Our Ruling Elites Have No Idea How Much We Want to See Them All in Prison Jumpsuits

Ruling ElitesCharles Hugh Smith – Let’s posit that America will confront a Great Crisis in the next decade. This is the presumption of The Fourth Turning, a 4-generational cycle of 80 years that correlates rather neatly with the Great Crises of the past: 1781 (Revolutionary War, constitutional crisis); 1861 (Civil War) and 1941 (World War II, global war).

What will be the next Great Crisis? Some anticipate another great-power war, others foresee another civil war, still others reckon a military coup is likely, and some view a collapse of the economy and U.S. dollar as inevitable. Continue reading

What Geniuses Come To Believe

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Paul Rosenberg – It recently struck me that the people we think of as “geniuses” tend to arrive, over time, at surprisingly similar sets of conclusions.

It further struck me that a simple list of such thoughts might be of value to my readers.

So, here is a list pulled from my quotes file and presented without commentary. Enjoy:

Albert Einstein

  • Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
  • Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.
  • Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it.
  • The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.
  • Small is the number of them that see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

Rod Serling

  • The ultimate obscenity is not caring, not doing something about what you feel, not feeling.

Arthur Schopenhauer

  • We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.

Thomas Jefferson

  • I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
  • It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
  • I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

Continue reading

Charles Hugh Smith ~ The Falcon Can No Longer Hear the Falconer

CharlesHughSmithCharles Hugh Smith – In so many ways, the falcon can no longer hear the falconer. The phrase is drawn from William Butler Yeats’ poem, The Second Coming:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

The falcon can no longer hear the falconer describes our disintegrating era well.

The politicos can no longer hear the people they supposedly serve.

Concentrated wealth no longer heeds any falconer; it is free to exploit its power in the market and the halls of government.

Unconstrained by an inner falconer of integrity, many seek to game the system to maximize their private gain by any means available. Continue reading

NCAA College Sports Oligopoly

“. . . NCAA dictates terms to its hundreds of member schools and tens of thousands of college athletes, leaving players with little or no say about financial compensation questions or how to improve their own safety. That college football generates hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue only bolstered the argument for a union, he said. “How can they call this amateur athletics when our jerseys are sold in stores and the money we generate turns coaches and commissioners into multi-millionaires?” Colter asked.” – J Hall

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The obsession over sports, long analyzed as half-crazed, defies logical explanation. Even so, it is undeniable that organized athletics is big business. This standard certainly applies to professional leagues, but often it is overlooked just how much money is involved in “so called” amateur games at the college level. A Brief History of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Role in Regulating Intercollegiate Athletics serves as a useful primer. Regulation of intercollegiate athletics may seem a desirable and necessary function to maintain the integrity of sport. In spite of this noble objective, the supervision of the NCAA over college athletics usually comes down to the excessive administration of football and basketball.

Yes, men’s games have a distinct advantage over the rest of the field. There is a simple reason, MONEY. The headline, NCAA approaching $1 billion per year amid challenges by players, screams louder than any fan packed stadium. “The NCAA made $912.8 million last year, 84 percent of which came from one, three-week event: The Division I men’s basketball tournament.”

Not to be outdone, Forbes reviews The Economics of College Football: A Look At The Top-25 Teams’ Revenues And Expenses. An important and salient point indicates that not all teams are equal. “Those teams who either have their own network or whose conferences have their own network have extra streams of revenue that boost their numbers.” Continue reading