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Monday, June 15, 2026

"A Deep Look to the Heavens"

"The Hubble Deep Field: 
The Most Important Image Ever Taken"
"In 2003, the Hubble Space Telescope took the image of a millenium, an image that shows our place in the universe. Anyone who understands what this image represents, is forever changed by it."- YouTube/NASA
Full screen recommended.
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Full screen recommended.
"It helps to put things in perspective here on our frenetic little planet with a look at this extraordinarily powerful and moving video of the Hubble Space Telescope mapping of the Universe, whose known size is 78 billion light years across. The video of the images is the equivalent of using a "time machine" to look into the past to witness the early formation of galaxies, perhaps less than one billion years after the universe's birth in the Big Bang.

The video includes mankind's deepest, most detailed optical view of the universe called the Hubble Deep Field (HDF). One of the stunning images was assembled from 342 separate exposures taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) for ten consecutive days. Representing a narrow "keyhole" view stretching to the visible horizon of the universe, the HDF image covers a speck of the sky only about the width of a dime located 75 feet away. Though the field is a very small sample of the heavens, it is considered representative of the typical distribution of galaxies in space because the universe, statistically, looks largely the same in all directions. Gazing into this small field, Hubble uncovered a bewildering assortment of at least 1,500 galaxies at various stages of evolution.

Most of the galaxies are so faint (nearly 30th magnitude or about four-billion times fainter than can be seen by the human eye) they have never before been seen by even the largest telescopes. Some fraction of the galaxies in this menagerie probably date back to nearly the beginning of the universe. "The variety of galaxies we see is amazing. In time these Hubble data could turn out to be the double helix of galaxy formation. We are clearly seeing some of the galaxies as they were more than ten billion years ago, in the process of formation," said Robert Williams, Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute Baltimore, Maryland. "As the images have come up on our screens, we have not been able to keep from wondering if we might somehow be seeing our own origins in all of this."
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"I Can Pretend..."

“I like the stars. It's the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they're always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from here I can pretend... I can pretend that things last. I can pretend that lives last longer than moments. Gods come and Gods go. Mortals flicker and flash and fade. Worlds don't last; and stars and galaxies are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish into cold and dust. But I can pretend...”
- Olethros, in “Sandman”

The Poet: Wendell Berry, "The Circles Of Our Lives"

"The Circles Of Our Lives"

"Within the circles of our lives
we dance the circles of the years,
the circles of the seasons
within the circles of the years,
the cycles of the moon,
within the circles of the seasons,
the circles of our reasons
within the cycles of the moon.

Again, again we come and go,
changed, changing. Hands
join, unjoin in love and fear,
grief and joy. The circles turn,
each giving into each, into all.

Only music keeps us here,
each by all the others held.
In the hold of hands and eyes
we turn in pairs, that joining
joining each to all again.
And then we turn aside, alone,
out of the sunlight gone
into the darker circles of return,
Within the circles of our lives..."

- Wendell Berry
“We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of Infinity. Life is Eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in Eternity.”
- Paulo Coelho

"Until You Stop Choosing the Life You Say You Hate, You’ll Never Be Happy"

Full screen recommended.
"Until You Stop Choosing the Life You 
Say You Hate, You’ll Never Be Happy"
by Mind's Space
"Are you tired of living the same life you say you hate - yet somehow keep choosing it every day? This video dives deep into the truth behind self-sabotage, comfort zones, and the unconscious choices that keep us stuck in cycles of unhappiness. Until you stop repeating the patterns that drain your spirit and limit your potential, happiness will always feel out of reach. In this transformative message, we’ll explore how to break free from mental loops, emotional traps, and fear-based decisions that hold you back. You’ll learn how to consciously choose yourself, your peace, and your growth - instead of settling for the version of life that keeps you small. If you’re ready to stop surviving and start living, this is your wake-up call."
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"The War Is Over But The Economy Is Melting Down Fast"

Jeremiah Babe, 6/15/26
"The War Is Over But The Economy Is Melting Down Fast"
Comments here:

The Daily "Near You?"

Big Sandy, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"A Dreamer..."

