Full screen recommended.
Prepper news, 12/12/25
"Boom! Russia Attacks NATO Vessel! Trump
Authorizes Full Attacks On Russia's Shadow Fleet!"
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So, we rise from the rubble...
StatCounter
Friday, December 12, 2025
Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Along the High Ridges"
Full screen recommended.
Deuter, "Along the High Ridges"
Absolutely beautiful...
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Stars are sometimes born in the midst of chaos. About 3 million years ago in the nearby galaxy M33, a large cloud of gas spawned dense internal knots which gravitationally collapsed to form stars. NGC 604 was so large, however, it could form enough stars to make a globular cluster.
Many young stars from this cloud are visible in the above image from the Hubble Space Telescope, along with what is left of the initial gas cloud. Some stars were so massive they have already evolved and exploded in a supernova. The brightest stars that are left emit light so energetic that they create one of the largest clouds of ionized hydrogen gas known, comparable to the Tarantula Nebula in our Milky Way's close neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud.”
- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121211.html
Chet Raymo, “Under the Surface”
“Under the Surface”
by Chet Raymo
by Chet Raymo
“Somewhere, in something I have written, I recall quoting with approval this passage from Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire": “For my own part I am pleased enough with surfaces - in fact they alone seem to me to be of much importance. Such things for example as the grasp of a child's hand in your own, the flavor of an apple, the embrace of a friend or lover, the silk of a girl's thigh, the sunlight on rock and leaves, the feel of music, the bark of a tree, the abrasion of granite and sand, the plunge of clear water into a pool, the face of the wind - what else is there? What else do we need?”
Pleased enough with surfaces. Yes, I know what I meant. Pleased enough with this world, here and now, this world of light and matter. Not wanting or needing that other world that occupies so many people, a world of supernatural agencies, spirits, disembodied presences. Give me a world I can see and hear and touch and taste. Give me a world with heft and substance, a world with surfaces that shine and shimmer. What else is there? What else do we need?
Well, maybe not. I was scanning issues of “Science” and “Nature,” with their usual illustrations of the molecules of life, the nuclei acids and the proteins. The elaborate machinery that unseen, under the surface, endow the apple's flavor, the silk of skin, the abrasion of sand. Think of it. Atoms that are mere whiffs of resonance, binding into molecules, twisting and turning into endless shapes, fitting together like hand and glove, endlessly spinning and weaving, all without the slightest conscious participation on our part. Abbey's world of surfaces spun out of the mysterious, endlessly active, subsurface stuff of the world.
Pleased enough with surfaces? Not really. I want to know what's under the surface, that world of molecular frenzy that cannot be touched or seen, a world that in its own way is as beautiful and as meaningful as the macroscopic world we consciously inhabit. We don't need to know it. We can live a fulfilling life without knowing it. But I want to know it. I want to know what goes on behind the curtain of the senses. I want to hear that silent and ceaseless music of creation.”
- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/
"Against All Odds..."
"There's a little animal in all of us and maybe that's something to celebrate. Our animal instinct is what makes us seek comfort, warmth, a pack to run with. We may feel caged, we may feel trapped, but still as humans we can find ways to feel free. We are each other's keepers, we are the guardians of our own humanity and even though there's a beast inside all of us, what sets us apart from the animals is that we can think, feel, dream and love. And against all odds, against all instinct, we evolve."
- "Grey's Anatomy"
Judge Napolitano, "INTEL Roundtable: Weekly Wrap 12-DEC"
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 12/12/25
"INTEL Roundtable: Weekly Wrap 12-DEC"
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"Target Is Crumbling Before Our Eyes As Stores Go Empty And Sales Collapse"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 12/12/25
"Target Is Crumbling Before Our Eyes
As Stores Go Empty And Sales Collapse"
"Target is in serious trouble and it's not just one thing. Empty stores on Sundays, employees who openly hate being there, backrooms that look like disaster zones, and prices that make absolutely no sense. When you put all of these clips together, it paints a pretty scary picture of what's actually happening inside this company. From Black Friday bags filled with two dollar lip oils to sale prices that don't apply unless you ask for them, customers are catching on to all the little games. Meanwhile, corporate's big solution is telling workers to smile more. And somehow they're surprised that people are just going to Walmart now. Stock is down 35%, the CEO stepped down, layoffs are happening, and their core customers are leaving. This isn't about one bad store or one viral complaint. This is a pattern. And people are filming it every single day. Let me know what you think in the comments. Is Target done for or can they turn it around?"
