"I Ain’t Drunk, I Just Walk Like This"

Full screen recommended.

Delta King's Blues,

"I Ain’t Drunk, I Just Walk Like This"

"These legs got their own rhythm… and it ain’t always straight. “I Ain’t Drunk, I Just Walk Like This” is a funny, back-porch Delta King’s Blues tune about bad knees, old bones, and the kind of crooked walk that comes from years of livin’ - not drinkin’.  A loose, stumbling acoustic guitar shuffles along like boots trying to remember where they’re headed. The harmonica laughs and wobbles between notes, sounding like it’s in on the joke. The groove rolls slow and crooked, built for folks who sway a little even stone-cold sober. This is blues that laughs at the wear and tear. For anyone whose body got a little unpredictable - but their spirit’s still steady. These legs got their own rhythm… and it ain’t always straight. Ain’t the whiskey, friend… it’s just mileage."

The Poet: Charles Bukowski, "Roll The Dice"

“Alea Iacta Est”

“'Alea iacta est' is a Latin phrase attributed by Suetonius to Julius Caesar on January 10, 49 B.C. as he led his army across the Rubicon river in Northern Italy. With this step, he entered Italy at the head of his army in defiance of the Senate and began his long civil war against Pompey and the Optimates. The phrase, either in the original Latin or in translation, is used in many languages to indicate that events have passed a point of no return.

The historian Frances Titchener has given a stylized description of the context of Caesar’s pronouncement: “We know from [Caesar's journals] that Caesar is not taking this lightly. He knows that if he marches on Rome with his armies, then he is a public enemy, and that he will either have to win, or die. For a Roman patrician like Julius Caesar there is no life without military service; there is no life without service to the state. He cannot simply ‘go native’ and stay in Gaul, and he does realize that if he goes back to Rome, he would be killed. At this time the northernmost border of the Roman territory in Italy is the River Rubicon. Once someone crosses the River Rubicon, he’s in Roman territory. A general must not cross that boundary with his army – he must do what the Romans call lay down his command, which means surrender his right to order troops, and certainly not be carrying weapons.

Caesar and his armies hesitate quite a while at this river while Caesar decides what to do, and Caesar tells us that he informs his soldiers that it’s a little tiny bridge across the river, but once they cross it they’ll have to fight their way all the way to Rome, and Caesar is well aware that he’s risking not just his own life, but those of his loyal soldiers, and he might not win. Pompey is a formidable enemy. It’s also impossible to avoid the fact that Caesar was attacking the state, and as a patrician Roman this would have been very difficult for him, equivalent to beating up your father. He wouldn’t have done any of this lightly. Finally he makes a decision, it’s time to go, and he uses a gambling metaphor: he says ‘Roll the dice’, ‘Alea iacta est’. Once the dice start rolling they cannot be controlled, even though we don’t know what the outcome will be as the dice roll and tumble. Julius and his men swiftly cross the river and they march double time toward Rome, where they almost beat the messengers sent to inform the Senate of their arrival.”

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alea_iacta_est

○

"Life's a gamble. Courage is to roll the dice and go

for the gusto when all odds and bets are against you!"

- Bobby Compton

○

Charles Bukowski, "Roll The Dice"

Read by Tom O'Bedlam

"Is There An Answer..."

"Is there an answer to the question of why bad things happen to good people? The response would be to forgive the world for not being perfect, to forgive God for not making a better world, to reach out to the people around us, and to go on living despite it all, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it has happened."

- Harold S. Kushner

"How It Really Is"

Well, for most of us anyway...

Food stamp balance $13,401.82

Cash balance $4,498.85

And how are YOU doing, Good Citizen?

Bill Bonner, "What AI Won't Do, IV"

"What AI Won't Do, IV"

by Bill Bonner

"To every thing there is a season,

 and a time for every purpose under Heaven."

- Ecclesiastes

Youghal, Ireland - "This week we turned over three possibilities. The first - that AI stocks, SpaceX among them, are simply priced beyond all reason. Markets move in cycles, as surely as the oceans obey the moon, and this has every appearance of a cyclical high tide: the dearest shares ever floated, with SpaceX glittering in the foamy apex.

The rule is old and unsentimental - IPOs of exceptional vigor, the ones that set investors hooting and stamping, are commonly followed by returns that are exceptionally dull. This time is unlikely to be different. So, AI stocks, in all probability, will not make the investor rich.

Nor can we ignore the Primary Trend in the market for credit. Inflation and interest rates alike appear to be marching uphill. CNBC: "Dollar clings to two-month peak as Fed rate-hike bets mount, yen slides. Interest rates touched bottom in July of 2020, and have been climbing ever since. Yes, yes - it is a “whole new world.” Musk will plant his colonists upon Mars; AI will so swell our productivity and we shall “all be rich.” Of course. And every last one of our children will be above average, too.

But the Primary Trend does not give a tinker’s damn what we believe. If we have read it right, it will go on lifting rates and grinding down the real value of capital for years. These are just the normal heavings of the market; AI plays only a bit part.

The second possibility is that AI proves a roaring success and plays a leading role in the history of the world...but that its impresarios and chief beneficiaries surprise us. This notion arrives in two flavors. First, the Chinese are already out in front. They stuff the contrivance into robots, and the robots then perform marvels. The machines do not merely think faster and write cleaner than we do - they dance better. (See the YouTube spectacle below: “China’s Dancing Robots Just Broke the Internet - Top 8 That Move Too Human!”)

Full screen recommended.

The Chinese appear to be discovering how to harness the artificial brain to practical ends that reach well beyond ghosting high-school term papers. We’ll see.

