So, we rise from the rubble...
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Thursday, December 18, 2025
"Moscow Walking Tour"
Full screen recommended.
"Moscow Walking Tour", 12/18/25
o
Full screen recommended.
Travelling With Russell, 12/18/25
"Russian Typical Brand New Apartment:
Could You Live There?"
"What is it like to live in a brand-new Russian Typical Apartment? Join me on a tour of a brand-new apartment in Moscow, Russia. The apartment is fully furnished and ready for rent. Could you live in this brand new apartment?"
Comments here:
"Doug Casey on 2025’s Defining Events and What Comes Next"
"Doug Casey on 2025’s Defining Events and What Comes Next"
by International Man
"International Man: As we step back and look at 2025 - politically, economically, technologically, and culturally - which developments mattered the most?
Doug Casey: Politically, and in every other way, it’s all about Trump. As Shakespeare said of Julius Caesar, “he doth bestride the narrow world. Like a Colossus, and we petty men. Walk under his huge legs and peep about. To find ourselves dishonorable graves.”
Trump has his finger in everything, in all countries, all spheres of enterprise, everywhere. He’s a political phenomenon with authoritarian tendencies. Which is a natural consequence of an unstable “democracy.” In fact, Caesar rose to power because of the late Roman Republic’s chronic political instability - much of which he caused. Trump could be America’s answer to Caesar.
I made that observation to a friend who, like me, is prone to classical references. He countered that perhaps Trump sees himself as a Cincinnatus lookalike. Cincinnatus, you’ll recall, was a patrician citizen appointed dictator in about 458 BC to deal with a military emergency. He quickly did so. Instead of serving out the rest of his six-month term, he handed back his power and returned to his farm.
Trump sees that the US is on the cusp of a cultural crisis, and wants to avert it. He’s certainly a cultural conservative who wants to return the country to the halcyon days of yesteryear, the way it was in “Leave it to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best.” But he’s also a narcissist and a megalomaniac, trying to reorder the world by signing hundreds of Executive Orders, creating chaos with his tariffs, subsidies, threats, attacks, and arbitrary blustering. At heart, Trump is a Caesar, not a Cincinnatus,
Economically, the U.S. is imitating Argentina. His actions are pretty much those of Perón, who was responsible for the destruction of the Argentine economy: tariffs to protect domestic industries, lots of arbitrary regulations, and government “partnerships” with corporations. Both Peron and Trump are reminiscent of Mussolini. It’s a slippery slope.
He’s surrounded himself with sycophants and lickspittles. His tariffs have an excellent chance of upending both the domestic and world economies. He claims that he will replace the income tax with tariffs, which sounds great. It’s true that tariffs paid for over 75% of government expenditures up to 1916. But that was when Federal spending was tiny, about 1.5% of GDP. Today, the only way to reduce taxes is to reduce spending - but Trump loves spending. DOGE is long forgotten. I predict he’ll outdo FDR by every measure in spending.
He claims to have ended eight wars around the world: Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, the DRC and Rwanda, Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Israel and Gaza. In each and every case, there’s been zero change in the fundamentals. Any ceasefires were the result of threats and bribery. By intervening, the US is likely to involve itself militarily in these places. Not to mention that he’s at the point of starting a war with Venezuela. Trump loves hyperbole, prevarication, and half-truths. His word is approaching zero value, both inside and outside the US.
There’s so much more. Will ICE ever be disbanded? Will it deport 30 million illegal aliens? Will tourism from advanced countries, worth about $250 billion a year, collapse with Trump’s new demands for vast amounts of personal data? Even though Zelensky can be shown to have personally looted several billion dollars, will he be reinstated as Ukraine’s president? What will the consequences be of Trump’s promiscuously granting pardons to friendly billionaires? Will he get away with the billion-dollar rug pull on his and Melania’s worthless cryptocoins?
We’re in a state of political chaos. Financially, the destruction of the currency can only accelerate when Trump gets his new Fed chairman.
Technologically, we’re in an AI bubble. I don’t doubt that AI will enable huge scientific advances, but I wonder if the hundreds of billions going into AI will ever show an economic return. If not, the losses could result in real upset. The amounts are so large that—apart from the deleterious ways it can be used - they might cause a real drop in the general standard of living. Or at least catalyze a stock market collapse. The old saying “high-tech, big wreck” will likely once again prove true, even if AI changes the world for the better - which is not a certainty.
On the bright side, SpaceX can build giant rockets with large payloads and reuse them multiple times, cutting costs by a factor of 10 or 100. Bezos’ Blue Origin is doing the same. As are the Chinese. Technologically, 2025 was a great year, and in the long run, technology is what drives civilization. Loads of civilizations, governments, religions, and ideologies have risen and fallen in the 12,000 years since the end of the last Ice Age. The one thing that’s progressed on an accelerating curve, bringing mankind out of the mud, is technology.
There’s cause for long-term optimism, even if some bad things happen. However, technology needs more capital than ever. And if the economic, financial, political, and cultural problems -including Wokism and the resurgence of Islam - make it impossible to accumulate adequate capital, even the great flywheel of technology could slow down.
The biggest problem is cultural Wokeism. Maybe the election of Trump signals peak Wokeism; many sensible people are reacting against it. But its underlying causes in the educational system, and the hive mind of Boobus americanus, are still there. The optimist in me says that 2025 probably signals a turning point.
International Man: 2025 seemed to accelerate the delegitimization of major institutions - the media, academia, government, and even central banks. Has the loss of trust reached the point of no return? What does that imply for the stability of the US and other countries going forward?
Doug Casey: Not so long ago, the electronic media meant CBS, NBC, and ABC. I’m not saying they were particularly truthful, but newsmen like Huntley and Brinkley, Edward R Murrow, and Walter Cronkite were thoughtful and independent. Their spoken words had more credibility than the writing in manipulative newspaper behemoths like those of Pulitzer and Hearst. Print publishers were replaced by electronic networks. Now, blow-dried lookalike corporate newscasters have lost credibility. They’ve been replaced by independent media, podcasts, and blogs. It’s true that the old institutions have been delegitimized. It’s much as Buckminster Fuller said: “You don’t change things by destroying the old order; you change the old order by making it irrelevant.”
