Canadian Prepper, 5/22/26
"Alert! Trump Emergency Meeting,
Cancels Weekend Plans"
Comments here:
So, we rise from the rubble...
StatCounter
Friday, May 22, 2026
"You're Watching The American Empire Collapse In Real Time And Nobody Cares"
Full screen recommended.
Finance Economist, 5/22/26
"You're Watching The American Empire
Collapse In Real Time And Nobody Cares"
"79% of Americans agree the country is falling apart. The Treasury declared the government insolvent. A viral report crashed the stock market and was forgotten in a week. People are dying on sidewalks in Philadelphia and pedestrians step over them. The fertility rate just hit the lowest in history. Two historians predicted in 1997 that this would happen by 2025 and they were right about everything. You are watching the collapse in real time. And the reason nobody cares is because caring has been engineered out of you. This video explains how." Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
“A now famous picture from the Hubble Space Telescope featured Pillars of Creation, star forming columns of cold gas and dust light-years long inside M16, the Eagle Nebula. This false-color composite image views the nearby stellar nursery using data from the Herschel Space Observatory's panoramic exploration of interstellar clouds along the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. Herschel's far infrared detectors record the emission from the region's cold dust directly.
The famous pillars are included near the center of the scene. While the central group of hot young stars is not apparent at these infrared wavelengths, the stars' radiation and winds carve the shapes within the interstellar clouds. Scattered white spots are denser knots of gas and dust, clumps of material collapsing to form new stars. The Eagle Nebula is some 6,500 light-years distant, an easy target for binoculars or small telescopes in a nebula rich part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail of the snake).”
"The World As I See It"
"The World As I See It:
Albert Einstein's Thoughts on the Meaning of Life”
by Paul Ratner
“Albert Einstein was one of the world’s most brilliant thinkers, influencing scientific thought immeasurably. He was also not shy about sharing his wisdom about other topics, writing essays, articles, letters, giving interviews and speeches. His opinions on social and intellectual issues that do not come from the world of physics give an insight into the spiritual and moral vision of the scientist, offering much to take to heart.
The collection of essays and ideas “The World As I See It” gathers Einstein’s thoughts from before 1935, when he was as the preface says “at the height of his scientific powers but not yet known as the sage of the atomic age”.
In the book, Einstein comes back to the question of the purpose of life on several occasions. In one passage, he links it to a sense of religiosity. “What is the meaning of human life, or, for that matter, of the life of any creature? To know an answer to this question means to be religious. You ask: Does it many any sense, then, to pose this question? I answer: The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unhappy but hardly fit for life,” wrote Einstein.
Was Einstein himself religious? Raised by secular Jewish parents, he had complex and evolving spiritual thoughts. He generally seemed to be open to the possibility of the scientific impulse and religious thoughts coexisting. "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind," said Einstein in his 1954 essay on science and religion.
Some (including the scientist himself) have called Einstein’s spiritual views as pantheism, largely influenced by the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza. Pantheists see God as existing but abstract, equating all of reality with divinity. They also reject a specific personal God or a god that is somehow endowed with human attributes.
Himself a famous atheist, Richard Dawkins calls Einstein's pantheism a “sexed-up atheism,” but other scholars point to the fact that Einstein did seem to believe in a supernatural intelligence that’s beyond the physical world. He referred to it in his writings as “a superior spirit,” “a superior mind” and a “spirit vastly superior to men”. Einstein was possibly a deist, although he was quite familiar with various religious teachings, including a strong knowledge of Jewish religious texts.
In another passage from 1934, Einstein talks about the value of a human being, reflecting a Buddhist-like approach: “The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self.”
This theme of liberating the self is also echoed by Einstein later in life, in a 1950 letter to console a grieving father Robert S. Marcus: “A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish it but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.”
In case you are wondering whether Einstein saw value in material pursuits, here’s him talking about accumulating wealth in 1934, as part of the “The World As I See It”: “I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity forward, even in the hands of the most devoted worker in this cause. The example of great and pure characters is the only thing that can lead us to noble thoughts and deeds. Money only appeals to selfishness and irresistibly invites abuse. Can anyone imagine Moses, Jesus or Gandhi armed with the money-bags of Carnegie?”
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Freely download "The World As I See It", by Albert Einstein, here:
The Poet: John O’Donohue, “In These Times”
“In These Times”
“In these times when anger
Is turned into anxiety,
And someone has stolen
The horizons and mountains,
Our small emperors on parade
Never expect our indifference
To disturb their nakedness.
They keep their heads down,
And their eyes gleam with reflection
From aluminum economic ground,
The media wraps everything
In a cellophane of sound,
And the ghost surface of the virtual
Overlays the breathing earth.
The industry of distraction
Makes us forget
That we live in a universe.
We have become converts
To the religion of stress
And its deity of progress;
May we may have courage
To turn aside from it all,
And come to kneel down before the poor,
To discover what we must do,
How to turn anxiety
Back into anger,
How to find our way home.”
