Yes my friends it has been yet another year and a good year it was for blogging at least for me….the year itself kinda sucked.

I have added a few new regulars and lost a couple but that is how blogging works……bloggers come and go a I am just thankful that most of my die hard regulars continue to visit and comment and I cannot thank them enough for their loyalty.

The last week of 2025 was great for views even if most were bots being irritating.

2025 I have written 720 posts and had 1825 views which is an uptick from the year before (not breaking any records but still feels good)…..although the uptick is probably ‘bots come to visit.

2025 was a terrible year…..politics sucked, international stage was alight, but most of all for me personally…..my best friend and my heart passed away….Sue was the best thing that every happened to me…..and then I was diagnosed with a double cancer…..after 6 months of steady treatment those tumors were shrinking…..and then in December a new shadow has shown up in my lung….now I must wait until next year to find out what is what.

So I am not a fan of 2025 for the obvious reasons.

There has been lots of predictions for the coming year….Nostro has had something to say, Cayce as well and then there are a few others but the one that caught my attention was the predictions from some shamans in Peru….

A group of shamans gathered Monday by the sea in the Miraflores district of Peru’s capital, Lima, to carry out an annual ritual in which they make predictions for the upcoming year. Dressed in traditional Andean ponchos and headdresses, the group performed a ceremony and made predictions about the course of international relations, ongoing conflicts, and the fate of world leaders, reports the AP.

• Maduro: This year, the shamans said Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro will be removed from office. “We have asked for Maduro to leave, to retire, for President Donald Trump of the United States to be able to remove him, and we have visualized that next year this will happen,” said shaman Ana María Simeón.

• Trump: As for the American president himself, “The United States should prepare itself because Donald Trump will fall seriously ill,” Juan de Dios Garcia said, per RNZ.
• Spotty record: The group has a mixed record with its annual predictions. Last year, for instance, they warned a “nuclear war” would break out between Israel and Gaza. But in December 2023, the group correctly predicted that former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who had been imprisoned for human rights abuses, would perish within 12 months. Fujimori died from cancer in September 2024 at the age of 86.
• Ritual: Before Monday’s ceremony, the shamans met to drink hallucinogenic concoctions derived from native plants—including Ayahuasca and the San Pedro cactus—which are believed to give them the power to predict the future. After dancing in circles and playing ancestral instruments, the shamans asked for peace in the Middle East, an end to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, and the fall of Maduro. The prayers to the gods, performed amid flowers and incense, as well as dances, are intended to encourage leaders to make good decisions. The shamans also predicted natural disasters, such as earthquakes and climatic phenomena.

Will these predictions be accurate….more so than some of the others I have seen?

Thoughts?

I can only hope that 2026 will be a better year.

Please be responsible and careful if you plan on celebrating the new year…..I look forward to seeing everyone next year and the comments that will follow.

Happy New Year to everyone.

See you soon.

chuq