The same thing is happening with academia. It’s become obvious to almost everybody that college is a negative value. Parents are aware that, starting in grade school, their kids are subjected to standardized indoctrination. Schools have become corrupt babysitters that enrich administrators while impoverishing their customers.
Let me draw your attention to a current series called "The Chair "about a totally woke mid-level Ivy League university on the edge of chaos. I mention it because I had trouble figuring out whether it was a spoof of the educational system or a semi-documentary description of it.
As for government, I suppose people are genetically programmed to want leaders. Just in my lifetime, governments have become vastly more powerful and coercive. On the other hand, the concepts of libertarianism and anarcho-capitalism have gone from things that nobody had even heard of to being widely discussed. And people are even starting to understand how central banks create fiat money, and that an increase in the money supply is what causes inflation. Even that meme is getting traction.
So there’s some cause for optimism regarding the delegitimization of corrupt old institutions. But if trust collapses too far, and everywhere, that implies bad things for the stability of society.
The U.S. used to be a high-trust culture with shared values and long-term time preferences. But now, with the mass immigration of vastly different cultures with conflicting values and very short-term time preferences, that’s changing - and not for the better. The new migrants sense that traditional American institutions in the U.S. are washing away, and they’re taking advantage of it.
International Man: Economically, 2025 was a paradox: financial markets hit new highs while the average household struggled under rising debt and falling real wages. What does this divergence tell you about the underlying state of the economy - and where does it lead from here?
Doug Casey: The health and direction of the stock market and the economy are two different things. The massive money creation that’s gone on in the U.S. for decades, but especially over the last 10 years, has found its way into the stock market as a place to hide, out of self-preservation. I think both the stock market and the economy are riding for a fall.
International Man: It seems to many that the US is approaching a period of major political, social, and institutional upheaval. Do you think the country is at the beginning of a broader historical shift?
Doug Casey: Strauss and Howe’s book, "The Fourth Turning," predicted a major upset would occur about now. But they didn’t predict who would win. I agree. My only prediction is that the US will be a different place in 10 years. Whether it will be “better” or “worse” is an open question."
Bill Bonner, "A Whole New World"
"A Whole New World"
by Bill Bonner
Baltimore, Maryland - "The idea of America was a genuine novus ordo seclorum for a New World. It was a new program...an idea so revolutionary that few people understood it and even fewer were willing to give it a chance. But it is really simplicity itself. Either people rule themselves...or someone else rules over them. Ruling themselves meant controlling their own money...real money, that is...money that told them what things were really worth...and that they could use to pursue happiness in their own way.
Generations of leaders, however, from Tippecanoe to WWII and beyond, had different ideas. The founding fathers warned against it, but today...after more than 100 years of bi-partisan grifting and grasping...the feds and their POTUS throw their weight around pretty much as they please. And in this regard, Donald Trump, is the summa of sumos. He tosses more poundage around than any president in US history.
It is he who gives out ‘stimmie’ or ‘dividend’ checks...or new ‘Trump accounts,’ that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says will “make young people wealthy.” He pressures the Fed to lower interest rates. He, of his own free will and on his own say-so, upends the whole world trading system so as to determine how you spend your money...on what...and at what price.
With no emergency to justify it, he put armed soldiers on streets...and sent out masked men to pluck up people and take them away. And he doesn’t stop at US borders. He presumes to tell the whole world what to do. He threatens tariffs on India for buying Russian oil. He threatens Brazil with tariffs and sanctions on its prosecutor, for going after his pal, Bolsonaro. He threatens tariffs on Canada for quoting Ronald Reagan. And he bombs the hell out of people he doesn’t know, in places he’s never been, for reasons he won’t take the time to understand. From Altitude Post comes this headline: "US Doubles Somalia Airstrikes in 2025, Marks 100th Strike of Year."
Nowhere in the US Constitution does it contemplate such executive power. The president is supposed to ‘faithfully execute’ the laws of the land, not make them up as he goes along. And the poor downtrodden citizen...he can no longer be said to rule himself. He is told what to do by thousands of officials...petty and grand. In that sense, Mr. Trump has done us a favor; no one should have any further delusions about it; America is not so different from other nations. Sometimes a shining ‘city on a hill.’ Sometimes, a sh*thole.
A small example: We bought a piece of property near our farm. The old house on it has been falling down for the last 35 years. Shortly after the purchase the county government told us that the abandoned house was a ‘hazard’’ and we had to tear it down within 20 days. “Ok...we’ll tear it down,” said we. “But wait,” said the nice person representing the local government. “You will need a permit. And I’m afraid we’re a little short-staffed...and what with the holidays...it will take some time. And we’ll have to send out inspectors to check for asbestos and to see if you need to put up a silt fence.” “How long will that take?” “Three to six months.” “I thought this was a safety hazard.” “Well, it is, but we need to be sure you take it down safely.” “Oh...”
Yes, dear reader...the days of ruling ourselves is long gone. Today, we are abused by a jolly duncery of crooks, clowns and incompetents. And the whole experiment - government of the people, by the people, and for the people - was only undertaken at all because of a flukey stroke of luck. The French and British were fighting all over the world. The Marquis de Lafayette harassed British troops in Yorktown, Virginia. Then, the Comte de Grasse brought the French fleet up from West Indies and bottled Cornwallis up, cutting him off from supplies. A French column led by the Vicomte de Deux-Ponts rushed the British positions. And then the siege bombardment, using French guns and gunners, began. Cornwallis soon realized his predicament and asked for peace. The resulting settlement was not the Treaty of New York...or the Peace of Poughkeepsie. It was the Treaty of Paris, in which the two main parties were the French and the British, not the Americans.
