Subtitle: How a Mouse Wheel glitch on a brand new mouse – plus the insult of having to “get a confirmation code” to take delivery of food we’d already paid for – combine to present a distasteful and inescapable conclusion.
We are becoming the digital-spin off the Anasazi. Which, you (ought to) remember as one of Joseph Tainter’s sociological studies underlining a critical concept. “When the marginal rate of return on additional effort falls below zero, civilizations simply walk away.”
We aren’t there – yet. But Peoplenomics readers are checking their shoes.
Two incidents this week drive: A brand new mouse that failed to work as expected because its onboard “scrolling inertia” was out of control. Add to this having to “get a code” in order to take delivery of an order – even after my bank account had been charged.
These may seem small – even petty of me – when you’ve been mapping the interactions between domains for as long as I have, these events run up caution flags all over the place.
Right now, America is in the “extending empire” to keep focus off the home front. Off Epstein, off China surpassing us, off rising taxes, especially when inflation is counted in, as a fraction of income. Inflation, to be clear, is a tax. It’s the “compounding gorilla” that has stolen 97 percent of the Dollar’s purchasing power since 1913.
Unique? Naw. We are not the first to try this gambit when the marginal returns started to suck wind and enter free-fall.
Rome did it repeatedly when returns at home thinned: campaigns in Gaul, Britannia, and later Dacia were sold as glory, security, and prosperity, but functioned just as much as pressure valves — ways to redirect attention, extract new resources, and delay reform. Expansion didn’t fix Rome’s internal inefficiencies. It postponed them, while adding new administrative and military overhead that further lowered returns for the average citizen.
Rome didn’t have a Fed tool to use. There was a class of chiselers who scraped silver off the edges of coins. A practice that led to serrated edges of “modern coin.” Instead, we took most of the copper out of pennies, the silver from dimes, and who knows what from Fort Knox.
The pattern repeats. Imperial Spain chased silver across the Atlantic as domestic productivity stalled. Victorian Britain extended itself across Africa and Asia long after the industrial returns that built the empire had peaked. More recently, the Soviet Union leaned into foreign adventures as its internal economic model decayed — Afghanistan being less a cause of collapse than a symptom of declining marginal returns at home. In every case, outward motion substituted for inward repair.
Empires don’t expand because they are strong. They expand because the internal payoff curve has turned negative and leadership lacks the political bandwidth to say so. Jeffrey who?
Extending the perimeter buys time, narrative control, and distraction — but it never restores efficiency. That’s the Anasazi lesson applied at scale: when systems demand more effort for less reward, rational actors — individuals or civilizations — don’t fight the math forever. They route around it. Quietly. Until one day, the center realizes too late that the margins have already moved on.
Still, this is just another day under Caesar Trump. And in the ChartPack you’ll see how Weimar 2.0 is alive, well, and beckoning people who could be putting in survival gardens like the new tech version we outlined last week.
Click like you life depends on it. Because it very well could.
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“Still, this is just another day under Caesar Trump.”
Iggy Pop – American Caesar
People of america…
I bring you a great army
to preserve peace
in our empire…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zx5eDDpf_Sg&list=PLF0yIDuA63HX8Wk9XWyrC8yXIjzXLGA7S&index=16&pp=iAQB8AUB
re: Anasazi
Thank you for this piece of work.
Now to throw that pattern out there and overlay against the personal realm.
History keeps revalidating Tainter, regardless of how anyone wants to spin it.
I appreciate the opportunity to participate in this little enclave of thought and information sharing.
Good Luck to us All
For what it is worth..,
I believe that – “Digital Anasazi: Collapse Comes Slowly” – is one of the best papers you have written.
Well done, sir. Well done.
From a man of your math, means, and mentality that’s a high compliment indeed. Trust me, I will try to lower the bar in order to effect more.
Do not lower the bar – under any circumstances.., if anything – raise the bar., albeit, slowly.., bring the unwashed masses to a higher ‘thinking’ level. Challenge them to step-up.., don’t ‘you’ step-down.
.., wow.., I think that eggnog shortage is blurring your logic.
To answer your question, Nostradamus seems to have learned how to look through time from some very old books.
