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So, we rise from the rubble...
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Friday, March 21, 2025
Judge Napolitano, "INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern: Weekly Wrap"
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 3/21/25
"INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern:
Weekly Wrap"
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"No More Important Agenda..."
"Monsters will always exist. There's one inside each of us.
But an angel lives there, too. There is no more important
agenda than figuring out how to slay one and nurture the other. "
- Jacqueline Novogratz
"Scott Ritter Warns the America Economy Could Go Bankrupt Amid Iran and Yemen Wars"
Financial Wise, 3/21/25
"Scott Ritter Warns the America Economy
Could Go Bankrupt Amid Iran and Yemen Wars"
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Dan, I Allegedly, "What is the Best Bank to Launder Money?"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 3/21/25
"What is the Best Bank to Launder Money?"
"Ever wondered how a major bank could find itself at the center of a Hollywood-level money laundering scandal? In this video, I break down the jaw-dropping story of how TD Bank became a money laundering machine. From garment businesses and gold brokers to shady international transactions, this operation was so vast it earned TD Bank the dubious honor of being fined $3.1 billion—the first bank ever to face such a penalty. The details will shock you, from bribes paid in gift cards to the outrageous loopholes exploited to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars.
Join me as we unpack how this scheme operated, the role of bank employees, and how it all came crashing down. It's a wild ride involving questionable deposits, cashier's checks, and paper-thin excuses. If you're interested in banking scandals, money laundering, or just love a good true-crime financial story, this one’s for you."
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"America the Not So Bad?"
Is it sunrise, or sunset, for America the Beautiful?
"O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years.
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!"
~ "America the Beautiful,"
a poem by Katharine Lee Bates (1895)
"America the Not So Bad?"
by Joel Bowman
"We’re looking at the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, in roughly that order. (Catch up on Part I – Argentina, the “Good” – right here). Today, our wending narrative takes us north of the Rio Grande where, since at least 1971... and perhaps as early as that interventionist ghoul, Woodrow Wilson, darkened the doors of the Oval Office, in 1913... the trajectory of a once great Republic has been in steady decline.
It brings us no joy to report what our dear American readers know all too well; that the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave has been systematically captured by a managerial caste, whose insidious meddling daily transfers from the productive class to the parasitic class unimaginable amounts of wealth, talent and industry.
On the private, productive side, there is no engine room in the world quite like the United States of America. It is still the world’s brain magnet, where the best and brightest go to study... its financial capital, where aspiring startups hunt for big game investors... and an energy powerhouse of gargantuan status; the US led the world in oil production last year, churning out an incredible 22 million barrels of oil per day... equal to the total production of second and third placed Saudi and Russia... combined. It has been the world’s number one producer – by a widening margin – since the fracking revolution catapulted her ahead of her global peers.
America the Bountiful: To put America’s colossal economy into perspective, it’s useful to consider each state as a country unto itself. In an apples to Big Apples comparison, we see New York state’s economy alone is larger than Russia’s... the Texan economy is on par with Italy’s... and California, with its curious mixture of hooded techbro innovators and Hollywood’s plastic pretend people, is larger than either France or the United Kingdom, and almost equal to India, the most populous country on the planet.
In terms of material wealth, America has come a long way since Herbert Hoover allegedly promised the nation’s citizens “a car in every garage and a chicken in every pot.” Today, Americans have two cars in every garage and a cellphone in every hand. The US enjoys (or suffers, depending on your view) the highest smartphone penetration rate in the world, at 96%.
Hard as it may be to imagine, many of the “poorest” Americans enjoy a level of comfort simply unfathomable to citizens of other, supposedly developed nations. If the United Kingdom was a US state, for example, it would rank 51st in per capita GDP... right behind Mississippi. France would be lower still.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the scale, the US is also home to most of the world’s uber-rich, with fifteen of the planet’s seventeen centibillionaires amassing fortunes enough to make a hip hop icon blush. The combined net worth of these bejeweled bipeds – roughly $2.2 trillion – is equal to the entire GDP of Brazil, home to 210 million souls.
All of which is to say nothing of the country’s spacious skies and amber waves of grain, its purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain. (Your tragically romantic editor once wrote an entire novel dedicated to the “idea of America” set against a road trip from sea to shining sea. Notes members can download it here... we also mail physical copies to Founding members, for the old school readers who prefer physical copies. Join here.)
One Nation, Under Debt: Indeed, so embarrassingly bountiful are America’s gifts, a visiting extraterrestrial might be forgiven for thinking that the country would therefore be the planet’s largest creditor... that her streets and subways would be paved in platinum, her bridges inlaid with precious stones... and that her exalted citizens should enjoy the highest standard of living in the world, that they would all be healthy, happy, enlightened, and at peace with themselves and one another... Imagine his/her/its surprise!
Perusing what passes for today’s newspapers, our discombobulated guest would soon discover stories of death and despair, of an underpaid and overmedicated citizenry, and of deep cultural and political division. On the (alas!) asphalt streets, pockmarked and potholed, our galactical gallivanter would find the high and the homeless, described by dumb anchors on smart screens as “unhoused,” proving only that they, the far fallen press, are collectively unbrained themselves.
As to the nation’s financial health... ET would soon see what we all know to a tee; a $36 trillion hole where the future used to be! The world’s largest debtor by far, I.O.U.S.A is now in the hole for $107k per citizen... or $323k per taxpayer, figures that are set to hit $130k and $339k, respectively, by the end of this decade. For those keeping score at home, that’s a debt to GDP ratio of 122%, set to clock 140% by 2030, when the debt will be teetering on $50 trillion.
