legally prevented from publishing the rest of the documents, and the Washington Post had also begun publishing them. Senator Mike Gravel entered over 4000 pages of Pentagon Papers into the Senate record.

    In court, the sword hung over Ellsberg’s head as he was prevented from explaining the moral reasons for his actions to the jury. In 1973, after revelations of the burglary of his psychiatrist’s office to read his files, and of other illegal government actions, including offering the judge the directorship of the FBI for convicting Ellsberg, all charges were dismissed by the court. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg

    Daniel Ellsberg was a holder of special secrets. Keeping special secrets induces the holder to discount information from those who do not know the secrets, and to lie and mislead them, since sharing the secrets is not an option. He described this effect to Henry Kissinger in late 1968, as Kissinger sought information about the Vietnam War, and was about to gain above-top-secret security clearances. https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/02/daniel-ellsberg-limitations-knowledge/

    Gandhian activism, which influenced Ellsberg, and was the philosophical ground for his epiphany, illustrates the morality of the practitioner, compared to the immorality of the overlord or colonial power. On a deeper, karmic level, the altruistic action of sacrificing one’s own well being or life for the good of others, while selfish power-actors unjustly harm and enslave fellow humans, might even be seen as a form of white-magic.

    #137331
    John Day
    Participant

    In recent years many of us have seen the government lies, this time, almost in lock-step across the world, compelling people to isolate, and preventing them from even learning about effective antiviral therapies for COVID, while preventing their physicians from prescribing effective treatments, or even knowing that they exist. The one path to freedom was promised to be provided by novel gene-therapy vaccines, so people waited patiently, and received these injections with feelings of great relief.

    Others of us in the practice of medicine had done independent research, followed clinical trial preprints when they became available, treated our patients with vitamin-D, zinc, hydroxychloroquine, then ivermectin, and macrolide antibiotics to reduce both secondary bacterial infections and inflammation in the lungs. We did not have special top-secret knowledge, but Pfizer, the FDA and Department of Defense did have it. https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/miscarriages-and-dead-infants-were

    There were leaks showing high rates of miscarriage, which were covered up. Myocarditis in children became apparent in the spring of 2021.and it is now apparent that the “up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations” catch COVID at a higher rate than the “not up to date” https://jessicar.substack.com/p/in-case-you-thought-getting-more

    Some of us have lost our jobs or medical licenses for our treatment of our patients, or our stands for bodily autonomy, against COVID vaccine-mandates, even without researching Gandhian activism.

    It is enough to discern right from wrong, truth from lies, and to stand publicly for truth and to defend human rights.

    #137333
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Human caused pollution is a real thing and a real problem.

    Climate change is not what I’m concerned with.

    Too many people consuming too many resources in a wasteful way has brought down many civilizations.

    When I hear someone say we could fit the population of the world into an area the size of Texas I always reply to them that I could fit 100 rats into their pillow case, do you think anyone will get a good night’s sleep?

    I remember back in the day when the ‘right wing conservatives’ were bitching about environmental regulations that made them clean up their factory’s pollution, you know, when the Empire of Lies actually had factories.

    Pollution is a dishonest business practice

    You are externalizing your costs on to someone else’s balance sheet, namely the general public for the eventual cleanup.

    If your business emits pollution into the general environment, it’s cost shifting and a big lie that your product deceptively only cost X amount.

    No it doesn’t, it cost a lot more, you’re hiding the true cost and are thus a dishonest coward.

    Take solar panels

    The cost of properly recycling solar panels right now in today’s costs added to their purchase price would make them unaffordable and kill the whole industry.

    The down stream pollution and consequences of making solar panels a Big Lie.

    Rationalizing that a proper technique to recycle them will always pop up is bullshit.

    You don’t get to sell a product until a proven way of recycling the inevitably dead product is Present and it’s cost is INCLUDED in the purchase price along with cleaning up any pollution produced in the actual manufacturing process.

    Guess what?

    That makes many, many product a lot more expensive and probably nonviable.

    The pollution laws starting in the 1980’s in the Empire of Lies contributed enormously to the de-industrialization of the country.

    Sure, the Chinese could make stuff much cheaper and thus more cake for you as a business person if you off-shored manufacturing but the Chinese are now running into the same pollution issues and externalizing costs the Empire of Lies ran up against decades ago.

