How the treacherously lying money-whore
main stream media would report it today...
So, we rise from the rubble...
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Thursday, December 25, 2025
Adventures With Danno, "Merry Christmas! Join Me, Shall You?"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 12/25/25
"Merry Christmas! Join Me, Shall You?"
Comments here:
"This Day In History: Christ Is Born"
"This Day In History: Christ Is Born"
by History.com
"Although most Christians celebrate December 25 as the birthday of Jesus Christ, few in the first two Christian centuries claimed any knowledge of the exact day or year in which he was born. The oldest existing record of a Christmas celebration is found in a Roman almanac that tells of Christ’s Nativity festival led by the church of Rome in 336 A.D. The precise reason why Christmas came to be celebrated on December 25 remains obscure, but most researchers believe that Christmas originated as a Christian substitute for pagan celebrations of the winter solstice.
To early Christians (and to many Christians today), the most important holiday on the Christian calendar was Easter, which commemorates the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, as Christianity began to take hold in the Roman world, in the early fourth century, church leaders had to contend with a popular Roman pagan holiday commemorating the “birthday of the unconquered sun” (natalis solis invicti) - the Roman name for the winter solstice.
Every winter, Romans honored the pagan god Saturn, the god of agriculture, with Saturnalia, a festival that began on December 17 and usually ended on or around December 25 with a winter solstice celebration in honor of the beginning of the new solar cycle. This festival was a time of merrymaking, and families and friends would exchange gifts. At the same time, Mithraism - worship of the ancient Persian god of light - was popular in the Roman army, and the cult held some of its most important rituals on the winter solstice.
After the Roman Emperor Constantine I converted to Christianity in 312 and sanctioned Christianity, church leaders made efforts to appropriate the winter solstice holidays and thereby achieve a more seamless conversion to Christianity for the emperor’s subjects. In rationalizing the celebration of Jesus’ birthday in late December, church leaders may have argued that since the world was allegedly created on the spring equinox (late March), so too would Jesus have been conceived by God on that date. The Virgin Mary, pregnant with the son of God, would hence have given birth to Jesus nine months later on the winter solstice.
From Rome, the Christ’s Nativity celebration spread to other Christian churches to the west and east, and soon most Christians were celebrating Christ’s birth on December 25. To the Roman celebration was later added other winter solstice rituals observed by various pagan groups, such as the lighting of the Yule log and decorations with evergreens by Germanic tribes.
The word Christmas entered the English language originally as Christes maesse, meaning “Christ’s mass” or “festival of Christ” in Old English. A popular medieval feast was that of St. Nicholas of Myra, a saint said to visit children with gifts and admonitions just before Christmas. This story evolved into the modern practice of leaving gifts for children said to be brought by “Santa Claus,” a derivative of the Dutch name for St. Nicholas - Sinterklaas."
"A Saturday Night In Starbucks"
"A Saturday Night In Starbucks"
by Paul Rosenberg
"Several years ago, an unusual set of events found me at Starbucks on a Saturday night. It had been a reasonably decent day, but somehow the pressures of the world – its parade of negativity – had had its effect on me. Sitting in the Starbucks cured me.
What I Saw: It was a very average Starbucks in a very average location. And the very average people sitting with me were a nearly perfect cross-section of the American demographic. To my left was a middle-aged black man, doing something on his laptop. Just past him was a middle-aged white woman doing the same. Past her, in the corner, were three teenage girls – one black, one white, one Latin – studying together. Behind me was another black man with a laptop and piles of papers, and past him a young couple falling in love over lattes.
At the big, center table was a 25ish woman, with multiple piles of paper upon which she was working very hard. After a while, her boyfriend showed up. She hugged him, laid her head on his shoulder, and they kissed. It was sweet. Then he got to work with her. There were also people coming and going. They were more of the same: A cross-sectional American parade of people behaving quietly and well. Watching these people, I decided that it would be far better to spend time helping them than to obsess over all the threats in the world. These are the people who deserve our efforts.
What Would Help the Bright Side of Humanity? My observations brought me to the question of how to help the bright side of humanity, and I decided that a great start would be to assure them that their way is right… that they have every right to live their way. That concept should be utterly obvious, but the fact is that productive people have been assiduously taught to abandon their ways whenever authority speaks.
This is the great error of the bright side people, and those of us who recognize it must make this point repeatedly: The narratives of the power-seekers service primate models of organization. They do not serve human advancement.
The people I saw in the Starbucks held a different and better set of ideals. They believed that everyone should be treated with respect; that coercion and fraud are wrong; that everyone should be left alone to do as they please, so long as they don’t intrude upon others. This decent side of humanity needs to know that their ideals should never be abandoned, no matter how earth-shatteringly urgent a reason may seem. The people I saw in the Starbucks, to be blunt about it, were morally superior to the powerful and the fear-peddlers. Their ways should be held above.