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The Poet: Theodore Roethke, "The Far Field"
"The Far Field"
I
"I dream of journeys repeatedly:
Of flying like a bat deep into a narrowing tunnel
Of driving alone, without luggage, out a long peninsula,
The road lined with snow-laden second growth,
A fine dry snow ticking the windshield,
Alternate snow and sleet, no on-coming traffic,
And no lights behind, in the blurred side-mirror,
The road changing from glazed tarface to a rubble of stone,
Ending at last in a hopeless sand-rut,
Where the car stalls,
Churning in a snowdrift
Until the headlights darken.
II
At the field's end, in the corner missed by the mower,
Where the turf drops off into a grass-hidden culvert,
Haunt of the cat-bird, nesting-place of the field-mouse,
Not too far away from the ever-changing flower-dump,
Among the tin cans, tires, rusted pipes, broken machinery,-
One learned of the eternal;
And in the shrunken face of a dead rat, eaten by rain and ground-beetles
(I found it lying among the rubble of an old coal bin)
And the tom-cat, caught near the pheasant-run,
Its entrails strewn over the half-grown flowers,
Blasted to death by the night watchman.
I suffered for young birds, for young rabbits caught in the mower,
My grief was not excessive.
For to come upon warblers in early May
Was to forget time and death:
How they filled the oriole's elm, a twittering restless cloud, all one morning,
And I watched and watched till my eyes blurred from the bird shapes,-
Cape May, Blackburnian, Cerulean,-
Moving, elusive as fish, fearless,
Hanging, bunched like young fruit, bending the end branches,
Still for a moment,
Then pitching away in half-flight,
Lighter than finches,
While the wrens bickered and sang in the half-green hedgerows,
And the flicker drummed from his dead tree in the chicken-yard.
- Or to lie naked in sand,
In the silted shallows of a slow river,
Fingering a shell,
Thinking:
Once I was something like this, mindless,
Or perhaps with another mind, less peculiar;
Or to sink down to the hips in a mossy quagmire;
Or, with skinny knees, to sit astride a wet log,
Believing:
I'll return again,
As a snake or a raucous bird,
Or, with luck, as a lion.
I learned not to fear infinity,
The far field, the windy cliffs of forever,
The dying of time in the white light of tomorrow,
The wheel turning away from itself,
The sprawl of the wave,
The on-coming water.
III
The river turns on itself,
The tree retreats into its own shadow.
I feel a weightless change, a moving forward
As of water quickening before a narrowing channel
When banks converge, and the wide river whitens;
Or when two rivers combine, the blue glacial torrent
And the yellowish-green from the mountainy upland,-
At first a swift rippling between rocks,
Then a long running over flat stones
Before descending to the alluvial plane,
To the clay banks, and the wild grapes hanging from the elmtrees.
The slightly trembling water
Dropping a fine yellow silt where the sun stays;
And the crabs bask near the edge,
The weedy edge, alive with small snakes and bloodsuckers,-
I have come to a still, but not a deep center,
A point outside the glittering current;
My eyes stare at the bottom of a river,
At the irregular stones, iridescent sandgrains,
My mind moves in more than one place,
In a country half-land, half-water.
I am renewed by death, thought of my death,
The dry scent of a dying garden in September,
The wind fanning the ash of a low fire.
What I love is near at hand,
Always, in earth and air.
IV
The lost self changes,
Turning toward the sea,
A sea-shape turning around,-
An old man with his feet before the fire,
In robes of green, in garments of adieu.
A man faced with his own immensity
Wakes all the waves, all their loose wandering fire.
The murmur of the absolute, the why
Of being born falls on his naked ears.
His spirit moves like monumental wind
That gentles on a sunny blue plateau.
He is the end of things, the final man.
All finite things reveal infinitude:
The mountain with its singular bright shade
Like the blue shine on freshly frozen snow,
The after-light upon ice-burdened pines;
Odor of basswood on a mountain-slope,
A scent beloved of bees;
Silence of water above a sunken tree:
The pure serene of memory in one man,-
A ripple widening from a single stone
Winding around the waters of the world."
