"Dead Romans Agree: Don’t Let The Small Stuff Bother You"

"Dead Romans Agree: 

Don’t Let The Small Stuff Bother You"

by John Wilder

"I woke up this morning just irritated. No particular reason. In all fairness, it was entirely an internal feeling, and I imagine most people never noticed. I was nice and polite to nearly everyone I interacted with. And why not? None of them were my ex-wife. I wasn’t irritated with them, I was just irritated. There were no issues. I wasn’t in pain. No one around me was in particular trouble. Thankfully I’m not an electrician – people might dislike me not being positive at work.

As I thought about it, what was irritating me? I couldn’t quite put a finger on it. There was no rational reason at all. During a conversation lat night, though, I had a reason to quote Marcus Aurelius: “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”

Sure, Marcus Aurelius’ kid was an utter tool, but when you become Caesar at 18, well, it might tend to go to your head – think of Commodus as Miley Cyrus, 180 A.D. Back to Marcus, though. Marcus genuinely did his best for the Roman Empire. As near as I can tell, Marcus was a pretty good leader. And that little quote above wasn’t written for you and me. It was written for Marcus, by Marcus. He was reminding himself that the external things in the world had only the power he gave them. He was giving himself a pep talk.

Marcus Aurelius was right. In the conversation I was having lat night, the person was very upset (most of you don’t know the person, though specific readers in California and Indiana do – hi guys!). The reason she was upset? Nothing rational at all. So I quoted a dead Roman emperor. Did it help? I don’t know. I’m beginning to see a pattern where crying people don’t stop crying when I quote dead Roman emperors. I’m beginning to see why the kids call The Mrs. when they want actual human sympathy.

My irritation (I think) came from the same place. Nowhere. I felt fine (except for my right knee which is much better now) and the day generally went fairly well. I realized that the advice I gave was meant just as much for me as for the person I was talking to. I was just being irritated because I let myself be irritated.

Once I was done and realized I didn’t have to be irritated? My irritation disappeared. I know that the way I feel is (generally) my choice. I can choose how I feel: salty, Wednesday, or even drunk. The only reason that I’m not happy every morning is if I choose not to be happy on some particular morning.

Are there actual reasons why I might have different feelings? Sure. If I had mental problems (other than an unseemly affection for awful jokes and a desire to consciously be able to make my fingernails grow absurdly fast) that might be a reason to have a feeling other than what I choose.

Don’t know. I do know that there are people with actual mental problems. There’s proof: some people actually voted for Biden. But, going back to Marcus, that’s not external. Being sick or goofy enough to vote for Biden isn’t external.

Physical pain also is an internal source that can destroy moods. I once (for a few months) had sciatica. I was irritable enough every morning to chew nails and spit bullets. Then I discovered that I could work out for a few hours on an elliptical trainer to make the pain go away. A week later? I was fine. My irritation vanished along with my sciatica, never (hopefully) to return. That was nearly 15 years ago. Sure, I’ve felt pain since then, but most of it was the good pain from a hard workout. Heck, most days the worst thing that happened was the crisp morning breeze running through my back hair.

My mood depends on me. My attitude depends on me. Does that mean that I can’t see the actual situation we’re in? Of course not. I see a nation tearing itself apart. It’s worse: it’s not just a nation, Western Civilization seems to be happily thrashing about as it marches down a path to extinction.

Is that good? Of course not. Does it mean that I should walk around every day being sad? Of course not. I am doing, I assure you, everything I can think of to stave off that darkness. I mean, those memes won’t make themselves. And I am doing it cheerfully. I laugh every day. I smile because I know that most of the things that I worry about can have no power over me unless I give them that power.

Make your choices, and understand that while you might wake up irritated – it’s your choice if you wish to stay in that mood for a minute or an hour. Me? I like being happy, so I choose that, even in moments where it might not be appropriate. I might even need to stop high-fiving people at funerals.

So, I got started late typing this after a day I chose to just be irritated. And, I’m going to choose to end now. With a smile on my face. Go and have a great day. Most of the time, having a great day is just a choice. Choose wisely."

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/

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"The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable,

or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same."

- Carlos Castaneda

"How It Really Is"

 

"Russian Typical Family Owned Supermarket Open 24/7"

Full screen recommended.

Travelling with Russell, 3/8/25

"Russian Typical Family Owned 

Supermarket Open 24/7"

"What does it look like inside a Russian typical supermarket? Join me on a tour of Athena Supermarket, a family-owned supermarket in Moscow, Russia. What is it like to shop in a typical Russian supermarket? What items are for sale?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "This Is WorseThan You’re Being Told"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 3/8/25

"This Is WorseThan You’re Being Told"

"The shocking truth about stagflation in 2025 is here, and it’s hitting hard! In this video, we break down what’s happening in the economy right now—stagflation, inflation, unemployment, auto loan delinquencies, and the skyrocketing cost of living. I share insights into how people are struggling to make ends meet, from layoffs to rising rents, and discuss why refinancing might be a lifeline for some. Plus, we dive into the latest trends in real estate, the food industry, and even the shady scams happening at places like Walmart. With precious metals predicted to soar, could gold and silver be your best bet for financial security? I also touch on some viewer tips to save money, like cooking daily and cutting unnecessary expenses. If you're looking to protect your wallet and plan for the future, this video is for you!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Market Gains, 3/8/25

"52,000 Workers Have Been Fired From Amazon"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How Poor Russians Survive Under Total Sanctions!"

