Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 5/13/26
"Alert! Get Out Of The Cities While You Still Can!"
Comments here:
So, we rise from the rubble...
StatCounter
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
Canadian Prepper, "Trillions Are at Stake, Why the Iran War Won't End; Tactical Nuclear Use"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 5/13/26
"Trillions Are at Stake, Why the Iran War Won't End;
Tactical Nuclear Use"
Comments here:
Musical Interlude: Disturbed, "The Sound Of Silence"
Full screen recommended.
Disturbed, "The Sound Of Silence", Studio
Singer David Draiman
1.1 Billion views...
I've listened to this 100 times, there's "something" here,
it touches your soul, and if there are words for it I don't know them...
Full screen recommended.
Disturbed, "The Sound Of Silence", Live
160 million views...
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Sharp telescopic views of NGC 3628 show a puffy galactic disk divided by dark dust lanes. Of course, this deep portrait of the magnificent, edge-on spiral galaxy puts some astronomers in mind of its popular moniker, the Hamburger Galaxy. It also reveals a small galaxy nearby, likely a satellite of NGC 3628, and a faint but extensive tidal tail. The drawn out tail stretches for about 300,000 light-years, even beyond the right edge of the wide frame.
NGC 3628 shares its neighborhood in the local universe with two other large spirals M65 and M66 in a grouping otherwise known as the Leo Triplet. Gravitational interactions with its cosmic neighbors are likely responsible for creating the tidal tail, as well as the extended flare and warp of this spiral's disk. The tantalizing island universe itself is about 100,000 light-years across and 35 million light-years away in the northern springtime constellation Leo."
Chet Raymo, “We Are Such Stuff...”
by Chet Raymo
“Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometimes voices,
That, if I then had wak'd after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again.”
"Caliban is talking to Stephano and Trinculo in Shakespeare's “Tempest”, telling them not to be "afeard" of the mysterious place they find themselves, an island seemingly beset with magic, strangeness, ineffable presences. And you and I, and, yes, all of us, find ourselves inexplicably thrown up on this island that is the world, and we too, if we are attentive, hear the strange music, the sounds and sweet airs, that seems to come from nowhere and everywhere
No, I'm not talking about the usual ubiquitous clamor, the roar of internal combustion, the blare of the television, the beeping of mobile phones. I'm not talking about the Limbaughs and the Becks, the televangelists, the blathering politicians, the twitterers and bloggers (including this one). I'm not even talking about the exquisite music of Mozart, the poetry of Wordsworth, the theories of Einstein.
I'm talking about the sounds we hear in utter silence, in moments of repose, in the heart of darkness, when we are a little bit afraid, disoriented, off kilter. A strange music that comes from beyond our knowing, a felt meaning. You've heard it. I've heard it. You'd have to be deaf not to have heard it.
Where we differ is how we describe it. Mostly, we give its source a name. Angels. Fairies. Gods or demons. Yahweh. Allah. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Nixies, E.T.s, shades and shadows. Naiads, dryads, Ariel and Puck. A host of invisible creatures who are, in one way or another, images of ourselves. And, in naming, we are a little less afraid.
And some of us are just content to listen, to take delight. Having woken to the inexplicable mystery of the world- the sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not- we let the music lull us back into a sweet slumber, a kind of dreamless dream, a reverie. Does reverie share a deep root with reverence? I don't know.”
- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/
Jeremiah Babe, "Debt Is Going To Punish Americans, Get Ready For More Pain"
Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 5/13/26
"Debt Is Going To Punish Americans,
Get Ready For More Pain"
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Epic Economist, "America's Auto Industry Is Falling Apart - Here Is Why"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 5/13/26
"America's Auto Industry Is Falling Apart - Here Is Why"
"The American auto industry has quietly reached a breaking point - and almost nobody is talking about what's actually happening at every level of it. From dealership service bays sitting empty by the thousands to federal mandates that will turn every new car into a surveillance device, from ethanol fuel destroying older engines to parts for basic models simply disappearing - the industry that built this country is coming apart from every direction at once.
In this video, you'll hear from ten people across America describing what their work and their cars actually look like in 2026. A twenty-year master technician walking off the dealership floor for good. A young mechanic explaining the thirty-thousand-dollar tool investment a starter is expected to bring on day one. A cybersecurity expert walking through Section 24220 of the Infrastructure Act, which mandates AI cameras, eye tracking, and driver monitoring in every new car. A driver pointing out that the 15% ethanol federal fuel mandate is corroding fuel lines and gaskets in every pre-2010 vehicle on the road. A shop owner explaining why he can't find parts for a 1980s Chevrolet anymore. This isn't one problem. This is the entire industry collapsing in slow motion - workers walking out, new cars getting locked down, old cars getting killed off, the supply chain falling apart, and almost no national press coverage of any of it.
If you've got a mechanic or a car owner in your life - send them this video. Drop your story in the comments. The shop. The tools. The car you can't get parts for. Let people see they are not alone."
