Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 10/27/26
"AI Insiders Final Warning:
'It Will Kill You' w/ Connor Leahy"
Comments here:
So, we rise from the rubble...
StatCounter
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
"Why Is The US In A Cascade Of Dangers?"
Full screen recommended.
Snyder Reports, 10/27/26
"Why Is The US In A Cascade Of Dangers?"
Experts are now warning the United States to prepare for a cascade of dangers this winter - and it comes down to two things colliding at the worst possible moment. Sweeping cuts to NOAA have slashed staff levels, canceled contracts and grants, and shut down databases and research labs. The agency long considered a global crown jewel in climate science and forecasting has lost roughly 20% of its staff since January 2025. At the same time, forecasters are tracking a potentially historic Super El Niño for 2026–2027, and a polar vortex forecast to weaken and stretch in early November - which can push cold air deep into the Southeast for days, if not weeks. In this video: what a "cascade of dangers" actually means, the flooding already hitting Hawaii, heavy rain aimed at Southern California on Halloween weekend, what stratospheric warming does to the jet stream, and why experts say this is the worst possible time for both of these to happen at once."
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Musical Interlude: 2002, "Falling Through Time"
Full screen recommended.
2002, "Falling Through Time"
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Dwarf galaxies NGC 147 (left) and NGC 185 stand side by side in this sharp telescopic portrait. The two are not-often-imaged satellites of M31, the great spiral Andromeda Galaxy, some 2.5 million light-years away. Their separation on the sky, less than one degree across a pretty field of view, translates to only about 35 thousand light-years at Andromeda's distance, but Andromeda itself is found well outside this frame.
Brighter and more famous satellite galaxies of Andromeda, M32 and M110, are seen closer to the great spiral. NGC 147 and NGC 185 have been identified as binary galaxies, forming a gravitationally stable binary system. But recently discovered faint dwarf galaxy Cassiopeia II also seems to be part of their system, forming a gravitationally bound group within Andromeda's intriguing population of small satellite galaxies."
Asha’s AI Art & Music, "The Celestial Kingdom"
Full screen recommended.
Asha’s AI Art & Music, "The Celestial Kingdom"
"Welcome to The Celestial Kingdom - a breathtaking fantasy realm suspended high above the clouds, where luminous palaces rise among floating islands, waterfalls disappear into the mist, and peaceful gardens glow beneath endless skies. Journey through grand ivory-and-gold halls, tranquil turquoise pools, flowering terraces, hidden libraries, and magnificent castles drifting among the clouds. As daylight fades into a deep sapphire night, the kingdom comes alive with warm lantern light, shimmering waterfalls, graceful fairies, and quiet celestial beauty. This immersive fantasy journey is accompanied by original ethereal music featuring delicate strings, harp melodies, atmospheric textures, soft humming, and sparse male and female fantasy vocals. Some vocals are intentionally sung in an invented fantasy language, allowing the voices to become part of the atmosphere rather than tell a specific story. Perfect for relaxing, studying, reading, writing, sleeping, creative inspiration, or simply escaping into another world for a while. For the best experience, headphones are recommended."
Native American Elder, "Wisdom When You Feel Completely Lost"
Full screen recommended.
Native American Elder,
"Wisdom When You Feel Completely Lost"
"A Lonesome Highway Hymn"
Full screen recommended.
Retro String, "A Lonesome Highway Hymn"
"Some music is heard. The blues is felt. Welcome to a journey through smoky guitar tones, slow-burning rhythms, soulful melodies, and the unmistakable sound of the blues. Every note carries a little heartache, every guitar bend holds a memory, and every rhythm feels like a story from another time. Imagine an old blues bar after midnight - dim lights, a weathered guitar, a glass on the table, and music drifting through the room long after everyone else has gone home. This playlist blends the spirit of Classic Blues, Soul Blues, Slow Blues, and Blues Rock into a timeless listening experience made for quiet nights and reflective moments."
"It's Human Nature..."
“We’ve all heard the warnings and we’ve ignored them. We push our luck. We roll the dice. It’s human nature. When we’re told not to touch something we usually do even if we know better. Maybe because deep down, we’re just asking for trouble.”
- “Meredith Grey”, “Gray’s Anatomy”
"What The Herd Hates The Most..."
"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth, more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man."
- Bertrand Russell
"If you're going to tell people the truth make them laugh, or they'll kill you."
- Oscar Wilde
“The Immutable Laws of Nature, and Murphy’s Other 15 Laws”
“The Immutable Laws of Nature, and Murphy’s Other 15 Laws”
by Peter McKenzie-Brown
“The Immutable Laws of Nature”
•Law of Mechanical Repair: After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you’ll have to pee.
•Law of Gravity: Any tool, nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible place.
•Law of Probability: The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.
•Law of Random Numbers: If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal; someone always answers.
•Law of Variable Motion: If you change traffic lanes or checkout queues, the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now.
•Law of the Bath: When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone will ring.
•Law of Close Encounters: The probability of meeting someone you know increases exponentially when you are alongside someone you don’t want to be seen with.
•Law of the Damned Thing: When you try to prove to someone that a machine or device won’t work, it will.
•Law of Biomechanics: The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.
•Law of the Spectator: At any theatrical, musical or sporting event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle always arrive last. They are the ones who will leave their seats several times to go for food, for beer, or to the toilet and who leave before the end of the performance or game. Those who occupy the aisle seats come early, never move once, have long gangly legs or big bellies and stay seated beyond the end of the performance. The aisle people also are very surly folk.
