Jim Kunstler, "Badass"

"Badass"

by Jim Kunstler

“Pretending that 'America First' means 'I only care about my house, 

not my neighborhood' is as retarded as it sounds.” 

- Jesus Enrique Rosas

"The capture of Nicolás Maduro is driving the Lefty-left batshit crazy for a very good reason: it portends the extinction of their financial life-support, since Sénior Maduro used his country as a money laundry for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and, in turn, cartel drug money, to funnel gazillions through Cuba to America’s Democratic Party and its political satellites. Not even George and Alex Soros can fill that hole.

For a nearly failed state, Cuba has been able to exert undue influence on US political life through the decades. Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles was trained-up in Marxist revolution there in the 1970s and traveled to Cuba many times during her stint in Congress. Reps. Ilhan Omar and Pramila Jayapal dropped into Havana during the last election year. NGOs such as the Center for Democracy in the Americas act as distribution nodes for money that comes through Cuba and supports Lefty-left activists around the USA. Don’t be surprised if a lot of this laundered money ended up in the bank accounts of US congresspersons and senators, too. Remember this when you watch them howl on your screens.

Alas, Communist Cuba is about to expire of strangulation. Cuba has depended on Sénior Maduro’s oil since the Soviet Union dissolved, and now that the supply is cut off, the island nation enjoys only a few hours-a-day of electricity. Soon it will be dark there... and things political start stirring and moiling in the dark. Odds are they won’t shake out so well for las communistas. So, that’ll be two down with a few more to go. Anyway, the Castro brothers are long gone and the old charisma with them. The current president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, is a nobody.

Of course, this Maduro caper raised the larger question for the American Lefty-left: what part of the Monroe Doctrine don’t you understand? Granted, it’s old. James Monroe was only our fifth president. But even back then it was obvious that the Western Hemisphere would be the USA’s sphere of influence, and this was our way of apprising foreign powers of the fact to avert trouble. It was a pretty sound and sturdy policy, too - though there certainly was much complaint about our heavy-handedness down south over the years... the United Fruit Company, and all.

It had become obvious, as Mr. Trump and Secretary Rubio explained over the weekend, that Venezuela under Sr. Maduro had become a platform for nefarious adventurism by America’s adversaries, especially the CCP, which was very active all around South America prepping various countries to join its “Belt and Road” initiative, which is to say its proposed global colonial resource network (a.k.a. empire). The day before he was snatched, Sr. Maduro had a visit with CCP emissaries. China had all kinds of deals going in Venezuela, especially for oil.

The oil is obviously a big part of the picture. But it’s a little more complicated than might appear superficially. Before Sr. Maduro, President Hugo Chávez seized the assets of ExxonMobile and ConocoPhillips in 2007 and then reneged on compensation. The nationalized oil industry, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), entered a long and disastrous production decline, from 3.5-million barrels-a-day to about 1-million in 2025. The equipment is ancient and PDVSA has lost most of its technical expertise. Here’s why Mr. Trump is so hot to revive production there:

Venezuelan oil is generally heavy oil. America needs heavy oil because US shale oil, which is about 64 percent of total US output, is extra light, mostly gasoline. American oil refineries, built long ago, are calibrated for heavier oil. For years, the US has had to import heavy crude to mix with our shale oil to produce an adequate supply of heavier distillates, especially diesel and aviation fuel, which are critical to the US economy.

The play you’re hearing about now, is mainly the Maracaibo Basin. It doesn’t mean that America is going to rob Venezuela of its oil. You are likely to see pretty equitable arrangements between returning US oil companies and Venezuela. The US doesn’t need yet another communist revolution there. If more oil gets produced, both Venezuela and the US will be better off for a while - though you might also keep in mind that US shale plays are entering decline, and the decline is liable to be swift because of Permian Basin well profiles.

