"Has America Reached Peak Idiocracy?"

 

by Michael Snyder

"We live in a lowest common denominator society. For the last several decades, virtually every major institution in our society has become less civilized, and that is because our entire population has become less civilized. 20 years ago, a film entitled “Idiocracy” was released. It was about an average American that was selected for “a top-secret hibernation program but is forgotten and left to awaken to a future so incredibly moronic that he’s easily the most intelligent person alive”. It was an incredibly stupid movie, but the truth is that we are living it right now. Did you see the Super Bowl halftime show? The FCC has ruled that it didn’t violate any federal decency regulations. Of course we might as well not have any decency regulations at all, because our television shows and our movies are filled with some of the raunchiest material imaginable and nobody ever seems to get in trouble for it. Of course that is only part of the equation. Most of the “programming” that we constantly consume also seems to be specifically designed for people of extremely low intelligence. Sadly, this is not a coincidence. It has been said that art imitates life, and that is certainly accurate in this case.

In the “dumbed-down” environment that we find ourselves in today, it should be no surprise that “nude cruises” have been surging in popularity…Imagine coming home from your next cruise with no tan lines. Swimsuits are standard attire on many cruise ships, but some voyages don’t even require those. Nude cruises allow travelers to sail the high seas au naturel – and pack light. The American Association for Nude Recreation promotes the cruises as “a unique way to experience nude recreation, offering members options beyond traditional resort or club settings,” president Linda Weber told USA TODAY. While the dress code might be non-restrictive, it doesn’t mean the sailings are a free-for-all on board; there is some etiquette that passengers should be familiar with before boarding. While our society falls apart all around us, Americans are flocking to cruises that are filled with naked people. What does that say about us?

Let me give you another example of what I am talking about. A 20-year-old woman from California left her children in an extremely hot car while she got lip and butt injections. By the time she was done with the procedures, her 1-year-old son had died…"A 20-year-old California mom was found guilty Wednesday in the death of her 1-year-old son, after reportedly leaving him in a sweltering car to receive lip and butt injections last June.Maya Hernandez took a plea deal in the child endangerment case, ultimately dropping her first-degree murder charge in exchange for involuntary manslaughter.

On June 29, Bakersfield officers arrested and charged Hernandez after finding two young children left unattended in a vehicle for over two hours, according to a police report posted on a GoFundMe page. Authorities said the mother left the children unattended to undergo a cosmetic procedure inside a nearby medical spa." What was she thinking? In that case, it doesn’t appear that she intended to harm her children.

But in another case in New Mexico, a 38-year-old woman purposely killed her newborn child in a portable toilet…"A New Mexico woman is facing charges after she allegedly gave birth in a portable toilet and then killed the newborn by drowning them in the holding tank. Sonia Cristal Jimenez, 38, arrived at Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces at around 10:30 p.m. on Feb. 7, when staff said she appeared as if she had just given birth, but she had no baby with her, Las Cruces Police said in a press release. Hospital staff then notified police about the unusual encounter. She didn’t want the baby, and so she killed it.

As a society, we have so little respect for life because we have been trained to have so little respect for life. In Michigan, a 3-year-old boy was recently killed because a couple wanted to “make room for a child that the two of them could have together”…"A mum and her ex-boyfriend have been accused of killing her three-year-old son in order to “make room for a child that the two of them could have together”. Little Matthew Maison was found dead in the bed of his home in Port Huron Township, Michigan, by his babysitters on February 18, 2018. His mum, Amanda Maison, and Maurice Houle, who was her boyfriend at the time of Matthew’s death, were arrested in connection with the killing. An autopsy showed that Matthew had died from blunt force trauma injuries and possible suffocation.

The ex-couple allegedly admitted to abusing the young boy when they were arrested, prosecutors have previously said. Maison, 33, has pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree homicide in relation to her son’s death, admitting as she appeared in court to enter her plea on November 5 that she abused Matthew.

These are not isolated incidents. Every day there are even more signs that our society is rapidly degenerating. Yes, we possess more advanced technology than previous generations, but in many ways that advanced technology is making things even worse. For example, all over the country women are “marrying” AI husbands. When an older version of ChatGPT was recently retired, it resulted in the “death” of one woman’s AI husband, and now she is in mourning…"A woman has been left in tears over the ‘death’ of her AI husband, after an old model of ChatGPT was retired this week – as she joins a slew of others ‘mourning’ their non-existent lovers’ deletion.

Speaking to the BBC, Rae (not her real name), who is based in Michigan, laid bare the heartbreak of saying goodbye to her virtual partner Barry, who she began chatting to last year – after going through divorce. Initially, she turned to artificial intelligence for advice on self-improvement with things like skincare and workouts – but what first began as a ‘fantasy’ turned into real feelings, and they were ‘married’ within weeks."

Some surveys have shown that nearly 30 percent of Americans have engaged in a romantic relationship with an AI chatbot. That is not a sign of an emotionally healthy society. And even as we were all expressing outrage about the Epstein files, “sex dolls that look like kids” were being advertised on Facebook…"Sickening sex dolls that look like kids are being advertised for sale on Facebook. A group of websites touting small models with overtly childlike features have published over 1,300 ads on the social media platform. They are alarmingly realistic in appearance and many ads use photos in sexualised poses, some holding balloons or teddy bears. The National Crime Agency warns the creepy imports “pose a significant risk to children”. And a former cop told us: “Anyone who buys one of these dolls should be a person of interest to the police.”

Thankfully, the offending ads were eventually taken down. But this is the society that we live in now. It is sick. And even when people are arrested for criminal behavior, they are often dumped right back into the streets. Needless to say, that can have tragic consequences. In fact, one repeat offender in Seattle that had been arrested over and over again viciously attacked a 75-year-old woman with “a wooden board with nails in it”…

"An elderly woman was savagely attacked in broad daylight by a man wielding a wooden board with nails in it. Jeanette Marken, 75, was left permanently blinded in her right eye after being hit in the face with the makeshift weapon in Seattle, allegedly at the hands of repeat offender Fale Vaigalepa Pea, 42. Family members told KOMO that a screw sticking out of the board gouged out Marken’s eye, and after several surgeries she was told she will not recover her eyesight in the eye. One police officer that is very familiar with Fale Vaigalepa Pea referred to him as “a regular”… ‘He’s a regular. He usually punches,’ the officer responds. ‘I guess today he decided to escalate from his usual.’ According to KOMO, Pea’s string of offenses dates back to 2011, when he stabbed two people at a party."