Only a third of the American colonists supported the Revolution. Another third actively opposed it. The smartest ones, perhaps, stayed out of it. They must have known it was a lost cause from the get-go. And today, we see how naïve the founding idea was. There is little observable difference between the lives and liberties of Americans and those of the French, Germans or English, for that matter. All line up for government handouts...recycle their trash...pay their taxes...and stagger ahead – with the feds on their backs - as best they can. More to come..."
Adventures With Danno, "Kroger Shopping, Week Before Christmas"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 12/18/25
"Kroger Shopping, Week Before Christmas"
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Wednesday, December 17, 2025
"A War With Venezuela Would Be A War That Is All About Oil, And It Would Absolutely Destroy Our Relationship With China"
"A War With Venezuela Would Be A War That Is All About Oil,
And It Would Absolutely Destroy Our Relationship With China"
by Michael Snyder
"Guess which nation has the most proven oil reserves? It isn’t Saudi Arabia, although the Saudis rank a close second. It isn’t Iran or Iraq either. In fact, the country with the largest proven oil reserves isn’t even in the Middle East. Canada has a lot of oil, and so does Russia, but neither one of them tops the list. At a whopping 303 billion barrels, the nation that currently possesses the most proven oil reserves is actually Venezuela…Venezuela holds the largest proven crude oil reserves globally, estimated at approximately 303 billion barrels as of 2024. These reserves are predominantly located in the Orinoco Belt, containing extra-heavy crude oil that requires advanced extraction techniques.
Oil is what makes Venezuela important. We are being told that we must go to war with Venezuela to stop the flow of illegal drugs, but the truth is that the amount of drugs coming into this country from Mexico absolutely dwarfs the amount of drugs coming into this country from Venezuela. So if stopping the flow of drugs is the priority, why aren’t we going to war with Mexico?
We are also being told that Nicolas Maduro is a tyrant and that the elections in Venezuela are rigged. Of course these days elections are rigged in lots of countries, and there are far worse tyrants than Maduro out there. Kim Jong Un is one name that immediately comes to mind. He is so tyrannical that he makes Nicolas Maduro look like Mother Theresa. So why aren’t we going to war with North Korea?
If we are going to go to war, there needs to be a really good reason. On Tuesday, President Trump told the world that the U.S. will be stopping all sanctioned oil tankers from traveling to or from Venezuela…
"Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America. It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us. The illegitimate Maduro Regime is using Oil from these stolen Oil Fields to finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping. For the theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela. The Illegal Aliens and Criminals that the Maduro Regime has sent into the United States during the weak and inept Biden Administration, are being returned to Venezuela at a rapid pace. America will not allow Criminals, Terrorists, or other Countries, to rob, threaten, or harm our Nation and, likewise, will not allow a Hostile Regime to take our Oil, Land, or any other Assets, all of which must be returned to the United States, IMMEDIATELY. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
Did you notice that President Trump repeatedly focused on the subject of oil throughout that Truth Social post? Imposing a blockade is a very serious step, and a Justice Department memo from 1961 makes this very clear…"A Justice Department memo from 1961, when tensions were running high between the US and Cuba, said the president could institute a blockade of Cuba, but noted “a blockade is a belligerent act which, as a matter of international law, is ordinarily justified only if a state of war, legal or de facto, exists.”
Throughout human history, a naval blockade has always been considered to be an act of war. Needless to say, the Venezuelans are absolutely furious…The statement from Venezuela’s government decried the move, saying Trump “seeks to impose, in an absolutely irrational manner, a so-called naval military blockade on Venezuela with the aim of stealing the riches that belong to our Homeland.” The government reaffirmed Venezuela’s sovereignty and said its ambassador to the United Nations “will immediately proceed to denounce this grave violation of International Law.”
It is not going to be a small job to enforce this blockade. According to CNBC, there are currently 34 sanctioned oil tankers in the Caribbean…"At least 34 U.S.-sanctioned oil tankers with a history of carrying Venezuelan oil are currently at sea in the Caribbean, according to a new analysis obtained by CNBC on Wednesday. And at least 12 of those tankers appear to be filled with crude oil from Venezuela, according to vessel location data from Kpler, a global trade intelligence company."
Are we just going to start grabbing all of them? The oil that the tanker that the U.S. seized last week was carrying was reportedly worth somewhere between 60 million and 100 million dollars… The “Skipper” was loaded with an estimated 1.8 million barrels of oil earlier in December before transferring an estimated 200,000 barrels just before its seizure, Reuters reported. The oil on the tanker is likely worth $60 million to more than $100 million, based on current average oil prices. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for any additional comment on the estimated price tag of the oil but did not immediately receive a reply.
When we seize oil that has been produced by Venezuela, we aren’t just hurting Venezuela. This is such a critical point. In 2025, China has been purchasing approximately 76 percent of all the oil that is being exported by the Venezuelans…Venezuela has produced around 900,000 barrels of crude oil and condensate so far in 2025, accounting for roughly 1% of the total global supply. Kpler data indicates China buys about 76% of Venezuela’s output. The Chinese need this oil. Do you think that they are just going to sit there and let us steal vast amounts of oil that the Chinese economy depends on?
Following the announcement of the blockade, the Chinese accused the U.S. of “bullying” Venezuela…"China has accused the US of “bullying” Venezuela, after Donald Trump ordered a “total and complete” blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. In a phone call on Wednesday, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi told his Venezuelan counterpart, Yvan Gil, that Beijing supported Caracas in defending its sovereignty."
If we keep going down this road, we are going to destroy our relationship with China. Just imagine how we would feel if some other country started grabbing oil tankers that were bringing desperately needed oil to the United States. There is not a president in history that would have hesitated to order military action. But we just expect China to sit there and take it.
If we push the Chinese too far, it could have very serious consequences. It is easy to imagine a scenario in which the Chinese decide that it is an opportune moment to invade Taiwan while U.S. forces are tied up with a regime change war in Venezuela. And why in the world would anyone think that another regime change war is in our national interest? Didn’t we learn anything from our misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq?
