Moveable Feast Cafe 2019/05/18 … Open Thread

Another useful evening for this generation, going out in a cafe and having a good conversation with their friends by watching their small screens…useful communication indeed and very interesting, a lot to learn from a song contest, who may interfere ?…the one who has no wonder box in its hand ? that one is self-censored…get it ?

Frog POV
by ioan

oh no, again a happy day
another song-contest
today, on the 18th of may ?
nice play with numbers
nice play with place,
a frog in rain just wonders
where lies the human grace
then jumps in lake
and swims so deep,
with a fly on cake
sleeping till next week.

Bittersweet

when that which you want
lies out of reach,
life is bitter
but somehow sweet

when that which you have
brings no relief,
its fond embrace
is all too brief

… music break …
Nigel Kennedy – Air (Das Pendel) Jazz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gO4mYN92Cg

“For God to grant human beings free will was to grant us the awful dignity of making real choices with real consequences. If God prevents us from sinning, he is preventing us from truly free action. And if God constantly and instantly repairs our mischief, then it is likely that we would never face our sin and need for redemption…”

Why is it “awful dignity”?

It’s basic dignity. How could God love Soul and not grant It free will?
What use would Soul be to God, if It is not ripened or matured, through experience?

The consequences of Soul’s choices are simply that; the consequences of Its choices and are for Its own spiritual benefit. Earth is where Soul learns that Its choices/actions have consequences and thus, to make better choices. Soul turns to God, like the sunflower turns to the sun, when It is good and ready.
For example, Soul may be aware of It’s “sin” and “need for redemption”, but if it is It’s “sin and awareness/ need for redemption” its likely, that Soul will stumble in It’s endeavour to reach God. Why? Because, only love can take Soul back to God. Otherwise, it is fear driving It. Fear does not take one to God, rather away from IT, a reality that many religions miss. Fear does keep Soul in the fold, however. A reality that many orthodox religions know.

It’s cooking weekend at our abode.

Yesterday I cooked up a big pot full of mango and papaya chutney but instead of smashing all the fruit down to a chutney, I cooked it down a little to get it to be thick and kept most of the fruit whole, and it is tasty, spicy, beautiful and colorful with shiny bits of fruit and red pepper flakes. It is not bottled yet because I got lazy here at midday and today I will warm it a bit, add some lime zest and juice, a scoot of brown rum and bottle in sterilized bottles. This is a fresh summer chutney, equally sweet, spicy with fresh ginger and red pepper, and a little tangy, and dresses up anything from a few scrambled eggs, or mac and cheese and basically anything, even just like it is on some naan bread. Did you know it is dead easy to make naan bread?

Talking about mac and cheese – you all know your 5 french mother sauces yes? Cannot cook without knowing these off by heart – I’m always amazed at any of these because they are really cheap to make and can be dressed up in so many ways. So today a few mac and cheeses will be cooked and baked up for the freezer. A mornay sauce based on traditional béchamel with white cheddar (cannot afford Gruyère as cheese is expensive where we are but I put in a sprinkle of cayenne pepper and that lifts up the cheesy flavor).
To make this simple dish something different, some thinly sliced and chopped sweated onions mixed in with the penne pasta (not just boring macaroni) and just a few thick tomato slices arranged over the top before it goes into a hot oven to brown and settle – then, cool it down and into the freezer they go. All that is needed at eating time, is a scoot of black pepper and a quick green salad and some of that chutney. Mac and cheese – incredibly cheap food that becomes good food if you pay just a little attention.

Food is all about what your nose tells you and what your eyes tell you.

And then, because the oven will be hot anyway, I want to try something new for me. In the tropics it is hell on earth to try and make any traditional pie crust as the butter or shortening melts even before one can grate it, or cut it into a flour mixture. So, I bought some pre-prepared dough disks that they use in our country for empanadas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empanada#/media/File:Empanada_tray.jpg
So I’m going to use these for small individual apple pies. The apple filling is done but just slightly cooked as it will complete cooking in the oven, and today I’ll fill those disks with apple filling that smells of cinnamon and goodness, stick a few small holes in the top for the steam to escape, paint a little eggwash over the top for shinyness and sprinkle a little brown sugar on top for pretty and put in the oven as soon as the penne pasta and cheese comes out. If this works, then my problem with traditional pastry crust and making that in the heat of the tropics will be partially solved. I think I’m going to have to roll out those dough disks a little bit more to be thinner – they seem just a little too much dough to me. I’m after the apple, and a thinner crust is better. Let’s see how it goes. Thank the heavens that my husband is a very patient dishwasher and stands by to do little things while I cook and bake – but then again, he gets to eat.

