Running 'Cause I Can't Fly 2

Monday, April 7, 2025

"Addicted To Our Enemies"

"Addicted To Our Enemies"

by Paul Rosenberg

"In 1987, Georgi Arbatov, a senior adviser to the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, had warned (the West): “We are going to do a terrible thing to you – we are going to deprive you of an enemy.”

"This is not an easy subject, but a necessary one. Please accept my apologies for my inability to present it more comfortably. And I’ll be brief. We in the West, and Americans in particular, have fallen into a very serious trap: a trap we’ve known so long and so well that we accept it as a fact of life. To make this as clear as I can, I’ll state this problem in several ways. I’m quite sure you’ll recognize at least one of them:

- We require continual doses of bad news.

- We require outrages to react to.

- Too long without some new evil to oppose and we become deeply uncomfortable.

- Condemning bad things makes us feel righteous.

The bottom line is that we’ve become unable to feel righteous, except in contrast to evil. That is simply the model nearly all of us have matured within.

This is not a Biblical model, by the way, even if we mix it with Biblical terminology. According to St. Paul, our righteousness is from God, which we have by virtue of being “in Christ.” Jesus wanted us to “do the things I say,” like loving one another, practicing the golden rule and bearing fruit. Moses gave Israel ten commandments to keep personally, and stopped there.

The golden rule, of course, is the best model of morality in practice anywhere, among religious people or otherwise, and it has absolutely no slot for an enemy. Rather, it rests entirely upon self-reference. The enemy addiction, on the other hand, exists only in relation to external points of reference. So, a fixation upon enemies isn’t essential or optimal; it’s simply a trick that generates good feelings, fast and cheap. And however used to it we may be, it is not helping us.

For one thing, this addiction breaks our long-term relationships with better things. When good things come along (as they do in even the worst conditions), we welcome them at first, but rather quickly become bored with them. Soon enough we crave more bad news and let the good news be pushed aside. In other words, our bad news addiction won’t let us hold good news; we’re unable to maintain our focus upon it.

Perhaps even worse, the bad news addiction won’t allow us to build and hold visions of a better future, which we require to move forward with any consistency. “The good place we’re going” can’t maintain a prominent position in our minds, since our model of righteousness requires an enemy to condemn.

I have no intention of continuing on this subject, by the way, but I think it’s worth keeping in mind rather than tossing away. So, here’s a final restatement: Without an enemy firmly in view, our righteousness deflates. Thus unmoored, we are compelled to find yet more bad news. And so we are addicted to our enemies. We need to get out of this cycle, and we are quite able to do so."

- freemansperspective.com

"Cycles, Systems and Seats in the Coliseum"

"Cycles, Systems and Seats in the Coliseum"

by Charles Hugh Smith

"Contrary to first impressions, I am not a doom-and-gloomer; I'm a systems-cycles-er, meaning I'm interested in where systems and cycles are heading. Cycles work because we're still running Wetware 1.0 which entered beta testing around 200,000 years ago and was released, bugs and all, around 50,000 years ago. Since the processes and inputs haven't changed, neither do the outputs.

Nature is a mix of dynamic, semi-chaotic systems (fractals, etc.) and cyclical patterns which tend to operate within predictable parameters. Why should human nature and human constructs (societies, economies and political realms) be any different?

So longterm success breeds complacency, hubris, economic and intellectual sclerosis, draining political infighting and the overproduction of parasitic elites, to use Peter Turchin's apt description. Consumption of resources expands to soak up every last bit of what's available and then the supply of goodies plummets for a multitude of completely natural and predictable reasons (sunspot/solar activity, El Nino, etc.) and a host of unpredictable but equally natural semi-chaotic extremes (100-year droughts, floods, etc.).

Wetware 1.0's go-to solutions to all such difficulties are rather limited:

1. Ramp up magical thinking. If a couple of human sacrifices ensured good harvests in the good old days, let's slaughter a couple hundred now - and if that doesn't work, then...

2. Do more of what's failed spectacularly and slaughter a couple thousand fellow humans, because darn it, maybe everything will turn around if we just kill another couple dozen. This requires ignoring the novelty of the current challenges and clinging to what worked so well in the past even as whatever worked in the past can't possibly work now because circumstances are fundamentally different.