~ John O’Donohue,
from “To Bless the Space Between Us”
○
by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
"Relax. They're not going to kill us. They're going to
TRY and kill us. And that is a very different thing."
- Steve Voake, "The Dreamwalker's Child"
“My friends, do not lose heart. We were made for these times. I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered. They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world now. Ours is a time of almost daily astonishment and often righteous rage over the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionary people.
You are right in your assessments. The lustre and hubris some have aspired to while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders, everyday people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking. Yet, I urge you, ask you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry by bewailing these difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because, the fact is that we were made for these times. Yes. For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement.
I grew up on the Great Lakes and recognize a seaworthy vessel when I see one. Regarding awakened souls, there have never been more able vessels in the waters than there are right now across the world. And they are fully provisioned and able to signal one another as never before in the history of humankind.
Look out over the prow; there are millions of boats of righteous souls on the waters with you. Even though your veneers may shiver from every wave in this stormy roil, I assure you that the long timbers composing your prow and rudder come from a greater forest. That long-grained lumber is known to withstand storms, to hold together, to hold its own, and to advance, regardless.
In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that. There is a tendency, too, to fall into being weakened by dwelling on what is outside your reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there. That is spending the wind without raising the sails.
We are needed, that is all we can know. And though we meet resistance, we more so will meet great souls who will hail us, love us and guide us, and we will know them when they appear. Didn’t you say you were a believer? Didn’t you say you pledged to listen to a voice greater? Didn’t you ask for grace? Don’t you remember that to be in grace means to submit to the voice greater?
Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good.
What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not take everyone on Earth to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale.
One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these – to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity.
Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.
There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it. I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate.
The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something, as do you. It is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours. They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here. In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for.”
○
“Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Jungian psychiatrist and post trauma recovery specialist, writes this to social activists. Estes is perhaps most famous for her book, "Women Who Run With the Wolves." This letter appears, in part, on Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ blog. The date of the original letter is unknown.
"I Think..."
"I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil. I think I've come close to defining it: a lack of empathy. It's the one characteristic that connects all the defendants. A genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy."
- G. M. Gilbert
"The Most Contagious Of Diseases..."
o
"Everybody knows that the dice are loaded,
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed.
Everybody knows the war is over,
Everybody knows the good guys lost.
Everybody knows the fight was fixed.
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.
That's how it goes,
Everybody knows.
"Everybody knows that the boat is leaking,
Everybody knows the captain lied.
Everybody got this broken feeling,
Like their father or their dog just died.
Everybody's talking to their pockets,
Everybody wants a box of chocolates,
And a long-stemmed rose.
Everybody knows."
– "Everybody Knows," by Leonard Cohen
"State Sponsored Suicide"
"State Sponsored Suicide"
by MN Gordon
“A great civilization is not conquered from
without until it has destroyed itself from within.”
- Will and Ariel Durant, "The Story of Civilization"
"Enemy Within: How does a superpower die? Does it come from the blinding kill shot of a hypersonic missile streaking through the sky? Or, perhaps, a rogue cyberattack that mortally destroys the national power grid? Will the end of America come with foreign tanks rolling through New York or a massive, coordinated amphibious attack on Los Angeles? These dramatic scenarios make for captivating conjecture. But they’re highly unlikely. If you look at the autopsy reports of the world’s greatest empires, the ultimate cause of death is rarely a sudden, overwhelming external blow.
Long before the barbarians breached the gates of Rome, the Roman denarius had been systematically devalued into a glorified copper token to fund a bloated bureaucracy. This was characterized by widespread domestic corruption and endless military expansion. So, too, long before the British Empire reluctantly packed up its global flags, it realized the staggering cost of multiple wars had left it financially bankrupt, structurally hollowed out, and entirely dependent on American loans.
Great civilizations don’t usually get slaughtered by their rivals. They commit slow, sophisticated, economically optimized suicide. As we move through 2026, the United States is following a well-worn, dangerous path. But it’s traversing it at a speed and scale that would leave ancient Rome in the dust.
The reality that no politician will publicly admit is that America’s out-of-control federal spending and its monstrous, multi-trillion-dollar financial system are doing far more structural damage to the country’s long-term survival than any foreign adversary ever could. By burying the nation in unpayable debt, Congress is willingly destroying America from the inside. Hence, the greatest threat to our future lies not across the ocean, but directly within our own borders.
Act of War: Let’s talk about the ghastly numbers. They’re often ignored by the general population because our brains are hardwired to glaze over when we start talking about trillions. Here we’ll break them down for you.
Right now, the official U.S. national debt has blown past $39 trillion. To put that into perspective, if you spent one dollar every single second, it would take you about 32,000 years to spend $1 trillion. America owes 39 of those.