2025 has certainly been a year of war, but a war in Venezuela would have the potential to take things to an entirely new level in 2026. Let’s hope that cooler heads prevail. Let’s hope that President Trump pulls us back from the brink before it is too late. But from where I am sitting, it appears that the decisions have already been made."
Musical Interlude: Mario Frangoulis and Justin Hayward, "Nights in White Satin"
Full screen recommended.
Mario Frangoulis and Justin Hayward,
"Nights in White Satin"
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Why isn't this ant a big sphere? Planetary nebula Mz3 is being cast off by a star similar to our Sun that is, surely, round. Why then would the gas that is streaming away create an ant-shaped nebula that is distinctly not round?
Clues might include the high 1000-kilometer per second speed of the expelled gas, the light-year long length of the structure, and the magnetism of the star visible above at the nebula's center. One possible answer is that Mz3 is hiding a second, dimmer star that orbits close in to the bright star. A competing hypothesis holds that the central star's own spin and magnetic field are channeling the gas. Since the central star appears to be so similar to our own Sun, astronomers hope that increased understanding of the history of this giant space ant can provide useful insight into the likely future of our own Sun and Earth.”
"It Was Ironic..."
"It was the essence of life to disbelieve in death for one's self, to act as if life would continue forever. And life had to act also as if little issues were big ones. To take a realistic attitude toward life and death meant that one lapsed into unreality. Into insanity. It was ironic that the only way to keep one's sanity was to ignore that one was in an insane world or to act as if the world were sane."
- Philip José Farmer
Gerald Celente, "America: Living Under The Rules Of Fools"
Gerald Celente, 12/17/25
"America: Living Under The Rules Of Fools"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."
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"Why Is Everyone Still Spending Money If They Don’t Have Any?"
Full screen recommended.
Michael Bordenaro, 12/17/25
"Why Is Everyone Still Spending
Money If They Don’t Have Any?"
Comments here:
"People Are Going Broke For Buying A Car In 2025"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 12/17/25
"People Are Going Broke For Buying A Car In 2025"
People are going broke just trying to buy a car in 2025 and nobody is talking about how bad it's gotten. Car loans are completely out of control, interest rates are destroying people financially, and dealerships are taking advantage of young buyers who just need reliable transportation to get to work. This isn't about luxury cars or people living beyond their means. This is about everyday people making what they thought was a responsible decision and ending up buried in debt for years.
In this video we look at real stories from people who are underwater on their car loans, stuck paying off vehicles that don't even work anymore, and learning the hard way that buying new was the worst financial decision they ever made. We're talking about someone with $60,000 in car debt and $30,000 in negative equity because a dealership scammed them. We're talking about 22 year olds getting handed 13.9% APR loans like that's normal. We're talking about people still making payments on cars that are sitting dead in their driveways.
The car buying system in America is broken and it's keeping an entire generation from building wealth. One in four car owners in this country owe more than their vehicle is worth. The average negative equity is $7,000. That's not a small mistake. That's a financial hole that takes years to climb out of. And the worst part is that most people don't even realize how bad their situation is until it's too late.
We also break down why car debt is considered the worst kind of debt you can have. You're borrowing money and paying interest on something that loses value every single day. The average car payment in America is over $700 a month. If that money went into investments instead, you'd retire with millions. But instead it's going toward something that will be worth half as much in a few years. The math doesn't work and it was never designed to work in your favor.
If you're thinking about financing a car or you're already stuck in a bad loan, this video might change how you see everything. We go through what to watch out for at dealerships, why buying new almost never makes sense, and what people wish they had done differently before signing those papers. This isn't about shaming anyone for their decisions. It's about making sure you have the information to avoid the same traps that have wrecked so many people financially.
Drop a comment below and let me know if you've ever been in a situation like this. Have you been underwater on a car loan? Did a dealership ever pressure you into something you couldn't afford? Or maybe you have advice for people trying to avoid these mistakes. I read all the comments and I want to hear your stories.
Subscribe if you want more videos breaking down why everyday financial decisions are keeping people stuck. New videos every week exposing the systems designed to keep you broke and showing you how to fight back.
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"Work. Pay Bills. Die. The Rat Race Starts at School"
Full screen recommended.
The Psyche, 12/17/25
"Work. Pay Bills. Die.
The Rat Race Starts at School"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Steve Cutts, "Happiness"
“All the money you make will never buy back your soul. ”
- Bob Dylan
"It Is Common To Assume..."
"It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone - that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows more than any man of, say, the Eighteenth Century, and is far more civilized. This assumption is quite erroneous. The great masses of men, even in this inspired republic, are precisely where the mob was at the dawn of history. They are ignorant, they are dishonest, they are cowardly, they are ignoble. They know little if anything that is worth knowing, and there is not the slightest sign of a natural desire among them to increase their knowledge."
- H. L. Mencken
"How, Then..."
"How, then, shall we face the future? When the sailor is out on the ocean, when everything is changing all around him, when the waves are born and die, he does not stare down into the waves, because they are changing. He looks up at the stars. Why? Because they are faithful..."
- Soren Kierkegaard
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Procol Harum, "A Salty Dog"
“Hannah Arendt on Time, Space, and Where Our Thinking Ego Resides”
“Hannah Arendt on Time, Space,
and Where Our Thinking Ego Resides”
“The everywhere of thought is indeed a region of nowhere.”
by Maria Popova
“In Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through the Looking Glass,’ the White Queen remembers the future instead of the past. This seemingly nonsensical proposition, like so many elements of the beloved book, is a stroke of philosophical genius and prescience on behalf of Lewis Carroll, made half a century before Einstein and Gödel challenged our linear conception of time.
But no thinker has addressed how the disorienting nature of time shapes the human experience with more captivating lucidity than Hannah Arendt (October 14, 1906–December 4, 1975), who in 1973 became the first woman to speak at the prestigious Gifford Lectures. Her talk was eventually adapted into two long essays, published as ‘The Life of the Mind’ (public library) – the same ceaselessly rewarding volume that gave us Arendt on the crucial difference between truth and meaning.