3. Seek scapegoats. It's those darn witches. Burn a bunch of them and our troubles will magically disappear.

4. Go take what we need from some other tribe. What's our oil doing under their sand?

5. Consolidate power and wealth in the hands of elites whose failures exacerbated the crisis. Because the obvious solution (to the elites with cushy offices around the palaces and temples) to repeated failures of a leadership that only excels in one thing, squandering rapidly depleting resources on infighting and self-aggrandizement, is to give us all the remaining wealth and power. Hey, this makes perfect sense once you understand #2 above.

6. Demand sacrifices of the many to protect the privileges of the few. The Empire needs some warm bodies to fend off the Barbarians, because it would be a real shame if the Barbarians reached our palatial estates and disrupted the flow of wine and festivities. No worries when you come back on your shield; the bureaucracy will give you a decent burial and your spouse and kids can join the multitude of half-starved beggars waiting for the dwindling distributions of bread and circuses. But never mind that, did you hear about the upcoming games in the Coliseum? Good seats are going fast.

7. Eat your seed corn to keep the party going awhile longer. Not every human group had the luxury of borrowing "money" to keep the fast-unraveling party going awhile longer, so they consumed their seed corn and drained the last of their reserves--which is the same thing as borrowing "money" from a future with diminishing resources and productivity.

8. Maintain supreme confidence that "it will all work out fine because it's always worked out fine" without any sacrifice required of "those who count." What's forgotten is that the luxe greatness that is now teetering on the precipice of ruin was won by the sacrifices of the elites far exceeding the sacrifices of the many.

Back in the day, joining the elite and maintaining one's position required constant sacrifices on behalf of the common good, and strict adherence to public virtue. Now that's all forgotten, and all that remains are elites possessed by the demons of shameless greed and self-interest. The idea that debt, leverage, speculation, greed, exploitation and parasitic elites can expand exponentially forever is magical thinking. Yet that is precisely what America and the rest of the global economic order insists is true and will always be true, forever and ever.

By all means, reject those horrid, awful doom-and-gloomers who look at systems and cycles. Everything will be fine as long as you secure seats for the next games at the Coliseum - they should be spectacular - but not in the way you expect."

- https://www.oftwominds.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "Margin Calls - How Bad Will it Get?"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, AM 4/7/25

"Margin Calls - How Bad Will it Get?"

"Is the economy heading toward another financial collapse? In today’s video, I’m breaking down the mounting economic chaos, the ongoing stock market sell-off, and what experts like Warren Buffett and Larry Summers are saying about the financial landscape. With discussions about margin calls, tariffs, and the potential impact on the average family, there’s a lot to unpack. Plus, I share why diversification and holding assets like gold and silver are more critical than ever right now. We'll also cover how companies like Rite Aid and Nissan are struggling, why food bank lines are growing, and how luxury items like Rolex watches and Ferraris might see a surprising surge. And, for a bit of fun, we’ll talk about the dethroning of Olive Garden as America’s favorite restaurant and Tesla’s bold move with a 50s-themed diner. It’s a packed episode full of insights, financial tips, and a little humor to keep things light amidst the seriousness."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"We Are Witnessing 'Lehman-Style Margin Calls' In The Aftermath Of The Biggest Stock Market Wipeout In U.S. History"

"We Are Witnessing 'Lehman-Style Margin Calls' In

The Aftermath Of The Biggest Stock Market Wipeout In U.S. History"

by Michael Snyder

"We have never seen so much stock market wealth get wiped out in such a short period of time. Unfortunately, many major players on Wall Street that made a ton of money on the way up were not prepared for a rapid reversal of this magnitude. In an article that I posted on Friday, I wrote that “a lot of financial institutions that are deeply overextended” could quickly “find themselves in a tremendous amount of trouble”, and that is definitely turning out to be quite accurate. All of a sudden, hedge funds are being hit with absolutely enormous margin calls, and this threatens to create a “doom loop” which could potentially push stock prices a whole lot lower.

