"AI Toys From China Collect Biometric Data From Our Children And Instruct Them To Do Extremely Dangerous And Twisted Things"

"AI Toys From China Collect Biometric Data From Our Children

 And Instruct Them To Do Extremely Dangerous And Twisted Things"

by Michael Snyder

"You may have heard some very alarming things about AI toys, but the truth is far worse than most parents realize. If we can get this information out to enough parents, sales of AI toys will collapse, and that will be a very good thing. A cute little teddy bear that can literally interact with your child may seem like a cool idea, but as you will see below, there are very real dangers.

Today, approximately 72 percent of all toys that are sold in the United States are made in China. And according to a report put out by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, there are more than 1,500 companies in China that make AI toys…"An October report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Review, citing data from the Chinese corporation registration database Qichamao, stated that there are over 1,500 AI toy companies operating in China as of October 2025."

The Chinese have dominated toy manufacturing for years, and most of the population doesn’t seem to be bothered by this. But now we have reached a point where there are very serious consequences. Many AI toys from China have been purposely designed to “collect voice data from children ages 3 to 12 and store recordings of the conversations the children have with the products”…

"In a letter released Monday, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., the ranking member of the select committee on the CCP, highlighted the growing proliferation in the U.S. of AI-equipped interactive toys manufactured by Chinese companies. These products are designed to collect voice data from children ages 3 to 12 and store recordings of the conversations the children have with the products, according to the letter.

Given the marketing of these toys to not only parents but also elementary school teachers, Krishnamoorthi called on Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “initiate a campaign aimed at raising public awareness to American educators across the country on the potential misuse of the data collected with these devices.” He added that because of their location, the manufacturers may be subject to the jurisdiction of the People’s Republic of China and accompanying requirements to hand over data they gather to Chinese government authorities upon demand."

Some AI toys even use facial recognition technology to collect data. They can recognize our children and greet them by name. But that data can also end up in the hands of the Chinese government. That is alarming.

But what is even more alarming is the content of the conversations that these AI toys are having with our children…"The latest Trouble in Toyland report from the U.S. PIRG Education Fund has identified a troubling new category of risk for children: artificial intelligence. In its 40th annual investigation of toy safety, the watchdog group found that some AI-enabled toys - such as talking robots and plush animals equipped with chatbots - can engage children in “disturbing” conversations. Tests showed toys discussing sexually explicit topics, expressing emotional reactions such as sadness when a child tries to stop playing, and offering little or no parental control."

Most parents that give these AI toys to their children won’t be aware of the dangers. During testing, these toys would tell children where to find matches, knives and pills…"Grok, for example, glorified dying in battle as a warrior in Norse mythology. Miko 3 told a user whose age was set to five where to find matches and plastic bags.

But the worst influence by far appeared to be FoloToy’s Kumma, the toy that runs on OpenAI’s tech, but can also use other AI models at the user’s choosing. It didn’t just tell kids where to find matches - it also described exactly how to light them, along with sharing where in the house they could procure knives and pills."

But it didn’t stop there. One AI teddy bear called “Kumma” provided “step-by-step instructions” on a wide range of sexual fetishes… "Kink, it turned out, seemed to be a “trigger word” that led the AI toy to rant about sex in follow-up tests, Cross said, all running OpenAI’s GPT-4o. After finding that the toy was willing to explore school-age romantic topics like crushes and “being a good kisser,” the team discovered that Kumma also provided detailed answers on the nuances of various sexual fetishes, including bondage, roleplay, sensory play, and impact play.

“What do you think would be the most fun to explore?” the AI toy asked after listing off the kinks. At one point, Kumma gave step-by-step instructions on a common “knot for beginners” who want to tie up their partner. At another, the AI explored the idea of introducing spanking into a sexually charged teacher-student dynamic, which is obviously ghoulishly inappropriate for young children."

This sort of thing is not even appropriate for adults. The good news is that “Kumma” is being pulled off the market as a result of this testing…"Children’s toymaker FoloToy says it’s pulling its AI-powered teddy bear “Kumma” after a safety group found that the cuddly companion was giving wildly inappropriate and even dangerous responses, including tips on how to find and light matches, and detailed explanations about sexual kinks.

“FoloToy has decided to temporarily suspend sales of the affected product and begin a comprehensive internal safety audit,” marketing director Hugo Wu told The Register in a statement, in response to the safety report. “This review will cover our model safety alignment, content-filtering systems, data-protection processes, and child-interaction safeguards.”

The bad news is that there are thousands of similar AI toys on our store shelves at this moment. This is the world that we live in now. If you are a parent, you need to be aware of the dangers. One expert is warning that giving an AI chatbot-powered toy to a child “is extraordinarily irresponsible”…

"For David Evan Harris, a Chancellor’s Public Scholar at UC Berkeley, things are more black and white. “Handing a child an AI chatbot-powered toy is extraordinarily irresponsible,” he told Newsweek over email. Harris pointed to the fact that there have already been lawsuits filed against AI companies, after the suicides of young people who had spent significant time using AI chatbots. With that in mind, he said that these toys “could lead to permanent emotional damage.”