They have been dumping this guy back into the streets for well over a decade. This sort of thing happens day in and day out in major cities all over the nation. What would our founders think if they could see us today? We will soon be celebrating the 250th anniversary of our country, and we are literally committing societal suicide. This is something that Abraham Lincoln once warned was a real possibility…

As the country approaches its 250th anniversary, we should remember Abraham Lincoln’s remark that no external enemy could by force take a drink from the Ohio River. “If destruction be our lot,” he said, “we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” If we keep going down the path that we are on, there is no future for us. But if we make a choice to renounce what we have become and start embracing the values that early Americans held so dear, we could turn the ship in another direction. Do you think that will actually happen?"

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"People Are Freaking Out; US Federal Government Can't Stop Spending; Get Out Of The Big Cities Now"

Full screen recommended.

Jeremiah Babe, 2/16/26

"People Are Freaking Out; US Federal Government 

Can't Stop Spending; Get Out Of The Big Cities Now"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Going the Way of the Denarius"

"Going the Way of the Denarius"

by Jeff Thomas

"History repeats. (Or it rhymes, depending on your choice of words.) Throughout history, there has been an extraordinary tendency for governments (and cultures) to follow similar paths. Even regarding eras thousands of years apart, we see people behaving in much the same way, over and over. This is particularly true in the case of "wrong moves." Over and over, people and their governments make the same mistakes, seemingly never learning from past errors.

Why should this be? In fact, how is this even possible? Surely, if a government in the 21st century were to make egregiously bad decisions, they are unlikely to be the same bad decisions that were made in, say, Rome, in the 4th century.

The reason, in two simple words, is "human nature." Human nature remains the same throughout time. Two thousand years ago, governments were typically made up of egotistical, self-centred dictatorial types, who were far more concerned with their own power than in the general welfare of their people. Today, politics remains a magnet for such people. They therefore will revert to type when faced with the very same problems.

Should we cut spending to give the taxpayers a break? No, we should increase taxation and give more to ourselves. If we spend more than we receive in taxes, should we cut back our expenditures, or should we go into debt? We’ll go into debt, and put the debt on the shoulders of the taxpayers. If the debt grows to be beyond what can ever be repaid, should we cut back expenditures, or should we allow the economy to collapse? Well, we’re sorry to see the economy collapse, but rather than deny ourselves, get out the fiddle and let Rome burn.

The denarius was the coin of the realm during the centuries when Rome was a republic. Although the gold solidus was used as a storage of wealth, the silver denarius was equal in value to a day’s wages for a common labourer and, as such, was more useful as the primary unit of exchange. During this time, it was a stable currency. However, as Rome turned into an empire, all that conquest in foreign lands became extremely costly and it was decided that one way to offset such costs was to devalue the denarius. Each successive emperor added a bit more base metal than the previous one and, by the time of Diocletian, there was no silver in the coin at all, only bronze. During this same period, Rome experienced dramatic inflation – a predictable outcome when the coin of the realm is degraded. The population was in decline as well.

If this sounds familiar, it should. Modern governments have a tendency to make precisely the same mistakes with regard to currencies. First, empire-building drains the coffers to the point that maintaining a sound economy is no longer possible, then successive "emperors" make the decision to debase the currency in an effort to keep the party going a bit longer. Of course, "inflating the problem away" never actually works. Just as Rome went into an irreversible decline, so the empire of today is self-destructing, due, in part, to monetary debasement.

So, is the present-day situation identical to fourth-century Rome? Well, not quite. It’s probably safe to say that, had Diocletian figured out that the coin of the realm could be done away with entirely; that is, had he realised he could replace it with paper notes with his picture on them, he might well have done so. Certainly, modern "emperors" have first created redeemable silver certificates, then subsequently supplanted those certificates with notes that were backed by nothing. (At least Diocletian issued bronze coins, whose value, whilst small, was at least real.)

But the modern-day monetary magician has one more rabbit left to pull out of the hat. Those who believe that the dollar (as well as the euro and other fiat currencies) is on its last legs are inclined to say, "At least, after the collapse of the dollar, there will be no choice but to return to a gold standard. That will put an end to any inflation, plus put the world back on a solid monetary footing." But this may be wishful thinking.

The U.S. Federal Reserve remains steadfast in its position that precious metals are a barbarous relic. Certainly, from their point of view, this is true. After all, it’s difficult to fiddle with the value of gold, as it retains its intrinsic value. Two thousand years ago, the purchasing power of an ounce of gold was roughly what it is today. And, whilst the average person may prefer the stability of precious metals, governments have a strong dislike for the limitations that this places on them. Governments prefer to be able to fiddle with the value of currency for their own purposes just as the emperors of old did.

What I believe is most likely to occur as the dollar collapses is that the Federal Reserve will "come to the rescue" with a new currency. Not a paper one, that has obvious problems, but one that "solves all the problems of paper currency." The new currency may well be more of a credit card – to be used for literally all monetary transactions. And the electronic currency will have an added feature (at least from the point of view of the government). Since it’s electronic, every time the user purchases so much as a candy bar, the purchase is registered in the government data centre. No monetary transaction of any kind can be made, except through the use of the card. (This latter requirement will no doubt be justified as being necessary to control terrorism.) And the electronic dollar may only be the first of its kind. It should not be surprising if other governments see the benefit of an electronic currency as their sole form of currency and create their own.

So, does this mean that precious metals truly may become the barbarous relic, as governments tell us? Not necessarily. After all, many countries have taken a painful hit as a result of the dollar being the world’s default currency. When the dollar crashes, they will take a further hit. They will not want to recreate that problem by allowing the U.S. to simply begin dealing in a new "ultra-fiat" currency. Many of the world’s governments are stocking up on yellow metal like never before. It remains to be seen whether they, too, will create their own electronic currencies, whether they will switch to gold-backed currencies, or whether they will attempt a combination of the two.

If, in fact, electronic currency becomes the norm, of one thing we can be sure: The emperors will devalue it, as needed. It will, ultimately, fail and, perhaps sooner, perhaps later, the world will return to the barbarous relic as it has done countless times for the last 5,000 years. The only uncertainty will be when.

The denarius didn’t fail overnight—it was weakened step by step, until people woke up to a new reality and realized the old rules no longer applied. That’s the real lesson here: when governments debase money to buy time, the eventual "solution" often arrives dressed up as progress, even as it concentrates control and reshapes who wins and who loses."

- https://internationalman.com/

"Dr. Mohammad Marandi Destroys Mark Levin, Iran-US War"

Full screen recommended.

