"Are American cars becoming unsafe to drive? In this explosive report, Dan from iAllegedly breaks down the shocking surge in auto recalls across the United States - with Ford leading the industry in 2025 with a historic 153 recalls. From engine failures and transmission defects to fire risks and “Do Not Drive” warnings, this video exposes the alarming reality behind today’s vehicles. If you own a Ford, Nissan, GM, Hyundai, or Volkswagen, you need to see this. We also uncover the most dangerous recall categories - including “Do Not Park Indoors” fire warnings - plus unbelievable stories like an electric fire truck sidelined by charging failures and a Hyundai Ioniq bricked by spilled water. Are modern vehicles over-engineered and unreliable? Is your car safe? Watch now to understand what’s happening in the auto industry and how it could affect you."
From the W.B. Yeats Ferry - "We take the ferry back and forth from Ireland to France. In the summer, it is a pleasant ride. In the winter months, it is an adventure. We got on yesterday at Cherbourg. The sky was sunny. The sea was calm. “Looks like it will be very nice,” said Elizabeth.But once out of the port, and into the English Channel, the swells grew much larger. All we could do was lay in our bed. It is now twelve hours later, and our boat has passed through the bouncy Channel and the even bouncier Atlantic Ocean. We are now steaming up the Irish Sea. It is much calmer, so we can get back to work.
Our job here is simply to connect the dots...and see what picture they form. We cast no judgment on the dots themselves - no matter what blithering idiots put them there. We just try to understand what they mean and what they may portend. What makes our work especially difficult lately is that there are one heckuva lot of dots to work with...strewn out like decoys as if to draw observers away from the ones that really matter. All that can be said about them is that at least they are often amusing.
In the news yesterday, for example, was Donald Trump’s generous offer to send a hospital ship to Greenland to help those sick people who have been denied medical care by their incompetent and cruel government. Trump: [The ship] “will take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there.” “Help is on the way,” wrote Florence Nightingale on his twitter account. But there are only two hospital ships in the US Navy fleet. And neither is on its way to Greenland. Instead, both the USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy are in dry dock in Alabama, being repaired. They’re not going anywhere anytime soon.
Oh my. Those poor Greenlanders...freezing their poor derrieres off...with angels hovering over their beds as they wait, desperately, hoping the ship arrives before icy winds carry them away, forever, from the land of the living. But then came the worst of it. The local jefe, showing no gratitude for the hospital ship that wasn’t really coming, had the cheek to tell Trump what he could do with his floating sawbones. “No thanks,” said he, going on to remind POTUS that they had a national health program in Greenland. People get the medical care they need at no cost.
He did not say so but the number of Greenlanders...and Danes from the mainland...who go broke each year because of high medical costs, is zero. In the US the figure is over 600,000. Nor did he rub it in by mentioning that the life expectancy for the newborn Dane is three years higher than for an American, 82 rather than 79. Even comparing life expectancy of the ‘native Americans’ to ‘native Greenlanders’ ends in embarrassment for the US. The typical Greenlander can expect 71 years of life. On America’s Pine Ridge Reservation, 66 is what he can look forward to.
But what to do with Trump’s offer? What kind of dot is that? Pure, unattached crackpottery? A joke? Or, is it just fanciful...like a deaf man imagining he hears Piazzolla? After the president’s state of the union address, we must have gotten a dozen different analyses...fact checking, correcting, kibitzing...criticizing POTUS for saying nothing...or lying. Diane Sare: "Trump’s State of the Union: Two Hours of Sound and Fury Signifying Nothing, Except Perhaps the End of the World."
Associated Press: "A look at Trump’s false and misleading claims in his State of the Union speech."
Washington Post: "Why the longest-ever State of the Union address was the most inconsequential."
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget reports: "Ultimately, the President’s agenda thus far has added significantly to the national debt, and we will be spending even more because of our past refusal to pay for our priorities. Interest payments on the debt will total nearly $17 trillion between now and 2036; annual payments will rise from more than $1 trillion this year to more than $2 trillion by 2035."
Was that all there was? One hour and 47 minutes of error and mendacity...like the hospital ship that will never come? The parts we follow - the economic dots - were mostly fantasy or foolishness. Even the premises undergirding them were malarkey. Mr. Trump thinks Americans should be happy when the stock market goes up, for example. But when stocks go up faster than GDP, it merely shifts wealth from average households to the richest ones - those that own most of corporate America.
Likewise, he thinks the government should try to keep house prices elevated. But he says he’ll lower interest rates to make them more affordable to young people. What to make of that? Lower rates may or may not make housing ‘more affordable’ in terms of monthly payments...but they would almost surely make it more expensive. Then, when prices inevitably decline, the poor ‘upside down’ homeowner will tumble out of his house, just as he did in 2008.