"And why does it make you sad to see how everything hangs by such thin and whimsical threads? Because you’re a dreamer, an incredible dreamer, with a tiny spark hidden somewhere inside you which cannot die, which even you cannot kill or quench and which tortures you horribly because all the odds are against its continual burning. In the midst of the foulest decay and putrid savagery, this spark speaks to you of beauty, of human warmth and kindness, of goodness, of greatness, of heroism, of martyrdom, and it speaks to you of love.”
- Eldridge Cleaver

Rylo AI Art, "Home Was Never the City"

Full screen recommended.
"Home Was Never the City"
"Some of us spend a lifetime behind small windows, waiting for a day that keeps not coming. This is the story of a family who finally stopped waiting. There is no rush. There is no late."

Delta King's Blues, "I’m a Good Man, But I’m Tired"

Full screen recommended.
Delta King's Blues,
 "I’m a Good Man, But I’m Tired"
"Did right by people… kept my word… just ran outta energy along the way. “I’m a Good Man, But I’m Tired” is a heartfelt, slow-burning Delta King’s Blues tune about responsibility, quiet sacrifice, and the kind of exhaustion that comes from living right for too long. A deep, steady acoustic guitar carries the weight of long days and longer years. The harmonica breathes low and weary, like a man finally sitting down after carrying too much. The groove moves slow and grounded, built for late nights when the truth comes out softer than usual. This is blues for the ones who never quit - just got tired. For people who showed up, held it together, and kept going… even when no one noticed. Being good don’t make life easy… it just makes you strong enough to carry it."

Native Elder, "Why You Need to Stop Being Nice"

Full screen recommended.
Native Elder,
"Why You Need to Stop Being Nice"
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“Incidit In Scyllam Cupiens Vitare Charybdim”

“Incidit In Scyllam Cupiens Vitare Charybdim”
by Steve Candidus

“One of the great things about ancient Greek Mythology is that the stories all teach a lesson. They don’t end with – and the moral of the story is – though. They leave it to the reader to figure them out. So in addition to being just plain fun to read they are wonderful teachers about life. Perhaps the best thing about this one is that we still use the expression it contains exactly the same way that the ancient Greeks intended it almost 3,000 years ago. That almost never happens. Language is fluid and the meanings of words and expressions changes from one generation to another, but this one is an exception. The everyday expression it contains is one that we often refer to without really knowing where it came from.

This is one of the tales of Odysseus who was the heroic king of Ithaca and of whose ten-year journey back to Greece after the Trojan War was immortalized in Homer’s ‘Odyssey’. There was a point in his journey when his ship had to enter a narrow straight. It was a passage so narrow that it could only be made under special conditions. They had to have both the wind at their backs and the current in their direction. However, once committed it was impossible to turn back.

Unknown to the sailors the straight was guarded by two deadly perils. On the one side, it was guarded by Scylla. Scylla was a six-headed monster that disguised itself as a rock. On the other side, it was guarded by Charybdis, a terrible deadly whirlpool born of the sea god Poseidon.

In olden times, it was common to refer to any place that a ship came to rest on land as being in a hard place. It didn’t matter if it was blown on shore by a storm, grounded on a reef or brought up intentionally for repair. If it was on shore, it was on a hard place as opposed to the soft place – water.

It also applied to a ship that had foundered. A ship that sinks will eventually rest on the bottom. The land at the bottom of the ocean is therefore called a hard place. It used to be a common term, but it has since pretty much fallen out of practice in common language today. A deadly whirlpool such as Charybdis could take a ship and send it straight to the bottom – a hard place.

So, now as we return to the story of Odysseus we see that their ship had entered a narrow straight and that straight was guarded by two evil perils with hardly enough room for a ship to pass between them. They were forced to choose between the six headed monster ‘Scylla’ disguised as a rock or the dreaded whirlpool ‘Charybdis’ that would surely send them to a hard place and they could not turn back.

There is a Latin proverb from this story, “Incidit in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim” which translates to, “He runs on Scylla, wishing to avoid Charybdis.” In modern day English, we simply say, “They were between a rock and a hard place”. And now you know…”

"How It Really Is"


Well, you can forget that...

