Bill Bonner, "A Big, Beautiful, Abomination"

"A Big, Beautiful, Abomination"

by Bill Bonner

"I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore... This massive, outrageous, 

pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination."

- Elon Musk on Donald Trump’s Big, Beautiful Budget Bill

Youghal, Ireland - "He drove up in a BMW at great speed and skidded to a halt in front of the kitchen. The door opened...out poked a cane with a silver handle. There unfolded a tall, dignified man in his 70s. Germanic in his stature. Teutonic in his bearing. Prussian in his manner. His driver’s license had been taken away in his native Germany, so he moved to the South of France. Now he had come to visit us.

Dr. Kurt Richebacher walked with a limp, a souvenir from WWII. More important were his recollections of the war years in Germany. “We all knew it was crazy,” the Wehrmacht veteran once told us, banging his cane on the table for emphasis. “But the whole apparatus of the government, politics, the media, big industry - all of it - was lined up to support the war. Big business made its money from the war. Mothers had sent their sons off to fight the war. Politicians argued about the best strategies to win the war... but none really questioned it. You couldn’t oppose it, or you’d be a traitor.” Kurt reminded us that money isn’t everything. And there are times when having a clear head about it doesn’t help much.

We feel fairly confident in our money outlook: For all intents and purposes Donald Trump’s MAGA program is going nowhere. The ‘reciprocal’ tariffs were abandoned after the stock market began its plunge. And Elon Musk’s efforts to identify ‘waste, inefficiency and fraud’ got the ol’ rug pull when Republican lawmakers failed to include any of the cuts he identified in their Big, Beautiful Budget Bill (BBBB)

The two programs - the trade war and DOGE - were already stuck in the mud. And then, federal courts have ruled them unconstitutional! Yes, after a 90-year nap, judges - appointed by Republicans as well as Democrats - suddenly seemed to wake up... rubbed the sleep from their eyes ... and realized that the US Constitution was still the law of the land.

So those money initiatives are dead in the water. So too is the most important part of Trump’s economic agenda (although Trump may not realize it), the Big, Beautiful, Budget Bill itself. Any hope of really making America great again depends on bringing federal spending under control. With the House and the Senate both in Republican hands, it seemed as though there was at least a chance that spending might be slowed, giving the economy an opportunity to catch up.

But no...that didn’t happen either. And Musk is right. Instead of tightening its federal belt, the BBBB, more than 1,100 pages of grift and grab, is ‘a disgusting abomination.’ It increases spending...deficits...and the US debt. It is essentially ‘more of the same’ that will bring us to a $60 trillion debt within ten years. If...all goes well.

In an historical sense, this is as it should be. Since 1999, the US empire has been doing the sorts of things that empires do when they get long in the tooth and short in the purse - with unnecessary military spending, unnecessary wars, and unnecessary deficits and debt. These ‘more of the same’ programs merely confirm and reinforce the Primary Trend.

But Kurt was warning us; there are worse things. When people got sent to the death camps...or to the Eastern Front... they typically forgot to worry about whether they had paid the electric bill. They had other things to think about. Things more important than money. And when things go really bad, few can say so. In WWII, Germany pursued a preposterously bad economic policy (directing at one point half the nation’s GDP toward the military), but economists mostly kept their mouths closed.

Kurt knew that from personal experience. He lived through it. Stuck in a military hospital for months...he took up the study of economics. “The Nazis even threatened to put me in prison. But my father still had some influence. He got me sent to the Eastern Front. I’m not sure which was worse.”

And now that the MAGA economic agenda has been clarified, the financial future is predictable. Trade agreements will be renegotiated... court decisions will be challenged and resolved...and the House and Senate will blither and blather and ultimately keep doing what they’ve been doing for the last half a century.

Senator Rand Paul: "If I vote for the $5 trillion debt, who's left in Washington that cares about the debt? The GOP will own the debt once they vote for this." The money future is dark and depressing. But the non-money future may be the one to worry about. Stay tuned.

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Musical Interlude: Leonard Cohen, "Hallelujah"

Leonard Cohen, "Hallelujah"

"I did my best, it wasn't much,

I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch.

I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you.

And even though it all went wrong

I'll stand before the Lord of song

With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah..."

I'll be back, soon...

"Debtor's Island"

Approaching the ancient Island of Delos, home of the Delian League,

 and scene of the world’s first “sovereign debt default.”

"Debtor's Island"

by Joel Bowman

“May you have plenty of wealth, you men of Ephesus,

 in order that you may be punished for your evil ways.”

~ Heraclitus (per Diogenes Laërtius in his 

“Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers,” 

circa. 220–250 AD

Syros, Greece - “Change is the only constant,” observed the pre-Socratic philosopher, Heraclitus, more than two and a half millennia ago. Clever fellow, that ol’ Ephesian. But even if “no man ever steps in the same river twice,” history does tend to rhyme. The tale of sovereign debt defaults, that tragi-comic play in which Greece has earned a recurring, sometimes starring role, provides a useful example.

Regular readers will recognize the timely subject as a familiar circus rolls into town over in the United States. From Fox Business: "Treasury's Bessent says US is 'never going to default' as debt limit deadline looms. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday said that the U.S. government will never default on its debt as the federal government faces a looming deadline to address the debt limit this summer.

Bessent appeared on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” and was asked about the tax package that Republicans in Congress are advancing, which includes a $4 trillion increase in the debt limit – enough to push the debt ceiling out roughly two years given federal budget deficits are close to $2 trillion annually.

CBS' Margaret Brennan asked Bessent, “How close of a brush with default could this be” given potential changes to the bill and Congress needing to raise the debt limit by mid-July. “Well, first of all, Margaret, I will say the United States of America is never going to default,” Bessent replied. “That is never going to happen, that we are on the warning track and we will never hit the wall.” How... quaint. But let us return to our historical example...