Bound up with this is the old observation that the great upheavals of technology are led by unknown upstarts, not by the fat and settled corporations. The well-financed houses are wedded to their own past success; now they are too burdened, too gouty, too arthritic to vault into the future. The true winners may bear names we have never heard, doing things we have not yet imagined.

The third - and the most provocative by a good margin - is the hesitant hunch that AI will prove a dud, or worse, a calamity. Not every “successful” technology has been a blessing to mankind. History works Her will with no particular thought for our happiness or our health. The agricultural revolution, for example, allowed the earth to carry far more human beings. But for twelve thousand years it condemned those who took up the hoe to toil from dawn ‘til dark, to suffer zoonotic plagues and miseries their hunting forebears had never known, and to die young, half-starved, and worn to a nub by hard labor. The new hayseed had also to reckon, for the first time in the human story, with elaborate hierarchies, wars, and a parasitic government squatting upon his back.

That which grows more abundant grows less precious; and that of which we already have too much does not gain in worth as the heap mounts. It is scarcity that mints value, never abundance. So, the value of all this incoming freight - AI-created, AI-indexed, AI-searched, AI-derived, AI-delivered, a whole groaning, fake world of AI rubbish swelling like The Blob in the 1950s horror film - would tumble fast, down to the worth of one more dollar in Elon Musk’s pocket: approximately zero.

And besides - who would command a durable moat to guard his AI edge and throw off profits fat enough and for long enough to cover his fat investment? The genie is already out of the bottle, already strutting before the whole world and displaying its wonders. Everyone enjoys the use of it - which is only to say that, in relative terms, no one does.

But picture, for a moment, that some genius bolted a colossal mirror into the sky, and bathed the earth in sunshine ‘round the clock. A stupendous breakthrough, surely! Plants might grow by night. Solar panels might pour out twice the current. The need for the evening reading lamps would simply vanish, as the sunshine fell on the just and unjust alike, 24/7, making vast tracts, now dark and frozen, at last fit for habitation. A triumph for our species?

AI takes no holidays and never gets tired. But we poor mortals require our rest - to sift the day’s doings. Our wisdom, our knowledge, our grasp of the world about us is a cramped and modest thing, and not merely because we are slow-witted beasts. As matters already stand, we scarcely find the hours to connect one dot to the next. And the machine - AI - can fling fresh dots out like God creating the heavens. A whole new universe of reports we ought to read, films we ought to see, plans we ought to follow. But where is the time for them?

All of life - the human portion and the rest of it alike - is built upon a kind of balance: between action and rest, good and bad, day and night. Despite the wonders of AI, we still only have 24 hours in a day...and we need our sleep."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"Is It Just A Coincidence That So Many Disasters Are Suddenly Hitting The United States The Same Week The Memorandum Of Understanding Was Signed?"

"Is It Just A Coincidence That So Many Disasters 

Are Suddenly Hitting The United States The Same Week 

The Memorandum Of Understanding Was Signed?"

by Michael Snyder

"Why isn’t anyone else writing about this? On Wednesday, the Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the presidents of the United States and Iran. Meanwhile, major disasters were breaking out all over America. Is this just some sort of really bizarre coincidence, or is something else going on here? Read the evidence that I have compiled below and decide for yourself. On Wednesday, the very first named storm of the season, Tropical Storm Arthur, suddenly formed and slammed into the Texas coastline…"Tropical Storm Arthur made landfall along the coast of Texas on Wednesday, and as the first storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, it is bringing significant flooding and severe weather to the Gulf Coast.

Arthur formed on Wednesday after a sprawling area of showers and thunderstorms over Texas tracked over the warm waters of the Gulf, which helped it organize and strengthen. Hours later, the center of the storm moved inland over the Texas coast." In 2025, only one named storm hit the U.S. the entire year. And it is very rare for a named storm to make landfall this early.

As this storm travels east, it is expected to bring “extreme” flooding to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle…"As many as 40 million people across eight states are in the deadly path of Tropical Storm Arthur after the first named storm of hurricane season made landfall Wednesday night. Arthur, which has been downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone on Thursday, slammed into the Texas Coast last night, and is now projected to barrel across the South, bringing severe flooding from Louisiana to the Carolinas.

Meteorologists with AccuWeather warned that Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle will see ‘extreme’ levels of flooding along the coast and in urban areas throughout Thursday, with as much as 12 to 18 inches of rain falling. Then on Friday, it is being projected that this storm will bring “life-threatening flooding” to Georgia and the Carolinas…

"Georgia and the Carolinas are expected to be impacted on Friday, as forecasters say Arthur will continue to bring ‘life-threatening flooding, property damage and disruptions to commerce and travel.’ AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Duffus warned in a statement: ‘Heavy rainfall will be fueled by tropical moisture, delivering rainfall rates of 2-4 inches per hour across portions of the Gulf Coast.’ However, flooding is not the only concern tied to Arthur, as the National Weather Service has also issued a widespread tornado watch across coastal areas in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

Tropical Storm Arthur formed and made landfall on the exact same day that the Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the presidents of the United States and Iran. This storm is going to cause a massive amount of damage all the way from Texas to the Carolinas. Is this just a coincidence? I don’t think so. (Then what, exactly, Michael, do you attribute it to? Enlighten us, spell it out... - CP)

Also on Wednesday, a series of extremely violent tornadoes suddenly broke out in the Midwest and the Southeast…"At least seven tornadoes broke out Wednesday night across the Midwest and Southeast, as severe weather descended on a large swath of the country. According to the National Weather Service, a confirmed tornado was reported near the small northeast Iowa community of Harpers Ferry at 5:10 p.m., while a second confirmed tornado rolled through Charleston in central Illinois at about 6:40 p.m. local time.

