Full screen recommended.
OPTM, 3/27/26
"Iran Just Struck IDF Base Filled With Soldiers
As Netanyahu Sends Appeal For Ceasefire"
Comments here:
So, we rise from the rubble...
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Friday, March 27, 2026
"March, 22-26: Invisible Wounds" (Excerpt)
"March, 22-26: Invisible Wounds"
by NO1
Excerpt: "A ceasefire fixes nothing.There’s this meme going around. You’ve probably seen it:
It’s so absurd because it’s basically true…Trump gave Iran 48 hours to open Hormuz or he’d obliterate their power plants, starting with the biggest one first.Within that window, Israel struck Natanz – Iran’s main uranium enrichment facility.
Iran’s response was immediate and precisely calibrated: 7 separate missile strikes on Dimona and surroundings. Not the reactor itself. Not the research centre. Close enough that 47 high-level personnel had to be evacuated by helicopter, close enough that THAAD failed to intercept, but deliberately not close enough to cause a radiation event. That’s a warning shot.
Official death toll before Arad, before Dimona: 19. In total. For 3 weeks of shelling. That last attack was the single worst “difficult event” of this war. 20 died in Arad, over 100 injured. Tasnim’s Hebrew desk has a slightly different number: 1,281 excess deaths. 61 additional deaths per day, sourced from cemetery records and 703 ZAKA movements [ZAKA transports the dead].
92% of Israelis want the war to end. The schools are closed. Airport is shut. Daily life has been reduced to sheltering and praying that the next siren is a false alarm. They want it to stop. God, do they want it to stop.
3 weeks in and the country is on its knees. Gaza did 65 weeks. But who’s counting. Funny how empathy works. The ICJ called it a plausible genocide. Next door. Nobody surveyed the rubble in Gaza. Nobody checked if the 2 million people drinking sewage water wanted it to stop too. They did, by the way. In case anyone was wondering. And nobody cared enough to stop it.
Karma’s a bitch."
Full, most highly recommended article is here:
"The Cycles Warn The US Cannot Defeat Iran"
"The Cycles Warn The US Cannot Defeat Iran"
by Martin Armstrong
"Will the United States be defeated by Iran? Based on my cyclical analysis, historical precedent, and current trajectory, let me give you the answer that will make the neocons furious: YES. The United States will be defeated in Iran—not necessarily not just on the battlefield, but STRATEGICALLY, ECONOMICALLY, and POLITICALLY.
Sending in troops that end up with thousands in returning home in body-bags will show the entire world that Iran can defeat the mighty USA. That will send a smoke signal to Russia and China that the US cannot possible defend both Europe and Taiwan while also tied up defending Netanyahu.
Sending in troops will be a suicide mission. This is not going to be D-Day. We do not have the troops to conquer Iran, and Netanyahu does not care how many Americans will die for his personal vendetta. Iran has a major army, and this is NOT going to be a cakewalk. The advice being given to Trump is such a bald-faced lie that it is putting the entire world at risk, all for the defense of the sadistic character of Netanyahu. Sending in troops will be a suicide mission. We do NOT have the personnel to wage this war, and my sources are screaming that even the Marines are not renewing all because this is NOT a war that is in the American interest, but is a religious war for Netanyahu.
The military strength of Iran is far superior and Trump may claim we have already won by taking out their Navy and bombing their above ground operations, but Iran has dozens of deep underground facilities that nothing should of a nuke would possible reach. Aside from that, I would be very concerned that Iran is now pushing for a nuclear weapon ASAP and they have the missile capability. Once they announce that they now have the nukes, this changes everything.
Israel is effectively out of defense. Trump is now taking resources from Ukraine and sending them to Israel, which will not change the outcome. Iran has strategically planned for the end game and has the largest stockpile of ballistic missiles perhaps in the world, but certainly in the region.
Now even Saudi Arabia is demanding the US wipe out Iran for now Epic Fury has risen the Epic Persian Lion. They have seriously underestimated Iran and Trump did not listen to American intelligence and took Netanyahu’s word instead.
I warned that the war cycle turned up in 2014 and that would begin in Ukraine. But I also warned that WWIII will NOT be a single front, but we are looking at wars around the globe. The computer is showing this is going to extend into 2028 and that it should have turned higher exponentially here in 2026.
The half-cycle turning point was here in 2026. At the last WEC I also warned that 2026 would be a Panic Cycle Year when it came to war, markets, and the economy. It pains me deeply to see how the Neocons have infiltrated the Trump Administration and that this insane arrogance will lead to the defeat of the United States for the stated goals of regime change, causing a revolution, destroying their ballistic missiles, and ending their nuclear program have all failed. At this point, if I were Iran, I would be working night and day to finish that nuke for that is the only way at this point to discredit Netanyahu. This was a stupid move sold to Trump that just killing the Ayatolla would bring down the government which was totally fictional. Now Trump risks the entire stability of the world as a whole all for Netanyahu. Instead of securing the future for Israel, Netanyahu may undermine its future as it can no longer defend against Iranian missiles and Russia is now sending drones to Iran."
"Lockdown 2.0: The IEA Has Released 10 Guidelines To Help The Public Prepare For The Coming Fuel Shortages And “Energy Lockdowns”
by Michael Snyder
"Are we really going to go through this again? It appears that the Iranians are absolutely determined to keep traffic through the Strait of Hormuz paralyzed until they get what they want. In order to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, an absolutely massive military operation would be required, and perhaps we will see such an operation in the days ahead. But for now approximately 2,500 ships continue to be trapped inside the Persian Gulf, and this is already starting to create fuel shortages in some parts of the globe. If the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened for months, the fuel shortages will become extremely serious and it is inevitable that “energy lockdowns” will be imposed.
Don’t think that it can’t happen. Even now, the term “energy lockdown” is trending on social media all over the world… A new term has begun trending on social media as the global oil crisis deepens: “energy lockdown.” While the phrase evokes memories of COVID-19 restrictions, experts say it describes something very different - a set of government-enforced or encouraged measures to reduce fuel, gas and electricity consumption in response to severe supply shocks.
The term gained traction following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the Iran-Israel-US conflict, which has cut off about 20% of global oil supplies. On March 24, the sixth anniversary of India’s first COVID-19 lockdown, the term peaked as public anxiety mixed with historical memory.
As you will see below, so far most of the energy-saving restrictions which have been introduced are voluntary. But as global energy supplies get tighter and tighter, it is probably just a matter of time before mandatory restrictions become widespread.