But the real issue isn’t just the total balance on Washington’s credit card. It’s the cost of keeping the account active. The yield on a 30-year Treasury bond recently climbed above 5 percent for the first time in nearly 20 years. Yet today’s balance is much larger than it was 20 years ago. When you owe $39 trillion, even a tiny uptick in interest rates transforms your budget into an insurmountable nightmare.
America is currently burning through roughly $3 billion every single day just to pay the interest on its existing debt. Think about that for a second. Before a single pothole is filled, before a single soldier is paid, before a single school lunch is funded, or a Medicare claim is processed, $3 billion dollars vanishes into thin air every 24 hours. It doesn’t buy new equipment, it doesn’t rebuild infrastructure, and it doesn’t help struggling families. It’s purely the cost of treading water. Instead of investing in the future, we’re paying for the profligacy of the past.
If a foreign nation managed to sabotage the U.S. economy so severely that it drained $3 billion a day out of the federal Treasury, it would be viewed as an act of war. We would mobilize the military. Yet, because this bleeding is caused by our own fiscal policy, we pretend it isn’t happening and go back to scrolling on our phones.
Vicious Doom Loop: The entire American lifestyle – and by extension, the global economy – is built on the singular, fragile assumption that the rest of the world will always want to buy American debt. For decades, this was a safe bet. Treasuries were considered risk free in terms of default. The U.S. dollar, while under threat of the U.S. government’s making, remains king of the global financial system – for now. When global chaos hits, investors run to U.S. Treasuries like a safe harbor in a storm. This exorbitant privilege allowed Washington to spend money it didn’t have without facing immediate consequences.
But that privilege resulted in a dangerous lack of discipline and created a catastrophic level of arrogance. Politicians on both sides of the aisle began treating the national debt like a meaningless artifact. To Congress, and as elaborated by the late Dick Cheney, “deficits don’t matter.” Unfortunately, the mathematics of debt do matter. And right now, the system is locked into a vicious, mechanical doom loop. Here’s how it works…
Every month, while you pay your bills, live within your means, and balance your personal finance books, the Treasury issues mountains of new debt just to pay off the old debt that’s maturing. All the while, it’s borrowing more to cover current overspending. Yet, because the market is getting flooded with U.S. bonds, investors are demanding higher yields.
Higher yields mean refinancing becomes more expensive. More expensive refinancing creates even larger deficits. Larger deficits require issuing even more bonds. The financial system is, in effect, cannibalizing itself to stay alive. No enemy army could design a more effective trap to paralyze the American financial system. When an enemy attacks, the damage is obvious. Buildings fall, smoke rises, and the country rallies together. But when financial decay sets in the destruction is deceptive. For many people, the cause is unclear.
Inside Job: Over the decades, American leaders assumed the world had no choice but to use the dollar. Where else were they going to go? But our adversaries and allies alike have watched this fiscal train wreck unfold and are methodically diversifying their reserves. They realize that a superpower running a $39 trillion deficit is a precarious foundation for the global economy. Central banks around the world have accelerated their gold purchases to historic levels. Countries like China have been systematically reducing their holdings of long-term U.S. Treasuries.
It’s not a sudden boycott of the dollar. Rather, it’s a slow calculated diversification. As the rest of the world lightens up on their purchases of U.S. debt, the Federal Reserve becomes the buyer of last resort. That means creating credit out of thin air to buy U.S. Treasuries. This is a formula for runaway inflation. The type that has destroyed countless currencies throughout history.
To be clear, Fed asset purchases have been occurring for much of the 21st century. So, too, have U.S. government policies of dollar debasement. This sophisticated state-sponsored suicide takes place in ongoing Congressional hearings, mundane Treasury auctions, continuous debt ceiling increases, pretend government shutdowns, and carefully scripted statements by the Fed using concocted syntaxes that are designed to keep people from panicking.
As America closes in on its 250-year anniversary it’s being drained of its capital. The government continues to borrow tomorrow’s prosperity to pay for today’s political promises. All the while, the people watch the infrastructure of the nation’s cities crumble as $3 billion a day is directed to service interest payments. The currency buys less and less every year, forcing citizens onto an endless economic hamster wheel. Alas, it hasn’t taken an enemy to destroy America. Our politicians have already done the job for them."
Freely download "The Story of Civilization", by Will And Ariel Durant, here:
"Everybody Is Talking About The Cost Of Gasoline – Soon Everybody Will Be Talking About The Cost Of Food"
by Michael Snyder
"For most people, the price of gasoline is the most obvious consequence of the war in the Middle East. As I write this article, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States is $4.56. Of course in some parts of the country consumers are paying much more than that. This is a big story, and the truth is that gasoline prices are going to go even higher in the months ahead. But if you think that the price of gasoline is bad, just wait until you see what eventually happens to food prices. The price of diesel has been rising even faster than the price of regular gasoline, and fertilizer prices have been absolutely skyrocketing. Those costs will get passed along to the rest of us. It is just a matter of time. Meanwhile, our farmers are dealing with drought conditions that are unprecedented and now a “Super El Niño” is coming.
