Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 3/30/26
"Massive Spring Sales at Sam's Club!"
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So, we rise from the rubble...
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Monday, March 30, 2026
Bill Bonner, "Edge of Empire"
"Edge of Empire"
by Bill Bonner
Baltimore, Maryland - "The world sat on the edge of its chair this weekend. Troop movements looked like something was up; an invasion of Iran seemed to be minutes away. ‘Just what we need now,’ many were saying, sarcastically. We are already insolvent. A war will make it worse. How much worse is the question at hand. Wolf Richter gave us a hint: "Status of US Dollar as Global Reserve Currency: USD Share Drops to 31-Year Low as Central Banks Diversify into Other Currencies & Gold."
In WWI, the British Empire found itself fighting for no reason. It had been fighting for centuries. That’s what empires do. But this was fighting on a scale it couldn’t afford. Is it cause...or effect? We don’t know. But successful empires need to provide a tolerable level of security…and money you can trust. Take away the strong currency and the strength of the empire seems to go away too.
In the 19th century, Britain was the world’s leading hegemon. Its currency - backed 100% by gold - kept prices stable for almost 100 years. It was also a relatively peaceful century. The United Kingdom fought its battles on the periphery of the empire - in India, Africa, the Crimea, China. None of them engaged the full economic and military might of the empire.
What a great time to an Englishman! Power, wealth and status - he had it all. John Maynard Keynes, a leading economist of the 20th century described his good fortune: ‘The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth, in such quantity as he might see fit, and reasonably expect their early delivery upon his doorstep; he could at the same moment and by the same means adventure his wealth in the natural resources and new enterprises of any quarter of the world, and share, without exertion or even trouble, in their prospective fruits and advantages; or he could decide to couple the security of his fortunes with the good faith of the townspeople of any substantial municipality in any continent that fancy or information might recommend. He could secure forthwith, if he wished it, cheap and comfortable means of transit to any country or climate without passport or other formality, could despatch his servant to the neighbouring office of a bank for such supply of the precious metals as might seem convenient, and could then proceed abroad to foreign quarters, without knowledge of their religion, language, or customs, bearing coined wealth upon his person, and would consider himself greatly aggrieved and much surprised at the least interference.’
‘But, most important of all, he regarded this state of affairs as normal, certain, and permanent, except in the direction of further improvement, and any deviation from it as aberrant, scandalous, and avoidable.’ ‘The projects and politics of militarism and imperialism, of racial and cultural rivalries, of monopolies, restrictions, and exclusion, which were to play the serpent to this paradise, were little more than the amusements of his daily newspaper, and appeared to exercise almost no influence at all on the ordinary course of social and economic life, the internationalisation of which was nearly complete in practice.’
Sound familiar? Today, it might apply to the average New Yorker or Nevadan. Until very recently he could enjoy entertainments, fruits and gadgets from all over the world - with rarely an interruption. He might be totally ignorant of the long and complex supply lines that made it possible, or even from whence came these marvels. But his dollar was golden. People wanted it. They needed it. And he could ‘print’ trillions of them.
He surely counted himself among the most powerful and most deserving people ever to enjoy Eden...and with a credit card that had no obvious limit. But the serpents were crawling on the ground beneath him. He might be nervous about the level of debt necessary to continue living in the style to which he has become accustomed. His might also worry about rising prices. And he might be nursing a grudge, perhaps inspired by either the ‘libtards’ on the left or the ‘nazis’ on the right. A few especially cynical observers might also worry that the prosperity all around them was largely a mirage created by fake money...and he might worry that it would soon come to an end.
Shanaka Anselm Perera: ‘Annual interest on the national debt reached $1.22 trillion in fiscal year 2025. That is more than the defense budget. More than Medicare. The war supplemental request for the Iran conflict exceeds $200 billion. The Federal Reserve cannot cut rates because Hormuz-driven energy inflation has pushed PCE to 2.7 percent and rising. Every basis point the Fed holds is a basis point that compounds against $39 trillion in gross debt. The war that was supposed to last weeks is now costing hundreds of billions while the borrowing cost of financing it rises with every barrel of oil that does not transit the strait.’
The sweet moment came to an end for the Londoner in August of 1914. That was the beginning of the Great War. The most amazing thing about the war was that Britain exhausted itself in a conflict in which it had nothing at stake.
Like America’s pounding of Iran, it was a war of choice, not necessity. For everyone involved. The two sides didn’t hate each other. All were getting on board with the Industrial Revolution. All were moving towards parliamentary democracy. And with the exception of marginal territorial transfers - Alsace and Lorraine went back to the French - nothing much was going to be gained by fighting,
But it was supposed to be short and sweet; everyone said so. And it would be glorious too. The flags flew. The recruiters’ offices needed extra staff. The papers sent their correspondents to cover the action, as if it were the Olympics played out for mortal stakes. But the initial excitement gave way to battle fatigue...and insolvency.
The war changed everything...beginning with the money. When WWI began, the UK was not only the leading military power - Britannia Rules the Waves! - it had the world’s healthiest economy, with 40% of the world’s international investment.
