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Saturday, April 12, 2025

"What The World Needs Now"

"In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. You can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization and filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love. What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black."
- Robert F. Kennedy, on the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Full screen recommended.
"What The World Needs Now"
by Tom Clay
"Detroit DJ brought this out early in 1973 and it was seen as
a celebration of the message behind that spread
by John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy."

"How It Really Is"

 

"I Can Choose..."

“Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself.”
- Walter Anderson

"What's He To Do Then?"

"You've seed how things goes in the world o' men. You've knowed men to be low-down and mean. You've seed ol' Death at his tricks... Ever' man wants life to be a fine thing, and a easy. 'Tis fine, boy, powerful fine, but 'tain't easy. Life knocks a man down and he gits up and it knocks him down agin. I've been uneasy all my life... I've wanted life to be easy for you. Easier'n 'twas for me. A man's heart aches, seein' his young uns face the world. Knowin' they got to get their guts tore out, the way his was tore. I wanted to spare you, long as I could. I wanted you to frolic with your yearlin'. I knowed the lonesomeness he eased for you. But ever' man's lonesome. What's he to do then? What's he to do when he gits knocked down? Why, take it for his share and go on.”
- Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
"When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' 
I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'"
- Sydney J. Harris

"A Wave Of Panic Buying Has Suddenly Erupted At Retailers All Over America"

"A Wave Of Panic Buying Has Suddenly
Erupted At Retailers All Over America"
by Michael Snyder

"Do you remember the panic buying that we witnessed during the early days of the pandemic? It’s back, and I have a feeling that it is only going to intensify in the days ahead. As more Americans begin to realize that products made in China will soon more than double in price and that some may no longer be available at all, there will be a feverish rush to purchase Chinese-made goods. Ironically, this may actually give a short-term boost to the U.S. economy, and the economic numbers for the first half of this year may end up looking better than they otherwise would have.

Before I get too deep into this article, there are a couple of things that I want to clarify. First of all, I do not think that the U.S. should have ever begun trading with communist China at all, because communist China has always been an incredibly evil regime. Secondly, it was a catastrophic error for the U.S. to become so deeply dependent on imports from China. This is something that I have been writing about for years. Our stores are now teeming with products that were made in China, and thousands of our supply chains simply cannot function without equipment, parts or products that come from China.

But our leaders refused to listen to those of us that were sounding the alarm, and now we have a real mess on our hands. Because we have become so deeply dependent on China, the trade war that has now begun is really going to hurt, and everyone should be able to see that.

On Thursday, the White House confirmed that the total tariff rate on Chinese imports has now risen to 145 percent…"The U.S. tariff rate on Chinese imports now effectively totals 145%, a White House official confirmed to CNBC. Trump’s latest executive order hikes tariffs on Beijing to 125% from 84%. But that comes on top of a 20% fentanyl-related tariff that Trump previously imposed on China."

One economist is warning that high tariff rates on both sides will lead to “a hard decoupling”, and he says that it would be “really hard to overstate the expected shocks this is going to have”…“This is probably the strongest indication we’ve seen pushing towards a hard decoupling,” said Nick Marro, principal economist for Asia at the Economist Intelligence Unit, referring to an outcome where the two economies have virtually no trade or mutual investment. “It’s really hard to overstate the expected shocks this is going to have, not just to the Chinese economy itself, but also to the entire global trading landscape,” as well as on the US, he said."

I fully agree with his assessment. What we are witnessing is going to cause a tremendous amount of disruption. Apparently lots of other people see things the same way, because a wave of panic buying has now started…"Across the country, people have been rushing to stores or going online to buy everything from iPhones to coffee to designer bags and jewelry in anticipation of the toll the tariffs will take on their wallets."

If there is something that is made in China that you really need, I would get it now while you still can. One woman that just visited her local Costco said that she has “never seen it so busy”…"Costco was a total nightmare yesterday. I’ve never seen it so busy. I walked out after seeing the lines going down each aisle with no end in sight."

Another woman that lives in New York City admitted to a reporter that her mother is literally “panicking”…“Actually, I already have. I’ve already started stocking up. My mother has a whole stockpile, and she’s panicking. But I told her we’re going to be okay, as we live in New York City,” said Amelia Guilford, a retail worker who was visiting her mother in the city."

The price hikes that we will soon see will be quite a shock to the system, and this will particularly be true for big ticket items. For example, it is being projected that the cost to manufacture an iPhone could go up by hundreds of dollars…"Trump’s new tariffs on Chinese goods mean the cost for Apple to manufacture an iPhone could jump from $580 to $850, according to a report from TechInsights."

In anticipation of the coming price hikes, there was a “full-blown buying spree” at Apple stores over the weekend…"Apple just faced a weekend retail frenzy more typical of iPhone launch day than early April. With the Trump administration floating a 54% tariff on Chinese-made goods including Apple’s flagship devices U.S. consumers rushed into stores, fearing sharp price hikes were imminent. According to reports from multiple locations, sales surged as worried buyers sought to lock in current prices, turning what’s usually a quiet season into a full-blown buying spree."

Many of the parts that go into our new vehicles also come from China, and it is being reported that U.S. auto sales were quite a bit higher than expected last month as people rushed to purchase new vehicles before the tariffs were implemented…"US auto sales for March came in higher than Deutsche Bank analysts expected, the bank said in a Friday report, rising from February levels. That might indicate “panic buying” as Americans sought to get ahead of the tariffs on foreign-made vehicles that took effect last week.

