"An Endless Dream"

"Endless Dream", by Christopher Vacher

"An Endless Dream"

by Nicholas Creed

"I fall into a deep, endless dream, struggling to awaken. In this peaceful place, sanity is the norm and not the exception amongst the perception of contemporary affairs. Tyrants and sociopathic misleaders are imprisoned for life, or tried for crimes against humanity, facing capital punishment. My peers, coworkers, friends, and family members question things like they did when I was younger. I can remember when things were different. When ‘narrative’ was less coordinated, prior to the advent of social media and so-called smart phones. Mediums of non verbal communication were less mesmerising, if not at all prevalent.

In my dream state, my nearest and dearest return to being truly present. People make eye contact, they smile, their laughter is contagious and precious - not something to capture and post online for dopamine hits. Making memories is sacred. The power of media narrative no longer strangleholds the masses. Storytelling in person is revitalised as a cherished art form. People are open-minded to dialogue, discourse, and alternative world views, with an unwavering moral compass. They exhibit a clear perception of right and wrong, which they are able to act upon without hesitation. We mostly agree on what constitutes genocide or democide; political leaders are not given a pass for horrific misdeeds just because they also do perceived good deeds.

Conspiracy theories such as health coming from needles and pills are ridiculed, with those believing in and pushing them being sidelined as extremist fringe ideologues. Those pushing or praising such ‘treatments’ are dealt with swiftly by a justice system that is enacted and executed by the people, for the people.

In this endless dream, a critical mass of human beings can see through propaganda easily - they are not easily misled or lied to. Warmongers and war criminals are silenced, ostracised, or tried in court for war-crimes. Instances of people dying suddenly are considered highly abnormal; thus investigated immediately, with the root cause discovery made widely known…As opposed to being obfuscated in lies and spin within a constant shell blame-game that builds up a precarious house of cards.

In this peaceful slumberous reality, I am inundated with delightful news from friends old and new that they have healthy children, with newly expectant mothers, and no fertility complications whatsoever. Miscarriages are an ultra-rare phenomenon. Doctors care for the well being of their patients, prescribing natural remedies, nutrition, and exercise. Historical posterity documented the Rockefeller family being shunned for their unhinged, malicious practices following university grants and attempts made at capturing the medical system.

Society is predicated upon a sound monetary system, meaning that purchasing power is protected, not debased and devalued. Small to medium sized businesses, along with sole proprietorship is encouraged by all forms of voluntarism and self governance; as is self sufficiency. Government interventionism and meddling is minimalist - quickly rejected and overthrown by the people, should opportunistic bad actors attempt to undermine the system. People choose public servants to serve them, because they do not wish to be ruled over.

Alas, if only this dream were true.

In my waking nightmare, a majority of people believe absurdities, therefore they are willfully blind to atrocities committed. They seek to poison themselves and their families in as many ways as they can possibly afford to with financial resources and available time constraints. They tell me which group is the disfavoured other of the week, as often as possible, if they can corner me to listen, whilst probing my approval or disproval, which usually results in their suspicion and subsequent distancing.

They have relationships with screens, not with people. I watch them accelerating their own demise, whilst they rush towards authoritarianism and collectivist ideologies. I hear about their fertility woes. Their repeatedly failed IVF treatments. Their strange illnesses and diagnoses. They are always baffled. Bafflement turns to anger if their medicalised religion is hinted at as being the source of their body horrors.

I understand now, that they too are in an endless dream. A waking dream state. In their endless dream, their government is benevolent, the pedestaled politicians care for the best outcomes of their citizenry. Doctors and nurses try their best to help patients, but there is collateral damage, because there are so many dangerous diseases. Vaccines are seen as life saving miraculous feats of modern day medicine. War is accepted as a necessary evil, because some groups are worse than other groups, as indicated by talking heads on tell-lie-vision.

In their dreamy haze, they admittedly know that bankers profit from wars, but also insist the banking system is integral to the rebuilding efforts after the carnage dies down. Incrementally impoverishing their own standards of living as we hurtle towards the realisation of agenda 2030 is a necessary sacrifice for the greater good. The mainstream media outlets are all vetted for truth, accuracy, and non-bias or capture, because that is how it has always been. If there was any real-time genocide or democide happening, then it would be on the news, obviously. A coordinated, systemic, globally concerted effort amongst nation state leadership to depopulate the planet is simultaneously a wild conspiracy theory, yet also makes perfect sense to them, because they are continually told via media messaging that overpopulation is our greatest threat.

