Jeremiah Babe, 3/25/25
"My Money Just Disappeared;
Parents Are Supporting Adult Children"
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So, we rise from the rubble...
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Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Gerald Celente, "Man Of Peace Or Piece Of Sh*t?"
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 3/25/25
"Man Of Peace Or Piece Of Sh*t?"
"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."
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"A Look to the Heavens"
“Planetary nebula Abell 78 stands out in this colorful telescopic skyscape. In fact the colors of the spiky Milky Way stars depend on their surface temperatures, both cooler (yellowish) and hotter (bluish) than the Sun. But Abell 78 shines by the characteristic emission of ionized atoms in the tenuous shroud of material shrugged off from an intensely hot central star. The atoms are ionized, their electrons stripped away, by the central star's energetic but otherwise invisible ultraviolet light.
The visible blue-green glow of loops and filaments in the nebula's central region corresponds to emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms, surrounded by strong red emission from electrons recombining with hydrogen atoms. Some 5,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Cygnus, Abell 78 is about three light-years across. A planetary nebula like Abell 78 represents a very brief final phase in stellar evolution that our own Sun will experience... in about 5 billion years.”
Chet Raymo, "Free As A Bird"
"Free As A Bird"
by Chet Raymo
"All afternoon I have been watching a pair of hummingbirds play about our porch. They live somewhere nearby, though I haven't found their nest. They are attracted to our hummingbird feeder, which we keep full of sugar water. What perfect little machines they are! No other bird can perform their tricks of flight - flying backwards, hovering in place. Zip. Zip. From perch to perch in a blur of iridescence. If you want a symbol of freedom, the hummingbird is it. Exuberant. Unpredictable. A streak of pure fun. It is the speed, of course, that gives the impression of perfect spontaneity. The bird can perform a dozen intricate maneuvers more quickly than I can turn my head.
Is the hummingbird's apparent freedom illusory, a biochemically determined response to stimuli from the environment? Or is the hummingbird's flight what it seems to be, willful and unpredictable? If I can answer that question, I will be learning as much about myself as about the hummingbird. So I watch. And I consider what I know of biochemistry. The hummingbird is awash in signals from its environment - visual, olfactory, auditory and tactile cues that it processes and responds to with lightning speed.
How does it do it? Proteins, mostly. Every cell of the hummingbird's body is a buzzing conversation of proteins, each protein a chain of hundreds of amino acids folded into a complex shape like a piece of a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. Shapes as various as the words of a human vocabulary. An odor molecule from a blossom, for example, binds to a protein receptor on a cell membrane of the hummingbird's olfactory organ - like a jigsaw-puzzle piece with its neighbor. This causes the receptor molecule to change that part of its shape that extends inside the cell. Another protein now binds with the new configuration of the receptor, and changes its own shape. And so on, in a sequence of shapeshifting and binding - called a signal-transduction cascade - until the hummingbird's brain "experiences" the odor.
Now appropriate signals must be sent from the brain to the body - ion flows established along neural axons, synapses activated. Wing muscles must respond to direct the hummingbird to the source of nourishment. Tens of thousands of proteins in a myriad of cells talk to each other, each protein genetically prefigured by the hummingbird's DNA to carry on its conversation in a particular part of the body. All of this happens continuously, and so quickly that to my eye the bird's movements are a blur.
There is much left to learn, but this much is clear: There is no ghost in the machine, no hummingbird pilot making moment by moment decisions out of the whiffy stuff of spirit. Every detail of the hummingbird's apparently willful flight is biochemistry. Between the hummingbird and myself there is a difference of complexity, but not of kind. If humans are the lords of terrestrial creation, it is because of the huge tangle of nerves that sits atop our spines.
So what does this mean about human freedom? If we are biochemical machines in interaction with our environments, in what sense can we be said to be free? What happens to "free will"? Perhaps the most satisfying place to look for free will is in what is sometimes called chaos theory. In sufficiently complex systems with many feedback loops - the global economy, the weather, the human nervous system - small perturbations can lead to unpredictable large-scale consequences, though every part of the system is individually deterministic. This has sometimes been called - somewhat facetiously - the butterfly effect: a butterfly flaps its wings in China and triggers a cascade of events that results in a snowstorm in Chicago. Chaos theory has taught us that determinism does not imply predictability. Of course, this is not what philosophers traditionally meant by free will, but it is indistinguishable from what philosophers traditionally meant by free will. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a duck.
I watch the hummingbirds at the feeder. Their hearts beat ten times faster than a human's. They have the highest metabolic rate of any animal, a dozen times higher than a pigeon, a hundred times higher than an elephant. Hummingbirds live at the edge of what is biologically possible, and it's that, the fierce intenseness of their aliveness, that makes them appear so exuberantly free. But there are no metaphysical pilots in these little flying machines. The machines are the pilots. You give me carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and a few billion years of evolution, and I'll give you a bird that burns like a luminous flame. The hummingbird's freedom was built into the universe from the first moment of creation."
Further Reading:
• For a brilliant and provocative treatment of free will and determinism, read Daniel Dennett's "Freedom Evolves."
• A superb book on how the mind makes itself is Gary Marcus's "The Birth of the Mind: How a Tiny Number of Genes Creates the Complexities of Human Thought."
• The always provocative Roger Penrose looks for free will in quantum uncertainty in his "The Emperor's New Mind"
"We Are Like Butterflies..."
"We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it's forever."
- Carl Sagan
"Yet Now..."
“Yet now, as he roared across the night sky toward an unknown destiny, he found himself facing that bleak and ultimate question which so few men can answer to their satisfaction. What have I done with my life, he asked himself, that the world will be poorer if I leave it?”