The analysts said they had expected higher numbers due to a pre-tariff pull-forward. But “this impact appears far greater than we anticipated,” the report read. Deutsche Bank expected auto sales to be strong through June, then weaken in the back half of the year."

Unless the U.S. and China can reach some sort of an agreement, and that appears very unlikely at this stage, our standard of living is about to change dramatically.

According to CNBC, approximately 70 percent of the goods sold on Amazon come from China…"Many sellers on Amazon count on China for manufacturing and assembly due to lower costs and established infrastructure – up to 70% of goods on Amazon come from China, according to Wedbush Securities. With nearly all imports from China being taxed a staggering 145% under the latest tariffs, Amazon sellers are having to decide whether to raise prices or absorb the vastly increased cost of importing their goods.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on Thursday told CNBC that its vast network of third-party sellers will likely “pass the cost on” to consumers. He added that Amazon has done some “strategic forward inventory buys” and looked to renegotiate terms on some purchase orders to keep prices low."

Reuters spoke to five Amazon sellers in China. Three of them said that they would be raising prices, and two of them said that they would be leaving the U.S. market completely…"Of the five sellers who spoke to Reuters, three said they would look to raise prices for their exports to the U.S., while two planned to leave the market entirely. Dave Fong, whose products range from schoolbags to Bluetooth speakers, said on Thursday he has raised prices in the U.S. by up to 30% and would let inventory levels fall and lower spending on Amazon advertising fees, which once took up 40% of his U.S. revenue. “For us and anyone else, you can’t rely on the U.S. market, that’s quite clear,” Fong said. “We have to reduce investment, and put more resources into regions like Europe, Canada, Mexico and the rest of the world.”

If this trade war persists, it will be an even bigger economic shock than the pandemic was. But to me, there is potentially an even bigger concern. The threat of economic sanctions has always been one of the barriers that has made China think twice about invading Taiwan. But now that our two economies are rapidly decoupling anyway, the Chinese may come to the conclusion that this is actually a perfect time to make a move on Taiwan. This crisis with China is a far bigger deal than most people realize, and it could have some very serious unintended consequences."

Adventures With Danno, "Shopping The Snacks At Sam's Club"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 4/12/25
"Shopping The Snacks At Sam's Club"
Comments here:

"Mass Layoffs, Empty Offices, and Car Sales Collapse - It’s All Falling Apart"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 4/12/25
"Mass Layoffs, Empty Offices, and 
Car Sales Collapse - It’s All Falling Apart"
"Is the U.S. economy really on the edge of collapse? In today’s video, I’m diving into why people are more worried now than ever. From the shaky state of commercial real estate with office buildings selling at massive discounts to skyrocketing bankruptcies among major corporations, we’re breaking it all down. Plus, we’re talking about tariffs, their impact on stores like Five Below, and how consumer sentiment is at an all-time low. Let’s not forget the insane predictions about car sales and why gold and silver could be the safest bets right now. If you’re wondering how to navigate these uncertain times, I’m sharing tips on financial planning, making smart purchases, and even how to start a business in this economic downturn. Trust me, there’s hope - if you’re ready to act!"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Market Gains, AM 4/12/25
"Amazon Fires 50,000 Workers 
As Tech Companies Collapse"
Comments here:

Friday, April 11, 2025

"Alert! Iran War TBD In 24 Hours! No More Ships From China! UK Troops Into West Ukraine!"

Canadian Prepper, 4/11/25
"Alert! Iran War TBD In 24 Hours! 
No More Ships From China! UK Troops Into West Ukraine!"
Comments here:

"You Should Be Very Worried As Markets Party And A Bond Crisis Lurks In The Shadows"

Jeremiah Babe, 4/11/25
"You Should Be Very Worried As Markets Party 
And A Bond Crisis Lurks In The Shadows"
Comments here:

"I’m 40 Years Old and My Parents Still Pay My Bills"

Full screen recommended.
Michael Bordenaro, 4/11/25
"I’m 40 Years Old and My Parents Still Pay My Bills"
"About 47% of parents right now are paying their adult children's bills things like their health insurance their cell phone their rent their food cost pretty much everything that people need and cost a good amount of money. And the worst part is they are putting off and even foregoing their own retirement savings in order to subsidize their kids lifestyle. This is a bad thing for both parents and children and will have devastating effects for decades to come. Do you think we have a bad economy now? Just wait until we have a bunch of 50 or 60-year-olds that don't know how to support themselves."
Comments here:

Dan, I Allegedly, "I Can’t Afford My Home"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 4/11/25
"I Can’t Afford My Home"
"Homeownership is quickly becoming an impossible dream for so many, and today we’re breaking down why this is happening. From skyrocketing property taxes and insurance rates to maintenance costs and the rising value of renting, it’s clear the current housing market is pushing people to their limits. I'll also dive into shocking examples like Missouri's storm damage crisis, California's insane real estate taxes, and the struggles with insurance companies and utility costs. It’s no wonder many are opting out of buying altogether. On top of that, we’re seeing banks release inventory slowly, but experts predict a decline in real estate prices. Is this the correction we’ve been waiting for, or just more chaos? Let me know your thoughts—can YOU still afford to own a home?"
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: Neil H, "Mystic Journey"

Neil H, "Mystic Journey"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“This pretty, open cluster of stars, M34, is about the size of the Full Moon on the sky. Easy to appreciate in small telescopes, it lies some 1,800 light-years away in the constellation Perseus. At that distance, M34 physically spans about 15 light-years. Formed at the same time from the same cloud of dust and gas, all the stars of M34 are about 200 million years young.
But like any open star cluster orbiting in the plane of our galaxy, M34 will eventually disperse as it experiences gravitational tides and encounters with the Milky Way's interstellar clouds and other stars. Over four billion years ago, our own Sun was likely formed in a similar open star cluster.”