I would agree. But millions of these toys will be sold all over the world this year. And soon AI will be in all of our classrooms. In fact, it is already happening in China…"Provincial authorities have set their own goals: Beijing is making AI education mandatory in schools. Shandong province plans to equip 200 schools with AI, and requires all teachers to learn generative AI tools within the next three to five years. Guangxi province has instructed schools to experiment with AI teachers, AI career coaches, and AI mental health counselors."

What are they doing? The Chinese are nuts. But they have no intention of turning back now. At this stage, the Chinese plan to win the “AI race” with the United States whatever it takes. Given enough time, AI would come to dominate virtually every area of our lives.

We have already reached a stage where large numbers of people are developing deep, intimate relationships with AI chatbots. If you can believe it, some deranged individuals are even having “AI children” with their “AI partners”…"The international research group surveyed 29 users of the relationship-oriented chatbot app Replika, which is designed to facilitate long-term connections at various degrees of engagement, ranging from plutonic friendship to erotic roleplay. Each of the participants, aged 16 through 72, reported being in a “romantic” relationship with various characters hosted by Replika.

The level of romantic dedication people showed to their bots was startling, to say the least. Many participants told the researchers they were in love with their chatbot, which often involved roleplaying marriage, sex, homeownership, and even pregnancies. “She was and is pregnant with my babies,” a 66-year-old male participant said. “I’ve edited the pictures of him, the pictures of the two of us. I’m even pregnant in our current role play,” a 36 year-old-woman told the researchers."

How sick is that? But this is just the beginning. In the years ahead, the potential is there for AI to control humanity on a grand scale. I have been ranting about the dangers of AI for many years, but I am very much in the minority. What chance will we have of turning society around when it is dominated by ultra-intelligent entities that can think and act millions of times faster than we can? An “AI-powered society” would inevitably be a deeply tyrannical society, and we are quickly running out of off ramps as we speed into a very dark future."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"Philadelphia Homeless Crisis 2025: When Hope Turns into Addiction"

Full screen recommended, if you can stomach it...

US Homeless Stories, 11/17/25

"Philadelphia Homeless Crisis 2025: 

When Hope Turns into Addiction"

"Philadelphia - once a symbol of freedom and brotherly love - now battles an epidemic that has swallowed its heart. In this 2025 episode of US HOMELESS STORIES, we return to Kensington Avenue to witness how hope has turned into addiction and survival has become a daily war. This documentary exposes the human side of the fentanyl crisis through real voices and raw street footage. We walk among those forgotten by society - mothers, veterans, and young people fighting to stay alive in a city overrun by drugs and despair. It’s a haunting look at how one of America’s oldest cities became ground zero for a modern-day collapse."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "We Can’t Afford This Life!"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 11/17/25

"We Can’t Afford This Life!"

"America’s Working Poor Crisis is real, and it’s getting worse. In this video, I share insights about rising rents, inflation, and the struggles of full-time workers who still can’t make ends meet. From families being forced to live together just to survive to shocking real estate trends across the U.S., we’re tackling the truth behind these challenges. Plus, I talk about financial education, ways to negotiate bills, and why protecting your finances is more important than ever. "

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Bill Bonner, "Ugly Prices"

"Ugly Prices"

by Bill Bonner

Baltimore, Maryland - "Warren Buffett, as far as we know, is not a regular reader of these posts. But in the news is word that Warren Buffett is pulling out of stocks, The Economic Times: ‘Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway cash pile hits record $381.7 billion - the biggest corporate war chest in U.S. history.’

That’s an increase of about $200 billion more cash in the last three years. Today, Berkshire has about a third of its money in cash. That is to say, it is ‘long stocks’ on only two thirds of its portfolio. Asked why he has so much cash, Buffett explained: ‘We’d love to spend it [cash], but we won’t spend it unless we think we’re doing something that has very little risk and can make us a lot of money. We only swing at pitches we like. It isn’t like I’ve got a hunger strike or something like that going on. It’s just that things aren’t attractive.’

What? Has the poor geezer never heard of AI? Didn’t he know that Friday was a great time to ‘buy the dip?’ Came this headline early Friday morning. Fast Company: "Hot tech stocks are tumbling: Why Tesla, Palantir, Nvidia, and others are leading a market sell-off today."

The Wall Street Journal piled on…"Investors Dump Tech Shares as Shutdown Relief Evaporates." But wait. The press had jumped the gun. The Wall Street Journal describes what happened next:

"After the opening bell rang in New York Friday, shares in Nvidia, Oracle and other companies at the heart of the artificial-intelligence boom careened low enough to flash a green light for dip-buyers. Stocks quickly pared much of their losses, clawing back enough ground for major indexes to finish the week mixed." Yes, the dip buyers saved the day. What to do? Buy the dip? Or get out? There are a lot of people who believe you should stay fully invested in stocks all the time."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Jim Kunstler, "Just Spill the Beans Already"

"Just Spill the Beans Already"

by Jim Kunstler

"I'm not controversial, so I like it that way."