Comments here:
"Slightly Up From Slavery"
"Slightly Up From Slavery"
by Doug Casey
"To eliminate misunderstanding as to what taxes are, it is helpful to define the word "theft." One good definition is "the wrongful taking and carrying away of the personal goods of another." The definition does not go on to say, "unless you're the government."
There is no difference, in principle, between the State taking property and a street gang doing so, except that the State's theft is "legal" and its agents are immune from prosecution. Many people do not accept that analogy, because the government is widely viewed as being of, for, and by the people, even though it's also acknowledged as acting badly from time to time.
Suppose a mugger demanded your wallet, perhaps because he needed money to buy a new car and threatened you with violence if you weren't forthcoming. Everyone would call that a criminal act. Suppose, however, the mugger said he wanted the money to buy himself food. Would it still be theft? Suppose now that he said he wanted your wallet to feed another hungry person, not himself. Would it still be theft?
Now let's suppose that this mugger convinces most of his friends that it's okay for him to relieve you of your wallet. Would it still be theft? What if he convinces a majority of citizens? Principles stand on their own. Even if a criminal act is committed for a good purpose, or with the complicity of bystanders, (even if those people call themselves the government), it is still an act of criminal aggression.
It is important to establish an ethical viewpoint on the matter, even if it doesn't change your reaction to the mugger's (or the State's) demands. Just as it's usually unwise to resist a mugger, it's usually unwise to resist the government, which has a lot of force on its side.
That's not to say it's easy to swim against the tide. Every year at tax time promoters of big government haul out an assortment of nostrums to sedate the lambs as they are shorn. One of the worst is "Taxes are the price we pay for civilization," a statement of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. It is a splendid example of how, if a lie is big enough and is repeated often enough, it can come to be accepted.
Actually, the truth is almost exactly the opposite. As Mark Skousen, economist and author, has pointed out: "Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state is a complete failure of civilization, while a totally voluntary society is its ultimate success."
;
Taxes are destroyers of civilization and society. They impoverish the average man. They support welfare programs that anchor the lower classes at the bottom of society. They underwrite a gigantic bureaucracy that serves only to raise costs and quash incentive. They pay for public works programs (once called "pork barrel projects," but now rechristened "infrastructure investment") that are usually ten times more costly than their privately financed counterparts, whether needed or not. They maintain programs that cause huge distortions in the economy (such as deposit insurance for banks). And they foster a climate of fear and dishonesty. The list of evils goes on. But the simple truth is that anything needed or wanted by society would be provided by profit-seeking entrepreneurs, if only the tax collector would retire.
Protesting against taxes because they're a costly or inefficient way of providing services, however, is in good measure futile. It's like saying that the mugger shouldn't rob you because there might be a better way for him to get what he wants.
How serious is the tax problem in the long run? I believe it will become less, not more serious, despite the government's increasingly high tax rates and draconian enforcement measures. The major long-term trend of society is toward decentralization and smaller-scale organizations. The US government will prove no more able to deal with a rapidly evolving economy than was the Soviet government. More and more Americans will see the government as meaningless and irrelevant, as serving no useful purpose.
READER Q&A
Question: Inflation has been roaring back unreported for decades. Why do you think half of America with 2 jobs can't put food on table?
Answer:
Nick Giambruno: Without a doubt, the culprit is the central banking and fiat currency system. Imagine working 9 to 5 for 50 years, only for the Federal Reserve to print 40% of the money supply and inflate away 20 years of your hard work. You don’t have to imagine - it actually happened during the Covid mass psychosis, when governments around the world indulged in a frenzy of currency debasement. In other words, if your after-tax wealth hasn’t increased by 40% since 2020, you aren’t keeping pace with the monetary debasement.
It’s no wonder an increasing number of people are struggling to make ends meet. It’s like running on a treadmill that only tilts steeper and speeds up. I have no doubt the Fed will soon engage in even more egregious currency debasement. It could amount to the largest wealth transfer in history, and you do not want to be on the wrong side of it. It’s also crucial to remember that central banks have nothing to do with the free market. They are, in fact, the antithesis of it.
In Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, central banking is the fifth plank. Meanwhile, the lying media portrays central bankers as selfless bureaucrats heroically trying to save the economy. It’s a load of BS. Central bankers are the enemies of the average person - the driving force behind currency debasement and the primary cause of the spiraling cost of living."
Delta King's Blues, "I’m Not Angry… I Just Don’t Have Energy for Nonsense Anymore"
Full screen recommended.
Delta King's Blues, "I’m Not Angry…
I Just Don’t Have Energy for Nonsense Anymore"
"The Plain Truth..."
“The plain truth is we are going to die. Here I am, a teeny spec surrounded by boundless space and time, arguing with the whole of creation, shaking my fist, sputtering, growing even eloquent at times, and then - poof! I am gone. Swept off once and for all. I think that is very, very funny.” - Charles Simic
"Alas..."
"Alas, regardless of their doom,
The little victims play!
No sense have they of ills to come,
Nor care beyond to-day..."
○
o
'One can fight evil but against stupidity one is helpless."
- Henry Miller
- Henry Miller
○
Oh, we so deserve what we get...