What all of this means is that food prices will rise to very painful levels. So even though everyone is complaining about rising gasoline prices at the moment, one prominent economist is warning that “the next story is food”… The cost of food in the U.S. appears poised to rise sharply alongside oil prices, as war-related supply disruptions put pressure on the companies and farmers who keep the country’s shelves stocked.
“The big story right now is oil,” economist Justin Wolfers told MS NOW on Tuesday. “The next story is food. Oil prices have risen over 50 percent since the conflict began on February 28, pushing gas prices to a nationwide average of over $4.50 for the first time since 2022. Can you imagine what would happen if food prices were to rise another 50 percent from current levels?
Over the past year, many of the most common items that Americans purchase at the grocery store have already become much more expensive… When compared to the same time last year, fruits and vegetables have seen some of the biggest price hikes. Tomatoes are 40% more expensive now than they were this time last year. Bad growing weather, tariffs, and rising fuel prices have all contributed to the huge change in tomato prices, reports the New York Times. Coffee, another imported product, is 19% more expensive than it was last spring. You’re also likely seeing inflated prices at the butcher counter. Meat is up 9% overall, but beef has grown even more expensive. Ground beef is about 15% pricier, beef roasts are 18% more, and steak is up 16%.
We can blame the war with Iran for the recent price hikes that we have been experiencing, because the war has made diesel much more expensive. And diesel is used to transport most of what we eat…What’s contributing to the price spikes? Fuel prices have soared while the Iran war prevents cargo ships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital corridor for global oil supplies. Diesel fuel powers fishing boats, tractors and the trucks that ship 83% of U.S. agricultural products.
Just as you’re paying more at the pump, so are truckers who transport goods all around the country. Some vendors and suppliers are adding fuel surcharges to make up for the increased cost of transporting and delivering their goods. In addition, fertilizer prices have gone absolutely haywire, and those costs will be passed along to us once harvest season arrives.
The solution to this crisis would be for the Strait of Hormuz to reopen. But Iran isn’t willing to do that. Instead, Iran intends to make the status quo in the Strait of Hormuz permanent… Iran and Oman are actively discussing a permanent security mechanism for the Strait of Hormuz. Iran is pushing to institutionalize and normalize a transit fee or toll on commercial shipping vessels navigating the narrow waterway. According to an Iranian diplomatic envoy, the proposed system is designed to secure the long-term positioning of Iran and Oman as the primary regulators of the strait, effectively transforming a temporary leverage point from the recent military conflict into a permanent sovereign right.
To formalize its grip, Iran’s newly established Persian Gulf Straits Authority began applying conditional rules and hefty transit tolls, in some cases exceeding one million dollars per vessel, while granting selective exemptions to friendly nations like Russia or China. By engaging Oman, which shares territorial jurisdiction over the Strait, Iran is seeking to build a coalition that validates these tolls under the guise of funding localized maritime security.
The US maintains an opposing view on the matter, viewing the permanent toll as a non-negotiable barrier to reaching a sustainable peace deal. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, international straits are governed by transit passage protocols that guarantee the uninterrupted flow of global commercial shipping, a principle the US insists must be restored without conditions. This is one of the reasons why there is not going to be an agreement to end the war.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio just warned that what Iran is attempting to do with the Strait of Hormuz “will make a diplomatic deal impossible”…“A toll collection system in the Strait of Hormuz will make a diplomatic deal impossible. We are very disappointed with NATO allies, we will discuss the issue of troop deployment at the upcoming meeting.”
If the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, a global inflation crisis is guaranteed. And on top of everything else, now a “Super El Niño” is rapidly approaching. We are being warned that it could potentially be the most powerful “Super El Niño” in recorded history… Scientists have warned that an imminent ‘super El Niño’ could be even more powerful than a previous event which caused over 50 million deaths.
The 1877 El Niño was one of the most severe climate events in recorded history, triggering a global humanitarian disaster known as The Great Famine. Climate reconstructions suggest water temperatures in a key region of the Pacific Ocean rose by 2.7°C (4.86°F), which caused disruption to rainfall patterns around the world. If the Super El Niño of 1877-1878 killed 50 million people when the global population was just a fraction of what it is today, what would an even more powerful Super El Niño do?
An associate professor at Washington State University is telling us that “multiyear droughts similar to those in the 1870s could happen again”…Estimates indicate the resulting scarcity of food and disease outbreaks killed up to four per cent of the Earth’s population at the time. That would be the equivalent of at least 250 million people if it happened today. Now, forecasts suggest water temperatures could potentially exceed 3°C (5.4°F) above average later this year – making the upcoming super El Niño even more powerful than the one nearly 150 years ago. ‘Simultaneous multiyear droughts similar to those in the 1870s could happen again,’ Deepti Singh, associate professor at Washington State University, told the Washington Post.