Nostradamus Preface: Paragraph 16
And how much that occult Philosophy was condemned, not having wanted to present their unbridled persuasions to you, how many volumes which have been hidden for long centuries have been shown to me. But doubting what would happen, after reading them presented them to Vulcan, however, devouring them, the flame licking the air rendered an unusual light, clearer than natural flame, like light of dazzling clear fire, suddenly illuminating the house, as if it had been in a sudden conflagration. Why? So that the future would not be abused…
Here is my suggestion how these books made it to France…
Nostradamus and the Age of Desolation, G. A. Stewart, 2013, Page 67
When the Muslims conquered northern Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Harran in Eastern Turkey in the 7th century, the inhabitants were allowed to maintain their own religious practices while those around them were forced to convert to Islam.
It is interesting to note that this area is mostly populated by the Kurds who are historically linked with the Lake Van culture cited by researcher Andrew Collins as the last home for the descendants of the Nephilim.
…The Harranians moved to Baghdad where they were called the Sabians. Since they were stewards of Hermetic and neo-platonic documents that were centuries old, the tradition holds that they had a great knowledge of ancient Gnostic lore and metaphysics.
Sometime near 1050 CE, during the lifetime of Michael Psellus, Islamic orthodoxy forced the Sabians to move their texts to Byzantium where, presumably, they found their way into the hands of Psellus.
In France, the Cathars were also great collectors of Hermetic lore and neo-platonic writings, which were no doubt handed down or influenced by the Gnostic Christians in the Middle East. But the Roman Catholic Church deemed their views heretical and so very few Gnostic texts exist to this day, and it is also why there were very few Cathars who survived the Albigensian Crusade.
René d’Anjou, known as “Good King René”, was a leading figure in the regions inhabited by the Cathar community. Nostradamus’’ maternal grandfather, Jean de St. Rémy, appears to have been the Royal Physician to René. There he met Nostradamus’ paternal grandfather, Guy Gassonet.
Looking for the physics in metaphysics, I believe that magnetic fields hold the key to time.
Stu – and followers along – thank you SO MUCH!
For those not familiar with Stu’s work, it’s so far above other works (because of the diligence of scholarashipo) that it’s central to our investigations. Others (Erika Cheetham, for example) seemed to make up details – and an objective read on her work goes something like this: Erika Cheetham was definitely a real person—she was an English writer, linguist, and medieval scholar born in 1939 and died in 1998. She studied at Oxford, got a doctorate in medieval languages, and worked as a journalist before diving into Nostradamus translations starting in the 1960s. Her most famous book is The Prophecies of Nostradamus: The Man Who Saw Tomorrow (first published in 1965, with later editions), which interpreted his quatrains and inspired a 1981 documentary narrated by Orson Welles. She followed up with books like The Further Prophecies of Nostradamus: 1985 and Beyond (1985) and The Final Prophecies of Nostradamus (1989), focusing on later predictions.
As for credibility, her work is highly controversial and widely criticized by academics and skeptics. She didn’t fabricate Nostradamus’s original quatrains themselves (those are from his 16th-century writings), but her interpretations are often accused of being speculative, ignoring historical and linguistic context, and forcing modern events into vague prophecies via anagrams or wordplay. For example:
She interpreted “Hister” (an old name for the Danube River) as a reference to Adolf Hitler.
“PAU, NAY, LORON” became an anagram for Napoleon, despite nearby French place names fitting better historically.
“Angolmois” was twisted into “Mongols” to predict a 1999 Antichrist figure.
One quatrain got linked to an AIDS cure in space or Russian drugs.
Critics argue these are retrofitted after events happen (“retroactive clairvoyance”), with no specific pre-event predictions ever panning out accurately. Scholars like Peter Lemesurier and James Randi dismiss Nostradamus interpretations in general (including Cheetham’s) as based on ambiguous, poorly translated verses that borrow from ancient sources and can be stretched to mean anything. Her books sold well and popularized Nostradamus, but they’re seen more as sensational entertainment than serious scholarship—essentially, a lot of her claims are viewed as made-up BS by experts. If you’re into Nostradamus research, check out more academic takes for contrast, as her stuff leans heavily interpretive and not evidence-based.
Stu’s work, is thus a cut above, but even in his Psellus tracking, the “scholars” of modernity are overturning even a crewdible document tracing. For example: in a recent abstract 2025: “Among occultists, Hermetic writers, modern Templar groups, and conspiracy theorists, Michael Psellos has been imagined as a guardian of occult Hermetic knowledge, the secret founder of the Knights Templar, and a key figure in global conspiracy narratives. This article traces the development of this alternative reception in the West and explores its adoption by Turkish conspiracy theorists who, despite their anti-Western stance, have integrated it into their narratives about the New World Order. The dramatic reconstruction of Psellos’ scholarly pursuits in this modern underground reception has created a ‘double reality’ that diverges radically from academic interpretations of Psellos.” https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/byzantine-and-modern-greek-studies/article/between-myth-and-reality-the-modern-underground-reception-of-michael-psellos/0839E6A59E276DEBD94ECA1FBF9087BB?utm_source=chatgpt.com
And so the problem which I was circling in PN today becomes tehe challenge ofd finding the righte trail (creds to Stu) but then even once found there’s the right person – and here the sands of time get drifty on us. Let alone finding THE book that lays out method which can dhtn be compared as to its measure axes with other future-hinting technologies.