•Law of Coffee: As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your partner will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.
•Murphy’s Law of Lockers: When only 2 people are in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.
•Law of Plane Surfaces: The chance that a slice of marmalade toast will land face down on a floor is directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet or rug.
•Law of Logical Argument: Anything is possible when you don’t know what you are talking about.
•Law of Physical Appearance: If clothes fit, they’re ugly.
•Law of Public Speaking: A closed mouth gathers no feet
•Law of Commercial Marketing: As soon as you find a product that you really like, it will cease production or the store will stop selling it.
•Law of Psychosomatic Medicine: If you don’t feel well, make an appointment to see to the doctor and by the time you get there, you’ll feel better. If you don’t make an appointment you’ll stay sick.
“Murphy’s Other 15 Laws”
1. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
2. A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.3. He who laughs last, thinks slowest.
4. A day without sunshine is like, well, night.
5. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
6. Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don’t.
7. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
8. The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there’s a 90% probability you’ll get it wrong.
9. It is said that if you line up all the cars in the world end-to-end, someone would be stupid enough to try to pass them.
10. If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.
11. The things that come to those who wait, may be the things left by those who got there first.
12. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat all day drinking beer.
13. Flashlight: A case for holding dead batteries.
14. God gave you toes as a device for finding furniture in the dark.
15. When you go into court, you are putting yourself in the hands of twelve people who weren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty.”
"I Used to Be Disgusted, Now I'm Just Tired"
"I Used to Be Disgusted, Now I'm Just Tired"
by Charles Hugh Smith
"The midterm elections, the “most important elections of our lifetimes,” are coming. Whoever wins, it isn't really going to change much. Today’s system is simply too deeply entrenched. While the much-touted differences between America's political parties get obsessive, hysterical attention, the sameness of Imperial corruption, waste and squalor regardless of who's in power gets little notice.
Scrape away the differences - mostly in domestic and cultural issues - and we see the dead hand of Imperial Corruption is on the tiller. The core of Imperial Corruption is the disconnect between the nation's ideals of representational democracy and open markets and the sordid reality: elites serve their interests by corrupting both democracy and open markets.
Elites Against Democracy: Unfettered democracy and markets cannot be controlled by a tiny, self-serving elite. Stripped of corruption, democracy and markets are free-for-alls that are constantly evolving. This open-ended dynamism is the beating heart of both democracy and open markets. But the dynamic adaptive churn of unfettered representative democracy and open markets are anathema to insiders, vested interests and elites. Each has gained asymmetric power by subverting democracy and markets to serve their private interests. They’ve destroyed the system’s natural dynamism.
When "competition" has been reduced to two telecoms, two healthcare insurers, two pork processors, etc., the system has been stripped of adaptability and resilience. Democracy has been replaced by an auction of political power to the highest bidder.
Everything’s Up for Grabs: It rewards cronies and devotes all its resources not to solving the nation's problems but to whipping up conflagrations of divisiveness and partisan hysteria that wash away the middle ground where problems can actually be addressed. This crippling of the nation's ability to actually solve difficult problems serves the interests of self-serving elites whose sole interest is accumulating personal wealth and power.
Their proclaimed interest in solving the nations' real-world problems are fraudulent tissues designed to hide the putrid reality that all their so-called "solutions" distill down to sluicing huge sums of state money to cronies and campaign contributors under the guise of "solving problems."
The only "problem" America's elites know how to solve is the "problem" of how to get personally richer while tightening their control of the nation-state's vast flood of (taxed/ borrowed) money. Cronies and contributors get tax breaks hidden in 1,000-page legislation and overflowing rivers of money (here's looking at you, Big Pharma, Big Defense, Higher Education, Sickcare, et al.).
Masters at Misdirection and Distraction: America's elites are masters at misdirection and distraction: it's always the other side's fault that the nation is sliding down the chute. The elites don't really care which side is in power, as they control them both to serve their own interests. Any advance that increases efficiency and productivity and furthers the public good is squelched, suppressed or co-opted by vested interests. They fear, rightly, that their share of the spoils might be diminished by advances that render obsolete their particular cartel, monopoly or other embedded skim, scam, fraud, embezzlement or simply unproductive dead weight.
But something funny happens on the way to gaining control of complex emerging systems: that control destroys the system's self-correcting mechanisms and adaptability. Rigging the system to serve one's own interests destroys the system's ability to adapt to changing circumstances and selective pressures.
Adapt or Die: Once a system has been crippled to serve the interest of an elite, when forced to adapt or die, it can only die as its mechanisms of adaptation were destroyed by the power-grab of elites. An economy dominated by a handful of cartels and quasi-monopolies is an economy that is doomed to slide into the dustbin of history, as cartels and monopolies "win" by crushing competition, as competition threatens their profits and control of markets and governance, a.k.a. "democracy."
Any system that serves the interests of the few by choking off adaptability and the dynamisms of a free-for-all churn lacks the tools needed to avoid systemic collapse. By enabling elites to organize the nation to serve their personal interests, America has been stripped of the dynamics needed to adapt. Without these dynamics, collapse is the only possible outcome.
Don’t Forget the Deep State! But no mention of today’s “democracy” can ignore the Deep State - the unelected and unaccountable Administrative State. The Administrative State has existed in some form in every nation-state/empire, but the U.S. Deep State only gained its vast global powers in World War II and the Cold War. That was when the Deep State learned the lesson that the public can’t always be counted on to do “the right thing.” They may choose unwisely (for example, choosing appeasement over preparation). And so the really important decisions needed to preserve the nation cannot be left to the public or parochial politicos in elected office. Those decisions must be in the hands of those who know what has to be done.