    How to they clean up the toxic waste shithole that is much of the Chinese landscape right now and not talked about much?

    Well simple, they off shore the nasty polluting industries back to the Collective West, like the soon to be 1st world shithole of Eurotardistan, broke, no cheap energy, too many people, and no resources (that’s why they hate all 12 time zones of Russia) .

    Eurotardistan can be China’s new sweatshop.

    Hahahahahahahahaha

    Pretty funny how what goes around comes around.

    .

    #137334
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Eurotardistan® has begun it’s Century of Humiliation© in earnest with the war in Ukronaziland

    The great actual diplomat speaks

    Lavrov Responds To Germany Naming Russia As #1 Threat

    #137335
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Forced degrowth leads to poverty of individuals and households, however…
    Voluntary degrowth can lead to an individual or household to monetary surpluses which can be invested and lead to long term wealth.

    #137336
    kultsommer
    Participant

    A-Carp from yesterday

    Again, sanity requires that we hold people responsible for what they do far more (if at all) than for what they “are,”

    Absolutely true. However, people also notice over-representation that, consequently, makes one group inadvertently “visible”.
    “Less harmful” wide-brush observations are as simple as who “we think are 7-11 or gas station owners or who is most likely to jump after the ball in the basketball court etc…
    Or more serious as how sick it is that Montenegrin minority (trying to put you on ease) holding national money-purse, controls our foreign policy, vetting who the members of Congress and even more so who is our president should be. Cynthia McKinney had a quite a few words about her experience of being forced to sign unquestioned allegiance to that country that she refused which did cost her political career.
    Case of buckling-down before that nasty little prick country:

    #137341
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    I would like to exhume and reply to a comment that came up yesterday, and so will start by quoting its key line:

    “human behavior is driven by profit . . . (etc).”

    My reply is that no, it isn’t. Or at least it is not driven by profit exclusively or mainly.

    I say that because the so-called profit motive accounts for less than half of the picture regarding the motivations of human behavior. Sure, it’s undeniably obvious that a big part of what moves us all to action is the need for continued material survival of the organism (which requires a certain amount of “profit” , of taking in more than is given out.) But that’s not all, or even most, of what is going on in this “being a human” business.

    Admittedly, a creature of any kind (homo sapiens included) must turn a “profit” in order to go on living, but first please take special note of a much more fundamental fact : Without its SPIRITUAL nature no creature will even get the chance to attempt living in the first place! A creature without its spiritual component is not actually a “creature” at all. It’s a corpse. A dead body. No life. Dust to dust. Spiritual nature is therefore the defining and most crucial element in the mix.

    Spiritual nature, in contrast to material nature, is not driven by profit. It is driven by conscious truth and love. Put those “drives” (profit & love) together into a single human “person” (who is a truth seeking loving consciousness mistakenly identifying itself as a hungry organic creature that simply MUST kill to eat and defend itself from being eaten, in order to survive) and one winds up with a more or less incompatible amalgamation of two fundamentally contrary basic motivations, neither of which can fully exist without the other.

    Successfully maintaining that arrangement is a delicate balance indeed. In fact, the attempt is doomed to horrible failure UNLESS one is willing and somewhat able to MANAGE both of the two drives order to achieve a dynamically ongoing (and delicate) balancing act that lies, kills and steals ONLY when absolutely necessary for the continuation of the balancing act.

    In exchange for the pain of getting it wrong a lot (by lying, killing and stealing too much or lying, killing and stealing too little) we get to survive for a while in a world that spins along on a course of swirling and yet exquisitely balanced good & bad, truth and lie, pleasure and pain, and so on. In this process we grow spiritually, and slowly slowly slowly discover what a tough job the Author of the Universe has taken upon Himself, and the pain He experiences each and every time we fail, and all done SO THAT WE CAN EVEN HAVE A WORLD TO ATTEMPT, FAIL, LEARN AND GROW IN.

