"Global warming alarmists, such as Greta Thunberg, Al Gore, and the entire Democratic Party (and their far-left MSM cheerleaders), have been awfully quiet as parts of the Lower 48 experience what feels like a "mini ice age."
Doesn't Fit MSM Narrative: Parts Of US Could Rival Coldest January Since 1977 https://t.co/SX9C2nR7AZ— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 18, 2025. A blizzard blanketed regions from Texas to Florida on Tuesday, while a polar vortex continues funneling Arctic air into the eastern half of the US, sending heating demand through the roof and placing power grids on high alert.
PJM Interconnection, which coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity and ensures power supplies for 65 million people in all or parts of 13 eastern and Midwest US states and DC, issued a Level 1 emergency and "Maximum Generation Alert." PJM anticipates that electricity demand across its power grid footprint today will approach its all-time winter peak of 143,295 MW, last recorded on February 20, 2015.
The alert was issued ahead of "continued cold conditions" and "energy demand expected Wednesday and an increased amount of electricity being exported to neighboring regions, who are also experiencing the extreme winter weather," PJM wrote in a statement. "The alert also serves to notify neighboring regions that exports of electricity outside of the PJM footprint may need to be curtailed and they should plan accordingly," PJM explained.
PJM added color to what a Level 1 alert means: "When a grid operator foresees or is experiencing conditions where all available resources are committed to meet electricity load, firm transactions, and reserve commitments, and is concerned about sustaining its required contingency reserves," adding, "to notify external systems that sales may need to be recalled."
According to Bloomberg data, the average Lower 48 temperatures have averaged well below a 30-year trend for much of January. "Over 40 million people are experiencing temperatures at or below 0ºF this morning, and 10 million are at or below -10ºF...incredible," private weather forecaster BAMWX meteorologist Kirk Hinz wrote on X.
BAMWX forecasted "another blast of winter arrives to start February." After a brief period of moderation the overnight GEFS says another blast of Winter arrives to start February. pic.twitter.com/LAg1hnxi2c— BAM Weather (BAMWX) (@bamwxcom) January 21, 2025
As for the Mid-Atlantic region, Goldman warned late last year that new AI data centers were creating capacity constraints on the grid. Goldman Says Mid-Atlantic Power Prices "Finally Caught Up To AI Data Center Load Growth Story" https://t.co/6BInBek7Zz— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 4, 2024
Latest reporting on the polar vortex and energy markets:
"Landlords Always Win: The Shocking Truth Exposed!" In today’s video, we’re diving into why it feels like landlords are always one step ahead and how this impacts businesses, especially in tough times like now. From skyrocketing rents to ruthless contract demands, we break down the reality behind the struggles of small businesses trying to survive under these conditions. Plus, a surprising insight from Gordon Ramsay himself on how landlords treat successful tenants differently! Here’s the kicker: landlords seem to have all the power, whether it’s demanding a piece of your business profits or refusing concessions during disasters like the recent LA fires. This video reveals how these practices are forcing businesses to shut down faster than ever - and why this trend might be just the beginning.
We also talk about the crazy creative financing methods popping up in real estate and how this could shape the market moving forward. Want to know why some businesses fail in just 90 days while others thrive? What about the “Costco effect” and its surprising impact on other industries? Don’t miss this one."
Those who loaded $36 trillion of debt onto the backs of Americans
now promise to make them rich by taxing foreigners. Those who squandered
enough money to build every family in America a new home.
by Bill Bonner
Baltimore, Maryland - "Suddenly, everybody is on board. ‘Ready to work with’ Donald Trump. Democrats. Republicans. Tech bros. Hollywood stars. Everyone. All of those who rigged-up the economy now say they are ready to de-rig it. Those who spent money as if they had robbed it from a bank now seek ‘efficiencies.’Those who loaded $36 trillion of debt onto the backs of Americans now promise to make them rich by taxing foreigners. Those who squandered enough money to build every family in America a new home...
Yes, they voted for every cockamamie boondoggle to slime its way through Congress...spending authorizations that ran to more than 1,000 pages, that they didn’t read... payoffs to powerful lobbies... bribes to voters... billions...trillions...in unnecessary, wasteful spending...debt that went up year after year...as the jackass programs multiplied.
And now, those same people are signing up to reform the system. They are ready to dig into the rules, regulations and spending programs that they themselves put in place... and tear out those that slow down the economy and put unnecessary burdens on our ‘working families.’ ‘The decline is over,’ says the man in the Oval Office. To his credit, Mr. Trump is leading the chorus. (The man is not all bad!) The Washington Post: "Trump embarks on vast effort to revoke federal regulations."
But not everyone is on-key. One voice, in particular, like a clanging gong - with a note so shrill and false it makes deafness a virtue is that of Senator Elizabeth Warren. The Wall Street Journal: "Elizabeth Warren: If Trump Wants to Unrig the Economy, I’m In." "I will lead Democrats on the Banking Committee to lower costs, advance security and cut red tape. I’m ready to work with Chairman Tim Scott, Donald Trump and business leaders whenever they support policies that rebuild the middle class, advance our economic and national security, and fight the corruption of those who seek to use government to enrich themselves."