"The Duty..."

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you 
damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, 
the duty to take the consequences."
- P. J. O'Rourke

Judge Napolitano, "INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern: Weekly Wrap"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 4/11/25
"INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern: Weekly Wrap"
Comments here:

"What Would Josey Wales Do?"

“To hell with them fellas. Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms.”
– Josey Wales

"What Would Josey Wales Do?"
by Jim Quinn

Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you’re not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. ‘Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win. That’s just the way it is. – Josey Wales

"As our political, economic, civic, and social structures continue to degrade, dissolve, and disintegrate before our very eyes, it is easy to become apathetic and surrender to hopelessness. There are relentless powerful forces actively trying to destroy the fabric of our society and force the masses into economic servitude while caged in an electronic gulag, controlled by an oligarchy of evil totalitarian minded billionaires and their lackeys in key governmental, political, banking, military, media, and corporate positions of power. We are in the same situation as Josey Wales in Clint Eastwood’s epic 1976 film – "The Outlaw Josey Wales."


The film tells the story of Josey Wales, a Missouri farmer, just trying to live his life in peace without interference from the government, uninterested in the violent Civil War between two monolithic forces fighting for their created causes. His wife and son are brutally murdered by Union Redleg militants, led by the despicable Captain Terrill, while he was away from his homestead. After burying his family, his mind naturally turns towards seeking revenge against the perpetrators, and he begins to practice shooting. He joins a group of pro-Confederate bushwackers who become the scourge of Union forces until the war’s conclusion.

At the conclusion of the war, Josey’s friend and superior, Captain Fletcher, persuades the guerrillas to surrender, having been promised by Senator Lane that they will be granted amnesty if they hand over their weapons. Josey refuses to surrender because he knows you can never trust the government or the politicians who make promises they never keep. They have been pissing down our backs since the last Civil War, while telling us it’s just raining, so everyone can relate to this scene in the movie.

Senator: "The war’s over. Our side won the war. Now we must busy ourselves winning the peace. And Fletcher, there’s an old saying: To the victors belong the spoils."
Fletcher: "There’s another old saying, Senator: Don’t piss down my back and tell me it’s raining."


Wales having refused to surrender, along with a young guerrilla named Jamie, are the only survivors when Terrill’s Redlegs massacre the surrendering men. Wales intervenes and wipes out many of the Redlegs with a Gatling gun before fleeing with Jamie, who dies from a bullet wound sustained in the massacre after helping Josey kill two pursuing bounty hunters.


Fletcher learns the lesson that you can never trust the government, or the lackeys carrying out their mandates. They will lie and murder to accomplish their goals. Anyone who does not bow to their authority will be treated as an outlaw, with no acquiescence to the Constitution, decency, or simple human dignity. Once decent men are pushed too far, they will push back in a more violent manner than the authorities will expect. Violence begets violence, and will create more Josey Wales type characters who will not surrender or ever bow down to governmental authority.

Fletcher: "Damn you, Senator. You promised me those men would be decently treated."
Senator Lane: They were decently treated. They were decently fed and then they were decently shot. Those men are common outlaws, nothing more."

The remainder of the movie entails Union soldiers and bounty hunters trying to track and kill Josey, while he accumulates a rag-tag group of companions, including Indians, foul mouthed grannies, and a slew of other settlers trying to live their lives unhindered by the government. Clint Eastwood’s character maintains a stoic meanness throughout the film towards his government enabled enemies, but has empathy and kindheartedness towards the downtrodden people who represent the vast majority of citizens in this country.


I found it interesting the film was based on the novel "Gone to Texas," written with a virulent anti-government slant by a former George Wallace speechwriter. When the script writer/director tried to tone down the anti-government aspects, Eastwood told him no and eventually fired him, taking over as director for the remainder of the film. Eastwood’s refusal to bow to Hollywood pressure and soften the dialogue and story line is a tribute to his resolute dislike and mistrust of governmental authorities. He has essentially gone his own way and made his films his way, never letting the Hollywood elite dictate his path.

Released in 1976 when anti-war sentiment was at its peak, following the government created Vietnam war debacle, which slaughtered over 50,000 American boys, Eastwood later referred to it as an anti-war film. And we all know it is governments and those Deep State operatives who control the levers of power, and start wars to increase their wealth, power and control. War never ends because it is extremely profitable for those waging it, while the youth doing the fighting are just cannon fodder for corporate interests. Eastwood was dead on, as we have waged wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, and now Ukraine and Palestine, benefiting the military industrial complex at the expense of you and me.