In one of the most stimulating portions of the book, Arendt argues that thinking is our rebellion against the tyranny of time and a hedge against the terror of our finitude. Noting that cognition always removes us from the present and makes absences its raw material, she considers where the thinking ego is located if not in what is present and close at hand:
“Looked at from the perspective of the everyday world of appearances, the everywhere of the thinking ego – summoning into its presence whatever it pleases from any distance in time or space, which thought traverses with a velocity greater than light’s – is a nowhere. And since this nowhere is by no means identical with the twofold nowhere from which we suddenly appear at birth and into which almost as suddenly we disappear in death, it might be conceived only as the Void. And the absolute void can be a limiting boundary concept; though not inconceivable, it is unthinkable. Obviously, if there is absolutely nothing, there can be nothing to think about. That we are in possession of these limiting boundary concepts enclosing our thought within (insurmountable) walls – and the notion of an absolute beginning or an absolute end is among them – does not tell us more than that we are indeed finite beings.”
Echoing Thomas Mann’s assertion that “the perishableness of life… imparts value, dignity, interest to life,” Arendt adds: “Man’s finitude, irrevocably given by virtue of his own short time span set in an infinity of time stretching into both past and future, constitutes the infrastructure, as it were, of all mental activities: it manifests itself as the only reality of which thinking qua thinking is aware, when the thinking ego has withdrawn from the world of appearances and lost the sense of realness inherent in the sensus communis by which we orient ourselves in this world… The everywhere of thought is indeed a region of nowhere.”
T.S. Eliot captured this nowhereness in his exquisite phrase “the still point of the turning world.” But the spatial dimension of thought, Arendt argues, is intersected by a temporal one – thinking invariably forces us to recollect and anticipate, voyaging into the past and the future, thus creating the mental spacetime continuum through which our thought-trains travel. From this arises our sense of the sequential nature of time and its essential ongoingness. Arendt writes:
“The inner time sensation arises when we are not entirely absorbed by the absent non-visibles we are thinking about but begin to direct our attention onto the activity itself. In this situation past and future are equally present precisely because they are equally absent from our sense; thus the no-longer of the past is transformed by virtue of the spatial metaphor into something lying behind us and the not-yet of the future into something that approaches us from ahead.”
[…]
In other words, the time continuum, everlasting change, is broken up into the tenses past, present, future, whereby past and future are antagonistic to each other as the no-longer and the not-yet only because of the presence of man, who himself has an “origin,” his birth, and an end, his death, and therefore stands at any given moment between them; this in-between is called the present. It is the insertion of man with his limited life span that transforms the continuously flowing stream of sheer change – which we can conceive of cyclically as well as in the form of rectilinear motion without ever being able to conceive of an absolute beginning or an absolute end – into time as we know it.”
Once again, it is our finitude that mediates our experience of time: “Seen from the viewpoint of a continuously flowing everlasting stream, the insertion of man, fighting in both directions, produces a rupture which, by being defended in both directions, is extended to a gap, the present seen as the fighter’s battleground… Seen from the viewpoint of man, at each single moment inserted and caught in the middle between his past and his future, both aimed at the one who is creating his present, the battleground is an in-between, an extended Now on which he spends his life. The present, in ordinary life the most futile and slippery of the tenses – when I say “now” and point to it, it is already gone – is no more than the clash of a past, which is no more, with a future, which is approaching and not yet there. Man lives in this in-between, and what he calls the present is a life-long fight against the dead weight of the past, driving him forward with hope, and the fear of a future (whose only certainty is death), driving him backward toward “the quiet of the past” with nostalgia for and remembrance of the only reality he can be sure of.”
This fluid conception of time, Arendt points out, is quite different from its representation in ordinary life, where the calendar tells us that the present is contained in today, the past starts at yesterday, and the future at tomorrow. In a sentiment that calls to mind Patti Smith’s magnificent meditation on time and transformation, Arendt writes: "That we can shape the everlasting stream of sheer change into a time continuum we owe not to time itself but to the continuity of our business and our activities in the world, in which we continue what we started yesterday and hope to finish tomorrow. In other words, the time continuum depends on the continuity of our everyday life, and the business of everyday life, in contrast to the activity of the thinking ego – always independent of the spatial circumstances surrounding it – is always spatially determined and conditioned. It is due to this thoroughgoing spatiality of our ordinary life that we can speak plausibly of time in spatial categories, that the past can appear to us as something lying “behind” us and the future as lying “ahead.”
[…]
The gap between past and future opens only in reflection, whose subject matter is what is absent – either what has already disappeared or what has not yet appeared. Reflection draws these absent “regions” into the mind’s presence; from that perspective the activity of thinking can be understood as a fight against time itself.”
This elusive gap, Arendt argues, is where the thinking ego resides – and it is only by mentally inserting ourselves between the past and the future that they come to exist at all: Without [the thinker], there would be no difference between past and future, but only everlasting change. Or else these forces would clash head on and annihilate each other. But thanks to the insertion of a fighting presence, they meet at an angle, and the correct image would then have to be what the physicists call a parallelogram of forces.
These two forces, which have an indefinite origin and a definite end point in the present, converge into a third – a diagonal pull that, contrary to the past and the present, has a definite origin in the present and emanates out toward infinity. That diagonal force, Arendt observes, is the perfect metaphor for the activity of thought. She writes:
“This diagonal, though pointing to some infinity, is limited, enclosed, as it were, by the forces of past and future, and thus protected against the void; it remains bound to and is rooted in the present – an entirely human present though it is fully actualized only in the thinking process and lasts no longer than this process lasts. It is the quiet of the Now in the time-pressed, time-tossed existence of man; it is somehow, to change the metaphor, the quiet in the center of a storm which, though totally unlike the storm, still belongs to it. In this gap between past and future, we find our place in time when we think, that is, when we are sufficiently removed from past and future to be relied on to find out their meaning, to assume the position of “umpire,” of arbiter and judge over the manifold, never-ending affairs of human existence in the world, never arriving at a final solution to their riddles but ready with ever-new answers to the question of what it may be all about.”