The International Energy Agency is giving us some clear indications of what could be ahead. They have just released a list of 10 emergency guidelines that some users on social media are calling a “playbook” for future energy lockdowns… The “World’s energy watchdog” has announced a list of emergency measures the public should take to help deal with the ongoing energy crisis triggered by the war in the Middle East. Many on social media have branded the emergency energy playbook as “lockdown 2”. One critic said: “We’re not doing this again.” The International Energy Agency (IEA) has released the list of guidelines encouraging countries across the globe to reduce fuel usage.
The suggestions given in the report, called “Sheltering from oil shocks”, consists of 10 steps focused on curbing fuel consumption. The IEA has also advised member countries – such as the UK and Australia – to prepare emergency measures to overcome oil demand. Needless to say, we are not being encouraged to wear masks this time around. But we are being encouraged to avoid driving and to stay home. The following is the full list of 10 guidelines that the IEA has just released…
٭Work from home where possible.
٭Reduce highway speed limits by at least 10km/h.
٭Encourage public transport.
٭Alternate private car access to roads in large cities on different days.
٭Increase car sharing and adopt efficient driving practices.
٭Efficient driving for road commercial vehicles and delivery of goods.
٭Divert LPG (liquified petroleum gas) use from transport.
٭Avoid air travel where alternative options exist.
٭Where possible, switch to other modern cooking solutions.
٭Leverage flexibility with petrochemical feedstocks and implement short term efficiency and maintenace measures.
I think that they realize that there simply is not going to be enough fuel for everyone if this war does not end soon. This is going to be particularly true in Asia, because they buy more than 80 percent of the oil that travels through the Strait of Hormuz… Countries across Asia are reviving Covid-era playbooks — from work-from-home policies to fuel-saving curbs and subsidies — as they scramble to respond to a deepening energy crisis triggered by the Iran war, Reuters reported. The region is at the frontline of the disruption, buying more than 80% of the crude that transits the Strait of Hormuz — a vital artery that has been largely blocked since the conflict began on February 28.
This isn’t a crisis that is going to happen in a few weeks or a few months. This is a crisis that is happening now. As I write this article, national governments in Asia “are preparing for worst-case energy scenarios”…Governments across Asia are preparing for worst-case energy scenarios that could include a prolonged and severe disruption to supplies, even as the U.S. draws up a plan to end the war in Iran.
South Korea shifted into crisis mode on Wednesday, setting up an emergency economic task force to urgently prepare for adverse scenarios. The Philippines declared a national emergency, citing an “imminent danger of a critically low energy supply.” Japan is reviewing its entire supply chain of petroleum-related products as the likelihood builds of shortages and knock-on effects across the economy, while India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned the war could cause unprecedented challenges for the nation.
During a couple of his recent speeches, Modi made some comments that have caused a great deal of concern in India…In his speeches in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on Monday and Tuesday about the West Asia conflict, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recalled how India faced the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated global supply chain disruptions. “In the past too, our government did not allow the burden of global crises to fall on the farmers,“ Modi said in his address in Lok Sabha on the West Asia crisis on Monday. On Tuesday, speaking in the Rajya Sabha, PM Modi almost repeated what he had said the day before in the Lok Sabha. Modi called upon the nation to “remain prepared and united, just as it had stood together during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Following those speeches, Internet searches for “energy lockdown” absolutely skyrocketed. People in India really are concerned that we could see a repeat of the darkest days of the pandemic. Even now, the ceramics industry in the state of Gujurat has been “shut down for the best part of a month” due to a lack of fuel… In the western state of Gujurat, a shortage of gas rather than oil has seen the region’s ceramics industry shut down for the best part of a month. With no end in sight to the Iran conflict, the 400,000 people employed in the trade have been left in limbo. “I will have to go hungry if I continue staying here without work,” Sachin Parashar, a migrant worker, told a local news channel.
In the vast metropolis of Mumbai, approximately 20 percent of the hotels and restaurants have already been shuttered…In Mumbai – a city of more than 22 million people – as many as a fifth of all hotels and restaurants fully or partially shut in the first weeks of March. Items which take longer to cook are absent from menus. Long queues have formed across the nation as people try to get their hands on gas cylinders, even as the government tries to calm fears of a shortage. “The situation [in restaurants] is dire. Cooking gas simply isn’t available,” Manpreet Singh, of the National Restaurant Association of India, which represents about 500,000 restaurants, told the BBC.
This war hasn’t even been going on for a month yet. So what will things look like if this war continues for at least several more months?
In Sri Lanka, every Wednesday is now a “public holiday” in a desperate attempt to conserve fuel. In Pakistan, schools have been closed for two weeks and cricket fans are being urged to stay home… In Pakistan, authorities have asked cricket fans to stay home and watch matches on television instead of travelling, in an effort to save fuel. At the same time, the government is considering limits on how much fuel vehicles can use, according to sources familiar with the plan.
The situation is also worsening in Bangladesh, where long lines have formed at fuel stations, with some stretching up to a kilometre. Many fertilizer plants have been shut down to conserve energy, while the government is trying to secure about $2 billion in loans to meet rising power demand during the summer months.
Here in the United States, we should be very thankful that we are not as dependent on Middle Eastern oil as we once were. Because just about everyone in Asia is really hurting right now. Japan is tapping into their strategic reserves, and South Korea is strongly considering it…The two east Asian nations are being rocked by surging import costs, forcing factories to scale back and governments to tap emergency reserves. apan, which imports more than 90% of its oil from the region, has begun tapping strategic reserves. South Korea is weighing reserve releases and emergency support measures.
Just about all of the oil that is used by the Philippines comes from the Middle East, and they have already declared a national energy emergency…The Philippines just became the first country to declare a national energy emergency, warning of “an imminent danger of a critically low energy supply.” The island imports 98% of its oil from the gulf.
Needless to say, this is just the beginning. If the war does not end soon, Europe will start to run out of fuel next month… However, without a return of crude deliveries from the Gulf to global buyers via the crucial Hormuz channel, Europe could face shortages of fossil fuels within weeks, according to Wael Sawan. The Shell chief executive told an oil industry conference in Texas: “South Asia was first to get that brunt. That’s moved to south-east Asia, north-east Asia and then more so into Europe as we get into April.”
We have never seen anything like this. If this war stretches into the summer, there will be global panic. Already, panic buying has caused shortages at hundreds of gas stations in Australia…Hundreds of service stations across Australia have run out of fuel, with the federal government inking a deal with Singapore, one of the country’s biggest sources of refined petroleum, to keep supplies of diesel and petrol flowing.
