May
1 May 2022
North Ranch
Congress, AZ
I got up a little earlier than usual and we did only the two dog walk this morning. I will also give all of us a rest with no midday walk. The intent was to reach the camp today before noon when I expected them to be closed. Got here a few minutes after noon and sure enough the office was closed.
I found out that it made no difference, the office was closed all morning and will open at 1:30. I found this out when I went and knocked on the Host's door. She told me where I could park and then go back to the office and pay after she opens for the day. That has worked out well because it is hot and I needed the electricity for the A/C.
Today was the shorter drive of the two days that I'm driving to my next long term camp. There was a side wind when driving west that became stronger as the day progressed so I'm glad that it was not any longer than 276 miles. The route included a lot more Interstate than I usually drive and I selected the best route because I-10 West was closed in Phoenix. The route: AZ82, AZ90, I-10 & I-8 (162 miles), AZ85, I-10 (9 miles), 339th Ave, W. Indian School Rd, 355th Ave/Aguilla Rd, Vulture mine Rd, US93 & AZ89.
I stopped in Eloy at Love's for gas and then breakfast across the street at the Golden 9 Restaurant. They had a veggie omelet Special that did not live up to its name. It was also not as good as what I had there before when I just ordered a veggie omelet.
I noticed that all the palo verde were in bloom as I got down to a lower elevation. There were also a few yucca that had sent up their stalks with flower buds on some of them. The saguaro are also setting fruit and a few of the pioneers have opened blooms. The lower elevations are moving inro Summer.
I will now rest to prepare for the longer drive tomorrow and for this afternoon dog walks. I also need to get online and find out what the News might be today.
Todd could see this in 2002 but the US CongressPeople and the military experts advising the US military can not see it in 2022. Although in fairness there are some in the Pentagon that do understand that the US CAN NOT win a war against Russia or China; much less the two of them at the same time.
After the Second World War, every step that led the American army closer to a confrontation with Russia, the true winner on the ground in that war, revealed the fundamental fragility of the American military. In Korea, the United States was only half convincing, in Vietnam not at all. Fortunately, the real test against the Red army did not take place. As for the Gulf War, it was a victory over a myth: the Iraqi army, a military instrument of an underdeveloped country of twenty million inhabitants.
The recent circulation of the idea of a bloodless war, at least in the United States, is the culmination of an original preference for asymmetrical confrontations. This concept admits and gives formal validation to the traditional weakness of the American ground forces.
I am not accusing the United States of being unable to wage war like other countries in other words, carrying out the mindless butchery of their adversaries and their own population. To wage war at the least cost to oneself and at the greatest cost for the enemy is arguably the result of a perfectly normal utilitarian logic. Nevertheless, the absence of a tradition of American military might on the ground makes it difficult if not impossible to occupy territory and establish a truly imperial space in the traditional sense.
Today [2002], the Russian army has been reduced to a small fraction of its former superpower status. Anyone who wants to can raise mocking eyebrows at its difficulties in Chechnya. However, in the Caucasus region, Russia is showing that it can still exact levies of blood from its own population, and with the support of electors. In this way, the military is exercising one of its particular resources that is both social and psychological — something the United States is in the process of losing forever as it invests further in the notion of a bloodless war. ～ After The Empire by Emmanuel Todd
2 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
I put in a full day of work today. I knew this second leg of the move would be long but I made it even longer by missing two turns. That allowed me to see parts of Arizona that I had not seen before and I probably could had gone without seeing them.
The route should have been 351 miles per Google Maps and I'm going to list the route that I should have driven. AZ89, Kirkman Valley Rd, Iron Springs Rd, Pioneer Parkway, Willow Creek Rd, (The last two are in Prescott AZ), AZ89, I-40 (55 miles), Country Club Dr (in Flagstaff), US89, US89A & AZ389.
The other thing that made the day a little longer was the restaurant that I had selected in Ash Fork was closed. it looked like there was a film crew there taking shots of the exterior when I went in and was told they were closed. Went on down the road and after circling a couple blocks found a place to park Desperado and got a VERY expensive breakfast in Williams — a prime tourist town.
Both dogs are as tired as I am. Patches does the entire trip standing up in the passenger seat. Erik stays between the two seats in the cab almost all the time. Sometimes he lays down there or sits or sits with his chin resting on my right leg.
We will rest tomorrow then go grocery and restaurant hunting on Wednesday. It is always an experience when arriving in a new camp with a new town to explore. I also need to go to the Fredonia post office and get a box for the time that I'm here. That will give me an address for USPS deliveries. The Host said that all the private carriers deliver to my space. We will see.
I think there will be the same kind of blowback when the Russian War is settled.
For Europeans, the weeks following the attacks of September 11 were an occasion for a wonderful demonstration of solidarity. Their leaders promised to strongly involve NATO—a defensive alliance above the power of single states—in a positive if poorly defined “war on terrorism.” However, over the next twelve months relations between America and Europe steadily deteriorated. The real reasons for this were as seemingly mysterious as its development seemed inexorable. The violence of the terrorist attacks was the catalyst of the early solidarity. The American war on terrorism, brutal and inefficient in its methods and obscure as to its real objectives, ended up fueling a true antagonism between Europe and America. The relentless denunciation of an “axis of evil,” the constant support of Israel, and the contempt for Palestinians all progressively changed the view Europeans had of the United States. Formerly perceived as a peacemaker, America had become a troublemaker. Europeans who had for long been loyal children of a respected paternal power began to suspect this supreme authority of a possibly dangerous lack of responsibility. And though far from complete, there began to emerge the Unthinkable — a common international sensibility uniting the French, German, and British peoples. ～ After The Empire by Emmanuel Todd
3 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
I knew that I was moving into cooler weather but did not expect what is the forecast for the next few days. The high today may reach 66° with a low tomorrow morning of 35. Then warming to 74 during the day but will freeze Thursday morning. Just a short return of winter.
We did a usual morning walk with both dogs and then with just Erik. There does not appear to be a lot of route choices but a little exploring may reveal more. The route to the east is very good with sidewalks; going west is not so good with a moderate width shoulder but speed limits of 50-65mph.
This Park is nothing special with just dirt that shows signs of being very muddy with any rain. However, it is probably 75% full. I'm in a space with no immediate neighbors on either side which is very nice for as long as it lasts.
I have the distiller at work with no metered electric usage here. That is going to be very good during the summer months when I'll be running the A/C. Perhaps not as much as I did last summer but still a lot of A/C is in my forecast. Reading and resting are the only two other things that I have planned for today.
Widely reviewed and critically praised, Emmanuel Todd's After the Empire predicts that the United States is forfeiting its superpower status as it moves away from traditional democratic values of egalitarianism and universalism, lives far beyond its means economically, and continues to anger foreign allies and enemies alike with its military and ideological policies. As America's global dominance evaporates, Todd foresees the emergence of a Eurasian alliance bringing together Europe, Russia, Japan, and the Arab-Islamic world.
This News has not been reported by any MainStream Media that I can find. A couple of very interesting developments; those pesky Russians were supposed to just allow the $300 billion theft and not fight the sanctions. They are certainly not playing by international rule-based orders; that is to say they are not doing what the Western Elites tell them to do.
Volodin [Chairman of the State Duma ] stated that up to $500 billion worth of Western assets were blocked on the territory of the Russian Federation, which counterbalances the $300 billion of Russian reserves blocked in the West.
In the event of the confiscation of the property of Russian oligarchs in the West, Russia will begin to confiscate the property of Western businesses in Russia.
The volume of gas supplied by Gazprom to China since the beginning of 2022 has increased by 60% compared to the same period in 2021. At the same time, there is an obvious tendency to increase such deliveries — it is expected that in the short term, the total volume of deliveries will increase by another 20-30%.