The whole cluster of dots introduced in the SOTU speech was strangely isolated, like a rogue galaxy, unconnected from our known universe. But what if that was the point? The president was not talking about reality but an alternative to reality...something better...like the world of professional wrestling that he knows so well. When The Rock beats the Iron Sheik, it is better than real. It is the meta-world of Byzantium…’out of nature’ and still very much a part of it.
Viewers have other options; they prefer to watch ‘wraslin.’ It is a world they like and understand. It is a world where the good guys win. And what if the point of Mr. Trump’s display was not to describe the actual world, but to keep the fans happy with his fabricated one. In it, we send our hospital ships to help the sick...and enter a Golden Age ‘like nobody’s ever seen before.’ And like nobody ever will see. Who wouldn’t prefer that to the real world?"
"Millions of Americans are waking up every day feeling like something is deeply wrong with the economy. The cost of living keeps climbing, wages are barely moving, and more people than ever are struggling just to keep up with basic expenses. In this video, we take an honest look at what everyday Americans are experiencing right now and why so many believe we are already living through a modern day Great Depression.
"When you compare the numbers from the 1930s to today, the results are staggering. During the Great Depression, the average home cost about three times the average salary. Today, it is eight times the average salary. Rent used to take up around 16 percent of a person's income. Now it eats up over 40 percent. Cars, groceries, housing, insurance, everything has skyrocketed while paychecks have stayed mostly flat. More young adults are living at home with their parents than during the Great Depression itself.
On top of that, unemployment is far worse than what official numbers suggest. While the government reports a 4 percent unemployment rate, independent studies and economists estimate the real number could be closer to 20 or even 25 percent. Companies across the country are laying off thousands of workers, and many of those jobs are being replaced at significantly lower salaries. Long term unemployment is becoming the norm, with one out of every four unemployed Americans out of work for over six months.
The housing market has reached the most unaffordable level in United States history, surpassing even the 2008 crisis. Foreclosures are up over 30 percent compared to last year. GDP growth has been revised sharply downward while inflation continues to rise. Credit card debt is at an all time high. The warning signs of a deeper economic collapse are everywhere if you are paying attention.
And it does not stop there. Companies are now openly passing tariff costs and inflation directly onto consumers. Prices on coffee, cars, groceries, and everyday goods continue to climb. At the same time, corporations are cutting jobs and offering lower wages. Working Americans are being squeezed from every direction with no relief in sight.
This video features real people sharing their real experiences with the economy right now. From financial experts breaking down the numbers to everyday Americans explaining how they are barely holding on, these stories paint a picture that the mainstream media is not showing you. This is what life looks like for millions of people across the country right now. If you are feeling the pressure of this economy, you are not alone. Share your story in the comments below and let others know what it looks like where you live. Sometimes just knowing other people understand what you are going through can make all the difference."
"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."
"Is this one galaxy or two? The jumble of stars, gas, and dust that is NGC 520 is now thought to incorporate the remains of two separate disk galaxies. A defining component of NGC 520 - as seen in great detail in the featured image from the Hubble Space Telescope - is its band of intricately interlaced dust running vertically down the spine of the colliding galaxies. A similar looking collision might be expected in a few billion years when our disk Milky Way Galaxy to collides with our large-disk galactic neighbor Andromeda (M31).
The collision that defines NGC 520 started about 300 million years ago. Also known as Arp 157, NGC 520 lies about 100 million light years distant, spans about 100 thousand light years, and can be seen with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Fish (Pisces). Although the speeds of stars in NGC 520 are fast, the distances are so vast that the battling pair will surely not change its shape noticeably during our lifetimes."
"Lots of good people are frustrated with the world, and I understand that only too well. They are, furthermore, eager for the world to improve, and I respect that a great deal. Their problem arises, however, right on the heels of these desires, when they ask the question, “What should I do?” And that’s where the wheels fall off.
All the Popular Answers Are Wrong: The world is full of people who are glad to tell you what to do. They have elaborate arguments as to why their plan is the right one and why everyone else’s is wrong. They’ll encourage you to commit to them, and they’ll try to surround you with people who have already chosen their plan. If you join, you’ll get lots of pats on the back and assurances that you’re a good person. But all those ways are wrong. They offer you fast, cheap self-esteem. They offer you a fast track to feeling useful, important, and wanted. And all you have to do is join their very pleasant crowd.