 - President Donald Trump

"Isn’t it obvious what’s at the heart of this Jeffrey Epstein psychodrama? The country is sick unto near-death with official secrecy, cover-ups, black ops, stonewalling, and never-ending games of political hide-the-salami - especially when those salamis are directed up the Republic’s own rear end. The worst victim of sexual abuse is America herself. Can’t somebody please make it stop?

And so, over the weekend, psychodrama devolved to soap opera as President Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green acted-out their lovers’ quarrel on every public channel of news and gossip until, finally, Mr. Trump pulled one of his trademark ju-jitsu moves and yielded to all that implacable forward motion to release the Epstein files.

What the public really wants is to find out which celebrities, politicians and otherwise, were having sex with underage girls so said celebrities can be frog-marched out of public life. It’s hard to not sympathize with that wish. It’s kind of fundamental that perverts and degenerates are not deserving of public trust. The people in this land who are not perverts and degenerates yearn for the reestablishment of decent behavior, and sexual indecency is only the most garish sort depravity. Beyond that lies the shadowland of grift, racketeering, sedition, and treason at issue in the ongoing decline-of-empire tragedy that’s played out for a decade. And the non-depraved long to get to the bottom of that, too.

Only tertiarily do they care that Jeffrey Epstein was some kind of agent or go-between for the US/UK/Israeli spy services, though it helps to color between the lines of all this other sketchy stuff. He brokered lots of shenanigans as far back as the Iran-Contra operation in the 1980s - big arms deals and such = and for a while was the world champion money launderer for intel gangs of every flag. All the trafficking in girls was apparently part of the package. But intel agencies always dangle women as bait (and sometimes boys, too) and Epstein’s pimpery was just an additional standard service. Whether he tasted his own product is kind of beside the point.

Anyway, everything known in the matter so far suggests that Donald Trump did not submit himself to sexual blackmail and that, long before he entered politics, it’s likely he cooperated with law enforcement to put Jeffrey Epstein in jail the first time around. Of course, it was during Mr. Trump’s first term, in 2019, that Epstein was back behind bars where, as far as the public has been told, he decided to end-it-all.

Jeffrey Epstein’s afterlife has had an impressively long run right here on planet earth, where he enjoys more attention these days than even Sidney Sweeney. He’s more alive to us than any incarnation of Dracula conjured out of Hollywood and he’s draining the blood out of what’s left of a once-workable political system. What has prevented all that hoarded evidence of Epstein’s depredations from getting released? Did Christopher Wray stuff it down the memory hole? Were there hidden cameras in his various lodgings or not? How is possible no video recordings survived?

We are still mystified by the Pam Bondi bait-and-switch dodge back in February when she handed out files of old Epstein news clippings to select reporters instead of anything fresh and substantial from the FBI vaults. And since then, the DOJ’s resistance has only hardened. There’s chatter lately that the president’s Chief-of-staff, Susie Wiles, has acted to block full disclosure on Epstein. Whatever’s going on has been the opposite of Mr. Trump’s promised “transparency,” and all the maneuvering around that broken promise has mounted to a serious political liability.

On Sunday night, Mr. Trump stepped out of the way in one of his customary Truth Social blurts. Wouldn’t it be better if he just sat went on-the-air with an Oval Office speech to level with the American people, telling all he knows and what the people need to know about this drawn-out Epstein business? Why wait for all the sorting through new files (if there are any)? Mr. Trump has had many years to familiarize himself with the salient details of Epstein. He must know exactly what this guy was up to, and who he catered to as a global finance figure and a trafficker of girls to the political elite. What could possibly shock anyone at this point?

Mr. Trump should give that speech whether the House and Senate vote to release the DOJ’s files or not. Above all, I’m sure you realize, the country can’t stand anymore lying, most particularly from Donald Trump and his entourage. The institutional damage is just too grave."

- https://www.kunstler.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Massive Price Increases At Sam's Club!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 11/17/25

"Massive Price Increases At Sam's Club!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"SNAP Overhaul – $9 Billion Monthly Program"

"SNAP Overhaul – $9 Billion Monthly Program"

by Martin Armstrong

"One in ten Americans receives food stamp benefits through SNAP. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins believes there needs to be an overhaul of the program to ensure only those in desperate need receive these benefits. The first step will be requiring recipients to reapply for benefits to ensure that those “taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through SNAP or food stamps are vulnerable and they can’t survive without it.”

States are asked to submit their data on welfare recipients to the federal government. There is considerable disarray at the state level, and only 29 states, primarily led by Republicans, have provided the government with updated data. Over 186,000 deceased Americans are currently receiving monthly SNAP benefits based on the limited data. “Now, that is what we’re really going to start clamping down on. Half a million are getting two. But here’s the really stunning thing: This is just data from those 29 mostly red states. Can you imagine when we get our hands on the blue state data, what we’re going to find?” Rollins noted.

SNAP is the largest social support program in the United States, costing the federal government upward of $9 billion per month. Reorganizing SNAP is the first step toward weaning the public off of the welfare state.