I have quoted the closing paragraph to an article that is worthwhile reading if you have an interest in the Stagflation that is now recurring around the world.
In any case, artificial intelligence, automation, and robotics are not an unalloyed good. If they improve to the point where they can create meaningful disinflation, they also would probably disrupt entire occupations and industries, widening already large wealth and income disparities. That would invite an even more powerful political backlash than the one we have already seen — with all the stagflationary policy consequences that are likely to result. ～ The Gathering Stagflationary Storm, Nouriel Roubini
4 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
I read a few chapters of a Greer novel yesterday and thought it was familiar. Sure enough when I checked my Books Read List it was on there; I read it in 2020 before starting to read his nonfiction. Quit that one and started another of his fiction books although I was unsure of his fiction based on that first book.
My shopping trip in Kanab was even more eventful than I anticipated. I first went to Glazier's Market where I had a short list but two of the items on it were not available. Asked them where I could get breakfast and they gave me directions to a new restaurant in town. Thought I had followed the directions but did not find a restaurant. However, I did find Jakey Leigh's which I had found online would be open. Went in, looked at the menu and left. Not my kind of breakfast place.
Then went to Honey's Marketplace and picked up the remaining two items on my list. Asked them about a restaurant that was open for breakfast and was directed to that same new restaurant but slightly different directions. Couldn't find it after driving around the area but saw a woman walking her dog and stopped to ask her. She was rather old and seemed a bit feeble minded. I think she knew what I was looking for but could not give me directions to it. I then found the place and it was closed with a sign saying “Closed Lack of Staff”
There are restaurants in Kanab that claim to serve breakfast but the earliest that any of them open is 11:00. I am going to be saving some money that has been spent on breakfast! I will probably get some Egg Beater and chopped veggies and make my own on shopping days. It is that or put off shopping until the middle of the day.
The post office in Fredonia was still closed when I got back there so I had to wait a few minutes until 9:00. Got a PO Box address that I can use while here. The good news — it was FREE!
I'm done for the day. Get back to reading daily web sites and my novel on Fire 8. Maybe read some of the book that I have just started online.
This is a fictional conversation between a reporter, Mr. McGaffney, and the Tanzania Assistant Minister of Energy. This is also the book that I had read before and have quit reading the second time.
“See, Mr. McGaffney, the United States itself was once like Tanzania. It was a colony of Britain, and like any other colony of hers, its farms and forests and mines made money for rich men in London, not for Americans. So the Americans had their revolution, they took their own resources and their own destiny in their hands, and became a great nation; and not so many years later, the British empire was gone and it was the United States and not Britain that had its navy visiting every port and its garrisons all over the world.” “You think,” said McGaffney, “ they've forgotten where they came from?” “No, no, not at all.” The assistant minister took another sip of his whiskey. “I think they remember it too well. They know that sooner or later some other country will replace them as they replaced the British, and so they see every rising nation as a threat to them. So we walk our delicate line; we deal with the Chinese and try not to offend the Americans; and we hope—I hope—that this new oil discovery will not cause us to lose our balance. Or, shall we say, cause the Americans to lose theirs.” ～ Twilight's Last Gleaming by John Michael Greer
5 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
The cold mornings are now over for the next 2-3 days if the forecast is right. Then we get winds and lower temperatures for almost a week. Not a good forecast.
We have settled into a new routine. The available walking routes are not what I want but we adapt the best we can. The dogs don't seem to care, they find something to sniff along the same routes every day.
The Russian War seems to have reached its use by date. The Roe vs Wade Supreme Court leak has replaced it for now. I don't think that it has a very long News Cycle life. What will be the next big story? The Democrats need something that will carry them into the midterm elections although it may already be too late.
Happy Cinco de Mayo! A holiday now celebrated in the Unired States more than 4th of July and more than it is celebrrated in Mexico. That is mostly because of commercial interest in the Unired States.
6 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: May 6, 1934
I have holding tanks to dump and a water tank to fill. That is all the chores that I plan to do today. Most of the day will be spent reading and walking dogs.
The Dow Index dropped over 1000 points again yesterday but that is becoming rather commonplace in the “new normal”. It was down over 500 points again at one time this morning. This is not good News for the Democrats but the MainStream Media is doing their best to ignore the Dow now that it is dropping vs when it is going up. Amazon was down another 7.6% for the day or 27% year to date. My sanctions are working better than President Biden's. HA
This is the closing paragraph from a posting by JHK that covers this and many other topics. A suggested read.
Altogether, the scene looks like a multi-dimensional nightmare. Broken economy… sinking Western Civ… police state tyranny… vaccine death and injury… starvation…. So, there it is. Oh, look, those markets… they're puking again! ～ Nausea Rules, James Howard Kunstler
7 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
There is nothing happening here today. From what I have read in my web browsing, that is the situation almost everywhere. Either that or all the News has been censured.
The dogs and I keep trying to make the best we can with the limited walking routes that are available. There is no avoiding the many other dogs along the way that provide a distraction for Erik and evoke responses by Patches. Not the best place I have been for our walks.
The low this morning was in the lower 50s but felt colder than that. The forecast is that it will be windy during the next five days with gusts of 40mph. That and colder morning (lows in the upper 30s) are going to make for unpleasant walking even if there were not the other dog issues.
I guess I just hunker down and read the book that I have on Fire 8. I might finish it today but certainly by tomorrow. I haven't read much of the one that I have online so I need to devote more time to that one during these windy days. That is assuming that the winds are not going to disrupt my Verizon connection; sometimes it does (tower movement or something?).
8 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
I want to issue the appropriate Woke greeting for today. I think it is “Happy Birthing Person Day” for all the Birthing People.
Strong winds yesterday but the gusts were only 30mph versus the 40 that had been forecast. The forecast for today is that it will be cooler than the 82.5° high of yesterday with 50mph wind gusts. It was calm this morning but the winds slowly picked up by 8:00.
I got a close by neighbor on my south side yesterday afternoon. That is bad and good news. It is bad that I no longer have that extra space between my nearest neighbors but it is good that they provide some wind blockage. I said hello as we were going out for out afternoon walk but we didn't have much of a conversation. They are probably going to be here for a while. The southern part of the Park seems to be for longer stays with the northern part for overnighters and short stays.
More than four centuries have passed since industrial civilization stumbled to its ruin under the self-inflicted blows of climate change and resource depletion.
9 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
We did a midday walk with the wind blowing only 10-15 mph. When it was time for our afternoon walk that had moved up into the 25-35 mph range and forecast gusts still to be 50 mph . I decided that we would not walk.
The blowing dust was reducing the visibility then to 5-7 miles but by sundown I could not see a house on the mesa about a mile north of the Park. The wind blew through the night and most of the dust has settled but the forecast is for a repeat performance today.
The worst dust storm that I have been in for many years. This was not a haboob like what I saw while living in Phoenix but just a lot of blowing dirt in the air in all directions.
When a Democrat member of Congress, from a very blue state, makes a statement like this you can bet it was approved by The Establishment. The US is at war with Russia but the MainStream Media still wants the shulbs of the world to believe it is just those evil Russians attacking poor Ukraine.
At the end of the day, we've got to realize we're at war, and we're not just at war to support the Ukrainians. We're fundamentally at war, although it's somewhat through proxy, with Russia. And it's important that we win. ～ Rep. Seth Wilbur Moulton (D) Massachusetts
💬 Michael Crichton: Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper's full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.
10 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
Yesterday I finished cooking more cranberry beans and red hominy in the Thermal Cooker. That freed up the Cooker for more hulled barley and oat groats. I now have enough ‘linners’ and breakfasts prepared for reheating to last me a week or more.
After our morning walk we went to the Kanab laundry and got that chore taken care of. It was just a couple blocks drive to Honey's Marketplace for groceries. This took longer since it was a new market and I needed to find substitutions for some of the items on my list. I'm not very happy with either market in Kanab but can live with what they offer.