Full screen recommended.

Window to Moscow, 3/8/25

"How Poor Russians Survive Under Total Sanctions!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"The Extermination Of 150 Million Chickens Is A Sin; Economy Can Only Get Worse"

Jeremiah Babe, 3/7/25

"The Extermination Of 150 Million Chickens Is A Sin; 

Economy Can Only Get Worse"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Simeon Wood, "Annie's Song",

Simeon Wood, "Annie's Song", by John Denver

Musical Interlude: Little River Band, "Cool Change"; John Denver "Calypso"

Full screen recommended.

Little River Band, "Cool Change"

o

John Denver "Calypso"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Two stars within our own Milky Way galaxy anchor the foreground of this cosmic snapshot. Beyond them lie the galaxies of the Hydra Cluster. In fact, while the spiky foreground stars are hundreds of light-years distant, the Hydra Cluster galaxies are over 100 million light-years away.

Three large galaxies near the cluster center, two yellow ellipticals (NGC 3311, NGC 3309) and one prominent blue spiral (NGC 3312), are the dominant galaxies, each about 150,000 light-years in diameter. An intriguing overlapping galaxy pair cataloged as NGC 3314 is just above and left of NGC 3312. Also known as Abell 1060, the Hydra galaxy cluster is one of three large galaxy clusters within 200 million light-years of the Milky Way. In the nearby universe, galaxies are gravitationally bound into clusters which themselves are loosely bound into superclusters that in turn are seen to align over even larger scales. At a distance of 100 million light-years this picture would be about 1.3 million light-years across."

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120512.html

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Related, highest recommendation:

"How Many Galaxies Are In The Universe?"

"The deepest image ever taken, the Hubble Extreme Deep Field, revealed ~5,500 galaxies over an area that took up just 1/32,000,000th of the sky. But today, scientists estimate that there are more than ten times as many galaxies out there than Hubble, even at its limits, is capable of seeing. All told, there are some ~2 trillion galaxies within the observable Universe. Here's how we know."

View this complete, extraordinarily fascinating, article here:

- https://bigthink.com/

Canadian Prepper, "Trump Redeploys 35,000 Troops To Eastern Europe? Poland Getting Nukes! Iran War Coming!"

Canadian Prepper, 3/7/25

"Trump Redeploys 35,000 Troops To Eastern Europe?

 Poland Getting Nukes! Iran War Coming!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Chet Raymo, “Strange”

“Strange”

by Chet Raymo

“In a review in the “New York Times” Book Review, Daniel Handler wrote: “And strange? Well, let’s get this straight: All great books are strange. Every lasting work of literature since the very weird “Beowulf” has been strange, not only because it grapples with the strangeness around us, but also because the effect of originality is startling, making even the oldest books feel like brand new stories.”

Strange: Out-of-the-ordinary, unusual, curious. “The strangeness around us,” says Handler. There is a paradox here. What could be less strange than the world around us? It is the same world that was here yesterday, and the day before that. More to the point: It is a world ruled by law. Inviolable causal bonds. That’s what makes science possible.

And yet, and yet. I walk wary. Strangeness lurks on ever side. Strangeness leaps out of every pebble in the path, every wildflower, every spider web flung between weedy stalks. In the midst of the utterly ordinary the extraordinary abounds. Nothing is so commonplace as to be common. The strangeness of the world, as in literature, has its source in the head, in the convoluted interaction of mind with world. Strange, that we should be here, strangers in a strange land, pilgrims on our own yellow brick roads where nothing is ordinary because everything is perceived through the filter of a unique consciousness.

And strange? Well, let’s get this straight. I hope never to lose the capacity to see the strangeness in the familiar, the curious in the everyday, the exception in the unexceptional. 

“I do not expect a miracle, 

or an accident, 

to set the sight on fire...” 

wrote Silvia Plath. Just being here is enough. Just being here is surpassing strange.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

"If You Alone..."

“Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country – hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of.”

- Mark Twain

"As Far As We Can Discern..."

"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human

existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being."

- Carl Jung

The Daily "Near You?"

Downers Grove, Illinois, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"The Corporate Cocoon"

"The Corporate Cocoon"

by Paul Rosenberg

"In my town, the corporate throngs travel almost in unison every morning and every night, making their way from the manicured suburbs to the shiny central city and then back again. They’re not particularly bad people, you understand. In fact, many of them are pleasant and smart. But they’re being slowly digested into the body of a larger host: the 21st Century Mega-Corp Network.

They wake up each morning in their quiet bedrooms, go through the usual preliminaries, and climb into their modern cars. They turn on the backseat video to anesthetize their kids, drive on inoffensive streets to well-guarded schools, drop the kids off, and head to their quaint train stations. At those stations, their semi-elite status is confirmed by all the other mega-corp employees who live precisely the same way.