Both tornadoes were flagged by the weather service as a “particularly dangerous situation,” a rare designation used by the weather service for environments in which “strong and violent tornadoes” are possible. The town of Charleston, Illinois was hit particularly hard.

At one point, a trailer was actually picked up and torn away from its foundation…"Photos and videos obtained by CBS News showed extensive damage to homes and buildings in Charleston, where a mess of downed trees and power lines covered the streets. Emergency responders in the city could also be heard in dispatch audio describing some of the treacherous scenarios they encountered, including multiple overturned semitrucks and a trailer that had been torn from its foundation, possibly with someone inside.

Hail measuring between 2.75 and 3 inches was also reported in Charleston and surrounding parts of Illinois, where powerful winds at times climbed as high as 78 mph, according to the weather service."

Is it just another coincidence that this also occurred on Wednesday? As you can see, the “coincidences” are starting to pile up. Let me give you another one. An enormous wildfire in eastern Washington state that is being driven by very high winds caused all sorts of chaos on Wednesday… High winds drove a wildfire into an eastern Washington neighborhood, forcing the evacuation of about 1,500 people and destroying at least 15 homes, officials said Wednesday.

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday that its forensic unit found what appeared to be human remains inside a home destroyed in the fire. A family member had requested a wellness check because one of the residents had refused to evacuate and could not be reached, officials said in a news release." Of course the skeptics will insist that this is yet another coincidence. (Instead of the righteous punishment for our many sins from a wrathful Diety? Really? - CP)

Meanwhile, the screwworm plague that just broke out in the Southwest just continues to pop up in even more Texas counties…"Screwworm cases are rising in the US as the outbreak spreads beyond the initial contamination zones. Twelve animal cases have been confirmed so far, a significant increase from the first case detected in a calf in south Texas on 3 June. The growing number of infections has alarmed agricultural experts, who warn that a wider outbreak could have serious consequences for the Texas beef industry.

Of the 12 reported cases, 11 remain active and one is inactive, according to an update issued last Thursday by the US Department of Agriculture’s animal and plant health inspection service. The most recent case was reported on 12 June in Sutton countyin west Texas, where a sheep was discovered with the infection. Other cases have been identified in the Texas counties of Edwards, Tom Green, Gillespie, La Salle and Zavala, as well as in Lea county, New Mexico.

And just within the last 24 hours, we have officially hit “tank bottoms” in Cushing, Oklahoma…As I discussed yesterday, once we get below 20 million barrels of oil at Cushing, there won’t be enough pressure in the pipelines to keep operating.So this is it.

At the same time, fish are literally being cooked to death in lakes and rivers all over the country…"A team of contractors spent their weekend hauling thousands of dead fish carcasses from the waters of Minnesota’s Como Lake, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported on Tuesday. Located in a suburban park in St. Paul, the lake is now down about 1,000 bluegill and crappies, which died en masse as a result of low oxygen - a side effect of a rapid influx of heat.

Down south in Arizona, state wildlife officials closed public access to San Carlos Lake indefinitely after drought conditions and a nearby dam release “resulted in a major fish kill affecting approximately 100 percent of the fish population.” Across the country in Massachusetts, the Charles River was the site of a massive die-off of carp after a pre-summer heat wave baked fish exhausted from spawning."

This is happening even though summer has not even officially begun yet. That is certainly not a good sign. And now a “Super El Niño” has begun…"The forecasted El Niño - a mysterious but well-documented climate phenomenon - has officially begun, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on June 11. Meteorologists expect it to evolve into one of the most powerful ones on record, and the event will likely bring about extreme weather worldwide and consequently affect the economy."

If you believe that it is just a “coincidence” that all of the things that I have shared in this article are happening simultaneously, that is okay. We will just have to agree to disagree. Personally, I am convinced that what we are currently experiencing is yet more evidence that history is taking us in a very particular direction. So many prominent voices are crying out “peace and safety”, but the truth is that apocalyptic times are upon us. Global events have been spinning out of control for quite some time now, but what we have been through so far is not even worth comparing to what is eventually coming."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"Platoon: Movie Propaganda And Serial Killer Jokes"

"Platoon: 

Movie Propaganda And Serial Killer Jokes"

by John Wilder

“Now, I got no fight with any man who does what he’s told, but when he don’t, the machine breaks down. And when the machine breaks down, we break down. And I ain’t gonna allow that in any of you. Not one.” – "Platoon"

"I saw "Platoon" in the theater when it came out. I watched "Platoon," and left the theater as the credits rolled. I was filled with Raisenettes®, yet exhausted with no desire to ever watch that movie ever again. But last weekend it showed up in the “movies you might like to watch” and since The Mrs. hadn’t seen it, we started watching it. Only I finished, since she fell asleep while on patrol and was caught in a firefight with some NVA regulars. But I finished it. Again.

As a movie, "Platoon: looks and feels like a slice of reality coming from the “nerdy dolphin talking about hang gliding” me who has never been to Vietnam nor been in a foxhole with Charlie Sheen. I’ve seen many films shot on bigger budgets that don’t feel nearly as real as "Platoon."  I imagine that part of that is because the writer/director, Oliver Stone, actually did serve in Vietnam as a ground-pounder and this movie is certainly based on his actual experiences there. I have a lot of thoughts about Vietnam, but this post isn’t about Vietnam. This post is about what the movie "Platoon" really was: propaganda to make you hate America and traditional American values in 1986.