The panic that we are witnessing on Wall Street right now is very real. Since January 17th, more than 11 trillion dollars in stock market wealth has been wiped out. In fact, a total of 6.6 trillion dollars in stock market wealth was wiped out on just Thursday and Friday…"Roughly $11.1 trillion has been wiped away from the U.S. stock market since Jan. 17, the Friday before President Donald Trump took the oath of office and began his second term, according to data from Dow Jones Market Data. Some $6.6 trillion of that figure was lost on Thursday and Friday alone — the largest two-day wipeout of shareholder value on record, Dow Jones data showed."

We have seen larger percentage drops over the course of two days, but in dollar terms we have never seen stock prices drop as much as they did during that two day period…"Markets have seen bigger percentage drops, such as in 1929 when they tumbled 25 percent over October 28 and 29 that year, but never as much in dollar terms."

This was truly historic. And now a lot of people are concerned that we could potentially see a “Black Monday” and a “Black Tuesday”…"The selloff that followed President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement was large by any measure, a Black Thursday and a Black Friday. If they are followed by a Black Monday and Tuesday, then everyone is in trouble."

Hopefully global financial markets will start to stabilize soon. But it certainly hasn’t happened yet. During an interview with CNN, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins openly admitted that the White House knew that there would be “uncertainty”… “The idea that we didn’t know that there would be some uncertainty just isn’t true,” Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We knew there would uncertainty.” But Rollins urged Americans not to look at Thursday and Friday’s trading and say, “the world is ending; the markets are crashing.” Instead, she argued, “the markets are adjusting.”

I wouldn’t call this an “adjustment”. The Nasdaq is already in bear market territory. I would call this a crash.

But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is insisting that most Americans “don’t look at the day-to-day fluctuations” of the financial markets… In an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Bessent called it a “false narrative” that people who are close to retiring may be reluctant after their retirement savings may have dropped last week because of the stock market downturn. “I think that’s a false narrative,” he told moderator Kristen Welker. “Americans who want to retire right now, the Americans who put away for years in their savings accounts, I think they don’t look at the day-to-day fluctuations."

I understand that they are trying to keep everyone calm. But it isn’t working. At this point, even the largest Wall Street banks are officially freaking out. They are hitting hedge funds with “Lehman-style margin calls”…"Hedge funds are facing Lehman-style margin calls as a market crash triggered by President Donald Trump’s tariffs raises fears of a looming ‘Black Monday.’ The market’s sharp downturn has forced hedge funds to sell off assets, with major Wall Street banks demanding collateral after the value of holdings sharply declined, according to sources familiar with the situation."

There is now fear that these margin calls could create cycles of forced selling that could drive stock prices down to extremely painful levels. The sheer panic that we witnessed in New York on Friday was unlike anything that we have seen since the darkest days of 2008… ‘Rates, equities, and oil were all down significantly… it was the broad market movements that caused the scale of the margin calls,’ one prime brokerage executive told the Financial Times. While, another prime brokerage executive noted: ‘We are proactively reaching out to clients to assess [risk] across their entire portfolios.’ Prime brokerage teams on Wall Street, which lend money to hedge funds, held ‘all hands on deck’ meetings on Friday to prepare for the increasing volume of margin calls, sources told the Financial Times."

Wow. This is all happening so fast. A lot of major players that were way out on a limb are going to end up getting their clocks cleaned. Leverage can be so seductive. On the way up, it can help you make tremendous amount of money, but on the way down it can feel like the world is ending.

As I have always warned my readers, you only make money in the stock market if you get out in time. Wall Street loves stability, because stability leads to predictability. Unfortunately for Wall Street, we have now entered times that are going to be extremely unstable.

A number of my readers have pointed out to me that the stock market was way overdue for a correction, and I agree with that assessment very much. But what we are witnessing at the moment is not just another run of the mill correction. What we are witnessing is a full-fledged panic. Will the White House be able to settle the markets down? I don’t know, but I will definitely be watching. Without a doubt, it appears that a very “interesting” week is ahead of us."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

Market Data Center, Live Updates:

- https://www.marketwatch.com/market-data

Bill Bonner, "Swamp Trade"

"Swamp Trade"

If Bangladesh foolishly tries to protect its auto industry with a 50% tariff

on Cadillacs…is that a reason to make Americans pay more for their pants?