Democracy is simply the rubber stamp for doing what's necessary. Beyond that, it's a potentially fatal hindrance. That's the mindset of the Deep State, and if you and I were in upper-echelon positions in the Administrative State, we'd agree with this mindset when things get serious.
This mindset is a self-reinforcing group-think feedback loop. Those who believe the public should set policy are weeded out, either by self-selection or via being sent to bureaucratic Siberia. We're protecting you. That's all you need to know.
This opens the door to functionaries who came to do good but stayed to do well, i.e. those with the right credentials and connections to enter the Power Circle to "serve the public" but soon become insiders maximizing their own private gains. That's the problem with the Administrative State: it's ultimately unaccountable, not just to the public or elected officials but to itself.
Enjoy the Circus: But in the meantime, enjoy the political theatrics we’ve been treated to down on the sand-strewn floor of the Coliseum. While Imperial Corruption undermines what's left of the nation's ability to adapt fast enough and successfully enough to survive what lies ahead, we can cheer the "winners" of the political bloodsport. We can simply ignore the winds of disorder sweeping the land.
It seems like it can just go on forever. But everything is forever until systemic weaknesses reveal themselves, typically at the most inopportune junctures. We could well be at one of them. It's easy to be disgusted. But I’ve found that being disabused of the fantasy that the system is self-correcting is the healthier perspective. I used to be infuriated by it all. Now I'm just tired of it all."
"How It Really Is"
"If only"... you don't stop because you can't stop.
If you do it's all over. It's all over anyway, you're just buying time.
Tell me I'm wrong...
Col Doug Macgregor, "Iran Just Made the One Move Trump Never Prepared For - Too Late to Stop It!"
Col Doug Macgregor, 10/27/26
"Iran Just Made the One Move Trump Never Prepared For -
Too Late to Stop It!"
"Col. Douglas Macgregor delivers a powerful analysis of Iran's unexpected strategic response to American military pressure, the growing vulnerability of U.S. military bases, and the dangerous escalation confronting President Donald Trump across the Middle East. Macgregor argues that Tehran has moved beyond simply surviving American and Israeli attacks toward a broader strategy of challenging Washington's military presence throughout the Persian Gulf. He examines Iran's surviving ballistic missile arsenal, advanced drone capabilities, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems that could threaten American troops, naval forces, and military installations. Macgregor also discusses Iran's reported military cooperation with Russia and China, warning that America's traditional reliance on aircraft carriers, air superiority, and precision-guided weapons may no longer guarantee strategic success.
As President Donald Trump faces mounting pressure over the Iran conflict, Macgregor explores what he considers Tehran's most consequential strategic move: shifting the confrontation toward American military bases and the regional security arrangements supporting U.S. operations. He examines the risks of deploying American ground forces to seize Iranian islands, the vulnerability of troops to persistent drone surveillance and missile strikes, and the challenge of maintaining control over the Strait of Hormuz. Macgregor also discusses the possibility of renewed U.S.-Israeli bombing campaigns, Iranian retaliation against Gulf oil infrastructure, and the devastating economic consequences of a prolonged regional conflict. He argues that further escalation could deepen the global energy crisis, weaken American influence, and leave Washington confronting military and diplomatic choices it never adequately prepared for. Has Iran found America's greatest military vulnerability by shifting the conflict from defending its own territory to threatening the very bases and regional infrastructure Washington depends on?"
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"Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom"
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 10/27/26
"Larry Johnson Warns:
Are You Ready for the Energy Crisis?"
Comments here:
"Trump on Iran: 'We’re Making A Fortune!'”
"Trump on Iran: 'We’re Making A Fortune!'”
by John Leake
"A fascinating character to emerge during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) was Albrecht von Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland (September 1583 – 25 February 1634), a Bohemian military leader and statesman who fought on the Catholic side as supreme commander of the armies of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II. His successful military career made him one of the richest and most influential men at the time of his death by assassination.
Wallenstein built his initial fortune through the Kipper und Wipper financial crisis by participating in the debasement of coinage. He used those profits to buy estates confiscated from defeated Protestant nobles by Emperor Ferdinand II. Wallenstein organized these lands into a vast enterprise that funded a large private mercenary army.
While many criticized Wallenstein’s war profiteering and opportunism, no one accused him of lacking bravery. Early in the war, he personally led a breakthrough with his newly raised regiment of cuirassiers against Count Ernst von Mansfeld's forces at Theyn in Bohemia.
In this respect, Wallenstein contrasts with most US Presidents. The last to serve in combat was George H.W. Bush, who flew 58 combat missions as a carrier-based torpedo bomber pilot in the Pacific Theater, was shot down twice, and earned the Distinguished Service Flying Cross.
For those who are well positioned, war can be extremely profitable. Some observers who were in a position to know - such as Major General Smedley Darlington Butler (1881–1940), one of the most decorated officers in U.S. Marine Corps history - have concluded that War Is a Racket (as he characterized it in a 1935 pamphlet). As he saw it, war’s primary purpose is to enrich powerful commercial interests while the enormous costs are borne by ordinary citizens. Butler advocated restricting military force to genuine national defense and removing the financial incentives that encourage war. I was just reminded of Butler when I read the following essay by Ron Paul titled “Who Is Making Billions from the Iran War?” reproduced on the LewRockwell newsletter."