Let’s start with the time that this movie came out: 1986. 1986 was part of Reagan’s Morning in America. The GloboLeft hated that because the GloboLeft loved the Soviets. I mean, they also love illegal immigrants, but they really love the Soviets. 1986 was also the year of "Top Gun," which was the top grossing movie of the year. Why was "Top Gun" the highest earning film of the year even though it wasn’t that great of a movie? Because people loved America. And yes, I liked "Top Gun", but you’ve got to admit it didn’t really have a plot. "Top Gun: Maverick" at least had a plot.

I digress. Back to the “people love America” thing. Hollywood© had changed since Reagan was there. When Reagan was there, Hollywood was subversive, but it didn’t hate absolutely everything about America. Now a majority of Hollywood© did. So, it created one of the most effective propaganda movies of all time, Platoon. I must admit, the message of the movie makes Trotsky look like a patriotic America and Charlie Sheen look morally upright.

What, then, was the message? Traditional American values suck. Almost* every leader was shown to be either out of touch, incompetent, sycophantic, or evil. In one scene almost* all of the leadership of the titular (heh) platoon was in a barracks. It wasn’t fun. It looked like your grandpa’s poker night with his old smelly friends, ruled over by the despotic and disfigured Satan of our story: Staff Sergeant Barnes.

This is an effective scene. Your brain subconsciously looks at pretty things and thinks that they’re good. The opposite holds true as well. Barnes is established and reinforced as the antagonist. He is, for this movie, Evil personified. Wait, what? This is a war movie, aren’t the enemy supposed to be the bad guys? Not for a large chunk of Hollywood©. Remember Hanoi Jane Fonda? They hated America and wanted communism.

The Vietnamese in this movie aren’t the bad guys, they’re just some sort of natural occurrence, like the weather. Put the story on a boat and replace the Vietnamese with a storm and it’s the same movie.But, move to the cool kid bunker! They had dope! They had cool music! They were doing cool and groovy things! No leadership here, at all, except for cool and groovy dope-smoking Sergeant Elias.

Elias isn’t the protagonist, the protagonist is the character played by Charlie Sheen, who might as well have been called Pvt. Nobody as cardboard as he is, since he only takes one action in the entire movie. No. Elias, played by Willem Dafoe, is Jesus. His betrayal and final death scene with his arms outstretched as if on the cross is heavy-handed. Even young me got that.

And, in this movie, Jesus was cool and smoked pot. Dafoe would play Jesus in another movie two years later: "The Last Temptation of Christ."  This was back at a time when the Catholic Church actually managed to be against something other than being against people saying mean things about rapefugees.

But I digress. Again. The movie is clear. Barnes, who represents traditional American society and traditional American values, is bad. Elias, who represents stoner culture, is good. When you analyze propaganda, another questions to ask is, “Who is it aimed at?” Charlie Sheen was the stand-in for the target, the person the audience is supposed to identify with. In several masterfully shot scenes, I felt like I was in Private Sheen’s place. That’s effective film making. Sheen is early wave Gen X. This makes sense, since Gen X was the target.

Early, Atari© Xers like myself were the primary ticket purchasers of R-rated movies at the time Platoon came out. It’s where we took our dates on a Friday night, and young men were the primary decision makers when it came to selecting a movie to see. "Platoon" was demoralization aimed straight at Gen X. Here is what it was saying:

“Reagan making you feel good? Perhaps a bit too good? Enjoyed "Red Dawn" or "Top Gun?"  Well, white people are awful, except for the stoner socialists who hate America. Those are the real good guys. And Hollywood©. Hollywood™ loves you.”

Hollywood© does not love you. But they loved this movie with the heat of a thousand sons. Nominated for seven Academy Awards®, it won three, including best picture and best director. Hollywood© loved this movie. So did critics. And it did well at the box office, finishing up third for the year, behind the previously mentioned "Top Gun" and the heavy period drama that was "Crocodile Dundee."

I bought two tickets to it, so my $10 was in the $138,530,565 that it’s credited with. When I finished watching it, I wanted to take a shower because in the end, the character I’m supposed to identify with, Pvt. Cardboard, kills the stand-in for America: Sergeant Barnes. On purpose. Murder. Demoralization. Again, I didn’t have the words to describe nor the wisdom to understand the propaganda at play in the film. I just know that I felt revolted. But now I see what was going on through clear eyes. Maybe it was because I didn’t have any Raisenettes™?"

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Nothing But Sales At Kroger"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 6/19/26

"Nothing But Sales At Kroger"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Alert! Moscow Burning, Talks Cancelled, War In Lebanon Restarts"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 6/18/26

"Alert! Moscow Burning, Talks Cancelled, 

War In Lebanon Restarts"

Comments here:

-https://www.youtube.com/

"Americans are Starting to Lose Interest in Everything And It's Concerning"

Full screen recommended.

Finance Economist, 6/18/26

"Americans are Starting to Lose Interest 

in Everything And It's Concerning"

"You picked up your phone last night at 10:30. You scrolled through nothing. You put it down at 11:15 and stared at the ceiling and felt something heavier than sadness that you could not name. You are not alone. Psychologists didn’t have a word for what you’re feeling until 2021. Half the workforce has quietly quit. 54% of adults feel isolated. 90% say mental health crisis. 264,000 die of despair every year. And the system that made you feel this way did it on purpose. Because a population that has lost interest in everything is the easiest to extract from. Your numbness is not a failure. It is the product."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Jennifer Warnes, "Joan Of Arc"

Full screen recommended.

Jennifer Warnes, "Joan Of Arc"

"I have long adored this song by the late Leonard Cohen, and performed impecably

 by Jennifer Warnes. This is the performance at Night of the Proms in Antwerp in 1992."