Then, in 1914, Britain went off the gold standard...and its money and its imperial power both started to slide. By the end of the war, it was deeply in debt, especially to the US. (One hypothesis about why the US went into the war on the side of the UK, rather than the Germans, was simply that its bankers had lent the English more money.) And when the guns finally went silent, the interest alone on its debt cost the UK 40% of its entire budget. This is what led to the Depression of 1920-21. It also led to further devaluation of the pound.
The British empire came to a final, wimpy end in the Suez Crisis of 1956. ‘Allied’ with France and Israel, Britain set out to take back the canal from Egypt. The three allies attacked. But when they appealed to Eisenhower for backing, the US president said ‘no.’ (This was before the Israeli lobby had such a tight grip on US lawmakers.) Eisenhower went on to block Britain’s request for IMF loans.
The pound continued to lose value. First, it lost against the dollar...then, it lost against goods and services. Since 1914, it has lost 99% of its purchasing power. Against gold, the loss was even worse. In 1914, you could buy an ounce of gold for 3 pounds, 17 shillings and 9 pence. Today, it is approximately £3,430/oz. That is nearly a 99.9% loss."
"Donald Trump’s Imaginary Iranian Friends"
"Donald Trump’s Imaginary Iranian Friends"
by Larry C. Johnson
"Let me begin by offering my apology to all who posted comments that were then put in moderation - by the software, not by me. I just returned home from Calgary and am in the process of cleaning up the pending folder. I have not deleted any comments… They all are now posted.
The reason for my inability to get the pending folder cleaned out is because I attended and spoke to the Shaun Newman Podcast conference that also featured Martin Armstrong, Alex Krainer, Karen Kwiatkowski and Matt Ehret. There were over 750 people in attendance and I met and interacted with the nicest people you could imagine. I did catch some grief - all good natured - from several of you who attended and chastised me for not wearing my traditional Florida shirts. It was -2 Celsius when I arrived in Calgary and I confess… I’m a wimp. Florida shirts don’t do well in the snow.
A good portion of the crowd was from Alberta, the Canadian province, and they are keen on creating an independent Republic. They are justifiably angry at the bullying they have received from the central Canadian government. But they are not violent or aggressive. Nope. Very kind, very sincere and very intent on protecting their freedoms.
Ok. Down to business. Despite Donald Trump’s claim that he - or someone in his administration - is talking with the Iranians is pure hokum. Pakistani diplomats have volunteered to pass messages back-and-forth between the US and Iran, but Iran’s demands are anathema to Trump and vice versa. Iran is not going to surrender or agree to a ceasefire until its core demands are met: reparations, the removal of all sanctions and the elimination of US military bases in the Persian Gulf. The murder of the 175 school girls, along with the assassinations of key Iranian officials, as a result of the US and Israeli war of aggression on the people of Iran will not be forgiven and swept under the rug.
Despite Trump’s insistence that Iran is eager to negotiate, he is lying. Iran continues to methodically attack US and Israeli military assets and has succeeded in destroying billions of dollars in advanced radars, refueling airplanes, drones and, in the most recent strike, an AWACS plane. The AWACS plane was being used to provide warning intelligence that was previously supplied by the now defunct radars the US had scattered among the Gulf Arab countries.
Trump’s claim that Iran is running out of missiles also is not true. As I am writing this, Iran has launched three waves of launches to the Negev in under an hour.
In response to Donald Trump’s various threats, a spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya HQ recently said:
➡The U.S. president has threatened that if Iran doesn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. forces will target Iranian power plants.
➡Tehran insists the Strait is only restricted to hostile traffic and remains under Iran’s control; safe passage continues under strict rules.
➡If the U.S. strikes Iranian power plants, Iran will:
Fully close the Strait of Hormuz until damaged facilities are rebuilt.
Target all Israeli energy, ICT, and infrastructure assets.
Destroy regional companies with U.S. shareholders.
Target power plants in countries hosting U.S. bases.
➡Iran says it is ready for a major campaign to eliminate all U.S. economic interests in West Asia.
➡While Tehran did not start this conflict, any attack on Iranian infrastructure will trigger relentless retaliation against U.S. and allied energy, oil, and industrial targets in the region.
The US and Israel ignored Iran’s warning and attacked… and, as promised, Iran responded forcefully. On Sunday, according to a statement from Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy, an Indian worker was killed and significant damage was caused to a service building at a power and desalination plant, as a result of an Iranian attack against the State of Kuwait. Satellite data from NASA has reportedly detected an active fire at the Doha West Power and Water Desalination Station, the country’s largest combined power and water plant.
Imagery shows burn marks and smoke across the central section, with heat signals extending toward coastal storage tanks. The facility produces 2,400MW of power and around 110 million gallons of water per day, making up about 38.5% of Kuwait’s desalination output. With around 90% of Kuwait’s drinking water coming from desalination, this damage will quickly put pressure on the country’s water supply.
New satellite images also show damage following Iranian missile strikes on a US airbase in Sheikh Isa, Bahrain:
- US Army Air Base Radar Maintenance Shed Hit.