“As for Josey Wales, I saw the parallels to the modern day at that time. Everybody gets tired of it, but it never ends. A war is a horrible thing.” – Clint Eastwood


Eastwood equates the plight of the Confederacy with the plight of the American Indian, as both groups were bullied, bloodied and crushed under the weight of the Federal government, which began its unfettered growth during the Civil War and has now reached its zenith of incompetence, arrogance, lawlessness, and hatred towards the citizens it is supposed to serve. Most people just want to be left alone, like Josey Wales, to live their lives in peace and harmony with their fellow community members. But the federal government makes that impossible, with their rules, regulations, taxes, fees, and enforcement thugs harassing the public on a daily basis.

In Eastwood’s movie they murder his family, murder his comrades, and are hell-bent on murdering him. The song remains the same. Our government murdered people minding their own business at Ruby Ridge. They murdered women and children at Waco. They murdered a rancher at Bundy Ranch. They send young men to war for bankers and corporations. They have been unlawfully imprisoning protestors in dungeons for a fake insurrection fomented and initiated by government agents. They rigged the presidential election and have convicted the leading political candidate of fake crimes he did not commit in order to maintain control over the political system.

The list could go on for pages, as the totalitarian methods and abuse of power against the citizens of this country accelerate at a breakneck pace. Fear of seeing their wealth and power slip away has created an almost psychotic spasm of unhindered chaotic flailing about, in an ultimately fruitless effort to retain control. They are fearful of the masses wakening from their technology induced slumber and realizing the enemy is not the groups they have been programmed to hate, but the very government pulling the strings of this clownshow.

The government needs a sedated, dumbed down populace who fear what they are told to fear and obey the instructions of their overlords. But the covid scamdemic and continuing death of loved ones from the toxic jabs, has opened the eyes of millions. The debt death spiral induced by Biden’s handlers, supercharged by the coordinated and financed invasion of our southern border by third world mutts, and resulting in raging inflation for average American families, has angered and infuriated the masses. We are approaching our moment of truth.

The government is in the midst of creating millions of vengeful Josey Wales characters. As political chaos increases in the coming months, the threat of global conflagration escalates and the economic plight of the masses deteriorates, revenge against politicians, government drones, and the globalist financial elite for creating this madness will expand rapidly. We know what Josey Wales would do. The question is what will we do.


Eastwood made his final Western masterpiece, sixteen years after Josey Wales, with the release of the Academy Award winning "Unforgiven." He paid tribute to Josey Wales in the climactic scene in the saloon when confronting Little Bill. In The Outlaw Josey Wales Grandma Sarah’s initial reaction to meeting Josey Wales was: “This Mr. Wales is a cold-blooded killer. He’s from Missouri, where they’re all known to be killers of innocent men, women and children.”

He closes the loop with Will Munny, out of Missouri, with the same false accusation that he killed women and children, as he also seeks retribution on government authoritarians who murdered an innocent man. Both Josey Wales and Will Munny tried to live out their lives as peaceful farmers, but were forced to revert to violence because the government would not allow them to live in peace.

Little Bill Daggett : “You’d be William Munny out of Missouri. Killer of women and children.”
Will Munny : “That’s right. I’ve killed women and children. I’ve killed just about everything that walks or crawled at one time or another. And I’m here to kill you, Little Bill, for what you did to Ned.”

Eastwood’s first and last epic Westerns both examined the harsh reality of violence and retribution as the logical consequence for crimes committed against innocent people just trying to lives their lives. His meditations on the concepts of age, repute, courage, and the cloudy definition of heroism, make for far deeper and complex examinations of the old West than other western films. Eastwood distinguishes between the brutal reality of a world controlled and run by tyrannical psychopaths acting as government agents, and people living peacefully, with no government intervention.

Eastwood’s ideal vision of America as a pluralist society of individualists of all races and backgrounds who put aside the past and their difference to live in harmony, contrasts with the reality of a society controlled and manipulated by those referred to as the “invisible government” by Edward Bernays. The ruling elite do not want people to live peaceably in a self reliant manner. The climactic scene in Outlaw Josey Wales between Josey Wales and Ten Bears captures the nature of our world and the difference between governments and the people.


Josie Wales : “I came here to die with you. Or to live with you. Dying ain’t so hard for men like you and me. It’s living that’s hard when all you’ve ever cared about has been butchered or raped. Governments don’t live together – people live together. With governments, you don’t always get a fair word or a fair fight. Well, I’ve come here to give you either one or get either one from you. I came here like this so you’ll know my word of death is true, and my word of life is then true. The bear lives here, the wolf, the antelope, the Comanche. And so will we. Now we’ll only hunt what we need to live on, same as the Comanche does. And every spring, when the grass turns green, and the Comanche moves north, you can rest here in peace, butcher some of our cattle, and jerk beef for the journey. The sign of the Comanche, that will be on our lodge. That’s my word of life.”

Ten Bears : “It’s sad that governments are chiefed by the double tongues. There is iron in your words of death for all Comanche to see, and so there is iron in your words of life. No signed paper can hold the iron. It must come from men. The words of Ten Bears carries the same iron of life and death. It is good that warriors such as we meet in the struggle of life… or death. It shall be life.”

I had previously used Josey Wales as the basis for Part Four of my five part series based on Clint Eastwood movies in 2012, documenting how the Federal Reserve, under the control of the Wall Street banking cabal, had destroyed the middle class and set in motion the ultimate destruction of the American economic system. Here we are twelve years later and that destruction is approaching its climax. As the powers that be are flailing about in a final destructive apocalyptic spasm of hate, greed, and war, the average American needs to channel their inner Josey Wales.