As scheduled, the train shows up, and they take their seats. Here, a bit of individuality shows up: One will get predigested “safe facts” from his or her newspaper. Another, his or her gossip from People magazine. The more up to date will watch a show on a brand-new smartphone. Perhaps one or two will plug in to a shiny new iGadget, submerge any thoughts in songs provided by the entertainment corps, and recline, semi-comatose, till they arrive at the city center.

Then they emerge from the trains into a brilliant, cavernous station with wall-to-wall advertising: Buy the newer, faster phone! Take a vacation to a pristine beach, with happy, beautiful people frolicking in their swimsuits! Give your spouse a new car for Christmas! Most importantly, these ads will feature people just like them: Happy, successful corporate employees.

They walk down the streets to their glistening offices past a sea of corporate logos: places to eat and drink, to buy clothes, coffee, and cell phones; and past seemingly eternal government buildings. All is institutional, all is certified, all is polished… all is hollow, all is homogenized.

The same goes for their mega-corp jobs and their mega-corp colleagues. Their world is a second verse of the 1950s: a little bit louder and a little bit worse. The institution is back. It ruled in the ‘50s; it was dethroned in the ‘60s and ‘70s; it idled going into the ‘80s, and then began its return. Now it’s back at the top of the heap and rules from cradle to grave. We all know the script:

Do well in school (an institution).

Rebel with music from the entertainment corps (institutions).

Wear the new shoes/jeans/etc. with the best corporate logos (quasi-institutions).

Get a university degree (from an institution).

Take student loans to do so (from an institution).

Take a job at a big firm with great benefits (interacting institutions).

Get a home loan (from an institution).

Build a 401(k) (more institutions).

Believe in democracy (a multilayered institution).

Be a good citizen and vote (same as above).

Send your children to daycare, then school (institutions).

Buy brand-named goods (from other mega-corp institutions).

Watch the best in entertainment (corporate institutions).

Conduct your relationships on Facebook (a vampire institution).

Trust in Social Security and Medicare (unsustainable institutions).

Residence in the corporate cocoon is not evil per se, but it substitutes for actual living. Corporate life takes place vicariously: in advertisements, in movies, and in politics. Even its children are prevented from interaction with the real world - rushed from one institution to another, then safely back home: numbered, evaluated, and surveilled the whole time. The streets, offices, and boardrooms of the mega-corp world are rich and shiny, but they are swept clean of real life. They are places where souls go to whither and die - albeit slowly and with continuous validation."

- www.freemansperspective.com

o

Full screen recommended.

Steve Cutts, "Happiness"

o

"The 20 Mega Corporations

Who Are Controlling And Shaping You"

"12 Shocking New All-Time Economic Records That Are Being Reported In 2025"

"12 Shocking New All-Time Economic Records 

That Are Being Reported In 2025"

by Michael Snyder

"The U.S. economy was steamrolling in the wrong direction for four years under Joe Biden, and now we have an extraordinary mess on our hands. Nobody can deny that our economic numbers are absolutely horrible right now. GDP growth is expected to be negative during the first quarter, inflation is rising again, home sales are at extremely depressed levels, retail sales are down, stores and restaurants are closing at a staggering pace, debt levels are out of control, and mass layoffs are happening all over the nation…

"President Donald Trump’s efforts to pare down the federal government workforce left a mark on the labor market in February, with announced job cuts at their highest level in nearly five years, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported Thursday.

The firm reported that U.S. employers announced 172,017 layoffs for the month, up 245% from January and the highest monthly count since July 2020 during the heightened uncertainty from the Covid pandemic. In addition, it marked the highest total for the month of February since 2009 during the global financial crisis."

Please read those two paragraphs again. Layoffs announcements haven’t been this high during the month of February since 2009. Wow. And the total for the first two months of this year is also the highest that we have seen since 2009…"January’s planned reductions brought the total through the first two months of the year to 221,812, also the highest for the period since 2009 and up 33% from the same time in 2024."

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, we have a major crisis on our hands, and the economic numbers that we are getting clearly reflect this. The following are 12 shocking new all-time economic records that are being reported in 2025…

#1 Our trade deficit with the rest of the world has surged to an all-time record high…The US trade deficit widened to a record in January as companies scrambled to secure goods from overseas before President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on America’s largest trading partners. The gap in goods and services trade widened 34% from the prior month to $131.4 billion, Commerce Department data showed Thursday. The deficit was larger than all but one estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

#2 The percentage of Americans that are “raiding their retirement savings” has never been higher…More Americans are raiding their retirement savings to cover emergency expenses, taking early withdrawals from their 401(k)s. A record 4.8 percent of account holders took hardship withdrawals last year, up from 3.6 percent in 2023, according to Vanguard Group, which examined data from nearly 5 million people with 401(k)-type accounts.

#3 This year, the price of a dozen eggs in the United States has soared to the highest level ever…In January, the average price of a dozen eggs hit a record high of $4.95, up from $2.52 a year prior.

#4 The delinquency rate for subprime auto loans that are at least 60 days delinquent just hit a level we have never seen before…60+ day auto loan delinquencies in the subprime cohort (less credit-worthy borrowers) hit 6.56% in December 2024—the highest ever recorded. That’s up from 6.01% in November 2024 and 6.27% in 2023.