What has she been doing for the last eleven years in the US Senate? Rigging up the economy, of course. Spending money the feds don’t have. Causing investors to wonder what their collateral is really worth. The result? “Mortgage rates surpass 7% in new blow to home market,” says the Wall Street Journal. Houses have never been so unaffordable. Prices are high. Interest rates are high. And average earnings, for the people who buy them, are low. An emergency!
If this keeps up, soon millions of American families will suffer from homelessness. Or, housing prices will fall. Ms. Warren claims that capitalism can’t do the job. She wants to improve it. Nation of Change: "Elizabeth Warren’s Accountable Capitalism Act: A push for corporate accountability and worker rights." But capitalism is not to blame for the high price of housing. Capitalism responds to whatever circumstances it encounters. And when it runs into zoning regulation and building codes... interest rate manipulation... high taxes... and inflation - all imposed by the feds - it adjusts as best it can. It builds houses for rich people - because they can afford to buy them. Poor people are ‘priced out’ of the market.
But Ms. Warren is determined to make the situation worse. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette: "Elizabeth Warren unveils bill that would spend half a trillion dollars to build housing. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced the bill that could boost housing production in the U.S., funding some 3 million units…. The bill would revise the federal estate tax for the nation's wealthiest residents to off-set the cost to the federal government, and is expected to generate billions. The plan would allocate resources to state and local governments, and grassroots and community organizations, and is designed to tackle local housing needs by funding creative local approaches and solutions."
Yep. Spend more money. That ought to do it. Always worked in the past."
"Who knows what evil lurks in the eyes of galaxies? The Hubble knows -- or in the case of spiral galaxy M64 - is helping to find out. Messier 64, also known as the Evil Eye or Sleeping Beauty Galaxy, may seem to have evil in its eye because all of its stars rotate in the same direction as the interstellar gas in the galaxy's central region, but in the opposite direction in the outer regions. Captured here in great detail by the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, enormous dust clouds obscure the near-side of M64's central region, which are laced with the telltale reddish glow of hydrogen associated with star formation.
M64 lies about 17 million light years away, meaning that the light we see from it today left when the last common ancestor between humans and chimpanzees roamed the Earth. The dusty eye and bizarre rotation are likely the result of a billion-year-old merger of two different galaxies."
"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."
"World War 3 is already well underway, even though most don’t recognize it. Russia, China, and their allies want to transform the current US-led world order that has been in place since the end of WW2 from unipolar to multipolar - giving themselves a bigger seat at the table in the process. The US and its allies want the unipolar status quo to prevail.
WW3 is unlikely to evolve into a direct kinetic war between the US, Russia, and China because that could invite nuclear Armageddon, where everyone loses. Instead, WW3 is playing out on different levels - proxy wars, economic wars, financial wars, cyber wars, biological wars, deniable sabotage, and information wars. This is World War 3. It’s happening right now and rapidly escalating. 2025 could be the year it all comes to a head.
As I see it, World War 3 is a conflict between two geopolitical blocks. The first block consists of the US and its allies who have hitched their wagons to the unipolar world order. I’m reluctant to call this block "the West" because the people who control it have values antithetical to Western Civilization. A more fitting label would be NATO & Friends.
The other block comprises Russia, China, Iran, and other countries favorable to a multipolar world order. Let’s call them the BRICS+, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and other interested countries. BRICS+ is not a perfect label, but it’s a decent representation of the countries favorable to the multipolar world order. Some countries don’t fall decisively into one category. I’ve put these countries in a separate Non-Aligned category. They are prime arenas of competition for NATO & Friends and BRICS+.
Below is an approximate map of the geopolitical chessboard as I see it. Click the image to enlarge.
I believe proxy warfare will likely determine who wins World War 3 and gets to shape the new world order. Proxy wars are a method by which major powers fight their battles indirectly, using smaller nations or groups as stand-ins rather than confronting each other directly. Major powers support, equip, and finance smaller groups or nations in a proxy war to fight against a common adversary. This support can include military training, weapons, funding, and other resources. The critical point is that the major powers do not engage directly in combat.
There are numerous ongoing proxy wars in World War 3. However, the ones I believe will prove decisive will be in Taiwan, Ukraine, and the Middle East. The other proxy wars are peripheral in comparison.
Unlike in Europe (Russia) or East Asia (China), there is no sophisticated nuclear power to deter NATO & Friends from more aggressive military action in the Middle East. Iran is, therefore, the weak link in the BRICS+ alliance to push for a multipolar world order. That’s why I expect NATO & Friends will make their last stand to scuttle the emergence of a multipolar world order and preserve the US-led world order in the Middle East.
The Middle East is roughly divided into two different geopolitical groups. The first is the US and its allies - Israel, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and others. (Though Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are members of BRICS+, their true allegiance is with the agenda of NATO & Friends).