Almost across the street was a gas station where I went to fill Desperado. I hope prices come down before needing to fill up again but that is just hope; realistically I think prices will continue to go up.
Very calm with no wind while doing our morning walk. However, by the time I finished doing laundry it was starting to pick up again. By the time I was driving back to the Park it was blowing hard enough that I was very glad I only had 6-7 miles to drive in it.
If the weather guessers get it right the wind will stop blowing tomorrow and it will get cold. The highs to be in the 70s with a possible freeze Thursday morning. Then highs in the 90s for the weekend and lows back into the 50s.
11 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
My breakfast yesterday was different from the hulled barley, oat groats, walnuts, blueberries, Baker chocolate square, honey and Silk oat milk that I usually eat. I got some Egg Beater substitute egg whites that combined with potatoes, diced green chiles and mushroom pieces made for a not too bad ‘skillet’. I need to do some refining and hope I can get some whole egg Egg Beaters the next shopping trip.
The entire Park lost electric power for about two hours yesterday in the late afternoon. I think the continuous winds finally got some wires either down or short circuited. A couple hours, it could have been worse.
The forecast low for this morning was 37° and I think that is what we got. Tomorrow morning is expected to be 32° and I expect it to be below freezing. More wind today then it will die down and the temperatures will rather quickly rise to Summer levels. I'll be complaining about it being hot this weekend.
The closing paragraph from a good article.
Like Germany in 1945, the Ukraine is marching fanatically towards its terrible Götterdämmerung, leaving a trail of footprints in its own blood. And NATO is standing behind, cheering it on and prolonging the death-agony. Nothing to Celebrate by James Tweedie for the Saker Blog
12 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
I gave us another pass on doing an afternoon walk yesterday. The dust and dirt was flying bad enough when we walked at noon. It had increased in strength by the afternoon and I didn't want to get sandblasted.
The low this morning was not below freezing as I thought it would be. It was 34.4°, warmer than forecast, but still cold. Not as bad as it could have been if the wind had been blowing. If the forecasters get it right there will be another cold morning tomorrow then warming to a high of 91 on Sunday with moderate winds of 10-15mph. Moving from Winter to Summer in the same week.
I think I will finish reading the book on Fire 8 today, download another one and spend more time reading the one I have started online. There are also all those websites that need to be checked for News.
Vaccine /Define
A preparation that is administered (as by injection) to stimulate the body's immune response against a specific infectious agent or disease.
Headline: ‘Vaccinated and Boosted’ Bill Gates Tests Positive for Coronavirus.
I don't think he received a vaccine or a vaccine booster. I think he must have received some gene therapy experimental “jab”. Gene therapy is a technique that modifies a person's genes to treat or cure disease not for protection as Bill has discovered.
This quote is just a snippet from the transcript of a long interview Ben Norton aka Multipolarista interviews Michael Hudson: Destiny of Civilization. It is worth your time to read it.
💬Michael Hudson: Well, now that, once the Americans put on the sanctions, beginning already under the Trump administration, all of a sudden Russia had to produce its own food. And it did. It made the investment. It is now the largest agricultural exporter in the world, not a food-deficit country.… And the sanctions are forcing Russia to do exactly what the United States, Germany, and other protectionist countries did in the 19th century, developing their own industry by isolating it from low-priced foreign imports that would be priced so low that the Russians otherwise could not afford to make the investment in factories, plants, equipment, research, and development. So what the United States has done is actually catalyze Russia moving together. And also, for three or four years, I have been talking with Russians, and with the Chinese, and other countries about the need to de-dollarize. If you want to develop your own economy, you have to develop your economy in your own interest with public spending and planning, independent from the United States. Well, now everybody thought that, well, in a few years it may take a decade for China, Russia, Iran, all these countries to break away from the U.S. But America said, we're going to help you, we're going to speed up the breakaway process. We're going to isolate you. So you've got to band together against us. So that's exactly what it has done. You can just imagine how the Russians are crying all the way to the bank about this.
13 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: May 13, 1934
A low this morning of 36.4° with the forecast that it will be warmer in the mornings to come. The high today will be in the low 80s, tomorrow almost 90 and Sunday to be over 90. I'll complain that it is too hot.
I had a neighbor on my south side during most of these past windy days which was good. They left yesterday removing the partial wind block but the weather guessers say that the worst of the wind storm is over. I once again have an open space on both sides of my space. That is good while it lasts.
A new book by James Michael Greer on my Fire 8 and the online book will be about all I will devote time to today. There will be dog walks and website browsing but those are a usual routine.
Harry Flashman: the unrepentant bully of Tom Brown's schooldays, now with a Victoria Cross, has three main talents — horsemanship, facility with foreign languages and fornication.
Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador continues to go off the reservation. He refused to abide by the sanctions against Russia, has entered into trade agreements with Cuba and is now championing a united Latin America to replace the United States dominated OAS (Organization of American States). He also said that he will not attend the Summit of the Americas if Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua are not invited. The US State Department has refused to invite thoe socialist governments to the summit.
💬AMLO: I maintain that it is necessary to move forward in an integration of all of America, in the construction of a model similar to that of the European Community, a model that preceded what is today the European Union. Only in that way can we confront the turbulence of the global economy and the geopolitical danger that the economic decline of the United States represents for all of the world, as opposed to other regions, especially Asia, and in particular I am referring to the economic advance of China. In addition to halting this course of undesirable events, the union of America would develop our natural resources, tourism, and our financial systems to provide well-being and justice for our populations, to jointly confront problems like poverty, immigration, insecurity.…
I have insisted in the necessity that no government in the hemisphere and no country in America be excluded from the upcoming summit that will be taking place in Los Angeles, in the United States, that no one excludes anyone. It should be a meeting that allows us to resolve our disagreements without hegemonies or arrogance.
The Mexican President is not alone in his efforts to push back against the United States hegemony in Latin America.
Brazil's left-wing leader Lula da Silva has proposed creating a pan-Latin American currency, in order to “be freed of the dollar.” A founder of Brazil's Workers' Party, Lula served as president for two terms, from 2003 to 2011. He is now the leading candidate as Brazil's October 2022 presidential elections approach.
China has invited Argentina to attend the 2022 summits of the BRICS, a loose economic bloc bringing together Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Chinese President Xi Jinping personally sent a special invitation to Argentina to attend the BRICS summits, and Buenos Aires accepted Beijing's offer.
14 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
The low this morning was right at the forecast 40°. However, after the first half of our walk I got my gloves for the second half. I think my getting old leads to more cold hands and cold feet. Shouldn't have that problem during the afternoon walk with a forecast high of 89.
I think I will finish reading the book that I have in Fire 8 today. It will depend on how often I switch to reading the one I am also reading online. That is about all that I will do; that and stay cool.
The author of this article has got it right. However, in my opinion, the United States is going to fail. The world's schoolyard bully is going to be faced with a gang of those that it has been bullying.
The rapid decline of the US has made its leadership nervous and crazy. They are taking all possible measures to sustain their hegemony and supremacy. Even though the Ukraine war is only a phenomenon, the objective is to maintain status-co. Unfortunately, the US is not interested in global peace, stability, or saving human lives. The only priority is to maintain its hegemony and supremacy. To achieve this goal, the US can sacrifice Ukraine, Europe, or any heavy price. The US policy in the Ukraine war is to add fuel to fire, there is no will to stop the war, ceasefire, or save human lives. They are providing weapons, and arming civilians to lead toward a prolonged civil war, to bleed Russian and keep many countries over-engaged and let the US maintain its monopoly and the upper hand.…
In history, many nations rose to the status of superpowers and ruled the world for a certain period of time, then, meltdown and passed the status of superpower to other rising nations. Like the Roman Empire, Ottoman Empire, Greek Empire, British, and French empires, etc. But, The US is not willing to accept the natural cycle of superpowers and can go to any extent to keep its status of superpower forever, which is not rational nor natural, it might cause irrecoverable loss to humankind. Unfortunate! ～The US wants to keep its status as a superpower at any cost, Zamir Awan for the Saker Blog
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.