"Who Is Making Billions from the Iran War?"
By Ron Paul, MD
"At a campaign rally over the weekend, President Trump dismissed Americans’ concerns over high oil and gas prices, claiming that it’s a small price to pay for the hundreds of billions of dollars “we” are making from these higher prices. “We’re making a fortune,” he said. “Hundreds of billions of dollars. Trillions of dollars.” People are paying a little bit more for gas, he explained, but it doesn’t matter because “we” are making so much money.
The question is, “Who is ‘we’?” We know it is not the American people. They are seeing wage stagnation, inflation, and more pain at the pump. An Economist/YouGov poll earlier this month found that inflation and prices are the top concern among Americans by a wide margin. And in second place were jobs and the economy. The same poll asked Americans how they rate the state of the US economy and in first place – again by a long shot – was “poor.”
If “we” as in the American people were making hundreds of billions of dollars from the war, you would think these would not be their top two concerns. But we understand what the President meant by “we.” He meant that part of the “private” sector directly or indirectly in bed with the government war machine. From oil companies to weapons manufacturers and everything in between, war and conflict drive up profits in well-connected corporations at the expense of the rest of us.
That is why we are in a constant state of war. Twenty years in Afghanistan and a similar length in Iraq. Endless bombing in places like Somalia. A twelve-year (and counting) proxy war with Russia in Ukraine. Military bases and covert operations across the globe. And if we find that the largest military budget in the world does not deliver enough actual weapons to win a war? Well, that’s all good too: just double military spending and accuse anyone who objects of not being patriotic!
“Private” companies with enormous political power – many of them revolving doors between government and business – “make so much money” on war, as Trump would say. Whether these wars produce US wins, loses, or stalemates, these corporations in bed with government always win. The money-printing machine makes sure the money cycles into government-favored companies, while campaign contributions are made to the politicians who support the wars. And if you don’t support the wars? You get the Thomas Massie treatment.
Endless war produces more corporatism, where the private sector does not exist to provide goods to compete in the free market, but to serve political power and strengthen governmental control over the population. Think of it as welfare for the rich at the expense of the poor. The result is tyranny.
This is the very reason our Founders intended to make it as difficult as possible to wage war. As well-educated students of history, they understood how the concentration of war-making power in the hands of one ruler or an oligarchy would impoverish the masses and lead to a moral and financial bankruptcy. They placed war-making power in the “people’s branch” – Congress – hoping that the people would hold their representatives accountable. We have strayed very far from what they intended and if we are to survive, we must reclaim that authority and responsibility."
"Donald Trump Just Told All of America He 'Doesn’t Give a Damn' About Them!"
"Donald Trump Just Told All of America He
'Doesn’t Give a Damn' About Them!"
by David Haggith
Excerpt: "Trump even told his rally audience that his advisors were saying, “Don’t say that!” But he didn’t care. He said it anyway. This was not thinly veiled language. Trump said he doesn’t care, in the least, about the number-one thing that is driving up the price of everything for everyone and that is most on America’s mind right now:
Speaking at a rally in Georgia on Saturday, October 24, Trump said advisers had warned him against highlighting the financial gains associated with rising oil prices, suggesting the comments would invite criticism over the cost of fuel for ordinary Americans. In footage of the rally shared online, Trump claimed the US oil and gas industry was making billions of dollars amid the conflict in the Middle East, presenting higher oil prices as a source of financial gains for the country.
Trump, you see, is heavily invested in gas and oil. He’s making bank off of his war, and he just told you how elated he is over that. As a “filthy rich” man (i.e a crude man, dripping in the slimy, black oil) he is obviously so completely out of touch with most Americans that he cannot even understand the simple sense of what his own advisors told him. Americans know all too well there are people in America who always make a fortune off of the next oil war. Those who make big bucks off oil are the deep state that runs the nation to make endless wars in order to make money. They and their banksters are the core of the military industrial complex. But Americans are SICK of oil wars.
Trump said his oil prices are bringing in huge gains for the country. Well, that is true IF “the country” means “Big Oil.” Under Trump’s understanding of America, that is accurate because Big Oil runs the country. Big Oil in the US is making bank hand over fist because so much of its oil is located in the US, so everyone, as Trump pointed out, is rushing to Big Oil in the US to bid up their product, since little is coming out of Ukraine, Russia or the Middle East, and those US companies are making filthy lucre off of their black gold because of the Trump-Iran War. (And Trump’s Venezuela War.) No doubt that is why Trump doesnt’ want the war to end. He’s making a vast fortune off of it. Why kill the good times when you can just kill Iranians?
But here is the problem with that thinking, aside from the killing of Iranians and American warriors, which I’m sure is obvious to most, but apparently needs restating for Trump: MOST of America is not heavily invested in oil. Most of America and MOST AMERICAN COMPANIES are watching their money get chewed away by the high cost of fuels, fertilizers and things like plastics made from oil. Most of America is getting clobbered, while Big Oil, as has always been the case in America, is making bank off of another Middle Eastern oil war! This is EXACTLY what Trump’s supporters said they didn’t want.
Trump’s response: He doesn’t “give a damn!” (In fact, he loves it because he’s getting rich, which in his narrow mind, means America is getting rich because that is the America he knows.) Remember his words every time you grab the hose on the fuel pump. TRUMP LITERALLY TOLD YOU HE DOESN’T CARE ABOUT HOW MUCH THAT TANK FULL IS COSTING BECAUSE IT IS MAKING A small percentage OF PEOPLE IN AMERICA, INCLUDING HIMSELF, VERY, VERY RICH.