The second group consists of Iran and its allies - the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, several Palestinian groups (including Hamas), and an assortment of militias in Iraq. Iran is a key member of BRICS+ and a proponent of a multipolar world order. That’s why Russia and China stand behind Iran with economic, political, and military support.
In early 2024, the geopolitical momentum in the Middle East appeared to be with Iran and its allies. However, that all changed recently as the Middle East has undergone its most significant geopolitical transformation in generations. It culminated with militants supported by Turkey, Israel, and the US overthrowing Bashar al-Assad in Syria. It dealt a severe blow to Iran and its allies and, by extension, the multipolar agenda of BRICS+.
Previously, it seemed Turkey was moving closer to BRICS+. However, after recent events, it’s now unambiguous. After delivering the biggest geopolitical win for NATO & Friends in decades, there’s little doubt Turkey is fully onboard with their agenda. Turkey has emerged as the dominant power and kingmaker in Syria, extending NATO & Friends’ influence into new strategic territory in the heart of the Middle East.
Turkey’s ambitions likely extend well beyond Syria. Erdogan has made no secret of his intention to create a Neo-Ottoman Empire. He now has a golden opportunity to make this a reality with the help of NATO & Friends. Turkey’s conquest of Syria is not without immense challenges. The country remains fractured and unstable.
Armed Kurdish forces, avowed foes of Turkey, control about a third of Syria. Assad loyalists are concentrated in the coastal region and other parts of the country. They remain heavily armed and hostile to the new Syrian authorities. There are ISIS remnants that haven’t submitted to the new government either. Then there is the Israeli military, which has destroyed all of Syria’s previously formidable air defense systems. The Israeli Air Force now has free reign over the skies of Syria. Israeli tanks and soldiers have occupied new strategic parts of the country.
In short, the new Syrian authorities have a gigantic mess to deal with. They do not have a monopoly on the use of force within Syria’s borders, and it’s unlikely they’ll be able to achieve that anytime soon. That’s why Syria could easily continue being a geopolitical black hole, sucking in blood and treasury from anyone who tries to stabilize a situation that cannot be stabilized. Presuming Syria can be stabilized - which is a big if - who will pay for the hundreds of billions required for the country’s reconstruction after more than 14 years of war? Nobody knows.
Turkey and, by extension, NATO & Friends were popping champagne over Assad’s ouster. But the celebration may end soon as they realize they have bit off more than they can chew. Turkey, the US, and Israel will be responsible for the chaos that comes out of Syria, which is likely to balkanize with unpredictable results.
In any case, I have little doubt that NATO & Friends will try to use growing Turkish influence as a way to reshape the geopolitical landscape in the Middle East in their favor as the arbitrary lines (imposed by the Sykes-Picot Agreement of a century ago) that define most modern Middle East nation states collapse. In other words, NATO & Friends want an incipient Neo-Ottoman Empire to be the dominant power in the Middle East. BRICS+ wants Iran to be the dominant regional power.
Nobody knows who will prevail in the Middle East and, by extension, WW3. The situation is fluid, volatile, and uncertain. There is an excellent chance that NATO & Friends will lose in Ukraine and Taiwan. I think that means they will not be able to stop the emergence of a multipolar world order unless they subdue the Middle East. And they can’t do that unless they overthrow the government in Iran.
The fall of Assad is indeed a setback for BRICS+, but not a decisive defeat. If NATO & Friends want a decisive victory in the Middle East, they will need to take out the government in Iran. That’s why I think Iran will be the decisive battlefield of WW3. Here is an updated geopolitical map of the Middle East and surrounding region as I see it.
With Iran’s allies across the Middle East suffering devastating blows in 2024, the US, Israel, and their allies have the most favorable conditions to attack Iran that have existed in decades. I suspect they will not let this window of opportunity close without taking advantage of it. It could happen in 2025. If an attack on Iran does happen, I believe it will be the defining battle of WW3. But it will not be a cakewalk…
Unlike most other nation states in the Middle East, Iran (known as Persia before 1935) is not an artificial construct. By race, religion, and social history, it is a nation. European bureaucrats didn’t dream up Iran by drawing zigzags on a map. The map reflects the geographic reality of a country with natural, fortress-like mountain borders. In the east, the Roman Empire generally ended where the Persian Empire began.
The US and its allies have tried to overthrow Iran’s government for over 46 years. They’ve tried pretty much everything short of a full-scale invasion In short, NATO & Friends have few other cards to play against Iran. If the US really wants to decapitate the BRICS+ agenda in the Middle East, it would need to overthrow the Iranian government. That would require waging a full-scale regional war against all of Iran’s allies and launching a ground invasion of Iran.
Remember, during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) - back when Saddam was a "good guy" - he threw over 500,000 Iraqi soldiers at the Iranian meat grinder, had the backing of the US AND the Soviet Union, and used chemical weapons on a scale not seen since WW1… and he barely made a dent in Iran. The reality is that if the US is serious about invading Iran, it would likely require total mobilization and bringing back the draft. That is not likely to happen, but even if it did, it would not guarantee US victory.