～ T. S. Eliot
15 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
The weather gurus have raised the expected high for today to 92°. I think it will get even hotter than that with it already at 70 by 8:00 am. The morning lows are back to the upper 40s and lower 50s range which is great with calm winds.
I went out early, before it got hot, and did the holding tank dumps and added water. It was the almost empty water tank that I needed to fill more than doing the dumps. I started the distiller working again this morning and the water pump was sucking air trying to get me a gallon of water.
The year is 2065. Decades ago, the United States of America fell apart after four brutal years of civil war, and the fragments coalesced into new nations divided by economic and political rivalries. Most of the post-US America is wracked by poverty and civil strife, with high-tech skyscrapers rising above crowded, starving slums—but one of the new nations, the Lakeland Republic of the upper Midwest, has gone its own way, isolated from the rest by closed frontiers and trade embargoes.
…on the past. ～ Book promo @ goodreads.com
Read what Larry has to say about this telephone call and the Russian War. The most important, who is requesting the ceasefire? If you are winning the fight you do not want it to stop; now if you are losing, then you might want a ceasefire.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with his Russian counterpart for the first time since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Pentagon announced on Friday.
The call lasted approximately an hour and was at the request of Austin, who used the first call between the two in 84 days to urge Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to implement an “immediate ceasefire,” according to a brief readout of the call. ～ The Art Of Disinformation–Western Lies About The War In Ukraine, Larry Johnson
16 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
The high yesterday was 94.1°, a bit hotter than expected by the experts. They now think that today will be cooler with a high of only 90. I doubt that I will notice the difference even if they get it right.
Did a quick shopping trip to pick up groceries and was back in my space at the Park by 7:30. Cooked up a breakfast of potatoes, diced green chili, mushrooms, leeks and egg whites. It was not very good, I need to do some more experimenting. I also picked up some egg substitutes made from plants that I'm going to give a try.
The baby formula brouhaha has almost overtaken any of the Russian War News now that it is looking more and more like Russia is going to accomplish what it set out to do. It is a small wonder that the human race has lasted as long as it has. It was not until the 1980 Congress passed the Infant Formula Act. Now infant formula is placed under the regulation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Until the mid-1950s most families made their own formula at home — it may be time to revive the practice.
💬 Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg: The government does not make baby formula, nor should it. Companies make formula, and one of those companies — a company which, by the way, seems to have 40% market share — messed up and is unable to confirm that a plant, a major plant, is safe and free of contamination. So the most important thing to do right now, of course, is to get that plant in Michigan up and running safely. A plant shutting down because a company can't assure that it is physically safe from contamination is the responsibility of the company. The responsibility of the regulator is to ensure, as they take steps to get it ready, that it will in fact be safe when it comes back online.
A diesel shortage on the east coast? Perhaps this has something to do with it? We do live in interesting times!
The U.S. has increased diesel exports to help supply Europe with previously Russian-supplied fuel. But higher prices of diesel on the East Coast may impact how much diesel companies send to Europe, where prices are slightly lower.
In January 2022 there was an increase in Russian diesel deliveries as fuel inventories on the East Coast fell to the lowest in eight years while demand is running at the highest since 2018. At the same time, Bloomberg noted, refining capacity on the East Coast has also declined because of low margins and a refinery explosion.
17 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
There is not much happening here other than I have been surrounded. I now have a neighbor on both sides of me. The spaces here are not very generous in width, making up for it in length. That makes for a crowded space.
The high yesterday was 89° and that is what is forecast for today through Thursday. Cooler on Friday then moving up into the 90s again next week.
I'll be inside reading the novel I have on Fire 8 or the nonfiction online most of the time. Braving the heat only when walking with the dog(s).
The Strategic Culture Foundation website has been blocked since soon after Russia ‘invaded’ Ukraine. I was finally able to reconnect yesterday and have quoted from a good article that The Establishment didn't want me to read. I don't know if the hyperlink will work for everyone on every browser but I have provided it. Read the article if you can.
Since 1945 and the implementation of the Bretton Woods agreement the world has been held hostage by a financial system that was designed to benefit a small minority in the capital class. Poor countries were to be kept poor and any real economic development was to be discouraged. It is a financial system that trades in human suffering and misery. It was the new face of empire, financial neo-colonialism. The vast resources of the American military were deployed around the world to ensure that no nation strayed from the plantation. Yet even the power of the military cannot be expected to quell the anti-Western momentum that is happening now. To quote Napoleon, “there is something more powerful than all the armies in the World, that is an idea whose time has come”. That time has come. Which country will be the first to completely repudiate its foreign debt and start again with an honest financial system, we don't know. What we do know [is] that it will base its new system on one demonstrated so capably by the Chinese, based on growth and development. Any one country alone making such a move can expect to incur the full wrath of the Empire, yet a number of like-minded countries working in concert will have strength in numbers. All indicators suggest this is now happening.
Once just regarded as third world problems, chronic food and energy shortages together with unmanageable inflation are coming to the West. Scenes recently witnessed in Sri Lanka may soon be repeated on the streets of Europe and America. Hard times are coming for all in the short term, yet a world freed from the clutches of the Empire promises a brighter future for all mankind. ～ Third World Problems, Coming Your Way, Eamon McKinney
18 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
While I was typing up the posting yesterday my northside neighbor left. I sit with my back toward that side of Desperado and my hearing is such that I never saw or heard them leave. So, it's not as crowded until I get another neighbor on that side.
Not a lot of News other than the “evacuation’ of the steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine. The Ukraine government is trying to spin it as “Mission Accomplished” but that is going to be a hard sell even with the MainStream Media acting on their behalf. It was a surrender and there will be many more to come soon.
Yesterday the high was the same as the day before (89.4°) with the forecast today to be the same. Tomorrow is expected to be much cooler at only 76 with gusting winds again.
I'll not be doing anything except the usual. Try to stay cool and not get sandblasted.
Peter Grant writes about the situation(s) but I think there are many people that have the same thoughts.
…tell me why so many other recent mass shootings perpetrated by non-white criminals have simply dropped out of sight in the mainstream media. It's as if they aren't newsworthy because their perpetrators aren't of a politically incorrect race. However, the Buffalo shooting, where a white shooter targeted black victims, is suddenly everywhere in the news. Yes, I find that suspicious. It's almost as if it were deliberately being used as a casus belli to whip up minority outrage against other races. What if there are a couple more such shootings? Will we see BLM and Antifa lead mobs of rioters and looters on our streets again? I won't be surprised if we do.
Putting all those factors together, I believe that the powers that be are deliberately cherry-picking incidents and orchestrating the response to them, both in the mainstream media and among minority groups. They want to use them to foment unrest and violence. ～ A totalitarian onslaught against freedom on a worldwide scale, Peter Grant
19 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
The winds that were forecast to arrive today came yesterday afternoon. There was dirt blowing through the Park again. It was not as bad as the big dust storm that we had but bad enough. I decided that we would not walk in it. We did go out quickly for potty walks but stayed very close to Desperado.
This morning it was nice and calm with the low at 50.3°. However, the forecast is for winds this afternoon that may gust up to 40 mph that will continue through the night. Then tomorrow it will become much cooler with the high expected to be 74 — I can hope.
The only thing out of the ordinary, although it has become more so, is a problem getting an online order delivered. I have avoided Amazon for almost a year and a half now because of delivery issues. Now I have those same issues with an independent provider. I quit ordering online coffee from a provider because of delivery issues; so if I ever resolve this order it will be the last one for this company.