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "The weekend brought a steady flow of tariff news…marked by outrage, indignation… and humor. Politicians often do stupid things…but there is usually some ambiguity about it. On this hand…but on that hand…maybe it will work, maybe it won’t… Rarely do we get to see a policy that is such undiluted claptrap that it brings liberals and conservatives together to have a good laugh.

We got off the ship yesterday in Southampton and made our way over to Ireland. Southampton is a huge port…with thousands of trucks, cars, containers, and cranes lining the harbor. It is a shipping center…with millions of tons of goods passing through. When you go to buy something in England, it’s a good bet that it came via Southampton’s docks. Now, with Trump’s new taxes on trade…spiders are preparing to spin their webs on the giant cranes…and builders will turn empty containers into Airbnb rentals.

But let us first reminisce about our eights days at sea. What did we learn? Well…the Queen Mary II is more of a leisure activity than a way to get somewhere. Most of the people on board were cruise ship veterans. One couple was continuing on the Queen Mary for another week, exploring the coast of Norway. Another had signed on to a 100-day cruise around South America. One couple from Toronto had been all around the world. “Hello, we’re Canadians,” they announced as they sat down. “That’s okay,” we replied. “We forgive you for ripping us off for so many years.” A look of bewilderment crossed the man’s face…but only for a second. “We won’t talk about your president; we promise,” he said.

Everyone we met was friendly…and interesting. A man from Oregon operated canal locks. A man from Ireland had been a circus clown. A professor from George Mason University explained the evolution of early Christianity. Had we been on our own, we would have spent more time alone…reading. But Elizabeth is an improver…so we took dance lessons…went to the theater…listened to lectures…and talked to our neighbors.

Shipboard life is convenient…with everything in easy reach and designed to be pleasant and entertaining. There are always things going on…and always people you might want to do them with. In our ordinary lives, we seldom go to theaters or jazz clubs. But on the Queen Mary II, that is what people do…so we did it too. We took a class on ‘jive’ dancing, for example, with about thirty other over-60 couples. A sight to see!

But now we are back at home…back in the real world…and watching the reaction to Trump’s tariffs. Trump is a ‘Big Man,’ Barnum and Bailey, Smoot and Hawley all in one. And like Big Men everywhere, he is prone to big mistakes. USA Today: "Donald Trump on Sunday night… ‘Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.’ Trump's remarks came as U.S. stock futures tumbled Sunday evening, led by the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures dropping about 1,000 points, pointing to another bruising day ahead on Wall Street Monday."

As near as we can figure, Donald Trump has just stumbled into the second big blunder of his career. His ‘medicine’ is more like trepanation than penicillin. Fortune: "Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers…" “Never before has an hour of Presidential rhetoric cost so many people so much. Markets continue to move after my previous tweet. The best estimate of the loss from tariff policy is now closer to $30 trillion or $300,000 per family of four,” he wrote in a post on X.

“This action has taken $3 trillion [$6 trillion at the close on Friday] off the stock market as a consequence of an hour of rhetoric. The stock market reflects only part of the economy. So if you took the cumulative loss, extrapolated from the stock market, it's closer to $30 trillion. That's more damage than any economic policy pursued by any president in the last—probably in American history,” he said."

Stephen Miller was on TV on Friday, trying to deflect attention from the big sell-off on Wall Street. “These countries have been ripping us off for years…decades,” came the now-familiar war cry.

When a Bangladeshi works in a sweatshop and makes a pair of pants, the price in the US might be $50. A similar American-made pants may be $100. Is the Bangladeshi ripping us off…by working for less…and saving the US consumer $50? Is the Bangladesh government ripping us off by letting him do it? And if Bangladesh foolishly tries to protect its auto industry with a 50% tariff on Cadillacs…is that a reason to make Americans pay more for their pants? And cut the poor Bangladeshi tailor off from his income?

Foreigners do not buy many US-made Escalades. But it is not because of tariffs. It’s because they are designed for America’s wide-open spaces and low fuel prices…not for the narrow streets of Italy or the teeming neighborhoods of Bangladesh. And how many Americans want to stitch shirts for a dollar fifty an hour?