From endless dreams to waking nightmares and everything in between, perhaps we will all meet somewhere in the middle. Someday. Nearby. Just around the corner. Wait and see."

- https://nicholascreed.substack.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"Scott Ritter and Mohammad Marandi: Bone-Chilling Geopolitical Lessons from Russia and Yemen"

Dialogue Works, 5/13/25

"Scott Ritter and Mohammad Marandi:

 Bone-Chilling Geopolitical Lessons from Russia and Yemen"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"No Treason: Spooner and the Constitution of No Authority"

"No Treason: 

Spooner and the Constitution of No Authority"

by Joel Bowman

“A man's natural rights are his own, against the whole world; and any infringement of them is equally a crime; whether committed by one man, or by millions; whether committed by one man, calling himself a robber, or by millions calling themselves a government.”

~ Lysander Spooner, "No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority" (1870)

Syros, Greece - "Long time readers are familiar with our beat here at Notes. But what about the opposite… what about unfree markets… unfree minds… and unfree people? To those inquiring minds who wonder why we only post sunny, cheerful photos and videos of our worldly meanderings, and who question why we only showcase the bright side of Argentina, we have a special treat for you today. Behold, Correo Argentino... and the wretched aesthetic terrorism that is government architecture, where no structure is too grotesque and where form is routinely sacrificed on the altar of dysfunction.

An Affront to Beauty: Correo Argentino, for the blissfully uninitiated, is Argentina’s answer to the question: But is the USPS really as bad as mail delivery gets? Lest you thought it was impossible, Argentina’s version is even uglier and costlier than it’s northern cousin... and more prone to induce visions of “going postal” in those who suffer the misfortune of having to spend more than five minutes of their life inside the bowels of its brutalist structures.

As it so happens, your editor plunged headlong into just such a purgatory right before we left Argentina a few weeks back. That is, we braved the post-apocalyptic scenes, replete with hideous, bomb-shelter design and manned by undead desk clerks, to inquire after a birthday gift that had been mailed by well-intentioned family abroad.

After being abandoned on the wrong side of the proverbial tracks by our taxi driver, we proceeded past the spiked iron fence to a rickety plastic desk, marooned in the middle of an empty parking lot, marked “turnos.” There, a grim gatekeeper demanded to see our identification. “Do you have an appointment,” he barked (in Spanish) between dragonesque draws on his hand-rolled cigarette. The stale smoke mixed with the smell of rotting trash and carbolic acid wafting over from the nearby factories as the sun baked the putrid effluvium into our every reluctant breath.

Naturally, we came prepared with all the relevant paperwork, documents, customs tax receipts, screenshots, QR verification codes and various miscellaneous filings... except, of course, for the right one. A full remark being beyond the clerk’s capacity and/or motivation, he issued forth a contemptuous grunt and pointed a long, tobacco-stained finger towards the line marked “sin turnos,” considerably more serpentine than the other.

The Illusion of Choice: Were it not for the promised delight on our daughter’s face at receiving her grandparent’s gift (and the relief of grandparents abroad upon learning their package had arrived safely), we might have turned heel and absconded for the safety of a café (or bar) in the nearby Recoleta barrio, where private mansions line the cobblestoned streets and lush, belle epoch-style restaurants compete for every centavo of our lunch money.

Full disclosure: In the end, we settled for... both. An hour earning an appetite in line at Correo Argentino (where we were eventually informed the package had “been approved” by the customs authority and would be delivered sometime “in the future”) was followed by a leisurely afternoon enjoying an al fresco luncheon at the wonderful Floreria Atlantico.

The contrast between the market economy on the one side, a throwback to bygone days of plenty here in Argentina... and the scourge of state monopoly on the other, a repugnant reality of the more recent past... could hardly be clearer. And yet, despite the conspicuous differences, stark enough that even an economics PhD might notice them, the case for free markets over central planning still remains the unread, “alternative” theory.

Why should this be the case? Given the choice, who in his right mind would opt for a coercive state monopoly over a voluntary market cornucopia? The TSA over Duty Free? Violence over voluntarism? The IRS over... well, keeping your own money? The answer, of course, is nobody. But that’s the thing about the state... there is no choice, as the tale of Lysander Spooner vs. the USPS illustrates.