Ignore the fact that all the troops were not withdrawn at the president's order; the circular ‘logic’ of the Biden administration is again on display. Why do they not just come out and say that they are putting troops in place to maintain what hegemony in Africa that they can.
On Monday [16 May 2022], US President Joe Biden announced he's sending hundreds of US Special Operations forces to Somalia—in order, his administration says, to protect the few US troops who hadn't yet departed after former President Trump ordered them to withdraw in 2020.
National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson subsequently declared the US plans to establish “a persistent presence” in Somalia so as to “maximize the safety and effectiveness of [US] forces” there.
I suggest that you read this article Toward a Theory of Impossibility: Column Upends Science by Fred Reed for the Saker Blog. It is classic Fred and as he says “Here we enunciate an underlying principle: A thing is not necessarily possible merely because it happens.”
20 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: May 20, 1934
As I have said many times before, the weather gurus do a very good job at forecasting winds. When we went for our midday walk the wind was strengthening and starting to blow dirt. By the afternoon it was like the day before and I again decided not to walk in it.
When on our noon walk I stopped at the Post Office and checked my box. The package that I was expecting was there although I had received no notice from the vendor. I had sent an email earlier in the day asking if my order had shipped. I have not yet received a reply.
The package contained chicory which I wanted to try as a coffee substitute. I have not made a cup with only chicory but using two parts coffee and one part chicory is a good drink. The roaster that I have been buying coffee from since late 2020 was offering a Columbian that I really liked. The past two times that I have ordered it was not offered. Supply line issues? Maybe prices? That is why I'm looking for alternatives. Note: I just checked and there was Columbian available today.
This quote is from and article this promises to be a series over the months to come at Greer's blog.
…that the nations that dominated the world during the preindustrial era should be in line to dominate it again as the industrial age winds down.
This, finally, is the wider context in which the Russo-Ukrainian war and its attendant economic convulsions need to be understood. The great question of early twenty-first century geopolitics was whether Russia, with its immense fossil fuel, mineral, and agricultural resources, would align with Europe or with rising Asia. It would have been quite easy for Europe and the United States to have brought Russia into a pan-European structure of alliances and economic relationships. All that would have been required is a reasonable attention to Russian concerns about national security and a willingness to put long-term goals over short-term profiteering. European and American leaders turned out to be too inept to manage those simple steps, and as a result, the question has been settled: Russia is turning east, throwing its resource base and its political support to China, India, and Iran. That didn't have to happen, but it's too late to change it now. ～ The End of the European Age, John Michael Greer
21 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
There was another reason for getting some chicory. The food with the most inulin is chicory and inulin is good for gut health which also reduces inflammation. I have been working at getting my C-reactive protein level down which is a measure of inflammation. It was high a couple years ago when I was experiencing psoriatic ‘flashes’. My no dairy diet has reduced it to the normal range but at the upper end. I'm eating more leeks which are also high in inulin.
It was a cold 42° this morning with a light wind. The forecast high today is 76 with a gradual warming until it will be back in the 90s by next Thursday. I would be happy to see it stay in the 70s.
I have cooked more hulled barley and oat groats then had red hominy soaking overnight. That will get cooked today with cranberry beans soaking tonight and the two cooked together tomorrow. That and holding tank dumps plus water tank fill will complete my domestic duties.
My regular shopping trip to Kanab would be tomorrow but the prefered market is closed on Sunday. I guess I'll put it off until Monday.
Still, it's pretty clear that it has never occurred to anybody in the US Congress that OPEC nations might, you know, have their own interests in mind, and might respond to a hamfisted attempt at bullying by doing something other than groveling at Uncle Sam's feet. I've noted before that the elite classes in the US and Europe today seem incapable of understanding that the rest of the human race doesn't consist of little automatons that will always and only do as they're told. That failure of basic reasoning is fairly common in senile aristocracies, and it very often plays a large and colorful role in the collapse of empires. It may well play such a role in the collapse of ours. ～ Running On Empty, John Michael Greer
I have a suspicion that there is evidence obtained by Russia from the biolabs in Ukraine that may shed some light on what the US government is so intent on keeping in the dark. What Russia discloses will be very interesting. There is the chance however that there will be some ‘horsetrading’ and Russia will suppress what they have found for a significant reductions of sanctions or other concessions. Interesting!
EHA [EcoHealth Alliance], UNC [University of North Carolina] , NIH [National Institutes of Health] , USAID [US Agency for International Development] , and other research partners have failed to disclose their activities to the US scientific community and the US public, instead declaring that they were not involved in any experiments that could have resulted in the emergence of SARS-CoV-2. The NIH has specifically stated that there is a significant evolutionary distance between the published viral sequences and that of SARS-CoV-2 and that the pandemic virus could not have resulted from the work sponsored by NIH. Of course, this statement is only as good as the limited data on which it is based, and verification of this claim is dependent on gaining access to any other unpublished viral sequences that are deposited in relevant US and Chinese databases. On May 11, 2022, Acting NIH Director Lawrence Tabak testified before Congress that several such sequences in a US database were removed from public view, and that this was done at the request of both Chinese and US investigators.
Blanket denials from the NIH are no longer good enough. Although the NIH and USAID have strenuously resisted full disclosure of the details of the EHA-WIV [Wuhan Institute of Virology] -UNC work program, several documents leaked to the public or released through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) have raised concerns. These research proposals make clear that the EHA-WIV-UNC collaboration was involved in the collection of a large number of so-far undocumented SARS-like viruses and was engaged in their manipulation within biological safety level (BSL)-2 and BSL-3 laboratory facilities, raising concerns that an airborne virus might have infected a laboratory worker. A variety of scenarios have been discussed by others, including an infection that involved a natural virus collected from the field or perhaps an engineered virus manipulated in one of the laboratories. ～ A call for an independent inquiry into the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus , Neil L. Harrison and Jeffrey D. Sachs
22 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
Finished the domestic tasks that I had to do. Also finished the book that I have been reading on Fire 8. I now need to devote more time to the one that I have started online because I have another one on the online waitlist.
I got a huge 5th Wheel neighbor one space over on my south side late in the day on Friday. Haven't seen the owners and the tow vehicle was gone when I noticed the 5th Wheel. They haven't been back since parking the trailer. Strange.
The low this morning was 42 ° but without any wind so felt warmer than yesterday. The high forecast for today will also be warmer as well with it getting up into the low 80s on the way to 90s later in the week.
The band of Earthlings transported to Videssos has split up. Some are heading north to persuade the Mongols. Sorry. The Arshaum, to join the side of the Empire. The others are off west to squash more rebellion. Time passes.
This is only one question and answer from a Peter Scott, RT anchor, and Michael Hudson interview transcript at The Saker. The entire interview is a good read.
💬 Peter Scott: Talking of currencies, Russia is currently the most sanctioned country in the world but the rouble has recovered to way before pre-war levels. To what extent do you think the sanctions imposed on Russia by western countries have negatively impacted the countries imposing them?
💬 Michael Hudson: It's certainly been very positive for Russia. The first sanctions were imposed on Russian agriculture like cheese from Lithuania. So now Russia produces its own cheese. When you sanction a country, you force that country to be more self-reliant on its own productions. President Putin has already said that now he's going to be investing in import substitution. If he can't buy imports from the United States now he'll set up factories in Russia to produce themselves. There's no reason Russia cannot do this and be its own industrial power. It doesn't need the West. But the West still needs Russia. You mentioned Europe doing without Russian oil, and instead getting US liquefied natural gas. But it doesn't have the ports to import that natural gas. It will have to spend $5 billion to build ports. It will take many years for this. What are Germany and Europe going to do for the next few years? Are they going to let their pipes freeze in their houses? So that their pipes break and flood the houses? Will the factories slow down? Already German fertiliser companies have closed down because they can't get gas and it's going to be years before they can get gas. Without fertiliser how are the Germans going to make their agricultural yields sustainable? Well, they won't be. So Europe is going to increase its food deficit. It's going to increase its energy deficit. It's basically committing suicide on behalf of the Americans. I don't know how long the political system of Europe can go along with leaders who represent America instead of their own national interests.