Empires in Ruins: Not unlike in our adopted country of Argentina, much editorial ink has been spilled describing the ongoing cycles of economic crisis here, in the jewel of the Aegean. (Our guess is that much more will be spilled before it is over… should that day ever actually arrive.) Certainly, shirking one’s debt is nothing new for the Hellens.

Indeed, history’s first recorded “sovereign debt default” occurred not far from where we sit today, on the island of Delos, historical centerpiece of the Cyclades archipelago and mythological birthplace of Apollo. (We journeyed with dear wifey to the “floating island” over the weekend, as part of a surprise birthday expedition.)

There’s a lot of ruin in an empire… and plenty of empires in ruins.

Historically, as today, the tiny island produced very little of real world value… thus making it the ideal meeting place for the bloviating congresses of the ancient Delian League. Leto, mythological daughter of Titans Coeus and Phoebe, beseeched the island while searching for a birthplace for her twins, Artemis and Apollo:

"Delos, if you would be willing to be the abode of my son Phoebus Apollo and make him a rich temple -; for no other will touch you, as you will find: and I think you will never be rich in oxen and sheep, nor bear vintage nor yet produce plants abundantly. But if you have the temple of far-shooting Apollo, all men will bring you hecatombs and gather here, and incessant savour of rich sacrifice will always arise, and you will feed those who dwell in you from the hand of strangers; for truly your own soil is not rich." ~ Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo 51-60. And so it was that, for a time, the Temple flourished… until the wealth residing therein became too alluring for the many hands grabbing at it.

In the years following the end of the Persian Wars, a dozen or so municipalities drew loans from the Temple of Delos, the Delian League capital where the vast treasures of the confederation of the Greek city-states were kept. But in 454 B.C., a few of the debtors came up short on their repayments. These defaults cost the temple dearly, inspiring Pericles to “relocate” the treasury to Athens. Needless to say, the Hellens’ propensity for borrowing too much and repaying too little would not be bound by mere geography. Nor, it seems, by the passage of time.

The Modern Era: The first default of the Modern Era occurred during the Greek War of Independence. As America has spent the better part of this century discovering, from “Mission Unaccomplished” in Iraq to their costly misadventure in Afghanistan (dubbed the “Graveyard of Empires”) onto bombing campaigns in Syria and Libya and, for the past two years, funding a proxy war in The Ukraine, war can be an expensive business… even for the “winning” team.

And so it was that, while raging to throw off the yoke of Ottoman rule in 1824, the Greeks ran up debts of nearly half a million pounds… to which was added another 1.1 million pounds the following year. As the War of Independence descended into civil war, the loans went unpaid… all the while accruing interest. (It wasn’t until more than half a century later, in 1878, that the Greek government made good on the debt, which by then had reached the titanic sum of roughly 10 million pounds.)

Nevertheless, Greece did win her independence in the year 1832, an occasion she celebrated by promptly incurring still more debts, this time totaling around 60,000,000 francs, to the governments of Britain, France and Russia. That’s about the time a curious historical figure by the name of Otto Friedrich Ludwig became King of Greece. Still a minor when bequeathed the throne, the young Bavarian found himself in the difficult position of having simultaneously to satisfy his restless constituents on one hand, who demanded continuous handouts and lavish social programs, and keeping his creditors appeased on the other. No easy task, not even for a great statesman, which, by many accounts, poor Otto was not. In the words of historian Thomas Gallant, the ruling philhellene was “neither ruthless enough to be feared, nor compassionate enough to be loved, nor competent enough to be respected.”

This Time Isn’t Different: Payments on the loans ceased in 1843, the same year popular rebellion found its way to the Palace of Athens. Otto’s own story ended in exile and death in the year 1862, 16 years before the loans were eventually repaid and the international capital markets again reopened to the country over which he had once ruled.

The river of time might have changed course and flow, but the waters were the same. As before, lenders and borrowers took to their queer, mutually destructive arrangement like drunks to an ouzo bottle. By 1893, debts having risen to familiarly unsustainable levels, the government once again suspended payments on external debt. Five years later, under growing foreign pressure, Greece found herself beholden to a kind of Old School “Austerity Bureau,” bearing the unimaginative title of the International Committee for Greek Debt Management.

Against all natural inclination, the government managed to keep its nose clean until the Great Depression when, in 1932, it joined a queue of other countries in the now-familiar default line. This was to be the longest of the five defaults of the Modern Era and would last until 1964, more than three decades.

All in all, the Greeks have found themselves in default more often than not since becoming an independent state. Economists Reinhart and Rogoff highlighted this ignominious fact in their book, "This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly." Between 1800 and the crisis of 2008, according to the authors, Greece spent 50.6% of her time either in outright default or rescheduling her debt. (Only Angola, Ecuador and Honduras spent longer in the proverbial poor house.)

But who knows? Maybe this time really is different? Maybe Greece will learn to live within her means? Maybe America will abandon her hubristic military misadventures abroad? Maybe the feds – from Athens to DC and beyond – will ditch their phony fiat “money” and return instead to a gold standard? And maybe we’ll all fly off into a golden sunset... on wings made of wax."

"Stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World..."

- https://joelbowman.substack.com/

Bill Bonner, "Semper Augustus: End of the Golden Age"

A Semper Augustus Tulip

"Semper Augustus: End of the Golden Age"

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "On our way back from Argentina, we stopped over in Amsterdam. It was our first visit to the city. It is late spring in Europe. Cold and rainy when we arrived, the weather turned beautiful on the weekend.

Every dog has its day. And the Dutch Republic - precursor to today’s Netherlands - had its day in the mid-17th century. It broke away from the Spanish Empire in 1579 and became the richest place in the world with a far-flung empire of its own.