Private vs Public: One-hundred and fifty years have passed since American individualist anarchist, staunch neo-abolitionist and proud owner of one of history’s coolest beards, Lysander Spooner, thought to question why the mail was so poorly run. Put simply: It’s the government, stupid!

As now, postal rates were notoriously high during the 1840s, a direct result, inferred Spooner, of the USPS’s monopoly status. Why charge less when there is no competition? Nobody’s going to undercut you…at any price. Similarly, why bother to offer better service? Nobody’s going to siphon off your customers. You’re the only game in town!

In response to the predictably outrageous rates and abysmal service, Spooner set about opening his American Letter Mail Company. He argued that the constitution (which he elsewhere referred to as the Constitution of No Authority, owing to its lack of implicit consent on the part of the governed), granted the state powers to establish mail…but not to exclude others from entering the marketplace too.

“The power given to Congress, is simply ‘to establish post-offices and post roads’ of their own, not to forbid similar establishments by the States or people,” wrote Spooner in his 1844 pamphlet, "The Unconstitutionality of the Laws of Congress," prohibiting Private Mails.

Pressing on the issue of unnatural, coercive monopolies, Spooner continued…"“The idea that the business of carrying letters is, in its nature, a unit, or monopoly, is derived from the practice of arbitrary governments, who have either made the business a monopoly in the hands of the government, or granted it as a monopoly to individuals. There is nothing in the nature of the business itself, any more than in the business of transporting passengers and merchandise, that should make it a monopoly, either in the hands of the government or of individuals.” Spooner’s pamphlet was published the same year his American Letter Mail Company went into business. The company had offices in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, among other cities.

The Statist Quo: Of course, Spooner’s analysis of the market for mail wasn’t restricted solely to ethical grounds. He saw what all astute entrepreneurs see when they decide to go into business…an opportunity to profit, in this case born by the dismal service and high prices commanded by the USPS, then as now. The market - defined as the voluntary individuals acting within it - was crying out for a competitive alternative to the USPS. And Spooner gave it to them, good and hard. His mail company significantly reduced the price of stamps, undercutting the government’s 12-cent standard, and even offered free local delivery on some routes. Hooray for faster, cheaper mail, right?

Needless to say, governments aren’t typically fond of competition. It’s bad for “business,” they say, without the slightest hint of irony. That’s why it maintains and enforces a self-granted monopoly on things like counterfeiting and levying taxes and putting people in cages. (Don’t believe us? Try inking your own dollars... or kidnapping your neighbor because he didn’t hand you a portion of his annual income.)

The case of Spooner vs. the USPS was no different and, after enduring years of fines and state-sponsored assaults on his enterprise, Spooner was finally forced out of business in 1851. But the story of Lysander Spooner and his American Letter Mail Company is not entirely a sad one. Through challenging the “statist-quo,” Spooner’s company proved what many at the time already knew: that the government is no match for private enterprise when it came to offering competitive prices for goods and services through its spontaneous ability to read and respond to the real world demands of the market.

(Interestingly enough, the USPS actually ended up offering a 3-cent stamp in direct response to the challenge from the American Letter Mail Company. Naturally, it was subsidized through government involvement... and was soon retracted after Spooner’s enterprise was out of the way.)

Something of a man before his time, embodying the true and individualist American spirit, Lysander Spooner dared question unnatural authority, rather than simply accepting the limits it forever seeks to impose on us. So the next time someone trots out that weary old trope, “Yes, but who would provide the [insert state-sponsored public disservice here] if not the government?” you can simply answer them, “Individuals would, my good sir…individuals, just like Lysander Spooner."

- https://joelbowman.substack.com/

Freely download "No Treason", by Lysander Spooner, here:

- https://ia902307.us.archive.org/

Dan, I Allegedly, "You're Not Paying, Here's The Proof!"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, AM 5/13/25

"You're Not Paying, Here's The Proof!"

"Banks know you’re not paying your bills, and the proof is staggering! In today’s video, I’m breaking down the jaw-dropping stats that show how much major banks are bracing for unpaid debts - over $34.87 billion set aside for bad loans! From skyrocketing credit card delinquencies to the struggles in real estate, especially with vacation homes, the financial world is shifting fast. Plus, I’m sharing insights on how wealthy investors are capitalizing on this turmoil by scooping up assets like music catalogs and more. We also touch on the surprising changes at Dollar General, Walmart’s plans for checkout systems, and even what’s happening with Elon Musk’s Cybertrucks. On top of all that, watch out for scams involving stolen checks and the insane theft strategies hitting mailboxes across the country. There’s so much to unpack in this video, and it’s a must-watch as we head into tougher economic times."

