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Monday, May 12, 2025

"Huxley vs. Orwell"

"Huxley vs. Orwell"
by Neil Postman

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one...

Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism... 

Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. 
Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance...

Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy...

As Huxley remarked in 'Brave New World Revisited', the civil libertarians and the rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In '1984,' Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In 'Brave New World,' they are controlled by inflicting pleasure...In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us."

Huxley was quite obviously correct...

"It's Not 'If', It's 'When'"

"It's Not 'If', It's 'When'"
by Jeff Thomas

"Cicero had it right when he described the Sword of Damocles. To be the leader of a country is like having a sword constantly dangling over your head from a single horse hair. You never know if or when the sword is going to cause your demise, but you know that the danger is ever-present. That is just as true today as it was in Cicero's time, but the modern-day Sword of Damocles hangs over the heads of not just the world's leaders. It hangs over the heads of the populations as well.

If we rely on the conventional media for our interpretation of world economic and political conditions, we may well be scratching our heads continuously as to what needs to be done to "save" the situation. Whether the discussion is over the debts of nations, the likelihood of war, or the increase in the loss of rights, the governments of much of the world are heading in a similar direction. And that direction is not a positive one.

However, the pundits in the media offer a wide variety of solutions for the problems being discussed. The solution to national debt is either to expand monetization or to back off on it, depending upon who is speaking at the moment. Whether debt monetization is the right thing to do in the first place is rarely discussed. The solution to the Middle East problem is either to arm the rebels or send in the military. The solution to domestic terrorism is either to build up the power of the various authorities, or to pass more dramatic laws restricting basic freedoms.

And so, we are to be forgiven if we imagine that the solution to such problems lies in whether we choose one destructive approach or another. Truth be told, the most difficult assessment for us to make is that we should sit very far back from the rhetoric and ask ourselves, "Is a solution even possible at this point, or have the powers-that–be gone past the point of no return?" Here's why the problems won't be solved:

As regards the debt of the most prominent countries of the world, the point of no return has certainly been reached by most. Historically, once the present level of debt has been reached, no amount of monetization will save the economy. It may be possible to give the addict yet another injection of heroin to stave off the immediate withdrawal symptoms, but at some point, it becomes necessary to go cold turkey. It may be a very painful thing to do, but it truly is the only solution. A country cannot reach solvency through increased debt. However, political leaders are loath to go cold turkey. To do so is to cut the horse hair that holds the sword hanging above their careers. Better to push the situation further into ruin, if it can buy a little more time.

As regards the rapid deterioration into police states that is occurring in so many countries, no amount of discussion by the pundits in the media will reverse the present destruction of basic rights. After all, the decision is not in their hands. It is in the hands of congresses, parliaments, presidents, and prime ministers. They know that, very soon, the façade of "economic recovery" will come tumbling down, and they have no intention of allowing the populace to have the basic freedom of removing them from power, once the veil has been removed from the lie that a solution is in the works. Political leaders, whose hold over power is in danger, will always do whatever is necessary to retain that power.

As regards warfare, it is interesting that none of the pundits who discuss the subject in the media ever raise the question, "How can a country that is facing bankruptcy possibly fund a war—traditionally the most expensive undertaking for any country in any era?" Yet, throughout history, political leaders have often used warfare as a distraction when a government has reached the tipping point economically. As Hermann Goering said, "The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

The disconnect here seems to be that the populace seems to believe that the governments of the West sincerely hope to avoid war, so the discussion in the media revolves around what can be done to that end. However, far from seeking peace, the governments of the day consciously seek to create war. After all, a populace that is otherwise unhappy with its government tends to toe the line if the country is at war. Further, the government has a greater ability to silence domestic detractors in time of war. Thus, the ability to hold power is assured. A state of war is the single most effective tool in silencing dissent in any country.

In considering all of the above, not only as a present-day anomaly, but as a recurrent theme throughout history, any discussion of "if" there will be an economic collapse, "if" there will be an increase in the loss of basic freedoms, "if" there will be a ramping up of warfare, becomes a non-starter. It is a question of "when."