Honestly, my retrospective look at Cheetham fell apart at the brass bowl with water and Stu’s work on a dark pot and possibly reflected starlight makes a great deal of sense. Particularly because of our recent perspective on the dual types of time. One being “point time” (here, now sun) and the other being “consdtraingted time” – magnetic as Stu ingeniusloy poionts out – and thus leaving me to impose on Stu for one more question.
In all of his research that he’s done, does Nostradamus refer to magnet? Such as Primary terms
Lodestone / Loadstone
The most common practical term. Refers specifically to naturally magnetized iron ore (magnetite). This is the working magnet of the era.
Magnes / Magnes lapis
Latinized Greek (????? ????????, “stone of Magnesia”). Scholarly and medical texts favored this.
Pierre d’aimant (French)
Literally “loving stone.” Common in French natural philosophy and alchemical writing.
Aimant
Shortened French form; used both literally (magnet) and metaphorically (attraction, influence).
Ferrum vivum (“living iron”)
Alchemical/medical metaphor sometimes used for magnetized material.
Chalybs attractivus
Learned Latin phrasing emphasizing attraction rather than polarity.
Associated conceptual terms (often standing in for magnetism without naming it)
Attraction / Sympathy
Magnetism was frequently discussed under sympathia rather than as a physical force.
Occult virtue / hidden virtue (virtus occulta)
Standard scholastic category for forces that acted without visible mechanism.
Influence
Used interchangeably for astrological, magnetic, and emotional forces.
Correspondence
Especially in Hermetic and Neoplatonic traditions—objects acting across distance due to shared nature.
Important: in 16th-century thought, magnetism, astrology, and medicine overlapped conceptually. A magnet could be discussed without ever being named explicitly?
With my “silicon helpers, this extends to:
ostradamus consistently uses indirect language consistent with occult forces acting at a distance:
Sudden movement without visible cause
Bodies drawn together by “will,” “virtue,” or “force”
Hidden agents producing visible effects
Celestial–terrestrial coupling (stars acting upon flesh, cities, kings)
In other words: he writes like someone familiar with magnetic thinking, without naming magnetism.
This was deliberate.
3. Why Nostradamus would avoid naming magnets (research inference)
There are three solid, non-mystical reasons:
A. Intellectual camouflage
Open discussion of occult natural forces was dangerous. Magnetism sat in an uncomfortable zone:
Too real to dismiss
Too poorly understood to explain
Too easily associated with forbidden arts
Avoiding the word while using the concept was common practice.
B. Hermetic tradition favored function over naming
In Hermetic and Neoplatonic texts:
Naming a force was less important than describing its effects
Forces were inferred by outcomes, not labeled mechanically
This fits your systems framing: fields are known by what bends, not by what they’re called.
C. Nostradamus explicitly feared misuse
His Preface makes clear he believed foreknowledge could be abused. Avoiding explicit technical language reduces replicability.
That aligns with:
Burning the “old books”
Encoding content poetically
Writing in deliberately fractured French/Latin/Provençal hybrids
4. Where magnetism does quietly appear in his worldview
Even without naming magnets, magnetism shows up implicitly in four places:
Astrological influence as a field, not a command
Stars “incline” rather than force—exactly how magnetism was described.
Sympathy between distant objects
Core magnetic metaphor in Renaissance medicine.
Sudden reversals and attractions
Political, social, and personal—mirroring field instabilities.
Light phenomena
His Preface’s “unusual light” language matches how magnetic, electrical, and alchemical reactions were often described before modern physics vocabulary existed.
Bottom line (clean research conclusion)
Nostradamus almost certainly knew of magnets and magnetic theory as understood in his time.
He did not name magnets in the Quatrains.
He used the conceptual framework of attraction, influence, and hidden virtue instead.