Comments here:

https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "This Is The Con-Job Of The Century, And We Are Out Of Time"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/13/25

"This Is The Con-Job Of The Century,

 And We Are Out Of Time"

- https://traderschoice.net

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Bill Bonner, "Tariff Deal Mania"

"Tariff Deal Mania"

by Bill Bonner

"I think they can have three dolls or four dolls because 

what we were doing with China was just unbelievable"

- Donald J. Trump

From the ranch at Gualfin, Salta Province - "What fun! Declare a National Emergency. Start a trade war. Then, put on tariffs at impossibly high levels. Stocks naturally sell off... along with bitcoin and oil. Then, let people know that you didn’t really mean it. A ‘pause!’ If it were true that the foreigners had been ripping us off...why let them continue to rip us off for another three months?

It’s a spectacle on the level of Wrestle Mania, emotionally, though lacking its intellectual depth. Sub farce. No subtlety. No ambiguity. No plot development. There are good guys - USA...USA...USA - and there are bad guys (everybody else) who have been taking advantage of us for decades. And then, when it becomes obvious that carpet bombing our trading partners and allies is less than optimum policy...the ‘war’ is called off...the outrageous tariffs are lifted...and guess what? Stocks, oil, and bitcoin bounce on cue.

A Big Win! Reuters: "S&P 500 jumps to over two-month high after US-China tariff truce. The S&P 500 hit its highest since early March on Monday as a crucial U.S.-China agreement to slash tariffs put investors worldwide at ease after weeks of uncertainty around the future of global trade. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.51% to an over one-month peak, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 3.34% to its highest in more than two months. The S&P 500 advanced 2.53%, surpassing its 200-day moving average for the first time since late March."

Alan Beattie at Trade Secrets summarizes the state of play so far: "Trump’s deals with China and the UK have one thing in common, which is - and please sit down if you’re prone to fainting - they’re not binding and they leave a huge amount of negotiation down the line. I know, right? In fact, it’s not 100 percent clear what they mean now, especially the China deal."

But the Straits Times thinks it knows: "Mr Xi Jinping’s decision to stand his ground against US President Donald Trump could hardly have gone any better for the Chinese leader. After two days of high-stakes talks in Switzerland, trade negotiators from the world’s biggest economies announced on May 12 a massive de-escalation in tariffs. In a carefully coordinated joint statement, the US slashed duties on Chinese products to 30 per cent from 145 per cent for a 90-day period, while Beijing dropped its levy on most goods to 10 per cent.

The dramatic reduction exceeded expectations in China, and sent the dollar and stocks soaring – providing some much-needed market relief for Mr Trump, who is facing pressure as inflation looks set to speed up at home. Chinese equities also surged."

In other words, according to the Art-of-the-Deal guy’s deal, the average American will pay three times as much in tariff taxes as the average Chinese. Big win? Reciprocal?

Just as with other forms of central planning, centralized trade policies are a scam. There is no evidence (NONE!) that bureaucrats in Washington can do a better job of making trade deals than independent buyers and sellers with skin in the game. But who cares? We’re into politics now, not economics. And while the price of stocks rose yesterday, the real value of America's capital continues to decline. In 2018, it took 22 ounces of gold to buy the 30 Dow stocks...now you only need 13.

Thus, it all hangs together - at least in our philosophy. Politics is win-lose. Economics is win-win. The greater the payoff from politics – that is, from lobbying, bribing, and brown-nosing politicians – the lower the payoff (and stock market values) of output-producing enterprises. Or, to put it another way…when the Primary Political Trend is up - towards more policies, legislation, and brute force – the Primary Trend in markets is down.

And maybe Mr. Trump is right; our children don’t need any more dolls. Prosperity isn’t everything. And maybe poverty and absurdity won’t be so bad. So, buckle up! And take this opportunity to sell the S&P. Stay tuned."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

o

"U.S., China Reach Agreement To

Lower Tariffs In 90-Day Cool-Off Period"

"Trump Forced To Back Off, There Is No Trade Deal, We're Just Buying Time"

Jeremiah Babe, 5/12/25

"Trump Forced To Back Off, 

There Is No Trade Deal, We're Just Buying Time"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind VI, "Spirit"

Full screen recommended.

