John Campbelljohn, "Knocked Down"
So, we rise from the rubble...
StatCounter
Sunday, June 14, 2026
"A Look to the Heavens"
"NGC 1333 is seen in visible light as a reflection nebula, dominated by bluish hues characteristic of starlight reflected by interstellar dust. A mere 1,000 light-years distant toward the heroic constellation Perseus, it lies at the edge of a large, star-forming molecular cloud.
This telescopic close-up spans about two full moons on the sky or just over 15 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 1333. It shows details of the dusty region along with telltale hints of contrasty red emission from Herbig-Haro objects, jets and shocked glowing gas emanating from recently formed stars. In fact, NGC 1333 contains hundreds of stars less than a million years old, most still hidden from optical telescopes by the pervasive stardust. The chaotic environment may be similar to one in which our own Sun formed over 4.5 billion years ago."
"The Years We Were Given", Songs Compilation.
Full screen recommended.
Rylo AI Art,
"The Years We Were Given"
Native Elder, "How to Age Like a Warrior Instead of a Victim"
Full screen recommended.
Native Elder,
"How to Age Like a Warrior Instead of a Victim"
"I Ain't Drunk, I'm Just Old"
Full screen recommended.
Delta King's Blues, "I Ain't Drunk, I'm Just Old"
"There comes a point in a man’s life when the world starts spinning even if he hasn’t touched a drop - not from whiskey, but from years piling up heavier than they used to. Laughter gets slower, bones get louder, and everything hurts except the blues. “I Ain’t Drunk, I’m Just Old” is a soulful Delta blues confession wrapped in humor, truth, and the quiet ache of age catching up. Acoustic guitar shuffles with a warm, worn-out groove - like boots dragging across an old wooden floor. Harmonica wheezes and laughs in the same breath, carrying that bittersweet mix of pride and regret only an older man understands. The rhythm sways slow, like someone trying to steady himself without admitting why he needs to. This is the blues of aging with a smile, hurting with a joke, and hiding truth behind laughter because that’s all a man can do. Funny… tender… painfully real. Growing old ain’t easy - but the blues sure makes it honest."
"Brainless Society: The Rise of Stupid Society"
Full screen recommended.
Alone Psyche,
"Brainless Society: The Rise of Stupid Society"
"You know that feeling when you're scrolling through social media, and you see something so ridiculous, so outrageously shallow, that you just have to stop and stare? It could be a viral dance or a celebrity meltdown, it gets millions of views, a tidal wave of comments, and a ton of likes. Meanwhile, you might hear about a brilliant scientist making a groundbreaking discovery, a quiet philosopher offering profound insights, or an artist creating something truly meaningful. Do those get the same attention? Rarely. Why does it feel like our society is celebrating foolishness while ignoring wisdom? In this video, we’re going to dive into that question, and what you’ll find might surprise you. Stick around until the end because the final part of this journey might just change how you see the world and your own place in it."
Comments here:
o
Meanwhile, in a sane, literate, civilized society...
Full screen recommended.
Travelling With Russia, 6/14/26
"Summer in Russia:
Attending the Red Square Book Festival"
"What is it like to spend the summer in Moscow? How do people in Moscow spend the summer time? Join me on Red Square in the centre of Moscow, Russia, for the 12th annual Red Square Book Festival. Along with the Race On Nikolskya, all on the same day."
Comments here:
"Once Unbalanced..."
"No one today likes truth: utility and self interest have long ago been substituted for truth. We live in a nightmare of falsehoods, and there are few who are sufficiently awake and aware to see things as they are. Our first duty is to clear away illusions and recover a sense of reality."
- Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev
"Be Bold. Life Is Too Short For Anything Else"
"Be Bold. Life Is Too Short For Anything Else"
by John Wilder
“That’s a bold statement.” – "Pulp Fiction"
"One of the problems with life in Modern Mayberry is that it often moves at a fairly slow pace. Especially in the time when an adult is focused on raising kids, the days tend to blur one into the next. If your life is good, this isn’t really a problem. When I was younger, my life was spent going to weddings. Now that I’m older, more time is spent going to funerals. It is important to not get mixed up as to which you’re at, although sometimes “My condolences,” is appropriate at a wedding and I’d almost be willing to bet $20 that at least one person will say “Congratulations!” after my funeral. However, in the event that I’m wrong, collecting on that bet might be a problem.
One thing that facilitates this blur is reading stuff on the Internet. One blogger I read (LINK) is giving up doomscrolling (or reading the unending list of negative stories that are available in the news) for Lent. I suppose you could leave him a comment, but you’d have to wait a few weeks to get a response.
But when it comes to doomscrolling, there are huge numbers of these stories available. The business model is simple: scary stuff attracts eyeballs, and eyeballs means revenue. As I look at my own past posts, I’m thinking that, even though I talk about a lot of scary stuff, that I’m mostly relentlessly positive. I can even recall a comment section or two where I’m called a Pollyanna because I’m so positive.