"A Look to the Heavens"

“What are those red clouds surrounding the Andromeda galaxy? This galaxy, M31, is often imaged by planet Earth-based astronomers. As the nearest large spiral galaxy, it is a familiar sight with dark dust lanes, bright yellowish core, and spiral arms traced by clouds of bright blue stars.

A mosaic of well-exposed broad and narrow-band image data, this colorful portrait of our neighboring island universe offers strikingly unfamiliar features though, faint reddish clouds of glowing ionized hydrogen gas in the same wide field of view. These ionized hydrogen clouds surely lie in the foreground of the scene, well within our Milky Way Galaxy. They are likely associated with the pervasive, dusty interstellar cirrus clouds scattered hundreds of light-years above our own galactic plane.”

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180108.html

The Poet: Mary Oliver, "Lead"

"Lead"

"Here is a story to break your heart.

Are you willing?

This winter the loons came to our harbor and died,

one by one, of nothing we could see.

A friend told me of one on the shore

that lifted its head and opened

the elegant beak and cried out

in the long, sweet savoring of its life

which, if you have heard it,

you know is a sacred thing,

and for which, if you have not heard it,

you had better hurry to where they still sing.

And, believe me, tell no one just where that is.

The next morning this loon, speckled

and iridescent and with a plan

to fly home to some hidden lake,

was dead on the shore.

I tell you this to break your heart,

by which I mean only

that it break open and never close again

to the rest of the world."

- Mary Oliver

"Where Your Gaze Lingers..."

“Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that has nothing to do with you, this storm is you. Something inside you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, and walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up the sky like pulverized bones.

You have to look! That’s another one of the rules. Closing your eyes isn’t going to change anything. Nothing’s going to disappear just because you can’t see what going on. In fact, things will be even worse the next time you open your eyes. That’s the kind of world we live in. Keep your eyes wide open. Only a coward closes his eyes. Closing your eyes and plugging up your ears won’t make time stand still.”

- Haruki Murakami

“Closing your eyes won’t make the awfulness go away. It may be that nothing will. But dwelling on it, dreading the evil, playing out the misery in your head – doesn’t this feed the monster? You can’t close your eyes to life, but you can choose where your gaze lingers.”

- Richelle E. Goodrich

“Sigmund Wollman’s Reality Test”

“Sigmund Wollman’s Reality Test”

by 
Robert Fulghum

“In the summer of 1959, at the Feather River Inn near the town of Blairsden in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of northern California. A resort environment. And I, just out of college, have a job that combines being the night desk clerk in the lodge and helping out with the horse-wrangling at the stables. The owner/manager is Italian-Swiss, with European notions about conditions of employment. He and I do not get along. I think he’s a fascist who wants pleasant employees who know their place, and he thinks I’m a good example of how democracy can be carried too far. I’m twenty-two and pretty free with my opinions, and he’s fifty-two and has a few opinions of his own. One week the employees had been served the same thing for lunch every single day. Two wieners, a mound of sauerkraut, and stale rolls. To compound insult with injury, the cost of meals was deducted from our check.

I was outraged.

 On Friday night of that awful week, I was at my desk job around 11:00 P.M., and the night auditor had just come on duty. I went into the kitchen to get a bite to eat and saw notes to the chef to the effect that wieners and sauerkraut are on the employee menu for two more days.

That tears it. I quit! For lack of a better audience, I unloaded on the night auditor, Sigmund Wollman.

I declared that I have had it up to here; that I am going to get a plate of wieners and sauerkraut and go and wake up the owner and throw it on him. I am sick and tired of this crap and insulted and nobody is going to make me eat wieners and sauerkraut for a whole week and make me pay for it and who does he think he is anyhow and how can life be sustained on wieners and sauerkraut and this is un-American and I don’t like wieners and sauerkraut enough to eat it one day for God’s sake and the whole hotel stinks anyhow and the horses are all nags and the guests are all idiots and I’m packing my bags and heading for Montana where they never even heard of wieners and sauerkraut and wouldn’t feed that stuff to the pigs. Something like that. I’m still mad about it.

I raved on this way for twenty minutes, and needn’t repeat it all here. You get the drift. My monologue was delivered at the top of my lungs, punctuated by blows on the front desk with a fly-swatter, the kicking of chairs, and much profanity. A call to arms, freedom, unions, uprisings, and the breaking of chains for the working masses.

As I pitched my fit, Sigmund Wollman, the night auditor, sat quietly on his stool, smoking a cigarette, watching me with sorrowful eyes. Put a bloodhound in a suit and tie and you have Sigmund Wollman. He’s got good reason to look sorrowful. Survivor of Auschwitz. Three years. German Jew. Thin, coughed a lot. He liked being alone at the night job – gave him intellectual space, gave him peace and quiet, and, even more, he could go into the kitchen and have a snack whenever he wanted to – all the wieners and sauerkraut he wanted. To him, a feast. More than that, there’s nobody around at night to tell him what to do. In Auschwitz he dreamed of such a time. The only person he sees at work is me, the nightly disturber of his dream. Our shifts overlap for an hour. And here I am again. A one-man war party at full cry.

“Fulchum, are you finished?”

“No. Why?”

Lissen, Fulchum. Lissen me, lissen me. You know what’s wrong with you? It’s not wieners and kraut and it’s not the boss and it’s not the chef and it’s not this job.”

“So what’s wrong with me?”

“Fulchum, you think you know everything, but you don’t know the difference between an inconvenience and a problem. If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire – then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. Learn to separate the inconveniences from the real problems. You will live longer. And will not annoy people like me so much. Good night.” In a gesture combining dismissal and blessing, he waved me off to bed.