We can either give up and allow those running this shitshow for their own benefit to enslave us in perpetual debt, culling us with their toxic “vaccines”, making us eat meatless meat and bugs, forcing us into their digital currencies, 15 minute cities (aka electronic gulags), electric cars, and social credit system, or we can get plumb, mad-dog mean and man up. In order to reverse our totalitarian spiral, being executed by powerful mega-wealthy men and their highly compensated double tongued lackey politicians, bankers, media moguls, and corporate chiefs, those 300 million guns will need to be put to use.

If we want to live together peacefully, unhindered by an overbearing, corrupt government behemoth, controlled by evil men with evil intentions, then we will have to fight. That’s just the way it is. Ask yourself, “What would Josey Wales do?”, and act accordingly."
Huge hat tip to Jim Quinn and 
The Burning Platform for this material!

"Twilight of the Psychopaths"

"Twilight of the Psychopaths"
by Dr. Kevin Barrett

"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it." - John Lennon

"When Gandhi was asked his opinion of Western civilization he said it would be a good idea. But that oft-cited quote is misleading, assuming as it does that civilization is an unmitigated blessing. Civilized people, we are told, live peacefully and cooperatively with their fellows, sharing the necessary labour in order to obtain the leisure to develop arts and sciences. And while that would be a good idea, it is not a good description of what has been going on in the so-called advanced cultures during the past 8,000 years. Civilization, as we know it, is largely the creation of psychopaths. All civilizations, our own included, have been based on slavery and "warfare." Incidentally, the latter term is a euphemism for mass murder.

Psychopaths have played a disproportionate role in the development of civilization, because they are hard-wired to lie, kill, injure, and generally inflict great suffering on other humans without feeling any remorse. The inventor of civilization - the first tribal chieftain who successfully brainwashed an army of controlled mass murderers- was almost certainly a genetic psychopath. Since that momentous discovery, psychopaths have enjoyed a significant advantage over non- psychopaths in the struggle for power in civilizational hierarchies - especially military hierarchies. Military institutions are tailor-made for psychopathic killers. The 5% or so of human males who feel no remorse about killing their fellow human beings make the best soldiers. And the 95% who are extremely reluctant to kill make terrible soldiers - unless they are brainwashed with highly sophisticated modern techniques that turn them (temporarily it is hoped) into functional psychopaths.

In "On Killing", Lt. Col. Dave Grossman (full text at the link) has re-written military history, to highlight what other histories hide: The fact that military science is less about strategy and technology, than about overcoming the instinctive human reluctance to kill members of our own species. The true "Revolution in Military Affairs" was not Donald Rumsfeld's move to high-tech in 2001, but Brigadier Gen. S.L.A. Marshall's discovery in the 1940s that only 15-20% of World War II soldiers along the line of fire would use their weapons: "Those (80-85%) who did not fire did not run or hide (in many cases they were willing to risk great danger to rescue comrades, get ammunition, or run messages), but they simply would not fire their weapons at the enemy, even when faced with repeated waves of banzai charges."

Marshall's discovery and subsequent research, proved that in all previous wars, a tiny minority of soldiers - the 5% who are natural- born psychopaths, and perhaps a few temporarily-insane imitators- did almost all the killing. Normal men just went through the motions and, if at all possible, refused to take the life of an enemy soldier, even if that meant giving up their own. The implication: Wars are ritualized mass murders by psychopaths of non-psychopaths. (This cannot be good for humanity's genetic endowment!)

The implication, too frightening for even the likes of Marshall and Grossman to fully digest, was that the norms for soldiers' behavior in battle had been set by psychopaths. That meant that psychopaths were in control of the military as an institution. Worse, it meant that psychopaths were in control of society's perception of military affairs. Evidently, psychopaths exercised an enormous amount of power in seemingly sane, normal society.

How could that be? In "Political Ponerology," Andrzej Lobaczewski explains that clinical psychopaths enjoy advantages even in non-violent competitions to climb the ranks of social hierarchies. Because they can lie without remorse (and without the telltale physiological stress that is measured by lie detector tests) psychopaths can always say whatever is necessary to get what they want. In court, for example, psychopaths can tell extreme bald-faced lies in a plausible manner, while their sane opponents are handicapped by an emotional predisposition to remain within hailing distance of the truth. Too often, the judge or jury imagines that the truth must be somewhere in the middle, and then issues decisions that benefit the psychopath. As with judges and juries, so too with those charged with decisions concerning who to promote and who not to promote in corporate, military and governmental hierarchies. The result is that all hierarchies inevitably become top-heavy with psychopaths.

So-called conspiracy theorists, some of whom deserve the pejorative connotation of that much-abused term, often imagine that secret societies of Jews, Jesuits, bankers, communists, Bilderbergers, Muslim extremists, papists, and so on, are secretly controlling history, doing dastardly deeds, and/or threatening to take over the world. As a leading "conspiracy theorist" according to Wikipedia, I feel eminently qualified to offer an alternative conspiracy theory which, like the alternative conspiracy theory of 9/11, is both simpler and more accurate than the prevailing wisdom: The only conspiracy that matters is the conspiracy of the psychopaths against the rest of us.

