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Monday, March 24, 2025

The Poet: Carl Sandburg, “From the Shore"

“From the Shore"

“A lone gray bird,
Dim-dipping, far-flying,
Alone in the shadows and grandeurs and tumults
Of night and the sea
And the stars and storms.

Out over the darkness it wavers and hovers,
Out into the gloom it swings and batters,
Out into the wind and the rain and the vast,
Out into the pit of a great black world,
Where fogs are at battle, sky-driven, sea-blown,
Love of mist and rapture of flight,
Glories of chance and hazards of death
On its eager and palpitant wings.

Out into the deep of the great dark world,
Beyond the long borders where foam and drift
Of the sundering waves are lost and gone
On the tides that plunge and rear and crumble.”
- Carl Sandburg

"Promise Me..."

 

The Daily "Near You?"

Huddersfield, Kirklees, United Kingdom
Thanks for stopping by!

"No Smooth Road..."

"Life has no smooth road for any of us; and in the bracing atmosphere
of a high aim the very roughness stimulates the climber to steadier steps,
till the legend, over steep ways to the stars, fulfills itself."
- W. C. Doane

"Curiosity..."

"Curiosity is the essence of human existence.
'Who are we? Where are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?'
I don't know. I don't have any answers to those questions.
I don't know what's over there around the corner. But I want to find out."
- Eugene Cernan

John Wilder, "Lost The Plot: 17 True Things We Forgot"

"Lost The Plot: 17 True Things We Forgot"
by John Wilder

"Something went off the rails in the twentieth century. If I were to try to pinpoint it, it would probably be around when Woodrow Wilson was president, as if a large darkness began to descend and ooze through society. It has been slowly corrosive for decades, but the post-2000 years, and especially the Obama years really saw it make insidious...progress.

Why? At least in part because we forgot many of the really important things that we have always known, for the existence of mankind at least, to be true. Below is a list of 17 True things that people “forgot” for a few decades that have pushed our civilization to collapse:

• Men and Women Are Physiologically Different: This has fed the current trans nonsense, and still exists when every single scientific study has shown that the average man over twice as strong as the average woman, and almost always the strongest woman in a study is weaker than the weakest man.

• Men/Women Cognitively Different: Again, there are basic differences in the way that a woman’s mind and a man’s mind work. Men are better at spatial thinking, reasoning, and math, whereas women are exceptional at waging personal vendettas for petty reasons. Oh, and empathy. Women are good at that, too.

• Race Is A Real Biological Fact: Race is really more than skin deep. I once saw a post where the Red Cross™ was looking for more black donors because of the various cofactors that make it a better match for black recipients. More than that, A.I. can tell the race of a patient by an x-ray. So, besides being blood, skin, and bone deep, each race was isolated and separated in time, in some cases by more than 70,000 years (Australian Aborigines). So, yeah, people of different races are different.

• Intelligence Is Mostly Influenced By Biology: Anyone who studies intelligence will tell you that at least 50% of intelligence is inherited, and the number might be 80%. Does that mean two absolute idiots might not birth a genius? Sure. It could happen. And there might also be desperate single MILFs less than a mile away, like my computer keeps telling me.

• Character Is Mostly Influenced By Biology: Growing up in a small town, people would say things like, “That family is no good,” and they were generally right. Are we slaves to it? No. Whereas with intelligence, you can’t hone it, with character you can, which means that maybe not all is lost for Hunter Bi...oh, too late.

• The Family Is Society’s Atom: Feminism requires that the individual be the atom of society so that women can be EmpOwERed grrlbosses, but that is clearly insanity. No family, no society – it all falls apart.

• Culture Isn’t Interchangeable: Tacos aren’t Viking. And culture is far more than a taco. Why lots of people don’t recognize American culture is the same reason that fish don’t recognize water – they’re surrounded by it all the time and can’t imagine life without it.

• Borders, Language, Culture, and People Define Nations: Without those, it’s either a country or an empire and not a nation. And if it’s a country, it will Balkanize or be led by an authoritarian.