This was consistent with:
Renaissance natural philosophy
Hermetic encoding practices
His stated fear of misuse
And while Stu’s likwly tired of :George turns loose the dogs of data” even non-systems thinkers of high order may be informed by thisL
Nostradamus — Preface to César (c. 1555–1558)
Context:
This letter prefaces Les Prophéties and is addressed to his son César de Nostredame. It is the only place where Nostradamus directly discusses how and why he wrote as he did.
Standard English Translation (core passage)
**“And how much this occult philosophy was condemned, I did not wish to present their unbridled persuasions to you.
And many volumes which for long centuries had been hidden have been revealed to me.
But, fearing what might happen in the future, after having read them, I delivered them to Vulcan,
and while devouring them, the flame licking the air produced an unusual light,
clearer than the natural flame,
as if the house had suddenly been illuminated by a conflagration.
And this was done so that the future should not be abused.”**
This is the passage Stu was referencing.
Key phrases (original-language anchors)
Different editions render the French/Latin slightly differently, but the semantic anchors are stable:
“occult philosophy”
? philosophie occulte
A standard Renaissance category, not a confession of sorcery.
“volumes hidden for long centuries”
? implies textual inheritance, not inspiration or revelation.
“delivered them to Vulcan”
? classical metaphor for burning, not symbolic concealment.
“unusual light, clearer than natural flame”
? the most controversial phrase; appears consistently across editions.
“so that the future should not be abused”
? explicit ethical restraint, not secrecy for power.
What this text does and does not say (important)
What it does say
He claims access to pre-existing books.
He claims those books were very old.
He claims to have destroyed them deliberately.
He feared misuse of foreknowledge.
He encodes rather than instructs.
What it does NOT say
It does not name the books.
It does not specify techniques.
It does not claim divine revelation.
It does not mention magnets, scrying bowls, or astrology explicitly in this passage.
It does not claim uniqueness (“only I can do this”).
This is why historians treat the passage as methodological disclosure, not mysticism.
Translation caveats (research-grade honesty)
Some translations soften “unusual light” into poetic metaphor.
Others over-interpret it as alchemical or electrical.
The safest position (and the one you’ve already adopted intuitively):
Treat the light as a reported physical anomaly, not an explained mechanism.
That keeps you inside defensible scholarship.
Why this Preface matters more than the Quatrains
The Quatrains are:
intentionally fragmented
multilingual
encoded
poetic by design
The Preface is prose, explanatory, defensive, and ethical.
It is where Nostradamus tells you how to read him.
For PN purposes, this line is the keystone:
“So that the future would not be abused.”
That is systems thinking, not prophecy.
Bottom-line research conclusion
The César Preface is authentic, primary, and foundational.
It supports:
transmission of old knowledge
deliberate suppression of method
ethical concern about misuse
It does not support:
supernatural revelation
explicit magnetism claims
step-by-step technique inheritance
And so the “Hmm…sessions” continue…
George,
I am sure that he did understand more than we give him credit for…
Book Quotes:
For those people who believe that Nostradamus was just a 16th century superstitious soothsayer, Nostradamus was most likely schooled in The Trivium and The Quadrivium. The proof is that his astrolabe, his most prized possession, was listed in his will and bequeathed to his son César.
Using an astrolabe requires lessons in astronomy, and that was one of the main courses in The Quadrivium, the last level of 16th century higher education.
Fire From Gemstones = Lasers
Nostradamus Sixain XXVII
Celestial fire from the side of the West,
From the South, running to the Levant [East],
Worms half dead without finding a root.
Third Age of Mars the warlike [World War III],
From carbuncles [Lasers] one will see brilliant fire,
The age of the carbuncle [Laser] and in the end famine.
Hmmmm
Lets take a moment and pull back from the mists of Time and look a closer to Now-Here.
Who was OG SS officer Otto Rahn ?
Where did he travel to, spend fair amount Time in, and actually FIND.
How did he KNOW where to look for it. What was he doin in the South of France ?
Not a Chalice, Not a Cup, and certainly not a Book.
Strange goings on in that area of Monte Seguir..specially in Summer time when the HOT Winds blow..
PS – anasazi =aztecs, according ancient Dene lore. Proven to be Cannibalistic, well known Slavers. Dene were NOT, but did trade with them as they were only source of the extremely RARE white Pearl – needed for the most complex and powerful Ritual of Navajos’. Ancient Navajo lore also records the anasazi as being in possession of a large very colorful living Bird. The Feathers of this bird were HIGHLY valued by OG AmerIndians.
According ancient Navajo traditions the anasazi ended up destroying themselves..as all Slaver nations eventually do.