    One can of course opt out of the game at any time by simply choosing not to play. That option is called death, and the Creator has made it very clear in many ways that choosing death is usually not a very good idea in the long run. But He necessarily allows us the free will to do so nevertheless (perhaps as a sort of “pressure relief safety valve”) when we run out of other choices, and He cherishes our existence nonetheless and in every case . . . even for the most resolutely vile and wicked. But ultimately, because there needs to be a world, a Universal field of play, rather than the penultimate bleakness of NOTHING, at all, I believe that He prefers that we choose life, and that we should get on with it and neither turn back, bail out or go rogue.

    The choices, however, must always remain ours to make.

    #137343
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “Human caused pollution is a real thing and a real problem.

    Climate change is not what I’m concerned with.

    Too many people consuming too many resources in a wasteful way has brought down many civilizations.

    When I hear someone say we could fit the population of the world into an area the size of Texas I always reply to them that I could fit 100 rats into their pillow case, do you think anyone will get a good night’s sleep?”

    I am not being passive-aggressive, merely blunt, when I say that I love it when you focus your considerable insight, knowledge, and way with words on something other than pissing into the wind (although on a sunny day, it does make cool rainbow effects).

    I agree 110% with the above, and love the 100 rats/pillow analogy. Recognizing this aspect of city life is what put me on the streets at age 16 and had me fleeing, more or less broke, to the hills. I don’t mind so much that we’re all mental patients in something too much lie an experiment gone wrong, i.e., what Pfizer calls ‘right’. What is hard to handle is that so few of us realize that a) we’re nuts and b) live in a global psych ward run by c) guys in White Coats wearing White Hats practicing malicious medicine because d) they, too, are nutso mental patients.

    Welcome to the Monkey House

    #137344
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Corporations taking over government was a natural evolution of democracy i.e. humanity. (Hominid evolution is a democracy run by human agency under a genetically-defined constitution.) People vote with their money far more than their suffrage. We will financially reward any entity that gives us more for less even if it ruins our parent’s mom’n’pop business. Ruthless* entities seeking profit uber alles use this to herd us all the way to the fleecing banks and slaughter houses (war, for example).
    *many maybe most of them unconsciously so… and after all, how can you be good at bullshitting the masses if you can’t bullshit yourself?

    But we pay their way by opting for the best deal, because goldarn it, I work HARD for mah munnee! An unhappy family is okay if it has money, and a happy family is still looked down on if it’s poor.

    We put the corporations in charge, not the government. Gubmint goes broke if unfunded, hence mandatory taxes. But we voluntarily concentrate our wealth into the control of the corporate few. All that funny money the Fed prints means nothing if people don’t circulate it, right? They could give their .0001% crony favorites money all day and it would do no good if we didn’t accept it as payment from them (good-paying jobs, for example) spend it on them (Ford employees being able to buy their own cars was, as Ford always said, just good business savvy) or reinvest it back into them (petro peasantdollar recirculation.

    The tower of greed is composed of living beings. Like an enormous gymnast pyramid. Said living beings being you and I (all other living beings being the suffering sentient mush bleeding under our weight). No one wants to leave the pyramid. Having done so myself, in the process socially and economically crippling myself in weird ways hard for people to understand, I can attest that it is indeed painful in many ways… but oh so very rewarding in others. I wouldn’t go back and change a thing (except riding down that hill in a giant tractor tire tube and breaking my wrist from it. Ruined me as a drummer and I can’t hold a boogie-woogie pattern in my piano left hand for shit cuz of it.)

    Omnipotent Left Hand

    #137349
    zerosum
    Participant

    degrowth is depopulation

    #137353
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @aspnaz

    You write : “The Jews used terrorism to get what they have today, what better reference do you need?”

    Well, you’re getting a teensy bit closer, but still have a serious juxtaposition error in your thinking.

    The correct statement requires the swapping places of just two words, and then you’ll have it.

    Here’s how it should read:
    The Terrorists used Jews to get what they have today, what better reference do you need?

    C’mon, aspnaz, you have an excellent intelligence, try stretching it beyond the self-imposed limitations of your prejudices.

    #137355
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Yep!

    Human caused pollution is a real thing and a real problem.

    and:

    Too many people consuming too many resources in a wasteful way has brought down many civilizations.

    Is what I always thought is the problem.
    “Climate change”, regardless if real or not, is more likely, hoisted on us as a control tool.
    I may also add that overpopulation with so many people without some kind of “achievable goal” opportunity or, at lest, any job to sustain their existence leads to rampant crime.