- Destroying the spy plane hangars.
- Destruction of the drone hangar.
- Destruction of the equipment depot.
Despite continued bombing of targets in Iran, the Iranians are showing no signs of weakening… In fact, they are intensifying their attacks, inspired by the continued slaughter of Iranian children. Here are three of the latest victims of US and Israeli strikes in Iran:
According to Haaretz, the success rate of Iranian missiles in Israel has reached 80%, and the missiles are not being intercepted. Iran is not alone. Hezbollah also is fully engaged in fighting Israel. Hezbollah announced 70 operations on 29 March against Israeli forces, sites, settlements, and military infrastructure. These included:
Border clashes. Heavy fighting spread across Aitaroun, Ainata, Qantara, Bayyada, Deir Siryan, Houla, Shamaa, Maroun al-Ras, and Beit Lif, including close-range engagements and ambushes targeting advancing Israeli forces. A major infiltration attempt toward Ainata was repelled with explosives and direct fire, followed by strikes on Merkava tanks and armored units. Multiple clashes resulted in destroyed tanks, with over a dozen Merkava tanks targeted, including engagements at zero distance, and forced evacuation operations under heavy fire.
Drone attacks: Attack drones targeted key Israeli positions and assets, including Biriya air defense base, Rawiya base in the occupied Syrian Golan, and Gilaa barracks, as well as troop concentrations and armored vehicles across Bayyada, Qantara, Alma al-Shaab, Deir Siryan, and Houla. Drones also struck Hummers, D9 bulldozers, and armored units, while one Israeli armed drone was shot down over Mansouri.
Rocket/missile strikes: Rocket barrages hit Israeli troop concentrations and positions across Malikiya, Aitaroun, Qantara, Deir Siryan, Ainata, and the Khiam axis, alongside strikes on settlements including Metula, Shtula, Yir’on, Avivim, and Nahariya. Sustained fire also targeted gatherings near schools, infrastructure points, and frontline staging areas throughout the day.
Strategic military targets: Strikes targeted major Israeli military infrastructure, including Ein Shemer air defense base east of Hadera, Raghavim base south of Haifa, Biriya base and Michve Allon base near Safad, Giv’a drone command base east of Safad, Ein Zeitim base, and Kela barracks in the occupied Golan. Additional strikes hit infrastructure in Katzrin and Kfar Vradim, as well as artillery positions and newly established military sites, alongside repeated targeting of communications and operational nodes.
The upcoming week - March 30 to April4 - marks the fifth week of the war with no sign of an end in sight. The economic effects on the world economy are going to hit with greater force and will increase pressure on the US and Israel to stop the war. However, I fully anticipate that Donald Trump will follow thru on his threats to try to capture some Iranian territory by deploying US military forces on the ground. If Trump does this, it will only expand the war and will dramatically increase the number of US casualties. This will not calm the financial markets… I expect it will have the exact opposite effect. The global economy is in a recession… Western economists are just now beginning to understand that reality."
"Iran Strikes Israel’s Final Active Water Plant — Nationwide Water Crisis Unfolds"
Full screen recommended.
Index AG, 3/29/26
"Iran Strikes Israel’s Final Active Water Plant -
Nationwide Water Crisis Unfolds"
"The clock has officially run out for Israel’s national water security. Thirty minutes ago, a targeted Iranian cluster missile strike successfully neutralized the final functioning desalination and water treatment facility in the country. This was not just another attack on infrastructure; it was the definitive conclusion to the nation’s ability to provide life-sustaining fluid to its population. With the Meccarat network already decimated by previous engagements, this singular facility was the only heart still beating for four million people in Tel Aviv and the coastal plain. In this deep-dive analysis, we break down the high-level strategic engineering behind Iran’s choice of weaponry and why this specific strike represents a transition from a “water crisis” to a “water absence.” This is the reality of civilizational collapse in the 21st century."
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Sunday, March 29, 2026
Jeremiah Babe, "Alert! This Is The Most Dangerous Time In U.S. History"
Jeremiah Babe, 3/29/26
"Alert! This Is The Most Dangerous
Time In U.S. History"
Comments here:
"Alert! Emergency! Stock Up Now, Situation is Deteriorating, Desalination Plants Hit!"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 3/29/26
"Alert! Emergency! Stock Up Now,
Situation is Deteriorating, Desalination Plants Hit!"
Comments here:
"A Photo From Auschwitz, 1944"
"A Photo From Auschwitz, 1944"
by Arfa Khanum
"If I didn't know where this photo was taken and who took it, namely an SS officer, I would think it was a moment of rest after the mass, in an open field, where one sits down and eats something after a pilgrimage, before when you go home and take a photo as a souvenir, just like I did as a child with our church community.
This photo shows a child who has found a dandelion in the grass
and is now giving or showing it to an older child, perhaps a sibling.
A few minutes later, all the people shown here were sent to the gas chambers. And all that remains of these Hungarian Jews is this photograph... children, men, women, boys, girls and this small spontaneous gesture, then screams, shouts and silence."