If Iran thought the US was going to invade, it could also develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent within a matter of weeks or less. It might also already have a couple of secretly obtained nukes. Given those unfavorable prospects, NATO & Friends could decide to use nuclear weapons on Iran preemptively. Iran is well aware that the US or Israel could use nuclear weapons against it. It has contingency plans for that outcome to ensure the survival of its government. Iran’s plans also likely include making a dash for developing its own nuclear arsenal to be able to respond in kind.
Further, it’s doubtful that Russia and China would just sit back and do nothing if NATO & Friends looked like they might nuke Iran. For example, Russia could decide to station nuclear weapons and Russian soldiers on Iranian soil as a deterrent. In short, NATO & Friends using nukes on Iran could lead to an unpredictable series of events that could quickly spiral out of control, so I don’t view it as a likely outcome.
The Bottom Line: NATO & Friends don’t have any attractive options when it comes to dealing with Iran. However, with the sun about to set on the US-led unipolar world order and the most favorable conditions to attack Iran that have existed in decades, they may think it’s their last best chance and go for it in 2025.
What will happen, and who will prevail? Of course, no one can know that with certainty. That being said, I think we can count on escalating tensions that could culminate in war with Iran in 2025. The implications of that are difficult to overstate. War with Iran would undoubtedly destroy all models for the energy market and cause a global economic collapse. Most people don’t appreciate how close we are to the precipice of a historical disaster. Countless millions throughout history were wiped out financially - or worse - during the previous world wars because they failed to see the correct Big Picture and take appropriate action. Don’t be one of them."
"I have been a long-time fan of General George S. Patton, Jr. It started when I was a kid, and my history teacher even ordered a few extra Patton films for the World War II section of U.S. history because he knew I was a Patton fan. Probably the biggest accolade that he could have was from the Germans who he fought, one of whom said simply, “He is your best.”
For whatever reason, though, I had never read "The Patton Papers 1940-1945." On a whim a week or so ago, I ordered a copy, and I cracked it open at lunch the day it arrived before I headed back to work. I’m not sure I’ve ever enjoyed a book more. I’m not sure The Mrs. feels the same way, since when I’m reading it, about every five minutes I’ll come up with a snippet to read to her. She keeps saying, “Thanks, but no tanks.”
The book itself is a compilation of diary entries, letters Patton wrote, and orders he gave in the period from 1940-1945. To have the ability to read through those are amazing, even when he just writes about the mundane aspects of his life or his son having trouble in math at school. I didn’t start at the beginning, I just picked it up and started reading at a more-or-less random spot, which coincided with his taking command of American troops in North Africa. And then I couldn’t put it down.
While many passages have resonated with me, I decided to write about one in particular today. It consists of his instructions that were provided to his officers prior to launching Operation Husky, where he and Montgomery launched a naval invasion of Sicily. Spoiler alert: he did pretty well. This is one passage I’ll make sure to share with Pugsley and The Boy because there is so much truth not only in a military sense, but in life to what Patton wrote on June 5, 1943. Stuff in italics is Patton’s (from page 261 and page 262). My comments are in plain text.
"Discipline is based on pride in the profession of arms, on meticulous attention to details, and on mutual respect and confidence. Discipline must be a habit so ingrained that it is stronger than the excitement of battle or the fear of death.
Discipline can only be obtained when all officers are imbued with the sense of their lawful obligation to their men and to their country that they cannot tolerate negligence. Officers who fail to correct errors or praise excellence are valueless in peace and dangerous misfits in war."
Discipline starts with a single individual. In my case, it doesn’t come from without, it must come from within. Getting up on time. Paying the bills. Having a sense of purpose in life. It has been my observation that people will do what you want when you’re looking if they fear punishment. If they are being judged, they might do it when others are around. When it becomes a value, however, they do it every time, all the time, even when no one is looking, and even when no one will ever know.
"Officers must assert themselves by example and by voice."
People watch. And people listen. Letting things slide never creates excellence.
"There is no approved solution to any tactical situation."
There is only one tactical principle which is not subject to change. It is: “To so use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wounds, death, and destruction on the enemy in the minimum of time.”
Obviously, war isn’t a game, but the lesson for life outside of attacking Sicily in 1943 still exists. And it’s not to use Claymores (FRONT TOWARD ENEMY) and a mortar barrage to open a business meeting. But I have been involved in business and life situations where time was of the essence, and being polite just had to go out the window.
"Never attack [enemy] strength, [but rather his weakness]..."
"You can never be too strong. Get every man and gun you can secure provided it does not delay your attack..."
"Casualties vary directly with the time you are exposed to effective fire... Rapidity of attack shortens the time of exposure..."
"If you cannot see the enemy, and you seldom can, shoot at the place he is most likely to be..."
"Our mortars and our artillery are superb weapons when they are firing. When silent, they are junk – see that they fire!"