- Theodore Roethke
"Time..."
“Space I can recover. Time, never.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte
○
“Lands can be reconquered, indeed in the course of a battle, a hill or a certain plain might trade hands several times. But missed opportunities? These can never be regained. Moments in time, in culture? They can never be re-made. One can never go back in time to prepare for what they should have prepared for, no one can ever get back critical seconds that were wasted out of fear or ego. Napoleon was brilliant at trading space for time: Sure, you can make these moves, provided you are giving me the time I need to drill my troops, or move them to where I want them to be. Yet in life, most of us are terrible at this. We trade an hour of our life here or afternoon there like it can be bought back with the few dollars we were paid for it. And it is only much, much later, as they are on their deathbeds or when they are looking back on what might have been, that many people realize the awful truth of this quote. Don’t do that. Embrace it now.”
- Ryan Holiday
○
Full screen recommended.
Hans Zimmer, "Time"
"God Speaks – And the Court Adjourns"
"God Speaks – And the Court Adjourns"
by Bill Bonner
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – "Today is the last day of God’s testimony. We began our case by leveling a simple accusation: that God had created all life – including corporate life and national life – as temporary, fleeting phenomena… like falling leaves in the autumn wind. And every one of us – and our most magnificent empires – is destined to hit the ground. We were programmed to die, in other words.
Not that we were expecting an alibi… or a confession… or even an apology from God. We just wanted to know how it all worked. So we thought we’d put the question to Him directly under oath: “Are you responsible for America’s decline? “Not entirely,” is how we would summarize his defense.
Human Failure: God made it clear that humans do stupid things… and they run into the “soft limits” that He imposed on us all. People who run empires, for example, inevitably over-reach… and over-spend… And then, to protect their own wealth and power… they lie, cheat, and steal… In the modern era, they make promises they can’t keep… fix prices… and print money to cover their deficits and boost their own stock portfolios… which then leads to chaos, corruption, confusion… resentment… and a breakdown in the empire itself. That is roughly what has happened to the U.S.
Since 2001, four of the worst presidents in its history undertook a series of far-fetched schemes. Each one was a disaster. Together, they multiplied the national debt five times. And now, the whole country relies on their fake money, fake interest rates, stimmy checks, and “transfer payment” giveaways. In theory, leaders with enough brains and backbone might be able to bounce off the “soft limits” and “make America great again.” But in practice, the elites control the government… and they gain more, at least in the short run, by staying on course than by turning around.
Hard Limits: But there are “hard limits,” too… brick walls that humans run into, no matter how good their driving skills. And there are even “extinction events” that wipe out dozens of species. God pointed out yesterday that the “Industrial Revolution” was just a one-time growth spurt. And today, he explains why, if you’re waiting for another growth spurt from the “Internet Revolution,” you should not hold your breath…
Land of the Unfree: You’re the ones who should apologize. For your whole knucklehead race. I gave you a paradise… and you blew it. Then, you were smiting one another, raping, and pillaging… So I gave you a new covenant; all you had to do was do unto others as you would have them do unto you. How hard was that?
And then I gave you a new start… a whole New World… and a free republic – America – from sea to shining sea. And you blew that, too. Each time, you succumbed to politics. You thought voting gave you the right to do unto others whatever you wanted. Tax them. Regulate them. Put them in jail. America was supposed to be the land of the free. But you’ve got 2 million people in your gulags.
And yet… your dear readers say they don’t trust Me! They don’t believe in me. They even say I don’t exist. I don’t take it personally. And it doesn’t matter. The world exists. And it comes with limits.
It was your own author, G. K. Chesterton, who proposed that when you come to a fence in the wilderness, before tearing it down, you should wonder why it is there. Perhaps there is a wild animal on the other side? The fence was, of course, Chesterton’s way of referring to My limits. They are there to protect you from the wildest beast of all – your fellow man. But let’s move on…
What You Don’t Know: Yesterday, I warned you that the rapid progress from using My stored-up solar power has come to an end. And now, you think that another tech revolution will come to the rescue. AI (artificial intelligence… ha ha)… DeFi (decentralized finance)… EVs (electric vehicles)… Will they bring a new wave of productivity and wealth? In a word, no.