Today, the country is still prosperous…and attractive. Everything is clean and well-maintained - the highways, buildings, factories. Even the farms are exceptionally orderly. It’s a small country, so space there is little wasted ground, with cultivated fields close up against housing developments, cities, and factories.

One of the first things you notice is the lack of noise. Most of the cars are parked along the leafy streets. And those few in motion are quiet. They are almost all electric. People get around on bicycles…millions of them. The loudest sound you hear is the tching tching of bicycle bells warning you to get off the bike path or you will be run down. Many of the two-wheelers are electric, too. And the flat, small country - with its abundance of bicycle lanes - is ideal for them.

Another thing you notice is an absence of fat. The Dutch are big, but rarely do you see American-style heft. Perhaps that, too, is a consequence of the bicycle culture.

There are also various species of tiny electric vehicles that we had not seen elsewhere. They are so short they park perpendicular to the sidewalk…and so small and quiet, they must be well suited to in-town driving.

Even the quietest residential areas are punctuated by restaurants, bars and shops. The overall effect is one of calm elegance along with urban convenience. It seems like a nice place to live, where you can leave your house and find a good restaurant or coffee shop within walking distance.

We did not go into the Rijksmuseum. We’ve never seen a line we wanted to join…and the queue to buy tickets for the museum was one of them. Apparently, we didn’t miss much. “The Rijksmuseum was terrible,” came the eyewitness report, tipping us off. “It is very crowded… and noisy. There are great pieces of art from the Golden Age - Vermeer, Rembrandt, et al - but the most popular works have hordes of tourists gawking at them… with tour guides loudly giving out information and opinions. Probably better to go in the winter.”

Instead, we took a taxi to the Hague to visit the quieter Mauritshuis museum, focused completely on the Dutch Masters. “People in the Hague are nicer than those in Amsterdam,” said our Hague-based driver. But there, too, we were almost turned away… “You didn’t reserve? I’m sorry but the museum is full,” said the tall, thin blond. Then, calling someone on a walkie-talkie… “Wait…it’s okay…you can go in…”

It is a large private mansion that has been repurposed as a museum. What surprised us about it was how many Dutch masters there were… and how very good they were. Of course, many of the paintings are well known throughout the world. But the visitor is still impressed; the level of expertise - capturing light and shadow…facial expressions… and telling stories - is extraordinary.

What does it take to have a ‘Golden Age?’ Ancient Lydia had its day in the sun, making its king ‘as rich as Croesus.’ Greece had its golden age, too, which came to an end when Athens banned trade with Sparta and set off the Peloponnesian War. Hollywood had a golden age — between the 1920s and the 1960s. Golden ages, like empires and head colds, come and go.

With only 1.5 million people…and a tiny surface area…the Dutch Republic flourished from trade. It bought and sold. Did it get ‘ripped off’ by its trading partners? The question seems absurd. If they felt they were being ripped off…Dutch merchants wouldn’t do the trade!

It was not only free trade that brought the Dutch wealth. Freedom of religion and freedom of movement also contributed. Jews from Spain and Portugal. Protestants from France. Thinkers and tinkers from all over Europe found freedom in the Dutch Republic. Descartes, Bayle, Locke, Spinoza - all took refuge in Holland. And the new immigrants brought fresh ideas…and capital.

New products came in too. In the 17th century, Europeans were expanding their trade routes into Africa, Asia and the Americas. They brought back tobacco, tomatoes, potatoes and many other products never before available in Europe. With the new imports…and the new immigrants…Amsterdam became what New Amsterdam (aka New York) was to become years later - a dynamic melting pot.

But none of the arrivals had the effect of a plant that came from the Ottoman Empire - the tulip. It caught the eye not only of gardeners, but of investors. One of the innovations made by the Dutch was futures markets. They could bet on the future…using markets not only to set current prices, but also the prices that people expected tomorrow.

Typically, the tulips flowered in the springtime…and then the bulb was dug up and stored. For the autumn and the winter, the bulb stayed where it was. It was the ‘underlying’ asset. But the trades were made on paper. Prices soared on the most desirable bulbs - such as the Semper Augustus.

The buyers often borrowed, using their other bulb holdings - on paper - as collateral. And so it went for the proto-crypto traders; they began to see they could get rich just by trading things they would never see. Prices went up further and further… each one a measure of hope. Until…until…the future came.

In February 1637 an auction was held. This time, there were no buyers. Word quickly got around that there may be no one willing to buy the bulbs. Prices collapsed. Promises went unfulfilled. Loans went unpaid. Contracts were torn up. The bulbs - real things - were still there. But the ‘paper’ wealth disappeared. The Dutch ‘Golden Age,’ however, continued for another 65 years… until the death of Prince William III in 1702. Or, so they say."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Musical Interlude: 2002, "A Gift of Life"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "A Gift of Life"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"A star cluster around 2 million years young surrounded by natal clouds of dust and glowing gas, M16 is also known as The Eagle Nebula. This beautifully detailed image of the region adopts the colorful Hubble palette and includes cosmic sculptures made famous in Hubble Space Telescope close-ups of the starforming complex.

Described as elephant trunks or Pillars of Creation, dense, dusty columns rising near the center are light-years in length but are gravitationally contracting to form stars. Energetic radiation from the cluster stars erodes material near the tips, eventually exposing the embedded new stars. Extending from the ridge of bright emission left of center is another dusty starforming column known as the Fairy of Eagle Nebula. M16 lies about 7,000 light-years away, an easy target for binoculars or small telescopes in a nebula rich part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail of the snake)."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210909.html

"The Long Dark"

"The Long Dark"

by Chris Floyd

"We are in the Long Dark now. Both hope and despair are the enemies of our survival. We must live in the awareness that we might not see the light come back, without ceasing to work - with empathy, anger and knowledge - for its return.