To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal. — Henry KissingerUkraine is learning that what Kissinger said is true now; Europe will learn it when the war is over.
The Russian War is no longer News so a new health crisis has suddenly appeared as the headline ‘above the fold’ so to speak. However, as you can see from the quote I found about half way through the article from which I selected it — avoiding monkeypox is relatively easy to do.
That has not stopped the hue and cry for a vaccine. The vaccine of choice being the one for smallpox. There is only one problem with that. The result of giving smallpox vaccines to the immunocompromised could be to give them smallpox and thus reinfect the human population with a far more dangerous virus than Covid and monkey virus. Guess what, there are independent scientists who have concluded that the Covid vaccine leaves the vaccinated immunocompromised. I think Bill Gates' prediction that there would be another pandemic is in its first stages.
On Saturday, the World Health Organization said that based on available information, the cases of monkeypox have been mainly, but not exclusively, identified amongst men who have had sex with men and sought care in sexual health clinics.
“What seems to be happening now is that it has got into the population as a sexual form, as a genital form and is being spread as are sexually transmitted infections, which has amplified its transmission around the world,” WHO official David Heymann told Reuters.
Heymann added that close contact was the key transmission route for the spread of monkeypox, as lesions typical of the disease are very infectious. ～ WHO confirms 92 cases of monkeypox across 12 countries, Scroll Staff
23 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
A quick shopping trip this morning after our walk. There were a couple items on my list that I could not find and I also noticed there were empty gaps on some of the shelves of things that I was not looking to buy. I think it is only going to get worse rather than better in the months to come.
There is a high cloud cover today with no winds so far. The forecast high has been scaled back a degree or two for today but the 90s are still expected by Thursday and the week following. I hope the forecast is wrong, I would like a few days of nice cold spring weather with no wind. HA
One more question and answer from a Peter Scott, RT anchor, and Michael Hudson interview transcript at The Saker. It is an informative interview.
💬 Peter Scott: The seizing of Russian economic assets — hundreds of billions of dollars — in the West has certainly become a controversial precedent. Moscow has called it theft. What sort of impact has this situation had on the US economy and the dollar itself, as a global reserve currency?
💬 Michael Hudson: No impact at all on the US economy as such. If Russia loses the $300 billion that was stolen, it will be a great victory for Russia. That's because what America has said is that no country's savings in the United States are safe. Any country that denominated its trade in US dollars, any country that invests in the United States, if you don't have your government follow American dictates, then we can simply grab your money — like we grabbed Russia's money, Afghanistan's money, Venezuela's money. So the act against Russia has been essentially the US destroying foreign faith in the US economy and the safety of the US government. For the last 75 years, the US dollar and US Treasury Bills, loaned to the US government, bonds, have been the safest investment in the world. Now they're the most risk investment. So what this means is that the American economy has decoupled itself from the Asian economy, from the Latin American and African economies. The Americans have decoupled and yet America is not self-sufficient. It relies on foreign countries, especially China and other Asian countries, for its industrial exports and it relies on Russia for much of its helium, titanium, iridium, palladium… all of these exports which it's not going to be getting anymore. So America has basically committed trade suicide and economic suicide. Russia seems to have lost the $300 billion but on the other hand it now gets to compensate itself with all of the foreign investments that are in Russia, that it's picking up, and its position in the world affairs as a trustworthy economy has gone way, way up relative to the United States.
President Biden was all for containment and for the US to be sort of a world hall monitor way back in 1992 when he was a Senator. Why would he change now? He has changed his stance on weapons proliferation however as evidenced by his having the $40 billion Ukraine Arms Bill flown to Korea so he could sign it.
Having contained Soviet communism until it dissolved, we need a new strategy of “containment” — based, like NATO, on collective action, but directed against weapons proliferation. — Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition) Apr 23, 1992 Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr
I have shamelessly plagiarized from Charles Hugh Smith's posting What Could Go Right?
Rip-roaring inflation, hot war in Europe, global food crisis, semi-permanent supply-chain snarls, geopolitical blackmail, semi-permanent energy scarcities / supply issues, geopolitical tensions through the roof, public discontent, extreme political partisanship, hard-landing recession already baked in, shrinking corporate profits, extremes of weather, investor sentiment is in free-fall, plus confidence in the political and financial systems' ability to navigate all of the above is tumbling into the abyss.
Other than all that, everything's going great.
24 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
Today is probably going to be just another routine day. The only thing that I have done differently so far is do the Erik midday long walk this morning. I'll then do the shorter morning distance at noon.
What a crock! President Biden is 5 months older than myself and I never heard a discussion at the kitchen table about the price of gas at the pump. I do remember my father claiming that there was water in the gas because our 1953 truck was running poorly. All the time that I was growing up, gas at the pump was somewhere around 25¢/gallon; that would be about $2.50 today if the price rise were only due to inflation.
The price of gas at the pump is something that I told you — you heard me say before — it would be a matter of great discussion at my kitchen table when I was a kid growing up. ～ President Biden at press conference in Japan 23 May 2022
This quote is only one paragraph from an article that predicts a world future far different than what the MainStream Media wants you to believe. Even if the author only gets it half right we will be living in a far different world.
Since the campaign of liberation of the Ukraine was launched on 24 February, the world has changed. Our Great Reset has begun. True, most, though now no longer all, Western ideologues still refuse to accept that their private fantasy of a tyrannical unipolar world order is dead. Despite their delusions, that fantasy has been destroyed, not by those who opposed it, but by their own over-reaching hubris, that is, by their refusal to consider the rest of the world as of equal worth. For the liberation of Ukraine is just the beginning of the collapse of the ‘West is Best’ ideology. The struggle is also economic, as the West through its anti-Russian sanctions is committing economic suicide. And the struggle is also ideological and political in its second, third and fourth phases. ～ History is Being Written Before our Eyes, Batiushka for The Saker
25 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
A very pleasant 52.6° this morning which felt colder even without any wind.
“As we age, our bodies become sensitive to cold temperatures. This is because of a decrease in the metabolic rate. Our aging bodies are not capable of generating enough heat to help maintain the normal temperature of 98.6 degrees. In addition, thinning of the skin is another factor that may contribute to the “feeling of cold” in older adults.”
So it is my thin skin and old age that is the culprit; not much I can do about that.
The increasing high temperatures are not anything I look forward to either. Today is expected to be 89 and then 90s through the weekend with a sudden drop to 67 on Monday. Crazy weather.
My plans are to just do the usual. That includes the month end chores that are soon to be needed.
Orlov makes a good case but then again he may be writing with tongue firmly planted in cheek.
Ostensibly, the plan was to weaken and destroy Russia; but then, following the Soviet collapse, Russia was weakening and destroying itself very well all by itself, no intervention needed. What's more, every US effort to weaken and destroy Russia has made it stronger; had there existed even a most rudimentary feedback mechanism, so vast a discrepancy between policy goals and policy results would have been detected and adjustments would have been made. Superficially, this may be explained by the nature of America's sham-democracy, where each administration can blame its failures on mistakes made by the previous administration, but the Deep State remains in power throughout, and it would simply be forced to admit to itself that there is a problem with the plan to weaken and destroy Russia after a few cycles of this unfolding fiasco. The fact that it hasn't detected any such problem brings us full circle, back to the suspicion that there are Putin's agents toiling tirelessly deep within the Deep State.