An example from recent history shows why… More than 20 years ago, pundits claimed that the internet was a breakthrough equal to the wheel. It would bring all the world’s knowledge to your fingertips, they said. And now, you humans were going to make progress at a whole new level – faster and better than ever. But it didn’t happen. Progress didn’t speed up; it slowed down.
You know why? Of course, you don’t. So I’ll tell you. Progress comes from ignorance, not knowledge. It’s learning… not knowing. If you can figure out how to grow twice as much wheat on your land, you will double your output. That’s progress. But if you already know how to do it, you’ve gained nothing. Is this over your heads?
Waste of Time: Besides, Facebook, Google, Apple, Netflix – they proved not to be ways to increase output… but ways to waste time on idle entertainment, unimportant “data,” and jackass opinions. Want to know what’s up with Khloe Kardashian? No? I don’t either. But millions of your fellow citizens spend almost their entire days just keeping up with the Kardashians and other low-lifes.
There’s a big difference between the Industrial Revolution and the so-called Info Tech Revolution. Fossil fuels increased your ability to make and transport things. That is, they increased your ability to add wealth. (They also increased your ability to destroy wealth. But that’s another story.) But does broadband increase your wealth? Not really; it only passes around what we already know.
Facebook, Google, Twitter, et al. make their money by capturing people’s attention… and then, like newspapers and magazines… they sell the connection to advertisers. There is no new wealth created. It is really just a big shift of advertising money from print to electronic media. Likewise, Uber just shifts money from taxis, busses, and other traditional transportation businesses to private automobiles… It doesn’t make it possible for people to travel more. Airbnb, too, takes money from hotels. It doesn’t add to travel budgets.
And Amazon? Is there any real, new wealth creation going on? Amazon is just a low-margin retailer. It didn’t give consumers a way to make more money; it just makes it easier for them to spend it. And AI? It’s just souped-up data processing. Faster broadband? What… so the government can keep closer tabs on you?
And how about the “metaverse?” It’s mostly gobbledygook. There will be new apps… and new forms of time wasting. The net result could be positive or negative; I’m not saying.
Do Unto Others: But here’s what I will say… The “do unto others” rule is a fence. It’s meant to protect you from others… and from yourself. Yes, it’s tempting to take it down. Then, you can force people to take your vaccines… whether they want to or not. Or you can force them to drive an electric car… as you jet off to a “Green Energy” conference on another continent. Or you can stop them from spreading what you consider “misinformation,” competing with your own lies.
You can make them refer to each other as “they.” You can insist that they all use the same toilets, and banish “mother” from the English language. And you can tax the rich SOBs… while you continue to pump up your own stocks with fraudulent money. Yes, take down that fence and you can do unto others, good and hard. But later, you’ll find out why the limit is there… as you roast in Hell. Don’t say I didn’t warn you."
With that, the gavel came down. “This court is adjourned,” declared the judge, sternly. And as God left the courtroom, He was overheard muttering to Himself: 'I think it’s time for another flood.' "
"For The Most Part..."
"Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told - and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion."
- Michael Crichton, "The Lost World"
"How Does Moscow Prepare for Christmas?"
Meanwhile, in a sane, civilized society...
Full screen recommended.
Travelling With Russell, 12/12/25
"How Does Moscow Prepare for Christmas?"
"What is it like in Moscow during the preparations for Christmas and New Year? Join my wife and me on a walk through the center of Moscow to see the Christmas decorations and preparations ahead of the New Year."
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o
Full screen recommended.
, 12/12/25
"Moscow Christmas Lights & Snowfall,
Winter Night Walk in Russia"
"Enjoy a magical winter night walk through Moscow covered in fresh snowfall. Glowing Christmas lights, festive decorations, quiet streets, and a calm holiday atmosphere create the true winter mood of Russia before Christmas and New Year. This relaxing 4K HDR night walk captures real Moscow in winter - snowfall moments, illuminated streets, cozy city vibes, and authentic holiday ambience. Perfect for relaxation, background viewing, studying, sleeping, travel inspiration, or watching on a big 4K TV."
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Dan, I Allegedly, "The Collapse Just Went Mainstream! No One Is Ready!"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 12/12/25
"The Collapse Just Went Mainstream!
No One Is Ready!"