• GDP Growth ≠ Happiness: GDP growth was a focus during the Cold War. Why? We needed stuff to beat the horrific ideology of the commies. We won. But now we try to make an economy larger at the expense of the people. How many rich couples were happier when they were young and poor?

• Work Has Intrinsic Value: Sweat builds your soul and gives you freedom - UBI and welfare are cages for the human soul.

• Competition Drives Progress: And war is the ultimate competition. What has happened to the vitality of Europe as it has the longest war-free period in its history?

• Death Is Inevitable: Blue Öyster Cult® said that you shouldn’t fear the reaper, and that’s fairly sound advice. We’re all going to die. The parade will end. To paraphrase Monty Python, we will all become ex-parrots. Focus on the living bit, and add in a little more cowbell.

• Equality Doesn’t Exist: Equality under the law can exist, equality of rights can exist, but people are unequal in every possible physical, cognitive or moral way.

• Authority Exists For A Reason: The Founding Fathers thought long and hard about how to set up self-governance in the United States. They didn’t settle on, “everyone do whatever they want”. Authority in society is required because:

• Humans Are Imperfectible: Chasing communist Utopia led to more deaths in the twentieth century than any other man-made condition. People are flawed, and systems have to take that into account.

• Truth, Beauty, And Goodness Exist: Not GloboLeftist “My truth” but Truth, with a capital T. The same with Beauty and Goodness, both of which the GloboLeft similarly tried to define as nonexistent.

• A Divine Presence Exists: YMMV, but everything I’ve seen shows that this is both a physical and mathematical certainty.

That’s a start at the list, and I’m sure you have more. Whenever a society becomes based on ideas that aren’t real, it becomes unstable. Whenever a Man With A Plan® says that they’re going to rebuild society, run. And when people spout corrosive philosophies that tear apart families and create societal misery, why do we reward them by sending them to congress and or giving them prestigious professorships? What other things that everyone knew in 1025 A.D. have we forgotten?"

"How It Really Is"

 

"Economic Market Snapshot 3/24/25"

"Economic Market Snapshot 3/24/25"
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:
Comprehensive, essential truth.
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

Adventures With Danno, "Stocking Up At Meijer"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 3/24/25
"Stocking Up At Meijer"
Comments here:

Dan, I Allegedly, "No More Post Office!"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 3/24/25
"No More Post Office!"
"Is Wells Fargo taking over the Post Office? In today’s video, we dive into the surprising push from Wells Fargo to privatize the USPS, including their bold plans to cash in on its massive real estate holdings. From the history of the Pony Express to the billions tied up in postal assets, I break down what this could mean for the mail, parcels, and even stamp prices. Could this lead to higher costs for consumers and massive changes to mail delivery? Join me as we explore this wild development and discuss how unions and employees are pushing back against these proposals."
Comments here:

"You’ve Been Robbed"

"You’ve Been Robbed"
by Paul Rosenberg

"You work long, hard days, but you never have enough to be secure. Your husband or wife probably works too, and yet you still never get ahead. Now think about this: Your great-grandparents worked hard, and they did get ahead. You work just as hard, but you don’t make the same progress. Was great-grandpa really that much better than you? Not likely. So, how was it that he could get ahead on one income, but you can’t? Take a good look at this graph:
Take a good look at the graph above. The top line shows how many years of living expenses your great-grandfather would have accumulated as a hard-working young man. The bottom line shows what you can save. After working for five years, great-gramps had seven years of living expenses in the bank. Doing the same things, you’d have less than two. You’ve probably avoided this comparison because it made you feel bad. If so, that was your big mistake, because it was never your fault.

When great-gramps worked hard, he kept the money. There was no income tax and no sales tax. (The government survived anyway.) There was no Social Security tax either, and the streets weren’t full of starving old people. Families were able to take care of their own.