“Our country is making hundreds of billions of dollars because of what’s happened in the Middle East, because they’re coming to Texas and they’re coming to Oklahoma and they’re coming to Louisiana and they’re taking that oil,” Trump said. NO!
TRUMP is making billions of dollars because Trump is part of the group making hundreds of billions of dollars—the group that is helping him build a massive gold-plated ballroom on the east end of the White House where YOU will never be invited to dance and dine. But his billionaire buddies who are making bank off of oil will all be there, celebrating their great gains with expensive glasses of the best, golden-colored champagne. Take that to the bank or spend it.
“My people say, please don’t mention that, Sir, people are paying a little higher,” Trump said, adding that he expected gas prices to fall. “I can just see the fake headlines,” Trump said. “President Trump is talking about all the money they’re making while people are suffering at the pump.” But I said, ‘I don’t give a damn, I’m gonna say it: We’re making a frickin fortune,’” he added. Who is “WE?”
Full article is here:
Snyder Reports, 10/27/26"
Full screen recommended.
Snyder Reports, 10/27/26
"Dollar General Overcharging:
20 Out Of 50 Items Priced Wrong In One Store"
"One of the stores on literally every corner just got sued - and Dollar General may owe you money. The FTC and 20 states filed suit against Dollar General, accusing the retailer of charging customers more at the register than the prices advertised on shelves, price tags, and ads for years - extracting millions in unlawful charges. And this isn't the first time: Dollar General already paid back roughly $6 million in overcharges not long ago. Now it's happening again. I break down what the lawsuit actually alleges, the shopper examples out of Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and Kentucky - including one store where 20 out of 50 products were priced incorrectly - Dollar General's official response, and why the people hit hardest are the ones budgeting every single dollar. Then I get into the bigger pattern: Walmart, Kroger, Aldi, and convenience stores, and the car dealership that repriced a vehicle the moment a buyer showed up. I also tell you what happened to me this summer - a big "$25" sign on box fans, and a $35 charge at the register."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Snyder Reports, 10/27/26
"Social Security Is Changing:
The Commissioner Just Revealed What's Coming"
"Social Security just announced a 3.6% COLA for 2027 - roughly $75 more a month for the average beneficiary. Here's the problem: $75 won't cover a tank of gas, a cart of groceries, or a car payment. And the changes coming with it go far beyond the number everyone is reporting. Nobody knows yet how this gets solved. But you deserve to know where the money is going and what your benefits look like heading into 2027."
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Dan, I Allegedly, "A Potential Hijacking Was Stopped"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 10/27/26
"A Potential Hijacking Was Stopped"
"A potential hijacking threat on United Airlines Flight 1681 from Las Vegas to New Jersey was stopped after a flight attendant reportedly noticed a passenger texting about taking over the aircraft. The plane returned safely to Las Vegas, and the passengers and crew were unharmed. On iAllegedly, Dan shares behind-the-scenes details, audio from air traffic control, and the remarkable story of how the flight crew and controllers handled this frightening situation before passengers knew what was happening. What really happened on this flight, and could this incident change the way we travel?"
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Bill Bonner, "Keep on Truckin’"
by Bill Bonner
Ardmore, Ireland - "This is the third day of stormy weather. Blow, ye wind. Crack, ye thunder. The rain comes in horizontally from the Atlantic. The mist engulfs everything. The trees bend, including a couple that we just planted; they will need to be staked and tied down, given lifelines, like sailors in a squall.
It is deliciously gloomy. Normally, we go out for a couple of hours in the afternoon to get what doctors call ‘exercise’ and our blue-collar friends call ‘work.’ We are building the stone foundation for a greenhouse...recycling the stones from a ruined farmhouse and the vinyl windows from recently remodeled houses. The only serious expense is for the roof. It could be done in polycarbonate sheets, which would have been cheaper and easier. But double-paned glass will look better, and last for longer than we are likely to enjoy them. So, the stonemasonry has had to wait. Yesterday, we spent the whole day near the fire, sipping cups of tea, while admiring the lash of the rain and the hula sway of the treetops.
This gave us time to think, a dangerous thing to do in any weather. Specifically, we were wondering about how much the fake, post-1971 dollar has faked up the whole economy...and how hard it is to make sense of it. Every sales number seems to be wearing a false mustache. Every profit goes by an alias. And even the simplest, most obvious trends are counterfeit. As we will see...even inflation itself is not what it claims to be. As synthetic as the vinyl windows, it is useful, but not authentic. (More on that tomorrow.)
First, comes an upbeat report from Charlie Bilello: "Americans now own over $60 trillion in stocks & mutual funds, more than 3x higher than a decade ago."
And here’s more good news, Chosun LBO: "The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing data from financial information firm FactSet on the 24th, reported that S&P 500 companies’ third-quarter net profits are expected to rise approximately 30% year-over-year. This estimate combines actual results from companies that have already reported and forecasts from those yet to announce. The strong performance of NVIDIA and Micron is driven by surging demand for AI semiconductors, particularly memory chips. Suppliers have been able to command higher prices, significantly boosting profits."
Let’s see...a carpenter’s sales can go up when the plumber orders a new worktable. And the plumber’s earnings can increase when the butcher installs a new sink. And the butcher...well...you get the idea. Businesses can increase sales and profits by providing new tools and facilities to each other. Round and round, like a village of laundresses, washing each other’s underwear.