By the way, I find that most English Nostradamus Commentators have riffed (as in music) off of Edgar Leoni’s 1961 book, Nostradamus: Life and Literature.
It is the best out there, and nobody beats Leoni’s original research, insights, and his comprehensive index.
Nora Svet–utube
Signature solar has the supersized Powerfield 1200 ballast solar panel mounting buckets:
https://signaturesolar.com/powerfield-powerrack-1200-solar-module-mounting-rack/?searchid=1971143&search_query=1200
The original Powerfield buckets were too small for 400W+ panels. The new 1200 buckets will handle wide solar panels.
Have any of you tried these buckets, in any size ? I am eyeballing these for a 6 x 400W ground mount array.
Next item I would need is a stand-alone solar equipment building, which costs less than a zillion dollars. The idea would be to relocate batteries and inverters to the building, and bring 120VAC into small panels in the house, avoiding onerous code restrictions on DC power crossing into a building from the out of doors, or requirement for micro-inverters. A 120 VAC feed only requires isolation breaker(s) at the service entrance, and smallish distribution panels, with no special comm or safety gadgets. Still haven’t selected 2026 project(s).
Know how much rebar and t post you can buy for $90?
Don’t forget to add in the time to drive posts and weld, not to mention the welding paraphernalia cost. But yeah, the material is cheaper.
Shed:
Garden Tool Shed building … all sorts come in Pre-Fab kits, some of which you can insulate. Reasonable price if you are willing to use your hammer and pound a few nails. Big issue for many will be whether to put in just a gravel floor or have a concrete floor poured. A typical wood floor that many of those kits use (so that you can put the building on skids for moving around later) imo makes no sense due to both the fire risk and the weight loading in concentrated areas that it will need.
wow G thats serious madness to have to use a code for a paid food delivery . its like i think what a joke , i have to be identified and security check to access my account i want to pay . what someone else is going to access and pay it for me ? yeah right
Is that for Paid food delivered to your house … OR for picking it up in the parking lot of Wal-Mart?
If for food that is being delivered to someone’s house it makes no sense in my mind.
If for picking up in the parking lot of Wal-Mart it makes sense since I am sure Wal-Mart has had people show up and say they are X and pick up the food that X ordered and paid for and then drive away with what is for them FREE FOOD! (around here they have been requiring that code use for years for hard goods ordered in to be picked up at your Wal-Mart)
Around here Aldi’s has already pulled out of ALL of their stores the Self Scan registers since people were STEALING so much food via those … and Walmart has now both installed in most of their stores one way gates as you go in the store so you HAVE to go out through a register lane coming out AND are also pulling out their Self Scan registers in many of their stores.
FOOD THEFT from grocery stores has risen to a new level, at least around here, which is why those chains are totally changing how their stores are set up and how you get out the door with your food.
fwiw: Krogers has installed those same entrance gates at some of their stores AND has now put LOCKING WHEELS on their grocery carts which prevent them from leaving the front door area in some of their stores! (no more using the cart to take your grocercies to your car at those Krogers) … AND they are also shutting down self scan registers except for very limited hours
No that was delivered and in my house!
Crazy … makes NO SENSE imo!!
Administrative Control designed by overpaid cube dwellers who never do any real physical work out at stores!! (is what it seems to me)
The last time I was in Kroger, I past up five carts either locked or wheels badly damaged before finding one with a wheel that had been dragged so many times, it was hexagonal shaped, but would still roll. Thump-thump-thump-thump.
I talked to a Kroger manager about the cart wheel locks. They reset if you drag them by a check-out. This means if all the carts are locked, you find a good flat spot on the wheels, and drag it in through the out door and into the check-out area to unlock it. You can’t make this stuff up.
When I worked at a local market the biggest abusers were business owners for r members f the A list..the big one was some joker would get a fifty rib eye steaks..then on Monday bring back twenty five or so of them saying people got sick and they wanted their money back or they would sue..they of course gave em their money back and since they couldn’t resell them we all had steak cooked in the back on the grill..today they use this in the deli.. I once asked why they allowed it..the reason I was told was they promote the store to their employees and buy gift cards..
did notice that loudly also..
While we are at it … 54.40 OR FIGHT!!
The election of 1844 is still UNFULFILLED!
The underdog got elected on that slogan and yet the “Promise” that the American people voted for was not accomplished.
Time to remedy that historical error and the others that Pres Polk made with his Mexican War (and almost US v Great Britain War over “54.40 “Or Fight” in 1846/47) while we take over Greenland. Sure he seized what is now New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Washington, and western Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana … but THAT is not all he promised in that 1844 election!