"The collapse is here, and its impact is undeniable. From skyrocketing health care costs to businesses shutting down, this economic downturn affects everyone - rich, poor, and everyone in between. In today’s video, I cover the latest signs of the collapse going mainstream, including retail closures, unaffordable housing, soaring health insurance premiums, and the struggles of mom-and-pop businesses. Plus, I share important tips on how to prepare for what's ahead, including managing your debt, securing your finances, and staying safe as crime rates rise. Stay tuned. This is breaking news, and things are moving fast."
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o
Bill Bonner,"Doesn't Add Up"
"Doesn't Add Up"
by Bill Bonner
Baltimore, Maryland - "AOL news: "President Trump announced a $12 billion farm aid package on Monday, money the president said “would not be possible without tariffs.” “We’re giving some up to the farmers because they were mistreated by other countries,” Trump said."
Mistreated? Did they rough them up at the border? Laugh at their hayseed accents and Carhartt duds? Ask them to disclose what chemicals they used? AOL elaborates: "Some farmers and economists were quick to note that the problems facing farmers and the mistreatment they have endured are primarily a direct consequence of Trump’s own tariff actions." US farm exports rose about 3x since 1999. Farmers farmed. Buyers bought. They set the terms among themselves...and worked out whatever disagreements they may have had as best they could. Then, the feds stepped in.
Remember the general rule: the more the feds meddle with the economy, the worse it gets. Revenues fall...real asset prices drop and opportunities for ripping off the public increase. The latest example: The Donald started a trade war. Other countries fought back. Farm exports fell. Farm revenues fell. So, instead of getting their money from customers, farmers are now slated to get $12 billion from taxpayers.
Who decides who gets what? How, when, where? That’s where the grift comes in. Like the fake money itself, the farm welfare comes not in exchange for providing honest goods and services, but from the Great White Father in Washington...who can share it out more or less as he pleases.
And where’s the money going to come from? Reuters: "US posts $173 billion budget deficit in November." In other words, the deficit for a single month was almost the same as last year’s entire food exports. And if the deficits continue at this pace, it will bring the annual shortfall to $2 trillion...and put the national debt over $40 trillion.
But not to worry. ABC News tells us that the money for paying off the farmers will come from tariff collections, Donald Trump: “I’m delighted to announce this afternoon that the United States will be taking a small portion of the hundreds of billions of dollars we receive in tariffs...and we’re going to be giving and providing it to the farmers in economic assistance. And we love our farmers…”
Trouble is, those tariff revenues were already included in the fed’s budget. Take out $12 billion for the farmers and the debt just goes up. And debt service costs are paid by the same people who are now also paying higher prices for everything. The Independent: "President Donald Trump’s sweeping taxes on imports have cost the average American household nearly $1,200 since he returned to the White House this year… American consumers’ share of the bill came to nearly $159 billion - or $1,198 per household - from February through November, according to a report by Democrats on Congress’ Joint Economic Committee..."
Officially, food prices are up 26% since 2020. But no one who has bought a burger from McDonalds or set foot in WholeFoods believes it. Fast food prices, for example, are up 77% over the same period. And people don’t like it. The Daily Beast: "Trump hit with his worst-ever approval rating on the economy."
Even the Oval Office Team has felt it necessary to cover its tracks. BBC: "US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order allowing a range of food products, including coffee, bananas and beef, to escape his sweeping tariffs. The move comes as his administration faces mounting pressure over rising prices. While Trump previously downplayed concerns about the cost of living, he has focused on the issue since his Republican Party’s poor performance in last week’s elections.
At home, the feds are trying to undo some of the damage they’ve done - by cutting back on their favorite program...and buying off farmers with direct subsidies. On Monday, we’ll look at who’s winning the tariff war overseas.
The Chinese, meanwhile, got hit with a tariff of 145% - following Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ performance. This was later dropped to 30%. But they got the message. They saw that they couldn’t trust the US...and diversified away. CNN: "China’s Answer To Tariffs Is A $1T Trade Surplus."
Just a year ago, Chinese manufacturers, fearing a new trade war, rushed to push out exports following the election victory of US President Donald Trump, who had pledged to slap punishing tariffs on imports from China over America’s widening trade deficit. A year later, Trump has delivered on his promise. But China has pivoted - and exported more. The trade war may not be over; but who’s winning so far? More to come."