“My heart broke on its shame and sorrow. I suddenly knew how much crying there was in me, and how little love. I knew, at last, how lonely I was. But I couldn’t respond. My culture had taught me all the wrong things well. So I lay completely still, and gave no reaction at all. But the soul has no culture. The soul has no nations. The soul has no color or accent or way of life. The soul is forever. The soul is one. And when the heart has its moment of truth and sorrow, the soul can’t be stilled. I clenched my teeth against the stars. I closed my eyes. I surrendered to sleep. One of the reasons why we crave love, and seek it so desperately, is that love is the only cure for loneliness, and shame, and sorrow. But some feelings sink so deep into the heart that only loneliness can help you find them again. Some truths about yourself are so painful that only shame can help you live with them. And some things are just so sad that only your soul can do the crying for you.”
- Gregory David Roberts, "Shantaram"
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Colorful NGC 1579 resembles the better known Trifid Nebula, but lies much farther north in planet Earth's sky, in the heroic constellation Perseus. About 2,100 light-years away and 3 light-years across, NGC 1579 is, like the Trifid, a study in contrasting blue and red colors, with dark dust lanes prominent in the nebula's central regions.
In both, dust reflects starlight to produce beautiful blue reflection nebulae. But unlike the Trifid, in NGC 1579 the reddish glow is not emission from clouds of glowing hydrogen gas excited by ultraviolet light from a nearby hot star. Instead, the dust in NGC 1579 drastically diminishes, reddens, and scatters the light from an embedded, extremely young, massive star, itself a strong emitter of the characteristic red hydrogen alpha light."
'There Are Days..."
"How do you beat the odds when it’s one against a billion? You stand strong, keep pushing yourself past all rational limits and never let yourself give up. But the truth of the matter is, despite how hard you try and fight to stay in control, when it’s all said and done, sometimes you’re just outnumbered."
- "Dr. Meredith Grey," "Grey's Anatomy"
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"There are days that make the sacrifices seem worthwhile... and then there are the days where everything feels like a sacrifice. And then there are the sacrifices that you can't even figure out why you're making. A wise man once said, you can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it. What he meant it, nothing comes without a price. So before you go into battle, you better decide how much you're willing to lose. Too often, going after what feels good means letting go of what you know is right. And letting someone in means abandoning the walls you've spent a lifetime building. Of course, the toughest sacrifices are the ones we don't see coming. When we don't have time to come up with a strategy, to pick a side, or to measure the potential loss.When that happens, when the battle chooses us, that's when the sacrifice can turn out to be more than we can bear."
- "Dr. Meredith Grey", "Grey's Anatomy"
"What Keeps You Going"
“What keeps you going isn’t some fine destination but just the road you’re on, and the fact that you know how to drive. You keep your eyes open, you see this damned-to-hell world you got born into, and you ask yourself, ‘What life can I live that will let me breathe in and out and love somebody or something and not run off screaming into the woods?’”
- Barbara Kingsolver
“For this is what we do. Put one foot forward and then the other. Lift our eyes to the snarl and smile of the world once more. Think. Act. Feel. Add our little consequence to the tides of good and evil that flood and drain the world. Drag our shadowed crosses into the hope of another night. Push our brave hearts into the promise of a new day. With love: the passionate search for truth other than our own. With longing: the pure, ineffable yearning to be saved. For so long as fate keeps waiting, we live on. God help us. God forgive us. We live on.”
- Gregory David Roberts, “Shantaram"
The Poet: David Whyte, "The Sea"
“The Sea”
“The pull is so strong we will not believe
the drawing tide is meant for us,
I mean the gift, the sea,
the place where all the rivers meet.
Easy to forget,
how the great receiving depth
untamed by what we need
needs only what will flow its way.
Easy to feel so far away
and the body so old
it might not even stand the touch.
But what would that be like
feeling the tide rise
out of the numbness inside
toward the place to which we go
washing over our worries of money,
the illusion of being ahead,
the grief of being behind,
our limbs young
rising from such a depth?
What would that be like
even in this century
driving toward work with the others,
moving down the roads
among the thousands swimming upstream,
as if growing toward arrival,
feeling the currents of the great desire,
carrying time toward tomorrow?
Tomorrow seen today, for itself,
the sea where all the rivers meet, unbound,
unbroken for a thousand miles, the surface
of a great silence, the movement of a moment
left completely to itself, to find ourselves adrift,
safe in our unknowing, our very own,
our great tide, our great receiving, our
wordless, fiery, unspoken,
hardly remembered, gift of true longing.”
~ David Whyte,
“Where Many Rivers Meet”
Free Download: Albert Camus, "“The Myth of Sisyphus”
“A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus on Our Search for
Meaning and Why Happiness Is Our Moral Obligation”
by Maria Popova
“To decide whether life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question of philosophy,” Albert Camus (November 7, 1913–January 4, 1960) wrote in his 119-page philosophical essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” in 1942. “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest – whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories – comes afterwards. These are games; one must first answer. And if it is true, as Nietzsche claims, that a philosopher, to deserve our respect, must preach by example, you can appreciate the importance of that reply, for it will precede the definitive act. These are facts the heart can feel; yet they call for careful study before they become clear to the intellect. Everything else… is child’s play; we must first of all answer the question.”