Its time for all of us to grow and make our own food because what is available in the so-called supermarkets these days is mostly plastic food. I see that some fast food delivery service is now delivering to people in their cars while stuck in the Los Angeles traffic – there really is something wrong with this – can these people not make a bunch of muffins or something to eat in the car? We need to recover our family time in the kitchen and fresh and non-toxic food. You can grow all the basic herbs in a container in the kitchen window and have them on hand and fresh and continually replant to keep up your stock. Spices, buy just a little at a time, because they lose strength as time goes by. Spend a few pennies more on good sea salt and avoid today’s table salt. Know what you are doing with oils .. know which oils you can heat up, and which oils not. Canola is not oil – it is an abomination. Do not heat olive oil ever ever. Talking about heat, don’t heat honey ever ever. And throw away the microwave oven.

Nussiminen,

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ on a significant Empire ‘tell’, yes, that ‘tell’ too, and an ‘archeo’ mound of dirt tell, covering its millenia of lies. You wrote:

“Tonight is the great “musical” screamfest of the Euro-trash, with Zionism promoted to the hilt. Indeed, one wonders why Jerusalem wasn’t selected for this “Kulturkampf”.”

Tel Aviv was chosen over Dome City because Tel is a more clever ‘tell’; besides, David’s king city tells too much too quickly. It’s coming, rest assured or rip.

By its own rules to avoid karma, the Empire must ‘tell’ us what it is doing in coded language. The ‘trans’ movement is about ‘trans-humanism.’ Its aim is to destroy civilization as we know it, and replace it with a new civilization (new world order) of machines, with the Emperor the new ‘deus ex machina’ Messiah in Jerusalem.

obor (I can’t bear to capitalize it) is Empire’s hell tell tale project. Did you ever see a bigger machine? It poses as ‘humanitarian’ when it is ‘trans-humanitarian.’ With its tentacles spider-webbing the earth, it will strangle what is left of beautiful traditions and humane people. A money train if I ever saw one, chasing that honey pot at rainbow’s end. Thank God Russia is at the end of the line.

I know. I know. You think I’m talking trash. So when has the Empire ever told the truth? It always lies; that’s its nature and only way for it to exist, earth parasite that it is. robo-obor is just the latest scam to skim money off the top of the slave racket. But oh, how nice it looks; how wonderful its promises. Wait till you know what hits the fan; we’ll be begging for Empire to save us with robotic obor the terminator.

Eurovision is telling the truth in a sick (sic) way. This is what’s coming to the entire planet in the great totalitarian takeover. This grand plan has been on the make for centuries: Jerusalem is chosen by God (not the true One) to be the center by which we will enter heaven. Don’t the main religions agree on this point?

There are apparently a few holdouts like the US, but it’s only playing a negative role of controlled opposition to hide the fact it too supports the new world order of obor. As for Russia, well she plays her usual defensive, time is on our side waiting game, with Putin now as grand chess master. What else can he do when the money merchants insist he play knight to their queen, and assist her onto the obor train?

For better or worse, Russia is in on the game. It can’t tell the whole truth about 9/11 or obor because it needs the money of arms, oil and bis banks to survive; or so it thinks. If it thought outside the box of lies, it could survive very well with its vast land mass backed by the cold northern wall and its war hardened memories, and its ‘arma virumque cano’ songs. Sure it would have to live more simply but that would be the very beacon of freedom we need in this eurovision fake world. (Are you listening, Russia?)