- Arthur C. Clarke, “Glide Path”
"The Forbidden Thought"
"The Forbidden Thought"
by Paul Rosenberg
"The dominating systems of our world require us to feel weak, afraid, and insufficient. They couldn’t continue if most of us didn’t feel that way. And so the friends and operators of these systems must suppress the opposite thought: that we are not inadequate. I’ve watched popular culture for a lot of years, and I can tell you that since the 1970s, one concept, above all, has been forbidden in intellectual circles: Man as a glorious creature.
If you’d like to prove that to yourself, say a few things like these at a cocktail party:
• Western civilization has accomplished so many good things that it’s mind-blowing.
• Most people are basically decent and don’t need to be controlled.
• I see so much goodness in humanity.
• Humanity is ascending toward the gods (or heaven, or whatever).
Then, if you’d really like to see a reaction:
• The human race is magnificent.
The responses you get should be educational.
Why This Thought Is Hated: One reason why people respond so violently to this idea is simply self-defense: At this point, nearly every adult has built his or her world around the belief that people are bad: They’ve taught it to their children, showed their enlightenment by stating such things at parties and so on. To admit the opposite wouldn’t just be to admit they were wrong; it would tear down their infrastructure of meaning and status. Few people have the courage for such things.
Another reason is simply that they fear being shamed. People who say such heretical things are quickly ridiculed by holders of status. That’s tyrannical, of course, but it’s all too easy to stay inside the conspiracy of compliance. It’s dangerous, even if heroic, to defy powerful people.
Buckminster Fuller described the institutional necessity of inadequacy back in 1981: "There’s a built-in resistance to letting humanity be a success. Each one claims that their system is the best one for coping with inadequacy." In other words, the dominance hierarchies running things all claim that theirs is the right way to fix human inadequacy. So, if you claim that humans are adequate, you’re also saying that those systems aren’t necessary… and ruling systems don’t like to be called unnecessary.
Promoting Darkness Is a Big Business: It’s also the case that the promotion of darkness is a huge business. News channels are little more than fear delivery systems, but they are a major business. Social media is considerably worse. And, obviously, advertisers need you to feel insecure. Ads that don’t make you feel insecure, inadequate or guilty don’t pull nearly as well as those which do.
It can be interesting to see how all of this appears to outsiders. Back in the 1950s, the new president of Indonesia, Sukarno, visited the US and had this to say: "I find only one fault with Americans. They’re too full of fear. Afraid of B.O. Afraid of bad breath. They’re haunted by the fear that they’ll never get rid of dandruff. This state of mind I cannot understand."
And we shouldn’t understand it either. We are magnificent creatures… the only creatures in the known universe who create willfully and seemingly without limit. We’ve eradicated diseases, learned to feed billions of people, created machines that move us across the ground tremendous distances safely and reliably, created machines that fly us around the world and at incredible speed; we’ve harnessed the information stores of humanity and made them available to anyone, almost for free and almost anywhere. None of that is arguable, and yet we still think we’re just a step above refuse.
Take An Honest Look: Turn off the TV, turn off your cell phone. Walk through a park for a while to let the stream of negativity subside a bit. Then take a fresh look around. Yes, some dark things can still be found, but you’ll see most people simply going about their business: working, cooking, shopping, tending to children, driving their cars. They do these things well, or at least well enough, nearly all the time. Shouldn’t they get credit for that?
We are improving, unfolding, evolving creatures. Much improvement remains, but we are moving in that direction. And consider this, please: The sea of negativity that surrounds us is an anti-evolutionary poison. It serves stasis and sacrifice-collecting; it does not serve progress.
I’ll close with another quote (slightly edited) from Bucky Fuller: "I decided man was operating on a fundamental fallacy: that he was supposed to be a failure. I decided that man was, in fact, designed to be an extraordinary success. His characteristics were magnificent. We are not inadequate, we’ve just been made to think so."
The Poet: Mary Oliver, “I Worried”
“I Worried”
“ I worried a lot. Will the garden grow,
will the rivers flow in the right direction,
will the earth turn as it was taught,
and if not how shall I correct it?
Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?
Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
can do it and I am, well, hopeless.
Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,
am I going to get rheumatism, lockjaw, dementia?
Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning, and sang.”
- Mary Oliver
"Trump's New World Order"
"Trump's New World Order"
by Nick Giambruno
"The US-led world order has undergone several distinct phases since the end of World War 2. From 1945 to 1991, it was defined by the Cold War - a global struggle between the US and the Soviet Union. After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the post-WW2 world order experienced a massive shift, with the US emerging as the undisputed global superpower. This era, often called the "unipolar moment," lasted from 1991 until Trump’s inauguration in 2025.
Yuval Harari is a key advisor to Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF). He recently stated that if Trump were to become president again, it "is likely to be the kind of death blow to what remains of the global order." While I think it’s premature to declare the end of the post-WW2 world order, Trump’s return to the White House undoubtedly marks one of the most significant shifts in international relations since the Soviet Union’s fall.
Marco Rubio serves as Trump’s Secretary of State, tasked with executing Trump’s vision for America’s role on the world stage. His statements - during his Senate confirmation hearings and in an interview with journalist Megyn Kelly - have made that vision unmistakably clear. Here’s what Rubio stated during his confirmation hearings:
"Out of the triumphalism of the end of long Cold War emerged a bi-partisan consensus that we had reached 'the end of history.' That all the nations of Earth would become members of the democratic Western led community. That a foreign policy that served the national interest could now be replaced by one that served the 'liberal world order.' And that all mankind was now destined to abandon national identity, and we would become 'one human family' and 'citizens of the world.'
This wasn’t just a fantasy; it was a dangerous delusion. Here in America, and in many of the advanced economies across the world, an almost religious commitment to free and unfettered trade at the expense of our national economy, shrunk the middle class, left the working class in crisis, collapsed industrial capacity, and pushed critical supply chains into the hands of adversaries and rivals. An irrational zeal for maximum freedom of movement of people has resulted in a historic mass migration crisis here in America and around the world that threatens the stability of societies and governments.