One of the most famous opening lines of the twentieth century captures one of humanity’s most enduring philosophical challenges – the impulse at the heart of Seneca’s meditations on life and Montaigne’s timeless essays and Maya Angelou’s reflections, and a wealth of human inquiry in between. But Camus, the second-youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature after Rudyard Kipling, addressed it with unparalleled courage of conviction and insight into the irreconcilable longings of the human spirit.
One of the most famous opening lines of the twentieth century captures one of humanity’s most enduring philosophical challenges – the impulse at the heart of Seneca’s meditations on life and Montaigne’s timeless essays and Maya Angelou’s reflections, and a wealth of human inquiry in between. But Camus, the second-youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature after Rudyard Kipling, addressed it with unparalleled courage of conviction and insight into the irreconcilable longings of the human spirit.
In the beautifully titled and beautifully written “A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus and the Quest for Meaning” (public library), historian Robert Zaretsky considers Camus’s lifelong quest to shed light on the absurd condition, his “yearning for a meaning or a unity to our lives,” and its timeless yet increasingly timely legacy: If the question abides, it is because it is more than a matter of historical or biographical interest. Our pursuit of meaning, and the consequences should we come up empty-handed, are matters of eternal immediacy.
Camus pursues the perennial prey of philosophy – the questions of who we are, where and whether we can find meaning, and what we can truly know about ourselves and the world – less with the intention of capturing them than continuing the chase.”
Reflecting on the parallels between Camus and Montaigne, Zaretsky finds in this ongoing chase one crucial difference of dispositions: “Camus achieves with the Myth what the philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty claimed for Montaigne’s Essays: it places “a consciousness astonished at itself at the core of human existence.”
For Camus, however, this astonishment results from our confrontation with a world that refuses to surrender meaning. It occurs when our need for meaning shatters against the indifference, immovable and absolute, of the world. As a result, absurdity is not an autonomous state; it does not exist in the world, but is instead exhaled from the abyss that divides us from a mute world.”
Camus himself captured this with extraordinary elegance when he wrote in “The Myth of Sisyphus”: “This world in itself is not reasonable, that is all that can be said. But what is absurd is the confrontation of this irrational and wild longing for clarity whose call echoes in the human heart. The absurd depends as much on man as on the world. For the moment it is all that links them together.”
To discern these echoes amid the silence of the world, Zaretsky suggests, was at the heart of Camus’s tussle with the absurd: “We must not cease in our exploration, Camus affirms, if only to hear more sharply the silence of the world. In effect, silence sounds out when human beings enter the equation. If “silences must make themselves heard,” it is because those who can hear inevitably demand it. And if the silence persists, where are we to find meaning?”
This search for meaning was not only the lens through which Camus examined every dimension of life, from the existential to the immediate, but also what he saw as our greatest source of agency. In one particularly prescient diary entry from November of 1940, as WWII was gathering momentum, he writes: “Understand this: we can despair of the meaning of life in general, but not of the particular forms that it takes; we can despair of existence, for we have no power over it, but not of history, where the individual can do everything. It is individuals who are killing us today. Why should not individuals manage to give the world peace? We must simply begin without thinking of such grandiose aims.”
For Camus, the question of meaning was closely related to that of happiness - something he explored with great insight in his notebooks. Zaretsky writes: “Camus observed that absurdity might ambush us on a street corner or a sun-blasted beach. But so, too, do beauty and the happiness that attends it. All too often, we know we are happy only when we no longer are.”
Perhaps most importantly, Camus issued a clarion call of dissent in a culture that often conflates happiness with laziness and championed the idea that happiness is nothing less than a moral obligation. A few months before his death, Camus appeared on the TV show Gros Plan. Dressed in a trench coat, he flashed his mischievous boyish smile and proclaimed into the camera: “Today, happiness has become an eccentric activity. The proof is that we tend to hide from others when we practice it. As far as I’m concerned, I tend to think that one needs to be strong and happy in order to help those who are unfortunate.”
This wasn’t a case of Camus arriving at some mythic epiphany in his old age – the cultivation of happiness and the eradication of its obstacles was his most persistent lens on meaning. More than two decades earlier, he had contemplated “the demand for happiness and the patient quest for it” in his journal, capturing with elegant simplicity the essence of the meaningful life – an ability to live with presence despite the knowledge that we are impermanent: ”We must” be happy with our friends, in harmony with the world, and earn our happiness by following a path which nevertheless leads to death.”
But his most piercing point integrates the questions of happiness and meaning into the eternal quest to find ourselves and live our truth: ”It is not so easy to become what one is, to rediscover one’s deepest measure.”
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Freely download “The Myth of Sisyphus,” by Albert Camus, here:
"It's Extraordinary..."