If Russia can read at all, she is reading this vineyard for sure but she isn’t telling or showing her hand, Russian style. I don’t know if she reads this cafe; it might be off her radar; but I doubt it’s off the empire radar. If it is, and I have the where with all, I will tell the Count himself the truth, or as much of it I think he can bear. After all I have the Love Army at my back and the Love Bower just up front.

ioan,

I did not know of your mother’s passing until Bro just mentioned it. Somehow I missed your announcement up above. I send my love, such as it is, to her and to you. Thanks for all you’re shared, and to her for sharing you with us.

Have We Been Living In A Fairy Tale?

On Friday I made contact by text and then phone call with the film world dude that was working on the crypto-currency documentary film…whose rough unedited beginnings was posted somewhere in the Vineyard Community section…well over a year ago, if memory serves.

Like ioan he is the appointed care giver and estate arranger for not one, but both parents who are getting quite infirm…..PLUS a handicapped brother of middle age with heart problems.

The parents are of Mexican origin and until recently spent part of every year in Mexico, where they of course have extended family, modest property holdings,etc. Now they are unable to stand the travel back and forth, so my buddy has been in Mexico attending to their affairs south of the border

The Jim Willie interview by Dave of the X-22 Report (in this cafe, posted yesterday) contains reference to a Mexican Specialist ……in monetary matters in general and silver (Mexico is the # 1 producer of soliver in the world) in particular…….Hugo Salinas Price.

I went on his website and read a couple or articles, but this one, I believe, ties together relevant issues of the current global strategic situation that I have further thoughts on to commit to a comment or two…..the best:

A Fairy Tale World

A new essay Hugo Salinas Price -founder of the Mexican Civic Association for Silver, foremost advocate of returning silver coinage to use as savings and currency in Mexico- reflects on the distinction between money and payment. He concludes that the world, using largely the U.S. dollar as a means of exchange, is actually functioning without money, the dollar having become largely imaginary.

Central banks, Salinas Price writes, are becoming dimly aware of this. You may want to act on it before they do.

A Fairy Tale World

By Hugo Salinas Price

The World is exchanging goods and services by various national means of exchange. We are using those same means of exchange as a vehicle for savings. We are denominating credit contracts in any one of various national means of exchange. The predominant means of exchange is the US dollar.

However, a means of exchange voluntarily accepted as such, by those who participate in exchanging goods and services, by those who use it as a vehicle for savings and by those who denominate credit contracts in it, is not per se money.

Money must, sine qua non, function not only as a means of exchange, but also as a means of payment.
The world, as of February 2007, does not possess a means of payment. In economic terms, payment is the exchange of something for something. In today’s world, when units of what is called money are tendered in payment of a purchase, or in settlement of a balance after an exchange, or in settlement of debt, there has been in reality and economically no such payment. We are in these cases using the term “payment” merely as a legal convention and a leftover from a previous era, when payment did in fact exist and govern all economic activities.

Money, properly speaking, must be definable! The dollar cannot be defined: so said Alan Greenspan himself, the Pope of Central Bankers, in reference to the dollar, which is the reserve currency of the world and which “backs” all other currencies. When something is not definable, it has no physical existence. A thing that has no physical existence is imaginary. An imaginary thing such as money is today, is as different from real, actual money, as an imaginary loaf of bread is different from a loaf of bread in one’s hand.
A money payment must involve a tendering of tangible money, gold or silver, or of a credit instrument which is recognized as entitling the owner to the undoubted right to immediate redemption of that instrument, in gold or silver.

Humanity is unaware of the stupendously important fact that it lives in a world without money. This lack of awareness is perhaps the most singular feature of our contemporary world, upon which historians – if the world does survive this episode and produce historians at some future date – will remark with amazement: “How was it possible that billions of humans could delude themselves into acting as if what they used for payments, credit contracts and savings, was actually money?”

About 1997 I began to look for data concerning the amount of “reserves”, excluding gold, held by the world’s Central Banks. In other words, the amount of imaginary money they were holding, otherwise called “paper money”. In 1997, those “reserves” totaled $1,300,000,000,000 ($1.3 Trillion) dollars. Not all those “reserves” are dollars, but most of them are.