Let me make this very clear: There is no blueprint for freedom. There will be no great plan to follow. People who say they have such a thing, while they may be well-meaning, bright, and even respectable, are moving in the wrong direction. (And I truly don’t mean to criticize here; we’ve all made our mistakes.) Here’s the core of the issue: If we want a world that is safe for individuals, we’ll have to create it as individuals, not as groups. Groups beget after their own kind, and individuals beget after their own kind.
I’m not the first person to decide this, by the way; here’s what Albert Schweitzer had to say on the subject many years ago: "The unnatural way of spreading ideas must be opposed by the natural one, which goes from man to man and relies solely on the truth of the thoughts and the hearer’s receptiveness for new truth."
The Easiest Thing to Do: Following someone else’s plan is the easy way. It saves us from responsibility. It allows us to deflect the blame, at least a little, if later we’re found to be wrong. This easy way, however, is a wrong way. There’s a great line from Steven Stills’s song, “The Southern Cross,” that goes like this:
"And we never failed to fail;
it was the easiest thing to do."
It will always be the easiest thing to go downward into servitude. That is the current condition of the world, with its dominance-obsessed and status-worshiping inertia. You can go downward quickly by handing your will to the status quo, or you can go slowly by standing still. But until you act, solely upon your own judgment, you’re not going to go upward.
Are You Saying…? Yes, I’m saying that you have to make your own decision, all alone, and that you have to raise the courage to start acting upon it by yourself, with no leader telling you the best choice, with no famous author guiding you, and with no authority sanctifying the path for you. You’ll have to choose, all by yourself. And you’ll have to face all the fears that hold you back from stepping out… you’ll have to push past them… you’ll have to make your own legs start walking. That, my friends, is the price of progress… and we each have to pay it, or not pay it, alone.
We Should Act Without a Plan? Emphatically yes. The central issue here is not following a plan, but dragging ourselves out of stasis and taking some kind of initiative. Unless you’re making some kind of wild, destructive choice, almost any choice you make is a good one. Your central necessity is to unfreeze yourself and start moving. Once you’re in motion, it’s easy to correct your course. But if you never move, you’ll just keep sliding down the majority’s path, regardless of how much you complain.
In our time, most of the good people in the world remain motionless. We complain about our local fiefdom’s abuses, of course, but that’s about all. That’s the seduction of “democracy,” you see: It magically turns complaints into progress. Except that the magic of democracy never really shows up. Still, it’s the easiest thing to do. And so we complain and we wait, but we do not act.
But again: There’s never going to be a perfect plan and there’s never going to be a right time. If you wait for them, you’ll wait forever. So, pick a spot and start. You probably already have choices in mind: Bitcoin, homeschooling, intentional communities, agorism, becoming a perpetual traveler, or something else. Whatever it is, get moving: your central necessity is to face the fear and to act anyway. And if you’d like to know my favorite choice, here it is: Sit at bus stops or train stations and talk to people. You can do that at almost any time and any place.
Who Happens to Whom? In other words, “Who acts, and who is acted upon?” As an old coworker of mine used to say, “He who hesitates is lost.” If you wait, you’ll be acted upon. And then you’ll have to re-form your plan, and you’ll hesitate again. And then you’ll be acted upon again… over and over, until you’re too old to do much of anything.
The ‘right time’ never comes. Either we let the world happen to us, or we transcend our fears and we happen to the world. So, I propose a simple motto for people who have courage enough to break stasis: The world doesn’t happen to us. We happen to the world."
"Ursula K. Le Guin was one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated fantasy and science fiction authors. She won many awards, including a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize. Her body of work (dozens of novels, short stories, essays, poetry, and plays) explore the themes of time, life and meaning with an acute sensitivity and verbal brilliance that reveal a deep understanding of human nature.
She was prolific. Le Guin wrote 23 novels, 12 volumes of short stories, 11 volumes of poetry, 13 children’s books, five essay collections, and four works of translation. Le Guin’s ability to build fully realized worlds is one key to her success as a writer. These worlds are so fully realized that readers are easily transported there due to their compelling nature.
Another important factor is Le Guin’s willingness to experiment. She never stuck with any one genre for too long, instead constantly exploring new territory and building on previous successes. She was also one of the first writers to explore themes of gender and feminism in science fiction. In her work, she often used her childhood experiences to explore human nature and the roles we play as humans.
Ursula K. Le Guin is best known for her sci-fi book, “The Hainish Cycle”, which is considered one of the most important works of science fiction literature.
“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end,” she once said. Le Guin’s work is profoundly scientific and philosophical at the same time and often deals with big questions about meaning and life.
Few writers have captured the human experience more than Ursula K. Le Guin. In her writing, you can find her reflecting on themes such as time, life and meaning in a way few other authors manage. She explains through her brilliant writing that you can transform your life from one full of busyness and obligation into one centered on fulfilling your purpose and leveraging every minute of your existence.