Concerns are now broadening to supplies of fertilizer and other chemicals, heaping more pressure on the Albanese government’s leveraging of overseas exports of coal and gas in a bid to handle of the crisis. The energy minister, Chris Bowen, told federal parliament on Monday that 109 outlets in Victoria had run out of at least one grade of petrol, that there were 47 outlets in Queensland with no diesel and 32 without regular unleaded, and that 37 stations in New South Wales had run out of petrol.
I wish that I could tell you that the war will be over quickly and that conditions will return to normal very soon. But I can’t do that.
The CEO of BlackRock, Larry Fink, is telling us that he believes that if the price of oil reaches 150 dollars a barrel it will cause a global recession…BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is warning that a prolonged conflict between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran could drive the price of oil to $150 a barrel and plunge the world into a “stark and steep recession.” The remarks come as U.S. military operations against the Islamist regime enter their twenty-fifth day, and amid weeks of energy and financial market volatility.
“Rising energy prices is a very regressive tax. It affects the poor more than the wealthy,” Fink notes, while further cautioning that Iran could force “years above $100, closer to $150 oil, which has profound implications in the economy.” The $150-a-barrel benchmark, according to the BlackRock CEO, is an important line to avoid crossing, as doing so would result in “a probably stark and steep recession.”
I believe that he is wrong. I believe that if the price of oil reaches 150 dollars a barrel and stays there, it will cause a global depression. I wish that I was exaggerating, but I am not. We really have entered one of the most chaotic chapters in human history, and most of the population still has no idea what is in front of us."
"On The Meridian of Time..."
“On the meridian of time there is no injustice: there is only the poetry of motion creating the illusion of truth and drama. If at any moment anywhere one comes face to face with the absolute, that great sympathy which makes men like Gautama and Jesus seem divine freezes away; the monstrous thing is not that men have created roses out of this dung heap, but that, for some reason or other, they should want roses. For some reason or other man looks for the miracle, and to accomplish it he will wade through blood. He will debauch himself with ideas, he will reduce himself to a shadow if for only one second of his life he can close his eyes to the hideousness of reality. Everything is endured – disgrace, humiliation, poverty, war, crime, ennui – in the belief that overnight something will occur, a miracle, which will render life tolerable.”
- Henry Miller
"Great Was It's Fall"
"Great Was It's Fall"
by Edward Curtin
"When it comes, it comes on slowly
The day feels holy, a hush falls down
Whispered names, remembered faces
From desperate places, all gather ‘round"
Tom Paxton, “Come on, Holy”
"Early morning and the first heavy snow is falling. It is beautiful. I walk around the lake in the holy hush. Alone except for two newly arrived ducks swimming on an open patch of icing water. When I stop to watch them, the soft sound of the falling snow grows gradually louder, beating drums, like truly listening to Beethoven, not the lionized one, about whose honored status James Agee wrote “is the one surest sign of fatal misunderstanding, and is the kiss of Judas,” but the Beethoven whose music you won’t hear nicely but will hurt you and for which you should be glad.
Although I have come here to flee for an interlude the sound of the world’s anguish and to contemplate its beauty, I am deflected, as usual. How could I not be? Isn’t it true as the poet Rilke said, that “beauty is nothing / but the beginning of terror,” and we, with all our strange thoughts inside us, try to swallow the sobs that accompany all our joys.
My brother-in-law died unexpectedly a few days ago. I watch the ducks swim so placidly in circles and I wonder.
I realize that my thoughts are meaningless to most but me, a minor writer in a world of screamers, yet I record them here to learn what I may think and to share with a few other human souls the musings of a distraught man in a world made mad and running red like a butcher’s bench with the blood of the innocent shed by ruthless people. I am old but hope I am forever young with a strong foundation that will help me find some insights along this path. Who knows?
I have spent many decades lost in beauty and an intense scholar’s study of the propaganda the world’s rulers use to convince the gullible that their intentions are pure and their actions are carried out for the common good. Few have heeded my findings. Why should they?
While the rulers’ endless lies should be apparent, they are not, for too many people have built their own lives upon foundations made of sand, and though they are shaking, few believe they will fall. And to think the official doll’s house of fabricated reality within which they dwell and upon whose words they build their lives will also fall – that is deemed impossible.
William Saroyan, in his 1939 play “The Time of Your Life,” (winner of both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award) has a minor character, the Arab, repeat, “No foundation. All the way down the line.” That is all he has to say. “No foundation. All the way down the line.” Concise and cutting to the bone. True then, but much, much truer now.
Then came World War II and the defeat of Germany, Japan, and their allies with the United States dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki after fire-bombing Tokyo, Dresden, Cologne and dozens of other Japanese and German cities, intentionally killing vast numbers of civilians.
And if that wasn’t enough, the future CIA Director Allen Dulles, James Jesus Angleton, and colleagues brought nearly 2,000 Nazis scientists, engineers, biological weapons experts to the U.S. to work in government programs, while helping thousands more flee justice by helping them escape to South America and other places along the “rat lines.”
Thus the U.S. became the evil they denounced in others, and it could rightly be said Hitler triumphed in defeat. Upon this evil foundation, which is now crumbling, the U.S. empire was built despite its alleged Christian underpinnings.
There’s an old saying: "And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes." Mathew 7:21-29
Being alone on my walk helps me focus on the elementary truth that we are all mortal and that beauty is terrifying since it evokes the anguish of its and our endings. And when we go, end, pass on, or die – take your pick – all the secret thoughts, hopes, memories, lives, and dreams we have had will vanish with us, if we have not, while living, found a way to tell the truths we harbor in our secret hearts. We will be but mysterious melodies others might hum without grasping our lyrics, as the Gershwin brothers referenced in their song “They Can’t Take that Away From Me.” Our melodies may linger on for a while once our songs have ended, as the songwriter says, but who we really were will vanish with us into the mists of time.
In quiet moments of timeless reflection, everyone knows we are complex creatures; just as they quickly don their masquerades when time resumes to face the faces that they face to deny such complexity.
When I left the ducks to their circle games, I continued on my way along the lake. The snow blew from the north into my face and made it hard to see. The lake and the neighboring woods disappeared and so did my thoughts as I constantly wiped my eyes of snow. But I felt a certain joy beyond telling.
As the snow and wind eased up, I saw up a hill through a cut in the woods a large doe with her three fawns grazing under some sheltering pine trees on posted property owned by a local college. A smart mother, I thought, since I knew shotgun deer hunting season was underway.