The other part of this oil story is the celebrated Orinoco oil sands, touted to be the greatest oil reserves in the world, equal to reserves of all global conventional oil. This is separate from Maracaibo and there are some big problems with it. These are super-heavy tar sands. They do not gush out of the ground. They have to be coaxed out with a lot of heat and other technical tricks that tend to be super-expensive. The oil sands also happen to be in jungle, a very difficult place to work, especially from a disease standpoint. Prepare for some degree of disappointment over the Venezuelan oil sands bonanza, no matter how vast.

Sr. Maduro heads into court in Manhattan this morning to be arraigned. There’s a rumor that lawfare ninja Norm Eisen might show up with him to lodge objections to the process. Assigned to the case is 92-year-old Alvin K. Hellerstein, senior Judge for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), reputed to be of a hearty Lefty-left persuasion. Wouldn’t it be something if he orders Sr. Maduro to be released, like Judge Boasberg down in DC did with “Maryland Dad” Kilmar Abrego Garcia? Just sayin’. The festivities kick off at noon today."

- https://www.kunstler.com/

"Economic Market Snapshot 1/5/26"

"Economic Market Snapshot 1/5/26"

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

Only the consequences are real - to you!

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"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 

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

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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."

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- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

Job cuts and much more.

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- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

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- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

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- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

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- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

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Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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"The more I see of the monied classes,

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

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

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And now... The End Game...

o

Musical Interlude: 2002, “When I See You Again”

Full screen recommended.

2002, “When I See You Again”

"A Look to the Heavens"

Full screen recommended.

"The Astonishing Truth About Trillions of Galaxies!"

"The view of the starry night sky is simply overwhelming: but what – or rather, how much – can we actually see? From our earthly perspective, it is simply impossible to see the entire universe. And yet, some time ago, astronomers conducted a “cosmic census” to find out how many galaxies really lie dormant in the observable universe – and in doing so, they uncovered something incredible! The bottom line is that there are at least two trillion galaxies out there – about ten times more than previously thought! Today, we'll show you how experts discovered the truth about these hidden galaxies – and how this has changed our understanding of our cosmic neighborhood!"

"30 Minutes To Excellence"

"30 Minutes To Excellence"

by Paul Rosenberg

"Excellence is attainable, and by every healthy person. I received this lesson from a man I never met, named Earl Nightingale. Today I’m passing it along to you. Earl researched and taught about success for decades, and he took his job seriously. His work is often forgotten now, but if you can find it, it is definitely worth your time. I had it on cassette tapes, but I suspect it’s still available in some format. One of Earl’s more interesting lessons was this: If you spend 30 minutes – every day – learning about one specific subject, you’ll become a legitimate expert in six months.

This is true. And I know it’s true because I took Earl’s advice and I became an expert. Perhaps it will take longer than six months for a very difficult subject, but 30 minutes per day – if you actually use the time for serious study – is a lot of focused time.

How to Do It: This is far easier than you might think, as long as you can make firm decisions and run your own life… if you can refuse to live by the expectations of others. This means that you must to be able to say “no.” It means that you can accept others being disappointed with you. You must be able to do what you think is right, regardless of their repeated objections.

When I first did this, it involved not having lunch with the people I worked with. I went off on my own and read while eating. Some of my colleagues thought I was being rude or weird, but I did it anyway. Then, when my co-workers went out after work, I went home. I smiled, explained that I didn’t like drinking and that I had too much to do at home. And then I went home and read. They shook their heads but soon stopped asking.

So, when the people you work with go out to lunch, sit by yourself and read. When they go out after work, go home and study. If friends or family don’t like it, do it anyway. Be different. Assure them that there is no insult intended, but take whatever insults you must and do what’s best for you. You probably won’t lose many friends over this, but if you do, so be it. Any friend who requires you not to grow is a friend you don’t need to keep.