Clearly we NEED MORE!
1) Greenland
2) 54.40 (Canada may not like it but pissing them off is not a big deal)
3) Extend the border line of New Mexico directly west so we get the northern end of the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez) and so we can put a seaport into Arizona at the mouth of the Colorado River (and also get the entire railroad route from San Diego to Arizona which currently runs partially through Mexico – which is why it has fallen into almost complete disrepair and non-use)
ALL seem to be reasonable for a conquering power! All hail to Cesaer!
(+ btw we NEED that new Arch in DC for our conquering troops to march under)
Yep … We used to have a Gun Boats and WAR philosophy to fight and kill so as to expand the borders of the US as part of our heritage. Taking Cuba and the Philipines by force from another country was just icing on the cake. What are we waiting for? Have we become a bunch of sissy’s?
big fan of the Philipeens..
“Empires don’t expand because they are strong.”
Where you going to go?
Low profile means don’t participate. Find an old American Chestnut tree and live in the tree?
“Sundance explains how stunningly brilliant Trump’s Venezuela strategy really is…”
“But what Trump didn’t say in his message is how China and Russia were licking their chops to get their mitts on Venezuela’s oil, hoping they could grab those barrels through Dubai and the usual globalist back channels. Trump beat them to the punch. He played a calculated game of world chess and “trumped” them by moving first, locking the deal at real market price,”
https://revolver.news/2026/01/sundance-explains-how-stunningly-brilliant-trumps-venezuela-strategy-really-is/
R, Oil prices are falling, you can’t see through the echo chamber fog as usual:
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/exxon-signals-lower-fourth-quarter-upstream-earnings-2026-01-07/#:~:text=Jan%207%20(Reuters)%20%2D%20U.S.,to%20data%20compiled%20by%20LSEG.
Jan 7 (Reuters) – U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), opens new tab said on Wednesday that lower crude oil prices could cut its fourth-quarter upstream earnings by about $800 million to $1.2 billion.
Oil prices declined 9.2% during the three months ended December 31, as concerns about oversupply and tariffs outweighed geopolitical risks.
(R, Oil prices are falling, you can’t see through the echo chamber fog as usual:”)
hmm…think about that for one n nuts with an open mind and markets ..Falling oil prices don’t always mean freedom or a prosperous present. During COVID, prices dropped—but movement was restricted by policy, not cost they lowered prices to keep sales coming. High fuel prices restrict mobility, but low prices can signal panic or oversupply. The real paradox? They need to “keep the noodle moving across the table”—fuel prices are both a symptom and a lever in the choreography of economic flow. Echo chamber takes miss the deeper strategy: price shifts modulate behavior, not just reflect demand.
Late to chime in on the “en$hitification” of everything. One of my favorite bloggers besides Ures truly, Karl Denninger has been railing for years on the illegal nature of American disease care (health, ha). Compounding at 9% per year or so and the largest portion of the entire federal budget, it will destroy the country. It is destroying itself as is “higher” education. (Do the administrators smoke tainted weed?) Overpriced worthless degrees with people on the hook for the debt with no legal way to discharge it. Thanks Congress.
As a society do we expect young people to: Buy $400K homes, $200K College degrees, $50K cars, pay $2K per month for rent, $1K smart phones, and be nickel and dimed into oblivion with taxes, fees, and surcharges?
I am testing Linux distributions because Microsoft (Microslop) destroyed the quality of Windows, forcing updates, AI, breaking working systems with software bugs, data harvesting, etc.
How about right to repair? Car manufacturers are selling over-priced junk. Ford had a record breaking 152 safety recalls for 2025. GM and their 6.1 L V8 engine failures. Stellantis is a dead man walking in my opinion.
Hopefully, alternatives will exist and thrive to address these problems. Do everything in your power to not need the healthcare system. Own your possessions outright if you can. Stay healthy, stay out of debt, stay employed if you need a job.
Good comments. Kids are screwed in this country. Indentured service from cradle to grave. Wait, but you say, we have child labor laws. Unfortunately, if your parents are indentured debt slaves, so are you. Back to Horatio Algiers. If you want to escape the debt cycle, marry the owner’s kid, do the owner’s dirty work for him, and maybe you can get a hand up. Otherwise, you sort cartons.
There is another way.
Health Sharing.
Samaritan Ministries
Medishare
Liberty Health Share
We didn’t participate in the modern insurance ripoff for 14 years. Saved hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Look these health sharing companies up, and never pay a corporate entity again, under 65.