Of course, in spite of this, there will be those individuals who will say, "I like to be positive. I'm going to hope for the best." But, in truth, this is not positive thinking at all. If we see the truth before our eyes and then cover our eyes in order to be positive, we are merely delving into self-deception. Positive thinking begins with truth. Once we accept what is true, we may then be as positive or as negative as we wish regarding what that truth means to us.

If we are faced with the fact that much of the world is, once again, passing through the classic cycle of economic decline / removal of rights / distraction of war, we can either shut our eyes to that fact and hope for the best, or we can open our eyes and recognize that the one choice left to us is to try to step aside of coming events. As Benjamin Ola Akande wrote, "Hope is not a strategy."

If we recognize that the sword of Damocles is indeed hovering above our own heads, we would be unwise to continue to sit below it and ponder whether the horse hair may break. Instead, we should understand that our very first move should be to put some physical distance between ourselves and the potential harm that unquestionably hangs over us. The sobering realities outlined above aren’t theoretical - they’re unfolding in real time, and the pace is quickening."

"How It Really Is"

 

Dan, I Allegedly, "The End of Cash? Cash Shortages are Coming!"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 5/12/25
"The End of Cash? 
Cash Shortages are Coming!"
"The end of cash? It’s happening faster than you think! In today’s video, I’m revealing shocking truths about ATMs disappearing and what this means for a cashless society. From digital currencies in Australia to the impact on poor and elderly communities, we’re diving into the real consequences of banks shutting down branches and removing cash access. Plus, what happens when technology fails—no ATMs, no credit cards, no options? Let’s talk about why cash still matters, how you can prepare, and what you need to know about the future of money."
Comments here:

Bill Bonner, "Big Wins"

"Big Wins"
by Bill Bonner

‘We started at 10% and we ended at 10%.’
- Howard Lutnick

From the ranch at Gualfin, Salta Province - "Donald Trump scored a big win on Friday. His first trade deal. At least, that’s what the media said. And then, this morning another big win was announced. NBC: "The United States and China said Monday they had agreed to a 90-day pause on most of the tariffs they have imposed on each other since last month, in a major step toward easing a trade war between the two powers that has rattled the global economy. U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports will be cut to 30% from 145%, while China’s levies on U.S. imports will be cut to 10% from 125%, the two countries said in a joint statement."

That’s right. Start a ‘Trade War.’ Then, back off…and a ‘Big Win’ for your team. You’ll recall that POTUS had to retreat from a trade war when the stock market began to collapse. Thereafter, he sought a negotiated settlement with America’s many trading partners. The war was over, followed by a little give...a little take - including much bluff and bombast for political purposes. And then the Trump Team announced a Big Win.

Back at the end of Trump’s first term opinions were still divided. The liberals still thought he was a grifter and a clown; and after the riot at the Capitol, they believed his political career was at an end. The ‘conservatives,’ meanwhile, quickly realized that their man Trump was their ticket to success...at least in the primaries. They labelled any criticism of the Big Man as a mental problem - Trump Derangement Syndrome.

But the nation survived Trump I. And when it was over, the Deep State was deeper than ever, debt was higher than ever, and the feds bumbled on as before. Some believe it was thanks to the ‘adults in the room’ who restrained the chief executive that Trump I was not more ‘disruptive.’ Others believed that the restrainers had kept POTUS from realizing his glorious mission. They went to work to make sure that didn’t happen again.

And so...here we are in Trump II. And this time we see the naked Trump, with a whole caste of half-wit enablers - Bondi, Hegseth, et al - rather than the devious restrainers of Trump I. And this unclothed emperor is not a pretty sight The ‘deal’ cut with the UK was typical of the ‘wins’ won by the Trump Team generally. It leaves trade with the UK “worse than the pre-Trump status quo,” says Scott Lincicome, of the conservative Cato Institute.