Back then, not many people were paying attention to that datum. Since then, it has received increasing attention, which is not surprising, for the “reserves” are piling up and showing numbers that are clearly “going ballistic”. As of January 2007, world Central Bank “reserves” were hitting $5 trillion dollars, an increase of 385% in ten years. The last increase of $1 Trillion only took five months, from August 2006 to January 2007. (“Bloomberg”)

Before 1971, Central Bank reserves were mainly gold, plus component of foreign exchange redeemable in gold. Reserves could only grow very slowly. Imbalances in trade were shunned because the settlement of deficits had to be made in gold or dollars exchangeable for gold. International trade was stable. Imports could not affect the economies of importing countries as much as they do today, with “globalization”. Therefore, local productive activities were stable. Jobs were generated through reinvestment in productive activities.

The present situation is chaotic, because the creation of reserves of fictitious, imaginary “money” originates mainly in Dollars which are spewed forth by the out-of-control US economy, plus other fictitious moneys like the Euro born in the European Union, the Yen born in Japan, the Pound born in the UK, all of which are held by other countries as “reserves”.

Since today “money” is imaginary, fictitious, imports no longer have any limit, for it actually costs nothing to “pay” when “money” is imaginary. Thus, “globalization” based on the unlimited creation of fictitious money is a totally false globalization unsupported by economic facts.

The more important Central Banks are becoming skittish about the enormous amounts of “reserves” which they are accumulating. The Central Bankers are bureaucrats, but they are sensing that these enormous holdings are rather worrisome; however they do not know what to do about them. The fact is, they have been had. Their “reserves” are simply numerical and lack any substance. They are imaginary and as useless as castles in the air, unless they can manage to get rid of them by passing them on to some unsuspecting seller of tangible goods.

China is now going around the world – especially Africa – looking for opportunities to buy raw materials (a Chinese delegation will be present at the First International Mining Forum in Mexico, the middle of March). For the same reason, the Central Banks that subscribed the Washington Agreement (to sell no more than a certain amount of gold each year) have since 2006 lost their former appetite for gold sales and they are not covering their allotted sales quotas. It appears that they have finally realized that the reserves that are actually worth something are the gold reserves, and not the “foreign currency” bond holdings which they were so eager to hold because they “provided earnings”.

However, if they start to unload their imaginary holdings, the exchange value of the holdings will begin to fall. So they are in a dilemma, a choice between two distasteful alternatives: “Shall we hold on to the imaginary money and wait and see what happens, or shall we begin to unload it and risk collapsing the value of the larger part remaining with us?”

Up till now, the Central Bankers have been doing what bureaucrats usually do when they are faced with a difficult choice: nothing. They are waiting to see what happens.

More than half of the world’s Central Bank “reserves” are held by the Central Banks of China, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia. These Central Banks ended up with these huge “reserves” because they accepted a means of exchange – which was no more than imaginary money, digits on computer discs – as if it was payment. In other words, they believed a fairy tale, like the one where Jack trades his cow for a handful of colored beans.

So, we are living in a fairy tale world, where money is not money at all. Alas, reality cannot be fooled by means of fairy tales. How we shall fare, when the dream has vanished into thin air and the last fool has had to recognize the difference between a payment and a fairy tale?”

END

I intend to recruit my Mexican-American film industry friend to the deeper dive into what is and is not “money” of any honesty or utility …………and I ended my introductory email to him this morning with the foregoing article by Hugo Salinas Price…whose work Jim Willie referenced in the video of him posted yesterday.

That video of Jim Willie being interviewed on X-22 Report contradicts certain dissociated slanders against BRI in a fresh, new way……………… for that constituency within the West which no doubt shares the fearful, unloving prejudices towards the remainder of humanity …which a great many solipsistic Muricans have a great deal of difficulty caring about in the least……just like a particularly voluminous contributor to this Cafe.

But if we, on the other hand, care in the least about such people ….and do not simply wish to see their Fairy Tale Dollar Crash and Burn……. out of schadenfreude………….. it will be necessary to pop whatever bubble of illusion they are in…which we might in some measure, admittedly, share with them…because we inhabit the same world of opinion and emotion and “popular ” beliefs …as they do.