"The US Empire Is Retrenching, Bringing Imperialism Home"

"The US Empire Is Retrenching, 
Bringing Imperialism Home"
by Karen Kwiatkowski

"The US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding may be signed already. If it is, 60 days of retrenchment, rejuvenation and rest may be on tap. Donald Trump certainly needs it, and so does the world.

The latest US war – for Israel, as admitted by Trump, Rubio and Hegseth – has truly changed the Middle East, but not in the way Israel intended, nor the United States. The national security states in both the US and Israel no doubt had different expectations. For Israel, accelerating its ongoing genocide in Gaza, further fracturing the West Bank, and expand the northern “border” to the Litani River, seizing a fifth of Lebanon’s territory and permanently displacing a quarter of the Lebanese population, were among them. For the United States, perhaps the fundamental objective was nothing more than please let this be the last time we have to fight a war for Israel

On the surface, this latest episode of Bomb Iran! served Israel’s territorial ambition more than Washington’s. The US lost as many as 14 bases in the Gulf region, located and funded by former allies Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. As these bases were heavily targeted and damaged by Iranian counterfire, the real damage was done to US credibility among her heavily cultivated Arab financiers and hosts, who were unceremoniously reminded on February 28th and beyond exactly how much the United States government holds them in contempt.

Our military footprint in the Gulf and the region has contracted; this will continue. What we just watched over the past 100 days was an unusually vivid moment in the long slow collapse of the US military and financial empire.

Conversely, tiny Israel saw its fluid borders expand in all four directions. The cover of this war coincided with new bases in Somaliland, new gas fields through occupation of southern Lebanon and Gaza, massive Israeli expansion through land and political purchase in Greece, Cyprus, and Albania, and the exponential erasure of Gazans, Palestinians, Lebanese and Syrians.

If war is politics by other means, the US and Israel both lost because their military forces – an all-draft army of rapists and racists with the help of an all-volunteer combatant force of increasingly discombobulated airmen, seaman, soldiers, Marines and Guardians – proved intermittently hapless, brutal, and deceitful. Despite self-serving agitprop of “most moral army” and “the best in everything,” the whole world – and the average Israeli and American citizen – now sees and admits something very different.

Politically speaking, the US spent twenty years of warfare and over $3 trillion, to jump-start the Taliban-eliminated Afghan opium trade and then replace the Taliban with the Taliban. Historians of the future will explain that a Zionist White House desperate to appear better than the previous Zionist administration had a “hold my beer” moment, after which they initiated an illegal unpopular war on Iran, leaving the latter with increased nuclear enrichment capability, and more motivation than ever to join the nuclear arms race. The US will restore seized and long-frozen assets to Iran, and Washington discovered to its dismay that narrow straits may be legally subject to anti-imperial sovereignty. The whole world now cheers Iran, in a zero sum game that leaves all the ridicule and all the disrespect for the US-Israel duopoly.

From this fiasco, paradigmatic and strategic changes to America’s parasitic national security state are coming. These changes are buoyed by a deep negative societal reaction to this latest war for Israel, and propelled by $40 trillion federal debt growing at 6% annually, with more and more Americans dependent on federal checks, and fewer and fewer global buyers of US debt. A truly defensive military and intelligence apparatus, at a fifth or even a tenth of what we spend today, as well as a structural jettisoning of special alliances that animate the current defense budget and focus, including but not limited to Israel, are now within reach for the US, in part because of what happened over the past 100 days. The empire will oppose any changes in this direction, but our dry shell of an empire has few choices.

In a strange way Trump will bring the troops home, and end US wars of choice, and like the captain of the Titanic, he will ride the ship, damaged by arrogance and overreach, into the deep.

But before the empire fades, it retrenches, and global war-mongering becomes totalitarianism at home, national intelligence becomes domestic surveillance, AI looks inward to identify potential enemies of the state, and maps their communities for decimation or economic lockdown. Critics of government policies, as we saw in Lincoln’s time, in Wilson’s time, and in our time, are labeled traitors. Natural rights are openly ignored by the state, any Constitution shredded and past assumptions of citizen roles and state duties cast aside.