In your great-grandparents’ day, it was very common for mechanics, carpenters, and shop-owners to make private business loans. Now you shuffle into banks with piles of the most personal documents and beg for loans. (As the banks create your loan money with a keystroke.)

You’ve Not Only Been Robbed, You’ve Been Demoralized: Why did this happen? Because Westerners accepted a lie: that they were bad people.Think this through: Your money is taken from you before it can accumulate (“payroll deductions”), leaving you with barely enough to live a reasonable life. You have nothing left to help those who suffer unjustly – not because you don’t work, but because your surplus is skimmed away to Capital City. Then, those same politicians have the audacity to call you a bad person for not wanting to help the poor. They make it almost impossible for you to give, then insult you for it.

Your great-grandparents were proud to help their friends and neighbors. They felt good about themselves and were proud to make the world a better place. Being robbed of this heritage was the worst crime of all.

The graph was generated as follows: $725 per year is the income in about 1903, based upon discussions with hard-working men who lived through the time. A figure of $325 per year for living expenses is taken from a New York Times article, dated September 29, 1907. Assets were presumed to appreciate at 10% per year. For 2008 {the year the graph was generated} the annual income was $45,000 and monthly expenses were $2,000. This young man pays 30% income taxes and investment return is calculated at a reduced rate of 8.5% because of taxes upon interest. The young man of 1905 is investing $400/year after living expenses of $325. His modern descendant is investing $7500/year after living expenses of $24,000."








Bill Bonner, "Food For Thought"

Trofim Lysenko measures wheat in a field near Odessa.
"Food For Thought"
by Bill Bonner

“Whenever there are great strains or changes in the 
economic system, it tends to generate crackpot theories.”
 - David Stockman

Baltimore, Maryland - "Once again, we are witness to an epic battle. Like David Stockman’s historic showdown in the early ‘80s. Economics vs. Politics. Economics wants stable money, honest interest rates, balanced budgets, and a smaller federal government. Politics wants what it always wants — more money and more power.

"The Triumph of Politics", is the title Stockman gave to his memoir on the subject. It tells you all you need to know. Politicians find ways to explain away their mistakes…and new theories to justify more. In the early ‘80s they claimed the need to fight communism. Today, the fight is against drugs, Russia, Iran, terrorists, immigrants… and unfair trade policies.

In the early days of the Soviet Union, collectivization of agriculture was an inevitable bust. People just didn’t work as hard for the workers’ paradise as they did for themselves. And the lessons, learned by bitter experience over generations of peasants - about what to plant, when to plant, and how to cultivate crops - were often lost on the bureaucrats and central planners in Moscow. The result: millions of people went hungry.

It was into this challenging situation that a young, persuasive agronomist came forward with a solution. Timofil Lysenko claimed he could create a whole new genre of agriculture based on the Soviet model. Instead of competing with each other for water, nutrients and light, seeds would cooperate… and even produce bountiful yields - even in the wintertime. The theory had crackpot written all over it. But in the early ’30s Stalin was grasping at straws and Lysenko had one. And who was going to tell Stalin he was wrong? Nikolai Vavilov - a traditional botanist - dared to speak the truth. For his trouble, he was sent to the Gulag… and then executed.

‘Lysenkoism’ was triumphant and declared official policy in the Soviet Union. The collective farms dutifully put it into practice. Crop yields collapsed even further. And an estimated ten million people starved to death.

Soviet policy had a profound effect on other communist regimes. It wasn’t long before Mao, in China, picked up Lysenkoism and gave it the go-ahead. Later acknowledged as one of Mao’s big errors, the death toll between 1959 and 1961 was as many as 45 million. Not all the deaths were directly caused by Lysenkoism, but by a combination of political mismanagement, political science, and political chaos.

Big Man leaders are often subject to Big Man delusions. Their yes-monkeys laugh when they say something meant to be funny. They cheer when the Big Man makes an outlandish promise. And after a while, the Big Man falls victim to his own sycophantic entourage. They listen to him so intently; he must know what he is talking about! The problem is well known. In Ancient Rome, a triumphant general would be assigned a slave whose job was to whisper in the great man’s ear - "Memento Homo" (you are human) - to warn him.