Worldwide food production was already going to be way down this year due to the global fertilizer crisis. Now an immensely powerful “Super El Niño” is being added to the equation. What do you think that all of this is going to do to food prices? Needless to say, the answer is obvious. We are in far more trouble than most people realize, but for now most of the population just continues to party."
Judge Napolitano, "INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson, McGovern - Weekly Wrap 22-May"
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 5/22/26
"INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson, McGovern -
Weekly Wrap 22-May"
Comments here:
"'The Real War Begins Now' - Israeli Cities Under Fire as Iran Warns"
Scott Ritter, 5/22/26
"'The Real War Begins Now' -
Israeli Cities Under Fire as Iran Warns"
"The real war begins now." Five words from Iranian leadership that represent the most consequential strategic communication of this entire conflict. Not a threat. Not rhetoric. An announcement that the preparation phase is complete - and that everything that came before was just the softening. Having spent over a decade inside military intelligence studying Iranian strategic doctrine, I can tell you: the timing of this announcement is the announcement itself. Iran waited until every element of Israeli defensive capacity had been reduced before declaring the real war had begun."
Comments here:
o
Col. Douglas Macgregor, 5/22/26
"Netanyahu Declares Emergency As
Iran Attack Cripples All Israel Defenses"
Comments here:
o
Larry Johnson & Col. Wilkerson, 5/22/26
"Iran's Unseen Move:
US Laser Destroyers Can't Stop What's Coming"
Comments here:
"At A Time Like This..."
"At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I would, today, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced. "
- Frederick Douglass
"There Are Times..."
“If the sun is shining, stand in it - yes, yes, yes. Happy times are great, but happy times pass - they have to- because time passes. The pursuit of happiness is more elusive; it is life-long, and it is not goal-centered. What you are pursuing is meaning - a meaningful life… There are times when it will go so wrong that you will be barely alive, and times when you realize that being barely alive, on your own terms, is better than living a bloated half-life on someone else’s terms.”
- Jeanette Winterson
"Native American Elder Shares How to Make Your Last Years the Best of Your Life"
Full screen recommended.
"Native American Elder Shares How to
Make Your Last Years the Best of Your Life"
Comments here:
Paulo Coelho, "Killing Our Dreams"
"Killing Our Dreams"
by Paulo Coelho
"The first symptom of the process of our killing our dreams is the lack of time. The busiest people I have known in my life always have time enough to do everything. Those who do nothing are always tired and pay no attention to the little amount of work they are required to do. They complain constantly that the day is too short. The truth is, they are afraid to fight the Good Fight.
The second symptom of the death of our dreams lies in our certainties. Because we don’t want to see life as a grand adventure, we begin to think of ourselves as wise and fair and correct in asking so little of life. We look beyond the walls of our day-to-day existence, and we hear the sound of lances breaking, we smell the dust and the sweat, and we see the great defeats and the fire in the eyes of the warriors. But we never see the delight, the immense delight in the hearts of those who are engaged in the battle. For them, neither victory nor defeat is important; what’s important is only that they are fighting the Good Fight.
And, finally, the third symptom of the passing of our dreams is peace. Life becomes a Sunday afternoon; we ask for nothing grand, and we cease to demand anything more than we are willing to give. In that state, we think of ourselves as being mature; we put aside the fantasies of our youth, and we seek personal and professional achievement. We are surprised when people our age say that they still want this or that out of life. But really, deep in our hearts, we know that what has happened is that we have renounced the battle for our dreams – we have refused to fight the Good Fight.
When we renounce our dreams and find peace, we go through a short period of tranquility. But the dead dreams begin to rot within us and to infect our entire being. We become cruel to those around us, and then we begin to direct this cruelty against ourselves. That’s when illnesses and psychoses arise. What we sought to avoid in combat – disappointment and defeat – come upon us because of our cowardice. And one day, the dead, spoiled dreams make it difficult to breathe, and we actually seek death. It’s death that frees us from our certainties, from our work, and from that terrible peace of our Sunday afternoons."
The second symptom of the death of our dreams lies in our certainties. Because we don’t want to see life as a grand adventure, we begin to think of ourselves as wise and fair and correct in asking so little of life. We look beyond the walls of our day-to-day existence, and we hear the sound of lances breaking, we smell the dust and the sweat, and we see the great defeats and the fire in the eyes of the warriors. But we never see the delight, the immense delight in the hearts of those who are engaged in the battle. For them, neither victory nor defeat is important; what’s important is only that they are fighting the Good Fight.
And, finally, the third symptom of the passing of our dreams is peace. Life becomes a Sunday afternoon; we ask for nothing grand, and we cease to demand anything more than we are willing to give. In that state, we think of ourselves as being mature; we put aside the fantasies of our youth, and we seek personal and professional achievement. We are surprised when people our age say that they still want this or that out of life. But really, deep in our hearts, we know that what has happened is that we have renounced the battle for our dreams – we have refused to fight the Good Fight.