I tried them..they wouldn’t insure us until I renounced my affiliation with my church and joined another for a year..they seen the church I belong to as a cult not a religious organization..
All The Signs Point To Military Action In Iran – Iranians Citizens Take Western City
Sources in the Middle East tell CDM that military action is imminent against Iran from likely the U.S. and Israel.
Demonstrators in Abdanan, western Iran, celebrated in the streets after taking control of the city from regime forces.
https://cdm.press/news/middle-east/2026/01/07/all-the-signs-point-to-military-action-in-iran-iranians-citizens-take-western-city/
This needs to happen, and is one of the reasons for taking Maduro. Venezuela is the first domino. The international noise is all about Cuba packing it in without Caracas’ petroleum and financial support. Nobody here is watching Iran — except the Administration. And NO, the C-17s, KC-135s, and AC-130 (at least one) we just sent to England are not in the UK to capture a tanker that’s flying a Russian flag and I’m reasonably sure they’re neither a Ukrainian insertion nor extraction team. My ears aren’t good enough to know, but I suspect they’re “ready backup” for something, or other…
The Broader Strategy Behind Trump’s Removal of Venezuela’s Maduro
Trump led the most consequential action so far to restore US dominance in the Western Hemisphere and drive out the CCP.
Other key, yet more subtle, regional developments are unfolding in the Caribbean as the Trump administration implements its new strategy. Pressure on Venezuela is having an immediate impact on neighboring Guyana and Cuba, but its longer-term aim is to thwart “non-hemispheric” actors from accessing resources beyond just the Caribbean, from as far north as Greenland to as far south as Tierra del Fuego.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/the-broader-strategy-behind-trumps-removal-of-venezuelas-maduro-5966628
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Yes, Cry for Venezuela
It’s an excruciating economic lesson for the ages.
How can one of the most resource-rich countries on the planet, with trillions of dollars of energy and mineral reserves, beautiful beaches, and beautiful people, become impoverished in just 25 years?
The simplest explanation? Venezuelan communist leaders Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro abandoned free markets and “rugged individualism” in favor of the “warm embrace of collectivism.”
https://issuesinsights.com/2026/01/06/yes-cry-for-venezuela/
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NYC’s new socialist mayor appoints woke housing tsar who proudly declared her ambition to make life hell for white people
New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani’s newly appointed tsar for renters posted a slew of offensive tweets sharing her plans to target ordinary working white people. Cea Weaver, a progressive ‘housing justice’ activist, was named Mamdani’s new director of the city’s Office to Protect Tenants on his first day in the role.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15438527/nyc-mayor-zohran-mamdani-cea-weaver.html
“NYC’s new socialist mayor appoints woke housing tsar who proudly declared her ambition to make life hell for white people”
Who’s mother and father are multi-millionaire landlords who rent out apartments /houses in Rochester NY and who have a $1.4 million dollar house in Nashville. (where at least one of them is a College Professor at Vanderbilt University)
Just like her boss, the mayor .. the spoiled RICH KID CHILD of multi-millionaire parents. Many rich kids seem to think like the quotes below:
“Rules are for THEE … NOT for ME”
“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”
George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”
Tim Walz: Minnesota Is at ‘War’ With the Federal Government, Calls Out National Guard
Well, that escalated quickly. According to Tim Walz, Minnesota is at war with the federal government. He is calling out the Minnesota National Guard to protect Minnesotans against “rogue federal agents.”
Even before the video came out that almost certainly showed that the woman who was unfortunately killed had surged her car and actually struck the federal agent who shot her, Minnesota’s politicians ramped up the rhetoric, calling it murder and demanding that the federal government remove its law enforcement agents from the state.
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2026/01/07/tim-walz-minnesota-is-at-war-with-the-federal-government-calls-out-national-guard-n3810600
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Media Don’t Want You To Know Anti-ICE Driver In Minneapolis Rammed Agents With Her Car
It didn’t take long, but America’s propaganda media have (unsurprisingly) already begun to whitewash the anti-ICE violence at the heart of a shooting involving U.S. immigration officials.
On Wednesday, a U.S. immigration official reportedly fired upon and killed a woman who was allegedly antagonizing agents during an enforcement operation in Minneapolis. The most pertinent detail about this story, however, is that video of the incident appears to show the suspect in question attempting to run down an agent with her vehicle.
https://thefederalist.com/2026/01/07/media-dont-want-you-to-know-anti-ice-driver-in-minneapolis-rammed-agents-with-her-car/
Tipping Point? 36 Dead, Biggest Protests Yet in Iran
Note to American media: Perhaps give us a little less Greenland, and a lot more Iran. Even by the if it bleeds, it leads standard, the lack of interest in what may well amount to the end of an era in the Middle East is puzzling.