How to Read: Here are a few tips:Go for quality, not quantity. Forget about reading a certain number of pages per day. Make sure that you understand what you read – that’s the only thing that matters.Don’t just go through the motions. Stop and back up whenever you must. If you don’t understand something, circle it and look it up at your first opportunity. Don’t leave anything out; if you do, you’re subverting your future learning. Fill in the gaps as you go, not later.You must understand why things work as they do. It is not enough to understand how they work, you must understand why… you must know what interacts with the things you’re studying, making them act as they do. Once you understand that, you’ll start becoming a real expert.Always keep paper and a pen next to your book. Write down things you need to check. Write down other ideas that come up while reading. Write down ideas for using the things you are reading about.Once you finish a book (or magazine or whatever), review your notes and put everything of value into a file.

And If You Do…If you do this, you’ll become a legitimate expert at whatever you study. Special talents are not required for this. Genius is not required. What is required is that you make your own decision and stick with it. Or, in the words of Calvin Coolidge: "Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. Make good choices, hold to them regardless of pressure, and press on."

- https://freemansperspective.com/

"Insanity..."

"Insanity in individuals is something rare -

but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule."

- Friedrich Nietzsche

"This Is The Part Of The Story That Leads To War With Russia And China"

"This Is The Part Of The Story That

 Leads To War With Russia And China"

by Michael Snyder

"The dramatic events that just occurred in Venezuela have shocked the entire world. But almost everyone is missing the bigger picture. A very tense geopolitical game of chess is playing out right in front of our eyes, and the stakes are incredibly high. The Trump administration would love to push the Chinese and the Russians out of the western hemisphere, and setting up a new western-friendly government in Venezuela would be a huge step in that direction. Most people do not realize this, but Venezuela actually has more proven oil reserves than anyone else on the entire planet, and that includes Saudi Arabia. President Trump and his team are gambling that the Chinese and the Russians will stand down and allow them to do whatever they want with Venezuela. But what if they don’t? The Chinese and the Russians have both spent decades developing very deep ties with Venezuela, and now they are both absolutely furious.

Over the past two decades, the Russians have sold the Venezuelans approximately 20 billion dollars worth of military equipment, and they just signed a major strategic partnership agreement on May 7th. The Chinese have lent the Venezuelans approximately 60 billion dollars over the last couple of decades, and China has been purchasing more oil from Venezuela than the rest of the world combined.

An emergency session of the UN Security Council has been called for Monday, and I am sure that the Russians and the Chinese are both going to have plenty to say…"The United Nations Security Council is due to meet on Monday after the US attacked Venezuela and deposed its long-serving autocratic President Nicolas Maduro, a move that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres views as setting “a dangerous precedent.” Colombia, backed by Russia and China, requested the meeting of the 15-member council, diplomats say. The UN Security Council has met twice  -  in October and December  -  over the escalating tensions between the United States and Venezuela."

Venezuela had essentially become a full-blown economic colony of China, and it took a great deal of time for the Chinese to accomplish that. So if you look at things from a Chinese point of view, it is easy to understand why they are so upset. A foreign ministry spokesperson has announced that China “strongly condemns” what the U.S. has just done…"China said it’s “deeply shocked” by the US’s military strikes on Venezuela and its capture of President Nicolas Maduro.

China “strongly condemns the US’s blatant use of force against a sovereign state and action against its president,” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement late Saturday. “Such hegemonic acts of the US seriously violate international law and Venezuela’s sovereignty, and threaten peace and security in Latin America and the Caribbean region. China firmly opposes it.”

And the Chinese are also demanding that Nicolas Maduro and his wife be released immediately…"Beijing’s stinging rebuke expressed “serious concern over their transfer out of the country”. It claimed the military operation was “in clear violation of international law and the basic norms in international relations and the purposes and principles of the UN Charter”, adding: “China calls on the US to ensure the personal safety of President Maduro and his wife, release them at once, stop toppling the Government of Venezuela, and resolve issues through dialogue and negotiation.”