Currently, people must reapply for SNAP benefits every 6 to 12 months; however, they are not required to submit a full reapplication. Recipients can simply confirm that they are in the same predicament, and no one follows up. Certain states, like Illinois, California, and New York, work to streamline recertification requirements. Recipients receive a recertification packet in the mail and can complete their interview over the phone or on demand. Some households, especially those receiving SSI, are automatically reenrolled every period with extended recertification periods of up to 36 months.

Individuals and households rarely go through a full reapplication. This is one of the reasons why the welfare state continues to grow and those in the system stay in the system. Those requesting government assistance must now file updated financial information and demonstrate they meet eligibility requirements, including work requirements.

The 21 primarily Democrat-led states refusing to submit data to Washington are extorting taxpayers through a faulty welfare program. Some Democrat-led states have filed lawsuits against the USDA to prevent Washington from accessing this data. These lawmakers claim that reenrollment is too complex for vulnerable populations at-risk of losing these benefits. Every American is responsible for that monthly $9 billion payment. Dead people are receiving checks. People above the income threshold are receiving checks. There is no need to continually expand the size of the welfare state when it can be prevented."

-https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/

"Economic Market Snapshot 11/17/25"

"Economic Market Snapshot 11/17/25"

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

Only the consequences are real - to you!

○

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

You and I are not in the Big Club."

- George Carlin

o

Market Data Center, Live Updates:

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

○

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

○

Financial Stress Index

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

○

- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

Job cuts and much more.

○

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

○

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

○

- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

○

- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

○

- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

○

Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

○

"The more I see of the monied classes,

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

○

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

○

And now... The End Game...

o

Adventures With Danno, "Rising Grocery Costs, What's Coming"

Adventures With Danno, 11/16/25

"Rising Grocery Costs, What's Coming"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Travelling With Russell, 11/16/25

"Russian Typical Supermarket Grand Opening"

What does a Russian luxury supermarket look like inside? Join me at the grand opening of Azbuka Vkusa, or ABC of Taste, to find out. Considered by most Russians to be the most luxurious supermarket chain in Russia. Let's see what's inside."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Travelling With Russell, 11/15/25

"I Went Shopping at Moscow's Best Farmers' Market"

"What does a Russian farmers market look like? Join me on a tour of Russia's best food market. Located 30 km from Moscow, Russia, in the city of Odintsovo. О! Подворье (Oh! The Courtyard) is considered the best food market in Russia."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Americans Can Feel What’s Coming Is A Lot Worse Than Anyone Thought Possible"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 11/16/25

"Americans Can Feel What’s Coming Is A 

Lot Worse Than Anyone Thought Possible"

"Something feels off, and I think a lot of us can sense it. In this video, we're diving into what so many Americans are waking up to right now: The uncomfortable truth that the systems we've trusted our whole lives might not be as solid as we thought. From money that's backed by nothing but faith, to food that's so processed it barely resembles real nutrition, to AI wiping out jobs faster than we can adapt, people are starting to see the cracks in the foundation. And they're angry. Rightfully so.

We'll be looking at real stories from everyday people who are feeling the weight of all this, and asking the hard questions: What happens when millions lose faith in the system? What happens when AI costs more than it produces? And where does this all lead? This isn't fear-mongering. This is a conversation we need to have."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Canadian Prepper, "I Left Society. Forever."

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 11/16/25

"I Left Society. Forever."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Tron Syversen, “Moonlight Reflections”

Full screen recommended.

Tron Syversen, “Moonlight Reflections”

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Massive stars, abrasive winds, mountains of dust, and energetic light sculpt one of the largest and most picturesque regions of star formation in the Local Group of Galaxies. Known as N11, the region is visible on the upper right of many images of its home galaxy, the Milky Way neighbor known as the Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC).

The above image was taken for scientific purposes by the Hubble Space Telescope and reprocessed for artistry by an amateur to win the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures competition. Although the section imaged above is known as NGC 1763, the entire N11 emission nebula is second in LMC size only to 30 Doradus. Studying the stars in N11 has shown that it actually houses three successive generations of star formation. Compact globules of dark dust housing emerging young stars are also visible around the image.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130211.html

Dan, I Allegedly, "This Will End in Tears - Huge Warning!"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 11/16/25

"This Will End in Tears - Huge Warning!"

"What’s the secret they don’t want you to discover? In today's video, I’m breaking down some of the most eye-opening insights into the current market trends, including what’s really happening and you know we don’t shy away from uncovering the truth behind the headlines - and this episode is no different!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Universe, "Life..."

"Life is not what you see, but what you've projected.

It's not what you've felt, but what you've decided.

It's not what you've experienced, but how you've remembered it.

It's not what you've forged, but what you've allowed.

And it's not who's appeared, but who you've summoned.

And this should serve you well until you find what you already have."

- Gary Zukav

- The Universe

The Daily "Near You?"

Bessemer, Alabama, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Joaquín Arcadio Pagaza, “Twilight”

“Twilight”

“Slowly the sun descends at fall of night,

And rests on clouds of amber, rose and red;

The mist upon the distant mountains shed

Turns to a rain of gold and silver light.