Donald Trump has no such luck. Instead, he has another crackpot policy. And it’s coming to you on April 2. We’re talking about his reciprocal tariffs. Trump says that when they are implemented, it will be ‘liberation day.’ Liberation Day? Liberation from what? Tariffs have been coming down all over the world since the end of WWII. Rarely do they pose a significant impediment to US exporters.

America imports about $3.4 trillion worth of goods each year. These imports are subject to a weighted average tariff of 1.6%. It also exports to the rest of the world, on which our exporters pay an average of about 1.85%. The difference - a quarter of one percent - is caused largely by India’s protectionist policies.

And who will tell Donald Trump the truth…that the ‘reciprocal’ concept is unworkable and that US tariffs are actually higher than many of our major trading partners? Japan’s tariffs average only 1.45%. Taiwan’s tariffs don’t even rise to a single percentage point. What about US tariffs on Chinese electric cars, at 100%? And what about the 140 foreign companies subject to US ‘export controls?’

If the ‘reciprocity’ were based only on the tariffs, the US would have to lower its barriers in many instances - just to make them ‘fair.’ This is not at all what the White House intends to do. Because tariffs are a feature of politics, not economics. There is nothing about them that suggests they would lead to a healthier economy. And there’s nothing about them that is ‘fair’…unless fairness means that if you whack Peter with a stick you must also whack Paul. And if they whack each other…you have to whack yourself just to stay even.

But wait…there’s more to the story, isn’t there? Treasury Secretary Bessent is also supposed to consider Non-Tariff Barriers as he attempts to find reciprocity. Let’s look at how these NTB’s affect the calculations. Tomorrow."

Jim Kunstler, "The Last Resort"

"The Last Resort"
by Jim Kunstler

"What is the alternative to presidential oversight and management of the agencies listed in 
this branch of government? They run themselves? That claim means nothing in practice.” 
- Jeffrey Tucker

"Surely you know the old joke: “What do you call a thousand lawyers at the bottom of the sea?” (Answer: “a good start!”). There’s a reason why lawyers are so broadly despised. Law is humanity’s instrument for creating order out of the terror and chaos of nature, where anything goes. The result of law theoretically, is a civil society, where only the good, true, and right things can go.

These days, lawyers are hard at work to replace civilized order with the terror and chaos of nature - which is to say, the seeking of raw power: this is what I can do to you! That primal despotism is the motivating engine of the Democratic Party in its terminal phase, a feral, power-seeking monster. It was why, in case you hadn’t noticed, the essential drive of Woke politics was the sadistic pleasure it took in exacting its endless punishments - cancellation, personal ruin, censorship - not correcting alleged injustices against marginalized minorities. And that tells you, by the way, exactly why the J-6 defendants were treated so harshly by the likes of Judge James Boasberg, Tanya Chutkan, and their colleagues of the DC federal district.

The enabling device for that monstrous power seeking of the Democratic Party was the colossal racketeering operation they implanted in every corner of the federal government, an insidious process that accelerated during the Obama years, eluded discipline during Trump One - with the many distracting ruses such as RussiaGate - and surged into final overdrive during the perfidious term of “Joe Biden,” America’s first false-front president.

The racketeering operation was perfectly illustrated in the DOGE’s recent deconstruction of USAID. That agency worked as a gigantic money laundering matrix to pay Democratic Party activists for the sole purpose of maintaining and expanding the party’s power - its ability to push American citizens around, control our lives, tell us how to live, how to think, and, ultimately, in the Covid-19 scam, telling us to take our shots, get lost, and die. Pitifully, a lot of those vaxx victims were the Democratic Party’s own rank and file, which shows you how psychotically suicidal the Democratic Party became.