I can live with that. Being positive, being for things and knowing that, in the end it’s all going to work out keeps me positive. In most cases (most, not all!) the things I write about don’t make me angry, either. Again, stress on the “mostly”. And I try not to get worked up about events occurring half-a-world away that I can’t control or even much influence. Things are what they are. And, for most of us, things are generally pretty good on a day-to-day basis, even when things aren’t perfect. Even on a bad day, most parts of the day are good. The thing that gets us is built into the doomscrolling: spending time worrying about things that simply have not happened.
I write about the coming Civil War 2.0 not in hopes that it comes, rather to make people aware that it’s coming. Do I sit and worry about it daily? No! That would take away from the time I spend thinking about the Roman Empire.
In this moment, there are things that I could let bother me. However, I realize that letting them bother me gives them power over me when that’s the last thing I want. “Take not counsel of your fears,” is attributed to George S. Patton, Jr. I’m sure other people said the same thing in similar ways in the thousands of years that people have been saying things, but when Patton says it, well, it’s been said.
“Better to fight for something than live for nothing.”
– GSP
If I let my fears fill me up, I live a life of fear regardless of if it’s a perfect 63°F, and I have a wonderful cigar, and a great book beside me while sitting in a comfortable chair. I think fear comes to people as they age. I certainly saw Pa Wilder get more and more cautious as he aged. I could give a few examples, but it doesn’t much matter. I did notice. And when I saw the tendency to do it start to crop up in myself, at least I understood what was going on and I could choose to be cautious or choose to be bold.
I think, however, that as I get older it is precisely the time to be bolder. Life moves in a blur, and days stack up faster, so they should mean something. If I knew I had only a year? What would I do? Something to make that year worthwhile. If a month? A day? The shorter the time left, the more that boldness matters and the less caution should. If I only had an hour of my life left, you can damn sure bet I’d do something with it, as much as I could.
But life is built on compound interest. The more I try to write, the better I get. The more I lift, the stronger I get. The time to start is now. The actions should be bold. While my days may pass fast, the more I can do with them, the more I will do.
When I pass, what will be left are the lives I’ve touched, the children that I’ve raised, the ways I’ve made the world better, and the words that I have written. Since the restraining order dictates who I can touch, and the lessons to the children are mainly done, that leaves making the world better and writing.
Even a full human lifetime isn’t enough, because they are so very short. But I’ll make do. With the remaining decades (hopefully) of my life, how big a dent can I kick in the Universe? I guess I’ll see. And I’ll smile some, every day. And enjoy that cigar, and book, and chair when I’m not being bold. “L’audace, l’audace, toujours l’audace.”
"America Is Entering the Next Great Depression... And Millions Can Feel It"
Full screen recommended.
The Unfolded States, 6/14/26
"America Is Entering the Next Great Depression...
And Millions Can Feel It"
"Is America heading toward the next Great Depression, or are millions of people already feeling the early signs of one? While headlines suggest the American economy remains stable, everyday reality tells a very different story. Rising utility bills, expensive groceries, growing debt, and financial anxiety are putting enormous pressure on households across the country. In this video, we break down why so many Americans feel financially worse even though unemployment remains relatively low and the stock market stays strong.
From the worsening cost of living crisis to record household debt, slowing job opportunities, and the growing impact of AI on employment, this analysis explores the deeper structural problems shaping today’s economy. We also examine why economic stress is no longer just about inflation. It is increasingly about confidence. When people stop believing that working harder leads to financial stability, consumer behavior changes, spending slows, and the broader economy begins to feel the pressure. This is why understanding the current American economy requires looking beyond surface-level data and focusing on what households are actually experiencing. What has impacted your budget the most over the past two years: housing, groceries, insurance, or utilities? Share your experience in the comments."
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Dan, I Allegedly, "What Can You Buy With $1 Trillion?"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, i Allegedly, 6/14/26
"What Can You Buy With $1 Trillion?"
"Elon Musk has officially become the world's first trillionaire following the massive SpaceX IPO, but what does $1 trillion actually look like? In this video, I break down just how absurd this amount of money really is by comparing it to everyday purchases, luxury assets, sports franchises, real estate, cruise ships, airplanes, and even entire countries. Most people hear the word "trillion" but never truly understand the scale of a number with twelve zeros behind it. We'll explore what $1 trillion can buy, how it compares to the global economy, and why the rise of trillionaire wealth is creating so much discussion around business, investing, taxes, entrepreneurship, and economic inequality. Whether you're interested in Elon Musk, SpaceX, Tesla, personal finance, wealth creation, investing, or simply understanding how much money a trillion dollars really is, this video puts the number into perspective in a way you've probably never seen before."
Comments here:
"How It Really Is"
That'll be the day!
"Nationwide, on average, 79% of U.S. adults are literate in 2026.
21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2026.
54% of adults have a literacy below 6th grade level."
"The problem isn't that Johnny can't read. The problem isn't
even that Johnny can't think. The problem is that Johnny
doesn't know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling."