An Ironic Black Humor Gauge of the Terminal Stage of Empire Moral Rot

INTERVIEWER: of Michael Franzese, son of Mafia Boss, after discussing Joe Kennedy and the mob, the help they gave JFK in electing him and their role in taking him out:

“As dirty as politics was back then, how does it compare to today? (2018)”

https://youtu.be/__LxwaAEaL8?t=1120

Michael F ANS: “I have never in my lifetime seen the level of corruption that is going on today….in the political arena…”

INTERVIEWER: “Come on, Michael!”

Michael F: “I kid you not. Absolutely! And at a level that I can’t believe! And at a level that I cannot even watch any more….I have never seen this level of corruption.”

Exonerate Russia!

Not guilty …nor anyone’s patsy you gutless, moronic US Representatives and Senators of BOTH parties…and the “practical people” who elect them:

Bill Binney was asked what Donald Trump should ask the NSA, regarding Russia and the 2016 US election:

“….one question President Trump could ask the NSA, to show him that the DNC files were, or were not hacked from Russia. “I would ask them for the trace routes of the packets from the DNC to Russia,” Binney said, explaining that the NSA traces packets of data from “every device in the world” traversing the Internet. “I would ask them, very simply, `Where are the trace route packets, showing the packets going to the Russians?’ And then again, where are the trace route programs showing the packets going from the Russians to WikiLeaks?”

Binney stated that the NSA never, through the entire “Russiagate” furor, expressed more than “moderate confidence” in the Russian hack story. “That tells me that they have nothing” and were just accepting CIA and FBI assessments, he concluded.

Veteran CIA and State Department counter-terror analyst Larry Johnson said of the President, “The first thing he needs to do is identify all of the [Trump/Russiagate] intelligence that was collected and disseminated within the U.S. government, within classified channels — most of it was probably top secret, some of it was likely special access program — and identify who originated that intelligence? … Did it originate with the British? Or did it originate with an NSA collection directive; or did it come from a CIA directive? And then identify the individuals that were involved with working on those reports, putting them out, and who their chain of command and supervisors were? He needs to demand that the FBI identify all human assets and informants, that were working on political campaigns — not just against Trump, but against other campaigns. And to ask for the declassification of all what are called the FD 1023 reports: the reports where the FBI meets with the confidential human source and writes up what they talked about and what directions they were given for future action.”

The issue of what Bill Binney would tell President Trump is not theoretical: The President ordered then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo to meet with Binney “to get the facts” on precisely this question. That meeting occurred in October 2017, and Pompeo failed to follow through in any way, even after asking Binney if he were prepared to meet with FBI and NSA officials. Pompeo essentially buried this crucial matter , and neither Binney nor Johnson has ever been called to testify in any of the endless Congressional hearings on “Russiagate.”

Senators from the Intelligence, Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees have been asked in writing to call Binney, immediately, for this crucial testimony; they have not responded thus far. That situation has to be changed by citizens who want to save, not only the Presidency, but the nation from wars and ruinous great-power confrontations driven by false intelligence.

Pompeo and Bolton know nothing else and consider the Presidency and the nation as expendable in order to guard the Empire-designed foundation of their careers and identities………. that owns their shrunken cojones and “Little Emperor” minds.

A president and an electorate that is soft on that duplicity and cowardice have no right to expect survival… ….much less “greatness”.

Time for some hardening.

https://larouchepac.com/20190520/expose-big-lie-russiagate-nsa-and-cia-experts-will-show-congress-all-secret-intelligence

Photo

The gentleman mixing drinks
Has pretty much seen all this
Many times before and winks.

He’s a waiter with style
So take the pink vodka
And don’t forget to smile.

Sit down try to be kind
We’re on the same road
Only with a different mind.

Ras

Paul,

Thanks for your questions regarding the connection between obor/bri and 9/11; Dimitri Khalezov; atomic bomb tests; sea radiation; ‘Irish flutters,’ etc. I want to give them some thought and reply at the next cafe.

Dimitar,

I appreciate your fine addition to my poem. Its delicacy touches where I’ve not been touched before:

an inner dance
the softest glance,
to guide the arrow
to its flame

Talk about touching and being touched, the passing of ioan’s mother touched off tender and sad feelings, such as this cafe often does, but seldom with such intensity. It’s like ioan’s mother was an honored member of the cafe and her transition left a hole here. The eulogies summed it up with a reverence due to all mothers. The sufferings preceding the resurrection shared were poignant and piercing — a genuine heart-rending commentary on life.