But that's pure conspiracy theory and we shouldn't want to go anywhere near that. Suffice to say, there is at present no adequate explanation for what happened. After the Soviet collapse, very little was needed to speed along the collapse of Russia itself. But none of these steps have been taken, and the steps that were taken (with the ostensible goal of weakening and destroying Russia) have done the exact opposite. Why? Below are listed 10 of the most successful initiatives of what appear to be a US Deep State MRGA campaign. If you have an alternative explanation, I'd like to hear it. ～ The Secret American Plan to Make Russia Great Again, Dmitry Orlov for the Saker
I have not quoted from The Consent of the Governed Is Slipping Away by Charles Hugh Smith. I have just provided a link and suggest that you read one of his better postings.
26 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
There is not much happening here and about all I have to look forward to is shopping on Saturday. That and get started doing my usual month end routine.
This is Orlov's 10th successful initiative of what appear to be a US Deep State Make Russia Great Again campaign. A good article.
Finally, Russia should be grateful for the lavish funds provided over the years by the US and the collective West in support of free speech and freedom of the press in Russia, by which is meant pro-Western propaganda. First, it did help liberate Russia's media space, to a point that now Russia is much more open to freedom of self-expression than any of the European countries or the US, with barely a hint of corporate censorship or cancel culture that are rampant in the West. Second, so ham-handed and overbearingly dumb was the Western propaganda onslaught that the Russians, after processing it for some years, now openly laugh at the pro-Western narrative, and opinion research agencies report Russian support for pro-Western policies only in trace amounts. The process was helped by the sheer ludicrousness of various developments in the West: cancel culture, MeToo, LGBT, child sex change operations, promotion of pedophilia and all the rest, which produced a wave of revulsion. This 180° reversal, from overwhelmingly pro-Western opinions of the early 1990s to the current situation, are a crowning achievement of the entire three-decade-long Deep State campaign to Make Russia Great Again (MRGA).
I do not wish to argue that the existence of MRGA within the US Deep State is demonstrably, provably true. But I urge you to follow Arthur Conan Doyle's famous dictum that “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth” and let me know what you come up with. ～ The Secret American Plan to Make Russia Great Again, Dmitry Orlov for the Saker
The ninth Summit of Americas is to be held in Los Angeles in early June with the United States as the host. I think that the President of the host country addresses those in attendance. There has been a lot of ink about President Biden being humiliated by some of the Latin countries not attending. I think there is an even bigger chance that he will be humiliated by those that do attend if he gives his usual speech.
Mexican President López Obrador has increased the risk of embarrassing Biden, who will be the host of the meeting in Los Angeles, as he has already announced that his country will not participate in the summit with the absence of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. The likely boycott of the summit denotes the collapse of US hegemony over Latin America.
Guatemala President Alejandro Giammattei said he would not participate in the Americas summit after the US criticized the appointment of Guatemala Attorney General, Consuelo Porras, for another four years. This is yet another case of the US interference in the internal affairs of another country. President Giammattei said that although his country is small, his sovereignty must be respected.
Despite the uncertainties, the Brazilian government evaluates a document suggested by the United States, which emphasizes the ‘defense of democracy and free elections.’ The idea is that it will be presented as a joint statement from all countries that make up the summit of the Americas. The US has repeatedly demonstrated that they have no appreciation for Latin American democracies. This legacy is even more prominent with the governments of ‘the US Democratic Party’. ～ Gustavo Guerreiro, executive editor of the journal World Tensions
The only thing that I can say about the Uvalde, Texas school shooting is that it came at a very opportune time. The MainStream Media had gotten all that it could from Covid-19, the Russian War was not going the way they wanted , Roe vs Wade is so old news so something had to replace all the headlines. Another shooting is perfect and just in time.
In the 1950s, my grades from 4 to 12, there were a total of 18 school shootings, not all of them fatal. During those years there were guns in about 50% of the homes in the United States, guns and ammo could be bought in many places with very little restrictions. What has happened since then?
There has been a serious school shooting pandemic. The gun control (sic) advocates claim that the increase in school shootings is the availability of guns. However, today only about 37% of the homes have guns and there are far more restrictions on gun and ammo purchases. It seems that the more restrictions that are imposed the worse the problem becomes. Perhaps it is not the gun but that the people in the United States have changed?
27 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: May 27, 1934
I think I will get started on my month end routine today. The preparation of Will Rogers weekly articles for another month to be the first on my list.
A shopping day tomorrow which may be all that I get done.
No link for the quote. I have quoted the entire posting by Diogenes Sarcastica which I thought was so good that quoting only a little of it was a disservice.
Who needs to worry about monkeypox? “Everybody,” said Presidentish Joe Biden in Korea on Monday. “We're working on it, hard, to figure out what we do,” he said. But who is this “everybody” that Biden insists should be all aflutter over the pox? Maybe 120 cases, mostly restricted to a small subset of the populations of a dozen countries with more than half a billion people, and they basically have been a concentration of cases among men who have sex with men gettin’ infected.
I refuse to worry about monkeypox unless we find out that those wacky Wuhan scientists have been monkeying around with it. Washington and the Global Panicmonger Industry just won't give up trying to scare us, will they? So we're all going to die. If we don't follow orders, that is.
Being an American in 2022 is a little like being a Russian soldier on the Eastern Front — you'll do your patriotic duty, or else. At least that's what we're supposed to believe. ～ Diogenes Sarcastica™
Caitlin has some good thoughts on the school shooting problem in the United States. She is an Australian where the citizen population has been disarmed. They have reduced gun killings by doing that but at the same time the country has now become a police state.
There's probably a correlation between the fact that the US is the only nation with a mass shooting epidemic and the fact that Americans are the most aggressively propagandized population on earth.
If you took any armed population and psychologically pummelled them from birth with narratives about how mass military slaughter is fine while turning them into underpaid, alienated gear-turners and giving them an artificial culture mass-produced in Los Angeles, you'd probably see some mass shootings.
There's only so far you can warp the human psyche before it snaps. Bash hundreds of millions of people in the brain their entire lives with indoctrination programs telling them madness is sanity and sanity is madness, and eventually a few of them are going to wind up mass murderers. ～ Has America Tried Bombing Its Mass Shooting Problem?, Caitlin Johnstone
28 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
Life is what happens while you are making plans. I planned on doing nothing yesterday and going to town today. That changed when I got an email from my UPS Store wanting me to fill out a form and provide them with copies of two pieces of ID. I suggested that it could wait until October; they suggested I go to my closest UPS Store and get them to help.
I wrote back that the closest UPS Store to my current location was 160 miles round trip. There was a business locally that claimed to do copying so I said that I would go see if they could help. Went to town and after a couple false starts found the business but they were close from 27 thru 30 May. To avoid a separate trip I went on my usual grocery gathering a day early so no trip to town today. I'll try the copy business again when I go to town next week for groceries. What a pain!
Before going to town I went to the Park office and paid rent for another month and asked to be moved to a different space. The one that I have been in shows evidence that it becomes a mud hole when the rains come. My new space is even narrower than where I was before or at least it seems so. The Park Host said that one of the spaces next to me now would open up after Tuesday so it will be better then. We will see.
Nathaniel Starbuck, the northern preacher's son who fights for the Confederate South, is plunged into the most desperate battle of America's Civil War, the fight at Antietam, in this, the fourth novel in the Starbuck Chronicles.
It is late summer, 1862, and after beating off repeated northern attacks the Confederacy is at last invading the United States of America. The invasion is a gamble, pitting a small army against a huge one, and for its success Robert Lee will need every veteran soldier he can muster. Nathaniel Starbuck is one of those veterans, but instead of marching as the head of the Faulconer Legion, he has been given command of a Punishment Battalion, a unit composed of failures and cowards. Starbuck's enemies expect the appointment to be his ruin, and if he is to stand any chance of further success he must prove those enemies wrong by leading his ramshackle unit against the northern garrison at Harper's Ferry and then across the frontier to the bank of the Antietam Creek. There Starbuck will fight in what will prove to be the bloodiest day in American history.
