"A Religious Reason the Saudis Are Blocking a New Attack on Iran"

"A Religious Reason the Saudis 

Are Blocking a New Attack on Iran"

by Larry C. Johnson

"The HAJJ. The Hajj is the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is one of the Five Pillars of Islam — the core religious obligations that define Muslim practice. Every Muslim who is physically and financially able is required to perform the Hajj at least once in their lifetime. This obligation is drawn directly from the Quran and the example of the Prophet Muhammad. The pilgrimage takes place during the Islamic lunar month of Dhul Hijjah - specifically on the 8th through 13th days - meaning it falls on different dates each year in the Gregorian calendar. This year, it is May 24… Sunday next.

Hajj is the largest annual human gathering on earth. In a normal year, roughly 2–3 million pilgrims from approximately 180 countries converge on Mecca and its surrounding sites over a period of five days. Saudi Arabia issues Hajj visas and imposes quotas on each country to manage the crowds. While in Saudi Arabia, the Muslim pilgrims will engage in a number of observances that will end on 31 May. The sequence of key events unfolds as follows:

May 24–25 (8 Dhul Hijjah): The Day of Tarwiyah begins. Pilgrims travel from Mecca to the tent city of Mina to prepare for the days ahead.May 26 (9 Dhul Hijjah): The Day of Arafah. Pilgrims gather on the plains of Mount Arafat to pray and repent—the most crucial and central ritual of the Hajj.

May 27 (10 Dhul Hijjah): Eid al-Adha. Pilgrims travel to Muzdalifah to collect pebbles for the symbolic stoning of the devil in Mina, followed by animal sacrifice and the shaving or trimming of hair.

May 28–29: The remaining days of Tashreeq, during which pilgrims continue the stoning rituals and perform Tawaf al-Ifadah at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

Saudi leaders know that if they allow the US to conduct new attacks on Iran from Saudi bases, or if US air assets located at Prince Saud Air Base (PSAB) are used to refuel US attack jets, then Iran would likely retaliate and hit Saudi targets. This runs the risk of knocking out power and disrupting air traffic, which means Muslim pilgrims would not be able to arrive in Saudi Arabia or depart. A new US attack on a Muslim nations during this sacred period would further damage the already tattered reputation of the United States.

It is possible that Trump might decide to go ahead with a new round of airstrikes on Iran, but instead of using Saudi airspace the refueling operations would be shifted to Iraqi airspace. On the diplomatic front, Washington continues demanding extensive uranium transfers, severe limitations on Iran’s remaining nuclear infrastructure, and regional de-escalation in exchange for phased sanctions relief and limited asset access. Tehran’s position remains equally uncompromising: end the multi-front regional wars, lift sanctions in meaningful form, unfreeze sovereign assets, recognize the geopolitical realities surrounding Iranian influence and strategic geography - particularly around Hormuz.

The crucial point here is that Tehran no longer views its nuclear leverage merely as a technical bargaining chip. It now sees it as part of a much wider civilizational and strategic survival framework. Iran has absolutely no intention of surrendering sensitive nuclear material into Western custody structures. If any external custodial arrangement emerges, the preference strongly tilts toward Russia and possibly broader Eurasian mechanisms rather than anything controlled by Washington or Europe.

Here is the bottomline: The negotiations between Iran and the US, with Pakistan mediating, are likely to fail and the US will, along with Israel, will renew the attack on Iran, but without the support of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait."

- https://larrycjohnson.substack.com/

Grandpa Got The Blues, "You Can't Repair Foolish"

Full screen recommended.

Grandpa Got The Blues, "You Can't Repair Foolish"

"A witty, no-nonsense blues track about the hard truth that some people just won’t listen - no matter how clear the advice. With dry humor and seasoned wisdom, it tells the story of letting go, stepping back, and finding peace in not trying to fix what was never willing to change. A gentle acoustic guitar carries the melody like an old man’s slow walk at sunset. The harmonica sighs soft and low, like memories drifting through warm southern air. The rhythm moves slow and steady - the kind of blues made for porch swings, fading sunlight, and hands that still find each other after all these years. Because sometimes the real blues isn’t about heartbreak…it’s about a love that stayed. Grandpa’s been around long enough to know: the best love story isn’t the loudest one - it’s the one that keeps going. Growing old ain’t so bad… if you ain’t doing it alone."

The Daily "Near You?"