“The Life of the Mind” is one of the most stimulating packets of thought ever published. Complement this particular portion with Virginia Woolf on the elasticity of time, Dan Falk on how our capacity for mental time travel made us human, and T.S. Eliot’s poetic ode to the nature of time.“
"Io Saturnalia!"
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"Io Saturnalia!"
by Classical Wisdom
"For the uninitiated, today marks the official beginning of one of the greatest ancient holidays ever to grace the calendar. Deemed the best of days by the poet Catullus, Saturnalia was a party par excellence: a week-long celebration honoring the Roman god Saturn, the deity of agriculture, abundance, wealth, liberation, and even time itself.
Yet while Saturnalia began as a solemn religious festival, it quickly evolved into something else entirely… something far more exuberant, unrestrained, and, let’s be honest, wild. The festivities officially commenced with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum. From there, the city moved seamlessly into a public banquet, where Romans of all ranks ate and drank together, followed by private gatherings filled with laughter and the exchange of humorous, often ridiculous gifts. And then came the grand finale: an all-out carnival, one that was debauched, indulgent, and riotous. This was not a polite dinner party. This was a celebration that would have made the Rolling Stones feel right at home.
Not everyone approved, of course. Seneca grumbled that “the whole mob has let itself go in pleasures” (Epistles XVIII.3), while Pliny the Younger prudently shut himself away in his study as the rest of his household celebrated (Epistles II.17.24). But they were very much in the minority. Most Romans poured into the streets, rejoicing, visiting friends, singing, lighting candles...and yes, sometimes doing so naked.
Presiding over the chaos was the Saturnalicius princeps, a kind of “Lord of Misrule,” who ruled the festivities with mock authority. With a flick of his finger, he could command revelers to sing naked, dance foolishly, or leap into icy water. Indeed, many scholars trace modern Christmas caroling to this very tradition...It is easy to see how Saturnalia, with its gift-giving, public merriment, and licensed silliness, served as a precursor to many of our own winter celebrations.
Perhaps the most fascinating feature of Saturnalia was its deliberate inversion of social norms. For one precious week, slaves were treated as equals...or even as masters. They wore their owners’ clothing and the pileus, the felt cap symbolizing freedom. Masters waited on them at table (though slaves still prepared the meal), gambling was permitted, and social restraints were temporarily lifted. It was also a festival of free speech. The lower classes could mock, criticize, and insult their social superiors without fear of punishment. The poet Horace aptly called it “December liberty.”
That said, Saturnalia should be considered controlled chaos, not social revolution, because these changes were ritualized and very much temporary…Nonetheless, Saturnalia was gloriously bawdy and unapologetically excessive. Wine flowed freely. Jokes grew cruder as the nights wore on. Songs echoed through torch-lit streets. Respectability was suspended, replaced by laughter, lust, and license. It was rowdy, noisy, and deliberately chaotic...a ritualized release valve for the pressures of Roman life.
Such behavior, while perhaps familiar to those who remember the rebellious decades of the late twentieth century, would strike us as almost shocking today. The rock-and-roll years feel long gone, replaced by Fitbits and calorie counting, knitting nights and herbal tea. We track our steps, optimize our sleep, and sip responsibly.
Long gone are these days… but is it for the better?
Indeed it appears to me that modern society often prides itself on restraint. Alcohol consumption is down, indulgence is suspect, and excess is something to be managed rather than embraced. We are a culture of moderation, wellness plans, and productivity hacks...practically teetotalers compared to the ancients. So one has to wonder: what would the Romans, as well as the Greeks, think of us now? In our collective pursuit of longevity and eternal youth, have we forgotten something essential? Have we forgotten how to have fun?
Celebration, after all, plays a vital role both individually and socially. We need moments to switch off, to let the proverbial hair down, to embrace our inner Dionysian. Apollo, the god of order, reason, and restraint, cannot rule forever. It is often in moments of wild abandon that creativity sparks, new ideas emerge, and inspiration breaks free from convention.
Festivals also serve another crucial purpose: they bind communities together. In the ancient world, celebrations dissolved barriers of class, wealth, and status. Citizens gathered in shared spaces, participated in collective rituals, laughed at the same jokes, drank from the same cups. Collectively they experienced catharsis and reinforced important ideas about democracy and identity. Festivals reminded people that they belonged to something larger than themselves: a city, a culture, a shared story.
This communal spirit is something we may have lost in our increasingly individualistic, health-obsessed mindset. Yet the ancients understood it deeply, and they took their celebrations very seriously indeed.
The Greeks held lavish symposiums where philosophy flowed as freely as wine. They staged grand theatrical festivals like the Dionysia, where entire cities gathered to watch tragedies and comedies that still shape our thinking today. Romans marked their calendar with feast days, triumphs, games, and religious holidays. And of course, none were more exuberant than Saturnalia itself, the ultimate reminder that order needs chaos, and restraint needs release. And so, for today, I implore you: relax, enjoy, and lean into the spirit of the season:
Io Saturnalia!"
"Rising Prices Are Changing the Daily Habits of Americans"
Full screen recommended.
The Unfolded States, 12/17/25
"Rising Prices Are Changing the Daily Habits of Americans"
"Americans are feeling the pressure long before they ever look at their bank accounts. Rising prices aren’t just showing up in headlines - they’re showing up in daily routines, quiet trade-offs, and small decisions that now require careful calculation. What once felt manageable has slowly become heavier, and for many households, “normal life” no longer feels as affordable as it used to. This isn’t about a sudden economic collapse. It’s about a gradual squeeze. Rent and housing costs that refuse to come down. Utility bills that feel unpredictable. Grocery trips that cost more without buying more. Transportation expenses that turn simply getting to work into a financial burden. Together, these pressures are reshaping how Americans live - not overnight, but one adjustment at a time.