Today, we are in the midst of the collapse of two empires, one tiny and vicious, the other lumbering and lazy. These two empires suffer different illusions, but Israel, under fascist Zionism, has dibs on discipline and seeks to rule. Hence we have at least five constructs proposing IDF-Pentagon integration via the FY 2027 NDAA legiuslation this year. All are intended to unite two disparate governments, in the hopes one of the two survives the 21st century.

Israeli polices and practices are already widely codified into US law. The popular “secure borders” meme Trump electrified in his campaigns is the exact language of a country that admits no legal borders, uses border security to steal land and resources in all directions, and seeks successfully to erase the former inhabitants. ICE and its SWAT-like attitude has been criticized by most Americans, and rejected in many communities, but not a brow would be raised if it were operating in the West Bank, Gaza or south Lebanon. Congress continues to propose legislation that makes criticism of Zionism illegal. With Israel and Ukraine as testing grounds, and Israeli lobbying, technology and media influence, the Pentagon seeks new ways to target and subdue whole populations. Key to the morality that may exist inside the Pentagon machine is removing the moral human from both target and decision loops. Every state prefers deniability in the war crimes arena, yet increasingly the US government seems to admire public sociopaths like Israel’s current Minister of Security Ben-Gvir, who wears a hangman’s noose and calls for the kidnap and torture of the wives and children of opposing armies. Israel currently enhances its drone warfare with sounds of children screaming and women calling for help for more efficient extermination of their relatives. This too will come to our shores, as our empire panics at its decay.

In Israel, those who have betrayed America’s secrets are hailed and platformed, while in America, the slightest criticism of Zionist practices and agendas is cause for deplatforming, debanking and deportation. Almost two-thirds of US states have passed laws requiring some kind of allegiance to Israel, and requiring the purchase or engagement of Israeli companies for state funded contracts or employment. Federal and state aid may hinge on pro-Israel compliance for average Americans and their local governments. Israel bonds offer investment vehicles for states, municipalities and individual investors at rates of return on par with US bonds, but the Israeli economy is war-driven and dependent on diaspora charity. Most investors would pass, but for local and state governments, it is a mandatory tax paid by a secular republican state to an ethno-fascist one.

US imperial retrenchment has been happening under our very noses, slowly at first with our devalued currency and never-ending wars, but the pace is quickening. Notably in this 250th year after the Declaration of Independence, every American needs to be prepared for war at home."

"What's Killing The American Empire Isn't China - It's Something Far Worse"

Full screen recommended,
Finance Economist, 6/15/26
"What's Killing The American Empire Isn't China - 
It's Something Far Worse"
"The Globe and Mail: “If the American Empire comes to an end, that end will likely have been inflicted by America itself.” The Asia Times: “The erosion has not been imposed by enemies. It has been self-inflicted.” Ray Dalio: “The system is broken and arithmetically cannot be corrected.” It’s not China. It’s a $4.5 trillion healthcare system producing a population that dies younger. A political system captured by $4.1 billion in lobbying. An $8 trillion war machine that destroyed countries abroad while bridges collapsed at home. An education system ranked 41st in math that sent the bill to the students. An addiction economy that profits from your destruction. And a loneliness epidemic that dissolved the one thing that could’ve stopped all of it. None of it was done by China. All of it was done by America. To itself."
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"A Letter From Desolation Row"

"A Letter From Desolation Row"
by Edward Curtin

“At midnight all the agents
And the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone
That knows more than they do”
Bob Dylan “Desolation Row.”

"Perhaps you have noticed – if you have any idea who I am or give a damn – that I have slowed down my political analyses of our current situation. It’s gotten tiresome since little changes despite all the spilled ink.

What I am going to say is not uplifting, so you can rip up this letter now if you want encouragement. The people whom I thought I knew never changed. They continue to believe the false premises that keep them smiling despite decades of facts to the contrary. Smiling’s important, I guess, and they prefer false hope to none and feel much safer on the other side of desolation row. They keep shouting at me silently, as Dylan put it long ago in “Desolation Row”: “Which side are you on?” But I don’t answer such lame questions while they keep not thinking too much about desolation row for fear of going there.

A example from 2021. The Orange Man was out and the Comatose Man was in the White House. In and out, back and forth they go, coming forth to carry us home. If the sounds you’re hearing these days sound familiar, well, they are.