Seldom in my life have I been hit between the eyes with a truth so hard. Years later I heard a Japanese Zen Buddhist priest describe what the moment of enlightenment was like and I knew exactly what he meant. There in that late-night darkness of the Feather River Inn, Sigmund Wollman simultaneously kicked my butt and opened a window in my mind.

For thirty years now, in times of stress and strain, when something has me backed against the wall and I’m ready to do something really stupid with my anger, a sorrowful face appears in my mind and asks: “Fulchum. Problem or inconvenience?”

I think of this as the Wollman Test of Reality. Life is lumpy. And a lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat, and a lump in the breast are not the same lump. One should learn the difference. Good night, Sig.”

- http://www.livinglifefully.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Golden Quiet Things, "A Beautiful World"

Full screen recommended.

Golden Quiet Things, "A Beautiful World"

"Experience 'Beautiful World', a heartwarming cinematic folk ballad celebrating the wonders of nature, adventure, and a life well lived. Follow an older traveler as he journeys through majestic mountains, emerald forests, golden fields, starlit skies, and endless oceans. With warm acoustic guitar, gentle cello, rich harmonies, and nostalgic storytelling, this song is a tribute to the breathtaking beauty that surrounds us every day. Whether you love folk music, travel songs, nature documentaries, relaxing acoustic melodies, or inspirational storytelling, this journey is for you. Mountains and canyons, emerald forests and flowing rivers, Northern lights and starry skies Endless oceans and coastal horizons . A celebration of life, gratitude, and wonder..."

"Let Me Age With Grace, Not Burden"

Full screen recommended.

Delta King's Blues,

"Let Me Age With Grace, Not Burden"

"Don’t ask for forever… just ask for dignity along the way. “Let Me Age With Grace, Not Burden” is a tender, heartfelt Delta King’s Blues tune about growing older with peace, keeping your spirit strong, and hoping to remain a blessing rather than a weight on the ones you love. A gentle, slow-moving resonator guitar carries the melody like a quiet evening rocking chair on the porch. The harmonica breathes soft and reflective, filled with gratitude, hope, and the wisdom of years gone by. The groove stays warm and unhurried, built for sunset skies, family memories, and prayers spoken under your breath. This is blues with humility and grace. For those who don’t fear old age - only the hope of walking through it with kindness, strength, and peace. Let the years change my face… not my heart."

"The Last Watch, Even When I Can’t Stand…I’m Still Yours"

Full screen recommended.

Midnight Corner,

"The Last Watch, 

Even When I Can’t Stand…I’m Still Yours"

"A heartbreaking emotional story song about an old loyal dog and her elderly owner, both becoming weak with time, yet still holding on to the love that never fades. “Even when I can’t stand… I’m still yours.” This song is for everyone who has loved a dog like family - the ones who protected us, stayed beside us, waited for us, and gave their whole heart until the very end. May this song touch your heart and remind you that true love does not disappear. It stays in memories, in silence, and in the little places they once filled."

Native Elder, "Why You Shouldn't Be Afraid of Your Final Years"

Full screen recommended.

Native Elder,

"Why You Shouldn't Be Afraid of Your Final Years"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"If You Look..."

"We have got some very big problems confronting us and let us not make any mistake about it, human history in the future is fraught with tragedy. It's only through people making a stand against that tragedy and being doggedly optimistic that we are going to win through. If you look at the plight of the human race it could well tip you into despair, so you have to be very strong."

- Robert James Brown

"How It Really Can Be"

Full screen recommended.

Pet Shop Boys, "Numb"

Ever feel like this? Me too...

Dan, I Allegedly, "Are Banks More Powerful Than Governments?"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 6/18/26

"Are Banks More Powerful Than Governments?"

"Who really has more power over your life: the government you vote for or the bank that controls your mortgage, credit cards, savings, and access to money? In this video, I break down why central banks, interest rates, lenders, and financial institutions may have more influence over your daily life than elected officials. From home loans and credit scores to inflation and rising living costs, we're going to examine who really calls the shots. We'll discuss unelected decision-makers, why higher interest rates hurt working families, why banks get bailed out when things go wrong, and what you can do to protect yourself financially. Whether you're concerned about inflation, housing, debt, retirement, or the economy, this conversation affects every American. The question is simple: Are banks more powerful than governments? Watch this video and let me know what you think in the comments below."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Shopping in a Soviet Food Market In 2026"

Full screen recommended.

Travelling With Russell, 6/18/26

"Shopping in a Soviet Food Market In 2026"

"Where do Russians go shopping? What does a Soviet food market look like inside? Join me at Moskvoretsky Market Food Market to find out what an original Soviet shopping center looks like. First opened in 1937, with more than 700 different shops inside."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Judge Napolitano, Judging Freedom, 6/18/26"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/18/26

"Larry Johnson: Trump Caves on All Iran’s Demands!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/18/26

"Prof. Mohammad Marandi: Do Iran and the US Have a Deal?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/18/26

"Max Blumenthal: Israel In Panic"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/18/26

"Col. Douglas Macgregor: Israel The Real Loser"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"U.S. Oil Stockpiles Fall To Critically Low Levels As Iran Continues To Control The Strait Of Hormuz"

"U.S. Oil Stockpiles Fall To Critically Low Levels 

As Iran Continues To Control The Strait Of Hormuz"

by Michael Snyder

"Those that believe that the global energy crisis is going to be magically solved by a “memorandum of understanding” that is already being violated by both sides are going to be in for a very rude awakening. As you will see below, the Iranians have continued to launch drones at commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. How are shipowners and insurance companies supposed to feel comfortable while this is going on? In the “memorandum of understanding”, Iran agreed to allow commercial vessels to travel through the Strait at no charge for a period of 60 days. Hopefully that will actually happen. After the 60 day period is done, the Iranians have already announced that they are going to go back to charging ships to pass. Any ships that do not pay up will be subject to attack. Meanwhile, global oil supplies will just continue to get tighter and tighter.