Kannapolis, North Carolina, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"We Are 6 Months From Global Food Shortages Because Farmers Are Facing A Quadruple Whammy Crisis"

by Michael Snyder

"We have never faced anything quite like this. Diesel fuel and fertilizer have become far more expensive as a result of the conflict in the Middle East, and extreme weather is playing havoc with crops all over the planet. Here in the United States, we just experienced the driest first three months of a year in recorded history. No, that isn’t an exaggeration. Now a “Super El Niño” is coming, and that means that drought conditions are going to get even worse in many areas of the world. The “Super El Niño” of 1877-1878 resulted in widespread droughts that killed more than 50 million people, and now we are being warned that the upcoming “Super El Niño” could be even worse. Our farmers have never faced a “perfect storm” of this magnitude, and global food production is going to be way down in the months ahead.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization is publicly warning that a severe global food crisis could strike about 6 months from now if something really dramatic does not happen…The closure of the Strait of Hormuz could trigger a severe global food price crisis within six to 12 months unless governments act quickly, the Food and Agriculture Organization warned Wednesday. Decisions now by farmers and governments on fertilizer use, imports, financing and crop choices will determine whether food prices spike later this year or in early 2027, the agency said.

I don’t know what national governments around the world are supposed to do. They can’t create fertilizer out of thin air. Thanks to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran, millions of farmers all over the northern hemisphere didn’t get the fertilizer that they needed for the spring planting season.

UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo is telling us that as a result “many places in the world will have problems of food shortage” once harvest season arrives…Food shortages are expected to hit many parts of the world from September or October following a fertilizer production plunge, the U.N. Development Program’s head said on Monday. “In September, (or) October, many places in the world will have problems of food shortage,” as agricultural production is expected to be much lower following the fertilizer production slump resulting from high oil prices amid Middle East conflicts, UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo said in an interview in Tokyo.

Even if fertilizer is available, many farmers simply cannot afford it. In fact, one recent survey discovered that 70 percent of U.S. farmers could not afford to buy all of the fertilizer that they needed for the spring planting season because it has become so expensive.

Meanwhile, diesel has become painfully expensive as well. Virtually all farm equipment runs on diesel, and as I write this article the average price of a gallon of diesel in the U.S. is sitting at about five and a half dollars. But in California, the average price of a gallon of diesel has reached nearly seven and a half dollars…According to AAA, the average price for diesel fuel in California is about $7.43 per gallon, which is $2.36 higher compared to last year. In Fresno, prices are slightly higher. “In Fresno, you’re paying about $6.06 for a gallon of regular gasoline, but you’re paying $7.48 for a gallon of diesel,” Johnson said. You may not care about what is happening in California, but you should because California produces more fruit and more vegetables than any other state by a very wide margin.

Drought is another major problem that U.S. farmers are dealing with. In West Texas, the cracks in the ground caused by endless drought are big enough to swallow an entire human hand…"Scott Irlbeck crouched in a field of stunted wheat plants in a parched stretch of West Texas and slipped his hand into a crack wide enough to swallow it. Last autumn, Irlbeck planted a crop that barely grew because rain never came. ​He now hopes his insurance adjuster will declare it a total loss so he will not need to spend money on pricey fuel to harvest it next month."

Coming into this year, the southwestern portion of the nation was experiencing the worst multi-year drought in at least 1,200 years. And then the first three months of this year were the driest first three months of a year for the entire country ever recorded. As a result, it is being projected that the winter wheat harvest will be a disaster…"Crop estimates underscore just how bad the situation is. Growers will see their smallest wheat crop in terms of production since 1972, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture; 1.56 billion bushels this year, down 21% from 2025. That’s especially harmful to Kansas, one of the top overall producers of wheat in the U.S."

This year, only 22 million acres of winter wheat will be harvested, and the abandonment rate is above 32 percent…"Only 32.4 million acres (13.1 million hectares) of wheat were planted this year to begin with, and harvested acreage hit just 22 million, marking abandonment, which is when farmers stop tending to a crop before harvesting, at slightly above 32% of this year’s wheat crop, according to USDA estimates."

Just think about those numbers for a moment. Our farmers simply gave up on nearly a third of this year’s winter wheat crop. Wow.

Looking ahead, we are being told that the number of acres of wheat that U.S. farmers are planting in the spring will be the fewest “since record keeping began in 1919”…U.S. growers were poised to plant the fewest acres of wheat since record keeping began in 1919, as high costs for fertilizer, seeds, and equipment have made it difficult to turn a profit. In 1919, there were 104 million people living in the United States. Today, there are more than 340 million people living in the United States. It doesn’t take a math genius to figure out that we are headed for trouble.

And now a “Super El Niño” is looming…A “Super El Niño” may be on its way and could impact weather in the United States and worldwide for the next several months. El Niño is described by the National Weather Service (NWS) as “a state where the water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean near the equator become abnormally warm.” These warmer waters trigger significant weather pattern changes across the globe.