But ultimately, they must sell products and services to consumers...not just to their fellow producers. Paying each other for plant and equipment is just part of the aggregate cost of doing business. Businesses can exchange costs...but only so far as the profits from selling to consumers justify them. You build a new auto showroom...you have to move the wheels! Sure, you might sell a fleet of them to a neighboring delivery firm, but then...consumers still must pay for them.
Oh, if consumers only had the feds’ elastic accounts! Instead, their purchasing power and money are limited. And they are already at the limit. Charlie Bilello: "Real average hourly earnings have now declined on a YoY basis for six consecutive months, falling 0.7% over the past year. The stock market may be near record highs, but that doesn’t mean everyone is participating equally in the gains. Nearly 1 in 5 American families fell behind on debt payments in 2025, the highest share since 2010."
And it’s not as if consumers are expected to have more money any time soon. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: "Social Security is Now Less Than Six Years from Insolvency." "The Social Security retirement trust fund is now less than six years from insolvency, according to CRFB’s Insolvency Countdown Clock. Without action from policymakers, beneficiaries will face a deep and abrupt 22% benefit cut when the retirement fund is exhausted in late 2032. That is when today’s 61-year-olds will reach their normal retirement age and when today’s youngest retirees turn 68."
Since consumers can’t readily increase their consumption, a business can only increase sales and profits by taking them away from another business. Some win. Some lose. But the total amount of profits cannot, therefore, increase. Where could they come from?
Take the trucking industry, for example. There are about 3.5 million truck drivers in the country. And each one takes home about $51,000. Along comes AI...self-driving trucks. The truck drivers are out on the curb. Bad news? No, it’s good news. Trucking companies will now save a lot of money. Plus, consumers would benefit from lower shipping costs...ultimately expressed in lower consumer prices. Shippers would be wealthier...and consumers too - since they would now be able to buy more products at cheaper prices. But look what happens. The trucking firms’ costs go down. They compete for business by lowering their freight charges. Margins soon go back to what they were before.
We’d all be richer, right? But if we are all richer, nobody is really richer. The kind of wealth that everyone cares about is the kind you can flaunt. We’re all richer, in many ways, than the Sun King. But no one puffs out his chest and struts down the street, thinking of how much richer he is than Louis 14th. Increased productivity makes us all better off; it doesn’t get us all on the Forbes ’rich list.’
So, let’s look back at our headlines. Investors now have $60 trillion...3x more than in 2016. Do they really have ‘more?’ Or is this just another disguise? The Dow was around 19,000 in 2016, with GDP around $19 trillion. Forgetting the zeros, one unit of stocks was worth about one unit of output. Now, the Dow is at 52,000 with GDP at $32 trillion. Investors believe they are richer. But now, each unit of the Dow is worth one unit of GDP...plus another 6/10ths of a unit of output that never gets put out…a kind of ghost GDP that no one ever enjoys.
And then we learn that the companies producing the phantom GDP are increasing their profits at a remarkable 30% rate. But how could profits grow six times faster than GDP...in an economy trudging uphill at a (nominal) 5% rate, while staggering under more than $100 trillion of public and private debt? Where does the money come from? Consumers are tapped out. The ‘profits’ must come from other businesses...each borrowing and spending in the hope of future sales. But to whom? The unemployed truck drivers?"
o
Grateful Dead, "Truckin'"
Monday, October 26, 2026
"Trump Talks Peace While the CIA Is Fueling the War in Ukraine"
"Trump Talks Peace While the CIA
Is Fueling the War in Ukraine"
by Larry C. Johnson
"I spent enough years at the Central Intelligence Agency that I learned how to read the press stories that the agency’s friends place for it. Shane Harris’s new profile of CIA Director John Ratcliffe in The Atlantic, published October 23, is one of those stories. It is written to make Ratcliffe look like the sober professional in a chaotic administration. But read it carefully and it confirms something Washington has spent four years denying: the United States is not merely
supplying Ukraine. Through the CIA, it is fighting Russia.
“The CIA is in the lead”: Harris does not bury the lede. Armed with information the CIA provides, Ukraine’s military has been launching strikes deep inside Russia. American spy satellites give Ukraine early warning of incoming Russian missiles and drones. Among U.S. personnel on the ground in Ukraine, a retired senior officer who travels there frequently told him, “the CIA is in the lead.”
It gets better. A Baltic intelligence officer who works closely with the Americans told Harris that, whatever Donald Trump says in public, the CIA’s operations against Russia are now “much more aggressive” than they were under Joe Biden. Officers in the CIA’s Special Activities Center, the people who run covert and paramilitary operations, are reportedly among the happiest at Langley, because they are so busy. And this is not new. As Harris notes, the CIA helped build Ukraine’s modern intelligence apparatus after Russia took Crimea in 2014. This has been the agency’s war for more than a decade.
Let me translate that from the polite language of a magazine profile. American intelligence is identifying the targets inside Russia, American satellites are running Ukraine’s air-defense warning network, and American officers are “in the lead” on the ground. If Russia were doing that for Mexico against Texas, Washington would call it an act of war. Moscow has said for years that it is fighting NATO, not just Ukraine. Here, courtesy of The Atlantic and its anonymous sources, is the evidence.
Shooting ourselves in the fuel tank Now comes the absurdity. According to Harris, the CIA’s success has become a problem for the President. The refinery strikes the agency helps enable have hobbled Russia’s economy. The International Energy Agency estimates that in the first eight months of this year, Ukraine hit a Russian refinery on average once every three days.