All over the world goods trade hands - an amount over $33 trillion in 2024 - with an average tariff rate of about 2%. Paper cups, T-shirts, luxury autos, oil, cement - all the things you see on Southampton’s docks. Then along comes Donald Trump, with another emergency, imposing tariffs of 10% to as much as 49%. What sort of deep, careful research is the White House doing to discover these numbers? Their origin was one of the most remarkable things to emerge over the weekend.

Our friend David Stockman put AI on the case. And it turns out that the Trump administration has just upended generations of US ‘free trade’ policy…and trillions of dollars’ worth of trade…on the basis of comically silly ‘third grade arithmetic.’

The feds take the difference between exports and imports as proof of unfair trade. Then, to right the wrong, they look at the gross percentage imbalance (a deficit for the US). Bangladesh, for example, may sell its cheap clothing to the US…but prefer to buy its cars from Germany and its hand wipes from China. This leaves it with a big trade surplus with the US, equal to approximately 50% of total trade volume. Then - for some reason unknown to economists or ethicists, ithe Trump team aims to right only half the wrong - they give Bangladesh a tariff of 24%.

So, it turns out that tariffs may have nothing to do with drugs…and nothing to do with ‘unfair’ trade, either. They are based on trade volumes. If a country successfully exports to the US, giving Americans cheaper, better products, Trump punishes them with tariffs… which American consumers have to pay. Foreign Affairs gives us the bottom line: "It is possible that the White House will lower some of its rates, especially as countries lobby for exemptions. But the reality is that the age of free trade is unlikely to come back. Instead, any haggling between Trump and other states will shape an emerging economic system defined by protectionism, tensions, and transactions. The result will not be more jobs, as Trump has pledged. It will be turbulence for all, and for years to come."

Yes, free trade is over. Now we have Swamp Trade – where politicians, lobbyists, and rich campaign donors manipulate prices. Get ready for it."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Brace For Impact! What's Happening And What Will Happen"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 4/7/25

"Brace For Impact!

What's Happening And What Will Happen"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Full screen recommended.

Market Gains, 4/7/25

"IRS Fires 30,000 Workers Today

As Job Market Crashes"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jim Kunstler, "Farewell, Fugazy!"

"Farewell, Fugazy!"

"Ah, the delicious smell of peak fear on Sunday/Monday...

and max NOISE on X." - Raoul Pal

by Jim Kunstler

"That ruckus you hear in the capital markets is the sickening howl of the Fugazy Economy meeting its extinction. Fugazy means fake, unreal, dishonest, misaligned to what societies need to thrive. Fugazy means mis-using the time-value of things that purport to be wealth to multiply fake wealth in the hands of a few at the expense of the many. The pernicious effects of that system are visible all across the ruined landscape of our country, a nation of broken cities, failed towns, and a demoralized populace.

Mr. Trump apparently aims to convert the expiring Fugazy economy into a production economy - yikes! - based on making things of value, and perhaps more importantly, of people at all social levels having meaningful roles in the making and moving of things. The Trump tariffs are the first big step in a process that is already generating a whole lot of friction, heat, and ferment. The aim of the tariffs is straightforward: the end of a trade regime that punishes and cripples American production.

The response so far is heartening. Many other countries suddenly seek new trade arrangements with the USA, correctly sensing that Mr. Trump means bidness. (This ain’t no Mud Club...this ain’t no foolin’ around...) It’s even possible that these readjustments will happen so swiftly that the tariff differentials will be a wash before summer, and everybody will be, at least, on a firm footing, knowing what the clear new rules say. This new disposition of things required forceful incentives to change entrenched, harmful practices.

Another angle on this process is the dynamic known as import-replacement. It means exactly what it sounds like: where you used to get stuff from other lands, you now make it here. It should be obvious that this can’t be accomplished overnight. But the question is: okay, when are you going to start? Part of the answer is: we can’t afford to put it off any longer. There’s an awful lot of stuff, from machine tools to pharmaceuticals to military equipment that we had better start making again - or else slide into collapse, perhaps even slavery to other powers.