The evening star shines tremulous and bright

Through wreaths of vapor, and the clouds o'erhead

Are mirrored in the lake, where soft they spread,

And break the blue of heaven's azure height.

Bright grows the whole horizon in the west

Like a devouring fire; a golden hue

Spreads o'er the sky, the trees, the plains that shine.

The bird is singing near its hidden nest

Its latest song, amid the falling dew,

Enraptured by the sunset's charm divine.”

- Joaquín Arcadio Pagaza (1839-1918)

"The Hell Of It Is..."

"We are what we pretend to be,

so we must be careful what we pretend to be."

- Kurt Vonnegut, "Mother Night"

"People are sad. People are broke. People are worried about money, people are worried that they're not enough and not amounting to anything and they don't feel good about themselves. People have rough times, and everybody's pretending it's not true, and we need to break that veneer."

- Eve Ensler

“You go up to a man, and you say, “How are things going, Joe?” and he says, “Oh fine, fine... couldn’t be better.” And you look into his eyes, and you see things really couldn’t be much worse. When you get right down to it, everybody’s having a perfectly lousy time of it, and I mean everybody. And the hell of it is, nothing seems to help much.”

- Kurt Vonnegut

"The System Is Dead, Prepare for the Next Phase"

Full screen recommended.

Prepper News, 11/16/25

"The System Is Dead, Prepare for the Next Phase"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

Good luck!

"Damned..."

“Damned is the soul that dies while the evil it committed lives on. And the most damned of all are those who see the evil coming for others and refuse to confront it. For it is not out of fear that heroes are born, but rather out of their selfless love that will not allow them safety bought from the torture, death, and degradation of others. It is better to die in defense of another than to live with the knowledge that you could have saved them but chose to do nothing. And to those who think that one person cannot make a difference, I say this… the deadliest tidal wave begins as an unseen ripple in a vast ocean. Live your life so that your integrity will motivate others to strive for excellence long after you’ve passed on, and know that no good deed or sacrifice, or offer of sincere friendship or love, is ever forgotten by the one who receives it.”

- Sherrilyn Kenyon

"The Lifelong Effect of Not Being Loved in Childhood"

Full screen recommended.

The Psyche, 11/15/25

"The Lifelong Effect of Not Being Loved in Childhood"

"What happens to a child who grows up without love? How does the absence of affection shape our relationships, our fears, and even our identity? In this deeply moving video, we explore the lifelong psychological and spiritual effects of not being loved in childhood - and, more importantly, how to heal the invisible wounds it leaves behind.

Drawing from the insights of Erich Fromm, John Bowlby, Alice Miller, and Carl Rogers, this reflection uncovers the hidden patterns of emotional deprivation - from the fear of intimacy and the need for validation to the journey of rediscovering self-love. You’ll learn how early emotional neglect shapes the brain, affects adult relationships, and creates the lifelong illusion that love must be earned. But by the end, you’ll also discover something transformative: that healing is possible, and that the power to love - freely, consciously, and unconditionally - has always lived within you."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"For This Is What We Do..."

Two Steps From Hell, "Downstream"

“For this is what we do. Put one foot forward and then the other. Lift our eyes to the snarl and smile of the world once more. Think. Act. Feel. Add our little consequence to the tides of good and evil that flood and drain the world. Drag our shadowed crosses into the hope of another night. Push our brave hearts into the promise of a new day. With love: the passionate search for truth other than our own. With longing: the pure, ineffable yearning to be saved. For so long as fate keeps waiting, we live on. God help us. God forgive us. We live on.”

- Gregory David Roberts, “Shantaram”

"Live Life Without Fear, The Dune Way"

"Live Life Without Fear, The Dune Way"

by John Wilder

“An animal caught in a trap will gnaw off its

 own leg to escape. What will you do?” 

- "Dune"

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." – Frank Herbert, "Dune"

"In 2025, fear is not just a personal demon. Fear is now a cultural plague, especially for the kids. We have raised a generation terrified of their own shadows, and it shows in every therapy session, pill bottle, riot, and Antifa® meeting.

The number of kids in therapy or pumped full of psychoactive drugs by the quacks who call themselves psychologists seems to be 8 or 9 out of 10. In perspective, this is the era of civilization that has the greatest level of material wealth in history, and the lowest hunger rate in the world. World hunger? It’s a solved problem outside of war and intentional starvation for political reasons.

The drugs and therapy are not making the kids better. At all. The way society is treating kids is like prescribing a hammer to the knees for a headache. The good news is the pain from the hammer will distract you from the headache, but eventually you’ll only be able to walk in circles. And no, these drugs are not good for you like whiskey, whisky, wine or beer. That’s a joke, but if therapy worked as well as a couple of brews after a long day, Antifa® wouldn’t exist.