Behind the apparent insanity of contemporary history, is the actual insanity of psychopaths fighting to preserve their disproportionate power. And as that power grows ever-more-threatened, the psychopaths grow ever-more-desperate. We are witnessing the apotheosis of the overworld- the criminal syndicate or overlapping set of syndicates that lurks above ordinary society and law just as the underworld lurks below it. In 9/11 and the 9/11 wars, we are seeing the final desperate power-grab or "endgame" of brutal, cunning gangs of CIA drug-runners and President-killers; money-laundering international bankers and their hit-men, economic and otherwise; corrupt military contractors and gung-ho generals; corporate predators and their political enablers; brainwashers and mind-rapists euphemistically known as psy-ops experts and PR specialists-in short, the whole sick crew of certifiable psychopaths running our so- called civilization. And they are running scared. It was their terror of losing control that they projected onto the rest of us by blowing up the Twin Towers and inciting temporary psychopathic terror-rage in the American public.

Why does the pathocracy fear it is losing control? Because it is threatened by the spread of knowledge. The greatest fear of any psychopath is of being found out. As George H. W. Bush said to journalist Sarah McClendon, December 1992, "If the people knew what we had done, they would chase us down the street and lynch us." His statement to McClendon should be taken seriously.

Psychopaths go through life knowing that they are completely different from other people. They quickly learn to hide their lack of empathy, while carefully studying others' emotions so as to mimic normalcy while cold-bloodedly manipulating the normals. This manipulation of shame has the added benefit of making psychopathic organizations effectively invisible to normal society. Despite easily available media reports, American voters in 2004 simply refused to see that the two major-party presidential candidates had lain naked in a coffin masturbating in front of older Bonesmen in order to gain admission to "Skull and Bones" and thus become members of the criminal overworld. 

Likewise, many Americans have long refused to see that hawkish elements of the overworld, operating through the CIA, had obviously been the murderers of JFK, MLK, RFK, JFK Jr., Malcolm X, ChÈ, AllendÈ, Wellstone, Lumumba, Aguilera, Diem, and countless other relatively non-psychopathic leaders. They refuse to see the continuing murders of millions of people around the world in what amounts to an American holocaust. They refuse to see the evidence that the psychopaths' guilds running America's most powerful institutions use the most horrific forms of sexualized abuse imaginable to induce multiple-personality-disorder in child victims, then use the resulting mind-control slaves as disposable drug-runners, prostitutes, Manchurian candidates, and even diplomatic envoys. And of course they refuse to see that 9/11 was a transparently obvious inside job, and that their own psychopath-dominated military-intelligence apparatus is behind almost every major terrorist outrage of recent decades.

All of this psychopathic behavior at the top of the social hierarchy is simply too shameful for ordinary people to see, so they avert their gaze, just as wives of husbands who are sexually abusing their children sometimes refuse to see what is happening in plain view. If deep, deep denial were a river in Egypt, American citizens' willful blindness would be more like the Marianas Trench.

Truly, we are witnessing the twilight of the psychopaths. Whether in their death throes they succeed in pulling down the curtain of eternal night on all of us, or whether we resist them and survive to see the dawn of a civilization worthy of the name, is the great decision in which all of us others, however humbly, are now participating.”
About the writer: Dr. Kevin Barrett, co-founder of the Muslim-Christian-Jewish Alliance for 9/11 Truth, has taught English, French, Arabic, American Civilization, Humanities, African Literature, Folklore, and Islam at colleges and universities in the San Francisco Bay area, Paris, and Madison, Wisconsin. Barrett became a 9/11 truth activist in 2004 after reading David Griffin's "The New Pearl Harbor" and conducting follow-up research that convinced him Griffin had accurately summarized evidence indicating 9/11 was an inside job.

Freely Download "The New Pearl Harbor", from the official CIA website, here:

The Daily "Near You?"

La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Keep Going..."

“We're all going to die. We don't get much say over how or when, but we do get to decide how we're gonna live. So, do it. Decide. Is this the life you want to live? Is this the person you want to love? Is this the best you can be? Can you be stronger? Kinder? More Compassionate? Decide. Breathe in. Breathe out and decide.”
- “Richard”, “Grey’s Anatomy”

The Poet: Charles Bukowski, "The Laughing Heart"

Charles Bukowski, "The Laughing Heart"

"A Gift..."

“The life you have left is a gift. Cherish it.
Enjoy it now, to the fullest. Do what matters, now.”
~ Leo Babauta

"How It Really Is"

 

Adventures with Danno,

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, AM 4/11/25
"Very Shocking Prices At Costco"
Comments here:

Bill Bonner, "The Last Man Standing"

"The Last Man Standing"
We’re eager for the Dow to sell off to a point where we can jump back in with
 confidence. How will that happen? We don’t know. But we know when it will happen.
by Bill Bonner

"The era of rules-based order and globalized free trade is over."
--Lawrence Wong, Singapore Prime Minister

Youghal, Ireland - "When the stock market was in free fall, a subscriber wrote to ask if we were satisfied. After all, here was the sell-off we were waiting for. Alas, no. We hold gold. And we can’t complain. Gold has been the top performer for a quarter of a century…and now, it is the only sure refuge from 2025 chaos. Seeking Alpha: "Gold futures added to gains in electronic trading late Wednesday, with the June contract rising to as high as $3,111/oz, after prices had already gained 3% during regular trading for its largest one-day percentage gain in a year and a half."

We keep score in gold; we hold gold as as store of value; we don’t expect to make any money in it. Businesses increase the world’s real wealth; Buffett is right about that. They make profits. We want a part of those profits. And we hope for a bit of capital growth too.