One thread that runs through Patton’s writing and actions is his devotion to attacking. Defending wasn’t something that he was interested in. In life, I think that attitude is required. It’s easy to give up, it’s easy to fall into the trap that there’s nothing more to do, nothing more to gain. It’s similar to having all A’s on my eighth-grade report card and deciding to coast on that for the rest of my life.
Potential can only be realized if we push ourselves, and we can only push on the attack. So, attack life like a poodle going after a pork chop, up to the very last breath.
"Never take counsel of your fears. The enemy is more worried than you are. Numerical superiority, while useful, is not vital to successful offensive action. The fact that you are attacking induces the enemy to believe that you are stronger than he is..."
"A good solution applied with vigor now is better than a perfect solution ten minutes later..."
"IN CASE OF DOUBT, ATTACK ..." "Again, attack. But the additional thought is added: don’t listen to your fears. Fear is something that will paralyze even a strong man. And from my experience, the best way to get over fears and avoid the paralysis that comes with them is to take action. What action? Any action that leads you toward your goal. Even the smallest action often sets off a cascade of following actions that lead to...success."
"Mine fields, while dangerous, are not impassable. They are far less of a hazard than artillery concentrations..."
"Speed and ruthless violence on the beaches is vital. There must be no hesitation in debarking. To linger on the beach is fatal."
We are going to run into problems. Some of them huge. Some of them of our own making. The idea is to push through. The Mrs. and I watched a kid on the local wrestling team that was just awful in terms of skills, experience, and well, brains. But, he’d get it in his head that he could win, and he would go out and win some very, very unlikely matches. Why? He didn’t hesitate. He jumped on the chances he made.
I’ll probably have a few more of these as I go through the book. And, as much fun as it is to read, I’m going to take my time to enjoy it. I’d best show a little bit of discipline... Patton might be watching."
"Once upon a time, there was a bird. He was adorned with two perfect wings and with glossy, colorful, marvelous feathers. One day, a woman saw this bird and fell in love with him. She invited the bird to fly with her, and the two travelled across the sky in perfect harmony. She admired and venerated and celebrated that bird. But then she thought: He might want to visit far-off mountains! And she was afraid, afraid that she would never feel the same way about any other bird.
And she thought: “I’m going to set a trap. The next time the bird appears, he will never leave again.” The bird, who was also in love, returned the following day, fell into the trap and was put in a cage. She looked at the bird every day. There he was, the object of her passion, and she showed him to her friends, who said: “Now you have everything you could possibly want.”
However, a strange transformation began to take place: now that she had the bird and no longer needed to woo him, she began to lose interest. The bird, unable to fly and express the true meaning of his life, began to waste away and his feathers to lose their gloss; he grew ugly; and the woman no longer paid him any attention, except by feeding him and cleaning out his cage.
One day, the bird died. The woman felt terribly sad and spent all her time thinking about him. But she did not remember the cage, she thought only of the day when she had seen him for the first time, flying contentedly amongst the clouds. If she had looked more deeply into herself, she would have realized that what had thrilled her about the bird was his freedom, the energy of his wings in motion, not his physical body.
Without the bird, her life too lost all meaning, and Death came knocking at her door. “Why have you come?” she asked Death. “So that you can fly once more with him across the sky,” Death replied. “If you had allowed him to come and go, you would have loved and admired him ever more; alas, you now need me in order to find him again.”
“Bad things don’t happen to people because they deserve for them to happen. It just doesn’t work that way. It’s just… life. And no matter who we are, we have to take the hand we’re dealt, crappy though it may be, and try our very best to move forward anyway, to love anyway, to have hope anyway… to have faith that there’s a purpose to the journey we’re on.”
"Viktor Frankl, the Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, wrote in "Man's Search for Meaning", "Between stimulus and response there is a space, and in that space lies all our freedom."In the most extreme conditions of privation imaginable, Frankl discovered that he was, remarkably, free to choose his response to any situation. I love this quote because it sums up the essence of my philosophy. I believe it is the cornerstone of a happy and effective life. A real, experiential understanding of this radical freedom is life changing, liberating and empowering. To suddenly come upon the realization that we have always been free, not in some abstract sense, but in a real, personal and imminent way, is like being let out of prison.
We are not free to control others: The point is that we are free. And so is everyone else. That means we cannot impinge on the freedom of others. This is not some moral statement. I'm not saying we should not interfere with other people's freedom - it is simply impossible to do so. You cannot make another person do anything. Even putting a gun to someone's head cannot make them do anything. If someone is threatened to the extent that they fear for their life, they are likely to comply with whatever is being demanded of them, but this compliance is not a result of the threat, it is still a choice they make. If you doubt it, think about the people who have been threatened and not complied, think about people who have died for what they believe in rather than comply with an external demand.
The belief that we can control and coerce others, bending them to our will, is the cause of a great deal the misery in the world. This belief, springing from the external control psychology that we have overwhelmingly been conditioned to accept, is the cause of much of our pain. To let go of our belief that we can control others is astonishingly liberating. To accept other people as they are, to make no demands on them, simply to dance our own dance, as Anthony de Mello would have put it, and to accept that we cannot but allow everyone else to do the same, is not only the only choice that makes any sense, but is also the only way we can make any difference in the world.