Time is a crucial part of the human experience. It is the key to understanding our world, our history, and ourselves. Time is what separates one moment from another; it is what connects them; it is what happens now; it is what will happen later; it is the sum total of history and what is yet to happen.
“The thing about working with time, instead of against it, is that it is not wasted. Even pain counts,” Ursula K. Le Guin said.
We’ve become so accustomed to rushing through life that even a passing thought can feel like we’re being left behind. As a result, we’ve come to expect things to happen immediately and resent any delays that might cause us frustration or boredom. A life spent rushing through time can leave us feeling directionless and lost, seeking answers where there may be none.
Life is a question; you are the answer: “We decided that it was no good asking what is the meaning of life, because life isn’t an answer, life is the question, and you, yourself, are the answer.” - Ursula K. Le Guin. “The only questions that really matter are the ones you ask yourself,” she observed. Le Guin’s works explore the conditions necessary for people to flourish, the costs of keeping such conditions constant, and what it means to be fully alive.
Anytime you find yourself facing a challenge or a choice, it is important to ask yourself some key questions: What do I want? What’s my goal? What do I value? How do I make the most my finite time? Why am I doing this in the first place? How do my present experiences help me explore myself?
These questions aren’t just tackled in her fiction; Le Guin was also interested in how we experience time and how this experience affects our sense of self, relationships with others, and ideas about purpose and meaning. She is one of the most influential authors in science fiction history because she can illuminate universal truths by exploring specific circumstances or events within broader narratives. In other words, she makes readers aware that these universal questions exist by exploring their implications with empathy and precision.
As we change and grow, so should our lives and the meaning we find in them. To thrive, we need to accept that everything changes over time and not get too attached to the idea of a permanent self or single life path. “The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next,” Ursula K. Le Guin observed.
Meaning can be found in the present moment as much as in anticipating a future full of promise and in recognizing death’s finality. Enjoy the present and the suffering that comes with it. “The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means,” she asks. “If you evade suffering you also evade the chance of joy. Pleasure you may get, or pleasures, but you will not be fulfilled. You will not know what it is to come home,” Le Guin wrote in "The Dispossessed."
Whether through art and literature or personal experience, Le Guin reminds us that no matter how strange or hard times may seem - the potential for something better lies within us all. The freedom to explore who you truly are is deeply liberating. There’s more to your life than you can ever imagine. “All of us have to learn how to invent our lives, make them up, imagine them. We need to be taught these skills; we need guides to show us how. If we don’t, our lives get made up for us by other people,” she writes.
It’s your duty to explore your existence as deeply as possible without fear or restrictions. Don’t build walls - pursue your true north to find meaning. Ursula K. Le Guin writes, “The duty of the individual is to accept no rule, to be the initiator of his own acts, to be responsible. Only if he does so will the society live, and change, and adapt, and survive."
“Sometimes fate is like a 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.”
"When I see the blind and wretched state of men, when I survey the whole universe in its deadness, and man left to himself with no light, as though lost in this corner of the universe without knowing who put him there, what he has to do, or what will become of him when he dies, incapable of knowing anything, I am moved to terror, like a man transported in his sleep to some terrifying desert island, who wakes up quite lost, with no means of escape. Then I marvel that so wretched a state does not drive people to despair."
“I cling like a miser to the freedom that disappears
as soon as there is an excess of things.”
- Albert Camus, "Lyrical and Critical Essays"
"Let me tell you a story about a haunted house and all the thoughts it evoked in me. Do we believe we can save ourselves by saving things? Or do our saved possessions come to possess their saviors? Do those who save many things or hoard believe that there are pockets in shrouds? Or do they collect things as a magical protection against the shroud?
These are questions that have preoccupied me for weeks as my wife and I spent long and exhausting days cleaning out a friend’s house. Many huge truckloads of possessions have been carted off to the dump. Thousands of documents have been shredded and thousands more taken to our house for further sorting. Other things have been donated to charity. This is what happens to people’s things; they disappear, never to be seen again, just as we do, eventually.
Tolstoy wrote a story – “How Much Land Does A Man Need’’ – that ends with the answer: a piece six feet long, enough for your grave. As in this story, the devil always has the last laugh when your covetousness gets the best of you. Yet so many people continue to collect in the vain hope that they are exceptions. Ask almost anyone and they will reluctantly admit that they hoard to some degree.
In capitalist consumer societies, getting and spending and hoarding not only lays waste our powers, but it is done on the backs of the poor and destitute around the world. It is a system built to inflame the worst human tendencies of acquisitiveness and indifference since it teaches that one never has enough of everything.