"Reality Avoidance"
"Reality Avoidance"
by Morris Berman
"It’s quite amazing how the news is endlessly about nonsense. Filler, is what I call it. Very little of this has anything to do with reality, which the Mainstream Media and the American people avoid like the plague. What then is real?
1. The empire is in decline; every day, life here gets a little bit worse; all our institutions are corrupt to varying degrees; and there is no turning this situation around.
2. A crucial factor in this decline and irreversibility is the low level of intelligence of the American people. Americans are not only dumb; they are positively antagonistic toward the life of the mind.
3. Relations of power and money determine practically everything. The 3 wealthiest Americans own as much as the bottom 50% of the population, and this tendency will get worse over time.
4. The value system of the country, and its citizens, is fundamentally wrong-headed. It amounts to little more than hustling, selfishness, narcissism, and a blatant disregard for anyone but oneself. There is a kind of cruelty, or violence, deep in the American soul; many foreign observers and writers have commented on this. Americans are bitter, depressed, and angry, and the country offers very little by way of community or empathy.
5. Along with this is the support of meaningless wars and imperial adventures on the part of most of the population. That we drone-murder unarmed civilians on a weekly basis is barely on the radar screen of the American mind. In essence, the nation has evolved into a genocidal war machine run by a plutocracy and cheered on by mindless millions.
Most Americans hide from these depressing, even horrific, realities by what passes for ‘the news’, but also by means of alcohol, opioids, TV, cellphones, suicide, prescription drugs, workaholism, and spectator sports, to name but a few. This stuffing of the Void is probably our primary activity. In a word, we are eating ourselves alive, and only a tiny fraction of the population recognizes this."
o
Read it and weep...
"Morris Berman On A Dumbed-down America"
by RoryLitwin
Excerpt: "I am sharing a passage from Morris Berman’s book from a few years ago, "The Twilight of American Culture." Berman has generously agreed to let me share this passage, which is about the deplorable state of ignorance of the American people. The facts and data in this passage are a bit old, but all signs suggest that things have gotten worse since then, not better. "The Twilight of American Culture," pp. 33-40.
Turning to Item (c),The collapse of American intelligence, we find a picture that is unambiguously bleak. The following data are going to seem invented; please be assured, they are not.
– Forty-two percent of American adults cannot locate Japan on a world map, and according to Garrison Keillor (National Public Radio, 22 March 1997,) another survey revealed that nearly 15 percent couldn’t locate the United States (!). Keillor remarked that this was like not being able to “grab your rear end with both hands,” and he suggested that we stop being so assiduous, on the eve of elections, about trying to get out the vote.
– A survey taken in October 1996 revealed that one in ten voters did not know who the Republican or Democratic nominees for president were. This is particularly sobering when one remembers that one of the questions traditionally asked in psychiatric wards as part of the test for sanity is “Who is the president of the United States?”
– Very few Americans understand the degree to which corporations have taken over their lives. But according to a poll taken by Time magazine, nearly 70 percent of them believe in the existence of angels; and another study turned up the fact that 50 percent believe in the presence of UFOs and space aliens on earth, while a Gallup poll (reported on CNN, 19 August 1997) revealed that 71 percent believe that the U.S. government is engaged in a cover-up about the subject. More than 30 percent believe they have made contact with the dead.
– A 1995 article in the New York Times reported the results of a survey that revealed that 40 percent of American adults (this could be upward of 70 million people) did not know that Germany was our enemy in World War II. A Roper survey conducted in 1996 revealed that 84 percent of American college seniors cannot understand a newspaper editorial in any newspaper, and a U.S. Department of Education survey of 22,000 students in 1995 revealed that 50 percent were unaware of the Cold War, and that 60 percent had no idea of how the United States came into existence.
– At one point in 1996, Jay Leno invited a number of high school students to be on his television program and asked them to complete famous quotations from major American documents, such as the Gettysburg address and the Declaration of Independence. Their response in each case was to stare at him blankly. As a kind of follow-up, on his show of 3 June 1999, Leno screened a video of interviews he had conducted a few days before at a university graduation ceremony. He did not identify the institution in question; he told his TV audience only that the students he had interviewed included graduate students as well as undergraduates. The group included men, women, and people of color. Leno posed eight questions, as follows:
1. Who designed the first American flag? Answers included Susan B. Anthony (born in 1820,) and “Betsy Ford.”
2. What were the Thirteen Colonies free from, after the American Revolution? One student said, “The East Coast.”
3. What was the Gettysburg Address? One student replied, “An address to Getty;” another said, “I don’t know the exact address.”
4. Who invented the lightbulb? Answers included Thomas Jefferson
5. What is three squared? One student said, “Twenty-seven;” another said, “Six.”
6. What is the boiling point of water? Answers included 115 degrees?
7. How long does it take the earth to rotate once on its axis? The two answers Leno received here were “Light years” (which is a measure of distance, not time,) and “Twenty-four axises [sic].”
8. How many moons does the earth have? The student questioned said she had taken astronomy a few years back and had gotten an A in the course but that she couldn’t remember the correct answer.
It is important to note that not a single student interviewed had the correct answer to any of these questions. Leno’s comment on this pathetic debacle says it all: “And the Chinese are stealing secrets from us?”