One expert is warning that there is approximately a 50 percent chance that this “Super El Niño” will be the most powerful ever recorded… “I would suggest there is roughly a 50 per cent chance of the event becoming the strongest in the historical record right now,” Paul Roundy, a professor of atmospheric science at the University at Albany, in the US, told BBC Science Focus. “A few weeks ago, I was suggesting maybe 20 per cent.”

In a previous article, I discussed the fact that the “Super El Niño” of 1877-1878 caused widespread global famines that resulted in the deaths of 50 million people. So how many will die during the “Super El Niño” that will begin later this year?

According to the UN, the number of people around the world there were experiencing acute hunger was already at an all-time record high even before the war with Iran started. Now global hunger is spiking, and when people get really hungry they get really desperate. For example, just check out what is going on in Afghanistan…

Khwaja Ahmad barely gets out a few words before he starts sobbing. “We are starving. My older children died, so I need to work to feed my family. But I’m old, so no one wants to give me work,” he says. When a local bakery near the square opens up, the owner distributes stale bread among the crowd. Within seconds, the loaves have been pulled apart, half a dozen men clutching onto precious pieces. This should break your heart.

One extremely hungry man in Afghanistan says that he is willing to sell his own daughters just so that he will have enough money to buy food…Abdul Rashid Azimi takes us into his home and brings out two of his children – seven-year-old twins Roqia and Rohila. He holds them close, eager to explain why he’s making unbearable choices. “I’m willing to sell my daughters,” he weeps. “I’m poor, in debt and helpless. I come home from work with parched lips, hungry, thirsty, distressed and confused. My children come to me saying ‘Baba, give us some bread’. But what can I give? Where is the work?”

This is what is already happening. Six months from now, the level of desperation around the world will be so much worse. We need the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened as soon as possible, but that simply is not going to happen. The Iranians are never going to give President Trump what he wants, and they are preparing for the next phase of the war…

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf claimed Wednesday that the U.S. is looking to “start a new war,” a report said. “The enemy’s movements, both overt and clandestine, show that despite economic and political pressure, it has not abandoned its military objectives and is seeking to start a new war,” Ghalibaf said in a statement shared by Iranian media, according to The Times of Israel. “Close monitoring of the situation in the United States reinforces the possibility that they still hope for the surrender of the Iranian nation,” he reportedly added.

The next chapter of this war is not going to look like the last chapter. The IRGC is openly telling us that they are ready to attack “in places you cannot even imagine”…Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned on Wednesday that any new attack on the country would provoke them to spread the war beyond the Middle East, raising the stakes of diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.

In a statement reported by Iranian state media, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a powerful military force that answers directly to the country’s supreme leader, said that if “aggression against Iran is repeated,” it would deliver blows “in places you cannot even imagine.” The Iranians know that they cannot win the war by fighting symmetrically. So they are going to use asymmetric tools to get the job done. And some of those asymmetric tools will not be conventional. When fighting erupts again, I expect things to get really crazy. What this means is that the Strait of Hormuz is going to remain closed for a long time, and that is really bad news for farmers all over the globe."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"Every Have One Of Those Days?"

 

"Fourth Turning Meets Mass Formation Psychosis"

"Fourth Turning Meets Mass Formation Psychosis, Part 1"

By Jim Quinn

Excerpt: “Four things need to exist or need to be in place if you want a large-scale mass phenomenon to emerge. The first thing is that there needs to be a lot of socially isolated people, people who experience a lack of social bonds. The second one is that there needs to be a lot of people who experience a lack of sense-making in life. And the third and the fourth conditions are that there needs to be a lot of free-floating anxiety and a lot of free-floating psychological discontent. So: meaning, anxiety, and discontent that is not connected to a specific representation. So, it needs to be in the mind without the people being able to connect it to something. If you have these four things - lack of social bonds, lack of sense-making, free-floating anxiety, and free-floating psychological discontent -then society is highly at risk for the emergence of mass phenomenon.”

- Mattias Desmet, "The Psychology of Totalitarianism"

“Try to unlearn the obsessive fear of death (and the anxious quest for death avoidance) that pervades linear thinking in nearly every modern society. The ancients knew that, without periodic decay and death, nature cannot complete its full round of biological and social change. Without plant death, weeds would strangle the forest. Without human death, memories would never die, and unbroken habits and customs would strangle civilization. Social institutions require no less. Just as floods replenish soil and fires rejuvenate forests, a Fourth Turning clears out society’s exhausted elements and creates an opportunity.