By and large, it was conservatives who avoided the vaxxes because they were able psychologically to entertain the evidence that Covid was a nefarious set-up and that, month-by-month, the vaxxes were proving to be both ineffective and harmful. Democrats, in their Woke fugue state, could not do that. Even today, they insist that their vaxx injuries are “long Covid” and would be worse if not for the additional boosters they took. Poor dumb bunnies.

Mr. Trump was played masterfully in the initial 2020 Covid roll-out by the likes of Dr. Fauci, Deborah Birx, and the faithless Veep Mike Pence who directed the Coronavirus Task Force (and whoever was behind it). The president could not bring himself to oppose or cast doubt on their diktats and to this day he must remain embarrassed about how that all worked out. But he also probably learned to not be fooled again.

And so, after the fishy 2020 election, and during the disastrous “Biden” years, Mr. Trump had time to lay careful and comprehensive plans for ending the massive racketeering and for restructuring the federal apparatus into a leaner, more efficient, and more lawful enterprise for managing the civil society known as the USA. Which brings us to the present.

Mr. Trump’s lawfully appointed agent, Elon Musk, and his legally chartered investigative advisory unit, called DOGE, has begun making recommendations for severe cuts in agencies and employees, which have been executed by the lawfully confirmed heads of agencies, and the chief executive himself. Thus, the rapid, systematic disassembly of the Democratic Party’s grift machine and the end of its immense revenue stream. No more USAID and its thousands of NGO money laundromats. No more Department of Education and its Grant-O-Matic depredations in the universities. No more work-from home (but not really) nonsense. No more DEI reverse racism in hiring. No more flooding the swing state voting precincts with illegal aliens. No more stupid proxy war in Urkaine. No more gender pretending chaos. You see how it goes now.

Also, thus, the Democratic Party’s last resort: the federal judiciary, 235 new judges jammed into office in the twilight weeks of “Joe Biden” (as Senate Minority Leader Schumer bragged on Sunday’s TV talk circuit), plus the ones such as Boasberg, Chutkan, et al., already on the bench, primed to thwart Mr., Trump’s efforts to govern at every turn. They are the Dem’s only remaining lever of power. And they can only be activated by lawyers filing suits against Mr. Trump - hundreds having been filed in the past eight weeks. And these, as you learned in the Friday post here, are directed by attorney lawfare field marshal Norm Eisen, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, using the many well-paid lawfare lawyers at his disposal.

In politics, momentous things often happen on weekends. This past Saturday, Mr. Trump released a White House memorandum directing the Attorney General and the Director of Homeland Security “to seek sanctions against attorneys and law firms who engage in frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation against the United States or in matters before executive departments and agencies of the United States.”

More specifically, the president’s memo asserts: "Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 prohibits attorneys from engaging in certain unethical conduct in Federal courts. Attorneys must not present legal filings “for improper purpose[s],” including “to harass, cause unnecessary delay, or needlessly increase the cost of litigation.” FRCP 11(b)(1). Attorneys must ensure that legal arguments are “warranted by existing law or by a nonfrivolous argument for extending, modifying, or reversing existing law or for establishing new law.”

This is the first time that legal discipline has been leveled directly at the lawfare lawyers themselves. (Election-rigging maestro Marc Elias is mentioned by name in the memo.) It means that after eight years of this noxious gamesmanship, they are going to have to start answering for their actions, they will have to lawyer-up on their own account, and they are going discover (the old saying goes) how the process is the punishment.

Next, if it is not already underway at the DOJ, Mr. Trump must direct AG Bondi to explore the parties financing this lawfare - this “frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation” - and you should suppose that it has been emanating from the checkbooks of George Soros, Reid Hoffman, and other wealthy seditionists, who, likewise, will have some serious ‘splainin’ why they should not go prison. One thing for sure: the money for all this is going to dry up."