We have a choice: In every situation, there is a choice. Accept that we cannot control other people or try to force, coerce, manipulate and bully to get our own way. The latter course of action damages relationships and, in the end, leads to pain and dysfunction. Or, we can accept people as they are, accept they are utterly free agents, accept that we cannot force them, and concentrate instead on building relationships with them and on building the inner world which echoes back to us as our experience. When we have good relationships, things work. Perhaps not in the way we might have expected, or even in the way we would have preferred, but things will work. The world is not ours to control, so let it go, and let it work in its own miraculous way. This is the effortlessness to which Lao Tzu alluded when he wrote, "The world is a mysterious instrument, not meant to be handled." Those who act on it never, I notice, succeed.
We are responsible: We are responsible for ourselves. We make our choices and then we must live with them, not blaming others or circumstances, and not cowardly abdicating responsibility to some external forces. We are not victims! We are in control. By the same token, we are not responsible for other people. Their fear, their anger, their pain, their misery - it's all a choice they make, as freely as we make ours, and they need to shoulder the consequences of these choices, they are not our crosses to bear. Their happiness, their success, their joy - it's all their doing, not ours.
Being proactive: So here lies our freedom, it is inside us every moment and we can recognize it and live our lives according to the truth of this freedom, or we can continue to behave in the way we have been conditioned by society and try to force our way through life, pushing and coercing others into doing our will. One way is peace and happiness, the other way is pain and madness. Being proactive is the first of Steven Covey's "Seven Habits" and is the cornerstone of a truly effective life. I believe that living a proactive life, centered in the self, accepting that we can change nothing but ourselves, and choosing to focus on the good in our life and seeking to attract more it to ourselves is the purpose of our existence."
This Is The Number One Tool The Elite Use To Enslave Us"
by Michael Snyder
Right now, a tremendous awakening is happening as people all over the world become educated about the tools that the elite use to enslave us to their system. The number one tool that they use to enslave us is debt. The financial powers of the world use it to enslave individuals, corporations and governments. For thousands of years humanity has been taught the proverb that “the borrower is the servant of the lender”, and yet today billions of people around the globe have willingly made themselves servants of the money powers.
You see, when you borrow money from a financial institution, you not only have to pay that money back, but you also have to pay a significant amount of interest. In fact, often the interest ends up being much more than the principal of the loan. Thus the borrower ends up devoting a great deal of his or her labor to earning money for the lender. Yes, there are times when it is necessary to borrow money. But what we have been doing over the last 30 years goes far beyond “necessary” borrowing. The fact that the U.S. government is now 36 trillion dollars in debt gets a lot of attention, but the truth is that state and local governments, corporations, and U.S. households have piled up enormous mountains of debt as well.
I want to show you a chart from the Federal Reserve that is hard to believe. In the mid-90s, the total amount of debt in the system was about 20 trillion dollars, but now we have reached the 101 trillion dollar mark…
The word “insanity” does not even begin to describe what we have been doing to ourselves. It takes a lot of really hard work to add 80 trillion dollars of debt in just 30 years. Every time we pile up more debt, there is a winner and there is a loser. Debt strips you of your freedom and slowly drains you of your wealth. It puts the fruits of your labor into the pockets of others. That is true for individuals, and it is true for a nation as a whole.
Getting others enslaved by debt is how the most powerful financial institutions in the world became so dominant. It is one of the most profitable ways of making money ever invented. What many people don’t realize is just how much interest they end up paying on some of their debts.
For example, if you go to mortgagecalculator.org, you can calculate the amount of interest that you will pay over the life of your home mortgage. According to that calculator, someone with a $400,000 mortgage at an interest rate of 6.98% over 30 years will end up paying $556,102.18 in interest before the mortgage is finally paid off. When those 30 years are over, you will have bought a house for yourself and you will also have bought a house for the bankers.
So what should we do? We need to stop feeding the monster. They are getting insanely wealthy by financially enslaving all the rest of us.
Unfortunately, many Americans find themselves deep in debt because the cost of living has been rising faster than our paychecks have. One of the great joys that men in free societies have long enjoyed is the ability to earn an honest wage for an honest day of work. In particular, the amazing capitalist engine that powered the U.S. economy for decade after decade greatly rewarded the incredible hard work and industriousness of the American people. America was known as the land of opportunity, and we built the largest middle class in the history of the world by working incredibly hard.
Unfortunately, things have changed. Thanks to globalization and extremely rapid advances in technology, the labor of U.S. workers is rapidly losing value. Automation, robotics and AI have made many jobs obsolete. In addition, American workers now must compete against workers from all over the world. Global corporations often find themselves having to choose whether to build a factory in the United States or in the third world. But in the third world workers often earn less than 10 percent of what American workers earn, corporations are often not required to provide any benefits to those workers, and there are often very few oppressive government regulations to contend with.