Behind optimistic economic headlines, a different reality is unfolding. People aren’t spending recklessly or living beyond their means. They’re adapting. Cutting back quietly. Rewriting routines. Using credit not for luxury, but to stay afloat. The result is a growing sense that effort no longer delivers the stability it once promised. This video breaks down how rising prices are changing the daily habits of Americans - using verified public data, real-world observations, and a clear look at the structural forces driving today’s cost-of-living pressure. This isn’t fear-based commentary or political messaging. It’s a grounded examination of why everyday life feels tighter, even when nothing has officially “collapsed.” These forces don’t operate in isolation. Together, they form a system that quietly reshapes behavior, expectations, and long-term planning for millions of Americans. This isn’t a temporary inconvenience. It’s a long-term adjustment - one that’s changing how people spend, save, and think about the future."
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John Wilder, "Bubbles Within Bubbles Within Bubbles"
"Bubbles Within Bubbles Within Bubbles"
by John Wilder
"As we approach the end of 2025, the U.S. economy resembles a science-fair volcano built on baking soda, hype, construction paper, speculation, bubblegum, vinegar, and greed. I’ve written about this before, and, well, it’s so big it keeps dragging me back in.
The rot is birthed by several mothers: cheap cash, the need to put it somewhere, and a new technology whose benefits are (at this point) opaque at best. Let’s put down that you already know “money printer goes brrrrrrrr” so we’ll go back to A.I. Again.
At the center of this precarious structure is what everyone who isn’t high on their own supply knows is an A.I. bubble. Large numbers of people (including me) recognized the housing bubble for what it was, but it kept on going because momentum is one hell of a master. A.I. has inflated stock prices, diverted resources like a drunk wine aunt at Lululemon®, and now has spawned secondary bubbles in hardware and infrastructure.
I’ve touched on this in previous posts, noting how projected AI:growth outpaces any reasonably available power supplies, present and near future, revenue projections fall short of the grandiose promises, and the full realization of AI’s (theoretical) potential could unleash economic distortions on a scale we’ve rarely seen in human history.
But bubbles don’t exist in isolation. Bubbles multiply, feeding off each other until the inevitable pop unwinds it all. When the Great Housing Bubble burst, for example, sales of sulfuric acid went to zero for months. How are they related? Turns out the Great Housing Bubble was fed off the same credit structure that paid for basic chemicals. And for all this time I thought it was because sulfuric acid was just like anything Chuck Schumer says: baseless and corrosive. Today, we’re seeing this play out in real time, with AI-driven demand ripping into consumer electronics and beyond, all while broader market indicators flash warning signs of decline.
The AI stock bubble has birthed an investment bubble in virtually all computer hardware. Demand for specialized components has skyrocketed, pulling supply away from consumer markets and inflating prices across the board.RAM prices surged 172% year-over-year, with some guessing they’ll double in 2026, SSD prices per TB are climbing with AI and cloud providers tightening supply chains. Motherboards shortages are emerging as manufacturers prioritize AI server builds over consumer PCs, with one producer having sold out for 2026 already. This shift isn’t just raising costs for gamers and everyday users; it’s distorting global supply chains, creating a feedback loop where AI hype justifies more investment, which in turn inflates hardware bubbles.
What happens when the tide rolls out? With the underlying economy already showing recessionary cracks, the fallout will almost certainly be severe. Let’s start with the AI bubble itself: valuations in the sector have soared, with companies like Nvidia™ and others commanding trillions in market cap based largely on future promises rather than current realities. The S&P 500’s concentration in a handful of AI-related stocks reached 30% by late 2025, the highest in decades. Nvidia© (for example) doubled in price from April. Doubled.
Skepticism is now mounting. All this is unfolding against a backdrop of broader economic weakness that A.I. papered over. Oil prices are declining despite ongoing disruptions from wars in Ukraine and tensions with Iran. Price levels are back into COVID 2021 levels. This drop persists amid supply risks: Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries and U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan tankers should theoretically support prices, yet oversupply fears dominate.
If peace breaks out in Ukraine, bringing Russian oil fully back online, prices could plummet 30%-50% as sanctions lift and exports surge. Add in a resolution with Iran, and the glut could be historic - you might as well use oil for bubble baths. The IEA already forecasts surpluses building into 2026. This is a signal of weakening industrial activity worldwide, not resilience.
Domestic indicators paint a similar picture. Unemployment among native-born Americans ticked up to 4.7% in July 2025 from 4.5% a year prior, with the overall rate holding at 4.6% in November. Wages? They’re stagnant at best. The K-shaped economy persists: high-wage earners see modest gains, but lower-income workers face stagnation, widening inequality.
So, what portends when the A.I. Bubble bursts? History offers grim lessons: the Dotcom crash wiped out trillions and triggered a recession and the economic response to that caused he Great Recession. An A.I. pop could be worse, given its entanglement with hardware and infrastructure. It doesn’t help that it is spawned, in part, by the loose-money policies of the post-COVID world. If I’m making an SAT question, Dotcom is to The Great Recession as COVID is to ___________.The A.I. Bubble
• A giant PEZ® dispenser filled with plutonium pellets.
• Greta Thunberg.
• The Black Studies Department at Harvard®.
Consequences of it popping?Investment in data centers and chips dry up, leading to layoffs of all those H-1Bs in San Fran and cratering the tech manufacturing here and in many nations around the world. Deflation hits: hardware prices would crash as overcapacity floods the market, but not before bankrupting suppliers who bet big on eternal demand. Dogs and cats, living together.
With the economy already teetering: slow job growth, wage pressures, and oil signaling demand weakness, the rest are downstream consequences. Consumer spending, which has propped up GDP, falters as confidence erodes and debt defaults rise. Income inequality worsens because banks and Wall Street firms cannot be allowed to fail.