“It’s extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut, with dull ears, with dormant thoughts. Perhaps it’s just as well; and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome.”
– Joseph Conrad, “Lord Jim”
"15 Common Dynamics Of SHTF Collapses"
"15 Common Dynamics Of SHTF Collapses"
by Fabian Ommar
When it comes to how we see and prepare for SHTF, thinking in terms of real and probable rather than fictional and possible can make a big difference. Even though SHTF has many forms and levels and is in essence complex, random, diverse and unsystematic, some patterns and principles are common to the way things unfold when it hits the fan. With Toby and Selco’s "Seven Pillars of Urban Preparedness" as inspiration, I came up with a different list of the 15 dynamics and realities of collapses.
#1 SHTF is nuanced and happens in stages: Thinking about SHTF as an ON/OFF, all-or-nothing endgame is a common mistake that can lead to severe misjudgments and failures in critical areas of preparedness. Part (or parts) of the system crash, freeze, fail, or become impaired. This is how SHTF happens in the real world. And when it does, people run for safety first, i.e., resort to more familiar behaviors, expecting things to “go back to normal soon.”
By “normal behaviors,” I mean everything from hoarding stuff (toilet paper?) to rioting, looting, and crime, and yes, using cash – as these happen all the time, even when things are normal. But no one becomes a barterer, a peddler, a precious metals specialist in a week. Society adapts as time passes (and the situation requires). That’s why preppers who are also SHTF survivors (and thus talk from personal experience) insist that abandoning fantasies and caring for basics first is crucial. This is not a coincidence. It is how things happen in the real world.
Recently I wrote about black markets and the role of cash in SHTFs, emphasizing these things take precedence except in a full-blown apocalypse – which no one can say if, when, or how will happen (because it never has?). Now, I don’t pretend to be the owner of the truth, but those insisting changes in society happen radically or abruptly should check this article about the fallout in Myanmar.
#2 Everything crawls until everything runs: Number two is a corollary to #1. SHTF happens in stair-steps, but most people failing to prepare and getting caught off-guard is evidence of the difficulty of the human brain to fully grasp the concept of exponential growth. It bears telling the analogy of the stadium being filled with water drops to illustrate this.
Let’s say we add one drop into a watertight baseball stadium. The deposited volume doubles every minute (i.e., one minute later, we add two more drops, then four in the next minute, eight in the next, then sixteen, and so on). How long would it take to fill the entire stadium? Sitting at the top row, we’d watch for 45 minutes as the water covered the field. Then at the 48-minute mark, 50% of the stadium would be filled. Yes, that’s only 3 minutes from practically empty to half full. At this point, we have just 60 seconds to get out: the water will be spilling before the clock hits 49 minutes.
This is an important dynamic to understand and keep in mind because it applies to most things. Another example: it took over 2 million years of human prehistory and history for the world’s population to reach 1 billion, and less than 250 years more to grow to almost 8 billion.
#3 The system doesn’t vanish or change suddenly: Based on history, the Mad Max-like scenario some so feverishly advocate is not in our near future. The Roman Empire unraveled over 500 years. We may not be at the tipping point of our collapse or the last minute of the flooding stadium, as illustrated in #2 above. But time is relative, and those 60 seconds can last five, ten, fifteen years. Things are accelerating, but there’s no way to tell at which point in the curve we are.
That doesn’t mean things will be normal in that period. A lot has happened to people and places all over the Roman empire during those five-plus centuries: wars, plagues, invasions, droughts, shortages, all hell broke loose. Our civilization has already hit the iceberg, and the current order is crumbling. There will be shocks along the way, some small and some big. But SHTF is a process, not an event.
#4 History repeats, but always with a twist: That’s because nature works in cycles, and humans react to scarcity and abundance predictably and in the same ways. Also, we’re helpless in the face of the most significant and recurring events. But things are never the same. Technology improves, social rules change, humankind advances, the population grows. This (and lots more) adds a variability factor to the magnitude, gravity, and reach of outcomes.
What better proof than the COVID-19 pandemic just surpassing the 1918 Spanish Flu death toll in the US? It’ll probably do so everywhere else, too. Even if we don’t believe the official data (then or now), we’re not yet out of this new coronavirus situation.
#5 SHTF is about scarcity: A shrink in resources invariably leads to changes in the individual’s standard of living or entire society (depending on the circumstances, depth, and reach of the disaster or collapse). Then it starts affecting life itself (i.e., people dying). Essentially, when things really hit the fan, abundance vanishes, and pretty much everything reverts to the mean: food becomes replenishment, drinking becomes hydration, sleeping becomes rest, home becomes shelter, and so on. Surviving is accepting and adapting to that.
#6 The consequences matter more than the type of event: I’ll admit to being guilty of debating probable causes of SHTF more often than I should, mainly when it comes to the economy and finance going bust. That’s from living in a third-world country, with all the crap that comes with it. It’s what I have to talk, warn, and give advice about. I still find it essential to be aware and thoughtful of the causes. But it’s for the consequences that we must prepare for: instability, corruption, bureaucracy, criminality, inflation, social unrest, divisiveness, wars, and all sorts of conflicts and disruptions that affect us directly.