Of course that isn’t going to happen. Now that President Trump has Maduro, he is never going to let him go. What makes all of this even more embarrassing for China is that a Chinese delegation actually met with Maduro just hours before he was grabbed by U.S. forces Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro received a Chinese government representative at the presidential palace in Caracas on Friday, hours before US President Donald Trump claimed Maduro had been captured following American military strikes.

Maduro met Qiu Xiaoqi, special representative of the Chinese government on Latin American affairs, at the Miraflores Palace. “I had a pleasant meeting with Qiu Xiaoqi, Special Envoy of President Xi Jinping,” Maduro said on Telegram. “We reaffirmed our commitment to the strategic relationship that is progressing and strengthening in various areas for building a multipolar world of development and peace.”

Can you imagine how we would feel if the roles were reversed? To the Chinese, Venezuela is not just another country. It was supposed to provide large amounts of oil for China’s growing economy for decades to come, and the Venezuelans currently owe the Chinese tens of billions of dollars…"Venezuelan oil takes an unconventional route to end-users in China. Transport typically takes more than two months and involves multiple ship-to-ship transfers to mask the origin of the cargo. Close to half of the tankers storing Merey are sitting in waters off China and Southeast Asia, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, public data supports estimates that Beijing lent upwards of $60 billion in oil-backed loans to Venezuela through state-run banks until 2015, reaching a level of diplomatic and financial investment unmatched elsewhere in Latin America and perhaps the world."

By making a move to take control of Venezuela, we have essentially punched the Chinese in the face. Our relationship with China will never be the same after this. For years, experts have been talking about a coming war with China, and the U.S. military is actually “working around the clock” to prepare for such a conflict…"Across sleepy and remote islands in the Pacific, U.S. military engineers are working around the clock to revive strategically important airstrips that American troops first built under fire over 70 years ago during World War II.

The reconstruction effort is being led by a designated office within the U.S. Air Force, whose Agile Combat Employment, or ACE, doctrine has identified dozens of airfields that will be used to house and launch fighter jets, aerial refuelling tankers and weapons during a war with China. A trilateral force of the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force is now converging with a single goal in mind: re-establish a presence on the airfields once used to deliver decisive combat power for the United States during the last great power war."

The Russians are also extremely upset about what has just transpired in Venezuela. In fact, Russia’s Foreign Ministry says that what we just witnessed “warrants condemnation”…"The US committed an act of armed aggression against Venezuela, which gives rise to deep concern & warrants condemnation. The pretexts used to justify these actions are untenable. Russia reaffirms its solidarity with the Venezuelan people."

And Russia’s Foreign Ministry is also calling for the immediate release of “the lawfully elected president of a sovereign country and his wife”…"Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday called for the release of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife from U.S. custody after President Donald Trump announced that they were captured during military strikes on the capital city of Caracas. “We firmly call on the U.S. leadership to reconsider this position and release the lawfully elected president of a sovereign country and his wife,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, stressing the need to resolve the dramatic confrontation through diplomacy." In a separate message, the ministry said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone to Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez Gomez, during which he expressed his “solidarity with the Venezuelan people in the face of armed aggression.”

After what we just witnessed, how are the Russians supposed to trust any promises that we are making about Ukraine? I just don’t see any possible way that there is going to be lasting peace with Russia now. I think that the “peace plan” that the Ukrainians and the Europeans have been working on will eventually be presented to the Russians, and the Russians will immediately reject it because it is filled with provisions that the Russians could never possibly accept. Once the Russians have rejected the “peace plan”, we will be told that there is no choice but to escalate the conflict in Ukraine. Needless to say, that will put us in very dangerous territory.

As for Venezuela, there is a possibility that the U.S. Senate could step in next week and prevent President Trump and his team from taking any further military action…"The Senate will vote next week on a bipartisan war powers resolution to block President Trump from continuing military action against Venezuela  -  a vote that takes on heightened importance after U.S. forces attacked the South American nation and arrested President Nicolás Maduro early Saturday.