When we renounce our dreams and find peace, we go through a short period of tranquility. But the dead dreams begin to rot within us and to infect our entire being. We become cruel to those around us, and then we begin to direct this cruelty against ourselves. That’s when illnesses and psychoses arise. What we sought to avoid in combat – disappointment and defeat – come upon us because of our cowardice. And one day, the dead, spoiled dreams make it difficult to breathe, and we actually seek death. It’s death that frees us from our certainties, from our work, and from that terrible peace of our Sunday afternoons."
"Life Is Hard For A Reason. A Good Reason. Plus Hot Chicks"
"Life Is Hard For A Reason.
A Good Reason. Plus Hot Chicks"
by John Wilder
"I bought the book "Dune" by Frank Herbert when I was a kid. I still recall buying it as it was on one of the monthly trips we took to the book store when we ventured off of Mount Wilder. Ma Wilder was horribly indulgent when it came to books or other healthy creative outlets, like model kits. Books had an unlimited budget around the house, and she never particularly cared which books, as long as I was reading them. As such, at two or three novels a week from age 10 to 16, I read a lot. I still do.
"Dune "was one of those. I read it before I started driving. I remember reading it in the time after finishing mowing Grandma Wilder’s lawn and before I was picked on a beautiful summer day decades ago. One thing that struck me is the description in the book of the planet Salusa Secundus. As a kid I mentally pronounced it “Salsa” Secundus, and, well, it is a pretty spicy planet.
In Herbert’s description, Salusa Secundus was a hell world, horrible weather, murderous beasts, extreme temperatures, awful terrain. It was also the Emperor’s prison where he tossed away the worst criminals of his interstellar empire. The mortality rate among new prisoners is higher than sixty percent. Yet, here was where the Emperor got his fanatical and tough warriors, the feared Hardeharhar. Oops, different book. I mean the Sardaukar®. Why there? Well, if you could survive there, you could survive on any planet that a man could live on. And if you could make it though the gauntlet of prisoners trying to kill you, congratulations, you survived the initiation process.
The idea isn’t a new one. The Spartans had a similar story, as retold by Plutarch, who, despite his name, was not Mickey Mouse’s™ dog: "Another boy, when some of his companions had stolen a young fox and delivered it to him, hid it under his gown; and though the angry little beast bit through his side to his very guts, he endured it quietly, that he might not be discovered. When the searchers were gone [his friends] chid him roundly, saying, ‘It had been better to produce the fox, than thus to conceal him by losing your own life.’ ‘No, no!’ said he, smiling, ‘it is better to die than to be detected in a base attempt at theft.’
Our teacher told us this story when I was in second grade. Yes. They told it in a somewhat different variation, but they were telling it to seven-year-olds. No trigger warning. No safe space. Just a story about a kid who was so tough that he’d let a fox eat his intestines rather than show weakness. I think I have an idea where Herbert took his inspiration for the Hardeharhar from.
This is a story that resonates, and the deeper it resonates the truer it is. We don’t become strong by being bathed in rose water and sleeping on satin sheets and eating our fill of lemon-cream PEZ© every day, and sailors don’t become captains on calm seas.
We don’t become emotionally strong by never facing hardship. We don’t become physically strong by sitting on a couch. We don’t live lives of purpose without getting bruised. Any thing of purpose and worth that one might do will be opposed. Period. Either the odds are against it, the gods are against it, or other people are against it. Sometimes all three.
These are the good fights, if founded in the True, Beautiful and Good. These are the things that are worth the time and effort and pain. These are the things that my scar tissue prepared me for. A life that is based on something that Epictetus said: "Don’t you understand that amounts to saying that I would so prepare myself to endure, and then let anything happen that will happen?"
That’s a strong statement. And in a life filled with challenges, it’s hard to understand sometimes why we faced the challenges we did, why we have the scars and bruises that we do. I think it’s because if they didn’t break us and they made us better prepared. Yeah, even Nietzsche was right a time or two, if you include his magnificent mustache.
What then, does this leave us with? We have today. We have this moment. We have the amazing gift that we can do anything we wish to right now. We can make vows to change the world, we can dedicate (or rededicate) ourselves to fighting for what we know is True, Beautiful, and Good. And that’s why we’re here. We’re not here for comfort. We’re not here for leisure. We’re not here for quiet. A quiet universe is a dead universe. A universe without conflict is a dead universe. A universe without purpose is a dead universe.
We do not live in a dead universe. We’re breathing, fighting, aberrations, statistical flukes and inconvenient, stubborn fools fighting against entropy and common sense. We see the world and keep going, because, deep down, we have our choices, our reasoned choices that allow us to get up to fight another day. Or give up. Me? I choose to keep going, come what may. Besides, now I’m hungry and am looking for chips and salsa. Extra spicy. I think I’m ready."
"How It Really Will Be, Sooner Than You Think"
The Good Ship "World Economy" faces the total global
economic, financial, and social and societal collapse wave...
Full screen recommended.
"The Giant Wave - The Perfect Storm"
o
And elsewhere, everywhere...