#5 In January, pending home sales dropped to an all-time record low…Contracts to buy previously owned homes fell to a record low in January as prospective buyers were constrained by higher mortgage rates and house prices. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said on Thursday that its Pending Home Sales Index, which is based on signed contracts, declined by 4.6% last month to 70.6, an all-time low. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast contracts, which become sales after a month or two, falling by 1.3% in January. Pending home sales were down 5.2% from a year ago.

#6 It is being projected that the U.S. will run a record high agricultural trade deficit of 49 billion dollars in 2025…The U.S., known for being a global agriculture powerhouse, has never imported so much food. Inbound shipments of everything from avocados to coffee and sugar are expected to drive the country’s agriculture trade deficit to a record $49 billion this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in its trade outlook report. At the same time, America’s most widely grown crops have been losing overseas markets over the past decades. It’s a stark turnaround for a nation that once used its abundant food supplies as a tool of statecraft, with the U.S. now facing a future of persistent agricultural trade deficits.

#7 Coresight Research is telling us that approximately 15,000 stores will be permanently closed in the United States in 2025. That would be a new all-time record by a wide margin.

#8 The price of gold has moved above $2900 an ounce for the first time ever.

#9 Credit card debt in the United States has crossed the 1.2 trillion dollar mark for the very first time…Americans’ total credit card balances now stand at a record-high $1.21 trillion, the report said.

#10 Total household debt in the United States has crossed the 18 trillion dollar mark for the very first time…Americans’ household debt - including credit cards, mortgages, auto loans and student loans - is at a new all-time high of $18.04 trillion, according to a report released Thursday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

#11 The U.S. national debt has surpassed the 36 trillion dollar mark for the first time ever.

#12 When you add up all forms of debt in our society, it comes to a grand total of more than 100 trillion dollars. This has never happened before in the entire history of our nation.

Earlier today, I was amused by a Newsweek article that stated that top economists are concerned that our economy “may be on a path toward recession or a downturn that could rival those of 2020 and 2008″…"Economists have expressed fears that the American economy may be on a path toward recession or a downturn that could rival those of 2020 and 2008.

These concerns have been heightened by falling retail sales and associated layoffs, the anticipated impacts of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on prices and domestic consumption, American stock indexes trailing their European counterparts in recent months, the Federal Reserve’s statements indicating that inflationary struggles are far from over, and data pointing to sharp declines in consumer confidence."

Come on man. Our economy is not “on a path toward recession”. The truth is that our economy is in a recession right now. Let’s be real. Everywhere around us, people are in extreme economic pain. Unfortunately, what we have experienced so far is just the beginning. So I would encourage you to brace yourself for what is coming next, because it isn’t going to be pleasant."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "The Recession Diet - Why Everyone's Cutting Back"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 3/7/25

"The Recession Diet - 

Why Everyone's Cutting Back"

"Are you feeling the pinch of the "Recession Diet"? In today’s video, we’re diving into why everyone’s cutting back and how it’s reshaping the economy. From households skipping name brands to businesses struggling with layoffs and closures, the signs of leaner times are everywhere. I break down how skyrocketing wages, changing consumer habits, and store strategies (like Target’s mini stores and Foot Locker’s downsizing) are shaking up the market. Plus, hear my take on the latest retail drama, layoffs in Veterans Affairs, and a wild story about a jewel heist gone hilariously wrong."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Bill Bonner,

"A Lot More Ruin"

by Bill Bonner

Baltimore, Maryland - "Of greatest interest to us among Donald Trump’s long list was his promise to balance the budget. “And in the near future, I want to do what has not been done in 24 years: balance the federal budget…We are going to balance it.” Many are the minor issues, imbecilities and annoyances of modern American government. But a $36 trillion debt is something else. If we don’t stop the smoke; we’ll see the flames later.

Mr. Trump can deport all the rapists and murderers he wants. He can seize the Panama Canal…or force us to speak English. But if he doesn’t get control of federal spending, and bring income in line with out-go, it will be wake-up time for the whole MAGA dream.

Which is not to say the world will come to an end. Nations flirt with bankruptcy for decades. They inflate. They issue junk bonds. They sell their gold, neglect their highways and auction off their national parks. The dollar has lost 85% of its value since 1971. So, there’s still 15% left. “There is a lot of ruin in a nation,” said Keynes. Today, we look to see how the ruin might be avoided.

A conventional politician, such as Joe Biden, wouldn’t have a chance. Working through the myriad parasites in Washington and Wall Street, every initiative to cut spending… reduce the federal payroll…or bring the US back to basics, would be endlessly and hopelessly blocked. Biden followed along on the course set by his predecessors (including Donald Trump himself) and the elites. That course leads to the two worst things that can happen to a mature empire - bankruptcy and war.

Big Man governments may or may not be better suited to avoiding them. So far, there is little sign of a major course correction. In the key policies - fiscal and military - Trump II looks little different from previous administrations. But it would be nice to be surprised. After all, the Big Man can do what the democrat can’t. He doesn’t need to consult members of congress (whom he knows to be in the pockets of various lobbies). He doesn’t worry about hurting feelings or retirement plans at the FTC, FBI or SEC. He doesn’t bother to follow the Constitution too closely either; some inner voice tells him what needs to be done. And he is a ‘get it done’ kind of guy. In a hurry. Decisive.