– A 1998 survey by the National Constitution Center revealed that only 41 percent of American teenagers can name the three branches of government, but 59 percent can name the Three Stooges. Only 2 percent can name the chief justice of the Supreme Court; 26 percent were unable to identify the vice president. In the early 1990s, the National Assessment of Education Progress reported that 50 percent of seventeen year olds could not express 9/100 as a percentage, and nearly 50 percent couldn’t place the Civil War in the correct half century–data that the San Antonio Express News characterized as evidence of the “steady lobotomizing” of American culture. In another study of seventeen year olds, only 4 percent could read a bus schedule, and only 12% could arrange six common fractions in order of size.
– Ignorance of the most elementary scientific facts on the part of American adults is nothing less than breathtaking. In a survey conducted for the National Science Foundation in October 1995, 56 percent of those polled said that electrons were larger than atoms; 63 percent stated that the earliest human beings lived at the same time as the dinosaurs (a chronological error of more than 60 million years;) 53 percent said that the earth revolved around the sun in either a day or a month (that is to say, only 47 percent understood that the correct answer is one year;) and 91 percent were unable to state what a molecule was. A random telephone survey of more than two thousand adults, conducted by Northern Illinois University, revealed that 21 percent believed that the sun revolved around the earth, with an additional 7 percent saying that they did not know which revolved around which.
– Of the 158 countries in the United Nations, the United States ranks forty-ninth in literacy. Roughly 60 percent of the adult population reads as much as one book a year, where book is defined to include Harlequin romances and self-help manuals. Something like 120 million adults are illiterate or read at no better than a fifth-grade level. Among readers age twenty-one to thirty-five, 67 percent regularly read a daily newspaper in 1965, as compared with 31 percent in 1998.
– In a telephone survey conducted in 1998, 12 percent of Americans, asked who the wife of the biblical Noah was, said “Joan of Arc” (reported on National Public Radio, 13 June 1998.)
– In 1997, as a hoax, the attorney general of the state of Missouri submitted a proposal to an international academic accrediting agency (not identified) to establish an institution he named Eastern Missouri Business College, which would grant Ph.D’s in marine biology and genetic engineering, as well as in business. The faculty would include, inter alia, Moe Howard, Jerome Howard, and Larry Fine–that is, The Three Stooges; and the proposed motto on the college seal, roughly translated from the Latin, was Education Is for the Birds. The response? Academic accreditation was granted."
Complete article is here. Read it and weep...
o
o
As the great Mogombo Guru said, "We're so freakin' doomed!"
And that's why...
"Professor David Gibbs: No Surrender and No Deal, WW3 and the Biggest Energy Crisis in History"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 5/13/26
"Professor David Gibbs: No Surrender and No Deal,
WW3 and the Biggest Energy Crisis in History"
Scott Ritter, "Iran Didn’t Break, It Adapted. Now Stronger Than Ever"
Scott Ritter, 5/13/26
"Iran Didn’t Break, It Adapted. Now Stronger Than Ever"
Comments here:
Col. Douglas Macgregor, "Start Preparing Now!"
Full screen recommended.
Col. Douglas Macgregor, 5/13/26
"Start Preparing Now!"
Comments here:
Full screen recommended.
Col. Douglas Macgregor, 5/13/26
"What's Coming Is Worse Than A Depression"
Comments here:
- https://www.youtube.com/
Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, "Global Economic Crisis: Start Preparing Yourself"
Full screen recommended.
Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, 5/13/26
"Global Economic Crisis: Start Preparing Yourself"
Comments here:
"Recession Ahead: Americans Shift to Survival Shopping!"
Full screen recommended.
Snyder Reports, 5/13/26
"Recession Ahead: Americans Shift to Survival Shopping!"
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Dan, I Allegedly, "More Pain Is Coming!"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 5/13/26
"More Pain Is Coming!"
"America’s inflation crisis is getting worse and average families are feeling the pain everywhere they turn. In this breaking news update, Dan from i Allegedly covers rising gas prices, skyrocketing food costs, expensive utility bills, auto insurance increases, student loan problems, and the growing financial pressure crushing the middle class. Consumers are struggling to budget as inflation climbs again and everyday essentials become unaffordable. This video also breaks down the impact of retail store closures, restaurant shutdowns, rising debt, subscription fatigue, and the growing economic uncertainty facing millions of Americans. From California gas prices to grocery inflation and layoffs, this is a real-world look at how the economy is affecting ordinary people right now. Share your thoughts below and tell us what prices are exploding in your area."
Comments here:
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Full screen recommended.
The Economic Ninja, 5/13/26
"The Wholesale Inflation Numbers
Show How Bad It Will Be This Summer"
Comments here:
"Americans Drown in Debt While Washington Pretends the Economy Is Strong"
"Americans Drown in Debt While
Washington Pretends the Economy Is Strong"
"Americans now owe roughly 1.3 trillion dollars in credit card debt, and the average household carrying balances owes more than $11,000. People are no longer using credit cards for luxury spending. They are using them to survive. A recent survey found that 42% of Americans believe they will carry credit card debt until they die. Think about what that means psychologically. Nearly half the country no longer sees debt as temporary. They see it as permanent. That is not a sign of prosperity. That is a sign of systemic economic decline.