In 2021 in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the 20th anniversary of the mass murders of September 11, 2001, the corporate mainstream and so-called alternative media were replete with articles analyzing the consequences of 9/11 that resulted in the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and its alleged withdrawal after two decades of war.

These critiques ranged from mild to harsh, and covered issues from the loss of civil liberties due to The Patriot Act and government spying through all the wars “on terror” in so many countries with their disastrous consequences and killing fields. Many of these articles emphasized how, as a result of the Bush administration’s response to 9/11, the U.S. had lost its footing and brought on the demise of the U.S. empire and its standing in the world. Some writers celebrated this and others bemoaned it. Most seemed to consider this inevitable, but not the verbiage about the Titanic going down, which continues to resound in 2026.

This flood of articles was authored by writers from across the political spectrum from the left through the center to the right. All were outraged in their own ways, as such dramatic events typically manage to elicit much spilled ink informed by the writers’ various ideological positions in a media world where the categories of left and right have become meaningless, yet those of Republican and Democrat still hold the titanic power of pipe dreams.

Here’s the rub. The authors of all these 2021 articles – with a few worthy exceptions – about the mass murders of September 11, 2001 and invasion of Afghanistan were based on a false premise.

A false premise. This is the way minds are shaped in the era of mass propaganda and servile journalism. Assume (or make believe) something is true or false despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and build from there. Slip in this premise or background assumption as if it were truer than true. Most readers will never notice because they fear going to desolation row by thinking too deeply.

The false premise is this: That 9/11 was a terror attack carried out by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda as blow-back for U.S. wars against Muslims, and this terror attack on the U.S. led to the invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.

The evidence is overwhelming that this premise is false. The invasion was planned well before September. In fact, the evidence makes clear that 9/11 and the subsequent anthrax attacks were inside jobs, false flag attacks, carried out by sinister forces within the government of the United States with a little help from certain foreign junior partners to justify its subsequent war crimes across the globe. I will not explore here the ample evidence concerning 9/11, for it is readily available to readers who have the will to look, but doing so will take you straight to desolation row. Even the use of the shorthand – 9/11 for the events of September 11, 2001 – that I have used here for brevity’s sake, is a crucial part of the linguistic propaganda used to frighten the public and to conjure up thoughts of an ongoing national emergency, as I have written elsewhere.

One is not supposed to say, or even intimate, that the mass murders of September 11, 2001 were a false flag attack, for it touches a realty that is so disturbing in its consequences that all the hand wringing post mortems must deny: That nearly three thousand innocent people in the U.S.A. had first to be murdered as a pretext for killing millions around the world. It is a lesson in radical evil that is very difficult to swallow, and so must be hidden in a vast tapestry of lies and safe logic. Innocence can survive the disclosures of U.S. atrocities overseas because the deaths of foreigners have never meant much to Americans, but to bring it all back home is anathema. Then, of course, there was the CIA assassination of President John Kennedy, but no one sees a thing there or cares to draw a string from then to now.

Most journalists know where the official Stop signs are, and so many lack a sense of history and the long-term strategies of those who own the country. But they do know where their bread is buttered, and contrary to Thoreau’s advice in “Life Without Principle” – “Do not ask how your bread is buttered, it will make you sick, if you do.” – they no doubt suffer from little dyspepsia on the way to the bank.

As I’ve said, there are rare exceptions, but they have been forced out of the corporate media and write for good independent sites that few read. The witty German writer Karl Kraus nailed the rest a century ago: “No ideas and the ability to express them – that’s a journalist.”

Let me end by asking: What is the key false premise hidden in today’s analyses of Trump’s criminal activities in his second term? It is obvious that he does not fit the mold of past presidents. He is someone even Mark Twain might have trouble creating. He is beyond blatantly outrageous in his actions, statements, and self-glorification – his criminal wars and use of the national treasury to enrich himself and his extended family, etc.

Kraus: “The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so they believe they are as clever as he.”