But there’s a problem at the heart of Big Man government. The US economy includes more than 330 million people. Each one of them has goals of his own…and wishes to use his time and money in pursuit of them. Any diversion - whether it is invading Mexico or getting deported to Mexico - takes time and resources away from him in order to implement the Big Man’s agenda. So, the more energetically the Big Man asserts himself, the less the masses get what they want.

But wait…what if reducing the feds’ interference and balancing the budget were key elements of the Big Man’s agenda? What if the Big Man sought to be big by making the federal government less big? The idea is dazzling…intriguing…and probably nonsense. But lets take a look.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has already done the math. As it stands today, the US debt is set to grow by $18 trillion over the next ten years. And that assumes that nothing bad happens - no crises, no bailouts, no recessions, no stimmies. The Congressional Budget Office, meanwhile, puts the estimate at $23.9 trillion. Neither of those numbers include the extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which are expected to add $4.6 trillion to the debt. Uh oh… there’s more. The Kansas City Star:

1: “And the next phase of our plan to deliver the greatest economy in history is for this Congress to pass tax cuts for everybody,” he said. The cost of the tax cuts already in his budget passed by Congress $4,600,000,000,000.

2: “No tax on tips,” he said. Cost: $107,000,000,000.

3: “No tax on overtime,” he said. Cost: $866,000,000,000.

4: “No tax on Social Security benefits for our great seniors,” he said. Cost: $1,500,000,000,000.

5: “I also want to make interest payments on car loans tax deductible,” he said. Cost: $173,000,000,000.

6: “We want to cut taxes on domestic production and all manufacturing,” He said. Cost: $250,000,000,000.

7: “We will provide 100% expensing,” he said. Cost: $100,000,000,000.

Wait a minute. These are tax cuts. How could they increase the amount squandered by the feds? Alas, Elon has spelled it out. “All federal spending is taxation,” said the Great One. And he’s right.

The direct cost of government is what it spends, not what it subjects to income taxes; it will get the money one way or another. These tax cuts - with no corresponding budget cuts - will increase the debt…eventually to be paid via inflation, default, tariffs or some other underhanded levy. The total cost of all these tax cuts (including the aforementioned 2017 cuts) comes to $7.6 trillion…and brings the total ten-year debt increase to around $30 trillion…with US debt going over $60 trillion sometime over the next ten years. At that level, the interest alone would be more than all the tax receipts from California to the Mississippi River. And that’s if ‘nothing bad happens.’ How likely is that?"

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"How It Really is"

 

"Google Firing 39,000 Workers as Tech Workers Lose Everything"

Full screen recommended.

Market Gains, 3/7/25

"Google Firing 39,000 Workers as 

Tech Workers Lose Everything"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Judge Napolitano, "Live from Moscow - Judge and The INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom 3/7/25

"Live from Moscow - 

Judge and The INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jim Kunstler, "Dems and Blob Together"

John Podesta, Chairman of Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.

 Graphic explanation.

"Dems and Blob Together"

by Jim Kunstler

"If the Jacobins of Paris, 1794, had not been bum-rushed to the “national razor,” perhaps they would have acted-out as clownishly in defeat as America’s Democratic Party does right now after their election debacle of 2024. Imagine Robespierre in Harlequin drag riding backwards on a goat over the Pont Neuf to do handsprings and a juggling act in the Parvis de Notre-Dame. Alas, foiled by the guillotine. . . .

Now imagine Rep. Al Green (9th Texas Dist) shaking his cane and hollering curses at the rostrum in Tuesday night’s joint session of Congress. Two days later, he carried on again in the well of Congress as Speaker Johnson read out his bill of censure and a motley mob of Mr. Green’s fellow Dems gathered ‘round to sing We Shall Overcome - the once stately Civil Rights movement reduced to abject farce. Such things are really happening.

The Dems’ game has been revealed. The revenue stream for their national wrecking operations is suddenly cut off and it’s game-over. Everybody can see how this worked now. You funnel vast amounts of US taxpayer dollars into Non-Governmental Organizations, NGOs, spin off more NGOs below them, and add extra layers of subsidiary NGOs, and all of them pay their staffs of Dem Party foot-soldiers for do-nothing jobs - leaving plenty of time for riots and real-estate investing - a splendid racket that worked for years to support the insane antics of the Woke-Jacobin revolution. (And you paid for it.)

The catch is: an org that gets government money is hardly non-governmental. Wouldn’t you think there’s some law against that? Thus, Exhibit A: in September 2022, Dem luminary John Podesta was put in-charge of a $369-billion fund out of “Joe Biden’s” so-called Inflation Reduction Act, tagged for climate change action. Conceptualize further: that’s three-hundred-sixty-nine-thousand-million dollars (!), a lot of millions, disbursed among tens of thousands of NGOs and their contractors. It boggles the mind that the government could even manage to cream-off such a fortune out our nation’s alleged aggregate productivity.