Free trade is a feature of the win-win economy. It favors no one in particular and everyone in general. Prices go down and quality increases as people are allowed to compete for customers. Trade managed by political hacks is another thing altogether. It is win-lose...or lose-lose, favoring the cronies...those with the best lobbyists...and the most political clout. Particular industries, investors, and/or consumers win...and everyone else loses. The Hill tells us about some of the losers in this deal:

“The U.S. automotive industry is highly integrated with Canada and Mexico; the same is not true for the U.S. and UK,” American Automotive Policy Council President Matt Blunt said in a statement. Each of the three companies have factories in the United States but still forecast major setbacks due to the president’s tariffs, given the auto industry’s highly integrated supply chains across North America. Last week, GM said levies could scrape as much as $5 billion from its profits this year, while Ford expects to take a $1.5 billion hit, The Associated Press reported."

The outcome of the ‘Trade War’ should have been obvious. It had been rehearsed, in public, back in Donald Trump’s first term. In 2017, he went to war with Canada and Mexico. He ranted and raved about the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, as if it were the devil’s own work, and declared a ‘trade war.’ Critics complained that he was an economic ignoramus...stupid...or even crazy. MAGA supporters defended him, saying it was just a negotiating tactic...or that he was ‘playing 3D chess,’ whatever that was.

And then, facing a total breakdown in America’s most important cross-border trade, Team Trump called off the war and settled down to negotiate. The result? Something that could have been the twin of the NAFTA, separated at birth, but now returned! USMCA took the place of NAFTA. And America’s trade deficit of $63 billion with Canada and Mexico in 2017 got worse, exploding to over $200 billion today. Big win? Not exactly. He now says the USMCA - the deal made by his own trade honchos - is a rip-off for the USA.

Will the ‘big win’ against the UK be much different? US businesses and consumers have been trading amicably with Britain for a long time. Buyers and sellers work out whatever deals they want, subject to modest tariffs imposed by the feds. The details of the new deal are not all in but the gist of it is that instead of paying a tariff of less than 2% (weighted average) on imports from the UK, American consumers are going to pay 10%. More than five times as much.

One of the big complaints from the tractor states is that the Brits and Europeans, generally, don’t buy enough US farm products. Tariffs are very low...or even non-existent. But hey-ho, they say there are ‘non-tariff barriers’ to US agricultural exports.

We got a first-hand look at some of those barriers on Saturday, when we went to visit some of our crops in the flat, hot northeastern part of Salta province. “You’ve got to be very careful about how you use pesticides,” explained the agronomist who consults with us. He was holding a pod with sesame seeds in it, breaking out the little seeds to show us.

“The best seeds...at the best prices...go to the European market”, he explained. “But the Europeans are picky about pesticides. If there is too much, they won’t buy. Their standards are higher than anywhere else...but they also pay more than anyone.” Our agronomist was describing how ‘non-tariff barriers’ work. They are not tariffs at all. They are simply consumer choices. Europeans don’t want to eat pesticides.

Another ‘non-tariff barrier’ that Donald Trump deplores is Europe’s value added tax (VAT). Again, it has nothing to do with trade and doesn’t discriminate against US products. It is just a sales tax making everything more expensive, including home-grown products.

These things are as obvious to the trade negotiators as they are to us. There are some legitimate concerns...but most of it is just political theater. And now the Trump Troupe puts on a show. With the UK, it negotiated a 10% tariff - a 400% penalty to be paid by American consumers. On Saturday, the Jefe de Todos los Jefes said he thought 80% would be about right for China…and by Monday morning, negotiators got the tax on US consumers down to 30%. So, look for more ‘big wins’ as trade declines, prices go up, and people get poorer."

Jim Kunstler, "MAHA Hugger Mugger"

"MAHA Hugger Mugger"
by Jim Kunstler

"Those who perpetrated the greatest ruse in American presidential history by 
staging the Biden presidency will never tell us what their ultimate agenda was"
- Victor Davis Hanson

"One baseline truth in current American life is that our bodily well-being gets worse as the so-called health care industry gets ever-larger - it is now 17.6-percent of the economy (GDP). This is clearly the basis of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) campaign that attached itself to the Trump 2.0 program. You hear almost no arguments against MAHA itself, even from the Party of Hustles and Hoaxes, but plenty of calumny and objurgation against MAHA’s chief advocate, Robert Kennedy, Jr.