- Thomas Sowell
"Five percent of the people think;
ten percent of the people think they think;
and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think."
- Thomas Edison
"Why The American Empire Is Falling Faster Than Anyone Predicted - And It's Not What You Think"
A Must-view!
Full screen recommended.
Finance Economist, 6/14/26
"Why The American Empire Is Falling Faster
Than Anyone Predicted - And It's Not What You Think"
"Words..."
"Words ought to be a little wild, for they
are the assaults of thoughts on the unthinking. "
- John Maynard Keynes
"Most People Don't Realize the US Empire Has Already Fallen"
Richard Wolff, 6/14/26
"Most People Don't Realize
the US Empire Has Already Fallen"
Comments here:
"There Is Always The Hope..."
“What happens to people living in a society where everyone in power is lying, stealing, cheating and killing, and in our hearts we all know this, but the consequences of facing all these lies are so monstrous, we keep on hoping that maybe the corporate government administration and media are on the level with us this time. Americans remind me of survivors of domestic abuse. This is always the hope that this is the very, very, very last time one’s ribs get re-broken again.”
- Inga Muscio
And we all know it won't be...
"Doug Casey on the End of Western Civilization"
"Doug Casey on the End of Western Civilization"
by International Man
"International Man: The decline of Western Civilization is on a lot of people’s minds. Let’s talk about this trend.
Doug Casey: Western Civilization has its origins in ancient Greece. It’s unique among the world’s civilizations in putting the individual - as opposed to the collective - in a central position. It enshrined logic and rational thought - as opposed to mysticism and superstition - as the way to deal with the world. It’s because of this that we have science, technology, great literature and art, capitalism, personal freedom, the concept of progress, and much, much more. In fact, almost everything worth having in the material world is due to Western Civilization.
Ayn Rand once said "East minus West equals zero." I think she went a bit too far, as a rhetorical device, but she was essentially right. When you look at what the world’s other civilizations have brought to the party, at least over the last 2,500 years, it’s trivial. I lived in the Orient for years. There are many things I love about it - martial arts, yoga, and the cuisine among them. But all the progress they’ve made is due to adopting the fruits of the West.
International Man: There are so many things degrading Western Civilization. Where do we begin?
Doug Casey: It’s been said, correctly, that a civilization always collapses from within. World War 1, in 1914, signaled the start of the long collapse of Western Civilization. Of course, termites were already eating away at the foundations, with the writings of people like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx. It’s been on an accelerating downward path ever since, even though technology and science have been improving at a quantum pace. They are, however, like delayed action flywheels, operating on stored energy and accumulated capital. Without capital, intellectual freedom, and entrepreneurialism, science and technology will slow down. I’m optimistic we’ll make it to Kurzweil’s Singularity, but there are no guarantees.
Things also changed with the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913. Before that, the US used gold coinage for money. "The dollar" was just a name for 1/20th of an ounce of gold. That is what the dollar was. Paper dollars were just receipts for gold on deposit in the Treasury. The income tax, enacted the same year, threw more sand in the gears of civilization. The world was much freer before the events of 1913 and 1914, which acted to put the State at the center of everything.
The Fed and the income tax are both disastrous and unnecessary things, enemies of the common man in every way. Unfortunately, people have come to believe they’re fixtures in the cosmic firmament. They’re the main reasons - there are many other reasons, though, unfortunately - why the average American’s standard of living has been dropping since the early 1970s. In fact, were it not for these things, and the immense amount of capital destroyed during the numerous wars of the last 100 years, I expect we’d have already colonized the moon and Mars. Among many other things.
But I want to re-emphasize that the science, the technology, and all the wonderful toys we have are not the essence of Western Civilization. They’re consequences of individualism, capitalism, rational thought, and personal freedom. It’s critical not to confuse cause and effect.
International Man: You mentioned that the average American’s standard of living has dropped since the early 1970s. This is directly related to the US government abandoning the dollar’s last link to gold in 1971. Since then, the Federal Reserve has been able to debase the US dollar without limit. I think the dollar’s transformation into a purely fiat currency has eroded the rule of law and morality in the US. It’s similar to what happened in the Roman Empire after it started debasing its currency. What do you think, Doug?
Doug Casey: All the world’s governments and central banks share a common philosophy, which drives these policies. They believe that you create economic activity by stimulating demand, and you stimulate demand by printing money. And, of course, it’s true, in a way. Roughly the same way a counterfeiter can stimulate a local economy.
Unfortunately, they ignore that, and completely ignore that the way a person or a society becomes wealthy is by producing more than they consume and saving the difference. That difference, savings, is how you create capital. Without capital you’re reduced to subsistence, scratching at the earth with a stick. These people think that by inflating - which is to say destroying - the currency, they can create prosperity. But what they’re really doing, is destroying capital: When you destroy the value of the currency, that discourages people from saving it. And when people don’t save, they can’t build capital, and the vicious cycle goes on.