It denies the primal sympathy of human care for all humans as it teaches that if you surround yourself with enough things – have ten pair of shoes, twenty shirts, an attic filled with things in reserve – you will be safe from the fate of the majority of the world’s poor who have next to nothing. It is an insidious form of soul murder wherein one pulls the shades on the prison-house, counts one’s possessions, and shakes hands with the Devil. And it is sadly common.
From attic to cellar to garage, every little cubbyhole, closet, and drawer in this relative’s house was filled with “saved” items. Nothing was ever thrown away. If you walked in the front door, you would never know that the occupants were compulsive keepers. While there were plenty of knick-knacks in evidence like so many houses where the fear of emptiness rules (the emptiness that is the source of freedom and creativity), once you opened a drawer or closet, a secreted lunacy spilled out seriatim like circus clowns from a small car.
Like all clown shows, it was funny but far more frightening, as though all the saved objects were tinged with the fear of death and dissolution, were futile efforts to stop the flow of time and life by sticking a finger in a dike.
Let me begin with the bags. Hidden in every corner and closet, there were bags stuffed in bags. Big bags and little bags, hundreds if not thousands, used and unused, plastic, paper, cloth bags with price tags still on them. The same was true for boxes, especially empty jewelry boxes. Cardboard boxes that once held a little something, wooden boxes, cigar boxes, large cartons, boxes from every device ever purchased – all seemingly being saved for some future use that would never come.
But the bags and boxes filled each other so that no emptiness could survive, although desolation seemed to cry out from within: “You can’t suffocate me.”
Tens of thousands of photographs and slides were squirreled into cabinets, closets, and their own file cabinets, each neatly marked with the date and place of their taking. Time in a “bottle” from which one would never drink again – possessing the past in a vain attempt to stop time. These photos were kept in places where their taker would never see them again but could find a weird comfort that they were saved somewhere in this vast collection. Cold comfort by embalming time.
It so happens that while emptying the house, I was rereading the wonderful novel, Zorba The Greek, by Nikos Kazantzakis. There is a passage in it where a woman has died, and while her corpse lies in her house, the villagers descend on her possessions like shrieking vultures on a carcass.
Old women, men, children went rushing through the doors, jumped through the open windows, over the fences and off the balcony, each carrying whatever he had been able to snatch – sauce pans, frying pans, mattresses, rabbits... Some of them had taken doors or windows off their hinges and had put them on their backs. Mimiko had seized the two court shoes, tied on a piece of string and hung them round his neck – it looked as though Dame Hortense were going off astraddle on his shoulders and only her shoes were visible….
The avidity for things drives many people mad, to get and to keep stuff, to build walls around life so as to protect themselves from death. To consume so as not to be consumed. Kazantzakis brilliantly makes this clear in the book. "Zorba, the Greek" physical laborer and wild man, is different, for he knows that salvation lies in dispossession.
"One day he encounters five little children begging in a village. Their father has just been murdered. “I don’t know why, divine inspiration I suppose, but I went up to them.” He gives the children his basket of food and all his money. He tells his interlocutor, a writer whom he calls “Boss,” a man whom Zorba accuses of not being able to cut the string that ties him to a life of living-death, that that was how he was rescued.
Rescued from my country, from priests, and from money. I began sifting things, sifting more and more things out. I lighten my burden that way. I – how shall I put it? – I find my own deliverance, I become a man."
In the jam-packed attic where there is little room to move with boxes and objects piled on top of each other, I found a large metal four-drawer file cabinet packed with files. In one file folder there was a small purse filled with the following: four very old unmarked keys, six paper clips, two old unworkable watches, a bobby pin, a circular case that contained what looked like a piece of a human bone, a few old medallions, tweezers, four buttons, an eye screw, a safety pin, a nail, a screw, two ancient tiny photos, and a lock of human hair.
Similar objects were stored throughout the house in various containers, bags, boxes, the pockets of clothes, in old ancient furniture in the basement, on shelves, in cigar boxes, in desks, etc.
Old receipts for purchases made forty years ago, airline baggage tags, ticket stubs, school papers, jewelry hidden everywhere, old foreign and domestic coins, perhaps twenty-five old unworkable watches, clocks, radios, clothes and more clothes, more than anyone could ever have worn, scores of old pens and pencils, hand-written notes with no dates or any semblance of order or meaning, chaos and obsessive account-keeping hiding everywhere in contradictory forms shared by two people: one the neat freak and the other disorganized.
One dead and the other forced by fate to let her stuff go, to stand naked in the wind.