Full screen recommended.
"Poseidon, Capsize"
What then?
“When the pain of leaving behind what we know outweighs the pain of embracing it, or when the power we face is overwhelming and neither flight nor fight will save us, there may be salvation in sitting still. And if salvation is impossible, then at least before perishing we may gain a clearer vision of where we are. By sitting still I do not mean the paralysis of dread, like that of a rabbit frozen beneath the dive of a hawk. I mean something like reverence, a respectful waiting, a deep attentiveness to forces much greater than our own.”
- Scott Russell Sanders
Folks, I fear the time for such reverence has come.
God help us, God help us all...
o
"What's Really About to Hit This Summer – And Nobody Sees It Coming"
Full screen recommended.
Across The States, 5/22/26
"What's Really About to Hit This Summer –
And Nobody Sees It Coming"
"This summer’s economy could hit harder than most people expect. Gas prices, grocery bills, electricity costs, travel expenses - everything seems to be climbing at the same time, and millions of families are already feeling the pressure. Here’s the reality: this isn’t only about inflation anymore. Global supply chains, fuel disruptions, power grid stress, and rising food costs are starting to connect in ways most people never notice until it affects their daily life. What matters now is how these systems collide during peak summer demand. In this video, we break down the timeline behind rising energy prices, food shortages, expensive travel, and the hidden economic risks that could impact households through the rest of 2026. Most people don’t realize how quickly small disruptions can spread through the economy once the pressure builds everywhere at once. Watch till the end and tell us which part surprised you the most."
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Dan, I Allegedly, "Smart Shopping Is The New Survival"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 5/22/26
"Smart Shopping Is The New Survival"
"Americans are changing the way they shop, eat, and spend money as inflation, rising grocery prices, and economic uncertainty continue to hit hard. In this video, Dan from i Allegedly breaks down how savvy shoppers are adapting by meal planning, using discount stores like Aldi and Walmart, comparing prices, and avoiding overpriced restaurants and grocery chains. From Sam’s Club discounts to smarter grocery budgeting, this video explains why saving money is no longer optional in today’s economy. Dan also covers the growing financial pressure facing everyday consumers, including credit card debt, expensive fast food, layoffs at Meta, concerns about supply shortages, and why people are cutting back on non-essential spending. If you’re interested in personal finance, financial education, inflation news, grocery savings, economic updates, budgeting tips, and smart shopping strategies, this video will help you prepare for what’s coming next and show you practical ways to save money right now."
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"Why 'Normal' Is the Most Dangerous Phase Before Collapse"
Full screen recommended.
Historian Catalogue, 5/22/26
"Why 'Normal' Is the Most
Dangerous Phase Before Collapse"
"What if the most dangerous moment before a collapse is not when things fall apart - but when everything feels completely fine? This video breaks down the psychology behind why civilizations, economies, and ordinary people all fail to see collapse coming. From the fall of Rome to the 2008 financial crisis to Venezuela, the pattern is always the same: right before the breaking point, daily life feels totally normal. We cover four phases that quietly work together to keep you asleep:
o The Illusion of Routine: why open stores and normal traffic are not proof that systems are healthy.
o The Silent Drain: how value is extracted at scale while people are kept distracted.
o The Death of Survival Instinct: what modern comfort costs us in ways we cannot see.
o Learning to Be Poor with a Smile: how gradual price increases train us to accept less.
This is not a doom video. This is a wake-up call. If you want to understand why history keeps repeating itself, and what it actually looks like from inside a collapse before it happens, this is the video to watch."
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"You Have No Idea How Many Americans Have Already Tapped Out"
Full screen recommended.
Finance Economist, 5/22/26
"You Have No Idea How Many
Americans Have Already Tapped Out"
"6 million Americans have stopped looking for work. Half the workforce has mentally quit. 1 in 3 men are out of the labor force entirely the lowest in peacetime history. 88 million didn’t vote. Church membership fell below 50% for the first time in 80 years. 36% are skipping the doctor. 44% of families are growing their own food. And 90% of the country says it’s in a mental health crisis. Americans aren’t just struggling. They’re tapping out. From work. From voting. From community. From healthcare. From hope."
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"Americans Are Sacrificing Everything - Just to Afford Rising Gas Prices!"
Full screen recommended.
Snyder Reports, 5/22/26
"Americans Are Sacrificing Everything -
Just to Afford Rising Gas Prices!"
Comments here:
Adventures With Danno, "Shocking Prices At Aldi"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 5/22/26
"Shocking Prices At Aldi"
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Thursday, May 21, 2026
"Pakistan Gives Nuclear Weapons to Iran - Islamic Bomb Shared, India Mobilizes 1 Million Troops"
"Pakistan Gives Nuclear Weapons to Iran -
Islamic Bomb Shared, India Mobilizes 1 Million Troops"
Col. Douglas Macgregor, 5/21/26
"At 4:31 this morning, Pakistan transferred assembled nuclear weapons to Iran. Not technology. Not design information. Assembled weapons that work. And India just mobilized one million soldiers toward the Pakistani border. The Islamic bomb - the concept A.Q. Khan described as belonging to the entire Muslim world - has been shared. Iran went from nuclear threshold to nuclear armed overnight. Without a test. Without a development program. Without years of warning for the nonproliferation regime to respond. And the Indian mobilization that followed has created three simultaneous nuclear flashpoints whose combined management exceeds the bandwidth of the global crisis system.