Sunday, March 23, 2025

Canadian Prepper, "WW3 Update: US Carriers/Bombers Prepare To Nuke Iran!"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 3/23/25
"WW3 Update: 
US Carriers/Bombers Prepare To Nuke Iran!"
Comments here:
These psychopathic monsters have gone totally insane...
o

Jeremiah Babe, "They Don't Want You To Have Cash, They Want To Control You"

Jeremiah Babe, 3/23/25
"They Don't Want You To Have Cash, 
They Want To Control You"
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: Leonard Cohen, "Anthem"

Full screen recommended.
Leonard Cohen, "Anthem"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Have you contemplated your home galaxy lately? If your sky looked like this, perhaps you'd contemplate it more often! The featured picture is actually a composite of two images taken from the same location in south Brazil and with the same camera - but a few hours apart. The person in the image - also the astrophotographer - has much to see in the Milky Way Galaxy above.
The central band of our home Galaxy stretches diagonally up from the lower left. This band is dotted with spectacular sights including dark nebular filaments, bright blue stars, and red nebulas. Millions of fainter and redder stars fill in the deep Galactic background. To the lower right of the Milky Way are the colorful gas and dust clouds of Rho Ophiuchi, featuring the bright orange star Antares. On this night, just above and to the right of Antares was the bright planet Jupiter. The sky is so old and so familiar that humanity has formulated many stories about it, some of which inspired this very picture."

The Poet: Shel Silverstein, “Where the Sidewalk Ends”

“Where the Sidewalk Ends”

“There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.
Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.”
- Shel Silverstein

"Vitae Summa Brevis"

"Vitae Summa Brevis" 

"They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate:
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
They are not long, the days of wine and roses;
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream."
- Ernest Dowson

"Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat incohare longam" 
is a quotation from Horace's "First Book of Odes": 
 "The shortness of life prevents us from entertaining far-off hopes."

The Daily "Near You?"

Lakewood, Colorado, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"As Americans..."

''As Americans, we must ask ourselves: Are we really so different? Must we stereotype those who disagree with us? Do we truly believe that ALL red-state residents are ignorant racist fascist knuckle-dragging NASCAR-obsessed cousin-marrying roadkill-eating tobacco juice-dribbling gun-fondling religious fanatic rednecks; or that ALL blue-state residents are godless unpatriotic pierced-nose Volvo-driving France-loving left-wing communist latte-sucking tofu-chomping holistic-wacko neurotic vegan weenie perverts?''
- Dave Barry

"Scott Ritter: Fighting Yemen? Trump’s Middle East Blunder Explodes"

Full screen recommended.
Dialogue Works, 3/23/25
"Scott Ritter: Fighting Yemen? 
Trump’s Middle East Blunder Explodes"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Times of India, 3/23/25
"US-Iran War Any Minute Now? Iran’s Fiery Response
 To Trump, Top Commander Warns ‘Will Crush You…’"
"Iran has issued a strong warning to the U.S. and Israel following recent threats from President Donald Trump. Brigadier General Kiumars Heidari declared that Iran’s army is fully vigilant and prepared to crush its enemies if provoked. As tensions rise, Tehran and Washington continue their war of words, raising fears of further escalation in the region."
Comments here:
o
A comment: Iran has a minimum of 200,000 advanced missiles, including hypersonics, as well as a mutual defense treaty with Russia, who has supplied then with a highly sophisticated and effective air-defense system and support personnel to augment their own. China as well has a significant presence in Iran. Hezbollah has 150,000 missiles. Hamas and the Houthis contribute incidentally. So, what would Tel Aviv look like after 100,000 missiles have rained on it? A crushed, smoldering mirror image of Gaza. Oh, but the Israelis constantly imply using the so-called "Samson Option" nuclear weapons! If they did, where Tel Aviv used to be would be an enormous pit of highly radioactive molten glass...as the highly capable Islamic nuclear power Pakistanis have vowed. And the United States? Every American naval vessel, including aircraft carriers, will be sunk, and every American military base in the Middle East will be destroyed, as well as the oil production facilities in Qatar, the UAE and probably Saudi Arabia, resulting in instant total global economic collapse. Facts. The Israelis and Americans should consider them well...
- CP