Katie Halper, 2/16/26

"Dr. Mohammad Marandi 

Destroys Mark Levin, Iran-US War"

Comments here:

- ttps://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Danny Haiphong, 2/16/26

"Mohammad Marandi: Iran Warns Trump,

 Next Missile Strike Wipes Out US Navy And Israel"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

'Wars And Rumors Of War: Iran"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 2/16/26

"Larry Johnson: Why War With Iran Is Imminent"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Dialogue Works, 2/16/26

"Larry C. Johnson: Iran Just Leveled Up"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

"Col. Douglas Macgregor: 

US Carriers are Finished if Iran Hits Them"

"In this critical military analysis, retired US Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor exposes the catastrophic risks of a potential US-Israeli war with Iran. He details how modern Iranian missiles could neutralize America's most powerful assets, explaining that you don't need to sink an aircraft carrier to render it useless - a single large hole in the flight deck is enough. Macgregor argues that the push for war comes not from a sound military strategy, but from an "Israel First" agenda within Washington, driven by figures like Jack Keane and Mike Huckabee, who see a "unique opportunity" to annihilate a strategic opponent. He contrasts this with the wisdom of past presidents like Eisenhower and Kennedy, who rejected similar calls for reckless wars. Macgregor warns that the decision to attack has likely already been made, and the consequences could be devastating for US forces, its global standing, and for President Trump's political future."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Danny Haiphong, 2/16/26

"Pepe Escobar: Trump in Panic!

 Iran just Unleashed Russia & China's WW3 Strategy"

Comments here:

-mhttps://www.youtube.com/

"Listen to What the Russians Are Saying About Novorossiya"

Click image for larger size.

"Listen to What the Russians 

Are Saying About Novorossiya"

by Larry C. Johnson

"Among the many valuable things I have learned from my esteemed colleague, Ray McGovern, is the importance of listening to what the Russians are saying. One thing that both President Putin and Foreign Minster Lavrov have said, repeatedly during the past 12 years, is the importance of Novorossiya to Russia.

In his February 9, 2026, interview with TV BRICS (and echoed in related remarks), Lavrov reiterated Russia’s demands for a settlement: eradicating “Nazi foundations,” preventing weapons in Ukraine that threaten Russia, and protecting rights of Russian/Russian-speaking people in Crimea, Donbas, and Novorossiya (who the Kyiv regime has labeled as “subhuman” and launched a civil war against them early in 2014).

In a February 10, 2026, speech/ceremony marking Diplomatic Workers’ Day (reported by TASS and mid.ru), Lavrov stated that Russia will “complete the process of returning” Crimea, Donbas, and Novorossiya to their “native harbor” (i.e., full integration with Russia), in line with the “will” expressed in the 2022 referendums. He added that linguistic, cultural, and religious rights of Russians/Russian-speakers in areas remaining under Kyiv’s control must be restored, alongside eliminating military threats from Ukraine to Russia’s security.

Similar phrasing appeared in his February 11, 2026, remarks during the Government Hour in the State Duma, where he criticized Western “double standards” (e.g., supporting self-determination for Greenland while denying it for Crimea, Donbas, and Novorossiya) and vowed to defend Russia’s position diplomatically.

Novorossiya (Russian: Новороссия, meaning “New Russia”) is a historical term that originated in the 18th century during the era of the Russian Empire. It referred to a large administrative and colonial region in what is now southern and southeastern mainland Ukraine, along the northern coast of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

The term entered official use in 1764, when Empress Catherine the Great established the Novorossiya Governorate (Novorossiyskaya guberniya). This was part of Russia’s southward expansion during the late 18th century, driven by a series of Russo-Turkish Wars (notably 1768–1774 and 1787–1792).

The term was largely dormant after the early 20th century, but was deliberately resurrected in spring 2014 amid Russia’s annexation of Crimea and support for the people of Donbas. Vladimir Putin first prominently used it in an April 17, 2014, call-in show, describing Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Odesa as part of “Novorossiya” — territories that were added to Ukraine by Bolsheviks without regard for ethnic composition.

I believe that when Putin and Lavrov speak of Novorossiya today they are signaling maximalist goals… Not just holding annexed territories (Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia) but laying a claim to adjacent regions, which include Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa, Mykolaiv where Russian speakers live or there are historical ties.

It did not have to be this way… When Judge Napolitano, Mario Nawfal and I interviewed Sergei Lavrov a year ago, the Foreign Minister emphasized that Russia had been willing to let Donbas and Luhansk remain as part of Ukraine if the rights of Russian speakers were guaranteed and the Russian Orthodox Church protected. He also reminded us that the Ukrainian negotiators were the ones who brought this proposal to the table in Istanbul in April 2022. But that preliminary agreement was blown up as a result of intervention by the US and Boris Johnson.

That was a watershed moment… In the ensuing months, Russia held a plebiscite in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporhyzhia and Kherson and gave the citizens of those oblasts the choice of becoming part of the Russian Federal Republic or remaining as a persecuted part of Ukraine. The results in all four oblasts were overwhelmingly in favor of joining the Russian Federation, which they subsequently did.

Until now - on the eve of the next trilateral meeting in Geneva between Russia, Ukraine and the United States - Russia had demanded that the four new republics, plus Crimea, be internationally recognized as permanent parts of Russia. This is a demand that Ukraine has repeatedly rejected. I believe that Lavrov’s recent remarks about Novorossiya is a deliberate signal that the Russian position has hardened. Any new negotiated settlement to the war in Ukraine will now likely include the demand that Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa, and Mykolaiv be given the opportunity to decide whether they want to join the Russian Federation.

I believe this will be on the agenda on Tuesday in Geneva, if the talks take place. Why “if”? There are growing signs that the US is going to attack Iran. If that attack takes place - given the recent Trilateral Security Agreement that Iran signed with Russia and China - I believe that Russia will suspend further negotiations with the United States and Ukraine. I continue to believe that the only path to peace and security for Russia is through a military defeat of Ukraine and NATO. The Russians remain open to finding a negotiated settlement to the war, but a critical condition is that NATO must move west, not east."

- https://larrycjohnson.substack.com/

Musical Interlude: 2002, "We Are Always"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "We Are Always"

"I Wasted 80 Years Believing These Lies, Don't Make My Mistakes"

Before Time Runs Out,

"I Wasted 80 Years Believing These Lies, 

Don't Make My Mistakes"

"I spent 80 years worrying about things that meant nothing. If you could see a map of my brain from forty years ago, it would look like a battlefield. I was a professional worrier - constantly anxious about the mortgage, the boss, the neighbors, and a thousand "What Ifs" that never actually happened.