How does it help a person to record that they bought a toaster for $6.98 in 1957 or a bracelet for $20 in 1970 or that they called so-and-so some undated time in the past? What good does it do to save vast correspondences documenting your complaints, bitterness, and quarrels? Or boxes upon boxes of Christmas cards received thirty years ago? Or brochures and receipts from a trip taken long ago? Old sports medals? Scrapbooks?
Photos of long dead relatives no one wants? Fashion designer shoes and coats and handbags hidden in a dusty attic where you don’t even know they are there. An immigrant mother’s ancient sewing machine weighing seventy-five pounds and gathering dust in the cellar?
Nothing I could tell you can come close to picturing what we saw in this house. It was overwhelming, horrifying, and weirdly fascinating. And aside from the useful things that were donated to charity and some that were taken to the woman’s next dwelling, ninety percent was dumped in a landfill, soon to be buried.
In his brilliant novel "Underworld", Don DeLillo writes about a guy named Brian who goes to visit a collector of old baseball paraphernalia – bats, balls, an old scoreboard, tapes of games, etc. – in a house where “a mood of mausoleum gloom” fills the air. The man tells Brian: "There’s men in the coming years they’ll pay fortunes for these objects. Because this is desperation speaking. Men come here to see my collection. They come and they don’t want to leave. The phone rings, it’s the family – where is he? This is the fraternity of missing men."
Men and women hoarders, collectors, and keepers are lost children, trying desperately to secure themselves from death while losing themselves in the process. In my friend’s house I found huge amounts of string and rope waiting to tie something up neatly someday. That day never came.
Zorba tells the Boss, who insists he’s free, the following: "No, you’re not free. The string you’re tied to is perhaps no longer than other people’s. That’s all. You’re on a long piece of string, boss; you come and go and think you’re free, but you never cut the string in two. And when people don’t cut that string...
It’s difficult, boss, very difficult. You need a touch of folly to do that; folly, d’you see? You have to risk everything! But you’ve got such a strong head, it’ll always get the better of you. A man’s head is like a grocer; it keeps accounts. I’ve paid so much and earned so much and that means a profit of this much or a loss of that much!
The head’s a careful little shopkeeper; it never risks all it has, always keeps something in reserve. It never breaks the string. Ah, no! It hangs on tight to it, the bastard! If the string slips out of its grasp, the head, poor devil, is lost, finished! But if a man doesn’t break the string, tell me what flavor is left in life? The flavor of camomile, weak camomile tea! Nothing like rum – that makes you see life inside out."
On the way out the door on our final day cleaning the house, I found a beautiful boxed fountain pen on a windowsill. I love pens since I am a writer. This one shone brightly and seemed to speak to me: think of what you could write with me, it said so seductively. I was sorely tempted, but knowing that I didn’t need another pen, I left it there, thinking that perhaps the next occupants of this house would write a different story and embrace Camus’ advice about an excess of things.
Look around you, see all the fine possessions you have, how proud you are of it all. Then ask yourself how many of them you will take back into eternity when your time comes. None. No, you will take out exactly what you brought in... nothing, "and all your money won't another minute buy." Fill a bowl with water, and place your hand in it, then take it out. The hole left in the water is how long you'll be remembered. You are, as we all are, "dust in the wind..."
"Is your "laziness" actually exhaustion? Is your "need for control" actually a desperate search for safety? The traits you likely judge most harshly in yourself are often not defects - they are scars. We tend to believe that if we were "better" people, we would be more relaxed, more trusting, or more open. But psychology tells us a different story: these behaviors are not signs of a broken character; they are signs of a nervous system that has worked incredibly hard to keep you safe. In this deep dive, we look at the biology of survival. When you endure chronic stress or childhood instability, your brain - specifically the amygdala - rewires itself for hyper-vigilance. You become an expert at reading micro-expressions and anticipating danger, but you lose the ability to rest. This video explains why you feel like a car with the engine revving in neutral, why you might feel "numb" to survive, and why your high-functioning armor is so heavy to carry. It is time to understand the machinery under the hood so you can finally stop fighting your own biology.
This is for the person who has always been the "strong one." If you are the friend everyone calls in a crisis, if you were called an "old soul" as a child, or if you feel like you are constantly holding up the ceiling so it doesn't collapse on everyone else - this analysis is for you. It is for anyone who is tired of being resilient and just wants to be human. You are not broken. You are simply a survivor who is still wearing armor in a room where the war ended years ago."
"A 92-year-old man, small, very proud, dressed and clean-shaven, with his hair perfectly combed, moves into a nursing home one morning at 8:00. His 70-year-old wife has recently passed away, forcing him to leave his home. After several hours of waiting in the nursing home lobby, he smiles kindly when we tell him his room is ready.