I was about 26 when my father died of stomach cancer; at the last, I doubt he could see or hear but before leaving he squeezed my mother’s hand. Four years later, I was alone with my mother who was dying from lung cancer, smoking and drinking. At the end, her eyes opened wide as if seeing something and her heart gave one last strong contraction which bulged the artery in her neck. Then the quiet silence of death.

That evening in the apartment I was in, a candle flame shuddered violently, the radiators groaned strangely and the room temperature dropped suddenly. I’ve wondered about that since. My mother was far from perfect but she had life and gave me life. She had the gift of gab and was the life of the party. One of her favorite sayings was: ‘Nothing like fun.’ Her life and death was anything but fun in many ways.

My dad was silent and comforting; I took after his first quality for most of my life but ‘my mother in me’ seems determined to have her say now. She was just too much for me to handle; french kissed me once in an alcoholic stupor and personality breakdown, when I was a teen taller than she. Her second favorite saying was “Wait til your dad gets home.” We got the belt over our bare butts regularly, but gentle as he was, dad did it softly as he could. She was a great cook, American style, and gracious hostess; and many other admirable traits. Thanks, Mom.

I was a priest when I officiated at their funerals. Some priest I was at the time, making out with one of the parishioners; if God only knew what I did with my life, but I surmise that Mother Mary at the back gate, letting sinners in that Peter up front turned back, got me one good guardian angel; I somehow survived intact for nearly eighty years so far which proves beyond any reasonable doubt that God is Love.

amarynth,

I appreciate your taking the time to share your cooking habits. I am a firm believer in the saying: ‘we are what we eat,’ to which maxim I add: ‘and we eat what we think.’ Your husband is a lucky man. I was lucky myself when married to a macrobiotic herbalist and acupuncturist. My mother, the monastery and my ex did the cooking and spoiled me. Now I eat the basically same thing every meal, which I cook in large amounts once or twice a week and fridge them. I am inclined to ask why avocado oil should not be heated but I won’t since you are busy. Thanks. New Flash. I see you’ve already answered that for others.

D.Affke,

Your comment on Bro and myself leaves me shaking. It may not be related to what you said but maybe it is. Paul calls it ‘Irish flutters.’ I worry about Bro; I feel sorry for him; I’ve entertained thoughts similar to yours, although softer and less blunt but I would not express them unless Bro was open to it. Bro has been around a long time and I do really like him.

Oh, if we three could sit around a cafe table and knock off a couple, but I fear it’s not to be anytime soon. He’s probably under a lot of stress; working, raising a family and studying and writing so much about so many things. In the early days, he shared some really personal things that happened to him in his early upbringing. Then, as I recall, there have been recent deaths in his family, with scattering ashes in the sea. I wish I had more of the ‘worldly’ experiences he has had; I spent my formative years in Catholic school and later in the priesthood and monastery. I sowed oats later but those early formations never die.

Bro used to quote ‘carpe, diem’ from the ‘dead poet’s society’ movie with Robin Williams. So many memories we had from those early cafe days. I used to receive a lot of support from Bro in earlier times, as well as from others. He still supports me but in a backhand kind of way. Even for my age, I was so immature; this vineyard has contributed much to my remedial education, for which I have not always returned the favor. Nearly got the boot two or three times. ‘I was older then; I’m younger than that now.’ Whatever burr Bro has under his saddle or his shirt, I hope he gets it off his chest or horse. I think he can take it but still, I’d cut him some slack.

Now, mind me, I don’t mean to throw water on your feelings in any way. I love it when folks say what they think and feel, as long as it doesn’t get out of hand so the mods have to step in. They have enough to do without intervening in squabbles.

Damn; this is awful talking; but double damn, we’ve got to get real if we’re going to stop Empire. Sure, there is diplomacy but that ain’t going to cut it in these days of raw power. Truth will bring the Empire down, which is why I push the uncomfortable truths of 9/ll, obor, crypto, usury, mass shootings, fake nuclear weapons, Trumpism, ‘isms’ in general and much more that are just too raw for the tender minded here. All in good time.