- Strauss & Howe, "The Fourth Turning"

I recently finished reading Mattias Desmet’s fascinating and illuminating book "The Psychology of Totalitarianism", where he examines the mass formation psychosis which swept over the world during the time frame of early 2020 until present day. He explores some of the root causes of this psychological phenomena, comparing it to previous episodes in history, and delving into whether it occurred naturally or was purposely generated in order to implement a Great Reset agenda.

This type of spectacle has happened throughout human history, even documented by Charles Mackay in his 1841 book "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds." It is clear to me aspects of mass formation psychosis played a part in the previous two Fourth Turnings, as both sides in the U.S. Civil War displayed characteristics of those being hypnotized by a narrative, and the German people falling under the spell of Hitler and his rhetorical skills."

View full, highly recommended, article here:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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"Fourth Turning Meets Mass

 Formation Psychosis", Part 2 (Excerpt)

By Jim Quinn

Excerpt: "In Part 1 of this article, I laid out the mass formation psychosis theory postulated by Mattias Desmet in his book "The Psychology of Totalitarianism" and how totalitarian minded politicians and bureaucrats manipulated the masses by creating the covid crisis. Now I will focus on how this will impact the Fourth Turning we are currently trying to survive.

Decades of social indoctrination and degraded ability to think critically has left most people hopelessly unable to resist the vitriolic opinions of those under the spell of coronavirus mass formation. Even though they didn’t necessarily believe the covid narrative, especially when it became clear only the very old (especially when tyrant governors inserted infected patients into nursing homes) and the very obese actually died with covid, these people still went along. Even the CDC admitted only 6% of deaths were attributable to covid alone.

Based upon research like the Milgram Experiment, we know average people will obey authority without question, even when they know their actions are causing pain. The conformity research done by Solomon Asch explains why a huge percentage of the global population just conformed to what appeared to be a majority opinion. Asch’s experiment had 8 test subjects, but 7 of them worked for Asch. They asked them which line was the same length as Exhibit 1. The 7 Asch employees answered C. Only 25% of the case subjects consistently answered A. They were cowed into giving a patently absurd answer due to peer pressure and lack of faith in their own judgement.

When you have 30% of the population as true believers of the covidian religion, with their savior Fauci, prophets Walensky, Birx, Gottlieb, Biden, the pope, a slew of Big Pharma paid priests for hire, Hollywood elites, low IQ athletes, and a highly compensated mass media campaign of fear and loathing, the 40% in the middle really had no chance to not be pulled into the vortex of pandemia. From the outset they were inundated with data like Neal Ferguson’s Imperial College model of death. Putting up a scary chart, even though it was based on absurd assumptions, is considered fact by the lazy, non-thinking masses.

Shutting down the world was based on this worthless fraudulent model. Add some fake videos of dead people piling up in the streets in China, with media talking heads declaring hospitals being overrun (even though nurses had time to do coordinated dance routines on Tik Tok), and graphics on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox showing cases rising (based on a faulty PCR test set too high), and Fauci knowingly lying about the effectiveness of masks and the ineffectiveness of ivermectin and hydroxychloquine, and you’ve got panic."

Full, highly recommended article is here:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

"How It Really Is: A Cross of Iron""

“When people speak to you about a preventive war, 

you tell them to go and fight it.”

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"The Cry Of Their Mothers..."

"Humanity is the spirit of the Supreme Being on earth, and that humanity is standing amidst ruins, hiding its nakedness behind tattered rags, shedding tears upon hollow cheeks, and calling for its children with pitiful voice. But the children are busy singing their clan's anthem; they are busy sharpening the swords and cannot hear the cry of their mothers."

- Kahlil Gibran

U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman HM1 Richard Barnett, assigned to the 1st Marine Division, holds an Iraqi child in central Iraq in this March 29, 2003 file photo. Confused front line crossfire ripped apart an Iraqi family after local soldiers appeared to force civilians towards positions held by U.S. Marines.

“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 Brief Disagreement"

Full screen recommended.

Steve Cutts, "A Brief Disagreement"

"A visual journey into mankind's 

favorite pastime throughout the ages."

"Since the rise of the state some 5,000 years ago, military activity has occurred over much of the globe. The advent of gunpowder and the acceleration of technological advances led to modern warfare. According to Conway W. Henderson, "One source claims that 14,500 wars have taken place between 3500 BC and the late 20th century, costing 3.5 billion lives, leaving only 300 years of peace (Beer 1981: 20).] An unfavorable review of this estimate mentions the following regarding one of the proponents of this estimate: "In addition, perhaps feeling that the war casualties figure was improbably high, he changed 'approximately 3,640,000,000 human beings have been killed by war or the diseases produced by war' to 'approximately 1,240,000,000 human beings...'" The lower figure is more plausible but could still be on the high side considering that the 100 deadliest acts of mass violence between 480 BC and 2002 AD (wars and other man-made disasters with at least 300,000 and up to 66 million victims) claimed about 455 million human lives in total."