The Starbuck Chronicles are fast becoming as well established as Bernard Cornwell's hugely successful series of novels about the Peninsular War rifleman, Richard Sharpe. Nobody can bring alive the intricacies of history with more energy or clarity than Bernard Cornwell, and his descriptions of black-powder battle are equally beyond compare. 'The Bloody Ground' will leave his army of fans well satisfied and looking forward to further adventures.
This is a good posting that the Establishment does not want anyone in the United States to read. For that reason, if for no other, it is a must read. I have added underlining where the author finessed saying that to avoid another Trump presidency they might have to kill him.
The Great Reset and its stated objectives have been in the planning for several years, those plans however are now seriously behind schedule. The election of Trump in 2016 wasn't supposed to happen. He was to Washington the ultimate “Black Swan” event. An outsider without the backing of a political party and with seemingly the entire mainstream media against him, his victory was considered all but impossible. Yet win he did, and it seemed he spent the entire four years of his presidency battling against the Globalist faction, both internationally and within America. Washington felt cheated, not only was Trump an “outsider” he was also a disrupter. Opinions on the divisive Trump aside, he was indisputably an “America First Nationalist”, he was anti-NATO, and a vocal anti-Globalist. There would be no Great Reset under Trump, he was an obstacle to the agenda and had to be removed. Which in 2020 in a blatantly fraudulent election he was. Should Trump run again in 2024 and all indications are that he will, he would likely win an honest election in a landslide. The return of Trump would provide another major obstacle to the Globalist agenda. Expect that all efforts will be expended to prevent another Trump presidency. With an angry populace and increased electoral scrutiny next time around, they may have to turn to other measures to foil a Trump return. Should Trump re-enter the White House in 2024, the notoriously vindictive Trump is expected to seek accountability against those who he believes robbed him of his rightful election. Nerves are frayed in Washington and they know the clock is ticking. ～ The Globalists’ Race Against Time, Eamon McKinney
29 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
I only thought that Cochise County got a lot of wind in March and April. Here I am in an area that gets about 50% more wind and gets it in April, May and June. I therefore have another month of blowing dirt before the rains come and turn the ground into a blog. That will not keep me from complaining about the winds in Cochise County but I do now have a better perspective.
I was going to go out and do the holding tank dumps, add water and wash Desperado's cab windows before the wind started to blow this morning. Too late. They started to pick up before I finished breakfast. Need to get that done nevertheless.
When I was searching for a free copy of Retropedia by James Michael Greer I ran across two other books with that same title. Downloaded one of them and after only a few pages gave it up. The author of this one is highly praised but I found that he wrote sentences that were run on and difficult to follow.
I have quoted the last paragraph from JHK's posting that has his thoughts roused by the Uvalde shooting.
The mayhem unleashed in a school shooting is just the rectified essence of the manifold derangements in our national life. Everything is out-of-whack, including our perception of what's going on and what it means. There is almost nothing left of childhood in this land, in the way of young, unformed creatures assisted by adults who love them into a future worth being part of. We have forgotten how to be grateful for coming into this world at all, leaving us unworthy of being here. The quality of virtue, meaning that some things and some doings are recognizably better than others, was deceitfully replaced by the equity of nothing being allowed to be better than anything else. Truth and beauty have gone outlaw. Bad faith and wickedness rule, led by a Party of Chaos. So, really, what do you expect? And what do you deserve? ～ Childhood's End, James Howard Kunstler
💬Edric: Let us not bandy philosophical nonsense. Every question can be boiled down to the one: ‘Why is there anything?’ Every religious, business and governmental question has the single derivative: ‘Who will exercise the power?’ Alliances, combines, complexes, they all chase mirages unless they go for the power. All else is nonsense, as most thinking beings come to realize. ～ Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
30 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
I got the outside chores taken care of yesterday morning plus Erik and I did the noon walk in strong winds. But that was enough; the afternoon walks were canceled. There were times in the afternoon when the dirt was blowing so bad that if I had been driving I would have pulled off the road and stopped.
I have the distiller working and will try to get the cab windows washed before the winds start blowing again although the forecast is for only light winds.
That will complete my month end chores and I' set for another month until I have to do it all again. It is a strange life I lead but someone has to do it.
This is a good book, and worth reading if you're interested in the historical context of the crusades. However, it is not as enlightening and compelling as some of Tim Severin's other books. It lacks the authenticity and authority of the seafaring books by the author. Tim Severin is a seasoned sailor, and when he recreates the sailing vessels and journeys of a historical period, there's immense realism. This is missing here.
Perhaps I would have appreciated this book more if my expectations hadn't been raised by the author's brilliant sea journey adventure books The Brendan Voyage and The Jason Voyage. ～ Customer review @ Amazon.
Is there a public school that can come close to matching this performance? “All graduating seniors at St. Augustine High School were accepted into college, and to make the milestone even more incredible, they also earned a combined $9.2 million in scholarships. According to Director of Communications and Marketing Mel Cordier, 99 grads were set to enroll in a college or university and one was preparing to join the military. [T]he school is an all-male, college preparatory school. It was founded in the early 1950s by the Josephite priests and brothers.”
I have sometimes asked myself this question.
Why do eggs come in flimsy styrofoam cartons and batteries come in a package only a chainsaw can open?
31 May 2022
Wheel Inn RV Park
Fredonia, AZ
It was much warmer this morning than what was forecast and I was overdressed. The forecast for tomorrow morning is about the same as it was for this morning. I think the weather gurus are toying with me. They didn't forecast that the winds would be the same as the day before but we got the same with only slightly weaker gusts. There is already a wind early this morning although the forecast is for moderate winds today. I have my doubts.
I guess it is too early but I see no evidence that a neighbor on either side of me is making efforts to leave today. As I said before, we will see; the Park Host might have been just humbugging.
Forty years ago, student loans were unknown and healthcare costs did not bankrupt households. Forty years ago, relatively few Americans were obese. Go back a decade further, prior to the explosion of fast-food outlets, and a small percentage of the money Americans spent on food went to eating out / away from home, i.e. fast-food and restaurants. Eating out was a treat reserved for special occasions, not a daily ritual / birthright.
In the post-Vietnam era, Americans were wary of foreign entanglements. The Presidency wasn't quite as Imperial as it is today. Congress still held some modest power over foreign entanglements. This is no longer the case. ～ Why America Decays: The Tyranny of Self-Interest, Charles Hugh Smith
The Uvale shooting has the same “smell” to it that the Las Vegas shooting had. Far more questions than answers. I strongly suspect that the politicians and Media will milk it for all they can and the story will disappear just like the one in Las Vegas.
Partial Timelines:
11:28 a.m. Ramos crashes his vehicle into a ditch. Two men from a nearby funeral home hear the crash and go toward the scene. As they arrive, they see a man with a gun exit the vehicle with a backpack, and they begin running. The gunman begins firing at them but does not strike them, [Department of Public Safety Director] McCraw said, and both men return to the funeral home.
11:31 a.m. The gunman reaches the last row of vehicles in the school's parking lot and fires shots at the school while patrol vehicles go to the funeral home, McCraw said.
11:32 a.m. The shooter fires “multiple shots” outside the school, then leaves the surveillance camera's view.
11:33 a.m. The gunman enters the school and begins shooting into Room 111 or Room 112, McCraw said, noting that it was not possible to determine which room from the angle of the video.
12:50 p.m. Shots could be heard on the 911 call, McCraw said. At the same time, officers “breached the door” using keys they were able to get from the janitor because both doors were locked. “Both of the classrooms that he shot into were locked when officers arrived,” McCraw said. “They killed the suspect at that time.”
1:06 p.m. The Uvalde Police Department reports the suspect is “in police custody.”