    #137357
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “In exchange for the pain of getting it wrong a lot (by lying, killing and stealing too much or lying, killing and stealing too little) we get to survive for a while in a world that spins along on a course of swirling and yet exquisitely balanced good & bad, truth and lie, pleasure and pain, and so on. In this process we grow spiritually, and slowly slowly slowly discover what a tough job the Author of the Universe has taken upon Himself, and the pain He experiences each and every time we fail, and all done SO THAT WE CAN EVEN HAVE A WORLD TO ATTEMPT, FAIL, LEARN AND GROW IN.”

    This is pretty much my essential take, too.

    ***

    A general message, replete with mispelling:

    ***

    from comments on the Greenwald/RFK, Jr. debate:

    “Kennedy’s explanation is as clear as mud. It is obvious he knows if he dares to cross the Israel lobby, it will ruin him and his candidacy. Criticizing Israel in ANY MANNER is a third rail. radioactive position, as Kennedy says.”

    You can tell that Bobby Jr. is struggling with the Izzy thing. Politics is making deals, and in late-stage imperial politics, deals with the devil are part of that negotiation suite.

    RFK has an aspect the other candidates don’t. He already takes measures (he says) to avoid CIA assassination. Perhaps he doesn’t want to anger Mossad. Maybe Mossad is part of his protection package? Strange bedfellows.

    He is obviously having a hard time selling the half-truths he does in the Greenwald video. He’s literally choking from the effort.

    I like this guy’s take: Third Rail Burns

    I confess to enjoying, if only superficially like a slight breeze on sweaty skin, a flush of optimism watching BobbyJ. Nothing I want to take to the bank but enjoyable nonetheless. Maybe that’s why he reminded me of Lando Calrissian muttering, “This deal stinks worse all the time.”

    BobbyJ doesn’t enjoy being a quisling. It seemed physically painful to him. Maybe he’ll do something surprising. I’m in the mood for a surprise.

    #137358
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Experimento:

    babaganoujski il cicitarita monsieur

    Money and war go hand in hand, as we all know. War arises from surplus, rarely from lack. (Lack is more prone to produce highwaymen and such. Outlaws.) Unneeded wealth, like a standing army, gets its “owner” (ha!) into mischief. Slavery is virtually impossible without money, for with or without money, you need to have a well-ordered society in order to hold and control slaves, and we don’t know HOW to have well-ordered societies, beyond 150 people max, without money. (This is based on me accepting Dunbar’s # as proven theory, even fact, so your mileage may vary on that one.)

    But my remark is still true even without Dunbar’s Number, because today it is factually true: we all require money to socioeconomically exist. Show me the money is the quintessential credibility of civilized homo sapiens for at least 5k years. Work done on the basis of mutually shared trusting cooperation and sharing of harvest is SO neolithic, man.

    We rail against capitalism or socialism oo la la when it’s ALL moneyism. (This is one thing, probably the only thing, that compulsive chew-bankstah bashers get right.)

    One needn’t believe in Jesus as a literally supernatural (and divinely endorsed) superhero to see that He knew some serious shit about society: “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Some people say they use money only cuz they have to, but chronic usage is love just as a happy marriage is doing the same things over and over (especially boinking) so long as those things are decently good or at least not too bad. I tell my tribe that family is a function of frequency and proximity, not intent or sentiment or heritage. A man who sees the same whore frequently is entering into some kind of serious romantic relationship whether either of them admit it or not, whether she reciprocates the feeling or not.

    Judging money by its frequency/proximity to our lives and hearts, I see money as our essential Family of Man. In God We Trust, but in money we believe and act with the trust sense of certainty we accord gravity. We are absolutely, completely, head-over-heals in love with what Lester Young first coined (oops) as “dough*.”
    *about upcoming gigs, he’d say, “The work is good but how does the dough rise?” He didn’t want to work for no flatbread.

    Money-love may be a love born of Stockholm syndrome, but it’s love. There are, I believe and know first hand, better forms of love. Not just at home where we still have some semblance of a clue, but love at large.

    Seeing as how our currency/economy/most everything is crashing, we might want to start exploring what that other form of love at large might be.

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