Those refineries make diesel. The world is short of diesel. The International Energy Agency says the shortage will run well into 2027. And Trump, according to Harris, blames the attacks on Russian refineries for the spike in prices and wants them to stop. He has threatened to cut off intelligence support to Ukraine unless Kyiv halts the refinery strikes.
Think about that. The CIA helps Ukraine knock out Russian refining capacity. Diesel prices soar. Then on October 9, in the middle of peace talks in Miami, the President announces a deal for Russia to sell its diesel on the world market, boasting on Truth Social that prices would be “COMING DOWN… AND FAST!” Harris reports that the announcement caught the negotiators by surprise, and that Putin made no reciprocal commitment. So the United States is simultaneously paying to destroy Russian diesel production and begging Russia to sell it more diesel. You could not design a more incoherent policy if you tried.
The spy channel: The most revealing passage in the piece concerns Ratcliffe’s trip to Moscow in August. Trump sent him to meet his counterparts in the Russian security services through what is informally called the “spy channel.” His message, Harris writes, was that nobody was winning: Russia had failed to make meaningful advances, and Ukraine could not expel Russian forces. The hope was that Ratcliffe could convince Putin he was pursuing a lost cause.
I have two problems with that. The first is the claim itself. Russia’s General Staff reported to Putin on October 16 that its forces had taken roughly 6,500 square kilometers and 310 settlements since January. You can argue the Russian figure is inflated, and I have. But even DeepState, the Ukrainian mapping project, counts about 1,300 square kilometers. Russia is advancing. It is not doing so as fast as Moscow claims, but “failed to make meaningful advances” is wishful thinking dressed up as intelligence.
The second problem is the messenger. Imagine you are the head of the SVR or the FSB. The director of the CIA flies into Moscow to tell you, spy to spy, that your war is a stalemate and you should give it up. You know perfectly well that his agency is the one feeding Ukraine the targeting data for the drones hitting your refineries. That is not a peace overture. That is a threat with a diplomatic passport. If Ratcliffe expected the Russians to take his assessment as neutral advice, he does not understand the people he was talking to.
Not what Truman built: Ratcliffe likes to talk about returning the CIA to its “roots.” He has the roots wrong. Harry Truman did not create the Central Intelligence Agency in 1947 to run paramilitary campaigns. He created it to collect and analyze intelligence from foreign sources and tell the President the truth, so that he would never again be blindsided the way Franklin Roosevelt was at Pearl Harbor. Covert action came in through the back door. Within a year, the National Security Council’s directive NSC 10/2 authorized covert operations, and the clandestine tail has been wagging the analytic dog ever since.
Truman saw it happening and said so publicly. In an op-ed published in the Washington Post on December 22, 1963, a month after John Kennedy’s assassination, he wrote that he had become disturbed by how far the CIA had strayed from “its intended role.” His words are worth quoting: “I never had any thought that when I set up the CIA that it would be injected into peacetime cloak and dagger operations.” The agency, he warned, “has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the government.” He said that in creating it, “the most important thing was to guard against the chance of intelligence being used to influence or to lead the President into unwise decisions,” and he asked that the CIA be “restored to its original assignment as the intelligence arm of the President.” Sixty-three years later, Ratcliffe has turned Truman’s warning into a mission statement.
How covert action corrupts the truth: I want to explain why this matters, because it is not an abstract argument about organization charts. I watched it from the inside.
When an intelligence agency is simply collecting and analyzing information, its only stake in the outcome is getting the answer right. The moment the same agency is running a covert operation, it has a horse in the race. The operation has a budget, a sponsor on the Seventh Floor, careers riding on it and, most important, a President who has already been told it will work. Now the analysts down the hall are being asked to assess whether their own colleagues’ operation is succeeding. Bad news is no longer just bad news. It is an attack on the director’s program and an embarrassment to the man in the Oval Office.
The pressure is rarely an explicit order to change a conclusion. It is subtler and more corrosive than that. The pessimistic assessment gets sent back for more sourcing. The analyst who keeps writing that the operation is failing gets a reputation for not being a team player, and does not get the next promotion. The briefing for the President leads with the success stories and buries the costs in an annex. After a few rounds of that, as Julia Curlee told Harris, officers simply stop telling the hard truths and “learned to avoid” what the White House did not want to hear.
We have seen where this leads. The Bay of Pigs was planned by the clandestine service and kept walled off from the agency’s own analysts, who might have pointed out that there was no evidence the Cuban people were about to rise up against Castro. The operators sold the President the operation they wanted to run, and the analysis that would have stopped it never reached his desk. The pattern repeats whenever the agency becomes both the player and the referee.
Now look at Ukraine. The CIA is, by The Atlantic’s account, “in the lead” on the ground, helping run a campaign of deep strikes inside Russia. The same CIA is responsible for telling the President whether that campaign is working and whether Ukraine can win. Is it any surprise that the agency’s message, the one Ratcliffe carried to Moscow, is that Russia has “failed to make meaningful advances”? An agency that has spent twelve years building Ukraine’s intelligence service and now directs its targeting has every institutional incentive to report that its war is going well, or at least not badly. The negative consequences, Russian advances, Ukrainian casualties, a diesel shortage that is hammering Europe and American consumers, are exactly the things an agency in that position is least likely to put front and center.