And Once They Do? Once the people I saw at Starbucks start believing in themselves, the world will change, and massively. These people – and there are untold millions of them – are productive and cooperative. Their problem is that they’ve been laying their virtues at the feet of fear-peddlers. Once the Starbucks People decide that fear and subservience are contrary to life itself, they will move into a better age. Such transitions are difficult, of course, but once these people truly believe in their own ways, the ways of the fear-peddlers and sacrifice-collectors will pass away. May it be soon."
"Heavy Snowfall In Moscow"
Full screen recommended.
Window To Moscow, 12/25/25
"Heavy Snowfall In Moscow"
"Experience a festive Christmas night walk through the heart of Moscow during a heavy snowfall. Red Square Christmas Market, the ice skating rink, glowing holiday lights, and the magical atmosphere of Nikolskaya Street create a true celebration of winter in Russia before Christmas and New Year 2026."
Comments here:
"Islam versus Judaism… How is Jesus Viewed?"
Iran’s Armenian Christians Celebrate Christmas
"Islam versus Judaism… How is Jesus Viewed?"
By Larry C. Johnson
"I found the photo above as an interesting place to start a discussion about the birth of Jesus and how he is viewed in Islam and in Judaism. Anti-Muslim propaganda in the West, especially in the United States, paints a picture of Muslims as intolerant fanatics who threaten Christians with death if they don’t convert. But then there is the photo above… The fact is that in Muslim Iran, Christians are able to celebrate Christmas openly and without interference. I also note that Tehran is still home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. The supposedly intolerant Islamists ain’t killing them either.
The situation for Palestinian Christians in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, is quite different from that of their Armenian cousins in Iran. For example, according to the Times of Israel, Israeli Police harassed and arrested Palestinian Christians who were celebrating Christmas in Haifa on Sunday, December 21, 2025. The Israeli police raided a Christmas celebration in Wadi Nisnas (a predominantly Palestinian Arab neighborhood in Haifa), dispersing the event, confiscating equipment, beating participants, and arresting at least three people - including a man dressed as Santa Claus.
There also are reports of isolated incidents today in the West Bank: Earlier today, Israeli settlers set fire to a Christmas tree in the West Bank, and IDF soldiers beat up an elderly man in Bethlehem who carried a cross pendant around his neck. The good news is that the Palestinian Christian community, accompanied by a few foreigners, gathered in Bethlehem without incident to commemorate the birth of Jesus.
While Christian Zionists enthusiastically embrace the term, Judeo-Christian values, I believe a case can be made that Islam is far more tolerant of Christians than are the Jewish Zionists. Consider the following:
With respect to the identity of Jesus, Islam views Jesus (aka Isa) is a major prophet and messenger of God. Jesus is venerated as one of the five greatest prophets (alongside Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Muhammad). He is the Messiah (al-Masih) but in a non-divine sense, sent to confirm the Torah and guide the Israelites. Within Judaism, Jesus is not recognized as a prophet, Messiah, or divine figure. He is viewed as an ordinary Jewish man, possibly a teacher or false messiah claimant who did not fulfill biblical prophecies (e.g., world peace, ingathering of exiles).
Then there is the debate surrounding the Talmud. The Talmud (primarily the Babylonian Talmud, compiled around 300–500 CE) contains a small number of scattered passages that many scholars identify as references to Jesus of Nazareth (referred to as “Yeshu” or “Yeshu ha-Notzri”). These are highly polemical and negative, portraying him as a sorcerer, heretic, and false teacher who was justly executed. Scholarly consensus, as articulated by Peter Schäfer in his seminal book Jesus in the Talmud (2007), views these as deliberate counter-narratives to Christian claims, likely composed in Babylonia (3rd–4th centuries CE) in response to the growing dominance of Christianity. They parody New Testament stories to assert Judaism’s superiority.
However, some scholars (e.g., Johann Maier, Jacob Neusner) argue many or most references are not to the historical Jesus but to other figures with similar names (Yeshu/Yeshua was common), or are legendary/late additions. Due to medieval Christian censorship, some passages were altered, erased, or omitted in printed editions, making reconstruction reliant on manuscripts.
Whether you side with Peter Schäfer’s view or believe that Johann Maier has the right interpretation, there is no dispute that Islam holds a view of Jesus that is more in harmony with the beliefs of Christians. While both Islam and Judaism reject the claim that Jesus is the Divine Son of God, Islam accepts the Christian claims regarding the Vigin birth and the miracles. performed by Jesus, Judaism strongly rejects those claims.