If this capital misallocation is as bad as some of the graphs I’ve seen, this will be the singular economic event of the lifetime of anyone alive. There is a reason that I picked 2032 as the central pivot point of when Civil War 2.0 would show up and it was the underlying financial mismanagement of the United States. A.I.? It’s not the gasoline in the room, it’s the spark. It would have been something.
In the end, bubbles always burst because they’re built out of illusions and fed by poor allocations of capital. The A.I. frenzy has masked underlying frailties that would have led to a very major recession during Biden’s term, but the bubble continued to get bigger. As oil slides, jobs stall, and hardware hype peaks, the reckoning looms. And that science-fair volcano? I hope I don’t drop it on my foot. I’ll Krakatoa.
The usual. Not investment advice, do your own research, etc., etc.. I’m not a priest or an exorcist though I played one on TV. If you read this and make meaningful decisions based on it you need to take a step back and reconsider your life."
"From Electric Trucks to Digital Money - The End Is Here!"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 12/17/25
"From Electric Trucks to Digital Money -
The End Is Here!"
"Is the EV dream officially dead? In this video, I dive into Ford’s unprecedented $20 billion loss with the F-150 Lightning electric truck and what it means for the future of EVs. From costly maintenance to failed promises, this debacle highlights the harsh realities of the electric vehicle industry. Join me as I discuss how Ford's best-selling truck turned into a financial disaster, the broader implications for automakers, and why the EV fantasy might finally be over. We’re also covering a major shift in banking - say goodbye to paper checks and hello to tighter control over your money. Plus, I share updates on the latest business news, including a shocking startup scandal, and even a swarm of earthquakes threatening Northern California."
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Bill Bonner, "Unwarranted Invasion"
The Owl Bar, in Baltimore, Maryland,
operated as a speak easy during the prohibition era.
"Unwarranted Invasion"
by Bill Bonner
"America is not in any way limited to a special group of people; it is for people who want to be special in their own way. It’s not for people who want to follow the feds’ Big Plan; it’s for people with plans of their own.
Baltimore street scene: Walking to the office yesterday, we passed a grey-bearded black man on the church steps. It was 17 degrees outside, very cold for Baltimore. He was gathering up his things - including an aluminum walker - after having spent the night outside, on the cold, stone steps. As we saw him struggling with his kit... “You need a hand?” we asked. We took the walker and brought it down to the sidewalk as he limped down the steps, holding the rail. “Kinda cold to be sleeping rough,” we said. “Yeah...my daughter kicked me out of the house.” We gave him a $5 bill and some advice. “Maybe better to apologize to her for whatever you did and swear you will never do it again...at least until the weather is warmer. Merry Christmas to you.”
And here’s the latest news: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced the creation of the “Tech Force” on Monday, a program aimed at securing American technological dominance by modernizing government infrastructure and accelerating the adoption of AI across federal agencies. Time was, we expected that after a life well lived, we would go to Heaven and get our reward there. Now, the reward is expected right here in America, as tech breakthroughs cause the blind to see, the deficit to disappear, and the USA to dominate the planet. But those benefits are available only to a select few, according to the Vance/Thiel/Karp triumvirate, and only with the guidance of the US federal authorities.
So today, as yesterday, we grope for an insight. And we begin by pirouetting not just to yesterday...but spinning back to almost 400 years ago when our ancestors floated up the bay from Virginia and the pennant of Cecil Calvert first made its appearance in the Chesapeake tidewater.
The Toleration Act of 1634 set the Maryland colony up as a refuge for Catholics. But some people are always trying to force others to worship their gods, speak their languages, follow their rules and boss around their neighbors. The Act was rescinded, then it was re-instated, repealed again, and finally re-enacted after Charles Carroll, a Catholic and believed to be the richest man in the colonies, signed the Declaration of Independence.
A century later, many people in America thought there too many Catholics. Hordes of liquor-guzzling, papist ‘paddies’ from Ireland and ‘wops’ from Italy immigrated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. “No Irish Need Apply,” was a time-saving hint back then. Demon Run was the fentanyl of the wild Irish slums.
But our heart fills with pride when we see that Old Line State standard. Not for its ambiguous role in the Revolution (Maryland’s Eastern Shore was famously loyal to Britain...its families discreetly drew the curtains on July 4th and cursed the founding fathers)...nor for the brave men it sent to fight in the War Between the States (they stuck to Jeff Davis to the bitter end)...but for its one moment of glory, when Maryland refused to go along with the busy-bodies and bullies. Kerry Hinton:
"Maryland was the only state that never passed an enforcement law, refusing to commit any resources to policing the ban [against alcohol]. Throughout the 1920s, Maryland earned a reputation as a “wet” state, and the Chesapeake Bay was a hot spot for bootleggers importing illegal liquor from overseas. Maryland’s anti-Prohibition stance was led by local politicians such as Governor Albert Ritchie, who called the 18th Amendment an “unwarranted invasion by the Federal Government of the liberties of the Maryland People.” (Our grandfather bought Governor Ritchie’s bookcase; it still sits in our Baltimore parlor. We cross ourselves each time we pass.)
But who today still laments the ‘unwarranted invasion’ by the federal authorities into every aspect of our lives? The battle has been lost. Maryland has been defeated. The history of America can be seen as a long fight to turn the country into something it was never meant to be. Alexander Hamilton crushed the Whiskey Rebellion. The Articles of Confederation were ditched in favor of a strong central government. The War Between the States closed the door; there would be no escape. Manifest Destiny…the Alien and Sedition Act…WWI…Vietnam – each step brought us closer to the ‘full spectrum dominance’ its rascals seek.
And today, scalawags from the hills of San Francisco to the flat sands of Florida - as well as from the rest of the entire world - take up lodging in the Maryland suburbs of DC. They could be in the 16th Arrondissement of Paris. Or in the rich barrios of Mexico City. Like the ‘casta politica’ everywhere, they are there to plot and connive...for a new union of church and state, technocrats and politicians...headed up by hooded priests of the new ‘Tech Force’...and their Generalissimo. More to come."
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