Even the savings from DOGE – which have cost the department’s unpaid captain tens of billions of dollars personally... and brought a degenerate mob of violent looters and hissyfit marauders to the very brink of a nationwide tantrum – so far amount to less than $2,000 per taxpayer. What would the scene look like if those cuts were multiplied 10x... 50x... 100x?
With so much death and despair... debt and deficits... debauchery and debasement... honest, hard working Americans are surely left wondering: What gives? How did our exceptional nation, founded on the ideas of freedom, inalienable rights and self-determination, come to... this?
A clue, patient reader: While Mississippi ranks as the state with the lowest GDP per capita in the country (at $53k per person)... and New York comes in on top (with $117k per person)... the GDP per person in the glittering District of Columbia weighs in at a hefty...$263,220! What are the nation’s public servants... her lobbyists, lawyers and litigators... her congressmen, conmen and crooks... doing to deserve 5x what the average Mississippian takes home in the great Magnolia State?
Scratching his bulging green cerebrum, our enlightened, intergalactic interloper ventures a polite suggestion, “Why don’t you just do as the man says and ‘drain the swamp?’” And lo! Here comes the country’s white knight in a red cap, the once and present president, who has promised to Make America Great Again. But is St. Trump the man to restore his country’s forgotten glory, to lead its citizens into a glorious second act, to reorientate the trajectory from Bad to... not so Bad?" Stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World...
"Multi-Crisis Environment: What Is About To Happen To Happen Will Shock The World"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 3/21/25
"Multi-Crisis Environment:
What Is About To Happen To Happen Will Shock The World"
Comments here:
"7 Actions That NATO Countries Are Taking Which Indicate That Something Really Big Is Coming"
"7 Actions That NATO Countries Are Taking Which
Indicate That Something Really Big Is Coming"
by Michael Snyder
"If peace is on the way, why are they feverishly preparing for World War III? It appears to me that NATO countries are convinced that something really big is coming. Is there something that they know that they aren’t telling the rest of us? As I discussed yesterday, things in the Middle East are really heating up, and the conflict in Ukraine has reached a very dangerous stage. If negotiations with Russia fail, both sides are likely to significantly escalate matters in a desperate attempt to win the war, and the Russians could come to the conclusion that a final showdown with NATO has begun. We do not want the Russians to view the conflict in Ukraine in those terms, because they are already extremely paranoid and it wouldn’t take much to push them over the edge. Unfortunately, NATO countries continue to do things that will raise tensions instead of easing them. The following are 7 actions that NATO countries are taking which indicate that something really big is coming…
#1 France is getting ready to distribute a 20 page survival manual that instructs citizens what to do if a full-blown war erupts…"France is the latest country set to issue an invasion survival how-to guide for its citizens. The 20-page booklet will give advice to French civilians on how to defend the republic in the face of an invasion by signing up to reserve units or local defense efforts. It will also have tips on how to create a survival kit with essentials including six litres of water, canned food, batteries, and basic medical supplies."
#2 The French government is also telling their citizens to leave Iran “immediately”…"French authorities on Thursday requested its citizens to immediately leave the territory of Iran. The French Foreign Ministry has issued a warning to its citizens amid the release of one of its nationals who had been imprisoned in Iran for over 880 days.
#3 It is being reported that military planners in the UK have ordered special forces units to get ready to be sent to Ukraine…"Special Forces units were told to prepare for mobilization to Ukraine by military planners tasked with readying forces by the Cabinet Office, according to two military sources with knowledge of the directive. The command center for UK military planning, the Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ), was sent directives last week to begin the process for the deployment of personnel and resources. The orders, which also applied to Special Forces reservists, put personnel on standby in order to ensure military equipment is in working order before receiving a notice to mobilise to Ukraine.
#4 Turkey has announced that it would also be willing to deploy troops to Ukraine “if needed”…"Turkey would be ready to deploy troops to Ukraine as part of a broader peacekeeping mission if needed, a Turkish defence ministry source said on Thursday. “The issue of contributing to a mission … will be evaluated with all relevant parties if deemed necessary for the establishment of regional stability and peace,” the source said." The Russians have already stated that they will never accept NATO troops on Ukrainian soil under any circumstances. So why are these nations preparing to send troops anyway?
#5 Poland is preparing for a showdown with Russia by “conscripting every adult male for military training”…"Warsaw is preparing to face down any invasion by Vladimir Putin by conscripting every adult male for military training. But the Eastern European nation also wants nukes and President Andrzej Duda has now said the US could send some of its arsenal to his country.
#6 The Baltic states are jointly constructing a massive defense line that includes six hundred bunkers, tank ditches, dragon’s teeth and rocket systems…"The Baltics are building a joint defense line on their border with Russia that will have some six-hundred bunkers across each border. It will also include tank ditches, forests, dragon’s teeth, hedgehogs, and rocket systems. Poland and the Baltics have also withdrawn an international treaty banning anti-personnel landmines as they prepare to stop an advancing Russian army in its tracks.
#7 In a letter that was delivered to the Iranians, Donald Trump has given Iran only two months to reach a peace agreement…"President Donald Trump has given Iran a two-month deadline to reach a new nuclear agreement, according to a report by Axios. A letter sent earlier this month to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned of consequences if Tehran continued its nuclear program while also offering renewed talks. The message, described as uncompromising, made clear that prolonged negotiations were not an option.
According to Axios, it “isn’t clear whether the two-month clock begins from the time the letter was delivered or from when negotiations start”. Since the Iranians have already said that there will be no negotiations, I would assume that the clock started when the letter was delivered. So the good news is that the bombing of Iran will probably not happen next month. But if Trump is serious, there is a very good chance that it could happen before the midpoint of this year.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainians just conducted an absolutely massive drone strike on a Russian strategic bomber airfield that is located hundreds of miles from the front lines…"Ukrainian forces backed by Western munitions and technology struck a major Russian strategic bomber airfield on Thursday with drones, 435 miles from the Ukrainian front lines. The strike ignited a massive explosion and sent a huge blast of fire into the air at Engels-2 airbase in Russia. Videos posted by Reuters showed a huge blast spreading out from the airfield and wrecking nearby cottages. Russia reportedly called this the largest drone attack ever."