How can American workers compete against that? The truth is that labor is now a global commodity. It is exceedingly difficult for a worker in the United States to effectively compete with a desperate, half-starving worker in the third world that will work like mad for two dollars an hour. But this is what we get for letting our politicians push “free trade” down our throats. Most American workers had no idea that free trade would mean that they would suddenly be competing for jobs against workers in the Philippines and Malaysia. But this is the cold, hard reality of globalism.
Of course the top executives at the big global corporations are certainly enjoying this new environment, because their salaries have soared. In 1950, the ratio of the average executive’s paycheck to the average worker’s paycheck was about 30 to 1. Now it is 268 to 1. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.
That is what globalism is all about. The elite make out like bandits as they exploit third world labor pools, while the American middle class finds itself slowly being crushed out of existence. Our system has been designed to funnel nearly all of the rewards to the very top. Meanwhile, the vast majority of Americans are left wondering why things just don’t ever seem to work out for them.
If you talk to many Americans, they just can’t seem to figure out why they can’t make things work out even though they are working as hard as they can. Millions of Americans have found themselves taking on second or even third jobs in a desperate attempt to provide for their families.
Sadly, things just keep getting worse with each passing year. As I have discussed in previous articles, demand at food banks is at an all-time high, homelessness in the U.S. is at an all-time high, and homelessness in the U.S. is growing at the fastest pace ever recorded.
But there are elitists out there that are still attempting to claim that the U.S. economy is in great shape. Of course most of us aren’t buying the propaganda anymore, and that is one of the primary reasons why the election turned out the way that it did. We need to return to an economy where good workers are valued and where hard work is rewarded. We need to return to an economy where having a large middle class is an important national goal. We need to return to an economy where we build American businesses, where we hire American workers, and where we buy American products.
But unless the American people wake up, American workers are going to continue to be devalued. And if you think that things are bad now, just wait until AI starts taking millions of our jobs. Are we just going to sit back and let American living standards decline to third world standards, or are we going to do something about it?
Perhaps the greatest victims of the economic nightmare that is unfolding right in front of our eyes are our children. The overall economic numbers are really bad, but when you examine the impact that this economy is having on children things get really horrifying. Today, 16 percent of U.S. children live in poverty and 14 million U.S. children are on food stamps. It has been estimated that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point before they reach the age of 18.
We were once the most prosperous nation on the entire planet. How could we let this happen? Meanwhile, the rich have gotten even richer. In 2009, there were 8 million millionaires in the United States. Now there are 22 million. If everyone was becoming wealthier, that would be great. Unfortunately, the poor have been left with an increasingly smaller slice of the pie to divide among themselves. At this point, the bottom 50 percent of Americans control just 2.5 percent of the wealth.
I have been ranting about all of this for over a decade, and yet conditions have just continued to deteriorate year after year. We can’t have an economy that works for the top 10 percent but that sucks the life out of the bottom 90 percent. Our debt-based financial system needs to be fundamentally reformed, and it is time for us to demand action."
"America’s new era is here, and things are looking up! From the inauguration of Trump as 45th and 47th president to exciting shifts in the economy, we’re stepping into a golden age full of opportunities. In today’s video, I talk about how businesses like Amazon, Apple, and others are poised for a comeback, and what this means for YOU. Plus, get updates on everything from Isabelle County’s hilarious budget issues to surprising news about Walgreens, Jack Daniels, and even the state of luxury art sales. There’s so much to cover!
Join me as I discuss how corporate accountability, local improvements, and fresh investments in manufacturing are paving the way for a brighter future. Also, did you hear about the housing market shake-ups in Las Vegas or the ongoing Costco Teamster strike? It’s all here—along with my thoughts on some truly outrageous stories, like $50,000 teddy bears and dining delivery woes. Let’s navigate this transformative era together."
America has been in noticeable decline for the last quarter of a century.
The people most responsible for that decline were on display yesterday -
George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald J. Trump, and Jo
by Bill Bonner
"A new golden age for America... The decline is over."
- Donald J. Trump
"The future of civilization is assured."
- Elon Musk
Baltimore, Maryland - "It was a winter wonderland here at the farm yesterday. We hunkered down in front of the fire to watch the inauguration. It was unlikely to produce anything really new... but you never know. At the very least, it would help us gauge the zeitgeist of our era.
As expected, the inauguration was a mixture of decent sentiments... with indecent proposals... fraudulent pomposity mixed with solemn deceit... and a few delightful zingers mixed with blah-blah. “I was saved by God to make America great again,” said the new President. We don’t know God’s mind any better than he does. But our guess is that he is precisely wrong about what his real historical mission is. He came to Washington yesterday to praise the American empire. His real role is to bury it.
America has been in noticeable decline for the last quarter of a century. The people most responsible for that decline were on display yesterday - George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald J. Trump, and Joe Biden. And now, in electing Trump again, is it likely that he will radically change course? Will he do something different... something he didn’t dare to do during his first term?
Mr. Trump spoke about the challenges he sees ahead. Alas, he didn’t seem to notice the one that is most likely to trip him up. The Panamanians are apparently over-charging for the use of the canal. Foreigners don’t respect us. And there’s a flood of immigrants pouring across an unguarded border along the Rio Grande.