This is destructive for civilization itself, in both the long term and the short term. The more paper money, the more credit, they create, the more society focuses on finance, as opposed to production. It’s why there are many times more people studying finance than science. The focus is increasingly on speculation, not production. Financial engineering, not mechanical, electrical, or chemical engineering. And lots of laws and regulations to keep the unstable structure from collapsing.
What keeps a truly civil society together isn’t laws, regulations, and police. It’s peer pressure, social opprobrium, moral approbation, and your reputation. These are the four elements that keep things together. Western Civilization is built on voluntarism. But, as the State grows, that’s being replaced by coercion in every aspect of society. There are regulations on the most obscure areas of life. As Harvey Silverglate pointed out in his book, the average American commits three felonies a day. Whether he’s caught and prosecuted is a subject of luck and the arbitrary will of some functionary. That’s antithetical to the core values of Western Civilization.
International Man: Speaking of ancient civilizations like Rome, interest rates are just coming off the the lowest levels they’ve been in 5,000 years of recorded history. Trillions of dollars’ worth of government bonds trade at negative yields. Of course, this couldn’t happen in a free market. It’s only possible because of central bank manipulation. How will artificially low interest rates affect the collapse of Western Civilization?
Doug Casey: It’s really, really serious. I previously thought it was metaphysically impossible to have negative interest rates but, in the Bizarro World central banks have created, it’s happened.
Negative interest rates discourage saving. Once again, saving is what builds capital. Without capital you wind up as an empty shell - Rome in 450 A.D., or Detroit today - lots of wonderful but empty buildings and no economic activity. Worse, it forces people to desperately put their money in all manner of idiotic speculations in an effort to stay ahead of inflation. They wind up chasing the bubbles the funny money creates.
Let me re-emphasize something: in order for science and technology to advance you need capital. Where does capital come from? It comes from people producing more than they consume and saving the difference. Debt, on the other hand, means you’re living above your means. You’re either consuming the capital others have saved, or you’re mortgaging your future.
Zero and negative interest rate policies, and the creation of money out of nowhere, are actually destructive of civilization itself. It makes the average guy feel that he’s not in control of his own destiny. He starts believing that the State, or luck, or Allah will provide for him. That attitude is typical of people from backward parts of the world - not Western Civilization.
International Man: What does it say about the economy and society that people work so hard to interpret what officials from the Federal Reserve and other central banks say?
Doug Casey: It’s a shameful waste of time. They remind me of primitives seeking the counsel of witch doctors. One hundred years ago, the richest people in the country - the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, and such - made their money creating industries that actually made stuff. Now, the richest people in the country just shuffle money around. They get rich because they’re close to the government and the hydrant of currency materialized by the Federal Reserve. I’d say it’s a sign that society in the US has become quite degraded.
The world revolves much less around actual production, but around guessing the direction of financial markets. Negative interest rates are creating bubbles, and will eventually result in an economic collapse.
International Man: Negative interest rates are essentially a tax on savings. A lot of people would rather pull their money out of the bank and stuff it under a mattress than suffer that sting. The economic central planners know this. It’s why they’re using negative interest rates to ramp up the War on Cash - the push to eliminate paper currency and create a cashless society.
The banking system is very fragile. Banks don’t hold much paper cash. It’s mostly digital bytes on a computer. If people start withdrawing paper money en masse, it won’t take much to bring the whole system down. Their solution is to make accessing cash harder, and in some cases, illegal. That’s why the economic witch doctors at Harvard are pounding the table to get rid of the $100 bill. Take France, for example. It’s now illegal to make cash transactions over €1,000 without documenting them properly.
Negative interest rates have turbocharged the War on Cash. If the central planners win this war, it would be the final deathblow to financial privacy. How does this all relate to the collapse of Western Civilization?
Doug Casey: I believe the next step in their idiotic plan is to abolish cash. Decades ago they got rid of gold coinage, which used to circulate day to day in people’s pockets. Then they got rid of silver coinage. Now, they’re planning to get rid of cash altogether. So you won’t even have euros or dollars or pounds in your wallet anymore, or if you do, it will only be very small denominations. Everything else is going to have to be done through electronic payment processing.
This is a huge disaster for the average person: absolutely everything that you buy or sell, other than perhaps a candy bar or a hamburger, is going to have to go through the banking system. Thus, the government will be able to monitor every transaction and payment. Financial privacy, even what’s left of it today, will literally cease to exist.
Privacy is one of the big differences between a civilized society and a primitive society. In a primitive society, in your little dirt hut village, anybody can look through your window or pull back the flap on your tent. You have no privacy. Everybody can hear everything; see anything. This was one of the marvelous things about Western Civilization - privacy was valued, and respected. But that concept, like so many others, is on its way out…
International Man: You’ve mentioned before that language and words provide important clues to the collapse of Western Civilization. How so?