The Ukrainians keep trying to provoke the Russians into doing something really dramatic. One of these days, the Ukrainians might just succeed. The Russians are fed up with the government in Kyiv. If negotiations with Trump fail, I expect the Russians to bring down the hammer. We really are right on the verge of an apocalyptic conflict with Russia, and we really are right on the verge of an apocalyptic conflict in the Middle East. The final exit ramps for both of these conflicts are rapidly approaching, and so let us hope that global leaders make very wise decisions in the months ahead."
John Wilder, "Life Is Not Random. This Isn’t A Mistake"
"Life Is Not Random. This Isn’t A Mistake"
by John Wilder
“I refuse to believe that mankind is a random byproduct of molecular
circumstance, no more than the result of mere biological chance.”
– "Alien: Covenant"
"There are times that life seems random, chaotic. In our current time, especially, change is moving faster than a Disney™ transvestite can ruin a childhood. It seems random. But it’s not.
As I look deeper and deeper into the world, I see that the world, and in fact the entire Universe, is as it is for a reason. That’s a big claim. So why am I certain that this is the case? Physics, baby. The Universe is tuned for life. There’s a quantity called the “fine structure constant” which is roughly 1/137. And, there aren’t any units, so I can’t even poke fun at the communist metric system.
What the fine structure constant represents is the relationship between the elementary charge of an electron, how hard it is to make a spark, pi, the speed of lights, and the relationship between wavelength and energy of a photon. So, it’s a lot of stuff to mix up, and I’m surprised the number of lime-flavored PEZ™ bricks in Guatemala isn’t included as well, but I didn’t get a vote.
What’s important, though, is that if it were much different than its current value, life doesn’t exist. If the number is much bigger, electrons are bound too closely to the atom this shrinks the size of the atom, making your mother even shorter and denser. I can hear the kids now: “Your momma’s a neutron star.”
Also, chemistry is built around electrons zooming from one atom to the next, so if the electrons don’t move, poof. No steak. If the fine structure constant is much smaller, important things like carbon and oxygen couldn’t stick together, and, boom. No beer.
Life existing requires this one number being within a fairly narrow range around that 1/137. 4/137 and, zap, no more Toaster Strudels™. Of any flavor. Throw everything up randomly, and nothing useful exists. Our Universe is really like Goldilocks was so picky that she had to have her porridge between 112.312°F and 114.452°F (between 4 and 7 liters). Yes, she would have starved. That’s not all – change the strong nuclear force, the gravitational constant by just a few percent and no useful structures can ever form. Ever.
That’s the big picture. But I’m far from original, and this is far from new knowledge. The Greeks stole my thunder and had the Fates: Clotho, Larry, and Curly, I think. The Romans had Fortuna: Fortuna was worse than vodka at bringing both prosperity and ruin. The Norns knit the fates of the Vikings while drinking mead and sitting under Yggdrasil. Oh, and Matthew 10:29 would like a word as well: "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father."
I generally leave my house within the same thirty second window every day. I know that’s crappy OpSec, but it does sooth my autism. When I’m delayed, I’ve often had the thought that wasn’t without a reason, good or bad. What seems to be random chance is almost certainly not. If I lose a sock, get a flat, or have “stumble” upon an article, it’s just me being a part of the play.
Now it may surprise you, but my life isn’t perfect. There have been goofs I’ve made, and I’ve had both good and bad luck. But I’ll tell you, it often wasn’t something I could perceive right at that moment. The old Chinese parable comes to mind: A farmer’s horse runs away, prompting neighbors to lament his bad luck. “Maybe,” he replies. Days later, the horse returns with a herd of wild horses. “Good luck!” the neighbors say. “Maybe,” he says. His son, taming the new horses, falls and breaks his leg— “Bad luck! The neighbors sat. “Maybe,” the farmer shrugs. Soon, war breaks out, and the Emperor’s army comes through town, drafting all the able-bodied young men, but the son’s injury spares him from conscription. “Good luck!” the neighbors exclaim. “Maybe,” the farmer repeats. See, what the farmer realized is that his son might end up married to Greta Thunberg.
Life’s no crapshoot, though – the place was designed for us. There are no coincidences—our wins, our flops, even that flat tire last Tuesday are part of the plan, and it’s no accident you’re reading this. The paradox is, though, you’re not a pawn, you’re also the player. Our actions matter. Life isn’t a cosmic slot machine, but the things we do and experience are lessons and mold us, or mold someone else. And it’s in that narrow window that wonderful things happen.
How do I know that? We’re here. And so is beer. And so is every other wonderful part of creation. Except for the metric system. The French can have that one back."
Jim Kunstler, "Judgepocalypse Now"
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"Death On A Pale Horse" by Benjamin West
"Judgepocalypse Now"
by Jim Kunstler
"Those who cheered as J-6 American prisoners were locked in solitary for 18 months
without trial, now suddenly fight tooth and nail for foreign terrorists’ 'due process.'"
- Buck Sexton
"Impeachment would be too mild for the claque of Woke-activist federal judges attempting to nullify the executive branch with hectoring writs against any and all sorts of executive actions. If simply bounced off their benches, they could just take up new careers as NPR legal commentators or transsexual pole-dancers. Rather, what you’ve got here is an obvious seditious conspiracy, plain for all to see, orchestrated by the same legal Nosferatus as RussiaGate, the 2020 election, and the J-6 witch hunt.