We must be here, in the moment, experiencing its fullness (whatever its horrors or joys), yet be elsewhere, removed from the madness pouring in from every side, the avalanche of degradation. We must be here, now, but also in a future we can’t see or even imagine.

We must see that we are lost, with no clear way forward, no sureties or verities to cling to, no roots to anchor us, no structures within or without that will always keep their coalescence in the chaotic, surging flow.

We must live in discrete moments of illumination and connection, pearls hung on an almost invisible string winding through the darkness. Striving, always striving, but not expecting; striving without hope, without despair, without any certainty at all as to the outcome, good or bad.

These are the conditions of the Long Dark, this is what we have to work with, this is where we find ourselves in the brief time we have in this vast, indifferent, astounding universe. As I once wrote long ago, quoting the old hymn: “Work, for the night is coming.”

So do we counsel fatalism, a dark, defeated surrender, a retreat into bitter, curdled quietude? Not a whit. We advocate action, positive action, unstinting action, doing the only thing that human beings can do, ever: Try this, try that, try something else again; discard those approaches that don't work, that wreak havoc, that breed death and cruelty; fight against everything that would draw us down again into our own mud; expect no quarter, no lasting comfort, no true security; offer no last word, no eternal truth, but just keep stumbling, falling, careening, backsliding, crawling toward the broken light.

And what is this "broken light"? Nothing more than a metaphor for the patches of understanding – awareness, attention, knowledge, connection – that break through our darkness and stupidity for a moment now and then. A light always fractured, under threat, shifting, found then lost again, always lost. For we are creatures steeped in imperfection, in breakage and mutation, tossed up – very briefly – from the boiling, chaotic crucible of Being, itself a ragged work in progress toward unknown ends, or rather, toward no particular end at all. Why should there be an "answer" in such a reality?

What matters is what works – what pulls us from our own darkness as far as possible, for as long as possible. Yet the truth remains that "what works" is always and forever only provisional – what works now, here, might not work there, then. What saves our soul today might make us sick tomorrow.

Thus all we can do is to keep looking, working, trying to clear a little more space for the light, to let it shine on our passions and our confusions, our anger and our hopes, informing and refining them, so that we can see each other better, for a moment – until death shutters all seeing forever."

- http://www.chris-floyd.com/home/

Kahlil Gibran, "The Prophet: On Good and Evil "

"The Prophet: On Good and Evil"

 "Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.

For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?

Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves,

and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.

You are good when you are one with yourself.

Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.

For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house.

And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among

perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom.

You are good when you strive to give of yourself.

Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself.

For when you strive for gain you are but a root

that clings to the earth and sucks at her breast.

Surely the fruit cannot say to the root,

 Be like me, ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance.

For to the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need to the root.

You are good when you are fully awake in your speech,

Yet you are not evil when you sleep

while your tongue staggers without purpose.

And even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue.

You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps.

Yet you are not evil when you go thither limping.

Even those who limp go not backward.

But you who are strong and swift,

see that you do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness.

You are good in countless ways,

and you are not evil when you are not good,

You are only loitering and sluggard.

Pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the turtles.

In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness:

and that longing is in all of you.

But in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with might to the sea,

carrying the secrets of the hillsides and the songs of the forest.

And in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles and

bends and lingers before it reaches the shore.

But let not him who longs much say to him who longs little,

 Wherefore are you slow and halting?

For the truly good ask not the naked,

 Where is your garment?

nor the houseless, What has befallen your house?"

- Kahlil Gibran

○

Freely download a PDF version of  "The Prophet" here:

- https://www.kahlilgibran.com/

"Is It Any Wonder..."

"Thomas Edison said in all seriousness: "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the labor of thinking" - if we bother with facts at all, we hunt like bird dogs after the facts that bolster up what we already think - and ignore all the others! We want only the facts that justify our acts - the facts that fit in conveniently with our wishful thinking and justify our preconceived prejudices. As Andre Maurois put it: "Everything that is in agreement with our personal desires seems true. Everything that is not puts us into a rage." Is it any wonder, then, that we find it so hard to get at the answers to our problems? Wouldn't we have the same trouble trying to solve a second-grade arithmetic problem, if we went ahead on the assumption that two plus two equals five? Yet there are a lot of people in this world who make life a hell for themselves and others by insisting that two plus two equals five- or maybe five hundred!"

- Dale Carnegie

"Crisis At American Ports: Massive Traffic Decline Collapsing The Supply Chain, Disruption Everywhere"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 6/2/25

"Crisis At American Ports: Massive Traffic Decline

 Collapsing The Supply Chain, Disruption Everywhere"

"Our ports are emptying all across the country. The US economy is in big trouble. Imports are collapsing by record amounts. Trade is grinding to a halt. Import data, manufacturing indicators, GDP growth figures have all turned negative. America is doing very poorly right now. We're going to show you the real numbers and the picture isn't pretty. It seems like the American economy is giving up. And that's because we are losing this trade war with ourselves. After all the big talk about "America First" and bringing manufacturing back, our economy is willing to crash instead. The US just announced that GDP contracted by 0.3% in the first quarter. And the reason behind America's economic surrender is simple - the US economy is crashing and it's crashing fast."

Comments here:

https://www.youtube.com/

The Daily "Near You?

Irwin, Pennsylvania, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"War..."

"War doesn't determine who is right - only who's left."

- Bertrand Russell

"Since the rise of the state some 5,000 years ago, military activity has occurred over much of the globe. The advent of gunpowder and the acceleration of technological advances led to modern warfare. According to Conway W. Henderson, "One source claims that 14,500 wars have taken place between 3500 BC and the late 20th century, costing 3.5 billion lives, leaving only 300 years of peace (Beer 1981: 20).] An unfavorable review of this estimate mentions the following regarding one of the proponents of this estimate: "In addition, perhaps feeling that the war casualties figure was improbably high, he changed 'approximately 3,640,000,000 human beings have been killed by war or the diseases produced by war' to 'approximately 1,240,000,000 human beings...&c.'" The lower figure is more plausible but could still be on the high side considering that the 100 deadliest acts of mass violence between 480 BC and 2002 AD (wars and other man-made disasters with at least 300,000 and up to 66 million victims) claimed about 455 million human lives in total."