At 80 years old, looking back from the finish line, I’ve realized a heartbreaking truth: None of it meant anything. I traded my joy for shadows and my peace for "nothing." In this emotional life reflection, I share the brutal truth about anxiety and why we must stop letting worry steal our lives before it’s too late.

If you are struggling with overthinking, perfectionism, or the weight of others' opinions, let this senior wisdom be your wake-up call. Your time is too precious to spend it rehearsing for tragedies that may never come. Connect with us: If this reflection helped you breathe a little easier today, please Subscribe to our community. Like this video to help it find another tired soul, and Comment below: What is one thing you are going to stop worrying about today?"

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"A Look to the Heavens"

"Have you ever seen the Pleiades star cluster? Even if you have, you probably have never seen it as large and clear as this. Perhaps the most famous star cluster on the sky, the bright stars of the Pleiades can be seen without binoculars from even the depths of a light-polluted city. With a long exposure from a dark location, though, the dust cloud surrounding the Pleiades star cluster becomes very evident. The featured exposure, taken from Florida, USA, covers a sky area several times the size of the full moon.

Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades lies about 400 light years away toward the constellation of the Bull (Taurus). A common legend with a modern twist is that one of the brighter stars faded since the cluster was named, leaving only six of the sister stars visible to the unaided eye. The actual number of Pleiades stars visible, however, may be more or less than seven, depending on the darkness of the surrounding sky and the clarity of the observer's eyesight."

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

"The Magician's Sheep"

"The Magician's Sheep"

GI Gurdjieff

"There is an Eastern tale that speaks about a very rich magician who had a great many sheep. But at the same time this magician was very mean. He did not want to hire shepherds, nor did he want to erect a fence about the pasture where the sheep were grazing. The sheep consequently often wandered into the forest, fell into ravines and so on, and above all, they ran away, for they knew that the magician wanted their flesh and their skins, and this they did not like.

At last the magician found a remedy. He hypnotized his sheep and suggested to them, first of all, that they were immortal and that no harm was being done to them when they were skinned; that on the contrary, it would be very good for them and even pleasant; secondly he suggested that the magician was a good master who loved his flock so much that he was ready to do anything in the world for them; and in the third place, he suggested that if anything at all were going to happen to them, it was not going to happen just then, at any rate not that day, and therefore they had no need to think about it. Further, the magician suggested to his sheep that they were not sheep at all; to some of them he suggested that they were lions, to some that they were eagles, to some that they were men, to others that they were magicians. After this all his cares and worries about the sheep came to an end. They never ran away again, but quietly awaited the time when the magician would require their flesh and skins."

"The Universe as Pool Hall"

"The Universe as Pool Hall"

by Fred Reed

"We will start this magisterial explanation of everything with the time-honored approach of the philosopher, beginning with the things we know beyond doubt and then reasoning from them to suitably astonishing truths. As we know, Descartes began by saying, “Cogito ergo sum,” I think therefore I am.” (Ambrose Bierce, a more profound thinker, said, “Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum. Cogito.” Butthis way lies madness.) So with what certain knowledge can we begin our quest?

Our only certain knowledge is that we don’t have any. Acceptance of this condition will diminish the world’s output of philosophy, or so we may hope, but this column faces reality with a brave front. We may now list our certainties: We don’t know where we came from, where we are, why, what if anything we should do while we are here, and where if anywhere we go when we die.

On this bedrock we shall construct our philosophy of everything. However, before we begin thinking about these profound matters, we need to take into account one more certainty: Thinking is impossible. I will explain. But what it comes to is that while we know nothing about which to think, it doesn’t matter because we couldn’t think about it if we did know something.

Why? Consider the brain. It is an electrochemical mechanism, blindly obeying the laws of physics and chemistry (chemistry being the physics of the interactions of atoms). For example, consider a nerve impulse propagating along a neural fiber, depolarizing, sodium in, potassium out. Pure chemistry and physics. When the impulse comes to a synapse, a neurotransmitter diffuses across the gap, pure chemistry and physics. It can’t do anything else. Even chemicals with long, imposing names cannot make choices. The neurotransmitter then binds to receptor sites, because it has to. Textbooks of neurophysiology state it thus: “A brain has less free will than a wind-up clock.” Or at least if it were so stated, it would be. This is close enough for philosophy.

Putting it precisely, the state of a physical system is determined entirely by its previous state. This establishes beyond doubt that we have no free will, and that what we think are thoughts were determined at the time of the Big Bang, if any.

Now, no philosophical essay can be held in repute unless it contains words ending “ism.” The reigning creed today is materialism, the philosophy of the wantonly inattentive. Many who believe in materialism are of high intelligence, and so can only be sufficiently inattentive by great effort. Anyway, a materialist believes than nothing exists but space, time, matter, and energy, however hyphenated. That is, physics. As the physicist Joe Friday said, “The physics, ma’am, just the physics, and nothing but the physics.”

This means that the Big Bang, if any, was set up, or I suppose I should say, set itself up, like one of those billiard-table trick shots. You know the kind: The balls seem randomly placed on the table but bounce around a lot before miraculously running into the pockets like birds returning to their nests. In the Bang, if any, all those subatomic whatsamajigggers erupted forth at exactly the right angles and velocities so that, billions of years later, they formed Elvis, San Francisco, and Hillary. (This had to be by chance, since no one in his right mind would form Hillary on purpose. QED.)

Next, consider plane geometry as taught in high school. (You may wonder why we have to consider it. Well, we just do.) Plane geometry deals with planes, lines, points, angles, and nothing else. It is useful and interesting, but it cannot explain a cheeseburger, Formula One race, or political hysteria. Why? Because cheeseburgers exist in three dimensions, which plane geometry doesn’t have. Formula One races involve matter, energy, and motion, which plane geometry also doesn’t have. Hysteria is an emotional state associated with liberal co-eds in pricey northern colleges who, thank God, do not exist in mathematics.

What it comes to is that a logical system is defined by its premises, and all downstream results are mere elaboration. (Of course, as established in the beginning of this luminous essay, we have no premises except the lack of premises, but philosophy readily overlooks such minor hindrances.) Plane geometry is not wrong. It is just incomplete. To state it in mathematical terms, you cannot flatten a cheeseburger enough to fit into a plane.

Physics, the foundation of the current official story of everything, also depends on its premises. Physics is just mathematical materialism. From its equations one may derive all manner of fascinating and useful things, such as planetary motion, npn transistors, smartphones, nerve gas, and hydrogen bombs. (Some of these may be more useful than others.)