Liquid Mind VI, "Spirit"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“The constellation of Orion is much more than three stars in a row. It is a direction in space that is rich with impressive nebulas. To better appreciate this well-known swath of sky, an extremely long exposure was taken over many clear nights in 2013 and 2014. After 212 hours of camera time and an additional year of processing, the featured 1400-exposure collage spanning over 40 times the angular diameter of the Moon emerged.

Of the many interesting details that have become visible, one that particularly draws the eye is Barnard’s Loop, the bright red circular filament arcing down from the middle. The Rosette Nebula is not the giant red nebula near the top of the image- that is a larger but lesser known nebula known as Lambda Orionis. The Rosette Nebula is visible, though: it is the red and white nebula on the upper left. The bright orange star just above the frame center is Betelgeuse, while the bright blue star on the lower right is Rigel. Other famous nebulas visible include the Witch Head Nebula, the Flame Nebula, the Fox Fur Nebula, and, if you know just where to look, the comparatively small Horsehead Nebula. About those famous three stars that cross the belt of Orion the Hunter- in this busy frame they can be hard to locate, but a discerning eye will find them just below and to the right of the image.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap151123.html

"Hang In There..."

“Using time, pressure and patience, the universe gradually changes caterpillars into butterflies, sand into pearls, and coal into diamonds. You’re being worked on too, so hang in there. Just because something isn’t apparent right now, doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. It’s not until the end do you realize, sometimes your biggest blessings were disguised by pain and suffering. They were not placed there to break you, but to make you.”

- “The Angel Affect”

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly.”

- Richard Bach

"Humanity Today..."

"Humanity today is like a waking dreamer, caught between the fantasies of sleep and the chaos of the real world. The mind seeks but cannot find the precise place and hour. We have created a Star Wars civilization, with Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. We thrash about. We are terribly confused by the mere fact of our existence, and a danger to ourselves and to the rest of life."

- Edward O. Wilson

“One of the penalties of being a human being is other human beings.”

- Christopher Morley, “Hide and Seek”

"How To See Things As They Are"

"How To See Things As They Are"

by David Cain

"I’m in the back room of a coffee shop right now, switching between writing and another mental exercise: pretending I’m not here. I don’t mean I’m wearing a disguise, or hiding behind a potted plant. I’m doing a perspective-shifting practice that I’d recommend to anyone: now and then, wherever you are, look at the scene in front of you as though it’s happening without you.

From any seat, or standing spot, anywhere - in an office, a breakfast diner, a public square, a waiting room - see your surroundings just as they’d be if you weren’t here to see them. Focus on the look and feel of the setting. The way the light lays across things. Take it in like a shot from a movie. Notice the movement and speech of people or animals, the soundscape and overall ambiance. It’s just a little corner of the world where things are unfolding, and you’re not here. Maybe nobody is.

When you do this, you might notice a certain lightness or simplicity arising. Things are more poignant. Everything seems less complicated, because it’s just stuff happening, not stuff happening to you.

I used to call this practice “dying on purpose” but that sounds a bit dramatic. Maybe “looking at the world as though you don’t exist” is better, but a good way to understand how to do that is to simply watch what’s happening here as though you’ve died, or maybe never existed at all.

Right now, in this back room, there’s a long communal table, with three students working in front of a spread of laptops and textbooks. There’s music playing - a band that sounds like the Cranberries. Framed by the doorway to the front of the shop is short-haired, golden dog (this place allows animals) waiting for its owner to order. No humans are visible but there’s a lot of easygoing chatter. The far wall is all window, with potted plants on hanging shelves silhouetted against the mid-day brightness outside. Someone comes to pet the dog. There’s a warm, neighborly feeling in the room. Now the not-Cranberries song is over, and a Beach House song comes on.

This vignette, seen in a certain way - as though it is happening, but not happening to me - can be just what it is, without any entanglement with my own interests. None of my reflexive moral judgments are present. The angle of the sun doesn’t remind me of everything I still have to get done today. Seeing twenty-year-old students doesn’t make me wish I was younger. Because I’m not here. It’s just life unfolding, and on its own it’s beautiful.

We have a habit of looking at what surrounds us through a self-referential lens. We don’t just see a thing, we see the way that thing fits, or doesn’t fit, into our lives. Seeing a luxury car might elicit judgment, or envy, or brand loyalty. Seeing someone enjoying what seems to be a day off might remind you that you do not have the day off.