"Shockingly High Numbers Of Americans Are Skipping Meals Or Putting Off Medical Care Because Of The High Cost Of Living"
"Shockingly High Numbers Of Americans Are Skipping Meals
Or Putting Off Medical Care Because Of The High Cost Of Living"
by Michael Snyder
"Do you remember all of those people over the years that warned us that the cost of living would eventually spiral out of control? It turns out that they were right. Our leaders flooded the system with trillions upon trillions of new dollars, and now we have a real life nightmare on our hands. The value of the U.S. dollar has tanked, the price of silver is up more than 100 percent in 2025, and we are in the midst of a horrifying cost of living crisis that never seems to end. In particular, food prices have become exceptionally painful, and this is hitting those on the low end of the economic spectrum really hard.
The Century Foundation just conducted a survey that came up with some absolutely stunning results. According to that survey, 34 percent of U.S. registered voters have skipped a meal in order to save money, and 29 percent of U.S. registered voters have “delayed or skipped medical care over the past year”…29% of registered voters said they delayed or skipped medical care over the past year; including 49% of voters under 30 years old, 37% of Hispanic voters and 32% of Black voters.
24% said they delayed or skipped buying medicine prescribed by their doctor.
64% of poll respondents said they switched to cheaper groceries or cut back on groceries; including 79% of voters under 30 years old, 74% of Black voters, 72% of women, and 71% of Hispanic voters.
34% of registered voters said they’ve skipped a meal to save money, including 54% of voters younger than 30 years old, 44% of Black voters, 41% of Hispanic voters, and 39% of women.
48% of poll respondents said they tapped into savings to meet daily expenses, including 59% of voters younger than 30 years old, 57% of Hispanic voters, 55% of Black voters and 52% of women.
These numbers are crazy. Large segments of the U.S. population are now going without the essentials because the cost of living has become so oppressive. Are you starting to understand why I rant about this so much? Tens of millions of Americans are really hurting right now. Just look at what is happening to the price of ground beef. It now costs about three times as much as it did just 15 years ago…
When I was growing up, my mother was constantly feeding us ground beef. Now it is considered to be a “luxury meat”. Our standard of living is being steadily destroyed all around us.
Earlier today, I was shocked to learn that tickets for a Christmas program at a local Baptist church in Texas are selling for up to 71 dollars per person…"A Christmas show at a church in Plano, Texas, has become a flash point in America – a Rorschach test in today’s hyper-political culture. The ‘Gift of Christmas’ at Prestonwood Baptist Church, as the nearly two-hour extravaganza is called, has become one of the most well-known holiday shows across the US, mostly thanks to social media. People seem to either love or loathe the ‘Vegas-style’ production at the mega church- complete with a flying Santa Claus and live camels and sheep- with tickets selling from $20 to $71 per person."
What in the world are they doing? When I was growing up, going to church was always free. Just about everything that you can think of has become so expensive these days. And U.S. consumers just continue to become less confident about what is ahead…"A new Gallup poll shows that U.S. consumer confidence deteriorated sharply in November, falling to its weakest level in 17 months as households contended with a protracted federal government shutdown, volatile financial markets, cooling job prospects, and renewed inflation anxiety."
Americans are being squeezed financially from countless directions, and as a result debt levels have been exploding. Unfortunately, many are now reaching a breaking point. In fact, the number of foreclosure filings has risen 21 percent in just one year… If you need proof that Americans are struggling financially, here it is.
Foreclosures - when a bank or lender takes back a home after missed mortgage payments - are continuing to skyrocket. New data from ATTOM shows the number of homeowners falling behind is rising every single month. In November, 35,651 properties had a foreclosure filing - up a staggering 21 percent from just one year earlier.
Of course there are vast numbers of people that can no longer afford to live in a home at all. Millions of Americans now permanently live in their vehicles, and that includes a 50-year-old woman in Vermont named Chandra Duba…"Chandra Duba has been living in an RV outside a friend’s house in Jericho for the past few months, after losing her Section 8 subsidized housing in Winooski. Until last week, she didn’t have electricity, but now she’s able to plug into a nearby solar array.