And then there is the diametrically oppsed beliefs separating Islam from Judaism with respect Mary, the mother of Jesus. Islam highly exalts Mary as one of the four greatest women in history (alongside Asiya, Khadija, and Fatima). She is sinless, pious, and devoted; the Quran dedicates Surah 19 (Maryam) to her, detailing her life and virginity. She is a model of faith but not divine or an intercessor. Judaism, on the other hand, does not mentioned in Jewish scriptures (Torah or Talmud) and holds no religious significance. She is viewed simply as a Jewish woman and mother in Christian stories, which Judaism does not accept.
As is the case with Jesus, there are passages in the Talmud (primarily the Babylonian Talmud) that scholars interpret as containing lurid or sensational references to Mary (referred to as Miriam), the mother of Jesus. These are polemical in nature, often implying adultery, infidelity, or promiscuity to counter Christian narratives of the virgin birth, portraying Jesus as illegitimate rather than divinely conceived. Such references are found in scattered discussions on sorcery, heresy, and execution, and they have been historically controversial, leading to censorship in medieval printed editions due to Christian accusations of blasphemy. However, interpretations vary: Some scholars argue these refer to different historical or legendary figures (not the biblical Mary), while others see them as deliberate anti-Christian parodies from the 3rd–4th centuries CE, with no historical reliability.
Without delving into a deep theological discussion, I simply say that I celebrate the birth of Jesus as a divine event with the ultimate purpose of uniting all humans — regardless of their sex, race or ethnicity — with their Creator. In other words, you don’t have to be a member of a particular tribe or speak a particular language or have a particular skin color, to be embraced as a genuine offspring of God. In that vein, I wish all who are reading this a Merry Christmas… That does not mean you have to accept Jesus, just understand that I am wishing for you the best things that life can offer to you and your family. Thanks for reading."
Wednesday, December 24, 2025
"Medieval Carols"
"Medieval Carols"
1 Ave Maria (English, 15th century) - 00:00
2 What tidings bringest thou? (English, 15th century) - 2:53
3 O viridissima virga (Hildegard of Bingen) - 7:01
4 Alma redemptoris mater (English, 15th century) - 11:47
5 Deo gracias Anglia (English, 15th century) - 18:13
6 Be merry be merry (English, 15th century) - 22:11
7 Riu riu chiu (Spanish traditional) - 24:45
8 There is no rose (English, 15th century) - 27:08
9 Planctus Guillelmus (Anonymous French, ca. 1090) - 31:44
10 Eya mater Stephane (English, 15th century) - 38:32
11 Gaudete Christus est natus (English traditional) - 41:09
12 Hail Mary full of grace (English, 15th century) - 42:52
13 Now may we singen (English, 15th century) - 46:36
14 Nowell sing we (English, 15th century) - 50:59
15 Planctus David (Abelard) - 54:20
Merry Christmas, 2025
Merry Christmas folks, thanks for stopping by!
May peace and joy be yours this Christmas
and throughout the coming New Year.
"A Christmas Interlude With Placido Domingo"
Placido Domingo, "La Virgen Lava Pañales"
○
Plácido Domingo, Wiener Sängerknaben,
"Ave Maria" (Franz Schubert)
"Angels We Have Heard On High"
Full screen recommended.
"Angels We Have Heard On High"
The Piano Guys, Peter Hollens, David Archuleta, and the
Mormon Tabernacle Choir get together to sing "Angels We Have Heard On High."
Christmas Musical Interlude: Frank Sinatra, "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"
Full screen recommended.
Frank Sinatra,
"Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"
"I think it’s my favorite Christmas song. My reasons are kind of personal. As a kid the only Christmas album we owned was a giveaway Christmas record from the Pure Oil Company, my grandfather’s employer. Frank Sinatra got the title cut, and there were other Christmas songs covered by Jo Stafford (O Little Town of Bethlehem) the Hi-Los (Deck the Halls) and so on. To me, the artists on this album seemed impossibly old at the time (they were recording before I was born!) and the Pure Oil connection made me feel like it was something special.
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is associated with Sinatra, but it comes from "Meet Me in St. Louis," and it’s not really a cheerful song as written. The version we had had the 1947 Sinatra version, with the line “until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow,” which in the later remake was revised by songwriter Hugh Martin to “hang a shining star upon the highest bough.” Both are great lines, though these days I’m more in the muddling-through mood.
Well, the song was originally written in 1943, when there was a lot of muddling through to do. Even in 1947, with the World War just receding in the rear view mirror and with the Cold War beginning to loom in the windshield, there was plenty of muddling room. By the 1959 Hugh Martin revision, it was easier to be cheerful. But, you know, we did muddle through somehow. So let your heart be light. Perhaps by next year, our troubles will be out of sight. Say a little prayer, and hang a shining star upon the highest bough. And have yourself a merry little Christmas, now."
"I wrote the above a year ago [now two years ago!], and it’s wonderful how far we’ve come from those comparatively dark days. Muddling through sometimes gets you there. As I look back on the events of recent times, I keep reflecting on how many times things that seemed dark turned out to be for the best, and how often those whom I am tempted to regard as the forces of darkness are confounded - and how often they are the agents of their own confounding. Well, as they say, God looks after fools, drunkards, and the United States of America. Thank God for that."