But our macro trading system is designed primarily to avoid the Big Loss. The recent sell-off might be the beginning of it…or it might not. Whatever…the risk is still there…and increasing. Stocks crash. Bonds collapse. The dollar goes up…and down. Interest rates too. Recessions. Bubbles. We’ve seen them all.

But Donald J. Trump is introducing something we’ve never seen before. In addition to unsettling the financial world with a $37 trillion debt… and $2 trillion deficits - sure to lead to another crash and recession - he’s unsettling the political world too, with capricious policies, reckless tariffs and crackpot theories. His Liberation Day never came. His ‘reciprocal’ tariffs were fake. It was as if Abraham Lincoln waved the Emancipation Proclamation, and then the next day said he was ‘only kidding.’

What are trading partners supposed to think? They are surely looking for new suppliers and new markets. And what is China supposed to do? Singled out for special beatings, can the Chinese save face by buckling under to Trump’s whims? Or will they be forced to take more aggressive action?

We don’t buy gold as an investment. We buy it as a way not to lose money on our investments. We sell stocks and hold gold for long periods of time…and we only buy back into the broad stock market after we are pretty sure that the risk has been squeezed out of it. That’s when you can trade 5 or fewer ounces of gold for the entire group of 30 Dow stocks.

You see immediately the weakness of our investment strategy. We could wait a lifetime and never buy a stock. The Dow passed our ‘sell’ point back in 1996. Since then, grandchildren have been born and reached voting age, new cars have been consigned to the junk yard, fruitcakes and hams have been entirely consumed… grunge, mom jeans, beanie babies…the internet, Iraq, Apple, Google, Musk, Trump - a lot has happened. And we’ve been substantially (but never entirely) out of stocks the whole time.

And during that time, our holdings of gold rose from a dollar value of around $300/oz. to today’s $3,100. Without getting out a calculator, we see our gold is worth more than ten times what it was in 1996. And the Dow? Trading around 6,500 in 1996, it’s up a little more than six times. Holding gold - and staying out of stocks - paid off. But in terms of real wealth, we gained nothing. We still have exactly the same number of ounces of gold that we had 29 years ago.

So, yes, now we’re getting restless. We’re eager for the Dow to sell off to a point where we can jump back in with confidence. How will that happen? We don’t know. But we know when it will happen. Our target is still the Dow at 5 ounces of gold. That could be with a gold price of $4,000… and the Dow at 20,000. Or maybe gold at $5,000 and the Dow at 25,000. Either way, we have a long way to go. So the answer to the question: Are we satisfied? Not yet!

In the meantime, how will today’s market and political madness shake out? We don’t know. But we recall Richard Russell’s famous last words. “I don’t know what will happen, but when the dust finally settles, gold will be the last man standing.”

Gregory Mannarino, "America And The U.S. Dollar Are Dead, It's Really Over"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 4/11/25
"America And The U.S. Dollar Are Dead, It's Really Over"
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Jim Kunstler, "The Wicked Flee"

US Attorney for New Jersey, Alina Habba
"The Wicked Flee"
by Jim Kunstler

"No more government in the shadows." 
- Mike Benz

"The decade-long treasonous hectoring of Mr. Trump keeps on coming, you understand, for the simple reason that there have been absolutely zero consequences for any of the vicious rogues behind it. Not so much as a rap on the knuckles for seeking to overthrow a president, steal elections, hide high crimes, rob the treasury, and recklessly frame the innocent. And suddenly this week, as startling as a mythic goddess of justice riding a spring zephyr, comes a brisk demonstration of exactly what-to-do.

Days ago, Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey ordered his state police to not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement officers (ICE) - a nice bit of grandstanding for a guy seeking to occupy the Democratic Party’s leadership vacuum. So, Thursday night, newly-appointed US Attorney for the New Jersey federal district, Alina Habba, opened a criminal investigation against Gov. Murphy for “obstruction and concealment.” That means, possibly, jail. Badda-bing! This ain’t no foolin’ around.

The reason the Democrat pols and their activist agents pule and mewl about “retribution” is because they know they are guilty of so many manifest crimes against the country and against decency, that a fair system would have jailed or hanged them by now. They evaded their reckonings only because their own filthy mitts gripped the levers of justice until very recently.

Since January 20, that has obviously changed. But two questions have dogged the necessary restoration of fairness and good faith in the backbone of government we call the law. 1) Since the culpable are such well-known figures - the Clintons, Obama, Biden, Comey, Brennan, Mayorkas, Garland, Wray, Fauci, Collins, Pelosi, Eisen, Weissmann, McCord, Schiff, and dozens more - how do you seek justice without appearing to “go after” individuals in the old Soviet mode of “show me the person and I’ll find you the crime”? And 2) where do you begin with such a cosmic-scale panorama of treasonous malfeasance spanning many years and many theaters-of-action?

I’d say US Attorney Alina Habba’s move this week is an excellent place to start. For one thing, Governor Murphy’s defiant act is a fresh crime, only days old, and a clear-cut one: you can’t order state officials to flout federal law, especially where public safety is concerned. Ms. Habba smacked him instantly, like an insolent biting insect. Now, follow through. Prosecute. Mere apologies not accepted. No “mulligan” on that shot. If she brings a case, then other mayors and governors of the many self-proclaimed “sanctuary” jurisdictions around the country, trolling for virtue brownie points in their Woke waters, will rethink their lawless posturing.