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War

○

"7 Hard Questions That Everyone Should Be Asking About The 'Pearl Harbor' Attack On Russia"

"7 Hard Questions That Everyone Should Be

 Asking About The 'Pearl Harbor' Attack On Russia"

by Michael Snyder

"In a world where deception is running rampant, it is so important to question the narratives that we are being fed. Ukraine’s “Pearl Harbor” attack on Russia was extremely impressive, and it appears that quite a bit of damage was done. But we are also extremely fortunate that this attack did not spark a nuclear war. If our nuclear bombers at Minot Air Force Base, Barksdale Air Force Base, and Whiteman Air Force Base were hit in a surprise attack, would we show similar restraint? We are literally closer to nuclear war right now than we have ever been in all of human history, and those that are mindlessly celebrating Ukraine’s recklessness don’t seem to have any idea. Striking Russia’s strategic nuclear assets is a really, really, really bad idea. Now Vladimir Putin will feel compelled to respond very forcefully, and the Ukrainians are very much counting on that. The following are 7 hard questions that everyone should be asking about the “Pearl Harbor” attack on Russia…

#1 Does anyone actually believe that Ukraine was able to pull this off without any outside help? It seems doubtful that the Ukrainians could have planned, organized and pulled off an operation of this magnitude without any western assistance. Apparently the drones that were used in the attack were hidden inside the roofs of wooden sheds which were driven to their locations by truck drivers that had no idea what their trucks were carrying…"Ukraine was able to carry out its stunning “Operation Spider Web” attack on Russian air bases and nuclear fleet by hiding explosives-laden drones in wooden sheds, according to officials.

Kyiv’s secret service (SBU) stashed the attack drones inside the roofs of the sheds, which were loaded onto trucks that were driven to the perimeter of the air bases, Ukrainian authorities revealed in a statement shared on social media. The roof panels were then lifted off by a remotely activated device so the 117 drones used in the strikes could fly out and make their devastating attacks."

That is a brilliant plan. Perhaps the Ukrainians came up with it themselves. But how did they get the precise coordinates of the targets that they were going to hit? And how were the drones guided to those precise coordinates? We definitely need some answers, but I don’t think we are going to get them.

#2 Other than the Ukrainians, who knew about this attack in advance? The Ukrainians and the Trump administration are both telling us that President Trump did not know about this attack in advance…"Ukraine did not notify the Trump administration of the attack in advance, a Ukrainian official said. A U.S. official also told reporters the Trump administration was not made aware of the attack."

I do think that there is a very good chance that President Trump had no idea this attack was coming. Of course even if he did know the attack was going to happen in advance, officials would still deny it in order to protect him. For the moment, let’s assume that Trump knew nothing. Okay, but what about everyone else? Are we supposed to believe that nobody else knew anything about a major operation that the Ukrainians had been working on for a year and a half? Somebody knew something, and we need to know when they knew it.

#3 Why were Russian bombers just sitting out in the open? Having extremely expensive bombers just sitting out in the open seems like a really foolish thing to do. But the truth is that there is a very good reason why nuclear bombers are kept out in the open where everyone can see them…"For decades, treaties kept nukes in check, bombers had to be out in the open, silos sealed, so nobody could pull off a surprise strike." It was the thin line stopping World War III. Zelensky shattered it all in one move. He threw out the rules, erased decades of stability, and threw us straight back into Cold War chaos. Anyone who helped make this happen isn’t just reckless,they’re a danger to the entire planet. And people actually celebrating this? Completely out of their minds.

#4 How much damage was actually done? The Ukrainians are claiming that more than 40 aircraft were hit during the attack and a total of approximately 7 billion dollars in damage was done…"Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has officially confirmed it carried out a major drone strike against Russian military airfields, damaging or destroying what it claims is 34 percent of Russia’s strategic cruise missile carriers, in a long-planned covert operation codenamed “Spiderweb.”

The SBU said the strikes, which targeted airfields housing Russia’s long-range bombers, resulted in an estimated $7 billion in damage – a figure that has not yet been independently verified. “Seven billion US dollars. This is the estimated cost of the enemy’s strategic aviation, which was hit today as a result of a special operation by the SBU – ‘Spiderweb,’” the agency said in a statement released Sunday, June 1.

But other sources are claiming that the damage was far less extensive…"Judging by the images, four Tu-22M3 bombers and three Tu-95MS bombers were likely destroyed during the operation. In addition, one Tu-95MS was probably damaged." What everyone can agree on is that Russian strategic nuclear bombers were hit, and this could have easily sparked a nuclear war.

#5 The Ukrainians know that Russia reserves the right to use nuclear weapons if their strategic nuclear assets are attacked. So why would Ukraine risk this? As Scott Ritter has aptly pointed out, the Russians recently updated their nuclear doctrine to specifically address the kind of attack that just happened…"In 2024 Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s nuclear doctrine to be updated to consider the complicated geopolitical realities that had emerged from the ongoing Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine, where the conflict had morphed into a proxy war between the collective west (NATO and the US) and Russia.

The new doctrine declared that nuclear weapons would be authorized for use in case of an “aggression against the Russian Federation and (or) its allies by any non-nuclear state with the participation or support of a nuclear state is considered as their joint attack.” Russia’s nuclear arsenal would also come into play in the event of “actions by an adversary affecting elements of critically important state or military infrastructure of the Russian Federation, the disablement of which would disrupt response actions by nuclear forces.”