As he walks to the elevator with his walker, I give him a description of his small room, including the drape hanging from his window as a curtain. "I like it a lot," he says with the enthusiasm of an 8-year-old boy who has just received a new puppy. "Mr. Vinto, you haven't seen the room yet, wait a minute."
"That has nothing to do with it," he says. "Happiness is something I choose in advance. Whether I like my room or not does not depend on the furniture or the decorations - it depends on how I perceive it. In my head it is already decided that I like my room. It is a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I can choose, I can spend the day in bed counting the difficulties I have with the parts of my body that do not work, or get up and thank the heavens for the ones that still work. Every day is a gift and as long as I can open my eyes, I will focus on the new day and on all the happy memories I have collected throughout my life. Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you have accumulated."
So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in your bank account of memories. Thank you for participating in filling my bank account, where I continue to deposit. Remember these simple rules to be happy:
"On his deathbed at the age of 56 from pancreatic cancer Steve Jobs said this... "I have reached the pinnacle of success in business. In the eyes of others, my life is the epitome of success. However, apart from work, I have little joy. In the end, wealth is just a fact of life that I am accustomed to. At this moment, lying on my sick bed and looking back on my entire life, I realize that all the praise and riches I was so proud of have faded and become insignificant in the face of impending death.
You can hire someone to drive the car for you, make money for you, but you can't have someone carry the disease for you. Lost material things can be found. But there is one thing you can never find when you lose "Life".
When a person enters the operating room, he or she will realize that there is a book that he or she has not yet finished reading: “The Book of Healthy Living.” Whatever stage of life we are in at the moment, we will eventually face the day when the curtain falls. Feel affection, love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends... Treat yourself well. Appreciate others.
As we grow older and therefore wiser, we gradually realize that wearing a $300 watch or a $30 watch both tell the same time...Whether we carry a $300 wallet or a $30 wallet, the amount of money inside is the same; Whether you drive a $150,000 car or a $30,000 car, the road and distance are the same and you arrive at the same destination. Whether you drink a $300 bottle of wine or a $10 bottle, the hangover is the same; whether the house we live in is 300 square meters or 3000 square meters, the loneliness is the same.
You will realize that your true inner happiness does not come from the material things of this world. Whether you fly first class or economy, if the plane goes down, it goes down with it…
So… I hope you realize, when you have companions, friends and old friends, brothers and sisters, with whom you chat, laugh, talk, sing, talk about north-south-east-west or about heaven and earth. Enjoy life and don't obsess over material things." He was silent for several minutes, then uttered his final words, "Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Oh, wow..."
Exposing the Financial Crisis Millions Are Living Right Now"
"Modern depression risks are showing up in places most people don’t expect - paychecks that don’t stretch, “normal” bills that feel impossible, and a growing sense that the economy is moving without us. If you’ve felt that pressure lately, this breakdown will help you make sense of it. Here’s the thing: inflation isn’t just higher prices - it’s a slow drain on purchasing power that hits every household differently. We’ll connect the dots between wages, debt, housing, and the widening wealth gap, so you can see how today’s poverty cycle is being reinforced in real time. What most people miss is the resilience side. This video shifts the focus from panic to practical strategy: budgeting basics, building a small buffer, protecting cash flow, and simple “survival” habits that reduce stress and increase stability. We also compare key patterns from past depressions to what’s happening now, using data and real-world examples to spotlight risks - and smarter moves you can make next."
"It is often said that timing is everything, and that is certainly true when it comes to war with Iran. By October 27th, national elections will have been held in Israel to determine the 120 members of the twenty-sixth Knesset. The polls do not look good for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at all, and so he is probably going to be out of a job. Solving the “Iran problem” is the number one thing that Netanyahu wants to accomplish before he leaves, and so the clock is ticking. Even if there was some sort of a dramatic development that prevented the U.S. from attacking Iran, top Israeli officials have already warned that they would just go in anyway.
Of course it isn’t just the Israelis that are facing time pressure. Mid-term elections in the United States are scheduled for November 3rd, and history has shown us that they are often not kind to whichever party controls the White House. President Trump knows that if the Democrats end up taking control of the House and Senate his hands would really be tied at that point. He doesn’t want to leave the “Iran problem” to future administrations, and so he is highly motivated to act now.
If a war is going to be politically beneficial, it should be over by the time an election arrives. Voters like victories. Voters do not like wars that drag on indefinitely with no end in sight. So ideally Netanyahu and Trump would like to see this crisis with Iran wrapped up by the middle of the year. But if Netanyahu and Trump wait too long, the window of opportunity that they currently have may close completely.