That process starts with deploying real capital - as opposed to Fugazy capital - to re-start businesses and industries. That will take money away from hedge funds and other rackets that exist to play games with evermore abstract layers of things that only pretend to represent money. As that occurs, a lot of pretend money will vanish. Don’t be too shocked by this. That’s what happens when a society bends back toward reality: you start sorting out the real money from the fake money. That’s why the price of gold keeps marching up.

I sense that Mr. Trump and his colleagues knew full-well that the tariff play would rattle the markets badly, that these “corrections” are an unavoidable consequence, and are better gotten-over as quickly as possible. What else would you expect in a system that has dedicated itself for decades to mis-pricing the value of just about everything? The snap-back is sure to be harsh.

The psychopathocracy that drives the Global Left lost more traction last week in its quest to keep all of its old rackets running. Their foot-soldiers in the USA have been defunded effectively by Mr. Musk’s DOGE, starting with the immense network of rackets that were run around the USAID program. The Woke NGOs are no more and the fat paychecks are no longer going out to the nose-ring-for-lunch-bunch who came to infest the DC Beltway - and their satellite offices in Democratic Party controlled cities. Hence, the feeble turn-outs in last weekend’s street actions.

The Baby Boomers have gone especially psychotic. That’s why there are so many old folks waving those Soros-made placards in the astroturfed crowds of the “Hands-off” protests. After an eighty-year run of the most mind-blowing comfort and convenience enjoyed by any generation in world history, America’s Boomers stare into the abyss of their fading Fugazy fortunes as their stock portfolios tank. Kind of too bad. Maybe you shouldn’t have gone along for the ride. Maybe you should have cared for your country a bit more.

Here’s your poster-boy for that: the retarded slob rock-and-roller Neil Young, performing in support of the US Intel blob, the Covid-19 vaccine campaign, the degenerate Democratic party, Senator Adam Schiff, and BlackRock. Neil Young’s estimated net worth is about $200-million. He could lose ninety percent of that and still live a life of luxury. In 2022, he inveighed against Covid vaccine “misinformation” and promoted the shots. Guess, what? You were dead wrong about that, Neil, and now a lot of people are dead and dying because of those vaccines. He has many compadres in showbiz who took the same position against reality.

The time is not far-off when they will be revealed as disgraceful tools - Public vaxx champions such as Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Oprah Winfrey, Howard Stern, Ryan Reynolds, Lady Gaga...the list is long and discouraging. Meanwhile, they’re all out there rallying the Woke troops against the Golden Golem of Greatness as the Left’s leaky lifeboat goes down, gurgle, gurgle. In the process, they’ve destroyed Hollywood, rock and roll, and comedy. The country will recover from that, too. You’ll have plenty of opportunity to laugh at them in the years to come as the obituaries roll in.

Meanwhile, brace and rejoice! Great changes are set in motion. Roll with the turbulence. You’ll come out the other end, stronger, wiser, steadier, perhaps even happier. And, mark ye, the silence emanating from the DOJ and the FBI these budding spring days. The New York Times is nervous as all git-out."

https://www.kunstler.com/

"Economic Market Snapshot 4/7/25"

"Economic Market Snapshot 4/7/25"

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Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...

Only the consequences are real - to you!

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"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it.

You and I are not in the Big Club."

- George Carlin

Market Data Center, Live Updates:

- https://www.marketwatch.com/market-data

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- https://www.asktraders.com/analysis/

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Comprehensive, essential truth.

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

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Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding , safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."

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- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

Job cuts and much more.

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- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

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- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

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- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

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- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

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Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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"The more I see of the monied classes,

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

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Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...

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And now... The End Game...

"Alert! Trading Halted, Historic WW3 Global Market Crash! Iran War Plans In Final Phase!"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 4/7/25

"Alert! Trading Halted, Historic WW3 Global Market Crash!

Iran War Plans In Final Phase!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Sunday, April 6, 2025

"It's Over. The Collapse is Here, It's About to Get Violent"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 4/6/25

"It's Over.

The Collapse is Here, It's About to Get Violent"

Collapse is no longer a future prospect. It's happening now.