While America far too often continued to prioritize the ‘global order’ above our core national interests, other nations continued to act the way countries always have and always will, in what they perceive to be in their best interest.
And instead of folding into the post-Cold War global order, they have manipulated it to serve their interest at the expense of ours. We welcomed the Chinese Communist Party into this global order. And they took advantage of all its benefits. But they ignored all its obligations and responsibilities. Instead, they have lied, cheated, hacked, and stolen their way to global superpower status, at our expense.
The postwar global order is not just obsolete; it is now a weapon being used against us. And all this has led us to a moment in which we must now confront the single greatest risk of geopolitical instability and generational global crisis in the lifetime of anyone alive here today. Eight decades later, we are called to create a free world out of chaos once again. This will not be easy. And it will be impossible without a strong and confident America that engages in the world, putting our core national interests above all else once again."
Here are Rubio’s remarks to Megyn Kelly:
Megyn Kelly: America First?
Secretary Rubio: Well, and that’s the way the world has always worked. The way the world has always worked is that the Chinese will do what’s in the best interests of China, the Russians will do what’s in the best interest of Russia, the Chileans are going to do what’s in the best interest of Chile, and the United States needs to do what’s in the best interest of the United States.
Where our interests align, that’s where you have partnerships and alliances; where our differences are not aligned, that is where the job of diplomacy is to prevent conflict while still furthering our national interests and understanding they’re going to further theirs. And that’s been lost. And I think that was lost at the end of the Cold War, because we were the only power in the world, and so we assumed this responsibility of sort of becoming the global government in many cases, trying to solve every problem. And there are terrible things happening in the world. There are. And then there are things that are terrible that impact our national interest directly, and we need to prioritize those again.
So, it's not normal for the world to simply have a unipolar power. That was an anomaly. It was a product of the end of the Cold War, but eventually you were going to reach back to a point where you had a multipolar world, multi-great powers in different parts of the planet. We face that now with China and to some extent Russia, and then you have rogue states like Iran and North Korea you have to deal with.
So now more than ever we need to remember that foreign policy should always be about furthering the national interest of the United States and doing so, to the extent possible, avoiding war and armed conflict, which we have seen two times in the last century be very costly.
They’re celebrating the 80th anniversary this year of the end of the Second World War. That – I think if you look at the scale and scope of destruction and loss of life that occurred, it would be far worse if we had a global conflict now. It may end life on the planet. And it sounds like hyperbole, but you have multiple countries now who have the capability to end life on Earth. And so we need to really work hard to avoid armed conflict as much as possible, but never at the expense of our national interest. So that’s the tricky balance."
Rubio’s words are a reflection of Trump’s vision and policy. Frankly, it’s a much-needed dose of realism and pragmatism. It’s worth emphasizing several key points from Rubio’s remarks:
• The idea that the US could uphold a unipolar world order indefinitely "wasn’t just a fantasy; it was a dangerous delusion."
• "The postwar global order is not just obsolete; it is now a weapon being used against us."
• "We must now confront the single greatest risk of geopolitical instability and generational global crisis in the lifetime of anyone alive here today."
• "It’s not normal for the world to simply have a unipolar power. That was an anomaly."
• "Eventually, you were going to reach back to a point where you had a multipolar world, multi-great powers in different parts of the planet."
Though it endured for 34 years, the notion that the US could maintain a unipolar world order indefinitely was never realistic. President Trump seems to recognize that maintaining it is not just unrealistic but unsustainable. He appears to have decided that it is in the US's best interest to transition to a multipolar reality on its own terms rather than be forced into it by a chaotic collapse.
We are now in a volatile adjustment period as the unipolar world order gives way to a multipolar one. Does this mean World War 3 is over? I don’t think so. But it does mean we have entered a new phase of it. There is still much to be determined - most crucially, the boundaries of the US, Russia, and China’s spheres of influence in this emerging multipolar world. With the war in Ukraine all but lost and the prospect of victory in Taiwan shrinking by the day, the US government appears to have accepted that the complete subjugation of Russia and China under its unipolar dominance is no longer an achievable goal.
The goalposts of World War 3 have shifted. Rather than total victory and preserving the unipolar world order, the US is now focused on maximizing its power within the new multipolar landscape - while limiting the influence of its most formidable rivals: Russia, China, and their allies, including Iran. While the US seems to be moving away from the unipolar model and begrudgingly acknowledging the existence of rival powers, it still seeks to be the dominant force in a multipolar world.
The new global boundaries have yet to be defined, and the situation remains volatile and dangerous. Whether Trump can successfully guide the US - and the world - through this transition without descending into greater conflict remains an open question. On a smaller scale, this mirrors how powerful criminal organizations - such as mafias and street gangs -operate within a city. Ideally, a gang or mafia would eliminate all rivals. However, when certain rivals prove too strong to destroy, the conflict shifts toward defining boundaries until a formal arrangement is reached that divides territories.
The same dynamic is now unfolding on a global scale between the US, Russia, and China as World War 3 plays out. Each side is maneuvering to expand its power and influence until a new arrangement is reached that defines the balance of the multipolar world. The unipolar world is fading, and a volatile new multipolar reality is taking shape. The global power structure is shifting fast - and the consequences will be massive."
Gregory Mannarino, "From Here Right Now Expect A Rapid Decline In The Economy With Vast Debt Expansion"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 3/25/25
"From Here Right Now Expect A Rapid Decline
In The Economy With Vast Debt Expansion"
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"Masters And Slaves"
"Masters And Slaves"
by The Zman
"One of the stranger things about the first months of the Trump administration has been the reaction of Europe to his peace initiatives. The European “leaders” are, on the one hand, horrified by his peace push, and on the other hand they have rallied themselves to various schemes to stop them. The latest scheme is to create a peacekeeping force that they will insert into Ukraine, something the Russians have repeatedly said is a deal breaker and perhaps even an act of war.