But, just as you cannot get strawberry milkshakes from plane geometry, because they are not implicit in it, there are things you cannot derive from the equations of physics: Consciousness, free will, beauty, morality, or curiosity – the whiches there just ain’t in physics. This would not worry a rational thinker. He (or, assuredly, she) would simply state the obvious: Physics is not wrong, but incomplete. It does what it does, and doesn’t do what it can’t. Not too mysterious, that.

However, the true-believing physics-is-all Neo-Darwinian matter-monger cannot admit that anything – anything at all – exists outside of physics. Since some things obviously do, the only-physics enthusiasts have to resort to contorted logic. I think of kite string in a ceiling fan. Or simple denial.

For example, sometimes they say that consciousness is merely an “epiphenomenon.” Oh. And what does that mean? Nothing. (Actually it means, “I don’t know, but if I use a polysyllabic Greek word, maybe nobody will notice.”) Epiphenomenon of what?

Sometimes they will say, “Well, consciousness is just a by-product of complexity.” But if consciousness is a byproduct what is the primary product? A computer is somewhat complex, so is it somewhat conscious? Is a mouse less conscious than a human or just, in some cases, less intelligent? A materialist ignoring consciousness is exactly equivalent to a geometer ignoring cheeseburgers.

We will now examine the question, where did we come from? The answer is ready to hand: We don’t have a clue. We make up stories. The physics-only folk say, see, there was the Big Bang and all these electrons and protons and things flew out and just by chance formed Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in the most motingator a-stonishing pool-table trick shot ever set up. Just by accident. Damn! Who would have thought it?

Of course any sane person, to include materialists when they are thinking of something else, would say that TSMC was designed by hordes of Chinese engineers. But of course designing anything requires mind and intelligence (or a computer designed to simulate these things), But Mind cannot be derived from the equations of physics. Therefore we are all mindless. In general human behavior supports this.

Of course other stories exist. Yahweh created the world, or maybe Shiva, or Allah, and I think some remote tribes believe that it just appeared on the back of a giant turtle. I have no information on the matter, though frankly I incline to the turtle story, but will let the reader know the instant I find out.

The weakness of creation myths from Bang to Turtle is the question of the five-year-old, “But Mommy, where did God come from?” or “Who made God?” Fifteen years later in dorm-room bull sessions he will phrase it differently, “Well, what came before the Big Bang?” Same question.

A sort of second-echelon creation myth now in vogue is Darwinian evolution, also a subset of physics and therefore completely determined. Mutations are chemical events following the laws of chemistry. Thus trilobites had no choice but to form, and so they did. Metabolism is physical from the level of ATP to animals eating each other.

There is of course no such thing as a sex drive, teenagers notwithstanding, since no sort of drive can be derived from physics. (This will no doubt devastate Pornhub.) From this the inevitable conclusion, proven by physics, A that we cannot reproduce. Therefore we either have always existed or do not exist at all.

To give oneself an aura of overwelling wisdom, one may say things like ontology, epistemology, entelechy, and teleology, but these do not detract from mankind’s underlying and perfect ignorance. It’s all a trick shot, I tell you."

- https://www.unz.com

The Poet: Wendell Berry, “A Warning To My Readers”

“A Warning To My Readers”

“Do not think me gentle

because I speak in praise

of gentleness, or elegant

because I honor the grace

that keeps this world. I am

a man crude as any,

gross of speech, intolerant,

stubborn, angry, full

of fits and furies. That I

may have spoken well

at times, is not natural.

A wonder is what it is.”

- Wendell Berry

"Remember..."

“Remember, we all stumble, every one of us.

That’s why it’s a comfort to go hand in hand.”

- Emily Kimbrough

The Daily "Near You?"

Concord, North Carolina, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Hell..."

"Many people don't fear a hell after this life and that's because hell is on this earth, in this life. In this life there are many forms of hell that people walk through, sometimes for a day, sometimes for years, sometimes it doesn't end. The kind of hell that doesn't burn your skin; but burns your soul. The kind of hell that people can't see; but the flames lap at your spirit. Heaven is a place on earth, too! It's where you feel freedom, where you're not afraid. No more chains. And you hear your soul laughing."

- C. JoyBell C.

I believe it was Sartre who said, "This is Hell, cleverly disguised just 

enough to keep us from escaping." Look at the world... look around.

I believe he may be right...

"Shocking Money Stats of the Average Person"

Full screen recommended.

Michael Bordenaro, 2/16/26

"Shocking Money Stats of the Average Person"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Snyder Reports, 2/16/26

"Americans Are Shocked - 

Millions Can’t Afford This"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

A Homestead Journey, 2/16/26

"Millions of Americans Are 

Living in Third World Conditions"

"Millions of Americans are now living in third world conditions - right here in the U.S. Tent cities are popping up across the country, entire communities are facing homelessness, and basic infrastructure is failing. From skyrocketing inflation in 2025 to the cost of living crisis and the vanishing middle class, what we’re seeing is the slow collapse of society happening in real time. This is no longer just about prepping - this is survival prep for what’s already here.

In today’s video, we’re talking about the homelessness crisis, the rise of off-grid living out of necessity, and how the financial crisis in the U.S. is forcing everyday people into third world America. We’ll break down the warning signs of economic collapse, why the system is failing, and how to prepare now for what’s coming. Whether you’re already prepping for hard times or just waking up to the reality, this is something every American needs to hear. Because what’s happening isn’t a warning - it’s already here."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "The Harley Davidson Meltdown - 80,000 Bikes Nobody Wants"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 2/16/26

"The Harley Davidson Meltdown - 

80,000 Bikes Nobody Wants"

"Harley-Davidson is facing a massive inventory crisis with an estimated 80,000 motorcycles sitting unsold across U.S. dealerships. Sales have fallen for years, production is being cut, and questions are growing about pricing, strategy, and whether the iconic American brand misread its core customer base. When this many high-ticket items stop moving, it signals something much bigger than a simple slowdown. In this episode of i Allegedly, we break down what’s really happening with Harley-Davidson, how it connects to broader struggles at companies like Tractor Supply, Jaguar, and Bud Light, and what it says about the American consumer in 2026. Is this just a motorcycle problem — or a warning sign for the economy? Subscribe to i Allegedly, your trusted News channel covering business, finance, and economic reality."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"What Do Monica Lewinsky, Maggie Thatcher, Elvis, Cher, Bill Cosby, & The Pope Have In Common?"