It was then that the hushed peace of the morning was broken by a few shotgun blasts from the western woods. Did the doe and her fawns, who in days past I would often meet and converse with at very close range along the road, take heed? Can such creatures learn to avoid men with guns? Why were the hunters on the prowl for deer to kill? Did they need the meat to eat, or did they just get their kicks from the killing and slicing and gutting of once living creatures who never did them any harm?
I wondered – and leave that wondering to you – as my mind turned to the genocide in Gaza and the murder of the innocent in so many other places by men with guns and weapons more amazing in their killing power, manufactured in spotless factories by people indifferent to how their bread is buttered. But I knew that the workers on the factory floors were no more guilty than those whose butter comes from investments in these ghoulish places. Yes, Thoreau knew: "Do not ask how your bread is buttered, it will make you sick if you do – and the like. A man had better starve at once than lose his innocence in the process of getting his bread. If within the sophisticate man there is not an unsophisticated one, then he is but one of the devil’s angels."
When I was about four years old, I went with my mother to the local butcher shop. When Sol the butcher came to wait on my mother, I noticed his white apron was covered in blood, so I asked him if he cut himself. He laughed and asked me if I would like a slice of liverwurst. Didn’t Hitler claim to be a vegetarian because of animal suffering?
The shotgun blasts increased on my way home. I stopped to gather some long-needle pine and wild red berry branches for our mantle since it was December and the birth of the Prince of Peace was approaching. My knife slipped and I cut my finger, the blood dripping onto the white snow matched the berries’ redness. It was startlingly beautiful, but the cut was painful as I stanched it with a few tissues.
When I got home and was bandaging my finger and my wife was decorating our mantle with my cuttings, I recalled an analysis of our current situation offered by the French demographer, Emmanuel Todd, “The Dislocation of the West.”
Todd is an all facts guy, an historian, a sociologist, a middle-of the roader, far from a romantic dreamer, an analyst of the extensive data that he gathers. Years back, based on data analysis, he correctly predicted the fall of the Soviet Union. Now he is predicting the fall of the West based on certain specific variables that he considers key. When I read his work and heard him talk, I concurred completely, for I had for years, based on my work in the sociology of religion, reached the same conclusion without all his data to back me up.
We in the West, he says, are living at a time when nihilism, meaninglessness, and zero religious belief is the norm. It has come on slowly over a century and a half to the point where nothing seems holy. We have passed from a Zombie religious state when traditional religious values, but not belief, survived somewhat, to a time when nihilism undergirds everything. A nihilistic foundation, meaning no foundation. Reality has been undermined and a zombie state of lostness prevails, and irrational pure evil state nihilism lives for endless war. Moral values have disappeared behind a façade of fake belief.
If Thoreau were around, he might ask people what they really believed about God, death, and moral values, and the stuttering responses would befit the times. But no one is asking. The song is over but only the melody lingers on, even as Bing Crosby sings “O Little Town of Bethlehem” on a cyber sale at Amazon.
Todd is a data man, a non-believer, a normal academic, and yet from his research he probably sounds to many as if he is unhinged. But he is just repeating what Jesus, Saroyan’s character, and the Protestant theologian Paul Tillich (in 1948) all said was happening with the shaking and undermining of the Western foundation. Hell would break loose. Nihilism would triumph.
And it did, of course, and will unless... I don’t know; Todd has no answer. "I think of all the blood in the woods, on the tracks, all the blood being shed everywhere, the killers licking their chops, the earth indifferently drinking all the blood, and the words of the French poet Jacques Prevert’s “Song in the Blood”:
"Where’s it going all this spilled blood?
Murder’s blood, war’s blood, misery’s blood,
And the blood of men tortured in prisons,
And the blood of children calmly tortured by their papa and their mama,
And the blood of men whose heads bleed in padded cells,
And the roofers blood when the roofer slips and falls from the roof,
And the blood that comes and flows in great gushes with the newborn,
The mother cries,
The baby cries,
The blood flows,
The earth turns,
The earth doesn’t stop turning,
The blood doesn’t stop flowing,
Where’s it going all this spilled blood?
Blood of the blackjacked,
Of the humiliated,
Of suicides,
Of firing squad victims,
Of the condemned,
And the blood of those that die just like that by accident."
But then my wife suggested that Todd and I may be wrong. When religious belief was strong in the West, weren’t nations and people slaughtering their enemies in the name of religion? Don’t many social scientists use data to argue points that lack counterpoints? Haven’t people long been fanatical killers in the name of religion and for their gods? When did morals or religious belief ever stop the shedding of blood? Such times are few and far between. Perhaps religious belief is not the explanatory variable that Todd thinks it is and seemed so to me when I first read his work and even concurred with it a few minutes ago.
Could not the key be that mysterious human attribute – love – that like despair cannot be measured, that finds in every other living creature a part of oneself, just the inkling in our hearts that everyone is us and should always be treated as an end and not a means, especially at a time when the spiritual has been subordinated to the technical, everything has become means, and the ends have disappeared.
It may sound laughable to suggest that Fyodor Dostoevsky explained it better than all the data gatherers in his story “The Dream of A Ridiculous Man”: "It is so simple: in one day, in one hour, everything would be settled at once. The one thing is – love thy neighbor as thyself – that is the one thing. That is all, nothing else is needed. You will instantly find how to live."
Or as Jesus said and other great religious leaders affirmed: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity [love], I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." - Corinthians 13
Who can explain it? Who can tell you why? Not this fool. I can only wonder as I wander in the beautiful falling snow. Like Dostoevsky, “I will not, I cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of men. Yet all of them only laugh at my belief.” It’s understandable."
Freely download "The Dislocation of The West", by Emmanuel Todd, here:
John Wilder, "The Time Of Your Life"
“In the time of your life, live - so that in that good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches. Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding place and let it be free and unashamed.
Place in matter and in flesh the least of the values, for these are the things that hold death and must pass away. Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption. Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world. Ignore the obvious, for it is unworthy of the clear eye and the kindly heart.
Be the inferior of no man, or of any men be superior. Remember that every man is a variation of yourself. No man's guilt is not yours, nor is any man's innocence a thing apart. Despise evil and ungodliness, but not men of ungodliness or evil. These, understand. Have no shame in being kindly and gentle but if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret.
In the time of your life, live - so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it.”
- William Saroyan,
"The Time of Your Life" (1939)
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"The Time Of Your Life"
by John Wilder
"Often, we spend much on things of little value, and little on things of great value. I’m not the first to observe that, some dead Greek or Roman (probably both) beat me to it by thousands of years. Regardless, it’s one of those truths that hits like a freight train when I remember it, but until then, it’s just humming along in the background of my life like the fridge in the kitchen or the bodies buried in the crawlspace. There, but we just don’t think about them.