#7 Life goes on: Humankind advances through hardship but thrives in routine. We crave normalcy and peace, and over the long term, pursue them. Contrary to what many think, life goes on even during SHTF. And things tend to return to normal after the immediate threats cease or get contained. At least some level of normal, considering the circumstances. For example, in occupied France, the bistros and cafés continued serving and entertaining the population and even the invaders (the Nazi army). It was hard, as is always the case anywhere there’s war, poverty, tyranny – but that doesn’t mean the world has ended.
#8 SHTF pileup: Disasters and collapses add instability, volatility, and fragility to the system, which can compound and cause further disruptions. Sometimes, unfavorable cycles on various fronts (nature and civilization) can also converge and generate a perfect storm. It’s crucial to consider that and try to prepare as best we can for multiple disasters happening at once or in sequence, on various levels, collective and individual – even if psychologically and mentally. And if the signs are any indication, we’re entering such a period of simultaneous challenges.
#9 Snowball effect: Daisy based her excellent article on the 10 most likely ways to die when SHTF on the principle of large-scale die-off caused by a major disaster, like an EMP or other. This theory is controversial and the object of endless discussions. Some say it’s an exaggeration. But in my opinion, that’s leaving a critical factor out of the equation.
Consider the following: according to WPR and the CDC, before COVID-19, the mortality rate in the US was well below 1% (2.850.000 per year, or about 8.100 per day). If the mortality rate increases to just 5%, this alone would spark other SHTFs, potentially more serious and harmful than the first. That five-fold jump in mortality would result in more than 16 million dead per year or 44.000 per day. That’s 5% we’re talking about, not 20 or 30. If there’s even a protocol to deal with something like that, I’m not aware. It would be catastrophic on many levels over a shorter period (say, a few months).
Early in the CV19 pandemic, some cities had trouble burying the dead, and the death rate was still below 1%. Sure, other factors were playing. But the point is, things can snowball: consequences and implications are too complex and potentially far-reaching. Think about the effects on the system.
#10 SHTF is a situation, but it’s also a place: Things are hitting the fan somewhere right now. Not in the overblowing media but the physical world: the Texas border, third-world prisons, gang-ruled Haiti, in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, in the crackhouse just a few blocks from an affluent neighborhood, under the bridges of many big cities worldwide, in volcano-hit islands. There are thousands of places where people are bugging out, suffering, or dying of all causes at this very moment. If you’re not in any SHTF, consider yourself lucky. Be grateful, too: being able to prepare is a luxury.
#11 Choosing one way or another has a price: Being unprepared and wrong has a price. However, so does being prepared and wrong. Though some benefits exist regardless of what happens, the investment in terms of time, finance, and emotion to be prepared could be applied elsewhere or used for other finalities (career, a business, relationships, etc.) rather than some far-out collapse.
Since so much in SHTF is unknown and open, and resources are limited even when things are normal, survival and preparedness are essentially trade-offs. We must read the signals, weigh the options, consider the probabilities, make an option, and face the consequences. That’s why striving for balance is so important.
#12 SHTF is dirty, smelly, ugly: This is undoubtedly one of the most striking characteristics of SHTF: how bad some places and situations can be. Most people have no idea, and they don’t want to know about this. Those who fantasize about being in SHTF should think twice. Abject misery and despair have a distinct smell of excrement, sewage, death, rotting material, pollution, trash, burned stuff, and all kinds of dirt imaginable. And insects. The movies don’t show these things. But bad smells and insects infest everything and everywhere, and it can be maddening.
During my street survival training, I get to visit some really awful places and witness horrible things. The folks eventually going out with me invariably get shocked, sometimes even sickened, when they see decadence up and close for the first time. Even ones used to dealing with the nasties – it’s hard not to get affected.
For instance, drug consumption hotspots are so smelly and nasty that someone really must have to be on crack just to stand being there. It’s hell on earth, and I can’t think of another way to describe these and other places like third-world prisons, trash deposits, and many others. Early on, being in these places would make me question why I do this. It never becomes “normal.” We just adapt. But seeing these realities changes our life and the way we see things.
#13 The Grid is fragile: It’s baffling how this escapes so many. Most people I know are in constant marvel with modern civilization. They look around, pointing and saying, “Are you crazy? Too big to fail! There’s no way this can go away! Nothing has ever happened!“.
We have someone to take our trash, slaughter, process our food, treat our sick, purify our water, treat our sewage, protect us from wrongdoers and evil people (and keep them locked), control the traffic, and defend our rights. Peeking behind the curtains is a red pill moment. What keeps The Grid up and running is not something small, but it’s fragile. The natural state of things is not an insipid, artificially controlled environment. On the positive side, it makes us feel more grateful, humble, and also more responsible.
#14 The frog in the boiling water: That’s you and me and everyone around us. There’s no other way around it. We’re the suckers who get squeezed and pay the bill whenever something happens, anywhere and everywhere. It’s always our freedom, rights, money, and privacy that gets attacked, threatened, stolen.