- Glenn Harlan Reynollds
"Relaxing Fireplace & The Best Instrumental Christmas Music"
Full screen recommended.
"Relaxing Fireplace &
The Best Instrumental Christmas Music"
Christmas Musical Interlude: Peder B. Helland, "O Holy Night"
Full screen recommended.
Peder B. Helland, "O Holy Night"
"Traditional Christmas Classics"
Full screen recommended.
"Traditional Christmas Classics🎄
Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby"
"A Charlie Brown Christmas - True Meaning"
Full screen recommended.
"A Charlie Brown Christmas - True Meaning"
Christmas Musical Interlude: David Lanz and Kristin Amarie, "O Holy Night"
Full screen recommended.
David Lanz and Kristin Amarie, "O Holy Night"
Christmas Musical Interlude: Il Divo, "O Holy Night"
Full screen recommended.
Il Divo, "O Holy Night"
The Poet: David Whyte, "The Winter of Listening"
"The Winter of Listening"
"No one but me by the fire,
my hands burning red in the palms while
the night wind carries everything away outside.
All this petty worry while the great cloak
of the sky grows dark and intense
round every living thing.
What is precious inside us does not
care to be known by the mind
in ways that diminish its presence.
What we strive for in perfection
is not what turns us into the lit angel we desire,
what disturbs and then nourishes
has everything we need.
What we hate in ourselves
is what we cannot know in ourselves but
what is true to the pattern does not need
to be explained.
Inside everyone is a great shout of joy
waiting to be born.
Even with the summer so far off
I feel it grown in me now and ready
to arrive in the world.
All those years listening to those
who had nothing to say.
All those years forgetting how everything
has its own voice to make itself heard.
All those years forgetting how easily
you can belong to everything
simply by listening.
And the slow difficulty
of remembering how everything
is born from an opposite
and miraculous otherness.
Silence and winter
has led me to that otherness.
So let this winter of listening
be enough for the new life
I must call my own."
- David Whyte,
"The House of Belonging"
Bill Bonner, "A Visit from St. Nicholas"
"A Visit from St. Nicholas"
A special recorded message from Bill Bonner.
"It’s Christmas Eve…We recorded ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’ to send to our grandchildren a few years ago. It’s become a tradition to pass it along to you, too, in case you can use it. Just click on the arrow to listen. We’ll be taking a break until the New Year. But we’ll be back soon. In the meantime, we wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year."
"Disney World Visitors Revealed Their Debt and It's Worse Than You Think"
Full screen recommended.
Michael Bordenaro, 12/24/25
"Disney World Visitors Revealed Their
Debt and It's Worse Than You Think"
"People are going into massive amounts of debt just to be able to spend a few days at Disney World and the crazy part is they're already carrying big debts on their car loans on their student loans on their credit cards and still continuing to spend with no clear plan of ever being able to pay it off."
Comments here:
o
o
"When people pile up debts they will find difficult and perhaps even impossible to repay, they are saying several things at once. They are obviously saying that they want more than they can immediately afford. They are saying, less obviously, that their present wants are so important that, to satisfy them, it is worth some future difficulty. But in making that bargain they are implying that when the future difficulty arrives, they'll figure it out. They don't always do that."
- Michael Lewis, "Boomerang"
Dan, I Allegedly, "$12 Gasoline and a National Security Warning"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 12/24/25
"$12 Gasoline and a National Security Warning"
"California could see $12 a gallon gasoline and it’s not social media hype. You could actually be a national security emergency. There’s a formal report that actually states at the shutting down of the refineries and the increase taxes are a threat to the United States. Stay tuned. This is breaking news, and things are moving fast."
Comments here:
"Pharmakeia: America’s Seniors Are Being Overmedicated Into Oblivion"
"Pharmakeia: America’s Seniors Are
Being Overmedicated Into Oblivion"
by Michael Snyder
"So many seniors that were once so full of life are now just shadows of their former selves. It can be really easy to assume that they are “just getting old” and that nothing unusual is happening to them. But the truth is that in so many cases the reason why America’s seniors are shutting down is because they are simply being overmedicated. Our entire medical system has been designed to push pills, and so when our seniors seek medical help that is usually the solution that they are offered. As you will see below, the proportion of our seniors that are on at least 8 pharmaceutical drugs is truly alarming. Of course those that consume pharmaceutical drug cocktails on a daily basis for an extended period of time are quite likely to experience very serious consequences.