On the surface this looks insane. There are about twenty million Ukrainian refugees in Europe with more trickling in daily. Social welfare rolls are now littered with refugees, who do not speak the local language, so they cannot work. Of course, the EU has been shipping Ukraine billions of Euros plus all its military gear. The war has become another factor eroding social trust and most importantly, trust in the political elite that insists the war must go on forever.
None of this makes any sense until you think about what it means to be in the European political elite in 2025. It means a lifetime of having been very good at winning favor with America or winning favor with the politicians close to America. The dominance of the United States since the war, but especially since the end of the Cold War, has turned the European elite into a slave class. They are the house slaves, who defend the master’s prerogatives against the field slaves.
The surest way to getting yourself exiled in European politics is to speak poorly of the Americans in favor of European interests. Even now, when they all agree Trump is a big meanie, they are obsessed with getting his attention in such a way that it reasserts their position as the loyal house slave. With respect to Ukraine, they feel like they have been sent out of the room as the master talks to another master. They all have their ear to the door, hoping to hear what is being said.
What we are seeing is the result of long subjugation. When one people come to dominate another people, the subjugated will inevitably look to survive and that means finding leaders who are good at currying favor with the master. After the war, Europe was a mess and needed the United States to stave off communism and rebuild the economy of Europe. After the Cold War, the United States was the lone superpower, and Europe became its chief flunky.
It is why there will be no European Donald Trump anytime soon. The idea of such a character terrifies the typical European, who has been conditioned since birth to look up to the house slave. Since a Donald Trump like figure must come from the field slave population, this sort of figure is not just feared by the European house slave population but despised by the field slaves of Europe. They would rather been hacked to death by a machete wielding African than taste freedom.
This also explains the absurdity of the European political class. It is a freak show of carnival acts rather than people with some idea how the world works. You see the same thing in the United States among the black population. Every black congressional district has a ridiculous person as the representative. The newest version is Jasmine Crockett, a representative from Houston, who had to learn how to sound like a ghetto queen in order to rise up the ranks.
The reason Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers had to hire the actor Barry Soetoro to play Barak Obama was that the black community is not able to produce such a figure, so they had to manufacture one. The reason Obama has so quickly disappeared from the conversation is that he was always just an actor playing a role. The show ended and he left the stage. Like a typecast actor, he can only play this role and no one has much interest in the character, so he has sunk into obscurity.
We seem to be seeing something similar with other minority communities in the United States, despite the demographic changes. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is a fast-rising Asian politician, but she is also an Asian version of Maxine Waters. The reason anyone knows her name is she is willing to perform in front of the cameras, aping the most absurd politics of upper middle-class white people. She is the East Asian version of the Sambo, dancing for her primarily white audience.
A main difference between the minority populations in America and Europe is the United States is actively trying to set Europe free. If Trump could do it, he would leave Europe entirely but he will settle for a reduced role. No one is seriously thinking about creating a black homeland or Asian homeland in America. The Trump administration actively talks about Europe standing on its own two feet again. This is why the current European elite is in such a panic. They do not want to leave the master’s house.
The question with regards to Europe is can it regain itself and do so in a way that does not require the great powers to supervise it? The glimmer of hope is the nationalist parties emerging, but they are often as clownish as the establishment. That or they exist to prevent an alternative elite emerging. Nigel Farage is an entertaining political clown whose main role is to prevent any sort of organized resistance to the nation-wrecking policies of the UK political class.
The answer may be that Europe will have to go through a dark age, so to speak, before it can produce a genuine alternative elite. Given the current demographic trends, what would emerge would be non-European. Alternatively, the nationalist movements gain power and simply ruin the existing political elite and their slave mentality. There is a period of chaos, like the end of communism in Russia, that provides the conditions for a new elite to emerges to rule Europe.
What we see in Europe and America is a good example of how success sets the conditions for decline. Conquering people makes them into dependents and eventually, their dependency becomes too much to carry. The United States is about to cut the Europeans loose for this reason. What suffering comes from the newly liberated house slaves of Europe will seem unfair to them, but three generations of dependency are the cause, not their impending liberation."
"We Are Being Told The Odds Of A Recession Are Rising As Economic Conditions Deteriorate All Around Us"
"We Are Being Told The Odds Of A Recession Are
Rising As Economic Conditions Deteriorate All Around Us"
by Michael Snyder
"Is the U.S. economy headed for a recession? Nobody can deny that consumer confidence is plummeting, home sales are way down, mass layoffs are being conducted all over the nation, thousands of stores are closing, and a global trade war has erupted. Meanwhile, the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model is currently projecting that the U.S. economy will shrink at an annualized rate of 1.8 percent during the first quarter of 2025. Needless to say, none of these are good signs.
In recent weeks, the corporate media has been running lots of stories about how the odds of a recession are suddenly surging. Here is one example from NBC News…"Trade tensions have torn into the markets. With stocks sliding into correction territory in the last week, a question emerges: Is a recession next? Traders on prediction markets - where people wager on such events as the likelihood of a recession - are increasingly betting on an economic downturn. Polymarket, for example, currently places the odds on a recession in 2025 at 40% - a sharp jump of nearly 20 percentage points in under a month."
That is quite alarming. And earlier today, it was being reported that a Deutsche Bank survey of 400 experts found that nearly half of them now believe that “the U.S. is heading for a recession”…"Chances that the U.S. is heading for a recession are close to 50-50, according to a Deutsche Bank survey that raises more questions about the direction of the U.S. economy. The probability of a downturn in growth over the next 12 months is about 43%, as set by the average view of 400 respondents during the period of March 17-20."