Mr. Trump’s initial nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat was pulled last week just before her scheduled Senate confirmation hearing. Her credentials looked a bit sketchy - med school on the tiny Caribbean island of St. Maarten (say, what...?) and other irregularities - which she confabulated about anyway. Plus, she was a Covid vaccine cheerleader and an avid advocate of the censorship campaign to slam down debate over it.

Which leads directly to a glaring quandary in President Trump’s current order-of-business: he has avoided engagement with the whole Covid fiasco that unspooled in the last year of his first term. Now, it is the opinion of this blog that Mr. Trump was played on Covid by blob-marshaled “experts” Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, who led the White House Covid “team,” and then snookered the president into Operation Warp Speed, appealing to his vanity to play the superhero. You can also surmise that the Covid operation was hatched to run Mr. Trump out of office by enabling epic election fraud, making a chump of him.

Other aspects of the Covid hairball are now finally getting unraveled, such as the lab origin issue and Dr. Fauci’s nefarious and vast operations to fund bioweapons. But the awful subject of the Covid mRNA vaccines, and all the monkey business around their development and deployment, remains taboo, even as Trump 2.0 sets records in smashing bureaucratic idols and radically shifting all sorts of policy - for instance, today’s monumental move to lower drug costs by 30 to 80 percent, using the Most Favored Nation trade policy device, which ties U.S. drug prices to the lowest prices paid by other high-income countries (e.g., Canada, Japan, or European nations) for the same medications.

But the Covid vaccine shots loom over the land like an ominous miasma that no one wants to talk about. The evidence has mounted steadily that the shots were ineffective and deeply harmful to many of the people who took them, especially those who got multiple boosters. The result, apparently, is a shocking rise in rare and aggressive cancers, immune system dysfunction, damage to the heart and blood vessels, neurological disorders, and much more. The CDC under “Joe Biden” worked desperately to hide all that, but it came out, anyway, because it was too big to hide.

81-percent of the US population submitted to the Covid vaccine shots. So, you can suppose that all that would be an extremely touchy matter. To admit all that scary information to the public arena would likely set off a politically dangerous fury. You can see why Mr. Trump would avoid going near it in the early going of his second term. But eventually he must come to terms with it.

Likewise, sooner or later, Bobby Kennedy, Jr., will have to take some kind of stand on the Covid vaccines, namely stopping the shots altogether. Whatever you think of the childhood vaccine schedule - a red-hot issue these days - it seems quite insane that the Covid mRNA vaccine is still included on it. It is still officially recommended by the CDC. Among the “much more” effects of the shots is damage to human fertility. You must ask: by giving these shots to kids as young as six-months, are we setting up a nation that won’t be able to have children? Pretty spooky.
Casey Means, the new nominee for US Surgeon General.

So, the new nominee for Surgeon General is one Casey Means of the brother / sister team, Calley and Casey Means, known primarily as food safety advocate sidekicks to Bobby Kennedy. The Meanses were already under some suspicion for rising to rapidly into prominence from out of nowhere since the summer of 2024 when Mr. Kennedy began to swing over to the Trump campaign. They were suspected and criticized as the shills for some sort of sinister alliance between Silicon Valley, Big Pharma, and the US intel blob. The Meanses have adroitly avoided taking a position on the Covid vaccines. Hmmmm...That’s the chatter, anyway - whether there’s any truth to it, we will have to stand-by to discover.

You’d have to ask yourself whether Mr. Kennedy would ally himself with people of supposedly sketchy character. Is he being used or played? Or maybe, it’s just not so. The nomination of Casey Means sent out shock-waves through MAGA and MAHA. Her credentials seemed a little sketchy like Janette Nesheiwat’s before her. Ms. Means dropped out of her five-year medical residency in Oregon a few months before completing it, apparently due to disillusionment with conventional medicine. She does not have an active medical license, supposedly required to serve as Surgeon General.