Duba, 50, works as a delivery driver at Domino’s, where her pay with tips is too high for food stamps but too low for rent in the area, she said. The RV was relatively affordable but partially gutted - the stove is gone, and the heating and cooling systems don’t work. Duba said she is grateful to have a roof over her head but that she doesn’t see the vehicle as a long-term answer to her housing problem. She is literally living in an RV without any heat, but she still makes too much money to qualify for food stamps." This is what life is like in 2025 for so many people.
It turns out that business leaders are also very concerned about where things are heading. One recent survey found that only 28 percent of U.S. business executives are “optimistic about the U.S. economy’s outlook over the next 12 months”…"The AICPA and CIMA survey polls chief executive officers, chief financial officers, controllers and other CPAs in U.S. companies who hold executive and senior management accounting roles. The survey is a forward-looking indicator that tracks hiring and business-related expectations for the next 12 months.
Twenty-eight percent of business executives said they were optimistic about the U.S. economy’s outlook over the next 12 months, down from 34% in the past quarter. Domestic economic conditions (No. 1) and inflation (No. 2) were cited as top concerns, swapping places from last quarter." If only 28 percent are optimistic, that means that 72 percent are either pessimistic or declined to give an answer.
Yes, things really have gotten that bad. Personally, I am particularly concerned about the plight of our farmers. As I documented in a previous article, farmers in the United States haven’t faced a crisis of this magnitude in decades. And even though the Trump administration has just announced a 12 billion dollar aid package, many farmers are still facing financial ruin anyway…"A few years ago, Wisconsin soybean farmer Doug Rebout was getting $14.50 a bushel for his crop. Now, amid a trade dispute with China and rising production costs driven by inflation, that price has plummeted to around $9.30.
Rebout’s farm, which grows about 80,000 bushels of soybeans annually, is looking at a $400,000 economic loss due to the drop in prices, he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network. Prior to President Donald Trump’s announcement of a $12 billion assistance package for farmers, Rebout said that though financial aid would help farmers “weather the storm,” many fear the economic uncertainty will linger. Some are worried about losing farms that have been in their families for generations."
It is time for all of us to be honest with ourselves. 2023 was a really bad year for the U.S. economy. 2024 was a really bad year for the U.S. economy. 2025 was a really bad year for the U.S. economy. That isn’t a coincidence. That is a trend.
And if you don’t want to think about how difficult things are now, you definitely won’t want to think about where the long-term trends are taking us next. Inflationary policies lead to inflationary results. For decades, our leaders have been doing highly inflationary things. Now we are enduring a historic cost of living crisis that has spun out of control, and that should not be a surprise to any of us."
Adventures With Danno, "Unbelievable Prices At Aldi"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 12/12/25
"Unbelievable Prices At Aldi"
Comments here:
John Wilder, "Tranquility Was Never The Goal"
"Tranquility Was Never The Goal"
by John Wilder
“Our Great War is a spiritual war.
Our Great Depression is our lives.”
– "Fight Club"
"As humans, we’re wired wrong. Or right, depending on how you look at it. We chase peace like it’s the ultimate prize at the carnival of life. We say that we want a world without war, without struggle, where everyone has a comfy couch, unlimited Wi-Fi, more liver capacity, and steak that cooks and delivers itself.
Sounds like Heaven, right? Wrong. When I was a wee Wilder, Grandma McWilder would talk about how I should do nice things in life rather than bathing the cat in a paste made from DDT® and Lysol™ so I could go to Heaven. Obviously, I asked, “What is Heaven like?” Grandma told me it was nice and peaceful and that nothing bad ever happened up there. I believe I said something like, “That sounds boring.” Grandma did not look pleased, but I don’t know if it was about my statement or the cat. Let’s just say I was a technicolor handful as a kid. Oh, the stories I could tell. But I wasn’t wrong.
Tranquility isn’t the goal. Tranquility is the trap. Peace isn’t just boring; it is deadly to the human spirit. We need the fight, the blood, the steel. Without it, we rot from the inside out. And that’s not me, John Wilder making crap up again. We have actual studies where the government tortured mice to verify that I’m right.