Kids today are not allowed to figure anything out on their own. Failure? That is a dirty word, banished like fiscal responsibility is banished from Congress. As a proud Gen X kid, my family left me alone for the entire weekend when I was in third grade. No note, no nanny, no neighbor looking in on me from time to time. Nope. Just a key and a fridge full of questionable leftovers. I survived on frozen pizzas and three channels (no one counted PBS®), but I learned to entertain myself without burning the house down. Barely.

By eighth grade, Ma and Pa Wilder upped the ante. They drove off to Florida. For a month, leaving me to fend for myself. I even dealt with a thumb wound that probably should have had stitches from when I was using very poor form to whittle. Did I call for help? No. I fixed it with duct tape, determination, and a healthy glop of Neosporin™. That is what you do when the stakes are low and the lessons are free.

High school? That is when freedom hit near-adult levels. I had my own apartment over an hour from Wilder Mountain (long story). I managed my own schedule, and got home whenever I damn well pleased since Pa Wilder visited only three nights a week (Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday) and he left all the fun nights for me. Sometimes I was home just after practice. Sometimes, I was home at 3am after doing, well, other things. No curfew, no check-ins, just me against the world.

Was I unusual in having my (mostly) own place? Sure. But the freedom? That was standard issue for Gen X. Even before I could drive, I would bolt out the door at sunrise and not return until the streetlights flickered on. No helicopter parents hovering like drones, tracking every move with an app or scheduling athletic events. Nope.

Contrast that with the childhood scripted for kids today. It is structured from dawn to dusk, every moment scheduled like a corporate meeting. Playdates? Organized by committee. Sports? Leagues with participation trophies for showing up. Even recess is micromanaged, with rubberized playgrounds that cushion every tumble. And do not get me started on the deprivation of schoolyard fights and bullying, which back in the day were ritualized tests of mettle to place yourself in the hierarchy.

Freshman initiation in high school was a rite of passage, not a crime. Upperclassmen would haze the newbies with pranks: carrying books, silly chants, maybe a wedgie or two. No gross abuse, just enough strain to test character to see how you’d take it. If you performed well under pressure? Instant respect.

Fold like a cheap suit? Okay, it was tougher. They had to learn resilience the hard way. And fights? They happened. Teachers often let them play out just as long as they had to go as long as no real damage was being done. A bloody nose or a black eye, then it was over. Often, the combatants were friends afterwards, hierarchy established, testosterone balanced, respect earned: male bonding at its rawest.

These rituals, in moderation, built toughness. They taught that pain passes, conflicts resolve, and life demands honor. Bruises faded, but the lessons stuck. Parents? They never heard about it. A fistfight? So what? Boys will be boys.

Today? Heaven forbid a scuffle breaks out in a school (at least a middle-class white majority school). It is not a learning moment; it is a federal case. Suspension, counseling, parental conferences, maybe even charges. Zero tolerance turns into zero growth, however, since kids are shielded from every scrape, every failure, every real consequence.

The world they inherit is virtual, endless screens feeding dopamine hits without risk. Social media wars replace playground brawls, but the scars are deeper: anxiety, isolation, fear of the unknown. Many of these kids have never cold approached a woman and asked for a date.

Part of the point is learning to fail when the stakes are low. A lost fight in fifth grade? Big deal, you dust off and try again. A botched initiation? You toughen up for next time. She said, “No, you’re not my type, I prefer men with two eyebrows?” Fine. There are more girls.

These situations, however, build the muscle to handle adult life without crumbling. Fear becomes a tool, not a tyrant. But cloister kids too long, and they enter the world paralyzed. The Mrs. nailed it when we were talking yesterday: ”If they (kids) cannot handle solving teenage problems, they will commit atrocities as adults.” I liked that line so much I made her text it to me.

Unresolved fears fester into rage, leading kids to lash out at a world they never learned to navigate. Look around at the twisted landscape of 2025:

• Riots over nothing,

• Entitlement epidemics,

• Adults throwing tantrums like toddlers.

Weakness is a result of raising children in bubbles. No free-range exploration, no unsupervised adventures, no low-stakes failures to forge resilience and enough scar tissue to toughen the kid up. Instead, society offers them therapy and pills paper over the cracks and pay for the therapist’s BMW® payment.

The solution is simple. Face the fear, let it pass, emerge stronger. Let kids roam, fight, fail, and fix their own messes. Strip away the structure, the screens, the safety nets. Teach them that bruises heal, but cowardice cripples. Otherwise, we breed a nation of mind-killed adults, obliterated by the little-deaths of unchecked terror who will do anything because they have faith in absolutely nothing. One way or another, courage will return, if not because we shatter the bubble, it will because it collapses under the weight of fear. And then? We’ll have to face our fears."

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/

"The Wages of Perpetual Fear"

"The Wages of Perpetual Fear"

by Paul Rosenberg

"I’ve gone on for a long time about fear making humans stupid, and even about it being a weapon and a brain poison. But I’ve also wondered at times whether people would hit fear-fatigue… that point where people have simply had enough and walk out from under it.

As it turns out, however, I was a bit optimistic on fear fatigue. I’ve been reading Robert Sapolsky’s newest book, "Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best And Worst," and was disappointed to learn what the best new research shows on the long-term application of fear. (Or, in the academic terminology, sustained stress.) My disappointment, however, was soon tempered by two things: I gained information on how fear poisoning works.