Over the past couple of months, the U.S. has been the supplier of last resort for the entire world. This has kept oil prices at reasonable levels. But once our stockpiles are gone, we won’t be able to do that any longer.

Unfortunately, our stockpiles are rapidly disappearing. It is being reported that total U.S. oil inventories have now fallen for 10 weeks in a row…"U.S. crude oil inventories fell for a 10th straight week last week as demand surged, pushing total stockpiles to their lowest level in over 40 years as the Iran war continues ​to upend global energy markets, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Total crude inventories, including ‌commercial stocks and those in the Strategic Petroleum, plunged by 17.2 million to 758.5 million barrels last week, its lowest since March 1985, the EIA said."

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is in better shape than commercial oil inventories, but even it has fallen to the lowest level since 1983…"The U.S. supply of emergency oil has hit its lowest level since 1983, according to newly released federal data. The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is down to 340.3 million barrels, according to the data released on Monday." The last time that levels were this low was 1983, when the Reagan administration was filling up the reserve for the first time. The U.S. established the emergency oil reserve in 1975 after an oil producer embargo against the country triggered an energy crisis.

We should have never allowed ourselves to reach such a dangerously low level. But I am far more concerned about what is happening to our commercial oil inventories. The tanks in Cushing, Oklahoma are about to hit critical operating levels, and even CNN is writing about this… Today, neighboring Cushing is the hub of America’s energy market. It literally provides the oil plumbing for the United States. It’s where America’s benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil is priced and warehoused. From there, it’s piped to refineries around the country.

In normal times, Cushing stores around 40 million barrels of oil with capacity of up to 75 million. These are not normal times. Right now, there are approximately 21.6 million barrels of oil at Cushing. That sounds like a lot. But as CNN has correctly noted, once the tanks at Cushing drop below 20 million barrels of oil “they effectively hit empty”…

"Cushing’s current inventory is 21.6 million barrels, according to the US Energy Information Administration. That’s dangerously close to operational stress levels, the tipping point at which Cushing struggles to supply all of its customers with the oil they demand. When Cushing’s reserves get below 20 million, they effectively hit empty, scraping the bottom of the barrel of what is largely unusable sludge." And when Cushing runs empty, strange things happen to the oil market.

To say that “strange things” will occur is a major understatement. Once we hit the 20 million barrel mark at Cushing, there will be widespread panic. We cannot drop below that level, because the storage tanks need a certain amount in them in order to be able to keep operating…In oil storage tanks, “tank bottoms” refer to the unusable layer of sludge, sediment, water, paraffin, and other residues that settle at the base. These cannot be easily pumped or processed without operational issues.

At the Cushing hub level, the operational stress threshold is around 20 million barrels. Below this, pipelines lose pressure, blending and transfers between tanks become difficult or impossible, and outbound flows to refineries or export terminals can be curtailed or delayed. Experts note that much of the remaining volume at current levels (potentially only 1–1.6 million barrels truly usable) consists of this sludgy material.

There is no way that we can keep supplying the rest of the world. In fact, in very short order we won’t have enough oil to supply everyone in this country. On Wednesday, President Trump openly told the press that the U.S. is on pace to “run out of reserves in about four weeks”…President Trump’s comment at the tail end of the G7 press conference about rapidly depleting crude reserves may have been the clearest admission yet of what is really driving the urgent push for an MoU with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. “We run out of reserves in about four weeks,” Trump told reporters.

This is one of the reasons why Trump was so desperate to make a deal with Iran. But the deal is already failing. According to NBC News, the Iranians “launched multiple drones toward commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz” after the memorandum of understanding was signed…"Iran has launched multiple drones toward commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz since the United States and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding on Sunday, according to a US official, NBC News reported on Tuesday.

The official said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been carrying out repeated drone launches targeting shipping lanes in the strategic waterway. US forces have intercepted the drones before they could threaten commercial or military vessels, the report said.

According to NBC News, the official added that the IRGC has launched multiple drones each night since the agreement was signed, and that the US military continues to coordinate with commercial shipping operators to support safe transit through the Strait of Hormuz."

The Iranians were supposed to open the Strait of Hormuz. Of course we were told the exact same thing when the first ceasefire agreement was signed, and that never materialized either. But let’s assume that the Iranians stop attacking vessels in the Strait and decide to keep their word. According to the text of the memorandum of understanding, the Iranians will have the right to control traffic through the Strait of Hormuz once a 60 day period of free passage is over…

"Upon the signing of this MOU, Islamic Republic of Iran will make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge for 60 days only from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman, and vice versa. The traffic of commercial vessels will immediately start, and considering the need for removing the technical and military obstacles and demining by the Islamic Republic of Iran will be instated within 30 days. The Islamic Republic of Iran will conduct dialog with the Sultanate of Oman to define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz in discussion with other Persian Gulf or littoral states in line with the applicable international law and the sovereign rights of coastal states of the Strait of Hormuz."