The catch is, this time it is discoverable and subject to prosecution because the party running this legal insurrection no longer has its hands on the levers of power in the DOJ and the FBI as it did when they ran the aforementioned ops. And so, the mighty silence emanating from those two agencies just now should tell you something: namely, that cases are being carefully constructed to finally bring these despicable caitiffs to real and chastening law.
If you want to know one paramount reason for institutional failure in our country, look to the evil enterprise that calls itself “Lawfare.” It originated as a blog launched on September 1, 2010, founded by three key figures: Benjamin Wittes, Jack Goldsmith, and Robert Chesney. Over time it evolved into an activist operation, The Lawfare Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to (cough cough) “Hard National Security Choices,” and run under the shady umbrella of the Brookings Institution.
The point of Lawfare is self-evident in its name: it is an instrument of warfare against a perceived enemy which, for the past decade, has been the political faction led by Mr. Trump, the once-and-current chief executive of the federal government. Mr. Trump is a danger to the bureaucratic arm of the federal government because he has defined it as a racketeering operation and moved decisively to end its depredations. Lawfare is the praetorian guard of the permanent DC bureaucracy, including especially its rogue intel actors, who function as enforcers for the Democratic party that largely staffs the bureaucracy.
Norm Eisen, a Brookings senior fellow, is the chief operational strategist for the Lawfare enterprise. He has been active in all its ops, capers, and mind-fucks since Mr. Trump came on the scene in 2015 vowing to “drain the swamp” (i.e., end the racketeering). Norm Eisen holds leadership roles in two subsidiary Lawfare orgs: States United Democracy Center and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). Eisen’s broader connection stems from his history of orchestrating legal challenges against Mr. Trump — advising the Mueller investigation, drafting impeachment articles, and leading CREW’s 200-plus lawsuits in Mr. Trump’s first term.
Now, following the Biden interregnum, Norm Eisen leverages a network of nonprofits (ACLU, Public Citizen, etc.) and left-leaning judges to file hundreds of new lawsuits to thwart the MAGA clean-up effort under Elon Musk’s DOGE. Tax filings show that CREW’s funding, in part, comes from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. Item: during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, CREW received $432,000 in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans from Newtek Small Business, which evolved into a financial holding company after acquiring National Bank of New York City in January 2023, rebranded as Newtek Bank.
The money-laundering through multitudinous foundations, NGOs, and “non-profits” is the essence of the Democratic Party’s racketeering mode in league with federal bureaucracies such as USAID that dispensed billions of dollars to a vast network of activist recipients. Translation: it provides salaries (often six-figures) to party foot-soldiers whose only duties are to move the money through the organizational layers and to be available for such party tasks as ballot harvesting, vote-counting, and organizing riots.
This is the mischief that Mr. Trump seeks to put an end to, and so he must be thwarted at all costs by those whose lifeblood depends on the ongoing rackets. The so-called “Resistance” alliance between the Democratic Party and the bureaucracy seeks to prevent reform by any means necessary. Since they no longer control potent executive agencies such as the DOJ and the FBI for intimidating and punishing their enemies, their only recourse is the federal judiciary and its officers of the courts, that is, lawyers and judges practicing Lawfare.
The federal judges are political appointees, such as John J. McConnell from the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, who was a personal injury lawyer (i.e., “ambulance chaser”) and major Democratic Party doner, giving nearly $700,000 to party causes, and serving as Rhode Island Democratic State Committee treasurer. Judge McConnell issued a wide-ranging restraining order against the DOGE-advised freeze of federal funding launched in February of this year. McConnell’s daughter, Catherine, is a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Education, appointed by President Joe Biden in 2022. See how that works?
Similarly, James Boasberg, a RussiaGate cast member, and as a presiding judge in the DC federal court in sixty J-6 cases. Independent journalist Laura Loomer alleges that Judge Boasberg’s daughter, Katherine, works for Partners for Justice (PFJ), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is dedicated to defending “criminal illegal aliens and gang members,” including opposing their deportation, and that it receives significant funding from U.S. government grants, such as those from USAID. Judge Boasberg notoriously issued a restraining order last week against the deportation of Tren de Aragua gang members labeled by the DOJ as a terrorist organization. See how that works?
Now, the difference between Lawfare and the practice of law is that Lawfare trafficks lavishly in lies to do its business in the courts and actual law practice is supposed to be dedicated to ascertaining the truth in matters that come before the courts. Lawfare is grounded in dishonesty — as is its main client, the Democratic Party. That is exactly why Judge James Boasberg went along with FBI Director James Comey’s false warrant applications in the FISA court that enabled the RussiaGate operation to do its dirty business. Thus, the grand orchestrator of the Lawfare enterprise as a whole, Norm Eisen, is a sort of Father-of-Lies.
Remember beyond all this sturm and drang stands an essential principle: the truth is sturdy and untruth is fragile. Like you, I am standing by to see what eventually comes out of the Trump DOJ in the way of cases that might definitively settle this mighty battle between Lawfare and the law."
Thursday, March 20, 2025
Canadian Prepper, "Breaking News! World War 3 Update"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 3/20/25
"Breaking News! World War 3 Update"
Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Some spiral galaxies are seen nearly sideways. Most bright stars in spiral galaxies swirl around the center in a disk, and seen from the side, this disk can appear quite thin. Some spiral galaxies appear even thinner than NGC 3717, which is actually seen tilted just a bit. Spiral galaxies form disks because the original gas collided with itself and cooled as it fell inward. Planets may orbit in disks for similar reasons.
The featured image by the Hubble Space Telescope shows a light-colored central bulge composed of older stars beyond filaments of orbiting dark brown dust. NGC 3717 spans about 100,000 light years and lies about 60 million light years away toward the constellation of the Water Snake (Hydra)."