It’s easy to chase the shiny, the expensive, the Facebook™ fodder by pouring cash and hours into stuff that delivers about as much lasting joy as a two-week-old ham sandwich served by a lunch lady that looks too much like Ellen DeGeneres. Meanwhile, the really good stuff, the stuff that actually fills my soul and makes me excited and glad to be alive, sits there free for the taking, and we walk right past it like it’s yesterday’s newspaper.
Take a sunset. Not some fancy resort sunset that cost $5,000 and six hours in an airplane after the TSA cavity search to see. Just the one out my front window, or even on the drive home. Those shockingly bright filaments of cloud turning the sky into purples and oranges and pinks that no paint company has ever quite matched. That experience costs exactly zero dollars and maybe minutes of my life to really look deeper at the world around me and see the wonders embedded there.
I can stand, tilt my head, and for that brief moment connect to something bigger than my to-do list or 401(k) balance. Natural beauty is raw and free in the Recommended Daily Allowance, and served whether anyone notices or not. I’ve had days where that pause reset my entire mood. No app, no subscription, no ticket required.
Or this blog, for that matter. Sure, you say, “Wilder, how can you be so funny? It’s drugs, isn’t it?” No, dear friends, that’s silly, unless you call sunsets, puppies wagging their tail, purring cats, alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine drugs! What nonsense! But I get a lot of enjoyment out of the writing, which is why I do it.
It’s the same with a good book, which I can get at the library for free because they don’t have a good anti-theft system. Or a conversation with The Mrs. over coffee that isn’t about bills or schedules or why the carpet is wet again. This is free. Abundant, even. Ben Franklin nailed it 5,000 years ago when he designed the Great Pyramid: “If thou lovest life then wasteth not time, for that is what lifeth is madeth of. And, a little lower and to the left.”
Time is the one resource I can’t buy more of, can’t borrow, and that I can’t refinance. Every second I spend is gone forever. The opposite side of the coin is even uglier. How many times did I give away the truly precious stuff: hours, health, relationships... for pennies?
So many people trade five full days a week doing work they actively hate for the fleeting dopamine hit of a weekend. I get it. It’s called a job, not a hobby, for a reason and that reason is that they give you money for it. Bills gotta get paid, mouths gotta eat. But when the dread starts Sunday afternoon and doesn’t let up until Friday at 5 p.m., I’m not living. I’m enduring. And enduring is what prisoners do.
The rest of us, unless you’re literally locked up because those pesky kids kept snooping around and just would leave it alone, have choices. Real choices. The guy staring back at me in the mirror every morning is usually the one who got me into whatever fix I’m in. Bad career move? My choice. Skipped the workout? My choice. Put off that hard conversation? Yep, still me.
But here’s the kicker: we’re all surrounded by free gold. A walk outside costs nothing and gives me fresh air, movement, and a chance to clear my head. Gratitude practiced daily, literally just listing three things I’m thankful for, rewires my brain toward the good. There are millions of these things that surround us. I can remember when I met The Mrs. (at that time, The Miss). If you took the square root of our net worth at the time, it would have an imaginary component because it took digging even to get to zero.
I worried less then than I do now. Quality of life is more about gratitude and hope than it is about net worth. Understanding that I will die gives me power, and no excuse for not going all in. I don’t get an extra prize for running out the clock.
Purpose and consequences are the secret ingredients to the Big Mac® of life. Easy happiness is cheap: a little weed, endless video games, or passive scrolling. It’s bliss without accomplishment, and it leaves everyone who follows that path hollow inside.
Real happiness, the kind that sticks, comes from choosing what’s worth being temporarily uncomfortable for. It’s never as glamorous as the movies make it look. No montage, no random hot stranger fixing your life, no making punji sticks to impale the crooked sheriff just because he hated Vietnam vets. Nope. Just brutal honesty, some discomfort, and the slow compound interest of time spent wisely, though you can still make the punji sticks.
Me? I’m trying to audit the tradeoffs. Where am I spending much on little? Where am I skimping on the great? We’re all headed to the same exit ramp. The good news is, until then, most of us get to choose how we spend those miles unless a pack of comedic crime-fighting kids and a dog start snooping around my crawlspace. The guy in the mirror is the one who decides. Choose the sunset. Choose the conversation. Choose the book on the deck. Choose the work that doesn’t feel like slow death. Stack the free wins. They compound faster than any investment account, and the dividends are paid in meaning, not just money."
Thursday, March 26, 2026
"Alert: A Million Iranian Soldiers Prepare, US Sending More Troops, Creepy Messages From POTUS"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 3/26/26
"Alert: A Million Iranian Soldiers Prepare,
US Sending More Troops, Creepy Messages From POTUS"
Comments here:
"Iran War Crushing Global Economy While Trump Keeps Lying About War Ending"
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 3/26/26
"Iran War Crushing Global Economy
While Trump Keeps Lying About War Ending"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What's Next in these increasingly turbulent times."
Comments here:
"The USA is a Third World Country As Millions of Americans Need Three Jobs To Afford Life"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 3/26/26
"The USA is a Third World Country As Millions
of Americans Need Three Jobs To Afford Life"
"Something is changing in America, and it's showing up in the most ordinary moments, a mom checking her tips after a long shift, a teacher grading papers between her second job, a young worker staring at $50 left in his account after a 50-hour week. More and more Americans are working two, three jobs at a time, and still finding that it's not enough. This video takes a honest look at what that reality feels like from the inside, through the voices of real people sharing their stories online.
The numbers tell one part of the story. The number of Americans working two full-time jobs has doubled since 2020, recently hitting near-record highs. People earning $70,000 to $100,000 a year are falling behind on bills. A salary that would have supported a comfortable family life just five years ago is now pushing people toward the edge. But beyond the statistics, what stands out is how normal all of this has become. A third job is no longer a last resort. For millions of people, it is just the routine.
What makes this especially hard to sit with is who we are talking about. Teachers with master's degrees and decades of experience who still cannot cover their monthly bills. Parents working overnight shifts and weekend gigs just to keep their kids in swim class and afford the occasional pizza. People who are doing everything they were always told to do and still ending up with nothing left over. The cost of groceries, rent, insurance, gas, and healthcare keeps climbing while wages stay flat, and the gap between the two is becoming impossible to ignore.