Take John Calhoun’s Mouse Utopia experiments, please. I’ve written about them a couple times before, you can use the search thingy in the upper right hand of the screen to find them. I would have done that for you but you’re not my supervisor and I could type this sentence way faster. Short summary: In the 1960s, Calhoun built paradise for mice: unlimited food, water, space, unlimited beef jerky, no predators, SNAP benefits. What happened? At first, boom, the population soared. But then, the weirdness set in. The mice stopped breeding normally. Males became either passive or hyper-aggressive or “beautiful ones,” preening themselves instead of fighting or mating. Females abandoned pups. Society collapsed into violence, isolation, and extinction. All of this happened in a “utopia”. No threats, no struggles: just free cheese forever. And they died out. Stop me if you’ve seen this recently in other mammals.
Humans aren’t mice, but we’re close enough if you ask my parole officer. Look at the downward spiral of the United States after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. The Cold War ended. We “won.” Yay! No more Soviet boogeyman lurking with nukes and unibrows. Instead? Peace! Prosperity! What did we do? Got fat, lazy, bored and divided: music went from “I’m gonna kick your ass” in the 1980s to “Oh, man, I need lithium because I’m sad”. The ‘90s brought endless economic booms, but also the seeds of today’s mess: identity politics, endless entertainment, and a generation starting to get hooked on screens instead of life. Without a real enemy, we turned inward, fighting over pronouns and safe spaces. Tranquility bred complacency, and complacency bred decay.
Same story with the Moon landing. July 20, 1969: Armstrong steps on the lunar surface. Humanity’s greatest leap. We beat gravity, the Soviets, and the odds. Then? Crickets as the ratings dropped. We went back a few times, planted flags, played golf (shoutout to Alan Shepard), and then just... stopped.
NASA shifted to the gay space trucks shuttles and looking for non-binary Muslims and lesbians to shoot into orbit. No more bold frontiers. Why? We won. The Sea of Tranquility turned space exploration into a budget line item.
Need another example: a Syrian teen in London. Picture this: an eighteen-year-old from war-torn Syria, resettled in a taxpayer-funded flat in London. Free food. Free education. Free X-Box®. Utopia, right? Wrong. He drops the controller and goes to Syria and joins ISIS or stays in London and joins a gang and becomes a rapefugee with a machete. Why?
Blood calls to blood. Iron to Iron. That flat was Mouse Utopia 2.0: safe, soft, soulless and, let’s face it, that kid was inbred and not very bright to start with. He craved the jihad, the struggle, the validation of existence through fire and fight. Comfort didn’t kill his spirit, comfort starved it. In part, this is why allowing refugees from incompatible countries is immoral.
Why do we have wars?We want wars. If they weren’t popular, we’d have stopped having them a very long time ago. Why do we want them? Not because we’re monsters, but because we’re human. Struggle validates us. High stakes forge character. Leaders like Alexander or Churchill didn’t thrive in peace; they rose in the crises they created. Without enemies, we manufacture them, internal or imaginary. Look at modern “wars”: culture wars, gender wars, class wars, cola wars. We can’t help it. Tranquility isn’t our default; it’s a rare condition that, when it lasts long enough we pop our collective corks.
Think about it: our history has wired us for survival, not spa days. Hunter-gatherers fought for food, territory, mates and because it was Tuesday. Civilizations brought people together and made a professional league and channeled that into empires, exploration, and innovations.
Remove the fight? We devolve. Mouse Utopia showed it: no threats equates to no purpose. Humans need the arena, the sweat, the sand, and the blood. We were built for the Colosseum, not the couch. But here’s the rub: the struggle creates a spot for growth, it’s literally the engine of history. Without high stakes, we fail to thrive.
We back ourselves into existential corners: depression epidemics, fertility crashes, societies crumbling under their own weight and people who need drugs to stop that nagging feeling that they should be doing something that matters. Oddly enough, our very humanity appears to be built upon the fight.
So, what now? We can’t “prosperity” the struggle out of us. We need leaders who rally us to real frontiers and put real goals out in front of us, not fake fights over tweets®. Stakes high enough to matter: colonize Mars, cure aging, harness fusion. And something for the masses to do, like watching re-runs of Ow, My Balls.
Something. If we don’t have something, we’ll make something. Give us blood (metaphorical or not), steel, the feel of it all. In the end, tranquility was never the goal. The struggle is the point. It’s what makes us scream, fight, and conquer. As I’ve seen in memes: “I want to go out of this world the same way I came into it: screaming and covered in someone else’s blood.” And Heaven? I think it isn’t at all as Grandma Wilder described. I think it’s more like: Player 1: Ready Level 2."
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