Doug Casey: Many of the words you hear, especially on television and other media, are confused, conflated, or completely misused. Many recent changes in the way words are used are corrupting the language. As George Orwell liked to point out, to control language is to control thought. The corruption of language is adding to the corruption of civilization itself. This is not a trivial factor in the degradation of Western Civilization.
Words - their exact meanings, and how they’re used are critically important. If you don’t mean what you say and say what you mean, then it’s impossible to communicate accurately. Forget about transmitting philosophical concepts.
Take for example shareholders and stakeholders. We all know that a shareholder actually owns a share in a company, but have you noticed that over the last generation shareholders have become less important than stakeholders? Even though stakeholders are just hangers-on, employees, or people who are looking to get in on a shakedown. But everybody slavishly acknowledges, "Yes, we’ve got to look out for the stakeholders." Where did that concept come from? It’s a recent creation, but Boobus americanus seems to think it was carved in stone at the country’s founding.
We’re told to protect them, as if they were a valuable and endangered species. I say, "A pox upon stakeholders." If they want a vote in what a company does, then they ought to become shareholders. Stakeholders are a class of being created out of nothing by Cultural Marxists for the purpose of shaking down shareholders."
Editor’s Note: This is going to be the most turbulent decade in US history…The 2020s will be more dangerous than the 1930s, the 1940s, and even the 1860s. That's because severe crises are brewing on multiple fronts and converging. The whole system will have a complete reset, and soon. It could be the BIGGEST thing since the founding of the USA."
"And, Of Course..."
And, of course, the universal and inevitable excuse…
“A person who is going to commit an inhuman act invariably
excuses himself to himself by saying, “I’m only human, after all.”
- Sydney J. Harris
I've always wondered...
Everyone says “Only human…” compared to what?
Full screen recommended.
Billy Joel, "You're Only Human (Second Wind)"
"Indigenous Nonsense"
"Indigenous Nonsense"
by Spyridon Andrews
"When the dust settles hundreds of years from now and people begin to assess the hows and whys of Western decline, the issue of colonialism will figure prominently.
We are traveling from Mexico City to San Miguel de Allende with “The Professor,” a San Miguel resident who makes extra money by driving tourists from Mexico City to San Miguel. The title of professor is honorary. He is a self-taught scholar, a writer, and a highly intelligent man who works odd jobs around San Miguel to earn a living. The Professor is sharing tales of the Aztec Empire with us as we drive northward, stopped only briefly by the friendly Mexican police who take their usual bribe of around $200 as insurance against being arrested for more serious crimes, real or fictitious.
The Professor goes on to tell us that all the horrible atrocities allegedly committed by the Aztecs were lies, all lies. Native American culture is burned into the mental DNA of Central Mexico. Children assemble on holidays dressed like little Aztec warriors for parades. There is pride in their Aztec heritage.
On the way back, we stop to see the pyramids outside Mexico City, and The Professor is full of information about this fascinating culture. He describes their innovation, tremendous power, and unrivaled legacy. The Professor is a proud man.
But despite my enormous respect for The Professor, the stories about the Aztecs are not lies. The Aztecs believed that the gods had sacrificed themselves to create the world and that, out of necessity, human blood was required to keep the sun moving across the sky. Human and animal sacrifice have been elemental features of nature religions throughout history. The harvest required blood.
The Aztecs sacrificed prisoners of war in religious ceremonies. The prisoners were led to the tops of temple pyramids, held down by priests, and had their hearts cut out while still alive. Their bodies were then strewn down the steps of the pyramid; the bloodier the spectacle, the better. Archaeological studies at sites such as Templo Mayor have uncovered racks of human skulls known as tzompantli. Human sacrifice was one of the things that made the empire go, alongside continual military conquest and tribute extraction. Subject peoples were required to provide food, textiles, luxury goods, labor, and, when the priests ran out of bodies, sacrificial victims. The Aztecs were so hated that many indigenous groups allied themselves with the Spaniards.
The Mayans also get a bit of a pass. They are remembered for their astronomy, mathematics, writing system, and cities, but not nearly as much for their human sacrifice, torture, and public humiliation of victims. Ritual killings were common, and murder was infused with religious meaning and legitimacy.
There is an awful lot of emphasis on the atrocities of the Spanish conquerors, and there should be. The conquistadores were not such nice guys either. But for all the talk about colonialism, few dare to examine it thoughtfully. Contrary to what they may believe over at Barnard or Smith College, fighting colonialism does not consist of wearing a mask into Philz Coffee. History shows that colonialism is not good or bad in the abstract, any more than all indigenous populations were terrific people who deserved to remain in power forever.
The coffee-shop view of colonialism assumes that moral legitimacy flows automatically from historical priority. We are told that people who arrived first possess a uniquely valid claim to the land and that later arrivals are forever burdened by a kind of original sin. Arguments about ownership in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the Americas frequently revolve around the endlessly repeated question of who was there first. To which I say, is this the real question?
Human history is not a story of static populations peacefully occupying fixed territories. Human history is a bloody mess. It is a story of migration, conquest, assimilation, intermarriage, commerce, shifting alliances, and conflict. Before one group was there, another was there. And before them, another. The idea of an original owner is neither logical nor provable.