Are there just two genders? What if you’re ‘undecided?’ Should Mt. McKinley be named after one of America’s so-so presidents rather than by some ‘Indian handle?’ Does anyone really care if the Gulf of Mexico is called the Gulf of America?
Maybe they do. But changing names is not going to prevent the real calamity, now advancing on Team Trump. Nor will sending people to Mars. Janet Yellen: "Treasury currently expects to reach the new limit between January 14 and January 23, at which time it will be necessary for Treasury to start taking extraordinary measures." What measures will be taken? None were mentioned, extraordinary or otherwise. Instead, Mr. Trump turned his attention elsewhere.
His first time at bat was marked by the ‘national emergency’ he declared in March 2020. He thought that the Covid virus threatened the whole country and decided to use the police power of the feds to try to stop it.
This time, he’s introducing two more national emergencies. The immigrant situation has brought forth one of them. The other involves the energy industry. Why can’t they be handled in the regular course of calm and careful federal business? Where’s the fire? He didn’t say.
Federal finances, meanwhile, are aflame. Last year’s deficit ran over $2 trillion, bringing the total since 2020 to over $11 trillion. The largest contribution to that total came from Mr. Trump himself, whose 2020 deficit bulged over $3.3 trillion.
So far this year, the deficit is running at a nearly $3 trillion annual rate (sure to slow down when tax revenue picks up in April.) There is some loose talk in Washington about how higher growth - from tax cuts and ‘drill, baby, drill’ energy policies - will close some of the deficit gap. Tax cuts - at the margin - can increase GDP. But the math doesn’t work. If the tax take is 20% of GDP, the latter has to rise by 5 times as much to bring in the same revenue. Cut taxes by $1 trillion, for example, and GDP would have to increase by $5 trillion to recoup the lost income.
As for making it easier to drill for oil, the probable result will be lower oil prices...putting marginal producers, now producing oil, natural gas, coal, solar and other forms of energy at higher prices, out of business. Besides, fuel has been cheaper in the past; no big increase in GDP growth was observed.
The presumptive new Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent says that the feds don’t have an income problem; they have a ‘spending problem.’ Mr. Trump’s DOGE was supposed to do something about that. But the Musk part of the DOGE has already admitted that eliminating the deficit was merely ‘aspirational,’ not something you could count on.
And in yesterday’s news, we discovered that the other half of the DOGE leadership – Mr. Ramaswamy – is bailing out completely. Business Insider with the news: "Vivek Ramaswamy is leaving President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency. Instead of leading the group with Elon Musk, he's expected to run for governor of Ohio, according to various media reports."
Unless we missed it, at yesterday’s inauguration there was no mention of the fiscal crisis now bearing down on the US. It will come like a thief in the night... unbidden, unexpected, and unwelcome…but completely foreseeable."
"From afar, the whole thing looks like an Eagle. A closer look at the Eagle Nebula, however, shows the bright region is actually a window into the center of a larger dark shell of dust. Through this window, a brightly-lit workshop appears where a whole open cluster of stars is being formed. In this cavity tall pillars and round globules of dark dust and cold molecular gas remain where stars are still forming. Already visible are several young bright blue stars whose light and winds are burning away and pushing back the remaining filaments and walls of gas and dust.
The Eagle emission nebula, tagged M16, lies about 6500 light years away, spans about 20 light-years, and is visible with binoculars toward the constellation of the Serpent (Serpens). This picture involved over 12 hours of imaging and combines three specific emitted colors emitted by sulfur (colored as red), hydrogen (yellow), and oxygen (blue).”
"If you're seeing your grocery bill going higher every time you shop at Walmart - you're not going crazy! Even though official inflation numbers are cooling down, food inflation is still going up, and the company’s CEO Doung McMillon is sounding the alarm about price hikes this year due to the combination of lower agricultural production in the U.S., and import tariffs that are expected to go into effect over the next few weeks.
Walmart's top boss has lifted the lid on what Americans should expect for grocery prices in the first quarter of 2025 - and, as you can imagine, it's not good news. McMillon forecasted that food inflation - at record highs even after four years of frequent increases - will likely get worse this year, and he said he's 'disappointed' with current prices, pointing to eggs and dairy as key contributors to the latest increases.
During the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer and Retail Conference, McMillon stated that stubbornly high inflation will not go away any time in the foreseeable future, and cautioned investors to temper their optimism going into the new year. “I don’t know what the whole year is going to look like. I hope and I think it could be better as these commodities adjust - at least some of them,” he said. “I’m disappointed to see food inflation start to tick back up. It’s primarily driven by eggs and what’s happening with dairy right now,” the CEO added.
“But it’s not just those categories — there’s pressure on cocoa and other inputs. So, we look at pricing compared to last week, last month, last year, but we also look at it compared to pre-pandemic. And if you look at all of the food, prices are a lot higher than they were before the pandemic, which is not what the customers want and not what we want.”