I haven’t seen this much chatter about a potential recession in a long time, and a lot of people out there are really scared In an attempt to help some of those frightened people, USA Today just posted an article with advice about how to prepare for a recession…"If the United States is about to enter a recession, as some economists fear, it will be one of the most widely anticipated downturns in recent memory." Americans have had lots of time to prepare. But are we ready? Personally, I like to look at the cold, hard numbers to determine whether a recession is coming or not. And what the cold, hard numbers are telling us right now is extremely alarming.
Normally tax revenue declines significantly when an economic downturn is upon us, and according to the Washington Post it appears that federal tax revenue in 2025 will be down by about 10 percent compared to last year…"Senior tax officials are bracing for a sharp drop in revenue collected this spring, as an increasing number of individuals and businesses spurn filing their taxes or attempt to skip paying balances owed to the Internal Revenue Service, according to three people with knowledge of tax projections.
Treasury Department and IRS officials are predicting a decrease of more than 10 percent in tax receipts by the April 15 deadline compared with 2024, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share nonpublic data. That would amount to more than $500 billion in lost federal revenue; the IRS collected $5.1 trillion last year. For context, the U.S. government spent $825 billion on the Defense Department in fiscal 2024.
“The idea of doing that in one year, it’s hard to grapple with how meaningful of a shift that represents,” said Natasha Sarin, president of the Yale Budget Lab and a senior Biden administration tax official."
In a season that is full of red flags for the economy, this may be the biggest red flag of them all. Another really bad sign is that consumer sentiment just plunged to a 29 month low… "Consumer sentiment in the U.S. fell for the third consecutive month in March, now down 22% from December 2024 before President Donald Trump took office, a new survey found.
The University of Michigan survey showed consumer sentiment fell to 57.9 this month, a 29-month low. The index showed participants’ expectations for the future of their personal finances and the stock market had deteriorated. It also showed that Americans are expecting inflation to get worse, not better, during a time when many are worried tariffs will raise prices at the checkout aisle."
Economic conditions have not been good for a long time. So it is quite disturbing to see that so many Americans expect things to get even worse. One recent survey found that the percentage of Americans that believe that the economy is getting worse is more than twice as high as the percentage of Americans that believe that the economy is getting better…"Nearly half of Americans on Thursday said the economy is worsening, according to a new The Economist/YouGov poll. Forty-eight percent of respondents said they believe the economy is worsening while 19 percent said it is improving. The poll took place between March 9 and 11, a period that included rough days for the stock market."
And apparently Warren Buffett is also deeply concerned about where things are heading, because he has been in talks to sell off the fourth largest real estate brokerage in the entire country…"Warren Buffett is likely selling his real estate empire – the latest warning sign that the property market is in dire straits. The real estate market has been on the skids in recent years. Brokerage companies have attempted to consolidate as home sales remain very low. Compass, the largest real estate brokerage in the country, is in advanced talks to acquire Berkshire Hathaway’s HomeServices of America, the fourth-biggest player in the industry, according to The Wall Street Journal."
The housing market has been in a depressed state for quite a while, and that is not likely to change until interest rates go much lower. Needless to say, the turmoil in the housing market has been hitting financial institutions quite hard. Last week, we learned that Morgan Stanley is planning to lay off approximately 2,000 workers…"Wall Street heavyweight Morgan Stanley (MS) is planning to lay off about 2,000 employees later this month, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. The reduction of 2% to 3% of the company’s workforce, excluding financial advisers, was aimed at improving operational efficiency, the person said, requesting anonymity." So many employers are shedding employees right now. This is particularly true in the Washington D.C. area because of all the cutbacks that are happening.
Meanwhile, stores are permanently closing at a staggering pace. Just check out what Dollar General has decided to do…"Another national retailer will be closing stores in 2025. Dollar General announced in its fourth quarter earnings report last week it is planning to close 96 Dollar General stores and 45 Popshelf stores during the first quarter of 2025, while another six Popshelf stores will be converted into Dollar General stores.
“As we look to build on the substantial progress we made on our Back to Basics work in fiscal 2024, we believe this review was appropriate to further strengthen the foundation of our business,” said Todd Vasos, Dollar General’s chief executive officer, in the earnings report."
Overall, it is being projected that somewhere around 15,000 stores will close in the United States in 2025. If that projection turns out to be accurate, that will be a brand new all-time record.
All around us we can see very clear signs that a new economic downturn has arrived, and at this point the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model is forecasting that U.S. GDP will shrink at a 1.8 percent annualized rate during the first quarter…"The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the first quarter of 2025 is -1.8 percent on March 18, up from -2.1 percent on March 17. After this morning’s releases from the US Census Bureau, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the nowcast for first-quarter real gross private domestic investment growth increased from 7.2 percent to 9.1 percent. Due to FOMC blackout policy, today’s post does not include an update of the version of the model described here that adjusts the standard GDPNow model forecast for foreign trade in gold. That adjusted model will again be updated after our first scheduled post-blackout update on March 26."
If U.S. GDP contracts during the first quarter, all it will take is one more quarter of negative growth for us to officially be in a recession. Our economic momentum is clearly taking us in the wrong direction very rapidly, and all of the societal chaos that we are witnessing at the moment is certainly not going to help matters. This is not what a lot of people were expecting, but the truth is that it appears that a lot of economic pain is ahead."
"Recession?" This is the beginning of a global Great Depression 2.0,
with absolutely terrifying consequences!
"How It Really Is"
Yes, we are indeed...
Full screen recommended.
Snyder Reports, 3/25/25
"Warning Sign:
Americans Going Into Debt To Buy Food"
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Travelling with Russell, "Russian Typical Family Apartment: Could You Live There?"
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 3/25/25
"Russian Typical Family Apartment:
Could You Live There?"