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"This Is A National Emergency, Carnage Unleashed On US Stocks!"

Jeremiah Babe, 4/6/25

"This Is A National Emergency,

Carnage Unleashed On US Stocks!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Full screen recommended.

Michael Bordenaro, 4/6/25

"Job Losses Explode As Tariffs Rip Through The Economy"

In March 2025, we saw more job losses in one month been any other month since the pandemic and if you exclude the pandemic, it is the worst month in over a decade since a great financial crisis. The economy is heading into a major recession that is likely only to get worse from here. What's more is President Trump looks to be actually putting the United States into a recession on purpose likely in order to get the Fed to cut interest rates.

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Alan Parsons Project, "Old and Wise"; Moody Blues, "The Day We Meet Again"

Full screen recommended.

Alan Parsons Project, "Old and Wise"

Full screen recommended.

Moody Blues, "The Day We Meet Again"

"A Look to the Heavens: "From Stardust to Sapiens"

"From Stardust to Sapiens: A Stunning Serenade to

Our Cosmic Origins and Our Ongoing Self-Creation"

By Maria Popova

"We were never promised any of it - this world of cottonwoods and clouds - when the Big Bang set the possible in motion. And yet here we are, atoms with consciousness, each of us a living improbability forged of chaos and dead stars. Children of chance, we have made ourselves into what we are - creatures who can see a universe of beauty in the feather of a bird and can turn a blind eye to each other’s suffering, creatures capable of the Benedictus and the bomb. Creatures who hope.

A generation after Maya Angelou held up a cosmic mirror to humanity with “A Brave and Startling Truth,” Pattiann Rogers - who writes with uncommon virtuosity about the intersection of the cosmic and the human, and whose poems have therefore been a frequent presence in "The Universe in Verse" - offers a poignant cosmogony of our self-creation in the stunning final poem of her book "Flickering" (public library).

"Homo Sapiens: Creating Themselves"

by Pattiann Rogers, Read by Maria Popova

"Formed in the black-light center of a star-circling

galaxy; formed in whirlpool images of froth

and flume and fulcrum; in the center image of herring

circling like pieces of silver swirling fast, a shoaling

circle of deception; in the whirlpool perfume of sex

in the deepest curve of a lily’s soft corolla. Created

within the images of the creator’s creation.

Born with the same grimacing wrench of a tree-covered

cliff split wide suddenly by lightning and opened

to thundering clouds of hail and rain.

Cured in the summer sun as if in a potter’s oven,

polished like a stone rolled by a river, emboldened

by the image of the expanse beyond earth’s horizon,

inside and outside a circumference in the image

of freedom.

Given the image of starlight clusters steadily silent

above a hillside-silence of fallen snow… let there be sleep.

II.

Inheriting from the earth’s scrambling minions,

images of thorn and bur, fang and claw, stealth,

deceit, poison, camouflage, blade, and blood…

let there be suffering, let there be survival.

Shaped by the image of the onset and unstoppable

devouring eclipse of the sun, the tempestuous, ecliptic

eating of the moon, the volcanic explosions of burning

rocks and fiery hail of ashes to death… let there be

terror and tears. Let there be pity.

Created in the image of fear inside a crawfish

skittering backward through a freshwater stream

with all eight appendages in perfect coordination,

both pincers held high, backing into safety beneath

a fallen leaf refuge… let there be home.

III.

Made in the image of the moon, where else

would the name of ivory rock craters shine

except in our eyes… let there be language.

Displayed in the image of the rotting seed

on the same stem with the swelling blossom…

let there be hope.

Homo sapiens creating themselves after the manner

and image of the creator’s ongoing creation — slowly,

eventual, alert and imagined, composing, dissembling,

until the right chord sounds from one brave strum

of the right strings reverberating, fading away

like evening… let there be pathos, let there be

compassion, forbearance, forgiveness. Let there be

weightless beauty.

Of earth and sky, Homo sapiens creating themselves,

following the mode and model of the creator’s creation,

particle by particle, quest by quest, witness by witness,

even though the unknown far away and the unknown

nearby be seen and not seen… let there be goodwill

and accounting, let there be praise resounding."