Is Trump an actor like his counterpart Zelensky in Ukraine? If so, who is his director or is he just freelancing? Is he stupid, crazy, just evil, etc.? These are important questions. But while all these are bandied about by various writers and news analysts, it is generally assumed that Trump was not chosen and supported by those who control the country’s long-term strategic planning and goals; that his weirdness is a front that conceals the fact that he serves the same interests as his predecessors. That this is impossible is the false premise hidden in plain sight.

Having written about these things too many times before, you may start to grasp why I am now permanently residing on desolation row. Repetition gets exhausting. So I’m just sitting back and looking out from Desolation Row as the two sides “fight in the captain’s tower/While Calypso singers laugh at them.”

Forget about answering this letter. I can’t remember my address."

Dan, I Allegedly, "The Last Stop Before Vegas Is Gone"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 6/15/26
"The Last Stop Before Vegas Is Gone"
"Stateline Nevada is disappearing before our eyes. In this video, I take you to the California-Nevada border to show what remains of one of the most iconic stopping points on the drive to Las Vegas. With Whiskey Pete's closed, Buffalo Bill's largely abandoned, the famous lottery store shutting down, and Primm Valley Casino scheduled to close on July 4th, many people are asking whether Stateline can be saved or if this is truly the end of an era. For decades, millions of travelers from California stopped at Stateline Nevada for food, gambling, shopping, hotel stays, and entertainment before heading into Las Vegas. Today, the empty buildings, closed businesses, and lack of activity raise bigger questions about the economy, consumer spending, tourism, and the future of Nevada gaming. Is this simply the decline of Primm, or is it a warning sign for Las Vegas itself? Share your thoughts in the comments."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 6/15/26
"The Economy's Red Flag Everyone Missed"
"Why do so many wealthy people drive used cars, negotiate everything, and avoid unnecessary debt? In this video, Dan from iAllegedly breaks down the real habits of successful people and explains why financial freedom has more to do with discipline than flashy lifestyles. Learn why millionaires focus on cash flow, value, and peace of mind while avoiding the financial traps that keep so many people struggling. Dan also covers today's biggest economic stories, including inflation concerns, rising food prices, precious metals, real estate opportunities, retail bankruptcies, restaurant closures, interest rates, the SpaceX IPO, and why consumers are becoming more cautious with spending. If you're looking for practical personal finance advice, money-saving strategies, economic news, and ways to build long-term wealth, this video is for you."
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"Israel’s Sabotage Backfires – Trump’s Last Move Ends Israel's Agenda"

Larry Johnson, 6/15/26
"Israel’s Sabotage Backfires – 
Trump’s Last Move Ends Israel's Agenda"
Comments here:

Judge Napolitano, "Alastair Crooke: US Empire is Crashing"

"Alastair Crooke: US Empire is Crashing"
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"Economic Market Snapshot 6/15/26"

"Economic Market Snapshot 6/15/26"

Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 
You and I are not in the Big Club."
- George Carlin
o
Market Data Center, Live Updates:
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: creditequity valuationfunding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United Statesother advanced economies, and emerging markets."
Job cuts and much more.
Commentary, highly recommended:
"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...
And now... The End Game...
o

"The “Godzilla El Niño” That Has Now Begun, Could Do Trillions Of Dollars Of Damage To The Global Economy"

"The “Godzilla El Niño” That Has Now Begun, 
Could Do Trillions Of Dollars Of Damage To The Global Economy"
by Michael Snyder

"A very intense El Niño has formed in the equatorial waters of the Pacific Ocean much earlier than originally anticipated, and we are being warned that it could cause trillions of dollars of damage to the global economy. Considering everything else that is going on in our world right now, that is really bad news. It is being projected that the El Niño that has developed in the southern Pacific is likely to rapidly transform into a “Super El Niño” of frightening strength. At the same time, a “9,000-mile marine heatwave” has developed in the northern Pacific. Many believe that these two marine heatwaves will combine to form a “Godzilla El Niño” which will be unlike anything we have ever experienced before.