Chet Raymo, “Strange”
“Strange”
by Chet Raymo
“In a review in the “New York Times” Book Review, Daniel Handler writes: “And strange? Well, let’s get this straight: All great books are strange. Every lasting work of literature since the very weird “Beowulf” has been strange, not only because it grapples with the strangeness around us, but also because the effect of originality is startling, making even the oldest books feel like brand new stories.”
Strange: Out-of-the-ordinary, unusual, curious. “The strangeness around us,” says Handler. There is a paradox here. What could be less strange than the world around us? It is the same world that was here yesterday, and the day before that. More to the point: It is a world ruled by law. Inviolable causal bonds. That’s what makes science possible.
And yet, and yet. I walk wary. Strangeness lurks on ever side. Strangeness leaps out of every pebble in the path, every wildflower, every spider web flung between weedy stalks. In the midst of the utterly ordinary the extraordinary abounds. Nothing is so commonplace as to be common. The strangeness of the world, as in literature, has its source in the head, in the convoluted interaction of mind with world. Strange, that we should be here, strangers in a strange land, pilgrims on our own yellow brick roads where nothing is ordinary because everything is perceived through the filter of a unique consciousness.
And strange? Well, let’s get this straight. I hope never to lose the capacity to see the strangeness in the familiar, the curious in the everyday, the exception in the unexceptional.
“I do not expect a miracle,
or an accident,
to set the sight on fire...”
wrote Silvia Plath. Just being here is enough. Just being here is surpassing strange.”
"Most People..."
"Most people are good and occasionally do something they know is bad. Some people are bad and struggle every day to keep it under control. Others are corrupt to the core and don't give a damn, as long as they don't get caught. But evil is a completely different creature. Evil is bad that believes it's good."
- Karen Marie Moning
The Poet: Robert Bly, "Things to Think"
"Things to Think"
"Think in ways you've never thought before.
If the phone rings, think of it as carrying a message
Larger than anything you've ever heard,
Vaster than a hundred lines of Yeats.
Think that someone may bring a bear to your door,
Maybe wounded and deranged; or think that a moose
Has risen out of the lake, and he's carrying on his antlers
A child of your own whom you've never seen.
When someone knocks on the door,
Think that he's about
To give you something large: tell you you're forgiven,
Or that it's not necessary to work all the time,
Or that it's been decided that if you lie down no one will die."
- Robert Bly, “Morning Poems”
"10 Signs That A Significant Portion Of Our Population Has Gone Nuts"
"10 Signs That A Significant Portion
Of Our Population Has Gone Nuts"
by Michael Snyder
"Have you noticed that people around you are behaving more erratically? These days, you just never know what is going to set someone off. A person may seem relatively normal, but then the moment you express an opinion that they don’t like they totally lose it. It is almost as if the majority of the population is constantly “on edge” emotionally. If you are one of those people, you need to understand that nobody is going to agree with you 100 percent of the time. If I write something that you don’t agree with, that is okay. And if you say something to me that I don’t agree with, that is okay too. A free exchange of ideas is so important in our society, but a lot of people don’t seem to understand this.
Can you remember when it seemed like most of the people living in this country were relatively normal? I realize that this may be hard to believe, but there was a time when our streets were not filled with nuts and you didn’t have to worry that the next person you run into might flip out for no reason at all.
One of the big reasons why everything has gone so haywire is because we simply stopped developing deep relationships with those around us. Today, our relationships are with our screens. According to the American Psychological Association, U.S. teens spend an average of 4.8 hours a day using social media…4.8 hours
Average number of hours a day that U.S. teens spend using seven popular social media apps, with YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram accounting for 87% of their social media time. Specifically, 37% of teens say they spend 5 or more hours a day, 14% spend 4 to less than 5 hours a day, 26% spend 2 to less than 4 hours a day, and 23% spend less than 2 hours a day on these three apps.
Study after study has shown that heavy use of social media can lead to depression and a whole host of other emotional issues. So it should come as no surprise that over one-fifth of all adolescents living in America “had a current, diagnosed mental or behavioral health condition in 2023”…"More than 1 in 5 adolescents in the U.S. (5.3 million) had a current, diagnosed mental or behavioral health condition in 2023, according to a new data brief from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
Among those 5.3 million adolescents, defined as children ages 12-17, anxiety was the most common condition (16.1%), followed by depression (8.4%) and behavior/conduct problems (6.3%). Female adolescents were more likely than male adolescents to be diagnosed with anxiety (20.1% of females compared to 12.3% of males) and were more likely to be diagnosed with depression (10.9% of females compared to 6% of males). However, behavior and conduct problems were nearly twice as likely to occur among male adolescents compared to female adolescents (8.2% of males compared to 4.3% of females)."
Wow. And how many more have undiagnosed conditions? Many social media communities are breeding grounds for hate. For example, an interactive map that shows the “locations of every Tesla showroom, charging station and the known residences of Department of Government Efficiency employees” is going viral on social media right now…"Elon Musk-hating hackers have doxxed Tesla owners in the United States, releasing an interactive map showing their names, addresses, phone numbers and emails.
The disturbing website, called DOGEQUEST, also provides the locations of every Tesla showroom, charging station and the known residences of Department of Government Efficiency employees. It even lists FBI Director Kash Patel’s home and uses a symbol of a Molotov cocktail as its cursor."
Needless to say, this map has been put out there in order to get people to take action. And after they have been fed endless hours of hate-filled propaganda, many of our young people have been perfectly primed to do just that. Earlier this week, several vehicles were viciously set on fire at a Tesla service center in Las Vegas…"Multiple cars were set on fire at a Tesla service center in Las Vegas Tuesday morning in what authorities described as a targeted attack, and the person responsible is still at large.