Most people don’t realize that modern terms such as “pharmacy” and “pharmaceutical” originally come from the Greek word “pharmakeia”… The word “pharmacy” has a fascinating origin story that’s as complex as the practice itself. It comes from the Greek word “pharmakeia”, which referred to “the practice of the druggist”. But here is the twist: “phármakon”, the root of the term, was a double-edged sword – it meant a plant or herb that could be used for either healing or harmful purposes, blurring the line between medicine and poison.
No society in the entire history of the planet has taken “pharmakeia” to the extremes that we have. We are the most drugged nation that the world has ever seen, and this is particularly true for our seniors. The Wall Street Journal recently interviewed an 83-year-old woman named Barbara Schmidt that has “filled prescriptions for more than a dozen different drugs in the past year”…"For years, Barbara Schmidt’s family feared an illness was behind a pattern of terrifying falls that repeatedly landed the 83-year-old great-grandmother in surgery with broken bones. Instead, Schmidt’s frequent tumbles might have been tied to something else: medications intended to make her better. Schmidt, who lives with her husband of 65 years in Lewes, Del., filled prescriptions for more than a dozen different drugs in the past year, according to pharmacy and medical records."
After taking so many medications in such a short period of time, it really is a miracle that she is still alive today. But she is far from alone. The Wall Street Journal discovered that one out of every six seniors that is enrolled in Medicare’s drug benefit has been prescribed at least 8 different pharmaceutical drugs… "That isn’t unusual for America’s seniors, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Medicare data. One in six of the 46 million seniors enrolled in Medicare’s drug benefit, which pays for most drugs taken by older Americans, were prescribed eight or more medications."
Millions upon millions of our seniors are literally being drugged into oblivion. One of the problems is that seniors often visit multiple physicians, and that can result in a lot of confusion…"Pharmacists who work with seniors say doctors might not be aware of their patients’ full medication list. Patients don’t always mention what their other doctors have prescribed when a history is taken, and specialists might not have access to a shared medical record. The Journal analysis found that, among seniors taking eight or more drugs, it was common for the prescriptions to come from a large number of doctors."
Of course it isn’t just seniors that are being overmedicated. One recent survey found that 70 percent of U.S. adults are currently taking at least one pharmaceutical drug, and nearly a quarter of U.S. adults are currently taking at least four pharmaceutical drugs…"Recent CivicScience poll results reveal the picture of maintenance prescription drug use in the U.S. has shifted dramatically. The number of U.S. adults who report taking at least one prescription medication per day is now 70%, a 14 percentage-point increase from 2019 data. Additionally, the percentage of people taking four or more prescription medications daily in the US has increased by six percentage points, from 18% to 24%. An increasing number of prescriptions equals less and less wiggle room in budgets already tightened due to inflationary prices."
It is an insanely profitable industry, and that is why we constantly see ads for pharmaceutical drugs on television. They desperately want more “customers”, and seniors are the easiest target. According to the official CDC website, 89 percent of Americans that are 65 years or older are currently taking at least one pharmaceutical drug…"Among adults aged ≥65 years, men (89.0%) and women (89.3%) were equally likely to take prescription medication. Prescription medication use increased with age, from 48.4% for those aged 18–44 years to 89.2% for those aged ≥65 years, and this pattern of increasing use with age was observed for both men and women."
We take more pharmaceutical drugs than anyone else in the world. So why is our life expectancy below average compared to other industrialized nations? I think that is a really important question. When our seniors go to see their doctors, they are often not properly informed about the potential side effects of the drugs that they are being prescribed.
Let me give you an example. Zoloft is the number one antidepressant in the United States, but most of those that are taking it do not realize that it has an extremely long list of side effects. But don’t just take my word for it. The following comes from the official Zoloft website…
"ZOLOFT may cause serious side effects. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of the following symptoms, or call 911 if there is an emergency.
1. Suicidal thoughts or actions: ZOLOFT and other antidepressant medicines may increase suicidal thoughts or actions in some people 24 years of age and younger, especially within the first few months of treatment or when the dose is changed. Depression or other serious mental illnesses are the most important causes of suicidal thoughts or actions. Watch for these changes and call your healthcare provider right away if you notice new or sudden changes in mood, behavior, actions, thoughts, or feelings, especially if severe. Pay particular attention to such changes when ZOLOFT is started or when the dose is changed. Keep all follow-up visits with your healthcare provider and call between visits if you are worried about symptoms.
2. Call a doctor right away if you or a person you know who is taking ZOLOFT has any of the following symptoms, especially if they are new, worse, or worry you:
- thoughts about suicide or dying
- attempts to commit suicide
- new or worse depression
- new or worse anxiety
- feeling very agitated or restless
- panic attacks
- trouble sleeping (insomnia)
- new or worse irritability
- acting aggressive, being angry, or violent
- acting on dangerous impulses
- an extreme increase in activity and talking (mania)
- other unusual changes in behavior or mood
3. Serotonin Syndrome. This condition can be life-threatening and symptoms may include:
- agitation, hallucinations, coma, or other changes in mental status
- racing heartbeat, high or low blood pressure
- coordination problems or muscle twitching (overactive reflexes)
- nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea
- sweating or fever
- muscle rigidity
4. Increased chance of bleeding: ZOLOFT and other antidepressant medicines may increase your risk of bleeding or bruising, especially if you take the blood thinner warfarin (COUMADIN®, JANTOVEN®), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAIDs, like ibuprofen or naproxen), or aspirin.