Greg Hunter, "DOGE Reveals Mind Shocking Fraud Propping Up Economy"

"DOGE Reveals Mind Shocking Fraud Propping Up Economy"
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

"Former Wall Street money manager and financial analyst Ed Dowd of PhinanceTechnologies.com is back with an update of a report on “Danger of Deep Worldwide Recession in 2025.” It was not just heavy government spending on illegal immigration, but “mind shocking” fraud that has been revealed with DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency). Investigators have uncovered $115 billion so far with many hundreds of billions more to be exposed. Dowd says, “Both sides of the aisle are probably going to have problems. The DOGE revelations are mind shocking. The clear way in which the government was spending money through NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and people taking kickbacks and profits along the way is going to come out. There may have been theft along the way. What business does Stacy Abrams have getting $2 billion for an NGO? This doesn’t make any sense. It’s going to be shocking, even shocking to me. 

I knew there was rot in the system, but the mind blowing way the NGOs were used to facilitate the illegal immigration just blows my mind. The 10 million plus illegals that came in over the last four years, you just don’t wake up one day in Central America and say I am going to the Darien Gap, and go to the Mexican border and then meander my way into the interior of the US without a tremendous amount of aid along the way. NGOs facilitated that and probably took their cut. What was the all-in economic cost of the goodies they got once they got here? Plus, the NGOs spent and what the government spent themselves to facilitate this, it’s not hard to imagine $50,000 to $100,000 all-in cost per illegal...This is the all-in cost up and down the entire economic food chain. It was anywhere between $500 billion to $1.5 trillion depending on the illegals. It was an illegal project funded purposely, and it was very logistical. It was not something that just happened overnight.”

The result, says Dowd, was the US economy was propped up when it should have already tanked. Now, all this spending on this illegal invasion is going away. Dowd says, “When we wrote our report, we were surprised on how fast DOGE would get to work. This is why our thesis is playing out a little quicker than we thought. The housing market was on fragile ground the last year or so. It was held up by illegal immigrants supporting rent prices. So, as that unwinds, we think there will be a mini 2008–2009 housing issue. Housing prices are going to come down, and that is a big driver of consumption in the economy. That needs to happen because home affordability is off the charts.”

Dowd also see a recession coming as the government downsizes, illegal alien funding gets cut and illegals continue to self-deport. Dowd says, “Consumer confidence has taken a nosedive recently, and you can see why. There are 10 million to 15 million illegal immigrants worried about their gravy train coming to an end. So, they may be holding back on their spending. There are millions of government employees worried about their jobs. Then, you have the NGO networks that employ about 6 million people. So, you have about 20 million to 25 million people that are in the workforce worried about where their money is going to come from, and that can cause consumer spending to slow down.”

There is good news with the spending cuts, according to Dowd, and that will come in the form of lower interest rates in the bond market. Dowd still likes gold as a core asset and does not see Trump tariffs as inflationary. Dowd says the problems with tariffs are “overblown” and are a negotiation tool to get fair trade for America around the world. Dowd sees “deflation” and possibly a short but “deep recession” coming before inflation. A possible black swan event is an intensified war in Ukraine and no peace deal along with the EU getting deeply involved in a war with Russia. This could be a plus for the US if it stays out of the conflict. Dowd says, “There seems to be war drums beating in Europe, and capital will flee to the US. Martin Armstrong says all the gold movement coming to the US is because of a coming war, and of all the theories on this, that makes the most sense to me. I am not predicting war, but that is a geopolitical risk out there. That is one of those ‘black swan’ events. Another ‘black swan’ event is a Bank of Japan currency crisis and, also, something going on with Iran and the Middle East. Black swan events add to the risk, and those are hard to predict.” There is much more in the 50-minute interview.

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with money manager and investment expert Ed Dowd, as he talks about massive crime and fraud that President Trump will stop and give way to a “Danger of Deep Worldwide Recession in 2025.” 