A vehicle fire was first reported around 2:45 a.m. at the Tesla Collision Center in the 6000 block of Badura Avenue, near Jones Boulevard and the 215 Beltway, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said in an email. “LVMPD Communications received information that an individual had set several vehicles on fire in the parking lot and caused damage to the property,” police wrote."
What you feed into your mind on a regular basis is going to determine how you view the world. It really is that simple. Let me give you another example. At some hospitals in New Jersey, parents are asked to provide “preferred pronouns and sexual orientation” for their newborn infants…"As if coming up with a great baby name wasn’t hard enough. Newborns can’t even control their own movements, but that isn’t stopping New Jersey hospitals from asking parents for their baby’s preferred pronouns and sexual orientation.
Inspira Health’s “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Questionnaire” requires new parents to “identify” their babies as either “Male, Female, Transgender, Gender Queer,” or “Additional gender category.” It further asks parents to select the word that best describes their infant: “Lesbian or gay, Straight or heterosexual, Self-described, Questioning/Unsure.” Needless to say, infants have no idea what pronouns are, and it will be years before they understand anything about “sexual orientation”.
Unfortunately, we live in a world where many feel a need to inject such cultural issues into everything, because those that are on the cutting edge of cultural change are often held up as heroes…"CNN has honored trans-identified influencer Dylan Mulvaney as its “game changer” of the week, with the social media influencer saying he told his mom as a small child that he thought “God made a mistake.” Video footage shared by the left-leaning media watchdog Media Matters of America shows that CNN recognized Mulvaney as its “game changer” Friday."
No, God does not make any mistakes. And God is not a pop star either. If you can believe it, Democrats in California recently began a meeting “by reciting a prayer to Beyonce using Beyonce’s lyrics”…California Democrats opened an assembly meeting by reciting a prayer to Beyonce using Beyonce’s lyrics and asking her for strength. Democrats are making a mockery of God. Sickening. Are you kidding me? It is a very dangerous thing to mock God.
Sadly, many of our top scientists are now trying to play God. One company in Texas has announced that it actually plans to bring back the wooly mammoth by 2028…"A biotechnology company whose goal is to bring back the wooly mammoth says its recent small step is big news. Colossal Biosciences of Texas has said it aims to restore extinct species to the planet. The company made the woolly mammoth one of its first missions, setting a goal of having a mammoth walk the earth in 2028." Haven’t these people seen the Jurassic Park movies? Bringing extinct species back from the dead is never a good idea.
Of course it isn’t a good idea to create super-intelligent AI entities that can think for themselves either. In Sweden, one company has successfully developed an AI dog “that has a functional digital nervous system capable of learning and adapting like humans”…"A Swedish AI startup company has created a robot dog named Luna that has a functional digital nervous system capable of learning and adapting like humans and many animals, the company, IntuiCell, said on Wednesday. In one of the first-use cases of physical agentic AI, which can make decisions and take actions towards specific goals rather than just perform narrow tasks or generate content, the robot dog would be able to learn like a real dog."
Does anyone out there believe that it is a good idea to create ultra-powerful, ultra-intelligent entities that can think millions of times faster than us? To me, that is one of the most insane things that we could do. But we are doing it anyway.
Despite all of our advanced technology, it appears that humanity is more unhappy than ever. Americans fill approximately 6 billion prescriptions each year. That breaks down to about 19 prescriptions per person. Just think about that. And a very large percentage of the pills that we take are for mental or emotional reasons.
Earlier today, I was stunned to learn that use of ADHD medications is rising the fastest among “middle-aged and older women”…"Prescriptions for ADHD medications have been spiking in recent years, with the sharpest increase among middle-aged and older women. They’re also the least likely to misuse the prescription stimulants, a new study finds.
The rise among women ages 35 to 64 has been substantial. At the end of 2022, 1.7 million women in this age group were prescribed stimulants such as Adderall and Ritalin for ADHD, compared to 1.2 million prescriptions in 2019."
We take billions of pills, but has that made our population more stable or less stable? Needless to say, the answer is obvious. We are in the midst of the worst mental health crisis that our nation has ever seen, and that is just one element of “the perfect storm” that is now upon us. Our society really is coming apart at the seams right in front of our eyes. Unfortunately, most of us still do not want to admit how far we have fallen, and that is not good at all."
"If You Think It's Bad Now Wait Till You See What's Coming, Mountains Of Debt Continue To Pile Up"
Jeremiah Babe,3/20/25
"If You Think It's Bad Now Wait Till You See What's Coming,
Mountains Of Debt Continue To Pile Up"
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View it in horror...
"US Debt Clock, Real Time"
Full screen recommended.
"We're so freakin' doomed!"
- The Mogambo Guru
"A Haunting Musical Interlude: "Joan of Arc"
Full screen recommended.
Leonard Cohen & Jennifer Warnes, "Joan of Arc"
"The story of Joan of Arc is one of the most wonderful stories in the history of any nation of Europe. In the hour of France's need, when she was being conquered by English armies, when her forces were so divided by civil war that it seemed as if there were no true Frenchmen, but that every lord and district were for themselves, when she had no recognized king, but only an uncrowned Dauphin...in this hour of her need there appeared for France a Maiden, a deliverer.
Joan died a cruel death, but the work which she had begun in France did not die with her. She had united the French and they did not fall apart again into quarrelsome factions. King Charles showed a new spirit as he began his reign. Even through the dangers of war he took time to unite his nobles and keep them in order under him. The English were driven out by this newly roused French nation. The Hundred Years' War was ended, and a peace was concluded by which France was left free within her own provinces, untroubled by foreigners.
Many movies, books, poems, songs have been written on the subject of Joan of Arc. In this video, the Leonard Cohen song, "Joan of Arc" is featured as sung by Jennifer Warnes with several images that are hopefully interwoven to reflect a variety of Joan of Arc facets in the past and in our present day.