Instead, she transitioned into what is loosely called functional medicine, which rejects the oppressive “standards of practice” dictated by insurance companies and reliance on pharma products to alleviate symptoms rather than treat the causes of disease. Ms. Means also became a medical entrepreneur, starting Levels, a glucose-monitoring tech company, and is an Instagram “wellness influencer” with 750,000 followers. Given the gross racketeering aspects of conventional medicine and its failure to deal with the shocking rise in chronic disease, you might argue that Ms. Means made the right career moves, weird as they might seem superficially.

It’s pretty much a miracle that RFK, Jr., managed to land safely as Secretary of HHS and that he was able to enlist “medical freedom” advocates Jay Bhattacharya to run the National Institutes for Health and Marty Makary to run the Federal Drug Administration. This represents a stupendous turnaround in government policy. It’s also plausible that this new public health team has been preoccupied with personnel and administrative re-org in the first months of Trump 2.0. They’ve begun to nibble around the edges of the national health crisis, such as banning toxic food coloring.

They have yet to face the big, nasty legal questions such as revoking Pharma’s liability shield against lawsuits for its defective products, ending TV advertising of Pharma products - which is just an extortion racket for managing cable news content to protect Pharma - fully confronting the autism calamity and its connection to childhood vaccines, and, of course, pulling the Covid shots.

The is also chatter that RFK, Jr., is “managed” by hidden persons or forces. One not-so-hidden character in that psychodrama is Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA). Sen. Cassidy, a medical doctor, chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee that ran Mr. Kennedy over-the-coals in his confirmation hearing. Political pressure caused Sen. Cassidy to cave and vote “yes” for RFK,Jr., then. Louisiana has since changed its election rules so that Democrats can no longer vote in the GOP primary, and Cassidy is vulnerable. His base is restless. He voted to impeach Mr. Trump in January 2021 over the Capitol J-6 riot.

So, the chatter says that Mr. Kennedy made a deal with Sen. Cassidy to avoid taking certain actions - like, anything that might hurt Pharma and its profit-stream - or else Mr. Kennedy would be dragged back in front of the HELP Committee and raked over the coals again. If that were to happen, I suspect Mr. Kennedy would handle himself very capably in any public hearing. He has always been in command of the facts. As head of HHS, he has had access to a deep trove of information that he had no access to previously. He must know by now exactly what sort of mischief has been perpetrated in US public health over the decades and will not be shy about disclosing it publicly. You should also not be surprised if Mr. Kennedy begins issuing criminal referrals before much longer. As for Casey Means...give her a chance to demonstrate that she is on the right side of MAHA and willing to fight in what has become a biomedical war on the American public."

"U.S. Price Controls Have Begun! U.S./China Trade Deal? How About No"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/12/25
"U.S. Price Controls Have Begun! 
U.S./China Trade Deal? How About No"
Comments here:

Adventures With Danno, "Unbelievable Grocery Prices At Meijer"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 5/12/25
"Unbelievable Grocery Prices At Meijer"
Comments here:

"Economic Market Snapshot 5/12/25"

"Economic Market Snapshot 5/12/25"
Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 
You and I are not in the Big Club."
- George Carlin
o
Market Data Center, Live Updates:
Comprehensive, essential truth.
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: creditequity valuationfunding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United Statesother advanced economies, and emerging markets."
Job cuts and much more.
Commentary, highly recommended:
"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...
And now... The End Game...
o

Sunday, May 11, 2025

Jeremiah Babe, "Deal Done, U.S. And China Reach A Trade Deal, Markets Will Go Nuts"

Jeremiah Babe, 5/11/25
"Deal Done, U.S. And China Reach A Trade Deal, 
Markets Will Go Nuts"
Comments here:

"WW3 Ends! Ceasefire! Trade Deal! Nuclear Deal! Markets On Fire!"