There is also a deeper exhaustion running through all of this that goes beyond the physical. People are not just tired from working too much. They are tired of feeling like no matter how hard they push, they cannot get ahead. They are tired of being told the economy is improving when their own bank accounts say otherwise. That kind of burnout does not go away with a good night's sleep. It accumulates, quietly, until it starts to feel like the permanent background of everyday life. If you are out there working multiple jobs, stretched thin, wondering how long you can keep going, this one is for you. You are not failing. You are not alone. And your experience deserves to be taken seriously."
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"Will President Trump Send U.S. Troops On 'Suicide Mission' To Take Control of Strait of Hormuz?"
"Will President Trump Send U.S. Troops On
'Suicide Mission' To Take Control of Strait of Hormuz?"
by Leo Hohmann
"President Trump is massing American troops in the Middle East, while talking about a peace deal with a country, Iran, whose leaders deny they are in any such talks and want no part of Trump’s deals. Elements from the 82nd Airborne Division headquarters and a brigade combat team will deploy to the Middle East, the Pentagon confirmed in a statement Wednesday. “We can confirm elements of the 82nd Airborne Division HQs, some division enablers and the 1st BCT will be deploying to the CENTCOM AOR,” a Defense Department spokesperson said.
Military analysts estimate that a combined 10,000 to 50,000 U.S. troops, consisting of Marines and Army units, are on the way, the first installment of which is due to arrive in the region this weekend. Never mind that this is exactly the type of operation that candidate Trump repeatedly said he would never commit to, putting thousands of boots on the ground in a hostile Middle Eastern country. Despite the rhetoric, I predicted back in January and February that any military action that involved regime change in Iran would necessarily have to involve ground troops. (I reported on Feb. 19 that ground troops would be deployed and I reported as far back as Jan. 6 that Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz if attacked by the U.S./Israel, launching a much larger war than what Trump was indicating would be necessary.)
But what are the chances of success should American troops hit the ground of Iran in the coming days or weeks? I’m no military expert but I’m not sure how it behooves the U.S. operation to announce such troop deployments ahead of time, giving the Iranians time to prepare even more than they already are.
It’s especially true if you are sending only 10,000 to 50,000 troops into a country like Iran that has a million men in uniform, including 150,000 highly trained elite members of the Iranian Republican Guard Corps (IRGC). One would think that maybe the element of surprise would come in handy when you find yourselves so vastly outnumbered? But again, that’s just me. What do I know?
This wouldn’t be the first time a Western army was sent on a suicide mission to take control of a narrow strait of water, where the enemy is firmly dug in with the capability to fire on the undermanned invaders. Historian Mark Cartwright, writing at WorldHistory.org, notes the World War I Battle of Gallipoli serves as a lesson worth studying. In that famous battle, the Ottoman Turks successfully beat back an attempt by the British and allied forces to capture and control the Dardanelles Strait, a narrow body of water not unlike the Strait of Hormuz now controlled by Iran. Cartwright writes of the World War I battle that took place in 1915:
“This major expedition involved British, French, Australian, and New Zealand (ANZAC) troops and was launched to break through the Dardanelles into the Black Sea, thereby providing a new supply route to Russia. The Ottoman defenses remained robust, and an eight-month-long trench battle of attrition ultimately ended in an Allied withdrawal. Infamous as a costly failure, the campaign resulted in 250,000 Allied casualties, and its staunchest promoter, Winston Churchill, was sacked from his role in the British Admiralty.”
According to Cartwright’s account, the Turks had the high ground while the invaders had no cover as they tried to trudge over rugged terrain, a factor magnified even more so in Iran, where the Hormuz Strait is flanked by miles of mountains, caves, cliffs and valleys.
“The Allied forces, with little natural cover to take advantage of around Cape Helles, soon found themselves pinned down by enemy fire, particularly from well-protected machine guns,” Cartwright writes (his entire article is worth reading here).
In short, the Dardanelles became a catastrophe soaked in British and French blood, despite the fact that they had what at the time was considered a vastly superior fighting force. Today’s modern drone warfare complicates the situation even more for U.S. troops trying to take control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Military historian Col. Douglas MacGregor (retired) also points to the Battle of Gallipoli as an indicator of what could happen in the Strait of Hormuz should Trump decide to launch an invasion there. For more insights into this fascinating historical analysis that someone in Trump’s inner circle is surely aware of, fast-forward to the 44:38 mark in MacGregor’s video interview below with Lt. Col. Daniel Davis.
MacGregor stated: “People seem to have read the story of the Dardanelles, but they didn’t read all the way through… They read the first few chapters and thought that’s a great idea, let’s do it. They didn’t bother to read the concluding chapter, which was catastrophic failure. It was a dumb idea. What they’re talking about trying to do with ground troops in the Strait of Hormuz, in my judgment, is an equally dumb idea. Unless of course, and I could be wrong about this, you have annihilated all of the intermediate range and tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and you have eliminated all of the unmanned systems that could be launched and hurled at you, so that the place is barren. And then, even more important, perhaps you can jam all of the satellites, Russian and Chinese and others, that are providing assistance and support and imagery, to the Iranians. If you can do all of those things, then I suppose you can put people on the ground with rifles, walking around looking at the neighborhood.” He added, “So we need to understand these kinds of operations are extremely dangerous, very difficult to conduct. And I hope, I hope somebody somewhere, is telling these things to the president.”
Old and stoned? You’re still good enough for drone fodder Meanwhile, multiple news agencies are reporting that the U.S. army has raised the maximum enlistment age to 42 years old and scrapped a barrier for potential recruits who have a legal conviction for marijuana or possession of drug paraphernalia. Americans up to 42 years of age can now volunteer to enlist in the Army, the Army national guard and the Army reserves, according to the new U.S. army regulation, lifting the previous ceiling of 35 years old.
The Army has also removed restrictions upon recruits who have a single conviction for possession of marijuana or associated items such as bongs, pipes and spoons. Previously, such a conviction would require a special waiver from officials in the Pentagon, with the recruit having to wait 24 months to enlist and passing a drug test. These policy changes come just days after the Pentagon announced it would automatically register American teenage boys for the draft on their 18th birthday.
Added together, such changes sound like the White House may be gearing up for a military draft, but I don’t believe that would happen before the November mid-term elections. Trump is increasingly looking and sounding like he is desperate to find a way out of the Iran war that he publicly describes as a raging success. But none of his options are good ones. He can either claim a hollow victory and walk away, or he can escalate the war by launching a ground invasion of a heavily guarded Iranian coastline with geography that favors the defenders over the invaders. A third option would be to use nuclear weapons against Iran, something no sane person would hope to see.