I chose to focus on the face of Renée Maria Falconetti from the 1928 movie "La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc" . The director, Dreyer, wrote in his "Thoughts on My Craft", "Nothing in the world can be compared to the human face. It is a land one can never tire of exploring". Dreyer's film was a visionary work of art which has to be seen to be appreciated. But, Falconetti's performance was so intense for her that she suffered a mental breakdown after the filming.
Songs, poems, symbols are all able to carry multiple messages, depending on who is interpreting them (or when in their life they are doing the interpreting). I have chosen to interpret the fire as being God (Jesus for Joan). Some have said that they saw the fire as the Devil. Not I."
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Full screen recommended.
"Joan of Arc Explained in 15 Minutes"
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Full screen recommended.
Jennifer Warnes, "Joan of Arc"
"I have long adored this song by the late Leonard Cohen, and performed impecably by Jennifer Warnes. This is the performance at Night of the Proms in Antwerp in 1992. I have edited the audio from the Famous Blue Raincoat 20th Anniversary edition."
Magnificent!
Free Download: Richard Bach, “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”
"Who is more responsible than a gull who finds and follows meaning, a higher purpose for life? For a thousand years we have scrabbled after fish heads, but now we have a reason to live - to learn, to discover, to be free! How much more there is now to living! Instead of our drab slogging forth and back to the fishing boats, there’s reason to life! We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can be free! We can learn to fly!"
"What he had once hoped for the Flock, he now gained for himself alone;
he learned to fly, and was not sorry for the price that he had paid...”
Freely download “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”, by Richard Bach, here:
"Hustled Through Life"
"Hustled Through Life"
by Paul Rosenberg
"Most people, sad to say, are too rushed, frightened, and confused to think about what they really want out of life. They are hustled through school, forced into long-term decisions before they’re ready to handle them, then held to those decisions. Eventually they get old and find time to think, but even then they can’t bear to question too deeply.
For an intelligent, creative, and expansive species like ours, this rush to nowhere is among the greatest of evils. And yet it continues, mostly unquestioned. At no point in the usual Western life do we stop, take some serious time for ourselves, and think about the overall:
• What’s life about anyway?
• What’s the purpose of a career?
• Why should I care about it above all else?
• Does the big system really deserve my wealth and blood?
• Should I have a family? Why or why not?
• What do I think is fun? Does it really coincide with beer ads?
• Why are people driven to be like everyone else?
We don’t address such questions. Rather, we’re pushed past them. As a result, we see little motivation in the modern West, save for the basest types.
Status and Fear: The two big motivators we face in this rush through life – fear and status – are both negative:
Fear is a manipulation tool; people who make you afraid are hacking your mind. They want you to ignore reason and obey them fast. Put plainly, fear makes us stupid. But we encounter it on a daily basis and it destroys us by inches.
Status is the compulsion to compare ourselves with others, and whether we’re looking for the ways we’re better than others or looking for our shortcomings. The entire exercise is a waste, but the system would crash and burn without.
Fear and status are, in a sense, drugs, and if you had a choice between smoking cannibas every day or being on fear and status every day, I’d definitely recommend the cannibas.
Confusion: There’s an old joke that ends, “Who are you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?” That’s precisely what confusion does to us, and under the pressures of confusion and authority, most people will ignore their own eyes. Such things do not happen to people who are calm and confident. The big hierarchies of the world, however, require people who are frightened, confused, and blindly chasing status.
As a Result… As a result, most of us hurry through life, never really knowing why. We follow the paths which are streamlined for us, exposing us to minimal levels of fear and shame. But that path does something else: It keeps us from experiencing ourselves. Seldom has this problem been put more succinctly than in this quote from Albert Einstein: "Small is the number of them who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts. So stop following the crowd. Turn your back on the script. Learn to see with your own eyes, to feel with your own heart. Decide for yourself what your life will be about. Make it matter." Please see "How To Become Inspired."
"As They Cry Out 'Peace And Safety', All I See Is More War…"
"As They Cry Out 'Peace And Safety',
All I See Is More War…"
by Michael Snyder
"They keep telling us that we have entered a time of peace, but more conflict just continues to erupt all over the globe. Israel has just resumed ground operations against Hamas, President Trump is threatening to keep bombing the Houthis until they are “completely annihilated”, we are being told that “something’s going to happen” with Iran very soon, and the very limited agreement between the Russians and the Ukrainians to avoid striking energy infrastructure did not even last 24 hours. Compared to last week, do we have more war or less war? Clearly, we have more war. So you will have to excuse me if I am skeptical of those that are crying out that a time of “peace and safety” is now upon us.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was supposed to lead to a permanent resolution of the conflict. But instead, the ceasefire is now dead and the war is back on…"The Israeli military said on Wednesday its forces have resumed ground operations in the central and southern Gaza Strip, as a second day of airstrikes killed at least 20 Palestinians, according to local health workers.
The renewed ground operations come a day after more than 400 Palestinians were killed in airstrikes in one of the deadliest episodes since the beginning of the conflict, shattering a ceasefire that has largely held since January. The Israeli military said its operations have extended Israel’s control over the Netzarim Corridor, which bisects Gaza, and were a “focused” maneuvre aimed at creating a partial buffer zone between the north and the south of the enclave."