This is exactly what happens when inflation outpaces wages for years while governments continue pretending the economy is healthy because stock indexes remain elevated. The average person does not live off the S&P 500. They live off monthly cash flow, and that cash flow has been destroyed by rising costs across every category, housing, food, insurance, transportation, and energy.
What is especially dangerous is that interest rates on many credit cards are now above 20%, with some consumers paying closer to 25–30% once penalties and fees are included. At those levels, debt compounds faster than many people can realistically pay it down. The system effectively traps consumers into permanent repayment cycles where they are covering interest rather than principal.
I have warned many times that once society shifts from productive borrowing into survival borrowing, the economy enters a completely different phase. Borrowing to build a business or buy productive assets creates future growth. Borrowing to buy groceries or pay utility bills simply delays the collapse temporarily while making the eventual outcome worse.
The broader numbers are staggering. Americans are simultaneously carrying roughly 1.7 trillion dollars in auto debt, over 12 trillion in mortgage debt, and trillions more in student loans and personal borrowing. Household debt across the board has reached historic highs.
This is why the middle class is disappearing. People are working simply to service debt obligations while the purchasing power of their income continues to decline. That creates enormous social frustration because the official narrative claims unemployment is low and the economy is expanding, yet people feel poorer every single year. Both things can technically exist at the same time if inflation and debt servicing consume real disposable income.
We are already seeing early signs of that stress emerge. Delinquencies on credit cards and auto loans have been rising sharply, especially among younger borrowers and lower-income households. Once defaults begin climbing broadly, banks tighten lending standards, which then reduces liquidity throughout the consumer economy.
The irony is that Washington itself is operating exactly the same way as the average overleveraged consumer. The federal government now runs trillion-dollar deficits routinely while interest payments on the national debt are approaching levels historically associated with sovereign debt crises. The population simply mirrors the behavior of the state.
This is why confidence becomes the key issue going forward. Once consumers lose faith in their financial future, spending patterns change. People stop planning long-term. They delay families, home purchases, investment, and entrepreneurship because survival overtakes expansion. That transition slowly erodes the entire economic structure from underneath.
Credit card debt at 1.3 trillion dollars is not just a statistic. It is evidence that millions of people can no longer maintain living standards through income alone."
Joel Bowman, "The Rapper and the Rolling Stone"
"The Rapper and the Rolling Stone"
Mamdani and Milei, a tale of two leaders...
by Joel Bowman
“But what can a poor boy do
Except to sing for a rock ’n’ roll band?”
~ The Rolling Stones, "Street Fighting Man" (1968)
Buenos Aires, Argentina - "Today, a few words on a subject about which your editor knows a great deal: ignorance. Ah, the pages we could fill with all that we do not know! The trick to not knowing, as the Father of Philosophy reminds us, is in not pretending you do. And it is here, at the very first hurdle, that most do-gooder politicians and government-knows-best meddlers come unstuck. Let us choose, as our exemplars of knowledge and ignorance, two members of the popular political cast hailing from opposite Ends of the Americas, both filed under the letter M: First up, the Mayor of New York City, Ayatollah Zohran Mamdani. And second, the President of Argentina, Señor Javier Milei.
The former, a political activist, campaign organizer and one-time hip hop rapper, believes he knows what voters need... and how to give it to ‘em, good and hard. The latter, a professional economist, vocal proponent of the Austrian School of Economics and former singer in a Rolling Stones cover band, is not so sure... On matters of substance, the two men could not be more different.
Class Warfare: On the one hand, Mamdani descends from a long line of prominent intellectual and cultural elites – his father is a fêted political theorist and anthropology professor; his mother is an acclaimed director and producer of “international art-house and crossover films.” (Claude says: “In the west, she is probably more recognizable within elite film and cultural circles.“ Yeah, we didn’t know either...)
Milei, on the other hand, traces his roots back to tierra áspera – his father was a bus driver, who later became a transport businessman; his mother was a homemaker. (Milei describes a strained or distant relationship with them both... at best.) Aside from their differences in musical taste and class background, and more germane to the beat of these Notes, the fast talker and the rock crooner diverge on matters of political preference, too.
When it comes to their respective approaches to government, Milei’s tool of choice is a giant motosierra, which he uses to cut the sprawling State down to size... while Mamdani arrives on the scene with a gym teacher’s whistle, ready to coordinate, calibrate, modulate and otherwise manage the economy into shape. Against the private sector, Mamdani raises his red pen... around the public sector, Milei traces a chalk outline.
More and Less: From the price of eggs at the local grocery store... to who owns and runs the store... who should be allowed to work there and what their hourly wage should be... where the eggs are to be farmed... under what conditions and with which chickens... and so on and so forth, down to the tiniest detail...there is scarcely an aspect of daily life over which our leading men would agree. On the face of it, their political domains are different, too.