Not only because the 1% screws us at the top, but because we’re the big numbers, the masses. And only those who work and produce something can bear the brunt of whatever bad happens to society and civilization. Make no mistake: whenever the brown stuff hits the fan, it will fall on us. It’s no reason to revolt but to acknowledge that, ultimately, we’re responsible for ourselves.
#15 People can make things worse: Just have a look around and see what’s happening. Selco himself will tell you that the most dangerous thing about the SHTF is other people.
Conclusion: Sometimes, the mechanics, brutality, and harshness of SHTF end up in the background of personal narratives and emotional accounts. Being more knowledgeable and cognizant of some general aspects of collapses may allow flexibility, creativity, improvisation, adaptation, resiliency, and other broad and effective strategies. Or, simply provide material for reflection and debate, really.
Either way, even those who haven’t been through collapse can still learn from history, from others’ experiences, from human behavior, from the facts. Just be sure to see the world for what it is and not from what you think. Because it will go its own way, and reality will assert itself all the same.
What are your thoughts about the dynamics of an SHTF scenario? Are there any you want to add? Does this match up with your personal expectations? Let’s discuss it in the comments."
"Grey's Anatomy"
“Whoever said, "What you don't know can't hurt you."
was a complete and total moron.
Sometimes not knowing is the worst thing in the world."
- Meredith Grey
"Knowing is better than wondering.
Waking is better than sleeping,
and even the biggest failure, even the worst,
beats the hell out of never trying."
-Meredith Grey
“Yes or no. In or out. Up or down. Live or die.
Hero or coward. Fight or give in.
I'll say it again to make sure you hear me.
The human life is made up of choices. Live or die.
That's the important choice. And it's not always in our hands."
- Derek Shepherd
Greg Hunter, "CV19 Vax Causes Explosion in Cancer"
"CV19 Vax Causes Explosion in Cancer –
Dr. Betsy Eads"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"From the very beginning of the CV19 bioweapon vax rollout in 2021, Dr. Betsy Eads (aka Dr. Betsy) sounded the alarm on all the severe medical problems, disabilities and deaths the injections would cause. Dr. Betsy has been promoting constant detoxing from the shots. In July, she, once again, pushed the idea that “Everyone Needs Treatment for CV19 Bioweapon Vax.” For the CV19 vaxed who are untreated, it is a total disaster. Just look at the out-of-control cancer numbers that Dr. Betsy said were coming back in 2021. Dr. Betsy says, “I gave you some predictions. I told you that there was going to be an explosion of cancer. This is all cause cancer, hematological and solid tumors in five years. Well, it’s 2026. It’s been five years, and the latest graph shows for 2026 an explosion for hematological cancers and solid tumor cancers, and that is just through February of 2026. This is about 300,000 cases just through February, and it is an absolute explosion of cases. I hate to say I told you so, but it was not just me who said this. There were many smart doctors in 2021 such as Ryan Cole, Pierre Kory, Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, and they have all been on your show, and we all said there would be an explosion in cancer.”
Dr. Betsy contends the CDC is covering up the true disaster the CV19 shots have become. Dr. Betsy says, “The CDC is actually deleting codes and data out of VARES purposely. In a stunning revelation today by Dr. Peter McCullough, 74% of all Covid 19 vaccinated autopsies were causally related to the CV19 vaccine. That is a huge number. It’s not just cancers. It’s all of the deaths that went to autopsy. 74% were directly related to the Covid 19 shot."
Dr. Betsy sees what is happening firsthand and points out, “These cancers, I am seeing every day. I am doing a telehealth consult almost every day with my team. The cancers are across the board: lymphoma, Hodgkins, breast cancer, stage four pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer, colon cancer and melanoma cancer. It’s just exploding across the board. They are very, very difficult to treat cancers.”
So, why don’t the CV19 vax injured sue? Dr. Betsy says, “All the cases get kicked out for standing. The judges are being told not to let the cases go forward. The system is captured. The minute the CV19 shots are completely pulled off the market, you are going to have a riot. The minute the Prep Act is reversed, you are going to have a riot. Because what is going to happen is then you must give informed consent Big Pharma are going to be sued into oblivion and into bankruptcy. That’s what all these judges are colluding about. They are all taking money from the government and Big Pharma. If you look at the FDA and CDC committee members, there is a Big Pharma person on those committees. Follow the money, it’s all about the money. 90% of Americans say they know a relative or close personal friend that the CV19 vax has hurt or killed–90%.”
In closing, Dr. Betsy says, “I think we are on the precipice of something big happening. There is going to be civil war or a civil uprising because people are not going to take this anymore. There are at least 17 million in America killed by the CV19 vax, and that number is underreported.” There is much more in the 64-minute interview.
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks to 27-year veteran Dr. Betsy Eads, DO, exposing the explosion of cancer from the CV19 injections. Dr. Eads still advises that everyone both vaxed and unvaxed needs treatment for the deadly effects of the CV19 bioweapon vax:
o
God help you if you've taken this shot...
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