It was, in reality, money conjured out of thin air: debt. Before long, you are going to find out where it all went, and the picture will not be a pretty one: Into the NGO laundromat and straight out to Democratic Party members’ bank accounts, one of the greatest grifts in our history. Of course, your grandchildren are on the hook for all the debt behind it. Do you think our DC Federal District judges would serve better presiding over these matters than spending years hunting down J-6 “paraders”?

Without that bonanza of conjured money for laying trips on the rest of us, the Democratic Party has nothing, not a single credible idea, not any plausible leadership, really no reason to exist. It has been for years nothing more than a gigantic grift engine extracting the remaining wealth out of our republic. So, what you are seeing acted out on the DC streets and the well of Congress and on the angst-filled cable news networks is the kind of ghost-dance that attends the death of a great political machine. Buh-bye. . . .

The symbiote of that parasitical organism is the “blob” of war profiteers, pharma profiteers, seditionists, traitors, lunatic ideologues and assorted criminals lodged in the DC bureaucracy and Congress. For instance, former CIA Director John Brennan (appointed by Barack Obama), a veritable US Communist Party activist in his youth and all the above in age. After 2020, Mr. Brennan might have thought all he had to do was kick back in a comfortable retirement, make a little extra “walking-around money” doing hits on MSNBC, and enjoying the esteem of his former colleagues as a legendary blob poobah. Likewise, Mr. Podesta, former White House Chief of Staff, Chair of the Hillary Clinton 2016 election campaign, and many other distinguished perches. Likewise, Senator John Warner, RussiaGate promoter as Vice-Chairman of the Senate Intel Committee; and likewise, Senator Adam Schiff, chief engineer of Trump Impeachment No. 1; and likewise, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley, rumored to have enabled the J-6 riot by denying National Guard reinforcements for the Capitol Police; and likewise, former AG Merrick Garland, the Torquemada of lawfare, and likewise, FBI Director Christopher Wray for concealing the far-ranging criminality of his Bureau in a long list of hoaxes and ops against the public, and likewise, Gina Haspel, who ran the CIA through the high times or RussiaGate hoaxdom; and likewise, “Biden,” Blinken, and Sullivan in Ukraine and the fate of $300-billion-plus in purloined aid - all these people just a small sample of the depraved officials who operated with such gross impunity against the citizens of this land, soon to collide with the wheels of justice.

The Democratic Party is no longer in a position to defend them, and conversely the blob actors are in no position anymore to protect their allies in the Dem Party. It is a mutual aid society suddenly turned into a suicide pact. The real action hasn’t quite commenced yet as a new officialdom warily finds its place - Bondi, Patel, Kennedy, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Musk - to address a complex agenda of reform for that matrix of appalling agency corruption. We await a flood-tide of greatly disturbing revelation and concrete actionable allegation.

Between all that and the cascade of truth finally emerging about Covid-19 and its dastardly vaccine program, America’s elite managerial class - Dems and blob together - find themselves like Pharoah’s Army of old, trapped by an onrushing flood of destruction. All they have left is making faces and screeching like ghouls."

- https://www.kunstler.com/

Canadian Prepper, "'Nuclear Sky Shield'; No Fly Zone, Article 5! China Threatens War And Amasses Stockpiles"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 3/7/25

"'Nuclear Sky Shield'; No Fly Zone, Article 5!

 China Threatens War And Amasses Stockpiles"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

John Wilder, "What Does Winning Look Like?"

"What Does Winning Look Like?"

by John Wilder

"I once had a boss that said to me, “John, what gets measured, gets managed.” His point was that if we have details on what’s going on, that drives attention. His corollary was, “So, be careful what you measure.” The idea behind that was that if you spent your time focusing on the wrong things, you’d never achieve what you were really trying to do, sort of like an airline company hiring pilots based on diversity rather than on, well how good of a pilot they are. Stop me if you’ve heard that one before.

Anyway, if you read the news, the main things that we measure are economic:

• GDP Growth

• Price of Eggs

• Stock Market Level

These are mainly material things. The nice thing about them is that they are very easy to measure. Does that mean that growth in GDP means we’re winning? I’ll answer that question with another question: Were people in the United States happier when our GDP was half, in real terms, what it is today? I think that question is easy to answer: we were happier then.

Let’s look at what constituted a normal life back then. Did we have a society based on greater trust? Yes, yes we did. Kids were free-range, and long summer afternoons blurred into nighttime without ever stepping inside the house until Mom yelled “dinnertime” or when the porch light came on (that was my signal).

Doors were unlocked. Cars were unlocked. The words “porch” and “pirate” had never yet been combined.

There was also a greater presence. People were where they were, mostly. Sure, I’d be reading "The Return of the King" on the school bus as it winded down Wilder Mountain, but when I was doing something, I was doing it, not marking time until I checked my Snapchat™ feed. People at dinner talked to each other, or if they weren’t talking to each other, there was a reason, not merely that they were distracted.

And, yeah, there was a greater depth and complexity of thought that was driven by the input. A book takes patience, it takes time, and it takes investment. A Xeet™? It takes 20 seconds, and that includes thinking about it.

We also thought differently. When I have a problem now where I’m missing information, almost always the answer is just a few clicks away. Back then, we really had to spend time trying to figure things out, and that created a greater depth of understanding about the problem. It was also frustrating and took a lot of time, but it trained me on how to think through to find a solution.