Tonight we break down exactly what Pakistan transferred, why India is mobilizing, and what a nuclear-armed Iran does differently. We go inside the transfer - assembled weapons vs technology, Pakistani strategic calculation, Shahab-3 delivery compatibility. We explain Indian nuclear doctrine and why one million soldiers are moving toward Pakistan rather than Iran. We assess what nuclear weapons possession changes in Iranian strategic behavior - the deterrence asymmetry removal that forty years of pressure could never achieve. We walk through every nonproliferation mechanism and explain why each one is specifically inadequate for assembled weapon transfer whose completion precedes detection. And we assess the four simultaneous nuclear crises whose combined management exceeds American strategic bandwidth. This is not mainstream commentary. This is the analysis that takes the most consequential nuclear proliferation event in history as seriously as its permanence demands. 6 weapons. 1 transfer. 3 flashpoints. The nuclear order just changed permanently."
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"The Perfect Storm: Iran War, AI Job Loss And Rigged Markets"
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 5/21/26
"The Perfect Storm:
Iran War, AI Job Loss And Rigged Markets"
"We break down the escalating Iran War tensions and how they are triggering geopolitical instability, economic disruption, and shifting power dynamics. From so-called “rigged” financial markets to the accelerating rise of AI replacing human jobs, we explore the deeper forces shaping our uncertain future. The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What's Next in these increasingly turbulent times."
Comments here:
"People Are Crying In Grocery Stores Across America"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 5/21/26
"People Are Crying In Grocery Stores Across America"
"Americans are pulling out their phones inside the grocery store and filming what they see. Thirteen dollars for one watermelon at Walmart. Thirty six dollars for a box of Lindt chocolates. Twenty three dollars for a tin of instant coffee. Fifty five dollars for two steaks. Ten ninety nine for a dozen eggs. Thirty three dollars for toilet paper. Fifty dollars for the ingredients to make one salad at home. Five hundred and fifty dollars for one Costco run. Eighty seven dollars the second you walk through the door before you have picked up anything. The cashier at Walmart looked at the total and asked the customer if it was correct. He scans prices for eight hours a day and even he could not believe what the register said. A mother spent eighteen hundred dollars on groceries in one month. The same amount as her mortgage payment. A father did the math out loud in the middle of his kitchen.
Going to the grocery store now costs the same as eating out every single night. The advice everyone grew up with, cook at home and save money, stopped being true around 2021. Nobody announced it. Nobody apologized for it. The cheapest path to feeding a family was deleted while everyone was looking the other way. In this video, 13 ordinary working people across America, Australia, and Europe show you the receipts. The shelves. The totals. The face of the cashier. The hand shaking at the card reader. The dark humor people reach for when the numbers stop making sense. The pattern is global. The same corporations operate in every country in this video. The same shareholders sit on the same boards. Record profits announced every quarter while families ration eggs and skip meals so the kids can eat. And the forecast says another fifty percent climb is still coming by the end of the year.
A government official was asked on camera how much he factored in the financial situation of the American people when making decisions. His exact words. Not even a little bit. I do not think about Americans' financial situations. Believe him. This is not a budget problem. This is not a discipline problem. This is not your fault. The receipts in this video are the real economy. The one working Americans are living in right now. The one the news anchors will not show you. Drop your weekly grocery total in the comments. Tag the person in your life who still believes the headlines. Share this with someone who needs to see what is actually happening. Stay angry. Stay loud. Stay awake."
Comments here:
Dan, I Allegedly, "Your Electric Bill Is About to Explode"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 5/21/26
"Your Electric Bill Is About to Explode"
"Artificial intelligence and massive data centers are changing America faster than most people realize. In this video, I break down how AI data centers are driving up electricity costs, straining local power grids, consuming enormous amounts of water, and impacting neighborhoods across the country. Communities are seeing higher utility bills, increased noise pollution, environmental concerns, and growing questions about privacy and surveillance - all while tech companies continue expanding at record speed. We also discuss rising energy prices, smart car data collection, AI replacing workers, privacy concerns, and why everyday Americans are paying more for essentials while corporations profit from the AI boom. If you care about personal finance, inflation, rising utility costs, economic news, business trends, financial education, or protecting your privacy, this is a must-watch discussion about the real-world consequences of artificial intelligence and data centers."
Comments here:
Adventures With Danno, "Memorial Day Sales At Kroger"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 5/21/26
"Memorial Day Sales At Kroger"
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