Protests have rocked the regime in Tehran, and have spread to all provinces while intensifying in the capital. CBS News has kept up with developments and reports that three dozen people have already been killed in the eruption against the mullahcracy. The IRGC has detained thousands already, but the protests continue to expand
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2026/01/07/iran-protests-gain-momentum-36-dead-n3810595
BREAKING: In a jaw-dropping announcement, President Trump disclosed that George Soros and Reid Hoffman are funding Antifa and the left-wing violence against ICE. Trump vows to launch a RICO investigation into George Soros.
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2008730310339666052
That’s actually replay from a late Sept 25 series of posts
Although I understand your irritation at being asked to verify using the digital code, I think you’re missing the more important part. That code is what ensures that no “porch pirate” steals your food by waiting at your gate and claiming to be you.
If your cell phone doesn’t work where you are, maybe you need to find one that will (different provider) or get an amplification system that will snatch a faint signal and boost it to your phone. We us a WEboost cell booster here to improve the weak cell signals.
No providers do – we havee tried and so, we will use another store – simple – porch here is 300 feet behand barbed wire
Hmmm…lets see…Tainter’s analysis of the Ancestral Puebloans (formerly known as the Anasazi) is perhaps the clearest “smoking gun” for his theory of diminishing marginal returns.
In The Collapse of Complex Societies, he uses the Chaco Canyon culture to demonstrate that collapse isn’t always a “catastrophe” in the sense of a sudden, tragic death—I believe that often, it is a rational, economic choice to simplify.once the needs of those in the civilization is lost or neglected.. they walk away
The Chaco Canyon Case (Anasazi)
For the Ancestral Puebloans, complexity was a survival strategy against an unpredictable environment. They built a massive “redistribution system”:
The Investment: They built the “Great Houses” and a sprawling road system not just for glory, but to move food from areas with rain to areas in drought.
The Diminishing Return: As the population grew, the “energy cost” of maintaining that system (the bureaucracy, the labor to carry grain 50 miles, the ritual overhead) began to consume more calories than the system was actually saving.
The Point of Zero Return: When a prolonged drought hit, the cost of trying to “fix” the problem through even *more* organization became higher than the benefit of the organization itself.
The Result:They didn’t just “fail”; they “walked away seeing no reason to keep supporting a system that failed to meet the basic needs.”They abandoned the expensive, high-complexity centers like Chaco and reverted to smaller, self-sufficient villages. As Tainter famously argues: Collapse was the solution, not the problem.
The Egyptian Parallel
the Egyptian Empire (specifically the Old Kingdom collapse) fits Tainter’s model perfectly.
The Complexity Trap:The Old Kingdom had invested heavily in a centralized, pharaonic bureaucracy and massive “energy sinks” (the Pyramids). This system was entirely dependent on a high return from the Nile’s annual floods the advanced to those in the elite but left the needs of the working class to fend for themselves.
The Marginal Decline… When a series of low Nile floods occurred around 2200 BCE, the central government tried to maintain its complexity (taxes, temple maintenance, etc.) while the resource base shrank.
Walking Away was the result of neglected vitizens:When the central government could no longer provide the “return” of food security, the local governors (nomarchs) realized they were paying “taxes” for a service they weren’t receiving. They stopped sending grain to Memphis, the central state collapsed, and the First Intermediate Period began—a period of lower complexity but higher local resilience.
Tainter’s “Tough Pill”
Tainter’s most haunting point is that civilizations don’t collapse because they are weak; they collapse because they are successful that one section of society gains while forgetting the needs of the vast majority. They solve so many problems through complexity that they eventually run out of “low-hanging fruit.”
As a result every new problem then requires a “higher-cost” solution, until the population is so heavily taxed (in energy, labor, or money) that the slightest shock—a drought in Chaco or a low Nile in Egypt—causes the whole house of cards to fall because there is no “margin” left to absorb the blow.
Today healthcare.. a great healthcare system if you have the money poorest if you don’t.. I believe we are one drought away from collapse..or one pandemic..one more war or if war was to reach our shores..the vast majority of the people have lost faith.. I once read that once taxation reached eighty percent of the income it would collapse..considering the vast variety of taxes and fees we are there..