Argentina is a country of 48 million people scattered across a vast and varied terrain of just over a million square miles. New York is a city of 8.5 million people, crammed into a land space of just over 300 square miles, meaning you could drop ~3,500 Big Apples into this fin del mundo and barely crack the crate.
And yet, with a nominal GDP of roughly $1.3 trillion, New York’s economy is almost double the size of Argentina’s, which weighs in at around about $700 billion (projected, 2026). That works out as a per capita difference of roughly fivefold. NYC’s GDP per capita is around $70k per person; Argentina is closer to $14k. (As readers can see, we’re using back of the envelope numbers here, assuming from the outset that statisticians are perhaps best qualified to challenge politicians in a contest of compulsive fibbers.)
But even allowing for the difference in their respective economies, it may come as a shock to some readers (and a painful one at that) to learn that government spending in New York City is more than six times per person what it is in Argentina...
And that’s without having to pony up for a military…national defense…navy…Social Security…Medicare…Medicaid…diplomacy…embassies…foreign consulates…border control…a space program…nuclear program…interstate infrastructure…federal courts...national debt servicing…federal disaster relief… the FBI, CIA, DEA, TSA…and all the other gaudy baubles and shiny trinkets typically shouldered by federal governments. So while the Argentine government spends $2,100 per person (adjusted) annually...spending in MamdaniLand comes in at $13,500 per person. What do New Yorkers get for their tax dollars?
Big Apples to Little Apples: Violent crime is roughly the same between the two locales, with the Big Apple experiencing slightly more homicides than Argentina, at 4- and 5- per 100k population, respectively. Shockingly, poverty is comparable, too, with official data from the city’s own NYCgov Poverty Measure showing between 23-26% of residents living in poverty, compared to 28% of the population here in Argentina, per the latest INDEC data. And that’s despite NYC residents having access to welfare, SNAP, subsidized housing, cash vouchers, Earned Income Tax Credit, school meals, shelters, etc.
Homelessness, meanwhile, is difficult to compare, although official data suggests NYC has a higher rate of unsheltered residents per capita, with official stats showing 0.06% of the population sleeping rough compared to 0.02% here in Argentina, even as NYC’s “right to shelter” laws ensure some 90,000-110,000 people find temporary shelter every night (and are therefore not counted in the above figure).
That’s a situation made all the more painful given that, at $81,000 each, NYC spends about six times more per homeless resident than Argentina’s entire annual GDP per capita... and almost 40 times Argentina’s total spending per resident each year. That’s up from “just” $28,000 per person in 2019... and roughly double what the city’s Department of Education spends each year per student, $42,000. And yet, the problem only seems to grow...
No surprises for guessing Mamdani’s solutions for the city’s Big 3 problems…
On homelessness: more public housing... more housing vouchers... more rental assistance... and a $1.8 billion government contract with the city’s hotels to serve as an emergency homeless housing system…
On crime: a new Department of Community Safety, expanded mental-health response teams, and a public safety plan estimated to cost the city $1.1 billion... (from a man who actively supported Defund the Police during the BLM riots)…
On poverty: universal childcare, free buses, city-owned grocery stores, rent freezes, higher minimum wages...and an endless catalogue of collectivist gimcrackery that Argentina just spent the past 75 years proving does not work. How, exactly, Mamdani proposes to pay for all these trinkets and freebies is up for debate, especially as the billionaire exodus (we mentioned in this Note) gathers pace.
And what about Sr. Milei? How have his free market policies been working down this End of the Americas? Is there any place left for a street fighting man? Stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World..."
Bill Bonner, "Checkmate"
"Checkmate"
The trap is this: the US cannot force Iran to do anything without risking a
major retaliation. That could mean much higher oil prices...for a long time.
by Bill Bonner
“MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!)
Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
- President DONALD J. TRUMP
Buenos Aires, Argentina - "Anything can happen. But it looks like the War against Iran is ending as it began - badly. Jeffrey Sachs and Sybil Fares: "The war against Iran that the United States and Israel launched on 28 February 2026, will likely end in an American retreat. The United States cannot continue the war without producing disastrous consequences. A renewed escalation would likely lead to the destruction of the region’s oil, gas, and desalination infrastructure, causing a prolonged global catastrophe. Iran can credibly impose costs that the United States cannot bear and that the world should not suffer."
Sachs and Fares are ‘peaceniks.’ But the war-nik, Robert Kagan, agrees. “If this isn’t checkmate,” he writes in The Atlantic, “it’s close.” Kagan is married to Victoria Nuland, who provoked the ‘Maidan revolution’ in the Ukraine in 2014. The Eastern Provinces of the Ukraine were closer to Russia - linguistically and culturally - than to Ukraine. They voted overwhelmingly to join the Russian Federation. Nuland’s anti-Russian government in Kiev set in motion the events that led to the Russian invasion.
Some families are musical. Some are religious. The Kagan family is a bunch of war mongers. Kagan’s brother, Frederick, was also instrumental in pushing the US to war with Iraq. But what’s this? The war monger now sees what mongering wars has wrought. The US is trapped. Kagan, echoing Sachs and Fares...or vice versa, in The Atlantic: ‘Unless the US is prepared to accept the devastating long-term damage to the regions’ productive capacity that is likely to result from an Iranian retaliation - walking away now would seem to be the best option.’