5. Manic episodes. Symptoms may include:
- greatly increased energy
- racing thoughts
- unusually grand ideas
- severe trouble sleeping
- reckless behavior
- excessive happiness or irritability
- talking more or faster than usual
6. Seizures or convulsions.
7. Glaucoma (angle-closure glaucoma). ZOLOFT may cause a certain type of eye problem called angle-closure glaucoma. Call your healthcare provider if you have eye pain, changes in your vision, or swelling or redness in or around the eye. Only some people are at risk for these problems. You may want to undergo an eye examination to see if you are at risk and receive preventative treatment if you are.
8. Changes in appetite or weight.
9. Low salt (sodium) levels in the blood. Elderly people may be at greater risk for this. Symptoms may include headache, weakness or feeling unsteady, confusion, problems concentrating or thinking, or memory problems.
10. Sexual problems (dysfunction). Taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), including ZOLOFT, may cause sexual problems.
There are many other drugs that literally list “death” as one of the potential side effects. And earlier this year it was being reported that adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs have now become the third leading cause of death in the United States…
"In 2021, the American Society of Pharmacovigilance (ASP) launched the Fourth Cause Campaign to raise awareness that adverse drug events (ADEs) were the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. Today, new data confirm a troubling and unacceptable reality - ADEs have now surged to become the third leading cause of death. An internal analysis conducted by ASP projects that adverse drug events now account for over 250,000 deaths annually, surpassing stroke and respiratory disease, making it the third leading cause of death in the United States."
What we are witnessing is truly a national tragedy. But the big news networks aren’t going to talk much about it, because the pharmaceutical companies are their biggest advertisers. And our politicians are unlikely to push for major reform, because the pharmaceutical companies pour vast amounts of money into their campaigns. Money is power, and the pharmaceutical industry is absolutely swimming in cash. If you are waiting for major change to happen, you may find yourself waiting for quite a while."
"Doug Casey: Top Predictions for 2026"
"Doug Casey: Top Predictions for 2026"
by International Man
"International Man: What do you see as the single most important thing that people should prepare for in 2026?
Doug Casey: Strauss and Howe asked that question in their book, "The Fourth Turning." We’re at a major turning point in the U.S. I’ve felt for years that the U.S. was heading toward something like a civil war. It could be as serious as the unpleasantness of the 1860s, just different. The red people and the blue people in the U.S. really dislike each other; they can’t even talk to each other. When things get to that stage, things are typically solved by force; I expect that’s what’s going to happen. Very likely during the next three years, while Trump is still in office. He’s the perfect catalyst.
It’s going to be exacerbated by the long-term migration trends. If we look 100 years down the road, it’s pretty clear that with modern travel and communications technologies, the migration of people from poor countries to rich countries all around the world will accelerate. Eventually, the U.S. won’t even exist in its present form. Of course, that’s true of every country. The colors of the map on the wall have been running since Day One.
I hope a catastrophic upset doesn’t happen in the near future for any number of reasons. For one, it won’t be any fun. For another, I’m a huge fan of traditional America. It was a unique institution in world history - the only country ever founded on the concepts of free thought, free markets, and individualism. A civil war - regardless of what form it takes - would likely overturn those things. While I hope things mellow out, hope isn’t the best foundation for making plans.
International Man: Geopolitically, tensions continue to build across Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia. Where do you expect the major flashpoints to emerge in 2026?
Doug Casey: The politicians who run Europe are uniformly despicable non-entities, from Ursula von der Leyen, She-Wolf of the EU, on down. One proof of that statement is that I could be prosecuted just for saying so in much of Europe. They’re soulless bureaucrats who stand for nothing but statism and collectivism. They’re driving Europe to actively rearm, doubling military budgets, reinstituting the draft, and talking about the necessity of war with Russia. I suspect they’ll get their war; I just hope it doesn’t go nuclear or biological. Odd, in that it’s over the Ukraine, the most backward and corrupt country on the continent. Perverse, in that it was never even a country until Lenin created it in 1923.
But that’s not all. The euro, an Esperanto currency, the “Who owes you nothing?” of fiat currencies, is a dead duck. All of the EU’s member countries are bankrupt welfare states. In fact, the European Union itself is going to break up. What’s good for individual countries is totally at odds with what the 80,000 - and that’s an accurate number - EU employees in Brussels want to impose. NATO, which should have been disbanded when the USSR collapsed, will also disappear. Europe will, best case, become a petting zoo for Chinese tourists and a luxury resort for Third World migrants.