Canadian Prepper, 5/11/25
"WW3 Ends! Ceasefire! 
Trade Deal! Nuclear Deal! Markets On Fire!"
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Breathing Light"

Full screen recommended.
2002, "Breathing Light"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Why does this galaxy have such a long tail? In this stunning vista, based on image data from the Hubble Legacy Archive, distant galaxies form a dramatic backdrop for disrupted spiral galaxy Arp 188, the Tadpole Galaxy. The cosmic tadpole is a mere 420 million light-years distant toward the northern constellation of the Dragon (Draco). Its eye-catching tail is about 280 thousand light-years long and features massive, bright blue star clusters. 
One story goes that a more compact intruder galaxy crossed in front of Arp 188 - from right to left in this view - and was slung around behind the Tadpole by their gravitational attraction. During the close encounter, tidal forces drew out the spiral galaxy's stars, gas, and dust forming the spectacular tail. The intruder galaxy itself, estimated to lie about 300 thousand light-years behind the Tadpole, can be seen through foreground spiral arms at the upper right. Following its terrestrial namesake, the Tadpole Galaxy will likely lose its tail as it grows older, the tail's star clusters forming smaller satellites of the large spiral galaxy."

"Life is A Journey - Don't Be Afraid"

"Life is A Journey - Don't Be Afraid"
Author Unknown

"Life is a journey filled with lessons, hardships, heartaches, joys, celebrations and special moments that will ultimately lead us to our destination, our purpose in life. The road will not always be smooth; in fact, throughout our travels, we will encounter many challenges. Some of these challenges will test our courage, strengths, weaknesses, and faith. Along the way, we may stumble upon obstacles that will come between the paths that we are destined to take. In order to follow the right path, we must overcome these obstacles. Sometimes these obstacles are really blessings in disguise, only we don't realize that at the time.

Along our journey we will be confronted with many situations, some will be filled with joy, and some will be filled with heartache. How we react to what we are faced will determine what kind of outcome the rest of our journey through life will be like. When things don't always go our way, we have two choices in dealing with the situations. We can focus on the fact that things didn't go how we had hoped they would and let life pass us by, or two, we can make the best out of the situation and know that these are only temporary setbacks and find the lessons that are to be learned.

Time stops for no one, and if we allow ourselves to focus on the negative we might miss out on some really amazing things that life has to offer. We can't go back to the past, we can only take the lessons that we have learned and the experiences that we have gained from it and move on. It is because of the heartaches, as well as the hardships, that in the end help to make us a stronger person.

The people that we meet on our journey, are people that we are destined to meet. Everybody comes into our lives for some reason or another and we don't always know their purpose until it is too late. They all play some kind of role. Some may stay for a lifetime; others may only stay for a short while. It is often the people who stay for only a short time that end up making a lasting impression not only in our lives, but in our hearts as well. Although we may not realize it at the time, they will make a difference and change our lives in a way we never could imagine. To think that one person can have such a profound effect on your life forever is truly a blessing. It is because of these encounters that we learn some of life's best lessons and sometimes we even learn a little bit about ourselves.

People will come and go into our lives quickly, but sometimes we are lucky to meet that one special person that will stay in our hearts forever no matter what. Even though we may not always end up being with that person and they may not always stay in our life for as long as we like, the lessons that we have learned from them and the experiences that we have gained from meeting that person, will stay with us forever.

It's these things that will give us strength to continue with our journey. We know that we can always look back on those times of our past and know that because of that one individual, we are who we are and we can remember the wonderful moments that we have shared with that person. Memories are priceless treasures that we can cherish forever in our hearts. They also enable us to go on with our journey for whatever life has in store for us. Sometimes all it takes is one special person to help us look inside ourselves and find a whole different person that we never knew existed. Our eyes are suddenly opened to a world we never knew existed- a world where time is so precious and moments never seem to last long enough.

Throughout this adventure, people will give you advice and insights on how to live your life but when it all comes down to it, you must always do what you feel is right. Always follow your heart, and most importantly never have any regrets. Don't hold anything back. Say what you want to say, and do what you want to do, because sometimes we don't get a second chance to say or do what we should have the first time around.

It is often said that what doesn't kill you will make you stronger. It all depends on how one defines the word "strong". It can have different meanings to different people. In this sense, "stronger" means looking back at the person you were and comparing it to the person you have become today. It also means looking deep into your soul and realizing that the person you are today couldn't exist if it weren't for the things that have happened in the past or for the people that you have met. Everything that happens in our life happens for a reason and sometimes that means we must face heartaches in order to experience joy."
- Author Unknown, 

"I Pity You, Too..."