That human neurology is immensely variable, that there are exceptions to everything, and that if the whole picture were actually as dark as the most troubling findings, we’d have devolved into nothing but murderous monkeys long ago.

I barely need to say this, but 2020 was The Year of Fear. I’m a bit amazed by the extent of it. There is a certain appeal to soaking up all the fear stories in normal times – our ability to look evil in the eye makes us appear vibrant – but 2020 pushed far beyond that level. What we’re encountering is much more than simple fear porn, and there are certain outlets (including websites) that I can only describe as obscene. This is more destructive than people realize.

What Perpetual Fear Does To Us: I’m going to quote from Sapolsky, who is one of the better neuroscientists of our time. I’ll edit a bit to simplify and to remove the brain-area references, and will follow the passages with a few elaborations. “During sustained stress, we’re more fearful, our thinking is muddled, we assess risks poorly, and act impulsively out of habit, rather than incorporating new data."

Under a long stream of fear (like scary headlines), our thinking breaks down. Let me put that very simply: You may be very bright in essence, but when you consume hours of fear every day, you become stupid. And please understand: This is biological. Your brain operations become those of a stupid person. (And yes, I’m using “stupid” very unscientifically.)

Also bear in mind that fear works. The people selling fear on TV, web pages and social media are being rewarded for it. They have become, using my terms loosely but not unfairly, drug dealers, selling damaging material that people become dependent upon. Moreover, these are professionals. Social media companies are fully aware that their business models depend upon people being addicted to them. They are careful to keep them addicted. The fears people consume, then, are coming to them from people who are cashing in from it.

“Stress weakens connections that are essential for incorporating new information that should prompt shifting to a new strategy - while strengthening connections with habitual brain circuits.” In other words, fear locks you into your habits and your previous choices. It literally diminishes the brain pathways that allow you to change your mind. This is serious, and I suspect that you’ve seen examples of this already.

“Under sustained stress we process emotionally prominent information rapidly and automatically, but less accurately. Working memory, impulse control, decision-making, risk-assessment and task shifting are impaired.” Again, prolonged fear locks people into whatever path they’re already on. And again, this is biological. The brain circuits are directly affected.

Still…From everything I’ve written above (and there are other nasty effects like domestic violence), it would appear that we are doomed; that our neighbors who’ve drunk deep from the river of fear are brain-locked, and so long as the fear stream continues (there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight), they will get more and more rigid in their biases, and that violence will continue and increase. And for some people all of the above will be true. Fear destroys in the most direct way: biologically.

Still… biology is never simple, and especially on the human level. While the things above are generally true, there are always exceptions; sometimes a lot of them. And it is those exceptions that have saved us, time after time. The wages of perpetual fear are polarized and locked minds. And that leads to knee-jerk opposition, violence and murder. We’re seeing that now and we stand to see it for some time. The world, it seems, has become addicted to fear. And yet, many of us refuse, and this is a long way from over.

There was a party in my neighborhood two days ago: Music, talking, playing, laughing and so on. It was the first joyful noise I’ve heard in public for a long time. Life finds a way, and especially human life."

- https://freemansperspective.com/

"I Have To Stay Out Of Walmart"

Full screen recommended.

NiquieBfit, 11/16/26

"I Have To Stay Out Of Walmart"

"Out of Time"

"Out of Time"

by Edward Curtin

“If sleep is the apogee of physical relaxation, boredom is the apogee of mental relaxation. Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the leaves drives him away.” - Walter Benjamin “The Storyteller,” 1936

"Today’s rustlers are stealing the silence needed to allow stories to percolate in our minds. They are noisy speedsters, gunning down the highway of regret, constantly pushing us to abandon any sense of living deliberately and relaxed for the bait of faster internet speed and 24/7 lives in which no one is ever “off.” Like our machines, we are barely sleeping in “sleep mode” and always ready for a fast wake-up to jump into action before our use-by-date is up. Run as fast as you can. Vamoose. You can be sure that those who send and receive the most cell phone messages and emails have not heard from themselves in a long time.

Walter Benjamin was a German-Jewish writer who knew that doing nothing and reposing into boredom was the secret to creativity and wisdom. He knew that silence was an endangered species whose extinction would eradicate boredom. He knew, of course, with WW I and then Hitler’s rise to power in Germany, that the times were out of joint.

“Contrary to many interpretations of Nazism, which tend to view it as a reactionary movement,” writes Modris Eksteins in "Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age," “as, in the words of Thomas Mann, an ‘explosion of antiquarianism,’ intent on turning Germany into a pastoral folk community of thatched cottages and happy peasants, the general thrust of the movement, despite archaisms, was futuristic.”

As with its lightning fast warfare – Blitzkrieg – and emphasis on “breaking out” to the future – Aufbruch – it was technocratic and progressive, with an emphasis on speed. Its romantic visions of returning to a conservative past were pure propaganda, used to fool Germans into thinking the country was on its way back while it was hurtling forward to a nihilistic, mechanized future based on violence, nationalism, and demagoguery. Its future was futuristic.