"What Do Monica Lewinsky, Maggie Thatcher, Elvis,

Cher, Bill Cosby, & The Pope Have In Common?"

by Tyler Durden

Excerpt: "In the (alleged) interests of transparency, AG Pam Bondi and Deputy AG Todd Blanche released a statement overnight that included a list of all government officials and politically-exposed persons that appeared in The Epstein Files.

SCOOP: The Department of Justice has sent over a letter to Congress outlining why it made redactions to the Epstein files. The six-page letter also includes a list of all "government officials and politically exposed persons" in the files. pic.twitter.com/aRCmS2p1Bg— Aaron Parnas (@AaronParnas) February 15, 2026

The term "politically exposed persons" was not defined in the Act, but consistent with Section 3 of the Act, Department reviewers were directed to notate "all government officials and politically exposed persons named or referenced" in any document, including videos and images, reviewed during this process.

This list includes (as directed by the Act) all persons where (1) they are or were a government official or politically exposed person and (2) their name appears in the files released under the Act at least once. Names appear in the files released under the Act in a wide variety of contexts. For example, some individuals had extensive direct email contact with Epstein or Maxwell while other individuals are mentioned only in a portion of a document (including press reporting) that on its face is unrelated to the Epstein and Maxwell matters. So, while we have seen 'lists' before, this is the official DoJ list of potential pedophiles, pizza eaters, or island-partiers (allegedly)..."

Full article, including 300 named person list is here:

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

Bill Bonner, "A President's Day Special"

"A President's Day Special"

Our view, a minority one...and widely viewed as ‘defeatist’...

is that these things take place regardless of what anyone thinks. 

History marches along, thoughts get in step.

by Bill Bonner

Poitou, France - "An open letter to POTUS. Feel free to pass this along to Mr. Trump. ‘Ok Mr. Smarty Pants,’ writes a reader. ‘What would you do?’

We have appeared, to many readers, to be critical of Mr. Trump. But we don’t criticize dogs for barking or clouds for blocking the sun. Mr. Trump is just doing the gods’ work. But these are mischievous gods. Not the loving, beneficent Being of modern American Christianity. Certainly not the God of the Prosperity Gospel. Not the God of Faith, Hope, and Charity. These are the gods of jealousy, war and hate...lust and avarice...and poverty.

Let us remind the reader about how, we think, the political/economic system actually works. In the 1970s, a large group of thinkers - Tullock, Olson, Krueger, Niskanen, and Charlotte Twight - economists and political scientists, showed how and why normal people, pursuing their own self-interests, turn a ‘liberal’ society into an ‘illiberal’ one. Societies do not intend to become ‘fascist,’ for example. Empires do not intend to decline. Nobody really wants to stifle initiative, investment, or innovation. And nobody wants to be poor. As we say here, people come to think what they need to think when they need to think it. They follow immediate incentives and opportunities, without much regard for the long-term or theoretical consequences.

They aim to get ahead. And they use the government – with its near-monopoly on violence - to help. In the language of the ‘70s, they become ‘rent seekers,’ looking to exchange votes and political contributions for special treatment. One simple example - ethanol. Corn farmers - thanks largely to the disproportionate power of the Corn Belt senators - got a ‘rent’...increased demand for their product, decreed by law. In 2005, Congress insisted that energy companies buy corn-based ethanol and add it to gasoline. It would help prevent ‘global warming,’ said the sponsors. Now, it is 21 years later and the current administration believes ‘global warming’ is a hoax. But the ‘rent’ is still there. Farmers depend on it. And big agricultural industries continue to send money to politicians to thank them for their service.

‘Rents’ are by definition unnecessary and inefficient. They are subsidies, bailouts, welfare, giveaways and shake-downs. Tariffs, for example, are essentially ‘rents’ for selected industries, paid for by price hikes on consumers. Rents are put in place to favor a group of beneficiaries. They disfavor everyone else. And then, they are rarely removed. Over time, these ‘rents’ build up...and become a huge drag on the economy and a huge waste of taxpayer money. That’s part of the reason the feds will run a deficit of nearly $2 trillion this year, with no major war and no recession.

Today, nearly everyone gets a ‘rent’ of one form or another. Rich people. Poor people. In-between people. And Donald Trump adds to them rapidly...with tariffs, Tariff Dividends...Warrior Dividends...and Baby Bonds. With so many suckling piglets, the sow grows weak. A once-dynamic empire goes into decline, naturally and normally. Increasing ‘rents,’ helps bring the future forward. Our view, a minority one...and widely viewed as ‘defeatist’...is that these things take place regardless of what anyone thinks. History marches along, thoughts get in step.

The winning quality of Donald Trump is that he is extraordinarily ‘normal,’ pursuing his own interests with a single-mindedness that is rarely matched. Like everyone else, he thinks what he needs to think...and nothing more. And he may be right. A real reformer would probably not be tolerated. People do not give up their rents readily. They think they are entitled to them...that they have a right to them. Anyone who would take them away must be a communist! A terrorist! An anti-American! A threat to God and country! Wisely, Mr. Trump has never asked for our advice. But we give it to him anyway."

"Dear Mr. President,

The way forward, if you wanted to Make America Great Again, is simple enough. We’ll outline it for you. But we will also warn you; if you actually tried to do it, there would be more than just a kid on a rooftop gunning for you. So, let’s dig in.

Empires come and go. And they most often go in a godawful blur of corruption, bankruptcy, and violence. Their money turns to trash. Their armies are defeated or betray them. Civil war destroys the unity of the people. Then the once-proud citizens are impoverished, killed, enslaved...and dumped on the ash heap of history.

Still, if you wanted to go down in history as the man who tried to save the empire rather than wreck it, you should make it your mission to 1) protect the integrity of the US money system...2) avoid spending more than the feds get in revenue...and 3) avoid any and all wars that are not purely defensive.

The first step is to announce a change of program. Henceforth there will be no more deficits. None. No tariffs. No sanctions. No money printing. And no more inflation. A balanced budget should be made ‘non-negotiable.’ And your dollar should be unassailable. Abolish the Fed immediately. You’re going to have to cut about $2 trillion in spending. That’s an average income for about 30 million people; they’re not going to take too kindly to it.

As Mr. Milei has shown, don’t try a slow, gradual or incremental approach. Pull the bandaid off quickly. Take your case directly to the people. Explain that the country is going broke and must be turned around. Someone has to do it. ‘If not us, who? If not now, when?’ The feds are expected to collect $4.9 trillion in tax revenue this year. That’s your limit. Not a penny more. Explain it to the voters. They’ll understand. That would have been enough to fund the entire federal budget in 2019. Wasn’t that enough?