This is likely one of the reasons why the Iranians have been working so hard to delay matters. If negotiations can be stretched out long enough, Netanyahu will be voted out of office and President Trump will be saddled with a highly hostile Congress which would not be eager to fight Iran. So the Iranians keep talking about how much they are eager to talk, but meanwhile they are refusing to agree to any of President Trump’s demands. Unfortunately for the Iranians, it appears that time is running out on their little game.
On Tuesday, Marco Rubio was scheduled to deliver a very important briefing to the “gang of eight”… Marco Rubio will deliver a rare briefing to top US lawmakers on Iran at the White House on Tuesday as Washington deploys its largest force of aircraft and warships to the Middle East since the 2003 buildup to the Iraq war.
The audience for the secretary of state’s briefing is reported to include the so-called “gang of eight”, which includes the senior lawmakers from both parties in the House and Senate, as well as the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees. The select group is briefed by the White House on classified intelligence matters, which can include preparations for significant military action. Rubio last publicly briefed the group on 5 January, the day after the US launched its successful operation to capture Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.
Normally, this sort of a briefing doesn’t happen unless something really big has just occurred or something really big is about to occur. Many are suggesting that this is a sign that military action against Iran is imminent. Others believe that we won’t see anything happen until the weekend at the earliest. On Monday, President Trump suggested that a war with Iran is something that could be “easily won”…
Since the Iranians are not inclined to give him what he wants, Trump is reportedly envisioning a series of limited strikes that will force Iran to make major concessions. But if the limited strikes do not accomplish that goal, Trump would be ready to initiate a broader campaign…
"President Donald Trump warned his aides that if diplomacy or targeted strikes do not convince Iran to give up its nuclear weapons program, he will consider larger actions, according to a report. While negotiators from the U.S. and Iran will meet Thursday in Geneva to try and find a solution that would avoid military conflict, Trump has been considering other options should the talks fail, according to The New York Times. Both sides have ramped up military preparations in the region in recent days as Trump has been leaning toward carrying out a strike to show Iran that it must give up its ability to make nuclear weapons, Trump advisors told the Times."
This is a huge gamble, because once the missiles start flying a conflict with Iran could spiral out of control very rapidly. On Monday, the Iranians warned that they will respond “ferociously” even to a series of limited strikes…Iran vowed on Monday to retaliate “ferociously” against any attack by the United States and reiterated warnings of a regional conflagration in response to President Donald Trump’s threat of limited strikes. The bellicose rhetoric from Tehran and Washington came as both sides were set to hold indirect talks in Geneva on a potential deal regarding Iran’s contentious nuclear program, with a US official confirming discussions would resume on Thursday without offering further details.
As Iran faces US pressure backed by a build-up of military force in the Middle East, university students have started the new semester with anti-government protests, reviving slogans from nationwide demonstrations that peaked in January and were met with a deadly crackdown.
And the head of Iran’s military is telling us that his forces will “inflict heavy casualties” on us if we attack… "Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Abdolrahim Mousavi warned the United States against any military action against Iran, saying it would suffer heavy losses in the event of aggression. “We have not initiated any war, and in the past our approach was to prevent the expansion of conflict and reduce casualties. However, the actions of the United States have caused us to change our approach, and this time, if they make a mistake, we will inflict heavy casualties on the enemy,” Mousavi said. “Our nation and armed forces are determined to stand to the end against the hegemonic system.”
The Iranians keep hinting that they have some big surprises up their sleeves. Do the Iranians possess weapons that we do not know about? If the Iranians actually decided to use unconventional weapons against Israel, the Israelis would respond with overwhelming force. And then the entire world would descend into a state of chaos.
Speaking of unconventional weapons, the Russians are alleging that the UK and France actually intended to equip Ukraine with nuclear weapons…Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) alleged London and Paris were engaged in a clandestine operation to arm Kyiv with more muscle against Moscow by supplying it with a ‘wonder weapon’. ‘Britain and France realize that the developments in Ukraine leave no chance of achieving their much-desired victory over Russia at the hands of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,’ said a statement today from the spy agency.
However, the British and French elites are not prepared to accept defeat. It is believed that Ukraine needs to be equipped with “wunderwaffe”. ‘Kyiv would be able to claim more favourable terms for ending the hostilities if it possessed a nuclear bomb, or at least a so-called “dirty bomb”."
Let us hope that this report is not accurate. Let us hope that the Russians simply got a hold of some bad information. Because giving nukes to Ukraine would be absolutely insane. Unfortunately, we live at a time when the entire world seems to be going nuts. The kinetic phase of World War III is nearly upon us, and we are going to witness so much death and destruction in the months ahead. So enjoy the last remaining moments of relative peace and quiet while you still can, because everything is about to change."