The trap is this: the US cannot force Iran to do anything without risking a major retaliation. That could mean much higher oil prices...for a long time. Trump started the war. But he doesn’t want to end it in a way that would also end his political career. According to Global Geopolitics, Trump asked his intelligence agencies for an assessment. Apparently, they let him know he was a cornered rat:
"The intelligence community assessments leaked to the Washington Post confirm Kagan’s worst fears. Iran retains approximately seventy-five percent of its prewar missile launchers and inventory, despite weeks of intense American and Israeli bombardment. The Iranian regime has recovered and reopened almost all of its underground storage facilities. It can survive the American naval blockade for at least three to four months before facing more severe economic hardship, a timeline that far exceeds the political patience of any American administration."
Kagan says this has to be regarded as another defeat for America. More than that, it is a milestone - perhaps the most important one - on the road to substantially less power and influence for the US empire. The outcome, so far: ‘It has increased Russia’s income (selling oil at a higher price). It turned Iran into a Superpower, now in control of the most important waterway in the world. It increased the importance of the Chinese yuan and of China’s influence on world affairs. It left Iran with its enriched uranium, and more incentive than ever to make a nuclear bomb. It did not change the Iranian regime. And it separated the US from its NATO allies.’
Out on the blue water, the US Navy was supposed to open the critical strait. But, according to Global Geopolitics, the US defeat was humiliating: The indisputable conclusion, as one analyst put it, is that the United States Navy cannot escort even a seagull, let alone oil tankers, across the Strait of Hormuz. That will remain the case from now on.
Robert Kagan tells us what happens next: "Here is what defeat looks like. Iran remains in control of the Strait of Hormuz...Iran has no interest in returning to the status quo ante... The power to close or control the flow of ships through the strait is greater and more immediate than the theoretical power of Iran’s nuclear program. This leverage will allow the leaders in Tehran to force nations to lift sanctions and normalize relations or face penalties. Israel will find itself more isolated than ever, as Iran grows richer, rearms, and preserves its options to go nuclear in the future. It may even find itself unable to go after Iran’s proxies: In a world where Iran wields influence over the energy supply of so many nations, Israel could face enormous international pressure not to provoke Tehran in Lebanon, Gaza, or anywhere else."
Once again, Mr. Trump has proven to be the man for the job...the job of dismantling US power. He has done what others said couldn’t be done. He has helped the Iranians reclaim the glory of Cyrus, Xerxes, and Darius. He has made the Persians great again."
"If You Think Prices Are High Now, Just Wait Until The Shortages Really Start Kicking In'
by Michael Snyder
"On Monday morning, the front page of the Drudge Report featured a very alarming two word headline in all capital letters: “INFLATION ACCELERATES”. Of course that headline was 100% accurate. Prices are rising and our seemingly endless cost of living crisis is beginning to accelerate once again. I have heard from many of you that are not happy with what economic conditions are like now, and you are really not going to be happy with what is going to happen during the months to come. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has already begun to create shortages all over the globe. As the months roll along, those shortages will steadily intensify. That is going to directly affect our cost of living, because the law of supply and demand tells us that when there is less stuff to buy prices go up. So the truth is that inflation will go to an entirely new level once the shortages caused by the crisis in the Middle East really start kicking in.
Needless to say, in many industries prices have already risen to absolutely absurd levels. This week, I was stunned to learn that a large bucket of chicken at KFC now costs close to 50 bucks…
When I was growing up, KFC was a place where you could feed your family inexpensively. But now only the wealthy can afford to go to KFC on a regular basis.
These days, many families just stay home and don’t go much of anywhere because the price of gasoline is so high… Amid concerns over the economic fallout from the war, the average price of gasoline in the United States has climbed to more than $4.55 per gallon, up more than $1.50 since the war began. Where I live, many people are spending over a hundred dollars just to fill up their vehicles a single time.
But in California things are much worse. Some residents of Los Angeles are now paying more than 8 dollars for a gallon of gasoline, and the outlook for the months ahead is extremely bleak because politicians in California have been thumbing their noses at our domestic oil industry for years… A supertanker docked in Long Beach just delivered California’s last incoming shipment of Middle Eastern oil, a grim milestone for drivers already paying the nation’s highest fuel prices. After the New Corolla fully discharges its Iraqi oil at the berth, another tanker carrying Middle Eastern crude won’t dock in California until months after the Strait of Hormuz waterway reopens, according to market intelligence firms Vortexa and Kpler.
For California, the economic pain of the Iran war will last well beyond the arrival of the next tankers. U.S. drillers have fled the state and dozens of refineries have closed since the mid-1980s, forcing California to import 75% of the oil it consumes. Almost one-third of that comes from the Middle East, making California more reliant on crude-oil shipments from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates than any other U.S. state.