Couple of other good starts just this week. Mr. Trump issued executive orders yesterday that will afford a fresh look into some older but critical crimes against the nation. One directs US Attorney General Bondi to investigate the actions of a key player in wide-ranging 2020 election mischief. From the White House memo itself:

"Christopher Krebs, the former head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), is a significant bad-faith actor who weaponized and abused his government authority. Krebs’ misconduct involved the censorship of disfavored speech implicating the 2020 election and COVID-19 pandemic. CISA, under Krebs’ leadership, suppressed conservative viewpoints under the guise of combatting supposed disinformation, and recruited and coerced major social media platforms to further its partisan mission. CISA covertly worked to blind the American public to the controversy surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop. Krebs, through CISA, promoted the censorship of election information, including known risks associated with certain voting practices. Similarly, Krebs, through CISA, falsely and baselessly denied that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen, including by inappropriately and categorically dismissing widespread election malfeasance and serious vulnerabilities with voting machines. Krebs skewed the bona fide debate about COVID-19 by attempting to discredit widely shared views that ran contrary to CISA’s favored perspective."

Next, the White House directed an investigation of Homeland Security officer Miles Taylor who proclaimed, during the first Trump term in an anonymous New York Times op-ed, that he was party to “a resistance within the Federal Government that ‘vowed’ to undermine and render ineffective a sitting president. This conduct could properly be characterized as treasonous and as possibly violating the Espionage Act,” the EO said. Sounds serious, a little bit.

Next, in another EO, the White House severely disciplined the swamp law firm Susman Godfrey for its racist DEI activism in the federal agencies it did work for, saying, “Lawyers and law firms that engage in activities detrimental to critical American interests should not have access to our nation’s secrets, nor should their conduct be subsidized by Federal taxpayer funds or contracts.” Hence, Sussman Godfrey lost its security clearances, its federal work contracts were cancelled, and its lawyers are barred from entering federal buildings, including courthouses. FAFO.

Next, Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard announced at Thursday’s cabinet meeting that her office has obtained evidence of massive vulnerabilities in voting machines that allow hackers to flip votes. This has long been written off as “baseless conspiracy theory” for years by degenerate news outlets like The New York Times. The key word in Ms. Gabbard’s statement, is “evidence.” You realize, of course, that there is no reason to use vote-counting machines in our election except for the purpose of hacking and cheating. Most other putatively “democratic” nations use paper ballots and manage to tabulate and report election results within twenty-four hours.

Of course, this motley batch of sudden cases - Gov. Murphy of NJ, Chris Krebs, Miles Taylor, Susman Godfrey - are relative outliers to the notorious operations such as RussiaGate, the Schiff-Vindman-Ciaramella-Eisen plot behind Impeachment No. 1, The Covid-19 intrigue, The BLM rampage, the Hunter Biden Laptop ruse (and Biden family’s bribery and treason), J-6 riot and the DNC Pipe-bomb caper, and four years of a wide-open border. That long train of crimes, seditions, and treasons came close to wrecking the country. We know exactly who was behind and involved in all of that. What remains is the heavy-lifting to build cases that can be brought to grand juries in good faith. Perhaps a comprehensive omnibus RICO case can incorporate all of these in what appears to amount to a single, complex orchestrated, long-running attempted coup. Don’t bet that this isn’t coming. And, by-the-way, the infamous “Crossfire-Hurricane” binder was just released last night. As of this writing, there is almost no analysis available yet. Stand by."

Thursday, April 10, 2025

Gerald Celente, "Wild Ride: Gold Sizzles, Markets Fizzle"

Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 4/10/25
"Wild Ride: Gold Sizzles, Markets Fizzle"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present facts and truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for what’s next in these increasingly turbulent times."
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Oh, Gerald's in fine form here... lol

"The World Is Dumping Dollars, We Are Entering The Unknown"

q2
Jeremiah Babe, 4/10/25
"The World Is Dumping Dollars, 
We Are Entering The Unknown"
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Market Data Center:

Musical Interlude: 2002, "We Meet Again"

Full screen recommended.
2002, "We Meet Again"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"It’s always nice to get a new view of an old friend. This stunning Hubble Space Telescope image of nearby spiral galaxy M66 is just that. A spiral galaxy with a small central bar, M66 is a member of the Leo Galaxy Triplet, a group of three galaxies about 30 million light years from us. The Leo Triplet is a popular target for relatively small telescopes, in part because M66 and its galactic companions M65 and NGC 3628 all appear separated by about the angular width of a full moon. 
The featured image of M66 was taken by Hubble to help investigate the connection between star formation and molecular gas clouds. Clearly visible are bright blue stars, pink ionized hydrogen clouds - sprinkled all along the outer spiral arms, and dark dust lanes in which more star formation could be hiding."

The Poet: Mary Oliver, "There Is Time Left"

"There Is Time Left"

 "Well, there is time left 
fields everywhere invite you into them.
And who will care, who will chide you if you wander away
from wherever you are, to look for your soul?
Quickly, then, get up, put on your coat, leave your desk!
To put ones foot into the door of the grass, which is
the mystery, which is death as well as life,
and not be afraid!
To set ones foot in the door of death,
and be overcome with amazement!"

~ Mary Oliver

"The World Breaks Everyone..."