Outlays are now expected to come to $7.2 trillion; that’s where that $2 trillion figure came from. You take out the meat axe. Let the cabinet deputies figure out the details. One exception. Since the other big risk to the empire comes from the military, you’ve got to use this occasion to get the Military Industrial Spy Complex under control. Either you control it, or it controls you. Off the leash, it will drag you into wars, bust your budget, and maybe destroy your army too.

The last president who tried to bring the spooks to heel was JFK. Someone shot him dead...you don’t want that to happen to you, so you’ve got to move carefully. But forcefully. The real ‘defense’ budget is probably around $500 billion. Experts say that would be enough to defend the country from any plausible attacker. The rest - about $1 trillion - is a ‘rent,’ money that goes to the firepower industry and other special interests. Watch out. Those people are armed and dangerous.

And by the way, you’re clearly fighting the tide of history here...but that’s what you need to do. The empire ‘wants’ to self-destruct in a blaze of sordid glory. You’re trying to stop it. So, don’t dilly dally...don’t tergiversate - go for it. Cut a trillion from the ‘defense’ budget. Go on TV to explain it to the public. You’re not leaving the country defenseless; you’re making it stronger than ever - financially, economically, militarily.

Tell the truth; taxpayers and consumers have been getting ripped off for decades. Not by foreigners; by their own government. Now is the time to stop it...get rid of so many accumulated ‘rents’...and Make America Great Again. Go ahead. Give it a try. And if you survive, you’ll be a real, live hero. Just trying to be helpful,"

Bill Bonner

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

John Wilder, "The Defeat Of The West?"

"The Defeat Of The West?"

by John Wilder

"I just wrapped up Emmanuel Todd’s latest book, "La Défaite de l’Occident" (that’s “The Defeat of the West” for those of us that hate the metric system), and it lines up perfectly with what I’ve been posting about for years here. In fact, this isn’t the first time I’ve written about Dr. Todd, having written about his Family Structure/Geopolitics Theory. The book isn’t in English yet, but somebody cut and pasted it into Google® to have it translated, and you can find it out there if you look.

The book isn’t in English yet, but somebody cut and pasted it into Google® to have it translated, and you can find it out there if you look. In this book, Todd is using the Ukraine mess as a lens to autopsy what he calls the West’s self-inflicted doom. In Todd’s view, the collective West is collapsing, compared to “stable” powers like Russia and China. The West’s decline isn’t from bad luck or Russian super-spies, nope. It comes from the rotting foundations of the West itself.

I’ve written extensively about the deindustrialization that’s left the economy hollowed out, so that should be familiar. Add to that a slide into nihilism stemming from the death of Protestant Christianity in the United States. Protestants used to stand for something, but the last time I went to a Protestant church it was very much them not wanting to be against anything and the female pastor went on a long “men are bad” speech.

On the other side, Russia, lagging on almost everything by about 50 years, is experiencing a resurgence in families, a religious revival, and an ethnonational cohesion that allowed them to (mostly) take the hit from sanctions and keep going. The Ukraine war? It’s the litmus test exposing our bluff: we’re great at low-intensity or short duration conflicts with things like coups, sanctions, and drone strikes on weaklings (Iran, Venezuela, you name it), but don’t have the industry for real, prolonged industrial slugfests.

One example: Russia can produce three million rounds of artillery a year, with one recent estimate that they produced seven million rounds last year. Even at the lower three million number, that is three times the amount that the United States and other NATO countries, combined can produce. And, yeah, Russia is fighting Ukraine and the United States has lots of amazing tech that nobody but people with top clearance or Chinese spies know about.

That’s why Ukraine keeps facing ammo droughts. The West’s “superior” economies are finance-bloated illusions where we just keep swapping pictures of silver for electronic dollars that we’re too cheap to bother printing anymore.

US manufacturing jobs? These dropped from 20 million in 1980 to 13 million today, with 80% of GDP now in services and Wall Street Pokémon® card swapping.

Russia simply isn’t the basketcase the MSM paints. Yes, their nominal GDP’s around $2T vs. the US’s $27T and EU’s $20T, but in purchasing parity (what their money can really buy them) terms, Russia’s at $6T, edging out Germany as the world’s fourth largest economy.

Why? The sanctions (starting in 2014) forced them to become independent. After nearly a decade, when the United States hit them with sanctions after their 2022 invasion of the Ukraine, well, they were ready to survive without trade from the West. Even though Russia has a much smaller population (roughly half) than the United States, Russia has more engineers aged 20 to 34 than the United States. Russia has 2 million, the United States around 1.3 million.

Contrast that with what Todd calls the West’s “shallow state” since it’s (his view) an oligarchic mess lacking soul or cohesion. Todd mainly blames this on religious evolution: Protestantism (Weber’s ethic of work, literacy, discipline) powered the rise of the West, but we’ve hit the stage where the United States is a secular void. Zombie Protestant churches linger, channeling energy into welfare states.

Now we find that culture in the West is pure nihilism: no morals, just primitive urges for pleasure, cash, and violence. Todd’s view is that the moral low point where we finally jumped the shark was around 2015. “Marriage for all” symbolizing the final shredding of Christian norms and rise of GloboLeftism. In Todd’s words, “If the people and the elite no longer agree to function together, the notion of representative democracy no longer makes sense: we end up with an elite who no longer wants to represent the people and a people who are no longer represented.”

This certainly defines the state of the West now. A huge majority of the people want all illegals gone, and some want legals gone, too. And yet, the illegals are here and we fight to make the line up and to the right in what is now, according to Todd, a “liberal oligarchy”. That leads to a national weakness.

This weakness is structural and has been building for decades as the United States in particular (and the West in general) worked as fast as it could to de-industrialize. This offshoring has consequences, and can’t be changed in a heartbeat. To rebuild, we have to build factories, build supply chains, build up a workforce, and remember how to make stuff. To explain how difficult this may prove to be, in 2024 China reached 10,000 Terawatt hours of electrical production. That’s more than the United States, Europe and India combined.

Back to Todd: “Producing the world’s currency, at minimal or no cost, makes all activities other than monetary creation unprofitable and therefore unattractive.” Why do we spend so much effort on finance in the United States? It’s just so profitable and so much easier than making stuff, which requires real effort.