The Middle East? While Trump is in office, we might as well adopt Israel as the 51st state. That won’t go down well with the world’s two billion Muhammadans. Don’t confuse the friendly relations of Washington with the governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and others among the 55 Muslim countries with political stability. Most are economic basket cases and extremely unstable.
East Asia? It’s perfectly irrational for China to attack Taiwan. The result would be widespread destruction on both sides - even if the US and/or Japan didn’t join the party. But governments do irrational things, unpredictably. What will happen with China’s claims on the East and South China Seas? It should be between them and six of their maritime neighbors. But the US could turn a regional border dispute into WW3.
But the unexpected flashpoint, I think, is going to be Africa. Over the last 60 years, the 55 African states (that’s only an approximate number since we don’t know how places like Libya, Western Sahara, Somaliland, or Darfur will wind up) have developed significant armies, aided by weapons and training from Europe and the US. They survive on the export of raw materials (causes of perpetual conflict) and aid from Europe and the U.S. (which is likely to evaporate). All of them (like almost everywhere in the Middle East and Central Asia) are artificial constructs with arbitrary borders. They’re all unstable kleptocracies run from the presidential palace.
The question is: to what degree will Europe, or especially the U.S., or especially Trump, stick their nose into African border wars and civil wars? There will be lots of them. I think Africa is the big powderkeg that nobody’s talking about.
International Man: The U.S. domestic political situation remains combustible, with deep cultural and economic fractures. How do you expect America’s internal divisions to evolve in 2026 as we approach the midterms?
Doug Casey: Trends in motion tend to stay in motion. Despite the fact that corporations, the entertainment industry, academia, and the media seem to be backing away from truly insane levels of wokeism, the issue is in doubt. The trend toward Wokeism has built momentum for decades, and the country’s been indoctrinated with it for generations. It’s not going away overnight.
Trump is purposefully and overtly polarizing. As I discussed last week (link), although he may see himself as Cincinnatus, he’s more like Caesar. He’ll keep stirring things up, if only because he knows what his adversaries will do to him when he’s out of office. While most sensible people love his antiwokeism, most of his economic and international interventionism will backfire - bigly. I suspect he’ll lose the midterms, and the Dems in the House will impeach him again. Will they succeed in the Senate this time? The natives will get restless no matter what.
International Man: With Trump poised to replace Fed Chair Powell, he will exert a stronger influence over central bank policy. What do you expect the monetary environment of 2026 to look like?
Doug Casey: The dollar will approach its intrinsic value as Trump and the Fed create a trillion more of them. It’s a formula for chaos. Trump is a big believer in mercantilist-style economics, which holds that the US must export more than it imports. I think he’ll try to force that issue with foreign exchange controls of some type, creating yet more distortions.
You want to exit the dollar, own precious metals, avoid the stock market and bond markets, and get your money out of the U.S. None of this is a formula for domestic tranquility, either in 2026, 2027, 2028, or beyond. And I’m assuming there will be a normal election in 2028, which is not a very safe assumption.
International Man: Investors are torn between chasing the current market bubble and preparing for a potential financial reckoning. Where do you think the biggest risks and opportunities will be in 2026, and which asset classes are positioned to benefit most from the turbulence ahead?
Doug Casey: There’s no question about the fact that most of Trump’s business success has been due to borrowing. Leverage, low interest rates, and inflation made the man. Trump’s history and incorrect understanding of economics tell me that the Fed will buy and monetize more government debt than ever, doing everything they can to artificially depress interest rates. For the short run, that could argue for the stock market going higher in 2026. But it’s a high-risk bet. Do you feel lucky?
With gold over $4,000 and silver over $60, they’re probably where they “should” be relative to other things. But as unstable as the world is, and because of their unique advantages, they’re going higher. The smart thing is to speculate on the shares of miners; they’re really cheap, and neither the public nor the institutions even know they exist, for reasons I’ve discussed in the past. All-in sustaining costs of producing gold is about $1,500 an ounce. It’s not hard to do the math.
In the last 50 years, we’ve had five 10-to-1 mining bull markets. I think we’re about to experience one more. A big one. Many of the smaller stocks have already gone three or four to one. Nobody cares… which is good. In addition, you should be long commodities generally. Grains are basically selling at around the cost of production. As are oil, gas, coal, and uranium. Commodities are very under-owned. Buying ETFs in any or all of these things is a set-and-forget allocation of capital for at least the next couple of years."
Adventures With Danno, "Massive Price Increases At Costco!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 12/24/25
"Massive Price Increases At Costco!"
Comments here:
"Alert! A Big Event Is Coming And Trump Was Just Sent A Warning!"
Full screen recommended.