The notion that being “here first” creates a permanent political entitlement does not survive even minimal scrutiny. If first possession establishes political sovereignty, then every modern nation on earth is illegitimate. Every border, kingdom, republic, and civilization would need to defend itself against claims arising from earlier migrations and forgotten peoples.
Equally false are theological and mystical claims to land. In Israel today, three different religions claim rights to the same patch of desert based upon the authority of their holy books. Throughout history, religions have invoked divine authority to invade neighboring lands, expel inhabitants, and wage war. Whether the justification comes from Manifest Destiny, the Torah, the Talmud, the Koran, or some other sacred source, the underlying claim is essentially the same. And it is nonsense.
The more important question is not who was here first. The more important question is who governs well. I submit that political legitimacy is derived from creating conditions in which human beings can flourish. Legitimacy is established through justice, the protection of liberty, the maintenance of order and safety, the safeguarding of property, the encouragement of opportunity, and the principle that rulers themselves are subject to law.
Today’s discussions of colonialism often condemn it as a single phenomenon. Yet colonial ventures—and indigenous governments—varied enormously. Some colonial regimes were exploitative and destructive. Others introduced institutions that became the foundation of later prosperity. Most contained elements of both.
Some colonial regimes, like Great Britain in many instances, created railroads, ports, courts, universities, modern medicine, commercial systems, property rights, and civil administration. Historical analysis requires attention to actual results rather than slogans.
Under British administration, Hong Kong evolved from a relatively modest trading settlement into one of the world’s most prosperous financial centers. The British were not perfect, since they were, after all, British. But they created opportunities for millions of people over the century, or so they were in power. Then the indigenous Chinese government came into power, bringing its usual basket of fun.
Beijing imposed the National Security Law in 2020. Hong Kong went from one of the freest and most prosperous cities in Asia to a place where political dissent can land you in prison. Independent newspapers were shut down, activists jailed, elections restructured, and civic organizations dissolved. But don’t worry, because it was indigenous.
Singapore followed a different path. The British established a major international port, a functioning legal system, English-language administration, and commercial institutions. Singapore’s leaders built upon those foundations rather than dismantling them. The result was one of the most remarkable economic transformations in modern history. Today, Singapore is one of the safest, wealthiest, and most efficiently governed societies in the world. They built upon foundations laid by the evil colonizers.
Then there is India. British rule was far from one big tea party. Nevertheless, modern India inherited a nationwide civil service, a common-law legal system, rail networks, universities, administrative structures, and commercial institutions that continue to play important roles today. The British made considerable damage, the most lasting of which may be the Indian fascination with cricket, a hideous and boring game, along with the equally annoying habit of taking tea in the middle of a match.
So not all colonial empires are created equal. And now, we should also point out, not all indigenous cultures are created equal. There are many examples, including recent ones, of governments that enjoyed broad cultural support before delivering poverty, repression, corruption, economic stagnation, and the suppression of civil liberties. Cuba, Venezuela, and many African nations come readily to mind.
This confidence in indigenous culture is often paired with the equally dubious assumption that all cultures are equal in their outcomes. Sorry, despite what your anthropology professor told you, all cultures are not equal. Some encourage innovation, literacy, accountability, and economic development. Some protect women, minorities, and dissenters. Some cultivate the peaceful transfer of power. Others normalize violence, patronage, corruption, and disregard for human rights.
Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe was indigenous. He imposed political repression, economic mismanagement, hyperinflation, and destroyed the agricultural sector. He was handed the ball on the five-yard line and fumbled it. Idi Amin was indigenous. His regime became notorious for brutality and persecution. South Africa today has an indigenous government. So does Mexico. The fact that leaders share ancestry with the people they govern tells us nothing about whether they govern wisely.
And what about us? How much comfort should we take from the fact that our own political class is homegrown? Does it make endless debt, endless wars, corruption, and institutional decline more acceptable because the people responsible were born here?
History is not sentimental. It does not care who arrived first, whose ancestors crossed a particular river, or whose holy book claims title to a patch of ground. History does not award virtue based upon genealogy, ethnicity, race, religion, or indigeneity. It asks a far more practical question: What did you do with the place once you got it?
Did you create liberty or oppression? Prosperity or poverty? Justice or corruption? Did ordinary people have the opportunity to build families, businesses, communities, and meaningful lives? Were rulers constrained by law, or did they become laws unto themselves? Did your institutions survive your leaders, or did everything collapse into tribalism, violence, and decay?
That is how civilizations are judged. Rome is not remembered because Romans got there first. Britain is not remembered because Britons got there first. America will not be remembered because Americans got here first. They will be remembered for what they built, what they preserved, what they destroyed, and whether they expanded or diminished the possibilities of human flourishing.