Thankfully, the Russians showed restraint and did not use nukes. But do we really want to bet the continued existence of our society on the ability of Vladimir Putin to show restraint every time the Ukrainians provoke him?

#6 How will the Russians respond? Many in the Russian media are openly discussing the possibility of using nuclear weapons in response to this attack…"Russian papers and military bloggers are discussing the prospect of Russia using nuclear weapons to strike Ukraine after Kyiv launched brutal strikes on Vladimir Putin’s airbases. The country is reeling after Ukrainian drones are reported to have destroyed more than £5 billion worth of strategic bombers in what some pro-Kremlin commentators have described as Russia’s “Pearl Harbour”.

Thankfully, Vladimir Putin isn’t going to use nukes at this stage. But everyone agrees that he will strike back really hard. Will he use his new Oreshnik missiles against Ukraine? Will Ukrainian cities be targeted? Unfortunately, it probably won’t be too long before we find out what Putin intends to do.

#7 Why would the Ukrainians conduct such an attack if they knew that the Russians would strike back really hard? Many have pointed out that the “Pearl Harbor” attack came just prior to the peace talks in Istanbul. If Ukraine really wanted to give those talks a chance to succeed, they wouldn’t have launched such an attack right before they started. But this attack wasn’t really about the peace talks at all.

When the Ukrainians first started planning this operation, they had no idea that these peace talks would happen. Ultimately, the primary goal of this operation was not to derail peace talks. Rather, the primary goal of this operation was to provoke a Russian response that is so large that it will force NATO to join the war.

The Ukrainians understand that the only way that they can win this war is to get NATO involved. That is why they invaded Kursk, that is why they tried to shoot down Putin’s helicopter, and that is why they just attacked Russia’s strategic nuclear bombers. They need the Russians to do something so dramatic that it will finally drag NATO directly into the conflict.

Of course once we are directly at war with Russia, we will be just one step away from the unthinkable. So I really hope that President Trump can see through the charade and understand what is really going on. There is going to be so much pressure on him during the days ahead, and ultimately he will be the one that decides which way things go."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"It's Officially A Crisis And It's Spreading Fast!"

Full screen recommended.

Steven Van Metre, 6/2/25

"It's Officially A Crisis And It's Spreading Fast!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"My Own View..."

“My own view is that this planet is used as a penal colony, lunatic asylum and

dumping ground by a superior civilization, to get rid of the undesirable and unfit.

I can’t prove it, but you can’t disprove it either.”

- Christopher Hitchens

"How It Really Is"

 

“I propose that it shall be no longer malum in se for a citizen to pummel, cowhide, kick, gouge, cut, wound, bruise, maim, burn, club, bastinado, flay, or even lynch a government jobholder, and that it shall be malum prohibitum only to the extent that the punishment exceeds the jobholder’s deserts. The amount of this excess, if any, may be determined very conveniently by a petit jury, as other questions of guilt are now determined. The flogged judge, or Congressman, or other jobholder, on being discharged from hospital- or his chief heir, in case he has perished- goes before a grand jury and makes a complaint, and, if a true bill is found, a petit jury is empaneled and all the evidence is put before it. If it decides that the jobholder deserved the punishment inflicted upon him, the citizen who inflicted it is acquitted with honor. If, on the contrary, it decides that this punishment was excessive, then the citizen is adjudged guilty of assault, mayhem, murder, or whatever it is, in a degree apportioned to the difference between what the jobholder deserved and what he got, and punishment for that excess follows in the usual course."

- H. L. Mencken, 

"The Malevolent Jobholder," The American Mercury (June, 1924)

"Mt Etna Rages and Earthquakes Surge as Severe Geomagnetic Storm Continues"

Full screen recommended.

Stefan Burns, 6/2/25

"Mt Etna Rages and Earthquakes Surge

 as Severe Geomagnetic Storm Continues"

"A pyroclastic flow happened at Mt. Etna in Italy, as numerous M6+ earthquakes popped off across the globe, all the while a severe geomagnetic storm is dramatically increasing energy volatility across the planet. Space Weather Report by geophysicist Stefan Burns."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "You Are Rich If You Have $2000 - Shocking Truth!"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 6/2/25

"You Are Rich If You Have $2000 - Shocking Truth!"

"Are we truly wealthy with just $2,000? In this video, I break down the shocking truth behind California’s new net worth limits for medical assistance and how it could impact lives across the country. From heartbreaking stories of individuals losing crucial benefits to the ripple effects this policy might have on other states, there’s a lot to unpack. Plus, I dive into real estate struggles in Florida, the gold-as-money movement in states like Florida and Utah, and major banking concerns that could shake the economy. Oh, and I’m walking through the amazing Volkswagen Bus Festival - so stick around for that as well!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Bill Bonner, "Emergency Powers"

"Emergency Powers"

by Bill Bonner

"Government’s a little bit nasty."

- Donald Trump

Youghal, Ireland - "Synopsis: Federal courts have ruled that the Trump administration cannot do what it was hoping to do. But no matter...it wasn’t going to do it anyway. The Constitution specifically says that “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." But since the Franklin Roosevelt administration, the courts have been remarkably tolerant of power grabs by the federales. To the point that...there seemed no limit to what the federal government...or more precisely, POTUS...could get away with.

It says very clearly, for example, that Congress has the power to “declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.” How then did the US get involved in five major wars since WWII - with no authorization from Congress?

So, when the Trump administration overstepped its Constitutional authority, it was not at all sure that the courts would tell him to back off...or that, if they did, it would have any effect. A judge ruled two weeks ago that DOGE had no authority to do what it did. But Trump had already pulled the rug out from under Elon Musk and the DOGE team anyway. None of their findings were incorporated in the Republicans’ ‘big, beautiful bill.’ (Poor Elon didn’t realize how ‘nasty’ government can be.) Any savings from that effort are likely to be trivial and temporary.