Trump announced Thursday he was increasing his 5-day cessation of the bombing to 10 days, with a new deadline of April 6 for Iran to accept his “deal.” This deal, as best we can tell from Trump’s own words, is total and unconditional surrender, which of course is a non-starter for Iran. The extension of Trump’s deadline to April 6 means nothing to anyone who knows Trump. He has a history of setting artificial deadlines. If there’s one thing we have learned from Trump’s record as the “peace president,” it’s that we should not pay attention to anything he says, but rather watch what he does."
Musical Interlude: 2002, "Inner Light"
Full screen recommended.
2002, "Inner Light"
"This song is from our album, "The Emerald Way". The Emerald Way refers to that moment in life when a pivotal choice must be made – to choose the way that is customary and expected of us – or to head down the overgrown hidden path leading to the unknown."
"A Look to the Heavens"
“About 70 million light-years distant, gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 289 is larger than our own Milky Way. Seen nearly face-on, its bright core and colorful central disk give way to remarkably faint, bluish spiral arms. The extensive arms sweep well over 100 thousand light-years from the galaxy's center.
At the lower right in this sharp, telescopic galaxy portrait the main spiral arm seems to encounter a small, fuzzy elliptical companion galaxy interacting with enormous NGC 289. Of course spiky stars are in the foreground of the scene. They lie within the Milky Way toward the southern constellation Sculptor.”
Chet Raymo, “Under the Surface”
“Under the Surface”
by Chet Raymo
by Chet Raymo
“Somewhere, in something I have written, I recall quoting with approval this passage from Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire": “For my own part I am pleased enough with surfaces - in fact they alone seem to me to be of much importance. Such things for example as the grasp of a child's hand in your own, the flavor of an apple, the embrace of a friend or lover, the silk of a girl's thigh, the sunlight on rock and leaves, the feel of music, the bark of a tree, the abrasion of granite and sand, the plunge of clear water into a pool, the face of the wind - what else is there? What else do we need?”
Pleased enough with surfaces. Yes, I know what I meant. Pleased enough with this world, here and now, this world of light and matter. Not wanting or needing that other world that occupies so many people, a world of supernatural agencies, spirits, disembodied presences. Give me a world I can see and hear and touch and taste. Give me a world with heft and substance, a world with surfaces that shine and shimmer. What else is there? What else do we need?
Well, maybe not. I was scanning issues of “Science” and “Nature,” with their usual illustrations of the molecules of life, the nuclei acids and the proteins. The elaborate machinery that unseen, under the surface, endow the apple's flavor, the silk of skin, the abrasion of sand. Think of it. Atoms that are mere whiffs of resonance, binding into molecules, twisting and turning into endless shapes, fitting together like hand and glove, endlessly spinning and weaving, all without the slightest conscious participation on our part. Abbey's world of surfaces spun out of the mysterious, endlessly active, subsurface stuff of the world.
Pleased enough with surfaces? Not really. I want to know what's under the surface, that world of molecular frenzy that cannot be touched or seen, a world that in its own way is as beautiful and as meaningful as the macroscopic world we consciously inhabit. We don't need to know it. We can live a fulfilling life without knowing it. But I want to know it. I want to know what goes on behind the curtain of the senses. I want to hear that silent and ceaseless music of creation.”
- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/
"Not Knowing..."
“Not knowing you can’t do something
is sometimes all it takes to do it.”
- Ally Carter
"Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 3/26/26"
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 3/26/26
"COL. Douglas Macgregor:
Why Trump Is Now Desperate"
Comments here:
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 3/26/26
"COL. Lawrence Wilkerson:
Why Trump Is Wedded to Israel"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Danny Haiphong, 3/26/26
"Iran Downs F-18, Pummels Gulf States &
Israel as US Ground War Looms"
Comments here:
"Americans Warned: Experts Predict Food Shortages Within Weeks"
Full screen recommended.
Snyder Reports, 3/26/26
"Americans Warned: Experts Predict
Food Shortages Within Weeks"
Comments here:
Free Download: Henry Miller, "Tropic of Cancer"
“The monstrous thing is not that men have created roses out of this dung heap, but that, for some reason or other, they should want roses. For some reason or other man looks for the miracle, and to accomplish it he will wade through blood. He will debauch himself with ideas, he will reduce himself to a shadow if for only one second of his life he can close his eyes to the hideousness of reality. Everything is endured – disgrace, humiliation, poverty, war, crime, ennui – in the belief that overnight something will occur, a miracle, which will render life tolerable. And all the while a meter is running inside and there is no hand that can reach in there and shut it off.
All the while someone is eating the bread of life and drinking the wine, some dirty fat cockroach of a priest who hides away in the cellar guzzling it, while up above in the light of the street a phantom host touches the lips and the blood is pale as water. And out of the endless torment and misery no miracle comes forth, no microscopic vestige of relief. Only ideas, pale, attenuated ideas which have to be fattened by slaughter; ideas which come forth like bile, like the guts of a pig when the carcass is ripped open.
Somehow the realization that nothing was to be hoped for had a salutary effect upon me. For weeks and months, for years, in fact, all my life I had been looking forward to something happening, some intrinsic event that would alter my life, and now suddenly, inspired by the absolute hopelessness of everything, I felt relieved, felt as though a great burden had been lifted from my shoulders. At dawn I parted company with the young Hindu, after touching him for a few francs, enough for a room. Walking toward Montparnasse I decided to let myself drift with the tide, to make not the least resistance to fate, no matter in what form it presented itself.
Nothing that had happened to me thus far had been sufficient to destroy me; nothing had been destroyed except my illusions. I myself was intact. The world was intact. Tomorrow there might be a revolution, a plague, an earthquake; tomorrow there might not be left a single soul to whom one could turn for sympathy, for aid, for faith. It seemed to me that the great calamity had already manifested itself, that I could be no more truly alone than at this very moment. I made up my mind that I would hold on to nothing, that I would expect nothing, that henceforth I would live as an animal, a beast of prey, a rover, a plunderer. Even if war were declared, and it were my lot to go, I would grab the bayonet and plunge it, plunge it up to the hilt. And if rape were the order of the day then rape I would, and with a vengeance.
At this very moment, in the quiet dawn of a new day, was not the earth giddy with crime and distress? Had one single element of man’s nature been altered, vitally, fundamentally altered, by the incessant march of history? By what he calls the better part of his nature, man has been betrayed, that is all. At the extreme limits of his spiritual being man finds himself again naked as a savage. When he finds God, as it were, he has been picked clean: he is a skeleton. One must burrow into life again in order to put on flesh. The word must become flesh; the soul thirsts.