It’s not that we all think we’re the center of the universe. But our lives do tend to feel something like The Biggest, Most Pressing Thing Ever to Happen, when it’s really only a short thread running through a vast, endless fabric of happenings that is life on Earth.

Even a short glimpse of something as it is- of any scene free from entanglement with our stories -comes with relief. What you witness in this way still has meaning, but it’s intrinsic meaning, like beauty, or some nameless quality. The meaning isn’t “What this means for me and my ongoing story.”

Those short glimpses are always available, by looking at what’s before you as though it’s happening without you. Every scene has its own signature, its own identity to express, which can only come through when it’s not mixed up with yours.

It’s not hard to achieve this perspective, for a few seconds anyway. Just see it as it would be if you weren’t there. This parking lot. This row of houses. This quiet kitchen. It looks exactly the same, but it feels different to see it this way.

When you look at a bug climbing a railing - at least for a moment, it’s nothing but a bug climbing a railing.

When you sit down with your coffee - just for a moment, the coffee shop is happening just as it does on days you’re not there, or as it might after you die.

When you look in the closet - just for a moment, it’s only clothing, hanging there quietly, as it does when nobody’s standing there choosing how they’re going to look today."

- https://www.raptitude.com/

"Streets of Kensington Ave, Philadelphia"

Full screen recommended, if you can stomach it.

Kensington StreetView, May 12, 2025

"Streets of Kensington Ave, Philadelphia"

"Problems with drugs and crime on Kensington Ave, Philadelphia's most dangerous street. In Philadelphia as a whole, violent crime and drug abuse are major issues. The city has a higher rate of violent crime than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas. The drug overdose rate in Philadelphia is also concerning. Between 2013 and 2015, the number of drug overdose deaths in the city increased by 50%, with more than twice as many deaths from overdoses as homicides. Kensington's high crime rate and drug abuse contribute significantly to Philadelphia's problems.

Because of the high number of drugs in the neighborhood, Kensington has the third-highest drug crime rate by neighborhood in Philadelphia, at 3.57. The opioid epidemic has played a significant role in this problem, as it has in much of the rest of the country. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed in the United States over the last two decades, and Philadelphia is no exception. In addition to having a high rate of drug overdose deaths, 80% of Philadelphia's overdose deaths involved opioids, and Kensington is a significant contributor to this figure. This Philadelphia neighborhood is said to have the largest open-air heroin market on the East Coast, with many neighbors migrating to the area for heroin and other opioids. With such a high concentration of drugs in Kensington, many state and local officials have focused on the neighborhood in an attempt to address Philadelphia's problem."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended, if you can stand it.

"Opiod Addiction (Xylazine/Fentanyl) 

Is Killing Every 11 Minutes In America"

Filmed in Kensington, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Orland Park, Illinois, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"What Foolish Forgetfulness..."

“You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, so all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last. You have all the fears of mortals and all the desires of immortals… What foolish forgetfulness of mortality to defer wise resolutions to the fiftieth or sixtieth year, and to intend to begin life at a point to which few have attained.”

- Denis Diderot

"The Great Enemy..."

"In a society in which nearly everybody is dominated by somebody else's mind or by a disembodied mind, it becomes increasingly difficult to learn the truth about the activities of governments and corporations, about the quality or value of products, or about the health of one's own place and economy.

In such a society, also, our private economies will depend less and less upon the private ownership of real, usable property, and more and more upon property that is institutional and abstract, beyond individual control, such as money, insurance policies, certificates of deposit, stocks, and shares. And as our private economies become more abstract, the mutual, free helps and pleasures of family and community life will be supplanted by a kind of displaced or placeless citizenship and by commerce with impersonal and self-interested suppliers...

Thus, although we are not slaves in name, and cannot be carried to market and sold as somebody else's legal chattels, we are free only within narrow limits. For all our talk about liberation and personal autonomy, there are few choices that we are free to make. What would be the point, for example, if a majority of our people decided to be self-employed?

The great enemy of freedom is the alignment of political power with wealth. This alignment destroys the commonwealth - that is, the natural wealth of localities and the local economies of household, neighborhood, and community - and so destroys democracy, of which the commonwealth is the foundation and practical means."

 - Wendell Berry, 

"The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays"

"Tell Yourself..."

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.”

- Louise Erdrich

"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."

- https://internationalman.com/

"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:

- https://www.youtube.com/

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."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

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."

- https://www.kunstler.com/