That is the corruption Truman feared. Not that the CIA would lie outright, but that it would slowly start serving the operation instead of the President, and the President would make decisions based on intelligence shaped by people who need him to keep going.
An agency that tells the boss what he wants: Harris also reports on the state of the CIA itself, and it isn’t pretty. Ratcliffe pledged at his confirmation hearing to “conduct covert action at the direction of the president, going places no one else can go and doing things no one else can do.” The covert-action side is thriving, from Ukraine to Venezuela to the CIA’s air strikes on suspected drug boats, which legal experts say may violate the laws of armed conflict. One former officer told Harris, “The agency is over its skis right now.”
The analysts, meanwhile, are miserable. More of them report that the objectivity of their work is being undermined. Julia Curlee, a senior analyst who resigned in May, put it bluntly: “Ratcliffe isn’t protecting the CIA from politicization; he’s leading it.” Current and former officers say they have never seen so many retirements and resignations. An agency where the paramilitary officers are thrilled and the analysts are afraid to tell hard truths is an agency built to fight wars, not to understand them. And Harris himself notes that Trump did not heed the intelligence community’s warnings about how Iran would respond to American attacks. We are all paying for that one now.
Pick a policy: So here is where the United States stands. The President calls Zelensky “more difficult to deal with” than Putin and urges Ukrainians to elect someone else. His CIA director is running operations against Russia that are more aggressive than Biden’s. His CIA is helping Ukraine destroy Russian refineries while he cuts deals to sell Russian diesel. His spy chief flies to Moscow to tell the Russians they cannot win, while his agency’s own analysts are afraid to tell him what they think.
That is not a strategy. It is a contradiction that the American people are paying for at the pump, and that the Ukrainians are paying for with their lives. If Washington wants peace, it should stop being a combatant. If it wants to fight Russia, it should have the honesty to say so, to Congress and to the voters, before the midterms rather than after. What it cannot keep doing is both, and pretending it is doing neither."
"Alert! Now It's Getting Real; WTF, Now Japan? Global Stockpiling For WW3, Iran Declares Nuke War Preparation"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 10/26/26
"Alert! Now It's Getting Real; WTF, Now It's Japan?
Global Stockpiling For WW3, Iran Declares Nuke War Preparation"
Comments here:
"Quiet Night: Deep Sleep Music with Black Screen - Fall Asleep with Ambient Music"
Full screen recommended.
"Quiet Night: Deep Sleep Music with Black Screen -
Fall Asleep with Ambient Music"
"Deep sleep music ("Quiet Night") that hopefully will help you fall asleep. This ambient music is produced by Soothing Relaxation and composed by Peder B. Helland. The video fades to black after 10 minutes. Good night and sleep well! Stream or download music from Soothing Relaxation."
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Why doesn't the nearby galaxy create a gravitational lensing effect on the background galaxy? It does, but since both galaxies are so nearby, the angular shift is much smaller than the angular sizes of the galaxies themselves. The featured Hubble image of NGC 3314 shows two large spiral galaxies which happen to line up exactly. The foreground spiral NGC 3314a appears nearly face-on with its pinwheel shape defined by young bright star clusters. Against the glow of the background galaxy NGC 3314b, though, dark swirling lanes of interstellar dust can also be seen tracing the nearer spiral's structure. Both galaxies appear on the edge of the Hydra Cluster of Galaxies, a cluster that is about 200 million light years away.
Gravitational lens distortions are much easier to see when the lensing galaxy is smaller and further away. Then, the background galaxy may even be distorted into a ring around the nearer. Fast gravitational lens flashes due to stars in the foreground galaxy momentarily magnifying the light from stars in the background galaxy might one day be visible in future observing campaigns with high-resolution telescopes."
"Autumn, A Season Of Quiet Moments"
Full screen recommended.
"Autumn, A Season Of Quiet Moments"
"Relaxing classical music for peaceful autumn days, quiet moments, and the gentle beauty of nature as the seasons begin to slow. This Visual Poem wanders through tranquil autumn landscapes, where golden leaves drift softly through the air, quiet paths disappear beneath the trees, and warm sunlight settles gently across the countryside. There is something about autumn that makes the world feel quieter. Leaves turn gold and amber, cool breezes move through the trees, and familiar landscapes take on a softer, more reflective beauty. Let the peaceful autumn scenery and delicate classical melodies accompany your reading, studying, working, relaxing, or simply a quiet moment watching the season slowly pass. Autumn asks for nothing - only that we slow down long enough to notice its beauty."
Native American Elder, "How Your Tv and Phone Are Hurting Your Soul"
Full screen recommended.
Native American Elder,
"How Your Tv and Phone Are Hurting Your Soul"
"Rust on the Pocket Watch"
Full screen recommended.
Dust & Strings, "Rust on the Pocket Watch"
"Nobody ever bought another hour of light. Let the gears stay dead... everything is right. An old silver pocket watch, given in 1945. The hands don't turn no more, the ticking stopped in the morning fog, and an old bluesman sits still on the front porch watching the river flow. A slow-burning, acoustic Mississippi Delta Blues ballad about letting go of the rush, accepting the passing of time, and finding peace in the quiet countryside. Weathered storytelling vocals, intimate fingerpicked acoustic guitar, weeping resonator slide tones, and dusty front porch atmosphere."
"This Is Terrifying And It's About To Happen To the U.S. Financial System - Waking Up To No Money"
Jeremiah Babe, 10/26/26
"This Is Terrifying And It's About To Happen To
the U.S. Financial System - Waking Up To No Money"
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