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War

"It would indeed be a tragedy if the history of the human

 race proved to be nothing more than the story of an

ape playing with a box of matches on a petrol dump." 

- David Ormsby-Gore

And humanity just never, ever learns from it all...

"Trump Can't Stop What's Coming: Nuclear Weapons"

Larry Wilkerson, 5/21/26

"Trump Can't Stop What's Coming: 

Nuclear Weapons"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Scott Ritter, 5/21/26

"Russia Will Strike One of Europe's 

Top Decision Making Centers"

"Russia will eventually strike one of Ukraine's top decision-making centers, along with one in Europe, military analyst Scott Ritter told Rick on his latest livestream. They would discuss not only the Ukraine War, but also the latest from Iran and the high-stakes meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

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Col. Douglas Macgregor, 5/21/26

"U.S. Military Reportedly Preparing

 for a Much Bigger Conflict"

"Reports of growing military preparations and rising geopolitical tensions are fueling fears that the United States could be preparing for a much larger conflict than originally expected. As instability spreads across the Middle East, global attention is turning toward the Pentagon’s next moves and the possibility of wider military escalation. In this video, Col. Douglas Macgregor analyzes the latest developments involving the Pentagon, U.S. military strategy, Iran, Israel, and the broader geopolitical situation. He examines the risks of escalation, strategic calculations in Washington, and what these developments could mean for global security and international relations. Watch till the end for detailed military analysis, geopolitical insight, and breaking updates on one of the world’s most dangerous international crises."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

“On The Beach”

“On The Beach”

by Nevil Shute

“Nevil Shute’s 1959 novel “On the Beach” is set in what was then the near future (1963, approximately a year following World War III). The conflict has devastated the northern hemisphere, polluting the atmosphere with nuclear fallout and killing all animal life. While the nuclear bombs were confined to the northern hemisphere, global air currents are slowly carrying the fallout to the southern hemisphere. The only part of the planet still habitable is the far south of the globe, specifically Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, and the southern parts of South America.

From Australia, survivors detect a mysterious and incomprehensible Morse code radio signal originating from the United States. With hope that some life has remained in the contaminated regions, one of the last American nuclear submarines, the USS Scorpion, placed by its captain under Australian naval command, is ordered to sail north from its port of refuge in Melbourne (Australia’s southernmost major mainland city) to try to contact whoever is sending the signal. In preparation for this long journey the submarine first makes a shorter trip to some port cities in northern Australia including Cairns, Queensland and Darwin, Northern Territory, finding no survivors.

The Australian government makes arrangements to provide its citizens with free suicide pills and injections, so that they will be able to avoid prolonged suffering from radiation sickness. One of the novel’s poignant dilemmas is that of Australian naval officer Peter Holmes, who has a baby daughter and a naive and childish wife, Mary, who is in denial about the impending disaster. Because he has been assigned to travel north with the Americans, Peter must try to explain to Mary how to euthanize their baby and kill herself with the pill should he be killed on the ocean voyage.

The characters make their best efforts to enjoy what time and pleasures remain to them before dying from radiation poisoning, speaking of small pleasures and continuing their customary activities, allowing their awareness of the coming end to impinge on their minds only long enough to plan ahead for their final hours. The Holmeses plant a garden that they will never see; Moira takes classes in typing and shorthand; scientist John Osborne and others organize a dangerous motor race that results in the violent deaths of several participants. In the end, Captain Towers chooses not to remain with Moira but rather to lead his crew on a final mission to scuttle their submarine beyond the twelve-mile (22 km) limit, so that she will not rattle about, unsecured, in a foreign port, refusing to allow his coming demise to turn him aside from his duty and acting as a pillar of strength to his crew.

Typically for a Shute novel, the characters avoid the expression of intense emotions and do not mope or indulge in self-pity. They do not, for the most part, flee southward as refugees but rather accept their fate once the lethal radiation levels reach the latitudes at which they live. Finally, most of the Australians do opt for the government-promoted alternative of suicide when the symptoms of radiation-sickness appear.”

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

o

Freely download “On the Beach”, by Nevil Shute, here:

- https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20131214

○

"On The Beach", full movie.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HusewgIe_1k

Full screen recommended.