"Could you live in a high-rise apartment in Russia? Join me as I tour a family-friendly apartment in the Odinsovo Region of Russia. Listed for sale, this apartment is ready to move in immediately. Find out what a three-room family apartment looks like in Russia."
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Dan, I Allegedly, "Banks are Breaking the Law - Who is in Trouble?"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 3/25/25
"Banks are Breaking the Law - Who is in Trouble?"
"Banks are skating on thin ice, and it’s time to uncover what’s really going on behind the scenes. In this video, I break down alarming details about struggling banks like 42 North Private Bank and shocking actions by employees at major institutions, including unauthorized transactions and questionable lending practices. Are these banks stable, or are they setting us up for more financial chaos? Let’s dive into stories of mismanagement, recession predictions from big names like Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, and the surprising moves Warren Buffett is making with his investments. Are banks hiding their instability? Let’s talk about it."
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Gregory Mannarino, "You Are Not Prepared For This, No One Is, And Nothing Is Being Done To Stop It"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 3/25/25
"You Are Not Prepared For This, No One Is,
And Nothing Is Being Done To Stop It"
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o
Full screen recommended.
Market Gains, 3/25/25
"IBM Suddenly Fired 9,000 Employees
as Job Market Crashes"
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Where on Earth could these people find new jobs in
the tsunami of massive layoffs everywhere?
Bill Bonner, "Fools Rush In"
"Fools Rush In"
by Bill Bonner
Baltimore, Maryland - "In the news yesterday, Cryptopolitan: "President Donald Trump is now backing off plans to announce new industry-specific tariffs on April 2, according to a Monday report from the Wall Street Journal, which said the White House is still moving forward with reciprocal tariffs, but is now leaving out the broader measures on automobiles, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors that were expected."
Mr. Trump may be delusional, but he’s not crazy. Faced with the reality of ‘reciprocal tariffs,’ he hesitates. Bloomberg: "President Donald Trump’s coming wave of tariffs is poised to be more targeted than the barrage he has occasionally threatened, aides and allies say, a potential relief for markets gripped by anxiety about an all-out tariff war."
But wait. The trade war just got screwier. USA Today tells us that his moment of sanity passed like a sneeze. Now, Captain Confusion is taking tariffs to a whole new level: "President Donald Trump on Monday said the U.S. will impose a 25% tariff on imports from any country that purchases oil or gasoline from Venezuela, targeting the South American nation for what he called "purposefully and deceitfully" sending criminals into the United States."
Like ‘second hand smoke,’ secondary tariffs are now a danger to a nation’s economic health. Every major government program since WWII - Korea, the Vietnam War, the wars against poverty, drugs, Iraq, Afghanistan, Covid, the Ukraine…Gaza…not to mention scores of campaigns against other imagined foes - was a flop, often a very expensive, disgraceful and deadly flop.
And now, with this sad history so tight against its rear bumper, and realizing that it might lose control of the House or the Senate in just two years, you’d think Team Trump would forswear silly distractions and focus on things that really matter. It is not really any fret of ours whether or not Peru buys Venezuelan oil. But a fast-approaching debt crisis is. Bothering with anything else is not only a waste of time… but likely a death sentence to the empire.
But instead of an iron discipline and relentless determination to tackle the Number One threat facing the USA, the administration plunges further into what the Wall Street Journal aptly called ‘the dumbest trade war ever.’ "We saw yesterday that the actual trade-weighted average tariffs paid by the US and its major trading partners are small and similar…generally below 2%. Making them ‘reciprocal’ will make little difference to anyone. It is only when you dig into the soft tissue of NTBs — non-tariff barriers — that you strike the raw nerves. But that is also where the confusion multiplies.
Let’s say we make shoes in one town and sell them in another town for $100 a pair. The shoemaker in the other town has to pay his workers more…so he has to charge $110 a pair for his shoes. He says we are unfair competition; the lower wages in our town are an NTB to trade. But wait, then we notice that the other shoemaker’s workshop is in a building owned by the municipality, where he got a lease at a preferential rate. Unfair! Another NTB! He’s being subsidized by the feds. ‘Hold on’…says the other shoemaker. His town is serious about the fight against global warming. It requires him to use solar power…which is more expensive than the coal we burn. Another NTB…this one in his favor."
What a mess! The neighboring town is now ready to impose a ‘reciprocal’ tariff…meant to take into account all the many NTBs it believes it has discovered. And now the town’s mayor is upset because some hooligans - allegedly from our town - sprayed obscene graffiti on his office wall. He says he’ll retaliate with a tariff against anyone who does business with us. Of course, this is politics. And it gets worse. We’ll hire an ex-mayor as a ‘consultant.’ He’ll be expensive. But he’ll talk to the members of the town council privately…maybe he can get them to see it our way.
Poor Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is heading up America’s attempt at reciprocal tariffs. He’s meant to be weighing this against that…environmental protections against labor costs…subsidies against tax breaks. Spare a prayer for the man; he must know he’s on a fool’s errand. The apples of lower energy costs really can’t be balanced, in any meaningful way, against the peaches of a better educated workforce (educated at government expense!)
And what about national security!? If our town allows another town to make its shoes, what will we put on our feet when we go to war with it? At the end of the day… or whenever future historians get around to looking at it… odds are good that they will see another comically dismal failure."
Monday, March 24, 2025
"Very Bad Things Are About to Happen", WW3 is Barely Getting Started"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 3/24/25
"Very Bad Things Are About to Happen",
WW3 is Barely Getting Started"
Comments here:
"The Discovery Of Giant Structures Under The Giza Pyramids Could Prove That A Whole Bunch Of “Conspiracy Theories” Are Actually True"
"The Discovery Of Giant Structures Under The Giza Pyramids Could Prove
That A Whole Bunch Of “Conspiracy Theories” Are Actually True"
by Michael Snyder
"Was there a time when humanity possessed technology that is even more advanced than we possess today? Using radar signals sent from two different satellites hovering high above our planet, a team of scientists has discovered that there are absolutely colossal man-made structures underneath the Giza pyramids in Egypt. These structures are far larger than the pyramids themselves, and that is truly impressive because the Great Pyramid is so large that you can actually see it from space. And apparently these structures were designed for some sort of a purpose, but our best minds can only speculate as to what that purpose might have been because it appears that the technology that was being used was far beyond anything that we have today.