The resolution to block the administration from engaging in further hostilities against Venezuela is privileged, which means Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) cannot stop it from coming to the floor. The measure is sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

It will be very interesting to see how that vote goes. Several Republicans will need to back that resolution in order for it to pass. Of course President Trump will be extremely displeased with any Republicans that choose to do so. But even if this resolution passes, the U.S. has still crossed a line that will never be able to be uncrossed. We have reached the part of the story that will eventually lead to war with both Russia and China, and that should deeply alarm all of us.

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com

The Daily "Near You?"

Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: T.S. Eliot, "The Hollow Men"

"The Hollow Men" 

(read by Tom O'Bedlam)

by Craig Boehman

"I’ve been experimenting with several of the AI platforms, attempting to learn all that I can about how the systems work and how to produce the best images from the prompts that I provide. My favorite platform is Midjourney, which is what I used to create the images for this poem. It’s a relatively straight-forward process over all, but there is a bit of learning when it comes to some of the finer aspects of telling AI exactly what it is that you want. Whether then AI can actually provide you with your desired results is another issue altogether, as I’ve discovered first-hand over the past week. 

Which brings me to "The Hollow Men" by T.S. Eliot, my favorite poem. I thought what better way to put Midjourney’s AI to the test? Surely, not even artificial intelligence can handle all of Eliot’s lines in a cohesive manner. I found this to be true. But in some cases, the visuals came pretty close to matching a visual interpretation of the lines. I’ll let you be the judge though. 

For each of the images below, the corresponding lines from the poem were fed into the bot as prompts, exactly as written, no other commands given except to make the images all in a 3:2 ratio. Other than that, you’re seeing only the results from Eliot’s own words."

- https://craigboehman.com/blog/

"The Hollow Men"

I

We are the hollow men,

We are the stuffed men,

Leaning together,

Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!

Our dried voices, when

We whisper together

Are quiet and meaningless,

As wind in dry grass,

Or rats’ feet over broken glass

In our dry cellar.

Shape without form, shade without color.

Paralyzed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed

With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom,

Remember us - if at all - not as lost

Violent souls, but only

As the hollow men.

The stuffed men.

II

Eyes I dare not meet in dreams

In death’s dream kingdom,

These do not appear:

There, the eyes are

Sunlight on a broken column

There, is a tree swinging,

And voices are

In the wind’s singing,

More distant and more solemn

Than a fading star.

Let me be no nearer

In death’s dream kingdom.

Let me also wear

Such deliberate disguises

Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves

In a field,

Behaving as the wind behaves

No nearer -

Not that final meeting

In the twilight kingdom.

III

This is the dead land,

This is cactus land.

Here the stone images

Are raised, here they receive

The supplication of a dead man’s hand

Under the twinkle of a fading star.

Is it like this

In death’s other kingdom,

Waking alone,

At the hour when we are

Trembling with tenderness,

Lips that would kiss

Form prayers to broken stone.

IV

The eyes are not here,

There are no eyes here

In this valley of dying stars,

In this hollow valley,

This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms.

In this last of meeting places

We grope together

And avoid speech,

Gathered on this beach of the tumid river.

Sightless, unless

The eyes reappear

As the perpetual starm

Multifoliate rose

Of death’s twilight kingdom,

The hope only

Of empty men.

V

Here we go round the prickly pear,

Prickly pear prickly pear,

Here we go round the prickly pear,

At five o’clock in the morning.

Between the idea

And the reality,

Between the motion

And the act

Falls the Shadow.

                                                                                      For Thine is the Kingdom.

Between the conception

And the creation,

Between the emotion

And the response,

Falls the Shadow

                                                                          Life is very long.

Between the desire

And the spasm,

Between the potency

And the existence,

Between the essence

And the descent,

Falls the Shadow.

                                                                                              For Thine is the Kingdom.

For Thine is,

Life is

For Thine is the...

This is the way the world ends,

This is the way the world ends,

This is the way the world ends,

Not with a bang but a whimper."

- T. S. Eliot