"Now I Am Become Death, The Destroyer of Worlds"

"Now I Am Become Death, The Destroyer of Worlds"

"I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita: Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, he takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all thought that, one way or another." - Robert Oppenheimer

"There is a striking photo, taken in 2015, of a deactivated nuclear missile at an air and space museum in Tucson, Arizona. Written in dust on this missile are the words, “Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds”. These words, from the Sanskrit scriptural text the Bhagavad Gita, are famously attributed to J Robert Oppenheimer, the architect of the atom bomb. In Christopher Nolan’s grand biopic, Oppenheimer, the physicist recites these lines not during the Trinity blast (the first detonation of this nuclear weapon) but in a scene with his lover Jean Tatlock.

Oppenheimer later referenced another verse from the Bhagavad Gita when recalling his state of mind as he witnessed the Trinity explosion in the New Mexico desert on 16 July, 1945: "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one.

These verses refer to the sublime form, “Vishwarupa”, Lord Krishna takes in the Bhagavad Gita when he reveals his divine nature to the warrior prince, Arjuna. “Who are you?” asks Arjuna. “I am Time,” replies Krishna, “powerful destroyer of worlds, grown immense here to annihilate these men”. Arjuna is blinded by Krishna’s radiance even as he quakes with fear at God’s capacity to destroy evil with the fire emanating from his ferocious visage.

The Bhagavad Gita consists of 700 verses (shlokas) and appears in Book Six of the Sanskrit epic, The Mahabharata. At 100,000 verses and seven times the combined length of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Mahabharata is the longest poem in the world. Written between 400 BCE and 200 BCE, the epic acquired its written form around the fourth century AD, during the Gupta Empire.

The Bhagavad Gita dramatises a meditative exchange between Arjuna and Lord Krishna, who appears as his charioteer during the momentous battle between two clans, the Pandavas and the Kauravas. The battlefield is located in Kurukshetra, a town close to New Delhi. Each clan stakes its claim to be the mightiest ruling dynasty of erstwhile Bharat (present day India).

The Oxford philosopher and president of India from 1962-1967, Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, once remarked the trauma of the two world wars spurred thinkers to turn to Gita for “its dramatization of a perpetually recurring predicament.” Radhakrishnan’s treatise on the Bhagavad Gita continues to be a revered scholarly source. The “recurring predicament” at the heart of the Bhagavad Gita is this: what constitutes righteous action in the face of moral ambiguity and the inevitability of violence?

Arjuna is fighting to restore the honor and glory of the Pandavas. The Kaurava princes are malevolent usurpers and sadistic rulers. They are also Arjuna’s first cousins. Fighting on their side are Arjuna’s uncles and mentors. Halfway through the battle, Arjuna is paralyzed by anxiety at the prospect of killing his kin. He contemplates throwing away his mighty weapons and fleeing the battlefield.

This is when Krishna, his charioteer and brother-in-law, counsels him with these immortal words: "Your obligation is to the action, and never to its fruits. Do not be motivated by the fruit of your actions. But do not become attached to non-action either. Abandon your attachment and engage in worldly action, Arjuna, while standing firm in discipline. Consider success and failure to be equal. This equanimity is called discipline, Arjuna, since the

action itself is much less important than the discipline."

Krishna in the Gita is none other than Vishnu, Lord of the Hindu trinity who preserves the world. Krishna exhorts Arjuna to fulfil his duty (dharma) as a Kshatriya (warrior) in a spirit of detachment and with steadfast discipline (sthitaprajna). In classical India, these warriors had a monopoly on legitimate violence to preserve social and political order.

The greater good, Krishna tells Arjuna, lies far beyond earthly desires and attachments. The body dies but the soul is immortal. The noblest action is that which recognises the immortal value of the soul and ceases to lament loss and frustrated desire. This action, known as “Nishkama Karma” is taken without any anticipation of a fruitful outcome; action that abjures the myth of control.

Fear of consequences cannot be a justification for inaction. Duty toward the preservation of the moral order is far more important. Self-knowledge, action without attachment and devotion to Krishna as the supreme soul that contains the entire universe is the path to salvation (moksha). This constitutes the essence of Krishna’s message to Arjuna."

- https://theconversation.com/

Freely download the "Bhagavad-Gita" here:

- https://www.dlshq.org/

"NATO Drone Strikes Trigger Russia’s Baltic War Plan"

Scott Ritter, 5/20/26

"NATO Drone Strikes Trigger Russia’s Baltic War Plan"