For decades, we have been told that the Giza pyramids were tombs for the pharaohs and that they were constructed by very primitive Egyptians using very primitive tools. When I asked Google AI to tell me how the Giza pyramids were constructed, this is the response that I got…"The Egyptian pyramids were built by quarrying massive limestone blocks, transporting them to the construction site, and then using a combination of ramps, sleds, and possibly levers to raise them into place, with a highly organized workforce."
That response reflects the official narrative that has always been pushed on us, and it is absolutely absurd. Even with all of the advanced technology that we possess today, we could not reproduce the Great Pyramid. Anyone that claims that the ancient Egyptians constructed the pyramids using ramps, sleds and levers is being extremely irrational. And now a team of scientists has discovered that what lies beneath the pyramids is even more impressive…
"The mystery of an ‘underground city’ beneath Egypt’s pyramid deepens as scientists have shared new details about what may lie more than 4,000 feet below the surface. A team of Italian researchers claimed they uncovered giant vertical shafts wrapped in ‘spiral staircases’ and a massive limestone platform containing two enormous chambers with descending channels resembling pipelines. During a news briefing released Saturday, the researchers said a water system had been identified beneath the platform, located more than 2,100 feet below the Khafre Pyramid, with underground pathways leading even deeper into the earth."
Wow. How in the world would it have been possible for very primitive Egyptians using very primitive tools to construct such colossal underground structures? Needless to say, it would not have been possible.
The team of Italian researchers sent signals from two satellites positioned more than 400 miles above our planet into the pyramids, and those signals were subsequently converted into sound waves. This allowed the researchers “to ‘see’ through the solid stone”…"During the press briefing, the team explained that they sent radar signals from two satellites, positioned about 420 miles above Earth, into the Khafre Pyramid, allowing them to analyze how the signals bounced back. The signals were then converted into sound waves, enabling them to ‘see’ through the solid stone. This method helped map hidden underground structures in 3D. The readings were completely consistent, ruling out any chance of misinterpretation due to sound reflections,’ said Malanga."
In his article about this remarkable discovery, Greg Reese detailed what these Italian researchers were able to “see” under the surface of the plateau where the pyramids are located…"The analyses of dozens of tomographic SAR images obtained from different angles enabled the 3D reconstruction of inside the pyramid of Khafre. And deep beneath the surface of the plateau. Near the base of the pyramid, 5 identical structures are seen, connected by geometric pathways. Inside each of these are 5 horizontal levels and a sloping roof.
Below these 5 structures are 8 cylindrical structures which appear to be vertical wells, hollow inside, and surrounded by descending spiral pathways. These 8 vertically aligned cylindrical structures, arranged in two parallel rows from north to south, descend to a depth of 648 meters where they all merge into two large cubic structures measuring approximately 80 meters per side. The entire structure extends approximately two kilometers beneath the surface. And extends beneath all three pyramids of the Giza Plateau complex."
That is a great summary. Please take the time to read it again so that you don’t miss anything. On top of everything else, a spokesperson for the researchers claims that there is “a vast underground city” down there…"Nicole Ciccolo, the project’s spokesperson, said: ‘A vast underground city has been discovered beneath the pyramids,’ ‘[The] groundbreaking study has redefined the boundaries of satellite data analysis and archaeological exploration.’
She shared a short clip of the press briefing held on March 15, saying the full video of the event will be released on March 25. The cylinder-shaped structures, which Ciccolo referred to as ‘shafts,’ were arranged in two parallel rows and surrounded by descending spiral pathways. I can’t wait to see the full video on March 25th.
This really does appear to be the greatest archaeological bombshell of this century so far. So why did someone build this absolutely gigantic underground complex? Some are claiming that it was actually an enormous geothermal power facility…
Others have suggested that the pyramids generated electricity in other ways, and one author has even suggested that the Great Pyramid may have been a “weapon of mass destruction”…"Nikola Tesla believed that the pyramids could harness earth’s natural frequencies. This arguably inspired his experiments in wireless energy transmission and scalar waves. In, “The Giza Power Plant,” Christopher Dunn argued that the Great Pyramid was a power-generating machine using resonant and acoustic forces to convert mechanical stress into electricity.
In, “The Giza Death Star,” Joseph Farrell proposed that the Great Pyramid of Giza was a weapon of mass destruction using a type of physics, that he calls “paleophysics,” to focus energy as a scalar weapon. Ultimately, we have no way of proving what the function of this underground complex was, because the technology that was being used is not similar to anything we have today. But there are certain conclusions that we can make…
-The pyramids were most certainly not constructed by very primitive Egyptians using very primitive tools.
-Whoever constructed the pyramids possessed extremely advanced technology. My theory is that they were constructed prior to the Great Flood. If we could go back and see how advanced humanity was prior to the Great Flood, we would be absolutely shocked. But when the Great Flood came, virtually all of that ancient technology was lost.
-If there are vast underground structures like this in Egypt, there are probably similar underground structures elsewhere.
Mainstream scientists insist that we are the only humans that have ever possessed highly advanced technology even though countless “out-of-place artifacts” that indicate that humans once possessed highly advanced technology have been found all over the world.
But now there is no way that they will be able to ignore what these Italian researchers have discovered. Many of the paradigms that mainstream scientists have worked so carefully to construct are starting to crumble, and so many of the textbooks that they published will need to be rewritten because so many of the “conspiracy theories” that they once had no use for are turning out to be quite accurate."
o
Full screen recommended.