There was also a greater patience. The first album I ever ordered was promised to arrive in... “4 to 6 weeks”. Yes. That’s right. A month and a half. There was no next-day Prime™ delivery. I’d listen to Super Hits by Ronco™ when it showed up, and not a minute sooner. The crush of the immediate didn’t exist, and gratification cycles were likewise adjusted.

Oh, sure, there were negatives, too. I think that medicine is probably a bit better, especially if you base it on cost alone. I’m pretty sure that polio sucked. Lifespan is longer today (though I bet that’s 90% coming from kicking cigarettes). And, with only the mainstream media, there was certainly a lot of Truth that could be hidden. MKUltra, anyone?

And air conditioning. I really like that. But, outside of air conditioning, I don’t think being wealthier has made us even a little bit happier. It hasn’t brought us together. Although we’ve always had that, it wasn’t so visible because most people in Atlanta didn’t care what went on in the Puget Sound, and vice versa. The shrinking of our horizons has magnified the visibility of our divide.

It hasn’t made us stronger. As a whole, I think we are nationally as emotionally weak as we ever have been. Part of that is the wealth. If a person has lived their entire life in a mansion, any step down a cracked iPhone™ screen is a tragedy. A person who lives in a box? They shrug at a thunderstorm."

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Inner Light"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "Inner Light"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"This popular group leaps into the early evening sky around the March equinox and the northern hemisphere spring. Famous as the Leo Triplet, the three magnificent galaxies found in the prominent constellation Leo gather here in one astronomical field of view. Crowd pleasers when imaged with even modest telescopes, they can be introduced individually as NGC 3628 (right), M66 (upper left), and M65 (bottom). All three are large spiral galaxies but tend to look dissimilar, because their galactic disks are tilted at different angles to our line of sight.

NGC 3628, also known as the Hamburger Galaxy, is temptingly seen edge-on, with obscuring dust lanes cutting across its puffy galactic plane. The disks of M66 and M65 are both inclined enough to show off their spiral structure. Gravitational interactions between galaxies in the group have left telltale signs, including the tidal tails and warped, inflated disk of NGC 3628 and the drawn out spiral arms of M66. This gorgeous view of the region spans over 1 degree (two full moons) on the sky in a frame that covers over half a million light-years at the trio's estimated distance of 30 million light-years. Of course the spiky foreground stars lie well within our own Milky Way."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210320.html

o

"In this galaxy, there's a mathematical probability of three billion Earth-type planets. And in all of the universe, 2 trillion galaxies like this, each with 300 to 400 billion stars, and in all of that... and perhaps more, only one of each of us." - "Dr. Leonard McCoy"

The Poet: Wendell Berry, “A Warning To My Readers”

“A Warning To My Readers”

“Do not think me gentle

because I speak in praise

of gentleness, or elegant

because I honor the grace

that keeps this world. I am

a man crude as any,

gross of speech, intolerant,

stubborn, angry, full

of fits and furies. That I

may have spoken well

at times, is not natural.

A wonder is what it is.”

- Wendell Berry

Amen...

"A Very Fit Consideration..."

“How vast those Orbs must be, and how inconsiderable this Earth, the Theatre upon which all our mighty Designs, all our Navigations, and all our Wars are transacted, is when compared to them. A very fit consideration, and matter of Reflection, for those Kings and Princes who sacrifice the Lives of so many People, only to flatter their Ambition in being Masters of some pitiful corner of this small Spot.”

- Christiaan Huygens, (1629-1695)

o

"Amid Talks Of Peace, The Pale Horse of Revelation 

Appears Ready To Make It's Bloody Ride Through Europe And The World"

Gregory Mannarino, "U.S. Deficit Skyrockets, Markets Are In Trouble"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 3/6/25

"U.S. Deficit Skyrockets, Markets Are In Trouble"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "Globalism Is Poison For America; China Ready For War, Still Buying U.S. Farmland"

Jeremiah Babe, 3/6/25

"Globalism Is Poison For America; 

China Ready For War, Still Buying U.S. Farmland"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gerald Celente, "Dot-Com Bust 2.0; When All Else Fails They Take You To War"

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, 3/6/25

"Dot-Com Bust 2.0;

 When All Else Fails They Take You To War"

"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

West Greenwich, Rhode Island, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Relax..."

"Relax. They're not going to kill us. They're going to

TRY and kill us. And that is a very different thing."

- Steve Voake, "The Dreamwalker's Child"

"The Cards You Get..."

 

“Three Hard Truths About American Collapse”

“Three Hard Truths About American Collapse”

by Umair Haque

“I’m going to keep this short and bittersweet. America’s probably not going to recover in our lifetimes, if ever. Let me start with some alarming and necessary factoids. America’s a country whose three main indicators are all blinking nine-alarm red  –  they’re what “collapse” really means. Life expectancy’s falling. Real incomes are shrinking. And 80% of people live paycheck to paycheck. By all means  –  elect anyone you want to. An electoral change might mitigate those, but it’s not going to magically alter the downwards trajectory. The American future is a grim choice between a return to yesterday’s slow collapse and the continuation of today’s light-speed implosion  –  probably not anything remotely like Europe or Canada’s gentle, hopeful upwards trend in quality of life.