"In this explosive geopolitical analysis, former U.N. weapons inspector and military analyst Scott Ritter warns that NATO’s growing involvement in deep-strike drone operations against Russian territory may have crossed a dangerous red line. The discussion examines how NATO intelligence support, advanced targeting systems, and strategic coordination are reshaping the Russia-Ukraine conflict into a broader confrontation between Russia and the Western alliance. As tensions rise across Eastern Europe, concerns are growing over whether the Baltic states could become the next flashpoint in a rapidly escalating military crisis. This documentary-style political breakdown explores Russia’s evolving military doctrine, the growing fear of direct NATO-Russia confrontation, and the potential consequences of strategic miscalculation by Western leaders. The video also analyzes nuclear escalation warnings, Baltic regional security threats, NATO Article 5 implications, and the geopolitical risks surrounding drone warfare, military retaliation, and global instability. If diplomatic intervention fails, analysts fear Europe could face its most dangerous security crisis since the Cold War."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

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John Mearsheimer, 5/21/26

"The Moscow Attack May Have Ended The Last Restrain"

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- https://www.youtube.com/

"Working Class Americans Are Secretly Living In Cars, Storage Units And Tents To Survive"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 5/20/26

"Working Class Americans Are Secretly Living In Cars,

 Storage Units And Tents To Survive"

"Across America, a silent collapse is unfolding behind closed car doors and storage unit walls. Millions of working people who once held apartments, careers, and stable lives are now sleeping in parking lots, cooking ramen in bathrooms, and calling Walmart lots "home." This is not the homelessness America used to know. These are not the people America was taught to look away from. These are 19-year-olds with full-time jobs. These are college graduates who lost a parent and never recovered. These are content creators, instructors, and professionals who got hit by one bad month and never climbed back out. 

In this video, we go inside the lives of Americans who are doing everything right and still ending up in their cars. We hear from a young woman cooking dinner in a storage unit bathroom because that is the only outlet she has. We hear from a man who slept in a Metro Transit Center for years, pretending to wait for a bus that was never coming. We hear from a 19-year-old in Salt Lake City who turned his Honda into a bedroom because rent prices made an apartment impossible. We hear the same sentence over and over again: I never thought this would happen to me. The housing market broke. Wages did not move. Rent doubled. Groceries doubled. And the safety net that used to catch falling Americans has been quietly cut away, thread by thread. What you are watching is not a lifestyle trend. This is the new American reality, and it is spreading faster than anyone in Washington wants to admit."

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- https://www.youtube.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "Lower Value Humans Are Being Replaced"

Jeremiah Babe, 5/20/26   

"Lower Value Humans Are Being Replaced"

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- https://www.youtube.com/

"You're Living Through The Quiet Fall Of The American Empire"

Full screen recommended.

Finance Economist, 5/20/26

"You're Living Through The 

Quiet Fall Of The American Empire"

"For the first time since the Great Depression, more people are leaving the United States than coming in. 180,000 citizens emigrated last year. The renunciation queue is 30,000 deep. The wealthy are selling million-dollar homes to move abroad. A veteran sleeps in a storage unit. 54% of adults read below a sixth-grade level. The dollar just hit its lowest reserve share since 1995. The Treasury declared the country insolvent. And every empire in history collapsed the exact same way from the inside."

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- https://www.youtube.com/

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Full screen recommended.

Jeffrey Sachs, 5/20/26

"This Is The End"

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- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Sea and Silence"

Deuter, "Sea and Silence"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"The small, northern constellation Triangulum harbors this magnificent face-on spiral galaxy, M33. Its popular names include the Pinwheel Galaxy or just the Triangulum Galaxy. M33 is over 50,000 light-years in diameter, third largest in the Local Group of galaxies after the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), and our own Milky Way. About 3 million light-years from the Milky Way, M33 is itself thought to be a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy and astronomers in these two galaxies would likely have spectacular views of each other's grand spiral star systems.

As for the view from planet Earth, this sharp image shows off M33's blue star clusters and pinkish star forming regions along the galaxy's loosely wound spiral arms. In fact, the cavernous NGC 604 is the brightest star forming region, seen here at about the 4 o'clock position from the galaxy center. Like M31, M33's population of well-measured variable stars have helped make this nearby spiral a cosmic yardstick for establishing the distance scale of the Universe."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

"Remember..."

“Remember, we all stumble, every one of us.

That’s why it’s a comfort to go hand in hand.”

- Emily Kimbrough

Paulo Coelho, "Walking the Path"

"Walking the Path"

by Paulo Coelho

"I reckon that it takes about three minutes to read my text. Well, according to statistics, in that same short period of time 300 people will die and another 620 will be born. It takes me perhaps half an hour to write a text: here I sit, concentrating on my computer, books piled up beside me, ideas in my head, the scenery passing by outside my window. Everything seems perfectly normal all around me; and yet, during these thirty minutes, 3,000 people have died and 6,200 have just seen the light of the world for the first time.