Complement with astronomer-poet Rebecca Elson’s ode to dark matter and the mystery of being, “Let There Always Be Light,” non-speaking autistic poet Hannah Emerson’s astonishing “Center of the Universe,” and Jane Hirshfield’s “To Be a Person,” then revisit Pattiann Rogers’s harmonic of the human and cosmic perspectives, read by David Byrne and illustrated by Maira Kalman."

- https://www.themarginalian.org/

Free Download: Henry Miller, "Tropic Of Cancer"

“The monstrous thing is not that men have created roses out of this dung heap, but that, for some reason or other, they should want roses. For some reason or other man looks for the miracle, and to accomplish it he will wade through blood. He will debauch himself with ideas, he will reduce himself to a shadow if for only one second of his life he can close his eyes to the hideousness of reality. Everything is endured – disgrace, humiliation, poverty, war, crime, ennui – in the belief that overnight something will occur, a miracle, which will render life tolerable. And all the while a meter is running inside and there is no hand that can reach in there and shut it off.

All the while someone is eating the bread of life and drinking the wine, some dirty fat cockroach of a priest who hides away in the cellar guzzling it, while up above in the light of the street a phantom host touches the lips and the blood is pale as water. And out of the endless torment and misery no miracle comes forth, no microscopic vestige of relief. Only ideas, pale, attenuated ideas which have to be fattened by slaughter; ideas which come forth like bile, like the guts of a pig when the carcass is ripped open.

Somehow the realization that nothing was to be hoped for had a salutary effect upon me. For weeks and months, for years, in fact, all my life I had been looking forward to something happening, some intrinsic event that would alter my life, and now suddenly, inspired by the absolute hopelessness of everything, I felt relieved, felt as though a great burden had been lifted from my shoulders. At dawn I parted company with the young Hindu, after touching him for a few francs, enough for a room. Walking toward Montparnasse I decided to let myself drift with the tide, to make not the least resistance to fate, no matter in what form it presented itself. Nothing that had happened to me thus far had been sufficient to destroy me; nothing had been destroyed except my illusions. I myself was intact. The world was intact. Tomorrow there might be a revolution, a plague, an earthquake; tomorrow there might not be left a single soul to whom one could turn for sympathy, for aid, for faith. It seemed to me that the great calamity had already manifested itself, that I could be no more truly alone than at this very moment. I made up my mind that I would hold on to nothing, that I would expect nothing, that henceforth I would live as an animal, a beast of prey, a rover, a plunderer. Even if war were declared, and it were my lot to go, I would grab the bayonet and plunge it, plunge it up to the hilt. And if rape were the order of the day then rape I would, and with a vengeance.

At this very moment, in the quiet dawn of a new day, was not the earth giddy with crime and distress? Had one single element of man’s nature been altered, vitally, fundamentally altered, by the incessant march of history? By what he calls the better part of his nature, man has been betrayed, that is all. At the extreme limits of his spiritual being man finds himself again naked as a savage. When he finds God, as it were, he has been picked clean: he is a skeleton. One must burrow into life again in order to put on flesh. The word must become flesh; the soul thirsts. On whatever crumb my eye fastens, I will pounce and devour. If to live is the paramount thing, then I will live, even if I must become a cannibal. Heretofore I have been trying to save my precious hide, trying to preserve the few pieces of meat that hid my bones. I am done with that. I have reached the limits of endurance. My back is to the wall; I can retreat no further. As far as history goes I am dead. If there is something beyond I shall have to bounce back. I have found God, but he is insufficient. I am only spiritually dead. Physically I am alive. Morally I am free. The world which I have departed is a menagerie. The dawn is breaking on a new world, a jungle world in which the lean spirits roam with sharp claws. If I am a hyena I am a lean and hungry one: I go forth to fatten myself.”

- Henry Miller, "Tropic of Cancer"

Freely download "Tropic of Cancer", by Henry Miller, here:

- https://epdf.pub/tropic-of-cancer

“It’s Extraordinary..."

“It’s extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut, with dull ears, with dormant thoughts. Perhaps it’s just as well; and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome.”

– Joseph Conrad, “Lord Jim”