Last week, we received official confirmation that an El Niño “has officially formed in the Pacific Ocean”… A powerful El Nino has officially formed in the Pacific Ocean, with meteorologists warning Thursday that it is poised to reach historic strength and intensify extreme weather events across the globe. The natural warming cycle is expected to exacerbate global temperatures, already elevated by fossil fuel emissions, and could supercharge severe weather patterns worldwide. The phenomenon is predicted to rival or even surpass the record-setting El Nino of 1997, which caused billions in damages through heatwaves, floods, droughts, tornadoes, and wildfires.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration formally confirmed the existence of the El Nino, a warming of the Pacific near the equator that profoundly affects global weather patterns. This wasn’t supposed to happen yet. Normally, El Niños start once the summer is over, but this one “is developing much earlier and faster than expected”… “Most El Niños begin in the fall, so this is developing much earlier and faster than expected,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Chad Merrill said. “The weather patterns here early in the summer are also lining up to what is expected with an El Niño.”

Needless to say, this isn’t a good sign. It appears that this El Niño is going to be a whopper, and that should deeply trouble all of us because a couple of other very strong El Niños in the past literally cost the global economy trillions of dollars… For example, the 1982-83 El Niño led to $4.1 trillion in global income losses, while the 1997-98 El Niño cost about $5.7 trillion, a 2023 study suggested. “The current forecasts imply this could be the costliest El Niño on record,” said Justin Mankin, a Dartmouth geography associate professor who studies El Niño’s economic impacts. If the El Niño that just formed becomes the strongest of all time, it could potentially cause more than 10 trillion dollars of damage to the global economy.

In the months ahead, global food production could drop precipitously, supply chains could be severely disrupted, and we could witness an endless series of extremely destructive weather disasters… El Niño tends to slow down global economic growth and cause trillions in losses, primarily due to the fact that it triggers disruptive weather patterns that impact agriculture, infrastructure, and supply chains. In the years it forms, El Niño triggers wide-ranging changes in weather and climate patterns that result in a potpourri of global disasters, including devastating floods, crop-killing droughts, plummeting fish populations and an uptick in tropical diseases worldwide, experts say.

The strongest El Niño on record was the “Super El Niño” of 1877 and 1878. That “Super El Niño” was one of the primary reasons why approximately 50 million people starved to death during the Great Famine of 1876 to 1878… Climate officials added that this El Nino will likely be one of the strongest since 1950, and there is a fear it could match an event from 1877, which triggered severe droughts and crop failures around the world, contributing to more than 50 million deaths globally. Many climate historians think the 1877 event reshaped world history, and some consider it one of the first ‘truly global climate disasters.’

In 2026, farmers all over the world are already dealing with seemingly endless drought, much higher diesel prices and an unprecedented fertilizer crisis. Now we are being told that the El Niño that has just formed “could have a multiplier effect on wheat, rice, and corn, which are already at risk due to reduced fertilizer availability”…

“A Super El Niño, combined with the current Middle East conflict and resulting fertilizer shortages, could have a multiplier effect on wheat, rice, and corn, which are already at risk due to reduced fertilizer availability during the planting season,” said Saskia van Gendt, chief sustainability officer with Blue Yonder, a supply chain management company, in an e-mail to USA TODAY. “This will result in near-term shortages and price increases, along with a prolonged impact, since these crops are used as animal feed and in processed foods.”

Yes, there will be shortages and price increases. The experts keep telling us this, but it just isn’t sinking in for the general population yet. Some of the tropical areas of the globe that we import a lot of key commodities from will be hit particularly hard by this El Niño… David Warrick, senior vice president of strategy at Overhaul, a supply chain risk management company, and former head of Microsoft’s Global Supply Chain, told Newsweek that of the imported products that could be impacted, “rice is the most immediate concern,” pointing to Thailand, Vietnam and India as key exporters that are all vulnerable to drought conditions caused by an El Niño.

“After rice, I’d flag coffee, cocoa, palm oil, and sugar—all tropical commodities highly sensitive to El Niño-driven heat and drought,” he added. “For American consumers, that translates to pressure on everyday grocery staples like cooking oils, chocolate, packaged foods, coffee.” Warrick warned that when major exporters are hit at the same time, “import-dependent countries scramble, and prices spike fast.”

For years, I have been warning that global food supplies were getting tighter and that shortages would be coming. Now we are here. In wealthy countries such as the United States, high food prices will go even higher. In poor countries all over the planet, many of those that are currently hungry will soon be starving, and many of those that are currently starving will soon die. The number of people in the world that were experiencing acute hunger was already at a record high before the war with Iran even started. The war took our troubles to a new level, and now a “Godzilla El Niño” threatens to change everything."