As I have discussed previously, the Iranians have repeatedly stated that they intend to charge ships to pass through the Strait once the 60 day period has been completed. And even if everything goes perfectly, it would still take many months for traffic through the Strait to return to close to pre-war levels. Meanwhile, the world will continue to run an oil deficit. Stockpiles will continue to be depleted, and there will be shortages. Hopefully the shortages will be isolated. But I wouldn’t count on that, because I am convinced that the war in the Middle East is far from over. If all-out war erupts again, that will make the crisis that we are facing so much worse. So let us hope for the best, but let us also get prepared for the worst."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

o

"Let’s Talk About…the Iran Deal & the End of the War"

"What Triggered Trump to Make the Deal with Iran?"

Bill Bonner, "What AI Won't Do, Part Three"

Turtles on a log.

"What AI Won't Do, Part Three"

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - Will AI make us all “very rich,” as Mr. Trump assures us? Will it make anyone rich? Take the softball first. Will it make us all rich? It will not — and the very asking of the question betrays a mind that has never paused to consider how the world is actually put together.

“Rich” is a relative thing, not an absolute one. We can no more all be rich than we can all be in the ninetieth percentile; the word itself would be meaningless. So it is with “truth.” With “good.” With “handsome,” and with very nearly every adjective a fellow can pull from the dictionary.

A battery, to carry a positive charge, requires a negative ground; flip it as you please, but you cannot have the one without the other. And when “good” or “fast” or “rich” floods the land in overwhelming quantity, you may as well have none of it at all.

Consider the tallies of yesterday morning. Between the ringing of the IPO bell and his next breakfast, Elon Musk is reckoned to have gained some $400 billion. But the old principle of declining marginal utility tells us that each fresh dollar is worth less than the last. Spread across a whole economy this melancholy truth wears the name “inflation,” and it gnaws quietly at every dollar in your pocket. For a man like Elon, sitting upon roughly $1,400,000,000,000, the next single dollar is worth approximately nothing. Park that fortune in U.S. Treasuries and it throws off some $56 billion a year in interest. Every second is worth $29 to Elon. So, the dollar lying on the sidewalk is not worth stooping to pick it up.

Hold this in mind as we proceed, for it is the very hinge on which the whole contraption swings, and it explains why AI is apt to prove a fat and conspicuous flop. The principle is this: that which is too easily had is not worth having, and that which is already too plentiful is not worth piling higher. In Stockholm a fine bronze tan draws admiring glances; in Dakar or Kinshasa, not so much.

Which brings the follow-up question. If not all of us, then who? At first squint, the prizes would seem to fall to those chasing them - recklessly, even, with great barrowloads of other people’s money. We refer to the hyperscalers, financed by the trusting shareholders of Microsoft, Meta, Google, SpaceX and the rest. If a queue is forming for those destined to strike it rich, surely they stand at the head of it. But as we saw yesterday, those apparently best placed to seize a new technology are commonly those most thoroughly chained to the old one.

We all remember Kodak. Its “Kodak moment” marched straight into common usage. Kodak even invented the digital camera back in the 1970s. But it could never coax a profit from it, and slid into bankruptcy in 2012. Today’s Kodaks may meet the same undertaker.

The true Henry Fords of AI may not be those with household names, nor the glittering IPOs. They may not even be Americans. Politico: "People around the world see a winner on AI - and it’s not the US. Respondents in key U.S.-allied countries increasingly see China as the world’s AI leader, while American optimism about the technology continues to erode."

Whatever. But there lurks a further possibility: that AI may simply turn out to be a dud. It deals in words, designs, fake videos, scraps of information - and it scoops these ‘ideas’ from the internet, where the human race has deposited them in great reeking heaps, like guano upon some forgotten island. A little manure does wonders for the roses. Shovel on too much and they wilt and die. Dollars cheapen as they multiply, and so do ideas. In the stock market, when every last soul is certain a share will rise, one thing alone is sure: it will not rise - for who is left to buy once “everyone” has already laid down his bid?

The machines can ape Shakespeare’s sonnets, draft an airplane, untie a mathematical knot - and do it in an instant. They also work around the clock, without rest. Every eleventh-grader now knows AI can knock out a term paper better than the boy himself and trim a screenplay in a wink, and all of it at very nearly no cost at all.

In the time it takes your editor to grind out one of these dispatches, the machine called Claude can produce a hundred - no exaggeration; we put it to the proof. It needs less than five minutes for Claude to write one. In the six or seven hours we spend chiseling a single column into shape, Claude turns out dozens, and they all sound smarter than we do - like a celebrated economist, like a Financial Times editorial, like a man who actually knows what he is talking about. And then - here is the rub - the next iteration of the machine will feed not upon our labors but upon its own, for it has manufactured so many more of them. 

The Conversation: "More than half of new articles on the internet are being written by AI. The experts now put AI-generated stuff at 80 percent of the top search results. And since these AI artifacts are groomed and pimped by the algorithms of AI itself, the AI-driven search shows a tender preference for its own offspring. AI-optimized. AI-written. AI-ready. The upshot is that the human sources which once made the machine seem clever are buried in a mounting pile of its own derivatives. AI has stopped imitating human intelligence in other words; it now imitates AI intelligence.

A doubter once accosted Thomas Huxley - the great Victorian naturalist - as he was explaining how the planets wheel about the sun, insisting instead that the world lay flat upon the back of a turtle.

“And what,” asked Huxley, hoping to drive his questioner into an absurdity, “does the turtle stand upon?”

“Another turtle,” said the woman.

“And that turtle - what does it stand upon?”

“No, no, Mr. Huxley, you do not understand. It’s turtles all the way down.”

And so it shall be in the brave new world of AI - a counterfeit world, quality smothered beneath quantity, and humbug all the way down."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com