It doesn’t feel right to be talking behind Bro’s back but he likely skips over such talkings, if he even sees them. Maybe it’s my age, but I’d welcome anything people say about me, no matter how harsh or hurtful, behind my back or to my face; as long as it doesn’t get physical. My marriage was good training in that distinction; although my ex crossed that line a few times, and it showed on my body. The good times far exceeded the bad times; and we have one son who proves it.

Bro is correct about my deficiencies. I trust he has the good manners not to use the ‘ad hominem’ hammer on those who know him less well than I do. I’ve told the moderators to let pass anything they can that is said about me. With Bro and I it’s just a matter of brothers being such as they sometimes are. I don’t hold grudges as a rule; if I do, I eventually get over the hurt feelings; but then like I said, I’ve had it relatively easy compared to others’ ‘hard times.’

I’m getting to an age where a lot of stuff gets dropped off before the ‘last stop’ train picks me soul up. I once had hallucinations in the hospital from drugs. I heard the extremely loud sounds of a passing train, whistles, grinding steel and ground rumblings while I was awake. It happened three times at night when I woke up to pee. I could see the clock and room plain as day; but there were no train tracks within fifteen miles. I figured the ‘Midnight Special’ did not stop for me because I wasn’t ready; supposed to be fully alive before the Grim One takes yer soul and leaves yer body behind.

The truth hurts good. Deep personal feelings lie beneath all our intellectual discussions. I think it’s a tribute to the Saker, mods and cafe participants that we do open up to personal feelings to some extent publicly, scary and threatening as that is. Since the cafe is not designed for personal therapy, the cafe can only go so far or it will be drowned with maudlin ramblings which will ‘troll’ it away from the mission of stopping Empire.

That being said, I believe the ‘personal is the political,’ although there are distinctions. The Empire takes it personal and makes in personal in your face, upside your head and sometimes with your life. You bring it down to the personal where the truth ultimately lies; and I respect that. You seem to be a no holds barred truth teller, and I doubly respect that since I take a more round-about way; even to the point which others might consider hypocrisy or a ‘politician.’

Public discourse, cafe or otherwise, can only succeed if a proper balance is maintained between the mental and emotional; I feel that the mental and rational must control the emotions without squelching them in this regard. I suppose we all have mental and emotional issues, so ‘cooler heads’ (moderators) must prevail. I could never be a moderator myself since I’m so often in a muddle, if not a mess.

Thanks for bringing my attention to Michel de Montaigne and his essays. I wiki’d him and he sounds like me at a much higher level. I look forward to reading him.

I just took a break and sure enough, gutenberg has all Montaigne’s essays with great introductions. Wiki says he may have influenced the later Shakespeare. I wish I knew French so I could read the original, like I do Shakespeare. I read the first paragraphs of Michel’s ‘letters,’ and you’re right, he is upfront and personal. I love that old style of writing; used to read John Henry Newman for that reason. These old classical folks knew something we have lost; although we have something they never did, like the internet, by which we speak with them, as with each other. Coincidentally, the first essay concerns the death of his brother. I’m already sounding like Michel.

I’ll close this comment turned essay with a song I heard over the radio all the time while living in Ireland: ‘Hard Times Come Again No More’ by ‘Famine Irish’ Stephen Forster of Irish descent; in three versions. Not far away from where we lived on the Shannon were memorials to whole families who starved in their cottages; the Irish have good cause. I think of the 60 million Russians killed and all those emaciated dead bodies; and that’s just the tip of history’s heap. I also think of the Joy to come.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZsO348BOW0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SevgjjSovfc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ae5LP3qBGo

One more note re: that John Manley interview, in which he’s introduced as former finance minister. Here’s a corresponding BNN interview with current finance minister, Bill Morneau

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/the-work-that-we-needed-to-get-done-has-been-done-morneau-on-tariffs-and-nafta-s-future-1.1260805

Manley’s interview, in which he stressed that America First was here to say, no matter whether Trump is reelected, was preceded by an ad for Amazon. This BNN interview included ads for Genesis luxury cars, Energizer lithium batteries and Toyota red tag days. Hmm.