At this very moment, in the quiet dawn of a new day, was not the earth giddy with crime and distress? Had one single element of man’s nature been altered, vitally, fundamentally altered, by the incessant march of history? By what he calls the better part of his nature, man has been betrayed, that is all. At the extreme limits of his spiritual being man finds himself again naked as a savage. When he finds God, as it were, he has been picked clean: he is a skeleton. One must burrow into life again in order to put on flesh. The word must become flesh; the soul thirsts.
On whatever crumb my eye fastens, I will pounce and devour. If to live is the paramount thing, then I will live, even if I must become a cannibal. Heretofore I have been trying to save my precious hide, trying to preserve the few pieces of meat that hid my bones. I am done with that. I have reached the limits of endurance. My back is to the wall; I can retreat no further. As far as history goes I am dead. If there is something beyond I shall have to bounce back. I have found God, but he is insufficient. I am only spiritually dead. Physically I am alive. Morally I am free. The world which I have departed is a menagerie. The dawn is breaking on a new world, a jungle world in which the lean spirits roam with sharp claws. If I am a hyena I am a lean and hungry one: I go forth to fatten myself.”
- Henry Miller, "Tropic of Cancer"
Freely download "Tropic of Cancer", by Henry Miller, here:
Chris Hedges, "Trump Has No Soul"
"Trump Has No Soul"
by Chris Hedges
"The most profound realities of human existence are often the ones that can never be measured or quantified. Wisdom. Beauty. Truth. Compassion. Courage. Love. Loneliness. Grief. The struggle to face our own mortality. A life of meaning. But perhaps the greatest conundrum is the concept of a soul. Do we have a soul? Do societies have souls? And, most basically, what is a soul?
Philosophers and theologians, including Plato, Aristotle, Augustine and Arthur Schopenhauer, have all grappled with the concept of a soul, with Schopenhauer preferring to define the mystical force within us as will. Sigmund Freud used the Greek word psyche. But most have accepted, whatever the definition, some version of a soul’s existence.
While the concept of the soul is opaque, soullessness is not. Soullessness means something inside of us is dead. Basic human feelings and connections are shut down. Those without souls lack empathy. I saw the soulless in war. Those so calcified inside they kill without any demonstrable feeling or remorse. The soulless exist in a state of insatiable self-worship. The idol they have erected to themselves must be constantly fed. It demands a never-ending stream of victims. It demands abject obedience and subservience, publicly on display at Trump cabinet meetings.
Psychologists, I expect, would define the soulless as psychopathic. I write this not to get into an esoteric debate about the soul, but to warn what happens when those without souls seize power. I want to write about what is lost and the consequences of that loss. I want to caution you that death, our death - as individuals and as a collective - mean nothing to those without souls. This makes the soulless very, very dangerous.
Those who lack souls have no concept of their own limitations. They feed off a bottomless and self-delusional optimism, giving to their cruelest deeds and bitterest defeats, the patina of goodness, success and morality. Those without souls - as Paul Woodruff writes in his small masterpiece “Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue” - do not have the capacity for reverence, awe, respect and shame. They believe they are gods.
The soulless cannot respond rationally to reality. They live in self-constructed echo chambers. They hear only their own voice. Civic, familial, legal and religious rituals and ceremonies that transport those with souls into the realm of the sacred, into a space where we acknowledge our shared humanity, forcing us, at least for a moment, to humble ourselves, are meaningless to those without souls. Those without souls cannot see because they cannot feel.
The soulless, enslaved by narcissism, greed, a lust for power and hedonism, cannot make moral choices. Moral choices for them do not exist. Truth and falsehoods are identical. Life is transactional. Is it good for me? Does it make me feel omnipotent? Does it give me pleasure? This stunted existence banishes them from the moral universe.
Human beings, including children, are commodities to the soulless, objects to exploit for pleasure or profit or both. We saw this soullessness displayed in the Epstein Files. And it was not only Epstein. Huge sections of our ruling class including billionaires, Wall Street financiers, university presidents, philanthropists, celebrities, Republicans, Democrats and media personalities, consider us worthless.
Thucydides understood. Reverence is not a religious virtue but a moral virtue. Woodruff went so far as to define it as a political virtue. Reverence for shared ideals, Woodruff writes, is the only thing that can bind us together. It is the only attribute that ensures mutual trust. Reverence allows us to remember what it means to be human. It reminds us that there are forces we cannot control, forces that we will never understand, forces of life that we did not create and must honor and protect - including the natural world - and forces that allow us moments of transcendence, or what in religious terms, we call grace. “If you desire peace in the world, do not pray that everyone share your beliefs,” Woodruff writes. “Pray instead that all may be reverent.”
Trump’s celebration of himself is made manifest in his stunted vocabulary of superlatives and his rebranding of national monuments. He tears down the East Wing to construct his gaudy and oversized $400 million ballroom. He proposes a 250-foot-tall memorial arch, adorned with gilded statues and eagles, in honor of himself, an arch that will be bigger than the Arch of Triumph erected by North Korean dictator Kim II Sung in Pyongyang. He is planning a “National Garden of American Heroes” that will include life-size statues of celebrities, sports figures, political and artistic figures deemed by Trump to be politically correct, along with, of course, himself. His face adorns the sides of federal buildings on huge, well-lit banners. He changed the name of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts to the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. He added his name to the headquarters of the U.S. Institute of Peace. He has announced a new fleet of U.S. naval vessels called Trump-class battleships.
These are monuments not only to Trump, but to a perverted ethic, to the insatiable self-worship that defines the inner void of the soulless. Monuments, houses of worship and national shrines dedicated to justice, self-sacrifice and equality, which demand from us humility and introspection, which require the capacity for reverence, mystify the soulless.
The soulless have no sense of aesthetics. They have no sense of balance, symmetry and proportion. The bigger, the gaudier, the more encrusted in gold leaf, the better. They seek to shut out everything and everyone else, to herd us with offerings to the feet of Moloch.
When the soulless wage war it is part of this perverted drive to build a monument to themselves. When war goes badly, as it is going in Iran, the soulless, unable to read reality, demand greater levels of violence and destruction. The more they fail, the more they are convinced everyone has betrayed them, the more they descend into a tyrannical rage. Trump, potentially facing a humiliating debacle in Iran, will lash out like a wounded beast. It does not matter how many suffer and die. It does not matter what weapons, including nuclear weapons, must be employed. He must triumph, or at least appear to triumph.
“Fathers and teachers, I ponder, ‘What is hell?’” Father Zossima asks in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov.” “I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.” This is the plight of the soulless. They seek, in their misery, to make their hell our own."
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