Redacted, 3/24/25
"Giza Pyramid Cover-Up Exposed:
Massive City, Hidden Tunnels and Ancient Tech Beneath the Pyramids!"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
MegalithomaniaUK, 3/24/25
"Beneath the Pyramids:
The Giza Scan Controversy Examined & the Tomb of the Birds"
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"Markets Melt Up As Economy Melts Down; Ford F150 Disaster; Civil Unrest In Texas"
Jeremiah Babe, 3/24/25
"Markets Melt Up As Economy Melts Down;
Ford F150 Disaster; Civil Unrest In Texas"
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"Wars And Rumors Of War: The Middle East"
Rachel Blevins, 3/24/25
"Seyed Mohammad Marandi:
Iran Unveils Advanced Missile System Amid Trump Threats"
Comments here:
o
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 3/24/25
"Scott Ritter: Why Would US Fight in Yemen?"
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Musical Interlude: 2002, "Remember Now"
Full screen recommended.
2002, "Remember Now"
"The inspiration for this song was a "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode called "The Offspring". Data (an android) creates a "child" for himself which he names Lal (in the Hindi language, Lal means "Beloved"). Lal eventually dies in Data's arms, remembering and retelling the precious moments she has lived. Data transferred Lal's thoughts into his own neural net, so that she would not be forgotten."
"A Look to the Heavens"
"The Horsehead Nebula is one of the most famous nebulae on the sky. It is visible as the dark indentation to the orange emission nebula at the far right of the featured picture. The horse-head feature is dark because it is really an opaque dust cloud that lies in front of the bright emission nebula.
Like clouds in Earth's atmosphere, this cosmic cloud has assumed a recognizable shape by chance. After many thousands of years, the internal motions of the cloud will surely alter its appearance. The emission nebula's orange color is caused by electrons recombining with protons to form hydrogen atoms. Toward the lower left of the image is the Flame Nebula, an orange-tinged nebula that also contains intricate filaments of dark dust. Two prominent reflection nebulas are visible: round IC 432 on the far left, and blue NGC 2023 just to the lower left of the Horsehead nebula. Each glows primarily by reflecting the light of their central star.
"When We Have Time..."
“How small a portion of our life it is that we really enjoy. In youth we are looking forward to things that are to come; in old age, we are looking backwards to things that are gone past; in manhood, although we appear indeed to be more occupied in things that are present, yet even that is too often absorbed in vague determinations to be vastly happy on some future day, when we have time.” - Charles Caleb Colton, “Lacon”
○
“The problem is, you believe you have time.”
- Buddha
Chet Raymo, “Mortal Soul: The Great Silence”
“Mortal Soul: The Great Silence”
by Chet Raymo
“If there is one word that should not be uttered, it is the name of – no, I will not say it. Any name diminishes. In the face of whatever it is that is most mysterious, most holy, we are properly silent. It is appropriate, I think, to praise the creation, to make a joyful noise of thanksgiving for the sensate world. But praising the Creator is another thing altogether. When we make a big racket on His behalf we are more than likely addressing an idol in our own image. What was it that Pico Iyer said? “Silence is the tribute that we pay to holiness; we slip off words when we enter a sacred place, just as we slip off shoes.” The God of the mystics whispers sweet nothings, as lovers do.
In a diary entry for “M.”, near the end of his too-short life, Thomas Merton wrote: “I cannot have enough of the hours of silence when nothing happens. When the clouds go by. When the trees say nothing. When the birds sing. I am completely addicted to the realization that just being there is enough.” The natural world was for Merton the primary revelation. He listened. He felt a presence in his heart, an awareness of the ineffable Mystery that permeates creation. It was this that drew him to the mystical tradition of Christianity, especially to the Celtic tradition of creation spirituality. It was this that attracted him to Zen.
There come now and then, perhaps more frequently in late life than previously, those moments of being (as Virginia Woolf called them) when creation grabs us by the shoulders and gives us such a shake that it rattles our teeth, when love for the world simply knocks us flat. At those moments everything we have learned about the world – the invaluable and reliable knowledge of science- seems a pale intimation of what is. In Virginia Woolf’s novel “The Waves”, the elderly Bernard says: “How tired I am of stories, how tired I am of phrases that come down beautifully with all their feet on the ground! Also, how I distrust neat designs of life that are drawn upon half sheets of notepaper. I begin to long for some little language such as lovers use, broken words, inarticulate words, like the shuffling of feet on the pavement.”
In moments of soul-stirring epiphany, it is reassuring to feel beneath our feet a floor of reliable knowledge, the safe and sure edifice of empirical learning so painstakingly constructed by the likes of Aristarchus, Galileo, Darwin and Schrodinger. But at the same time we are humbled by our ignorance, and more ready than ever to say “I don’t know,” to enter at last the great silence. Erwin Chargaff, who contributed mightily to our understanding of DNA, wrote: “It is the sense of mystery that, in my opinion, drives the true scientist; the same blind force, blindly seeing, deafly hearing, unconsciously remembering, that drives the larva into the butterfly. If the scientist has not experienced, at least a few times in his life, this cold shudder down his spine, this confrontation with an immense invisible face whose breath moves him to tears, he is not a scientist.”
The whole thrust of the mystical tradition, the whole thrust of science, is toward the great silence- an awareness of our ignorance and a willingness to say “I don’t know.” A lifetime of learning brings one at last to the face of mystery. We live in a universe of more than 2 trillion galaxies. Perhaps the number of galaxies is infinite. And the universe is silent. Achingly, terrifyingly silent. Or, rather, the universe speaks a little language such as lovers use, broken words, inarticulate words, like the shuffling of feet on the pavement.”
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