Prepper News, 12/24/25
"Alert! A Big Event Is Coming
And Trump Was Just Sent A Warning!"
Comments here;
Tuesday, December 23, 2025
"In The End..."
"Life's funny, chucklehead. You only get one and you don't want to throw it away. But you can't really live it at all unless you're willing to give it up for the things you love. If you're not at least willing to die for something - something that really matters - in the end you die for nothing."
- Andrew Klavan
"1,200,000 Working Americans Are Living In Their Cars - The Working Homeless Crisis Is Exploding"
Full screen recommended.
RV Crisis, 12/23/25
"1,200,000 Working Americans Are Living In Their Cars -
The Working Homeless Crisis Is Exploding"
Comments here:
Canadian Prepper, "Get These 7 Items Before 2026"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 12/23/25
"Get These 7 Items Before 2026"
"These items are about to explode in price in 2026 due to nations preparing for war, Its important that you stock up before these things become unaffordable. Global supply chains are expected to be impacted by the events that are about to unfold."
Comments here:
"10 Million People At Risk Of Wage Garnishments"
Snyder Reports, 12/23/25
"10 Million People At Risk Of Wage Garnishments"
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It just never stops, does it? Hit after hit after hit...
Gerald Celente, "One Big Club And You Ain't In It"
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 12/23/25
"One Big Club And You Ain't In It"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."
Comments here:
"Be Ready For A Deep Dark Winter As 4 Million Can’t Afford To Heat Their Homes"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 12/23/25
"Be Ready For A Deep Dark Winter As
4 Million Can’t Afford To Heat Their Homes"
"4 million Americans can't afford to heat their homes this winter. Utility bills are skyrocketing, shelters are reaching capacity, and people are freezing on the streets with nowhere to go. In this video, we look at what's really happening behind the rising electricity costs and why so many families are struggling just to stay warm. From massive rate hikes hitting households across the country to data centers quietly draining the power grid, the truth is getting harder to ignore. This is the reality of winter in America right now, and it's only getting worse.
If this video resonated with you, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Drop a comment below and share your experience. Are you seeing the same thing happening where you live? What are you doing to get through this winter? Let's have a real conversation about it, because these stories need to be heard. Stay warm out there and take care of each other."
Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
"How do clusters of galaxies form and evolve? To help find out, astronomers continue to study the second closest cluster of galaxies to Earth: the Fornax cluster, named for the southern constellation toward which most of its galaxies can be found. Although almost 20 times more distant than our neighboring Andromeda galaxy, Fornax is only about 10 percent further that the better known and more populated Virgo cluster of galaxies.
Fornax has a well-defined central region that contains many galaxies, but is still evolving. It has other galaxy groupings that appear distinct and have yet to merge. Seen here, almost every yellowish splotch on the image is an elliptical galaxy in the Fornax cluster. The picturesque barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 visible on the lower right is also a prominent Fornax cluster member. "
"Still, Sometimes..."
“The early bird catches the worm. A stitch in time saves nine. He who hesitates is lost. We can’t pretend we haven’t been told. We’ve all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time, heard the damn poets urging us to seize the day. Still, sometimes, we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. We have to sweep today’s possibility under tomorrow’s rug, until we can’t anymore, until we finally understand for ourselves what Benjamin Franklin meant: That knowing is better than wondering. That waking is better than sleeping. And that even the biggest failure, even the worst, most intractable mistake, beats the hell out of never trying.”
- “Meredith”, “Grey’s Anatomy”
"History..."
"History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes,
follies and misfortunes of mankind."
- Edward Gibbon
"I Wish You Enough"
"I Wish You Enough"
by Bob Perks
"At an airport I overheard a father and daughter in their last moments together. They had announced her plane’s departure and standing near the door, he said to his daughter, “I love you, I wish you enough.” She said, “Daddy, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Daddy.” They kissed good-bye and she left.
He walked over toward the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see he wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on his privacy, but he welcomed me in by asking, “Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?” “Yes, I have,” I replied.
Saying that brought back memories I had of expressing my love and appreciation for all my Dad had done for me. Recognizing that his days were limited, I took the time to tell him face to face how much he meant to me. So I knew what this man was experiencing.
“Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye?” I asked. “I am old and she lives much too far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is, her next trip back will be for my funeral, ” he said.
“When you were saying good-bye I heard you say, ‘I wish you enough.’ May I ask what that means?” He began to smile. “That’s a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone.” He paused for a moment and looking up as if trying to remember it in detail, he smiled even more.
“When we said ‘I wish you enough,’ we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with enough good things to sustain them,” he continued and then turning toward me he shared the following as if he were reciting it from memory.
"I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright. I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more. I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive. I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger. I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting. I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess. I wish enough “Hello’s” to get you through the final 'Good-bye.'” He then began to sob and walked away."
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