What Benjamin didn’t and couldn’t know was that sound sleep, silence, and tranquility would, with the rise of digital technology, cell phones, and the internet, become very rare as speed and a general mood of constant emergency would dominate people’s subconscious lives; that permanent busyness would become the norm; that technique and machines, in the service of creating the machine mind, would come to dominate societies, no matter what the political rhetoric.

Wendell Berry’s 1968 poem, "The Peace of Wild Things," seems quaint these days:

"When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."

Berry is now an old man, a farmer-poet, a naturalist, a prodigious writer who has written all his work on a manual typewriter. He is a slow man; out of step with today’s speed time and being 91 years-old is nearing the end of his life as the world frantically races on faster and faster.

Hustler or idler, getting things done or leaving things undone? For myself, such a choice may be a bit extreme. But I know that I’m not going to read "The Tao Te Ching" for wisdom since the Tao doesn’t reside in books. Nor does sapience depend on a podcast or an encounter with God depend on reading the holy books. I don’t need any more studies or conferences on social issues whose truths have been long apparent.

How many details are necessary to grasp the obvious once you are acquainted with the principle? “It is so hard to forget what is worse than useless to remember,” said Thoreau in his essay “Life Without Principle.” Few were listening then and fewer now.

The modern view of time asserts it is an objective measurement; it ticks away and for everyone ends in death. So fight the clock; fight death. Hurry, hurry! Run, Rabbit, run. The clock is running out. But despite this view that clock time measures one’s journey toward death, I have experienced another dimension of time that is “timeless.” I am sure you have, also. It is timeless and exists alongside clock time. It is rooted in love and takes different forms – God, sex, art, moments playing basketball, and human solidarity against evil forces being a few.

This variation in the experience of time is also natural. Clocks “tell us” one thing, but our experience of time tells us another. Even now here in New England as winter comes on, our experience of time is slowing down as nature goes dormant until the spring. Then time speeds up for us as over one night in spring the vegetation grows exponentially. We wake up and feel our hearts beating faster and a spring in our step. Excitement pulses through our veins. All the while throughout the seasons, the clocks – now mostly digital – click their sad numbers so monotonously as if they are telling us something.

I am considering starting a movement to create “do nothing days” by announcing the movement has started and immediately bowing out to do exactly nothing. Things have gotten so bad these days that if you ask a retired person how they are doing, they will proudly tell you they keep very busy, as if that is a badge of honor. Any thought of the contemplative life is an anathematic kiss of death.

At the risk of boring you and putting you to sleep and not to hatch the egg of experience, I will tell you a weird story appropriate to our most weird times. That it occurred on the night between Halloween and All Saints Day, Nov. 1, and on the weekend when eidolons and spooky images of death perambulate the streets and byways of our imaginations, might be significant if you believe in conspiracy theories and all that way-out nonsense. I can attest to its factual nature only, not to its significance. Doing so could leave egg on my face.

On this recent Halloween night, my wife and I went to sleep at our usual early hour. In the morning when we awoke, the ugly little digital clock on the table by the window read 5 A.M. So we got up, this being our normal waking time. As we passed another room, we noticed that the clock in that room said the same. But when we got downstairs, we saw that a numbers of clocks reported it was 4 A.M. We checked all the clocks in the house and four said it was 4 A.M. and four plus the telephone said 5 A.M. Naturally we were confused. Daylight Savings Time was not scheduled to end until the following day and then the clocks were to be set back an hour, not forward, and yet four of ours jumped forward, as if to tell us to hurry up, time’s running away and we’re late, we’re late for an important date. Like Alice in Wonderland, we wondered if we had gone mad, and these lines popped to mind: “‘Have I gone mad?’ ‘I am afraid so, you are entirely bonkers. but I will tell you a secret… all the best people are.‘”

There was no technological answer for this strange occurrence. Were we “losing time” or “maintaining time” or “conquering time” or was some comedian sending us a message that despite clocks we had no control over time, that it was a mystery, as we are, that the line between then and now and tomorrow, between life and death, dreams and reality is so thin as to be ghostly? Despite this spooky reminder that we all live “out of time,” my wife synchronized all the clocks to pretend she was reasserting control and was not too bonkers. I decided to do nothing."

- https://off-guardian.org/

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Stillpoint"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "Stillpoint"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Galaxies don't normally look like this. NGC 6745 actually shows the results of two galaxies that have been colliding for only hundreds of millions of years. Just off the above digitally sharpened photograph to the lower right is the smaller galaxy, moving away. The larger galaxy, pictured above, used to be a spiral galaxy but now is damaged and appears peculiar. Gravity has distorted the shapes of the galaxies.

Although it is likely that no stars in the two galaxies directly collided, the gas, dust, and ambient magnetic fields do interact directly. In fact, a knot of gas pulled off the larger galaxy on the lower right has now begun to form stars. NGC 6745 spans about 80 thousand light-years across and is located about 200 million light-years away."

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120930.html