Israel wants the remainder of the hostages to be released. After all this time, Hamas is still refusing to do that. One Israeli official is warning that if Hamas continues to hold on to the hostages, military operations will escalate “to the point of total war”…“We’re in a new phase of the conflict,” the official said. “From here we either move forward with developments towards the release of additional hostages – which is a major goal – or there’ll be consistent escalations to the point of total war,” the official said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is now at war with the Houthis in Yemen. During the last administration, Joe Biden would lightly strike the Houthis once in a while, but now President Trump is pledging that “the Houthi barbarians” will be “completely annihilated”…"Reports are coming in that while Iran has lessened its intensity on Military Equipment and General Support to the Houthis, they are still sending large levels of Supplies. Iran must stop the sending of these Supplies IMMEDIATELY. Let the Houthis fight it out themselves. Either way they lose, but this way they lose quickly. Tremendous damage has been inflicted upon the Houthi barbarians, and watch how it will get progressively worse - It’s not even a fair fight, and never will be. They will be completely annihilated!"
A few days earlier, U.S. Secretary of State told CBS News that we are “doing the entire world a favor by getting rid of these guys”… “We’re doing the entire world a favor by getting rid of these guys and their ability to strike global shipping. That’s the mission here, and it will continue until that’s carried out,” he said. “That never happened before. The Biden administration didn’t do that. All the Biden administration would do is they would respond to an attack. These guys would launch one rocket. We’d hit the rocket launcher. That’s it.” What kind of a military campaign will be required to completely eliminate the Houthis? I would encourage everyone out there to seriously consider the answer to that question.
The last time I checked, the U.S. Constitution requires congressional approval before we declare war on someone. Of course we are rapidly getting close to a major war with Iran as well. During a recent discussion with reporters, President Trump promised that “something’s going to happen very soon”…"As Iran nears the finish line to obtain nuclear weapons, US President Trump is warning that the world is down to its “final moments” to intervene. While expressing his preference for a peace deal over military action, Trump maintained that significant developments are imminent.
“U.S. President Donald Trump hinted [earlier this month] that the United States could take military action against the Iranian nuclear program ‘very soon’ if the Islamic Republic does not strike a deal with the United States,” The Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) reported. “Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said that there would be ‘interesting days ahead’ with respect to Iran.”
President Trump went on to tell reporters: “We’re down to final strokes with Iran. We’re down to the final moments. We’re at the final moments. Can’t let them have a nuclear weapon. We have a situation with Iran that something’s going to happen very soon - very, very soon. Hopefully, we could have a peace deal. I’m not speaking out of strength or weakness. I’m just saying, I’d rather see a peace deal than the other, but the other will solve the problem.” Iran has already said that there will be no deal. So it is just a matter of time before the bombing of Iran begins, and then we will officially be at war with the Iranians.
But at least we are close to a peace deal with the Russians, right? Actually, no we are not.
Less than 24 hours after President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to end attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days, the Ukrainians launched a drone attack against a Russian oil transfer facility…"Less than 24 hours later, Russia has accused Ukraine of already breaking the Trump agreement. Russia’s defense ministry on Wednesday said Ukraine attack an oil transfer facility in Russia’s Krasnodar Region that services an international pipeline operation partially owned by American investors.
The ministry described that the overnight attack saw three kimikaze drones target the site near the village of Kavkazskaya. The site transfers crude to a pipeline operated by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), an international firm which has among its partners US giants Chevron and Mobil, Russia’s RT notes. The drone impact reportedly set fire to an oil reservoir, which has reportedly taken emergency crews a long time to extinguish. Local reports say crews are still battling the blaze."
In response, the Russians bombed energy infrastructure in the Ukrainian city of Slovyansk…"Russian forces have bombed a key piece of Ukraine energy infrastructure just hours after Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump he would halt attacks on the grid. Slovyansk, a city in the Donetsk region, was targeted according to local reports, leaving part of the city without electricity."
There had been hope that an agreement not to attack energy infrastructure could be a step toward a broader deal. But the truth is that the two sides are light years apart from agreeing to any sort of a permanent deal.
The Russians are insisting that the four eastern territories that the Russians have annexed are now a part of Russia forever…"Russia’s privately owned Kommersant business newspaper reports that President Putin is pushing his US counterpart to grant recognition of Russia’s annexation of the four territories in exchange for a pledge not to seize more land. Kommersant says that Putin is fundamentally arguing that “there’s no taking back what Russia has gained” – and that the eastern territories are now permanently part of the Russian Federation."
On the other side, “President Z” is demanding that the Russians return all Ukrainian territory that has been captured in exchange for a deal…"In a press conference with President Stubb of Finland in Helsinki today, the Ukrainian president said: ‘We’re fighting for our sovereignty and our independence - we’ll win this war.’ Zelensky drew clear red lines for peace, insisting that his nation would not accept territorial losses as part of a peace deal, and that the return of ‘thousands’ of prisoners held in Russia was ‘unconditional’."
The Russians aren’t going to give the territory that they have captured back. Anyone that thinks that is going to happen is just being delusional. The Russians are winning the war and they are constantly gobbling up even more territory. Any peace agreement must reflect the reality on the ground. Since the Ukrainians and our European allies are not willing to accept that, I am convinced that there will be no permanent agreement. But if these negotiations fail, this conflict will almost certainly go to an entirely new level.
During an interview with Laura Ingraham, President Trump admitted that U.S. forces could potentially end up being involved if a deal with Russia cannot be reached…"Trump suggested that his push for a broader cease-fire is rooted in keeping US forces out of a potentially larger conflict. “Look, we’re doing this – there are no Americans involved. There could be if you end up in World War III over this, which is so ridiculous,” the president explained. “But, you know, strange things happen,” he warned.
I certainly hope that “strange things” do not happen. Most Americans would like to see peace in the Middle East and most Americans would like to see peace with Russia. But instead we just keep getting more war. We have been warned about what will happen if we keep going down this road. Once someone decides to start using nuclear weapons, we could potentially see millions of people die. One explosion is all it is going to take for everyone to put their fingers on their triggers. If we were smart, we would be racing toward peace. Unfortunately, for now we are steamrolling in the opposite direction."
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