“Said a philosopher to a street sweeper, “I pity you. Yours is a hard and dirty task.” And the street sweeper said, “Thank you, sir. But tell me, what is your task?” And the philosopher answered saying, “I study man’s mind, his deeds and his desires.” Then the street sweeper went on with his sweeping and said with a smile, “I pity you, too.”
- Kahlil Gibran

The Daily "Near You?"

Bath, Maine, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Mary Oliver, "Coming Home"

"Coming Home"

"When we are driving in the dark,
on the long road to Provincetown,
when we are weary,
when the buildings and the scrub pines lose their familiar look,
I imagine us rising from the speeding car.
I imagine us seeing everything from another place-
the top of one of the pale dunes, or the deep and nameless
fields of the sea.
And what we see is a world that cannot cherish us,
but which we cherish.
And what we see is our life moving like that
along the dark edges of everything,
headlights sweeping the blackness,
believing in a thousand fragile and unprovable things.
Looking out for sorrow,
slowing down for happiness,
making all the right turns
right down to the thumping barriers to the sea,
the swirling waves,
the narrow streets, the houses,
the past, the future,
the doorway that belongs
to you and me."

- Mary Oliver

"Grave Faults..."

“Only the following items should be considered to be grave faults: not respecting another's rights; allowing oneself to be paralyzed by fear; feeling guilty; believing that one does not deserve the good or ill that happens in one's life; being a coward. We will love our enemies, but not make alliances with them. They were placed in our path in order to test our sword, and we should, out of respect for them, struggle against them. We will choose our enemies.”
- Paulo Coelho, "Like the Flowing River"

"Larry C. Johnson & Col. Larry Wilkerson: Yemen Just Flipped Trump’s Entire Middle East Strategy"

Dialogue Works, 5/11/25
"Larry C. Johnson & Col. Larry Wilkerson: 
Yemen Just Flipped Trump’s Entire Middle East Strategy"
Comments here:

"How It Really Is"

 

"2025 Credit Card Debt Statistics"
"Americans have an absolute mountain of credit card debt - $1.211 trillion, to be exact. This credit card debt statistics page tracks Americans’ credit card use each month. We update this page regularly, looking at how much debt people have, how often they carry a balance month to month, how often they pay their credit card bills late and more."

Dan, I Allegedly, "From Insult to Injury - Taxing Homes That No Longer Exist?"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 5/11/25
"From Insult to Injury - 
Taxing Homes That No Longer Exist?"
"California property taxes are raising eyebrows again! In this video, I dive into the shocking reality of homeowners being taxed for properties that no longer exist after devastating wildfires. You'll hear about the unfair bills affecting families in Altadena and Malibu, including real estate mogul Grant Cardone, who is taking legal action against this injustice. Is this a land grab? How can anyone justify taxing ashes? Let's discuss this broken system and how it impacts everyone, from working-class neighborhoods to the wealthy elite."
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"Markets, A Look Ahead: A U.S. Debt Default May Be Close, And The Fallout Will Rock The Earth"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/11/25
"Markets, A Look Ahead: A U.S. Debt Default May Be Close, 
And The Fallout Will Rock The Earth"
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U.S. Debt Credit Default Swaps
How It Works: First, a Credit Default Swap (CDS) is a financial contract, its insurance on debt. A buyer pays a premium to a seller (typically a bank) for protection against default or payment disruption, in this case, on U.S. Treasuries. If the U.S. defaults or delays payment, the CDS seller pays out the insured party.

Who Sells the Insurance? Major global banks and financial institutions write CDS contracts. JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Citi, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, etc. They take on the risk, collecting premiums as long as no default occurs. Why? US debt is supposed to be 100% safe. But it's not.