Likewise, a three-judge panel (one of them appointed by Trump himself) reminded the president that the US still has a constitution. And nowhere in the US Constitution does it give POTUS the right to tax or tariff without express backing from Congress.

Here’s the highest law of the land...the US Constitution: “The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.” It also has the power to “regulate Commerce with foreign Nations.” Trump’s plan, to impose large, ‘reciprocal’ tariffs, has now been put on hold by the courts. But they had already been stopped by the markets. The reciprocal tariff plan was called off soon after the stock market began to collapse. And now, the stoppage is de jure as well as de facto.

We saw stark evidence that the Trump Team was not up to speed on Constitutional Law when the ICE queen, Kristi Noem, appeared before Congress on May 19. Her ‘Homeland Security’ department has been deporting people without any ‘due process.’ Naturally, the inquiring minds in Congress wanted to know what she thought she was doing. Didn’t the principle of Habeas Corpus apply, they asked? It quickly became clear that Ms. Noem, whose job is to enforce the law, didn’t know what the law was...and didn’t particularly care. And apparently, neither did the rest of the Trump Troupe.

And now, Mr. Trump is angry at the Federalist Society for urging him to appoint conservative judges who had read the Constitution...and angry at the judges themselves for daring to spell it out for him. He wanted toadies to croak on cue...not real judges who took their jobs seriously.

Besides, his own legal wizards had told him what he wanted to hear - that Congress authorized the president to act on his own in times of economic emergency. The 1977 legislation, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, gave the president the power to “deal with any unusual or extraordinary threat.”

Who’s to say that illegal immigrants don’t constitute an ‘emergency?’ And what about the loss of manufacturing? But immigrants have been pouring into the US ever since it was founded. And trade has been going on for a very long time, too. What’s ‘unusual or extraordinary’ about it? Nor is there anything about it that needs an ‘emergency’ response. Whether the president takes action today...or Congress next week...it’s not going to make much difference.

But here is where the sharp minds of the judiciary earn their money. If the IEEPA allows the president to decide for himself what is ‘unusual’ and what is not...and if the ‘emergency’ can be anything he says...then Congress has, in effect, amended the Constitution so that it no longer imposes a limit on presidential power.

Congress does not have the power to amend the Constitution by itself. And if the Constitution does not limit the power of the chief executive, what does it do? Isn’t it null and void...an artifact of history...like the skull of an extinct species? The courts were not willing to go that far. Not yet. But who knows? Franklin Roosevelt was able to get the supreme court to see things his way by threatening to ‘pack the court.’ And now the MAGA crowd eagerly takes aim at the courts too. Yahoo! reports:

"Deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller decried a three-judge panel’s ruling that initially halted Trump’s sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs as “judicial tyranny.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it part of a “troubling and dangerous trend of unelected judges inserting themselves into the presidential decision-making process.”

Where this will end up, we don’t know. But since the whole MAGA program was already stalled, maybe the only result is that now the courts will take the blame. For now, Trump’s project is in a kind of purgatory...not alive, but not yet gone to Hell either."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Global Debt Death Spiral"

Gregory Mannarino, 6/2/25

"Global Debt Death Spiral:There Is No Stopping It,

 Expect Waves Of Bank Failures, Defaults, Small Business Wipeout"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"In economics and finance, there are four elements which when occurring simultaneously, AS THEY ARE RIGHT NOW, lead to an economic meltdown. Lets break this down.

1. Small businesses, consumers, and even some governments are now struggling to roll over debt.

Small businesses: Many borrowed heavily during CON-VID, cheap money, easy approvals. Now, as rates are rising after the US Debt Downgrade, those loans must be refinanced at much higher rates. Profit margins are squeezed, cash flow is drying up, and many will not survive unless demand miraculously recovers.

Consumers: Credit card debt is at record highs. With interest rates nearing 20%+ on cards, the cost of minimum payments alone is crushing household budgets. Many are forced to pay off old debt with new debt, a debt spiral that cannot continue forever.

Governments: Nations across the world (Italy, Japan, the U.S.) are rolling over trillions in old debt. They can’t “grow” out of this, the debt is too big. Governments face insane interest costs, eating up their budgets, forcing either cuts or more printing. (We will not see cuts, therefore expect more printing ON AN EPIC SCALE and therefore more rapid currency purchasing power losses).

2. Banks are pulling back lending, credit standards are tightening. Banks see the risks, the rising defaults, the squeezed margins. So, they’re tightening lending standards, now it’s harder to get approved, more collateral required. For small businesses and households that rely on credit for daily survival, this is a silent killer… no new loans, no way to smooth out cash flow gaps. Auto loans and mortgages are getting tougher, meaning fewer buyers for homes, cars, and everything linked to those purchases.

3. Consumer delinquencies are rising across the board.

Credit cards: Record high balances. Many households are now carrying balances for basic living expenses, not luxury. Delinquencies (30+ days late) are climbing, especially for younger borrowers and lower-income families. When consumers start defaulting, it’s a sign that the system is no longer working for them, and the ripple effect hits everything from retailers to landlords.

4. Commercial real estate loans (CRE) are rolling over at much higher rates, and there’s no buyer for that debt.

CRE = shopping malls, office buildings, warehouses, huge part of the economy, but vulnerable now: CON-VID permanently changed office demand, more remote work, fewer tenants. Malls and retail spaces struggling as e-commerce grows. Commercial property values are dropping fast, but loans must be refinanced anyway. These loans were made at low interest rates (3–4%—sometimes less). Now they must roll over at 6–9% or more. Many landlords can’t cover the new payments with existing rents and no new lenders want that risk.

CRE death spiral: No buyers for this debt, meaning property owners either default or sell at huge losses. This hits regional banks especially hard, (expect waves of failures), they are loaded up with these loans on their balance sheets. (This phenomenon is also the same with the BIG BANKS, who are now operating with BLACK-HOLE balance sheets).