In the end, legitimacy is not inherited. It is earned. It does not arise from ancestry, mythology, chronology, or blood. It arises from competence, justice, liberty, opportunity, and the rule of law. The question is not who was here first. The question has always been, and will always be, who governs well."
Saturday, June 13, 2026
"Under The Weather"
Under the weather, posting resumes ASAP.
Thanks for your patience and understanding.
- CP
o
Full screen recommended.
Delta King's Blues,
"Pain Ain't Gonna Stop Me"
"The aches got louder… but so did my determination. “Pain Ain’t Gonna Stop Me” is a powerful, resilient Delta King’s Blues anthem about pushing forward through hard times, worn-out bones, and every challenge life throws your way. A gritty, determined acoustic guitar drives the groove like boots marching through mud without turning back. The harmonica cries bold and defiant, carrying the spirit of someone who refuses to surrender to the years. The rhythm rolls slow but relentless, built for folks who know that strength isn’t about feeling no pain - it’s about moving anyway. This is blues for fighters. For people who wake up sore, tired, and weathered… yet still get up and face another day. Pain may ride beside me… but it sure ain’t driving."
"Workin’ The Second Shift For Vlad The Impaler"
"Workin’ The Second Shift For Vlad The Impaler"
by The Cat
"History is all too frequently punctuated with tales of tyrants, tormented by their own psychopathic personalities, free of the burden of a troubled consciousness of the suffering they cause. The names are familiar: Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Genghis Khan, on and on the sordid list goes. But among these infamous characters, one stands out for the sheer magnitude and barbarity of his cruelty. Vlad Tepes - Vlad the Impaler - is a name that causes one to shudder at the level of suffering inflicted not just on opposing troops, but even on women and children. His method of execution was one designed to prolong the most extreme torment for days, at times.
This was the process of impaling the victim on a stake through the rectum or vagina, and letting the weight of the body slowly force the stake up through the torso. It is a torture that inspired extreme fear of being used for any reason Vlad might decide was appropriate. This could include treason, disloyalty or doubted allegiances, in addition to actual combat. But it was applied also to women and even infants, as a way to terrorize through psychological aversion any who might waver in their unconditional support of Vlad, or who dared confront him in war.
This gruesome context is used to set the stage for the real question at hand: how was Vlad able to employ human beings in the non-stop infliction of such mind-bending evil on others of our kind? How was the psychological disassociation of the perpetrators able to mask such monstrous suffering that they beheld literally face to face as they skewered the hapless victims of this methodical savagery?
These were not isolated instances of insanity. They were the routine use of practices that required an industrial-sized level of brutality, sustained over time. As an example, one such massacre involved over 20,000 victims on stakes, collected into a forest of horror that apparently was sufficiently persuasive to repel invading forces. In other words, it worked for Vlad. The impaled were just “collateral damage.”
The answer to the question of how this is possible is not easy to come by. Human psychology is complex. We often do what we do under the influence of herd mentality and a desire to ingratiate ourselves to others we identify with. The Othering of outsiders has also been a clearly understood dynamic of tribal cohesion in most societies. Threats to our tribe are often used as the catalyst for severe repression of the alien elements that seemingly threaten us.
The so-called Strong Man is a figure of human behavior that seems to hold a fascination for a large segment of our species, who look to the Alpha Male types for both inner and outer security. Obviously, the reality of disobedience with someone of Vlad’s temperament likely meant you would be looking at the scene from a vantage point atop your own stake in short order.
Even with all these elements, it still becomes hard to fathom how human beings can lay hands on another under these circumstances, knowing the awful fate that awaits the victim, a fate our involvement makes possible. And to do this not once, not twice, but so often a forest of the tormented grows before our eyes. This requires a level of dehumanization of the victim that seems impossible to comprehend.
Modern warfare has allowed the State to employ stand-off weapons that don’t need to bloody the hands of the perpetrators. Thousands may die, seen only through a sighting screen. A switch is thrown, a bomb is dropped or a missile fired…and the carnage is neatly kept away from those whose sensibilities might object to a more direct experience of the suffering they are causing.
Bird-sized drones with explosive warheads hunt down and dismember the enemy one by one. Civilian infrastructure that supports life in a modern society is destroyed, denying clean water, sanitation or electricity to non-combatants. We are every bit as thorough in our cruelty as our 15th century example, it’s just that we have found ways to torment without having to tax our self-image of decency too strenuously.
We can almost imagine today’s headlines of ordnance shortages in hostilities against civilians being echoed by Vlad’s supply line staff: “Stakes, I need stakes stat, Grigore! You promised me 1,000, I’m looking at, what, 100, I guess. These folks aren’t going to impale themselves!” The macabre and malevolent, clothed in the banality of inventory control.
Over 80,000 have died in Gaza while the world looked on. They are not to be found on stakes set up where they were sacrificed. They are buried under rubble, to be paved over in the name of a statecraft that can justify wholesale death by the promise of luxury redevelopment.