When fuel shortages begin to pop up in the United States, it is likely that they will start in California. But that won’t happen right away. Asia and Europe will experience supply shocks before we do, and Eric Nuttall is warning that we could start to see oil rationing “within weeks”…Energy expert and investor Eric Nuttall predicted in early May that the world was heading toward what may be the “largest energy crisis in modern history,” one that could spark oil rationing “within weeks” – and with the two-week mark now fast approaching, observers across the political spectrum began expressing alarm on Monday.
“We’re not talking months or quarters. In the next couple of weeks, you will have to rationalize demand by more than during COVID,” Nuttall told Bloomberg on May 1. “This is by far the biggest energy crisis that anybody alive is experiencing. There remains a lot of apathy in the market, because I just don’t think people can wrap their heads around it.”
I very much agree with that last sentence. It truly is difficult for a lot of people out there to wrap their heads around what is about to happen. But the truth is that the pain has already begun.
On Sunday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told his country that it is time to start conserving fuel and fertilizer… India on Sunday became the latest country to call for sacrifices, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking his country’s 1.4 billion residents to conserve fuel and fertilizer, two essential goods usually shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. He also told them to cut back on foreign travel.
Over the past couple of months, the world has been running an oil deficit. We have been able to keep things going by running down our inventory levels and our strategic reserves, but now we are rapidly approaching a breaking point. There simply is not going to be enough fuel for everyone, and supplies of jet fuel are particularly low…Growing anxieties around the jet fuel shortage caused by the Iran war have rocked the travel industry. Tony Fernandes, chief executive of Air Asia, said last week: “I thought I’d seen it all with Covid […] but having seen jet fuel go up almost three times - this is much worse.” It comes after supplies for jet fuel have tumbled to their lowest level since records began, as the war blocks crucial shipping lanes for fuel.
Of course we will soon be facing very serious shortages of other vital commodities as well. In fact, such shortages have already started to emerge…Also in India, some restaurants have warned they’ll be forced to close due to a shortage of cooking gas, and factories in the country’s plentiful ceramics industry have halted production as natural gas shortages impact kiln operations.
Qatar, which accounts for about one-third of the world’s helium supply, stopped producing helium in March after Iranian strikes hit two liquid natural gas facilities, and the resulting shortage threatens the operation of MRI machines and the manufacturing of artificial intelligence chips, smartphones and electric vehicles.
Also needed for AI chip manufacturing is tungsten, a metal with extreme heat resistance and electrical conductivity that also makes it critical for armor-piercing munitions, which the U.S. and Israel are using quickly in the war, burning through American tungsten stocks.
The war is also heavily impacting the world’s supply of sulfur, much of which comes from Persian Gulf oil refineries, which is used across industries to grow food, make toothpaste, balance drink flavors and treat municipal water.
If the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened soon, we will be facing the greatest global supply chain shock that any of us have ever experienced. I do not say that lightly. The commodities that come out of the Middle East are absolutely essential to the functioning of the global economy. Now thousands upon thousands of intricate supply chains are being disrupted, and conditions are going to continue to get worse every single day that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed."
Tuesday, May 12, 2026
Canadian Prepper, "Alert! Nuclear Doomsday Test from Putin!"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 5/12/26
"Alert! Nuclear Doomsday Test from Putin!"
Comments here:
Jeremiah Babe, "Prices Are Accelerating Out Of Control"
Jeremiah Babe, 5/12/26
"Prices Are Accelerating Out Of Control"
Comments here:
Gerald Celente, "Politicians Public Servants? No! We The People Are Servants To Politicians. Do What You're Told!"
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 5/12/26
"Politicians Public Servants? No! We The People
Are Servants To Politicians. Do What You're Told!"
"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;
Musical Interlude: "Delta King's Blues"
Full screen recommended.
Delta King's Blues, "Ain’t Nobody Skipping Old Age"
"You can run, you can hide… but time’s still gonna find you. “Ain’t Nobody Skipping Old Age” is a grounded, truth-telling Delta King’s Blues tune about inevitability, acceptance, and the shared road everyone’s gotta walk. A steady, no-frills acoustic guitar keeps the groove honest, like footsteps that don’t turn back. The harmonica blows plain and knowing, like it’s seen every man try - and fail - to outrun the years. The rhythm moves slow and certain, built for facing reality without flinching. This is blues about truth you can’t dodge. For folks who understand that getting older ain’t optional - but how you carry it is. Ain’t nobody skipping old age… so you might as well walk it your way. "
o
Full screen recommended.
Delta King's Blues, "I Ain’t Lazy, I’m Worn Out"
"Don’t call it lazy… call it years of carryin’ too much.“I Ain’t Lazy, I’m Worn Out” is a hard-earned, slow-burning Delta King’s Blues tune about exhaustion, responsibility, and the difference between quitting and simply being tired. A heavy, weathered acoustic guitar drags each chord like boots after a long shift. The harmonica breathes low and weary, sounding like a man finally sitting down after too many miles. The groove moves slow and stubborn, built for folks who still show up - even when the tank’s near empty. This is blues for the overworked and overlooked. For anyone mistaken for lazy when they’ve just been carrying life too long. I ain’t lazy… I’m just tired in places sleep can’t fix."
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