"How It Really Is: Human Nature"

“Do you believe,’ said Candide, ‘that men have always massacred each other as they do today, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?”
“Do you believe,” said Martin, “that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?”  - Voltaire
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The Undisputed Truth, "Smiling Faces Sometimes"
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The O'Jays, "Back Stabbers"
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"The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, 
ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is."
- Winston Churchill

Gregory Mannarino, "Markets, A Look Ahead; A Rapid Downfall, 'Transitioning' Into A Dystopian System"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 3/23/25
"Markets, A Look Ahead; A Rapid Downfall, 
'Transitioning' Into A Dystopian System"
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Dan, I Allegedly, "The Blacklist is Paralyzing Home Sales"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 3/23/25
"The Blacklist is Paralyzing Home Sales"

"The Secret Fannie Mae blacklist exposed. Today, I’m diving into one of the biggest real estate bombshells you’ve probably never heard of! Did you know Fannie Mae has a "blacklist" for housing developments where they refuse to finance mortgages? From underinsured condos to multi-million dollar repair costs, this hidden issue is paralyzing home sales across the country. I break down how this impacts housing markets, especially here in California and Florida, and what it means for buyers, sellers, and the future of real estate. 

Plus, I was lucky enough to get a personal invite to check out an unbelievable car collection in Santa Ana, California. I’ll walk you through this amazing show while we discuss how real estate troubles and skyrocketing insurance rates are shaking up the market. It’s not just about condos; homebuilders are starting to admit we’re in for a bumpy ride ahead. Whether it’s insurance cancellations or skyrocketing costs for repairs, it’s clear we’re just scratching the surface of this housing crisis.
Comments here:
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Speaking of real estate... elsewhere:
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 3/23/25
"Russian Brand New House Tour:
 Could You Live There?"
"Could you live in a brand-new Russian New-Build House? Join me, as I tour a brand-new house in the City of Aprelelvka, in the Moscow Region. Listed for sale, the house is ready to move in immediately. Find out what a brand new home in Russia is like inside."
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Saturday, March 22, 2025

Kahlil Gibran, “The Farewell”

“The Farewell”

“Farewell to you and the youth I have spent with you.
It was but yesterday we met in a dream.
You have sung to me in my aloneness,
and I of your longings have built a tower in the sky.
But now our sleep has fled and our dream is over,
and it is no longer dawn.
The noontide is upon us and our half waking has turned to fuller day,
and we must part.
If in the twilight of memory we should meet once more,
we shall speak again together and you shall sing to me a deeper song.
And if our hands should meet in another dream
we shall build another tower in the sky.”

- Kahlil Gibran, “The Prophet”
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“The Prophet: On Good and Evil”
by Kahlil Gibran

“Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.
For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?
Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, 
and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.

You are good when you are one with yourself.
Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.
For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house.
And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among
perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom.

You are good when you strive to give of yourself.
Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself.
For when you strive for gain you are but a root
that clings to the earth and sucks at her breast.
Surely the fruit cannot say to the root,
“Be like me, ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance.”
For to the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need to the root.

You are good when you are fully awake in your speech,
Yet you are not evil when you sleep 
while your tongue staggers without purpose.
And even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue.

You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps.
Yet you are not evil when you go thither limping.
Even those who limp go not backward. 
But you who are strong and swift, 
see that you do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness.

You are good in countless ways, 
and you are not evil when you are not good,
You are only loitering and sluggard.
Pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the turtles.

In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness: 
and that longing is in all of you.
But in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with might to the sea, 
carrying the secrets of the hillsides and the songs of the forest.
And in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles and 
bends and lingers before it reaches the shore.
But let not him who longs much say to him who longs little, 
“Wherefore are you slow and halting?”
For the truly good ask not the naked, 
“Where is your garment?” 
nor the houseless, “What has befallen your house?”

Freely download “The Prophet” here:
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