Humanity can never progress beyond its present level of punctuated barbarity and soul-killing lust for money and power until there are enough of the “stakeholders” inflicting the suffering who are willing to turn on the tyrants and destroy the cancer they represent. As has often been said, we are many, they are few. Will we be able to finally escape the nightmare of our species held hostage by the oppression and inhumanity of a relative handful of the worst of our kind?" - https://www.theburningplatform.com/
"Americans Are Screaming That The Economy Has Already Collapsed - Listen To Them"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 6/13/26
"Americans Are Screaming That The Economy
Has Already Collapsed - Listen To Them"
"Everyone is struggling with the job market, rent, and grocery prices right now, and this video shows the real stories people are sharing online. You'll hear from job seekers facing endless rejections, renters priced out of their apartments, and shoppers stunned by checkout totals. If you've ever wondered why qualified candidates keep getting screened out, or why a sandwich now costs double, these clips put words to what so many people are feeling but not saying out loud.
If any of these moments hit close to home, drop a comment and tell us which one matched your experience this month. Share this video with someone who keeps saying they feel alone in the struggle, and subscribe so you don't miss the next compilation of voices talking about the things everyone is dealing with right now. This compilation covers the job market and resume rejections, rising rent and the housing crisis, grocery prices and the cost of living, working multiple jobs, living paycheck to paycheck, and the wider recession conversation people are having every day."
Comments here:
Adventures With Danno, "Massive Price Drops At Aldi"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 6/13/26
"Massive Price Drops At Aldi"
Comments here:
Friday, June 12, 2026
Musical Interlude: 2002, "Greater Than The Sum"; "Memory of the Sky"
Full screen recommended.
2002, "Greater Than The Sum"
○
Full screen recommended.
2002, "Memory of the Sky"
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Blown by fast winds from a hot, massive star, this cosmic bubble is huge. Cataloged as Sharpless 2-308 it lies some 5,000 light-years away toward the constellation of the Big Dog (Canis Major) and covers slightly more of the sky than a Full Moon. That corresponds to a diameter of 60 light-years at its estimated distance. The massive star that created the bubble, a Wolf-Rayet star, is the bright one near the center of the nebula. Wolf-Rayet stars have over 20 times the mass of the Sun and are thought to be in a brief, pre-supernova phase of massive star evolution.
Fast winds from this Wolf-Rayet star create the bubble-shaped nebula as they sweep up slower moving material from an earlier phase of evolution. The windblown nebula has an age of about 70,000 years. Relatively faint emission captured by narrowband filters in the deep image is dominated by the glow of ionized oxygen atoms mapped to a blue hue. Presenting a mostly harmless outline, SH2-308 is also known as The Dolphin-head Nebula.”
Native Elder, "Why Every Day Feels the Same After 60"
Full screen recommended.
Native Elder,
"Why Every Day Feels the Same After 60"
"The Best People Ask Questions"
Full screen recommended.
"The Best People Ask Questions"
"Some people spend their whole lives trying to sound smart. The wisest people I've ever met did something different. They listened. They asked questions. They stayed curious. They never assumed they already knew everything worth knowing. "The Best People Ask Questions" is a thoughtful Delta blues reflection about humility, curiosity, wisdom, lifelong learning, and the quiet difference between knowledge and understanding. The resonator guitar moves with the patience of an old conversation that never needed to be rushed. The harmonica answers each verse like a thoughtful friend who knows that listening is often more valuable than speaking. The groove stays warm, reflective, deeply human... like a front porch discussion where nobody's trying to win, only understand. This is the blues of curiosity. Not certainty. Curiosity. Wisdom. Lifelong learning. Humility. Listening. Personal growth.Old soul perspective. The smartest person in the room is usually still learning."
The Poet: Mary Oliver, “October”
“October”
"There’s this shape, black as the entrance to a cave.
A longing wells up in its throat
like a blossom
as it breathes slowly.
What does the world
mean to you if you can’t trust it
to go on shining when you’re
not there? and there’s
a tree, long-fallen; once
the bees flew to it, like a procession
of messengers, and filled it
with honey.
I said to the chickadee, singing his heart out in the
green pine tree:
little dazzler
little song,
little mouthful.
The shape climbs up out of the curled grass. It
grunts into view. There is no measure
for the confidence at the bottom of its eyes-
there is no telling
the suppleness of its shoulders as it turns
and yawns.
Near the fallen tree
something - a leaf snapped loose
from the branch and fluttering down - tries to pull me
into its trap of attention.
It pulls me into its trap of attention,
And when I turn again, the bear is gone.
Look, hasn’t my body already felt
like the body of a flower?
Look, I want to love this world
as thought it’s the last chance I’m ever going to get
to be alive and know it.
Sometimes in late summer I won’t touch anything, not
the flowers, not the blackberries
brimming in the thickets; I won’t drink
from the pond; I won’t name the birds or the trees;
I won’t whisper my own name.
One morning
the fox came down the hill, glittering and confident,
and didn’t see me - and I thought:
so this is the world.
I’m not in it.
It is beautiful."
- Mary Oliver
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