Bottom Line: CRE is the canary in the coal mine, it’s the first domino in a credit crisis because it’s too big to hide. (IMO there is a massive effort under way right now to keep this hidden from the public).

Putting It All Together: These four “cracks” are not isolated, they ARE the foundation of a much bigger crisis.

Rising costs + no new credit = businesses and families can’t pay.

Defaults start small, then cascade.

Banks pull back even more, credit dries up further.

Stock markets and the overall economy are always the last to catch up, and when they do, it’s already too late."

- GM

Jim Kunstler, "The Widening Gyre"

"The Widening Gyre"

by Jim Kunstler

“The Caliphate looms; it is inevitable, and the road to

 its gates is paved with the skulls of English children.”

 - Peachy Keenan

"Do you hear those alarm bells ringing? Looks like June is bustin’ out all over, as the old Broadway ditty goes. Bedlam is in the air, and in more varieties than Heinz has pickles. Take your pick: civil war blooming in France and the UK, maybe even Germany - if it can shake off its psychotic stupor. World War III flutters over the continent like an answered prayer coming in for a landing. And here in the USA, genuine insurrection ripens with the summer’s peaches.

The Champs Elysees was a battlefield Saturday night as a soccer celebration went all Jihad, leaving two rioters dead and hundreds arrested (unreported inThe New York Times, of course, because... reasons). The two Alexanders at The Duran report that a plot is underway in London to deep-six (not eighty-six) Labour PM Sir Keir Starmer, who enjoys the lowest poll ratings in the history of British polling. Ol’ Keir likes to throw grannies in jail for rude Facebook posts while Islamic rape gangs do their thing and knife attacks multiply on the indigenous population. Not a good look. Perennial nationalist irritant Tommy Robinson was released from prison the other day, too, and you can expect fury arising around - and at him - as the sceptered isle day-by-day disappears under a burqa.

Starmer, Macron, new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, plus the unelected EU apparatus under Ursula von der Leyen all seem to be avid for war with Russia. They are insane, of course, and not just because their combined militaries are a joke. They stirred the pot badly over the weekend, helping Ukraine carry out drone attacks against Russian air defense bases as far afield as Siberia and outside Murmansk, way up north on the Barents Sea. The bold attack was apparently carried out after a year-and-a-half of planning, using tractor-trailer trucks to transport concealed drones in on-board shipping containers deep into Russia. The drones took out Russian aircraft enabled to launch cruise missiles and long-range radar detection planes, all tolled estimated at $7-billion damage. The gambit would have required NATO satellite targeting assistance.

You might recall a week ago, Chancellor Merz declared that Germany gave Ukraine “permission” to carry out long-range strikes into Russia. Smooth move, Friedrich. He is, apparently, unaware that in so-doing he automatically gave Russia permission to strike deep into Germany as well, which Russia has not yet done. Instead, it replied with missile strikes against Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kyiv, little more than a routine smack-back, but perhaps an ominous prelude to worse in the offing.

You understand that things are escalating steeply now in this conflict. A lot of high ranking officials in Russia have lost patience with Mr. Putin’s slow-moving, on-the-ground grind and refusal so far to inflict more serious damage on the Ukrainian capital, which he could turn into an ashtray on a half-hour’s notice, if required. You might suppose he has sought strategically to avoid the total destruction of this cousin-country so that it would not be a failed state in the aftermath of war. It would be to Russia’s advantage if Ukraine could function as a neutralized, sovereign, self-supporting buffer state rather than an ungovernable basket-case / money pit region harboring non-state terrorists of various stripes. The former outcome is surely still preferable to the latter, despite the most recent provocations.

All of this puts Mr. Trump in a bind. His efforts to negotiate peace are on-the-rocks for now, as is his (America’s) ability to control the maniac globalist warmongers of NATO. Many in the US, and Mr. Trump himself, make noises about backing off the big mess altogether and dissociating from a NATO alliance that has lost its purpose and meaning, becoming, in fact, a menace to our interests.

Against all this expanding havoc, peace talks are still scheduled for Istanbul today. Ukraine and Russia have both exchanged ceasefire proposals. Mr. Trump reportedly conferred with President Putin about it. The finalized memorandum said, “Russia is ready to work with Ukraine on a memorandum on a possible future peace treaty defining a number of positions." Take-away? Russia wants to conclude this war. Mr. Trump wants to end it, too. Mr. Zelenskyy, maybe not so much, since his fate is only secure as long as the war keeps going and he is not overthrown by his own wing-men.

Neither the US nor the NATO / EU axis will participate in the Istanbul peace talks directly, but you can suppose that Merz, Macron, Starmer, and von der Leyen are looking to stir-the-pot in the background. You might conclude that war is all they’ve got left as summer draws near and each of them face a European population primed to explode at its feckless, noxious, incompetent leadership. I would expect much more fighting in the streets of the European capitals going forward, and falling governments. It could prove hard to put these Humpty-dumpties back together, with years of political chaos following.

Things are heating up in the USA, too, as an Egyptian national torched a crowd of pro-Israel marchers with a home-made flamethrower in Boulder, Colorado, on Sunday, while “Trans-tifa,” as it styled itself, went to work on Christians assembled in a Seattle park last week. The Democratic Party - like the EU’s warmonger parties - has nothing left but violence against anything that looks like nationalism and traditional values. It’s so bad, and Democratic leadership is so demented, that they are liable to turn Donald Trump into another Abe Lincoln."

- https://www.kunstler.com/

o

"The Second Coming"

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

- William Butler Yeats, January 1919

"Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world," indeed...

Musical Interlude: AI Series 6, An AI Response: The Moody Blues, "Question"

Full screen recommended.

AI Series 6, An AI Response: The Moody Blues, "Question"