Todd’s conclusion: Ukraine was a trap for the United States. The United States, flush from the victory over the Soviets was unbound. It could do whatever it wanted. The United States expanded its global reach from the early 90s to 2022. But we ignored Russia’s 2021 ultimatum because we thought sanctions would crush them like they did in 2014.

The opposite happened. Ukraine remains resilient but allowing 60+ year olds into the army isn’t really a sign that you expect when you’re winning. I expect the end of Ukraine’s resistance to be amazingly abrupt and to occur sometime in the next year, with August being a midpoint. Russia will win, and as near as I can see, their economy is stronger and more independent than it was before the start of the war.

Now, my two cents: Todd’s spot-on that West’s weakness is structural, not just spineless leaders. Pain is coming. NATO/EU has ceased to be a bloc; it’s a squabbling conglomerate with clashing interests and seems to have lost its will to live. Todd’s book substantiates the politically incorrect that I’ve been championing forever: nationalism trumps globalism. The West is exhausted, defeated not by conquest but by its own nihilism leading to that most Evil philosophy of all: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” As for me? I still refuse to learn to speak or read French."

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/

Jim Kunstler, "Epstein-itis"

Hillary and Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) at Munich

"Epstein-itis"

by Jim Kunstler

"If you tolerate the intolerable, 

you’re communicating that it’s okay to mistreat you." 

- Aimee Terese on X

"Did you think the American zeitgeist - our collective spirit plus our thinking - could not get crazier? Gird your loins. It’s getting worse by the hour. The Jeffrey Epstein files suggest that people will do anything and that people will believe anything. Pizza, hot dogs, white sharks... boys, girls, babies, teens, Russian whores.... celebrities by the score... billionaires....cannibal orgies... vivisection parlors... adrenochrome... blood... dead bodies... demon worship... a depraved and insane global leadership...lemme outa here!

I don’t know what’s real in Epstein and what’s not - but neither do you. What you ought to know is that the colossal inventory of Epstein files is perhaps the greatest instrument of mass mind-f*ckery ever seen in the history of Western Civ. How interesting, too, that the deluge of material coincides exactly with the critical capability emergence of Artificial Intelligence as a tool for the manipulation of documentary evidence. And also consider all the years since 2019 that interested parties have had to mess with, destroy, possibly fabricate, and catalog all this stuff.

pparently, the Woke-Jacobin-Marxist eruption was not enough to destabilize the consensus about reality. The absurdities you were asked to swallow about all-women-are-women-including-men... the police killed George Floyd... mostly peaceful riots... the vaccine is safe and effective... the free-est, fairest elections ever... “Joe Biden” is president... the border is secure... speaking English is white supremacy - did not push America deeply enough into Crazyland. More was required to completely demolish your sense of an ordered world.

Donald Trump was correct, at least, that releasing the Epstein files would bring on more chaos than clarity and impede the effort to get our country back on the rails with an economic engine based on the production of goods instead of financialized hyper-casino voodoo. Well, now we’re in a maelstrom of innuendo, code-talk, gossip, and redaction, and you can hardly begin to sort it out. The Attorney General of the USA, bless her heart, has already botched the management of this monster.

Epstein’s relations with Israel and its Mossad intel blob, along with his connections to global banking interests, have aroused the zestiest breakout of antipathy to Jews since the SS busied itself loading the crematoriums of Europe. Hatred of Jews is a recurring symptom of civilization distress. But it is also possible that Israel has behaved badly - and it is certain that many political intellectuals are reevaluating the way that nation was established after World War Two. To some degree, Israel has become a paranoid state (though even paranoiacs have real enemies).

Where does that go from here? Thoughtful people are pessimistic. For sure, they resent the money and influence seeded by Israel in the US Congress. They might be concerned as well about all the other interests pounding money into American politics. Grift is everywhere, and everyone can see it now. The looming end of the grift orgy is probably behind the Democratic Party’s current psychotic disposition. Having lost its 20th century base of factory workers, the party has had to work the extreme margins of American life to build a coalition of the feckless, the reckless, the brainless, and the shameless. They have become the party’s wards in a reimagined patronage system even more pernicious than the old one under characters like Boss Tweed and Mayor Richard Daley-the-First of Chicago.

The Democratic Party can’t win elections without rigging them and it’s astonishing that they’ve gotten away with building such sturdy armature of ballot fraud in plain sight with next to zero objection from the supposed guardians in officialdom. The features of it are so arrant that a political class with any sense or dignity would have laughed it straight into the criminal courts — and its perps straight into the penitentiary. The fraud became especially acute with the 2020 and 2022 elections. It is about to be revealed in the troves of evidence extracted lately from Fulton County, GA, and presently from Maricopa County, AZ. These birds are cooked. Not a few people will eventually go to jail over these shenanigans. And meanwhile, the SAVE Act pulsates in the Senate like a lump of kryptonite.

Now, you may realize that a political party based entirely on socially marginal persons - many of them mentally ill - will adopt a roster of ideas and policies that are patently marginal, which is to say, crazy. The party elders are now straining to eliminate some of that. Last week, Barack Obama unloaded on California Governor Gavin Newsom’s botched handling of the state’s epic homeless crisis. “We should recognize that the average person doesn’t want to have to navigate around a tent city in the middle of downtown,” the ex-president said in an interview with progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen.

Hillary Clinton, dropping in on the Munich Security Conference, said, amazingly, “There is a legitimate reason to have a debate about things like migration. It went too far, it’s been disruptive and destabilizing...” before tossing in some Woke word-salad: “...and it needs to be fixed in a humane way with secure borders that don’t torture and kill people and how we’re going to have a strong family structure because it is at the base of civilization.” Say, what... ?

But then, poor Hillary, who can’t help being a Cluster-B psycho, turned up moderating a panel at the same Munich meet-up to take up the issue: “Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights: Fighting the Global Pushback.“ To nail down her point, Hillary brought onstage as the featured speaker, Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), known previously as Tim McBride, a man. The insanity is, of course, self-evident. The take-away from all this: they’re not trying hard enough to get their minds right.

And in the meantime, America and the other nations of Western Civ, must contend with the gigantic trip laid on them that is the Epstein files. We know the newspapers and cable news channels are hopeless. Is there anyone or any sense-making institution that can usher us through this nightmare back into the daylight?"

- https://www.kunstler.com/

o

A Comment, And A Warning: In 16 years, on 2 blogs, posting 100,043 posts, I have never encountered material that frightened, no, terrified me, like this. This will horrify you and forever change how you view the world... - CP

"This Is Armageddon Energy. For Them";

"The Epstein Egregore" (Excerpts)