If the U.S. Were to Default: What Happens to the Banks Holding CDS?
1. CDS Contracts Trigger Instantly: A U.S. default (even technical) would activate credit event clauses in CDS contracts. Banks that sold CDS (insurers) would owe massive payouts, instantly.
2. Unrealized Risk Becomes Real: Many banks never expected to actually pay on U.S. CDS, just to collect premiums. These “paper” liabilities now become cash obligations, forcing emergency capital injections or fire sales of assets.
3. Massive Liquidity Crunch: To cover payouts, banks would dump treasuries, stocks, or other high-quality assets, crashing markets across the board. Interbank lending could freeze overnight, just like in 2008, but much worse...
4. Counterparty Contagion: If one big bank can’t pay its CDS obligation, the loss ripples outward. Counterparties collapse. Derivatives implode. Systemic contagion begins.
5. Emergency Central Bank Intervention: The Fed and possibly foreign central banks step in with unlimited liquidity (QE on steroids) to prevent total collapse and offer a solution. A new system.
6. Global Derivatives Time Bomb Goes Off: Many CDS contracts are interlinked with other derivatives. A U.S. default would shake the entire global derivatives market, QUADRILLIONS in exposure suddenly unstable. If the U.S. defaults, the CDS market becomes a financial nuclear bomb, detonating first at the big banks, and then echoing through every corner of the global financial system.
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"$2.5 Quadrillion Disaster Waiting to Happen – 
Egon von Greyerz"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"There is sufficiency in the world 
for Man's need but not for his greed." 
Mahatma Gandhi

"Egon von Greyerz (EvG) stores gold for clients at the biggest private gold vault in the world buried deep in the Swiss Alps. EvG is a financial and precious metals expert. EvG is a former Swiss banker and an expert in risk. He says the risk in the global markets has never been this high.

EvG explains, “Credit has increased dramatically through derivatives. All instruments being issued now by banks, pension funds, stock funds, it’s all synthetic. There is no real underlying payments in anything almost. Therefore, my estimate for derivatives would be at least $2 quadrillion, and I think that is probably conservative. Then, we have debt on top of that of $300 trillion, and we also have a couple hundred trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities. So, we are talking about $2.5 QUADRILLION, and that’s with a global GDP of $88 trillion. So, there is a disaster waiting to happen, and especially because all this created money has created no value whatsoever. I always knew this would collapse, and it’s taken longer than I expected, but I think we are at the end of a major era. 

These derivatives, at some point soon, will actually turn into debt. Central banks will have to cover all the outstanding liabilities of the commercial banks as we are seeing now with Credit Suisse, Bank of England and etc. This is going to happen across the board. Whether it’s called derivatives or called debt, as far as I am concerned, it’s the same thing. It will have the same effect on the world financial system, which will be disastrous, of course.”

EvG says the derivative markets were simply a way for financial institutions to carry debt and not show it on their balance sheets. In the end, everything will balance out. EvG goes on to say, “Nobody can repay the debt, and they can’t even pay interest. So, therefore, when the debt implodes, so will the assets that were financed by this debt. So, both sides of the balance sheet have to come down. Whether it comes down by 50%, 75% or 90%, I don’t know. All I think about is risk, and the financial system will not survive in its present form. Central banks only use one kind of medicine, and that is more printed money. Now, you are getting negative returns on printed money. So, that is not going to save anything. 

Sadly we are looking at a situation when this system will start to implode. The rich are still rich, but the poor are really poor. Overall in the UK, Germany and most European countries, people don’t have enough money to live. This is a human disaster already. With food costs going up 25% and energy going up the same and gasoline, interest rates and rents, people don’t have enough money, and that is happening now. It’s a human disaster of mega proportions. It’s so sad, and governments will have no chance of doing anything about it. The risk is increasing exponentially,  and it is going to get worse.” There is much more in the 43-minute interview.
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with Egon von Greyerz of Matterhorn Asset Management, which can be found on GoldSwitzerland.com
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Did you really think they'd tell you the truth?
LOL LOL LOL

Adventures With Danno, "Jaw-Dropping Prices At Costco"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 5/11/25
"Jaw-Dropping Prices At Costco"
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Happy Mother's Day!