That’s because these megatrends of collapse are the culmination of decades of self-destructive choices, trickle-down economics, neoliberalism, market fundamentalism, a total lack of investment in people, a culture of cruelty, a modern day caste society, Walmart capitalism, all of which added up to Weimar republic style ruin  –  letting middle classes implode, leaving the poor to die in the streets, because a predatory elite was allowed to capture more than 100% of society’s gains, and worse still, Americans were told to believe, by wise men, that all that was noble, righteous, and true: only the strong should survive. So these megatrends, because they took decades to gather momentum, and carry great inertia, are not going to be undone overnight, or even in a year, or even in a decade. Reversing them is the work of a generation, at the very least. Why?

America doesn’t have any functioning institutions whatsoever  –  and it’s not going to anytime soon. Government, media, corporations, judiciary, “jobs”, healthcare, transportation, finance, banking, pensions, retirement, education  -  go down the list. Do any of these function as they should  –  even remotely, in a healthy society? Its media is still fawningly profiling Nazis. Its opposition party is the most craven thing since Neville Longbottom. It has no agenda whatsoever. Its “best” educational institutions turn out little soulless predators aspiring to be hedge fund managers –  hardly statesmen, intellectuals, and decent human beings. And so on.

For these three megatrends of collapse to be reversed, America’s going to have to be remade whole  – first institutionally, and then via a new social contract. Think of Britain’s NHS or BBC, the German idea that unions sit on company boards, the French national pension system, Scandinavian social democracy as a whole. Institutions that make up a better social contract. But every single one of America’s institutions is broken. The question isn’t so much reforming dysfunctional ones as building functional ones. But the idea that America should have an NHS or BBC or debt-free education or a Public Retirement System is science fiction, and it always has been. Not only does neither party support it  –  though maybe the “democratic socialists” come mildly close  –  but nobody in any position of power in society seems aware that such a problem of broken institutions even exists. So who’s going to build them?

America doesn’t have the values to prosper without self-destructing  –  and it probably never did – because its prosperity has always been predatory. America doesn’t have working institutions because Americans, quite frankly, don’t care about each other. American prosperity has been based more on predation, people keeping others down, than it has on people lifting each other up. But that approach can only end in collapse. I know you’ll find that harsh.

And yet, the logic is very simple. America never developed what we might call the values of a genuinely civilized society. Empathy, compassion, truth, wisdom, benevolence, humanity. Fundamentally, that if everyone’s only out for themselves, then there is nothing that everyone in a society can enjoy as a basic human right. But if that’s the case, quite obviously, people will go without decent healthcare, education, finance, media, and so on. Worse, if everyone’s trying to compete for those things, punching everyone else down, by definition, those very things will always be absent in society  –  even when they can and should be available to all.

Public institutions provide social goods for all people to enjoy. America is the only  –  the only  –  rich society in the world that never built them. Why? Well, the premise of America until 1971 or so was segregation  –  and before that, slavery. But you can’t build public institutions that work for everyone if the point of your society is to discriminate, subjugate, and repress.

And yet, even after 1971, every single time the issue of working public institutions was raised, American whites, especially elites, flatly, absolutely refused them. They didn’t want anything that belonged to everyone in society, not healthcare, not education, not income, not retirement  –  their attitude was more or less, “As long as I get mine, why should I care about those dirty blacks, immigrants, Mexicans, gays, Jews, Muslims? They don’t deserve anything!” And that attitude still what prevails. It’s what kept America from building the working institutions of a functioning society, which might have provided good lives for everyone. But without those institutions, America was only getting rich by preying on itself  –  and that game had to run out sometime. That time is now, when 80% of Americans are broke. Bang! Prosperity based on predation leads to collapse.

Do you see the irony? Americans just don’t value one another as human beings, really –  and they never have. Only some people  –  whites value whites, elites value elites, and so on. Hence, Americans would rather keep the basics of life from one another, in order to preserve superiority and dominance over others, than grant them to everyone, and live better lives. They have always thought this way  –  and nothing has ever changed that underlying logic. But that logic is not only immoral  –  it’s also self-destructive. Because there comes a point when the price of dominance is self-destruction. If I’m denying you healthcare, so that I keep you down, and retain a higher social status, stratum and income, but it costs me and my kids and our very own healthcare, sanity, and life expectancy, too  –  then what’s the purpose of the game I’m playing, except spiteful ruin? And yet, that’s what America is, and what it always has been.

The irony of America, if you ask me, is that it never understood this most basic lesson of history. The problem with a Promised Land is that it tempts people to believe that its abundance must belong only to them, and to them alone. In that way, a Promised Land can never be a place for everyone. It will be a bitter, bruising war for conquest, possession, and domination, forever  –  instead of being something like a healthy, sane, caring society. And yet a war against itself is what America has always been  –  and what, if you ask me, it will go on being. Unless, improbably, it grows up, and recognizes the dignity and possibility in every life is worth more than any Promised Land will ever be.

America probably isn’t going to make it. If you are, though, I think that a life worth living begins there.”

- https://eand.co/