Where are all those thousands of families who have just begun to weep over the loss of some dear one, or else laugh at the arrival of a son, grandson or brother? I stop and reflect for a while: perhaps many of these deaths are reaching the end of a long, painful sickness, and some persons are relieved that the Angel has come for them. Besides these, in all certainty hundreds of children who have just been born will be abandoned in a minute and transferred to the death statistics before I finish this text.

What a thought! A simple statistic that I came upon by chance and all of a sudden I can feel all those losses and encounters, smiles and tears. How many are leaving this life, alone in their rooms, without anyone realizing what is going on? How many will be born in secret, only to be abandoned at the door of shelters or convents? And then I reflect that I was part of the birth statistics and one day I will be included in the toll of the dead. How good that is to be fully aware that I am going to die. Ever since I took the road to Santiago I have understood that although life goes on and we are eternal, one day this existence will come to an end.

People think very little about death. They spend their lives worried about really absurd things, putting things off and leaving important moments aside. They risk nothing because they believe that is dangerous. They grumble a lot, but act like cowards when it is time to take certain steps. They want everything to change, but they themselves refuse to change. If they thought a little more about death, they would never fail to make that telephone call that they have been putting off. They would be a little more crazy. They would not be afraid of the end of this incarnation because you cannot be afraid of something that is going to happen anyway.

The Indians say: "Today is as good a day as any other to leave this world." And a sorcerer once remarked: "May death be always sitting beside you. That way, when you have to do something important, it will give you the strength and courage you need." I hope, reader, that you have accompanied me this far. It would be silly to let the subject scare you, because sooner or later we are all going to die. And only those who accept this are prepared for life."

- http://paulocoelhoblog.com/

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"We're all going to die. We don't get much say over how or when, but we do get to decide how we're gonna live. So, do it. Decide. Is this the life you want to live? Is this the person you want to love? Is this the best you can be? Can you be stronger? Kinder? More compassionate? Decide. Breathe in. Breathe out and decide."

- "Richard", "Grey's Anatomy"

"Meet Joe Black"

“Death twitches my ear; 'Live,' he says...

'I am coming.” - Virgil

"Meet Joe Black"

Bill Parrish (Anthony Hopkins) enters his office and begins speaking to a voice that materializes into a person by the name of Death (Brad Pitt). Death knows Bill is struggling with his mortality, so Death offers Bill time in exchange for acting as his tour guide.

Full screen recommended for all.

"Bill Meets Joe"

"Death Meets with Cancer Patient in Hospital"

"Enough Pictures?"

The final speech from Anthony Hopkins,

“65 years, don’t they go by in a blink?"

"'That Next Place', Final scene."

Food for thought...

"Life's Impermanence..."

"Life's impermanence, I realized, is what makes every

single day so precious. It's what shapes our time here.

It's what makes it so important that not a single moment be wasted."

- Wes Moore

The Poet: Czesław Miłosz , “A Song On The End Of The World”

“A Song On The End Of The World”

"This poem was written in Warsaw in 1944. Czesław Miłosz ( 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation, the Swedish Academy called Miłosz a writer who "voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts".

Miłosz survived the German occupation of Warsaw during World War II and became a cultural attaché for the Polish government during the postwar period. When communist authorities threatened his safety, he defected to France and ultimately chose exile in the United States, where he became a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His poetry - particularly about his wartime experience—and his appraisal of Stalinism in a prose book, "The Captive Mind," brought him renown as a leading émigré artist and intellectual.

Throughout his life and work, Miłosz tackled questions of morality, politics, history, and faith. As a translator, he introduced Western works to a Polish audience, and as a scholar and editor, he championed a greater awareness of Slavic literature in the West. Faith played a role in his work as he explored his Catholicism and personal experience. Miłosz died in Kraków, Poland, in 2004. He is interred in Skałka, a church known in Poland as a place of honor for distinguished Poles."

“A Song On The End Of The World”

“On the day the world ends

A bee circles a clover,

A fisherman mends a glimmering net.

Happy porpoises jump in the sea,

By the rainspout young sparrows are playing

And the snake is gold-skinned as it should always be.

On the day the world ends

Women walk through the fields under their umbrellas,

A drunkard grows sleepy at the edge of a lawn,

Vegetable peddlers shout in the street

And a yellow-sailed boat comes nearer the island,

The voice of a violin lasts in the air

And leads into a starry night.

And those who expected lightning and thunder

Are disappointed.

And those who expected signs and archangels’ trumps

Do not believe it is happening now.

As long as the sun and the moon are above,

As long as the bumblebee visits a rose,

As long as rosy infants are born

No one believes it is happening now.

Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet

Yet is not a prophet, for he’s much too busy,

Repeats while he binds his tomatoes:

There will be no other end of the world,

There will be no other end of the world.”

~  Czeslaw Milosz