Sunday, June 14, 2026

"US and Iran Reach Deal – Full Details Inside"

Larry Johnson & Mohammad Marandi, 6/14/26
"US and Iran Reach Deal – Full Details Inside"
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Jeremiah Babe, "Peace Deal Reached, Who Really Won?"

Jeremiah Babe, 6/14/26
"Peace Deal Reached, Who Really Won?"
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A Blues Musical Interlude: John Campbelljohn, "Knocked Down"

John Campbelljohn, "Knocked Down"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"NGC 1333 is seen in visible light as a reflection nebula, dominated by bluish hues characteristic of starlight reflected by interstellar dust. A mere 1,000 light-years distant toward the heroic constellation Perseus, it lies at the edge of a large, star-forming molecular cloud. 
This telescopic close-up spans about two full moons on the sky or just over 15 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 1333. It shows details of the dusty region along with telltale hints of contrasty red emission from Herbig-Haro objects, jets and shocked glowing gas emanating from recently formed stars. In fact, NGC 1333 contains hundreds of stars less than a million years old, most still hidden from optical telescopes by the pervasive stardust. The chaotic environment may be similar to one in which our own Sun formed over 4.5 billion years ago."

"The Years We Were Given", Songs Compilation.

Full screen recommended.
Rylo AI Art,
"The Years We Were Given"

Native Elder, "How to Age Like a Warrior Instead of a Victim"

Full screen recommended.
Native Elder,
"How to Age Like a Warrior Instead of a Victim"

"I Ain't Drunk, I'm Just Old"

Full screen recommended.
Delta King's Blues, "I Ain't Drunk, I'm Just Old"
"There comes a point in a man’s life when the world starts spinning even if he hasn’t touched a drop - not from whiskey, but from years piling up heavier than they used to. Laughter gets slower, bones get louder, and everything hurts except the blues. “I Ain’t Drunk, I’m Just Old” is a soulful Delta blues confession wrapped in humor, truth, and the quiet ache of age catching up. Acoustic guitar shuffles with a warm, worn-out groove - like boots dragging across an old wooden floor. Harmonica wheezes and laughs in the same breath, carrying that bittersweet mix of pride and regret only an older man understands. The rhythm sways slow, like someone trying to steady himself without admitting why he needs to. This is the blues of aging with a smile, hurting with a joke, and hiding truth behind laughter because that’s all a man can do. Funny… tender… painfully real. Growing old ain’t easy - but the blues sure makes it honest."

"Brainless Society: The Rise of Stupid Society"

Full screen recommended.
Alone Psyche,
"Brainless Society: The Rise of Stupid Society"
"You know that feeling when you're scrolling through social media, and you see something so ridiculous, so outrageously shallow, that you just have to stop and stare? It could be a viral dance or a celebrity meltdown, it gets millions of views, a tidal wave of comments, and a ton of likes. Meanwhile, you might hear about a brilliant scientist making a groundbreaking discovery, a quiet philosopher offering profound insights, or an artist creating something truly meaningful. Do those get the same attention? Rarely. Why does it feel like our society is celebrating foolishness while ignoring wisdom? In this video, we’re going to dive into that question, and what you’ll find might surprise you. Stick around until the end because the final part of this journey might just change how you see the world and your own place in it."
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Meanwhile, in a sane, literate, civilized society...
Full screen recommended.
Travelling With Russia, 6/14/26
"Summer in Russia: 
Attending the Red Square Book Festival"
"What is it like to spend the summer in Moscow? How do people in Moscow spend the summer time? Join me on Red Square in the centre of Moscow, Russia, for the 12th annual Red Square Book Festival. Along with the Race On Nikolskya, all on the same day."
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The Daily "Near You?"

St. Charles, Missouri, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Once Unbalanced..."

 

"No one today likes truth: utility and self interest have long ago been substituted for truth. We live in a nightmare of falsehoods, and there are few who are sufficiently awake and aware to see things as they are. Our first duty is to clear away illusions and recover a sense of reality."
- Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev