Very strong language alert!
George Carlin, "The American Dream"
So, we rise from the rubble...
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Wednesday, October 14, 2026
"Bank Of America Just Got Busted, Massive Financial Crimes Committed"
Jeremiah Babe, 10/14/26
"Bank Of America Just Got Busted,
Massive Financial Crimes Committed"
Comments here:
"Disruptive Thoughts"
"Disruptive Thoughts"
by John Mauldin
"Physicists have a concept called “entropy,” which basically says systems will tend to move from orderly to disorderly over time. Entropy is central to physics, thermodynamics, and other fields of physical science. Economics, however, isn’t a physical science. The way we allocate scarce resources isn’t bound by fixed laws of the universe. We have some general principles that are mostly reliable, but not always and everywhere. The rules can change. I described one way in which they have. (For some reason, that letter provoked a lot of responses, voicing both approval and disapproval. I read every reply that I see. Thank you for sending them.)
At its best, economics delivers the opposite of entropy, harnessing chaos into orderly systems that create opportunities and raise living standards for everyone. Yet a type of entropy still seems to apply, because these systems eventually change. Without careful monitoring, they can become dead weight bureaucratic cash sinks.
There’s small change and big change. The small ones are notable: recessions, market crashes, etc. You’ll see several in your lifetime. The greater changes tend to be technology-driven: the Industrial Revolution, the internet, and now maybe artificial intelligence, robotics, and what I’ve called the Age of Transformation. When you are living through such change, it’s easy to get caught up in the moment. Change is hard. But it’s also inevitable, whether we like it or not. The good news: Most people will not only muddle through, but their lives will improve and the lives of the children will be even better. That’s what free market entrepreneurialism delivers.
Sometimes, however, life changes and some changes are hard. There’s no sugar-coating that. Likewise, the changes will be harder on some people than others. There’s no sugar-coating that, either. We just have to prepare as best we can. Today I’ll tell you about a time in the past when people faced a challenge similar in some ways to our own. Then we’ll talk about the differences.
Resistance Was Futile: Today we use the word “Luddite” to describe those who fear new inventions, fighting to avoid change however they can. But the Luddites were actual people in 19th-century England. And if you or I had faced what they did, we might not have liked it, either. Here’s a short description from History.com.
“The original Luddites were British weavers and textile workers who objected to the increased use of mechanized looms and knitting frames. Most were trained artisans who had spent years learning their craft, and they feared that unskilled machine operators were robbing them of their livelihood. When the economic pressures of the Napoleonic Wars made the cheap competition of early textile factories particularly threatening to the artisans, a few desperate weavers began breaking into factories and smashing textile machines. They called themselves ‘Luddites’ after Ned Ludd, a young apprentice who was rumored to have wrecked a textile apparatus in 1779.
There’s no evidence Ludd actually existed - like Robin Hood, he was said to reside in Sherwood Forest - but he eventually became the mythical leader of the movement. The protestors claimed to be following orders from ‘General Ludd,’ and they even issued manifestos and threatening letters under his name.
The first major instances of machine breaking took place in 1811 in Nottingham, and the practice soon spread across the English countryside. Machine-breaking Luddites attacked and burned factories, and in some cases, they even exchanged gunfire with company guards and soldiers. The workers hoped their raids would deter employers from installing expensive machinery, but the British government instead moved to quash the uprisings by making machine breaking punishable by death.
The unrest finally reached its peak in April 1812, when a few Luddites were gunned down during an attack on a mill near Huddersfield. The army had deployed several thousand troops to round up these dissidents in the days that followed, and dozens were hanged or transported to Australia. By 1813, the Luddite resistance had all but vanished. It wasn’t until the 20th century that their name reentered the popular lexicon as a synonym for ‘technophobe.’”
I suspect the original Luddites didn’t fear technology so much as they feared losing their livelihoods. At the time, weavers were skilled craftsmen, often operating their own shops with a few apprentices. They were part of that era’s middle class, occupying a space below the aristocracy but above farm laborers. The idea of slipping down the ladder must have terrified them (not unlike today’s “knowledge workers” who do things AI is rapidly learning to do without human help).
Economic reality left few alternatives, though. The new technology was staggeringly more productive. According to one source I found, mechanized cotton spinning increased per-worker output around 500 times. The cotton gin removed seeds from cotton about 50 times faster than a human could. These weren’t small differences. They were revolutionary to the same degree AI is revolutionary when it produces in a few seconds a legal document (to name just one example) that would have taken a human attorney days to produce.
Gradual or Sudden: I imagine the weavers back then pointed to the machinery’s flaws and mistakes. “See, we can do it better!” That was probably true but also irrelevant. At some point, higher productivity outweighs lower quality. Machine quality improves, though, eventually surpassing even the best human experts. This gives everyone access to get better products at lower prices. Two things happen during these periods of revolutionary technological change: Higher productivity leads to innovation that makes life better, and those same productivity gains cost some people their jobs or income.
These two changes - one good, one bad - happen at the same time. But in any given household, one of them predominates. Those rendered jobless don’t get to enjoy the fruits of innovation. Meanwhile, those who become more productive may forget the other group’s misery. Not surprisingly, conflict often follows.
The Luddite violence occurred in the early 1800s, a period we now call the First Industrial Revolution. The innovations it launched would enhance everyday life for everyone. But it was the Second Industrial Revolution, beginning around 1890 and extending into the Roaring 1920s, before the new technologies reached most people. In between was a long period of adaptation.
The adaptation period, while often uncomfortable, allowed enormous change to unfold gradually. Some groups like the Luddites saw their lives upended quickly but others had time to adjust. They were able to learn new skills, relocate to places with more opportunity, and otherwise find a way forward in a different kind of economy. We went from an agrarian economy where 90% of the people worked producing or moving food in Colonial America. By 1860 it was 53%, down to 23% in 1940, and less than 2% today. By the way, that 2% today represents more than 2 million farms. The growth in agricultural productivity is utterly astounding. Labor use is down by 80% or more. You can read about it here.
Note that this massive shift happened over almost 10 generations. People had a lot of time to adapt their economic circumstances even though it was always individually challenging. Electricity was a huge change but took multiple decades to show its true impact. Ditto for trains and then the automobile.
Today’s workers may not have that luxury. A faster pace of technological change means many kinds of jobs are being replaced faster than the economy can provide new ones for the displaced. And this time, young workers and those with fewer skills are bearing the brunt of the change.
In writing this letter, I did some browsing on jobseeker bulletin boards. I saw many examples of experienced technology workers in their 40s and 50s (and a few in their early 60s) who had been laid off, presumably because new technology had outmoded them. While they wanted to find new roles, few seemed desperate. Many even talked about the large portfolios they had accumulated in their apparently well-paid careers. Some owned their homes mortgage-free. Most were prepared to wait and, if necessary, just retire early.
In contrast, AI is wreaking havoc on job prospects for young workers, particularly recent college graduates. They prepared for a world in which companies hired large numbers of young professionals to do the “grunt” work of programming, analyzing numbers, writing reports, etc. Those jobs still exist, but AI tools mean there are far fewer of them than even 2–3 years ago. This is one reason unemployment is far worse for younger cohorts.
While higher unemployment for young workers isn’t new, it is unusual to see it rising so much faster than in the 25–54 and 55+ cohorts. This strikes me as an important difference from the Luddite example. Back then, the middle-aged craftsmen had the most to lose. They had invested a lifetime in mastering skills the new technology threatened to kill. Today, many older workers (though certainly not all) are better positioned to endure disruption than the young ones. And ironically, the younger ones are far more likely to embrace the technology that is taking their jobs.
Historically, having a large population of economically distressed young adults, especially young males, isn’t great for social stability. It would help if more could be attracted into the kind of work AI hasn’t yet reached – the construction trades, for example. But those who invested years in earning a college degree - and may have large student loan debts - are naturally hoping to find a job in the field they prepared for. As noted, the real key is timing. Will AI unlock new kinds of growth that create enough jobs to absorb those it displaces? I feel sure it will, but I don’t know how soon.
Asymmetric Gains: Dave Rosenberg published a piece I need to think about and perhaps write about in a future letter. Briefly, he thinks the business cycle of expansions and recessions is no longer delivering useful investment signals. Structural “mega-forces” are reshaping markets in ways cycles alone can’t explain. He then lists several such forces, the first being AI. Here’s Rosie: “Today’s breakthroughs have so far been narrower and clustered. Semiconductors, hyperscale cloud capacity, and applied AI models absorb the bulk of capital flows, while most industries remain only marginally affected. The result is highly concentrated productivity and profitability - a widening divergence between firms able to harness AI at scale and those left behind.
Early adoption has created exponential gains for chipmakers, hyperscalers, and software leaders. Retail, Hospitality, Health Care, and other service-heavy sectors have lagged substantially. AI looks less like a rising tide than a powerful wave lifting a few boats. Yet, diffusion is inevitable: logistics optimization, medical imaging, algorithmic lending, and personalized education. The eventual scope will be broad, as it has been with every general-purpose technology, but the path there is jagged and contested.
The macroeconomic effects are profound. Automation dampens labor market cycles by reducing the elasticity of headcount to demand swings. Firms that deploy AI in coding, call centers, or logistics need fewer workers during downturns and can scale without proportionate hiring in upswings. This suppresses wage-driven inflation and makes employment less reliable as a growth signal. At the same time, productivity gains accrue asymmetrically, reinforcing the gap between winners and laggards.”
To summarize that last paragraph: Technology-driven productivity enhancement is separating employment growth from economic growth. That’s true at both the macro level and for individual companies. In the long run, this is probably good. Population growth is slowing and will turn negative soon (absent more immigration). We need higher productivity to maintain economic momentum. But again, it’s not enough to have a job for every worker. They have to be the kinds of jobs those workers can do, located in places the workers want to (and can afford to) live.
AI is only one of many significant disruptions ahead. Ultimately, almost all will be positive for mankind. In the short run it will be individually disruptive, as it was for early 1800s textile workers. Robotics really will take jobs in a wide variety of fields. And not just at work. Housework, caring for the elderly, healthcare, agriculture, and more. All those jobs are at risk. But affordable robots will also give entrepreneurs the opportunity to create whole new businesses, serving the public with better products at lower costs. And those new businesses will need human employees. Similarly autonomous vehicles will take jobs, but the increased productivity and dramatic drop in fatal accidents will ensure that it happens.
The next 10 years will see astounding gains in healthcare. We are on the cusp of extending health span significantly, with increased lifespan following shortly. All these technologies and more are going to happen in less than a generation. It will be a disruption we have never encountered in terms of the speed of different technologies reaching ubiquity. This will happen as a witch’s brew of politicians promise to “protect” various jobs and industries. There will be calls to have the government “do something.” There is a role for government, but in helping people transition to a new future, not protecting old jobs.
This is all going to happen at the same time as we have geopolitical crises, sovereign debt problems, and the social crisis stemming from generational leadership changing (Neil Howe’s "The Fourth Turning"). Clashes caused by the over-production of elites vying for power (Peter Turchin’s "End Times"), and young people not trained for the future we will actually experience will all come together in the latter part of this decade. Buckle up. We all need to figure out how to be part of the solution."
"Snyder Reports, 10/14/26"
Full screen recommended.
Snyder Reports, 10/14/26
"Social Security COLA Just Announced -
What You Need To Know Now"
The 2027 Social Security COLA is official - 3.6%, the highest in four years. Here's exactly how much more you'll get every month, and why inflation already eats it. In this social security update, we break down the confirmed 2027 cost-of-living adjustment, the average $900 per year / $75 per month increase for retirees, the new $192,300 Social Security tax cap (up from $184,500), September CPI at 3.7% driven by gasoline up 9.1%, what Medicare cost increases mean for what you actually keep, and why 0.9 points over projection accelerates the trust fund timeline from 5-6 years to 4-5 years. Learn what the Social Security COLA 2027 means for social security benefits, SSI, SSDI, and your 2027 budget, plus food, shelter, used cars, and apparel inflation to watch next.
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o
Full screen recommended.
Snyder Reports, 10/14/26
"It's Starting Again:
Companies Are Laying Off Thousands of Workers"
"The next round of layoffs is happening now. Netflix just announced 6% cuts, Kroger is cutting 3,000 corporate jobs for AI, and Silicon Valley has already shed 14,000 jobs. In this video I break down why tech layoffs are accelerating, what Elon Musk's warning about ai taking jobs means for white-collar work in product, tech, HR and legal, why companies are skipping big holiday hiring, and who gets retained after Q4.This is not just cost-cutting — it's restructuring for AI. I'll show you what it means for your job, your money, and how to prepare for more layoffs 2026 and job cuts 2026."
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"Physics, Weapons, And A Very Brief Stress Analysis Of A Bra Clasp"
"Physics, Weapons, And A Very Brief
Stress Analysis Of A Bra Clasp"
by John Wilder
"I once had a professor that said, “If we would have waited to have mathematically understand how a cantilever beam works, we’d still be living in caves.” The Bernoulli Brothers (not named Mario and Luigi), Euler, and Coulomb figured it out, finally ending the mystery in 1773.
Notably, none of them lived in a cave. But they did come up with practical ways to make artillery, to make rifles and to make all manner of amazing inventions that were optimized for removing their fellow man from this plane of existence, and in some cases turning them into fragments so small and diffuse as to be beyond the capabilities of all the king’s horses and all the king’s men to figure out who they were. At least until DNA testing.
For the longest time, engineering beat physics. Just like the cantilever beam, what was practical was way ahead of what could be explained. Engineers could build stuff that physicists couldn’t explain, and physicists had to sprint to catch up.
They did, and certainly the biggest example of weaponized physics are nuclear weapons. Have an enemy? Let’s unleash the forces that transmute matter into their favorite restaurant and gently kiss the area of several megatons of canned sunshine. Oh, and the hard radiation. And the explosion. The first atomic bombs were built based on a theory, and followed up with an amazingly expensive research project that led to a first-time success. That’s worthy of a good grade, which is maybe why they called it the A-bomb. Me? I would have called it the A+bomb. Physics was now weaponized, and engineering had to work to catch up to the ideas.
Enter Eric Weinstein. Eric is primarily famous for being famous, but made money as an investor after getting a Ph.D. in mathematical physics. But in the “being famous” bit, he’s made several observations:
ͦ Physics has been stagnant since 1973,
ͦ Physicist Edward Witten “drove theoretical physics off the road and off a cliff” in the 1980s with String Theory™,
ͦ None of this was an accident, and,
ͦ You should buy his book.
I kid. He’s loaded and doesn’t need you to buy his book. Just listen to his podcast. Regardless, in there is an interesting assertion, and that is that physics was hijacked and slowed down. Now, how would that happen? Well, it would really be easy. Who pays the bills for physicists? Who writes the grants for physics? Who finances the projects?
That’s right. The United States government. And, you may not be aware of this, but if you find something particularly interesting in physics, it can be deemed top secret from the moment that it’s found. Yes. Uncle Sam is serious about his physics. And Weinstein kept coming back to this point that sharing certain just-discovered physics could make that physicist a criminal.
What if, stick with me, we developed something outstanding in physics that was not all that hard to figure out, but that amazing weaponization or strategic impact? I don’t know, maybe a quantum bomb that makes physicists leap, or a ray that turns everyone living in the Middle East into a PEZ©. There would be a strategic reason to make the Soviets and the ChiComs and, well, everyone waste their time on a specific branch of mathematical speculation that keeps them away from the PEZ™ ray.
Michio Kaku said that String Theory© was discovered “100 years too early” to test it. So, what better thing to waste time on than a pure mathematical construct? How to get them to study that? That’s the easy thing: spend money. It’s not even a lot of money, because physicists are used to being beaten up for their lunch money, so they have low expectations. Let’s assume this is true, at least for the post. It’s a big ask, I know, but it’s not like I’m asking you to pretend that diversity is our strength or that all white people are racist.
Let’s move to the next thread: A.I. has recently dropped 719 math papers that address over 4,000 open math problems. One mathematician even noted that one of the papers in particular would, if written by a human, be in the running for the Fields Medal®. The Fields Medal™ is like the Nobel Prize© for mathematicians, but it’s lighter because mathematicians have low upper body strength.
So, here’s where I attempt to bring it together. A.I. is doing math as well as the best mathematicians on Earth. Math is the tool chest that supports all of physics. If A.I. does math, A.I. can do physics. A.I. will soon be doing physics at the highest level, guided by humans free from constraints. If fundamental physics leads to the possibility more weapons, or wormholes, or other science fiction advances like, say, Nerf© cars for Asian women, our world could change overnight. I call dibs on the Nobel Prize® for that one.
When Vernor Vinge came up with the term “Singularity” to describe when the pace of change in the world, the level of novelty, becomes infinite. At that point, all bets are off. Is there fundamental physics that we have yet to discover or that we’ve hidden? If so, it might be that we’re at the edge of that vertical takeoff.
Thankfully, there were still fields of experimentation when I was young that weren’t suppressed by the government. For instance, my early research program conducting stress analysis on female undergarment fastening devices led to a paradoxical conclusion: Once the snap of the bra was released, theory said that the tension would likewise decrease. However, in my experience, in every instance tension increased, so theory was refuted by experiment. But that is another story."
Dan, I Allegedly, "They Never Saw This Coming"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 10/14/26
"They Never Saw This Coming"
"Artificial intelligence is changing the workplace, banking, business, and everyday life faster than many people realize. Kroger's planned corporate job cuts raise serious questions about AI replacing positions that once seemed secure. We also look at Jamie Dimon's concerns about AI agents accessing bank accounts, government spending on detention facilities, real estate developments, U.S. diesel exports, and the FCC's move involving political advertising. Plus, a surprising Bed Bath & Beyond coupon contest delivers a $500 gift card to one lucky viewer! What does all of this mean for your job, your money, your privacy, and the future of American business? On iAllegedly, Dan breaks down the business news, personal finance issues, artificial intelligence, employment changes, government spending, and economic developments you need to understand."
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Bill Bonner, "Budget Battle Looms"
"Budget Battle Looms"
by Bill Bonner
Ardmore, Ireland - "CNBC: "French student protests heat up as budget battle looms." We are looking for the real cause of the students’ discontent. Not coincidentally, we find other dots in the same constellation...including the general discontent of their parents - and why they are turning against mainstream candidates. And the big one is there too - the much-discussed ‘decline of the West.’ What is the pattern that connects them? A high confidence hunch - it’s a web of money; we are all stuck in it.
Few people don’t pay for their own children’s education...or for their own retirement or their own medical expenses. All are socialized. Which means, like pigs at the trough, what we get depends not on our own output, but on being able to push others away from the swill. There’s only so much of it. And those who get the most are a kind of swine elite. Every mother wants her children to be right there with them. The program works tolerably well - as long as the swill keeps coming. Alas, that is the problem du jour. For, like a box of cereal or a candy bar, public budgets are subject to shrink-flation.
Yesterday, we looked at it as a social phenomenon. Ambitious young people want to join the ranks of the deciders - the elites who decide who gets what in a socialized economy. But the economy is no longer growing fast enough to accommodate them all. And much of what the new junior varsity deciders would like to decide has already been decided for them by the senior team. .
Old people were promised pensions. Sick people were promised medical attention. The unemployed were given compensation. The unhoused were entitled to shelter. And now they jostle to get anything at all. In a free society people don’t need such big snouts. They do the best they can with whatever they have to work with. If they can’t afford to send their children to medical school, well...it’s nobody’s fault, if not their own.
Education, though, has long been socialized. In the US, it began in 1647 in the Massachusetts Colony, with the Old Deluder Satan Act, requiring towns to create ‘public’ schools. The idea was to make sure young people could read the Bible and thus defend themselves from the Devil. And today, the Prince of Peace has been removed from the curriculum, but American children can attend school for free through the 12th grade.
In France, free education has been extended all the way through to the top. Even medical school is mostly free. But then, doctors, working for the national health service, earn only about half as much as their US brethren.
We offer no opinion on which is the better system. But as we all know, there’s no such thing as a free medical school. And the people who pay for it are people who don’t wear stethoscopes around their necks. A further gratuitous opinion is that Satan is probably underrated. He is able to plant his delusions in the rich, heavily manured soil of the educated mind as well as, or maybe even better than, in the stony, ingrate head of unschooled voters.
After all, rare was the 21st century voter who had never known the joy of public education. But despite their enlightenment, they elected Bush, Obama, Biden and Trump, nevertheless. Could the uneducated yokel have done worse?
We don’t know. But it was college grads - including a whole phalanx of PhDs - who developed today’s funny money system. French leaders, as well as those in the US, found the fake money much more easily borrowed than the real stuff. Then, like a fat waiter on roller skates, they kept their tables richly served. And now, the interest on the public debt - that is, the carrying cost for promises made by previous deciders - is a big drag on current budgets...and a big part of the reason a ‘budget battle looms.’
The deVere Group: "France’s borrowing costs smashing through 5% is the starkest sign yet the world’s debt order has flipped, with rich nations now paying the kind of price once reserved for serial defaulters like Argentina. French politicians - just like their US counterparts - voted for programs France really didn’t need and couldn’t really afford. They still can’t pay for them. All they can do is to pay interest on the money borrowed to implement them.
And behold how the dots multiply and come together. ‘Elite overproduction’ - too many deciders! - slowing GDP growth. Aging populations (needing more pensions, more medical attention). Falling real wages. Rising interest rates on the debt. All of which leaves the deciders with less room for maneuver than ever...and less real money to maneuver with.
This is the real crisis. It is not, as Pete Hegseth advertises, that western governments are not manly enough or no longer have the stomach for public executions. It is not, as Marco Rubio insists, that we have lost the taste for the ‘unapologetic pursuit of national power.’
The real crisis is a financial one. Puffing out our chests...and perhaps depriving our minds of oxygen...we pursued national power with great elan and recklessness. We spent our own money, our children’s money, our grandchildren’s money...and money that no one will ever earn. And now, those young adults are getting the bills. They don’t much like it. Their parents don’t like it either. Their real earnings are falling. Their hopes of greatness are fading. And it looks like the public treasury - with all its funny money - may fail to cover their real retirement and medical costs as planned.
In effect, the fake money socialized everything. Costs that should have been paid years ago...misadventures that should have gotten the deciders publicly executed...and commitments that never should have been made at all - have all been socialized. It is asking too much of the voting public to study or understand what has happened. Instead, they will go to the polls and demand that politicians ‘do something’ about it. And what can they do, but borrow and spend even more?"
o
Full screen recommended.
Rolling Stones, "Sympathy For The Devil"
"The Coming Food Crisis May Look Nothing Like a Crisis Until It’s Too Late"
"The Coming Food Crisis May Look
Nothing Like a Crisis Until It’s Too Late"
by Madge Waggy
Excerpt: "Just after the morning deliveries and before the first customers, a supermarket looks both ordinary and slightly deceptive. The lights are on, the coolers hum, and the shelves hold exactly what they held last week. Strawberries show up in February, lettuce comes from ground that was desert two generations ago, and on the same shelf beef raised across three states sits beside bread baked from grain cut a thousand miles away. Someone pushing a cart through the whole store can finish the errand without once wondering how any of it got there.
That is part of why the American food supply is so easy to take for granted. Nobody praises the trucking fleets, the cold storage, the seed suppliers, or the packing houses, because a thing that rarely fails stops being noticed. Two or three generations have grown up treating food the way they treat running water: as a fact of the world, unremarkable and about as interesting.
Reliability, though, is not the same as resilience, and the two are easy to confuse because the difference only appears when something goes wrong. A farm can still bring in a decent harvest during a dry year, until that dry year coincides with expensive fertilizer, a thin labor crew, and a delayed shipment. Shelves can stay full while carrying fewer brands at higher prices. The country is not running out of food. What it may be running out of is the cushion that once let a bad season pass without anyone noticing.
This article rests on three kinds of claims, and it is worth keeping them apart. First come the demonstrated problems: measured facts about the age of farmers, the drawdown of aquifers, the concentration of meatpacking, the cost of inputs, the price of food. Then comes an interpretation, which is mine and can be argued with: the suggestion that these separate trends, taken together, are eroding the system’s ability to absorb a shock. Last come scenarios, which are conditional rather than predictive, describing what could happen over the next decade or two if several pressures arrive at once and little changes. The text will say which is which as it goes.
What follows is not a forecast of collapse. It is an attempt to look past the grocery aisle at the people who grow the food, the water and soil they depend on, the infrastructure that moves it, and the habits of a public that has rarely had a reason to worry."
Full, most highly recommended article is here:
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
"Alert! Trump Announces Iran War 2.0 Imminent, No Ceasefire! Aramco In Flames! NATO WW3 Plan Reveal!"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 10/13/26
"Alert! Trump Announces Iran War 2.0 Imminent,
No Ceasefire! Aramco In Flames! NATO WW3 Plan Reveal!"
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Gerald Celente, "The Nobel Piece of Crap Prize Winner"
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 10/13/26
"The Nobel Piece of Crap Prize Winner"
"Gerald Celente breaks down the latest issue of The Trends Journal: Trump is angry he didn’t get the Nobel Peace Prize, the Iran War continues, oil remains in focus, and markets face growing uncertainty."
Comments here:
Musical Interlude: Spirit Tribe Awakening, "Raise Positive Vibrations"
Full screen recommended.
Spirit Tribe Awakening, "Raise Positive Vibrations"
"528Hz Positive Energy, Self Healing with 417Hz Solfeggio frequency. Peaceful, empowering and soothing music and nature to nurture your mind, body, and soul. Supporting and empowering you on your life journey." I can't praise this visually beautiful, and very effective, video enough. In these incredibly highly stressful times, please be kind to yourself and take the time to savor this exquisite work in full screen mode. Headphones suggested but not necessary. It works, as simple as that...
- CP
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Have you ever seen the Pleiades star cluster? Even if you have, you probably have never seen it as large and clear as this. Perhaps the most famous star cluster on the sky, the bright stars of the Pleiades can be seen without binoculars from even the depths of a light-polluted city. With a long exposure from a dark location, though, the dust cloud surrounding the Pleiades star cluster becomes very evident.
The featured exposure covers a sky area several times the size of the full moon. Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades lies about 400 light years away toward the constellation of the Bull (Taurus). A common legend with a modern twist is that one of the brighter stars faded since the cluster was named, leaving only six of the sister stars visible to the unaided eye. The actual number of Pleiades stars visible, however, may be more or less than seven, depending on the darkness of the surrounding sky and the clarity of the observer's eyesight."
"The Dark Years Are Here"
"The Dark Years Are Here"
by Egon von Greyerz
"A Global Monetary & Commodity Inferno Of Nuclear Proportions: When the sh-t hits the global fan, it often does it at the optimal time for the maximum amount of damage and with the worst kind of sh-t to soil the world. For years I have been clear that the world is reaching the end of an economic, financial and monetary era which will affect mankind catastrophically for decades.
The world will obviously blame many for the catastrophe which will hit every corner of our planet. But we must remember that these events are catalysts which will have a major effect because they are hitting a gigantic debt bubble of a magnitude that has never been seen before in history. And it obviously takes very little to prick this epic bubble.
What is unequivocal is that all currencies will finish the 100+ year fall to ZERO in the next few years. It is also crystal clear that all the asset bubbles – stocks, bonds and property – will implode at the same time leading to a long and deep depression.
We had the warning in 2006-9 but central banks ignored it and just added new worthless debt to existing worthless debt to create worthless debt squared – an obvious recipe for disaster. So as is often typical for the end of an economic era, the catalyst is totally unexpected and worse than anyone could have forecast."
"All That's Left..."
In the movie “The Lion in Winter”, when the sons, in the dungeon,
think they hear Henry coming down the stairs to kill them:
Richard: "He's here! He'll get no satisfaction out of us! Don't let him see you beg...Take it like a man!
Geoffrey: "You chivalric fool! As if the way one falls down matters!"
Richard: "Well, when the fall is all that's left, it matters a great deal."
"As I've Aged..."
“As I’ve Aged"
- Author Unknown
“You ask me how it feels to grow older. I’ve learned a few things along the way, which I’ll share with you…
As I’ve aged, I’ve become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself. I’ve become my own friend. I don’t chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn’t need, but looks so avante-garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.
I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon, before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging. Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of many years ago, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love… I will.
I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set. They, too, will get old.
I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things. Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody’s beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.
I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.
As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don’t question myself anymore. I’ve even earned the right to be wrong. So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day (if I feel like it). May our friendship never come apart especially when it’s straight from the heart!”
"Virtual Ancient Rome in 3D - Via Sacra at Constantine I Time: Walking From Colosseum to the Forum"
Full screen recommended.
"Virtual Ancient Rome in 3D - Via Sacra at Constantine I Time:
Walking From Colosseum to the Forum"
by History In 3D
"What did the main street of ancient Rome look like in the 4th century AD, during the time of Emperor Constantine I? In this video tour, we will walk down the street from the Colosseum to the Forum, look at the legendary Roman buildings, and then look at the same location from the air and from the Palatine. Happy viewing!
Through increasingly sophisticated virtual reality (VR) technologies, motion graphics and the committed work and research of 3D modellers, such an immersive educational experience may soon be possible. The team behind History in 3D is working to bring this concept to life through its ambitious project to ‘create the most extensive, detailed and accurate virtual 3D reconstruction of ancient Rome’. Eventually, the team hopes to allow users to explore a historically accurate rendering of the city, and perhaps beyond, via VR technology.
Today, viewers can watch excerpts from this expansive work-in-progress on the History in 3D YouTube channel. In this extract, titled "Virtual Ancient Rome: Walking from the Colosseum to the Forum", we’re led on a gentle digital stroll between these two landmarks, in the 4th century CE, with views of several other notable sites along the way. While it’s but a glimpse into the larger, more ambitious endeavor, the video is a fascinating experience in its own right, and hints at the promise of historical reconstructions to come."
View many fascinating videos here:
"Each Must For Himself Alone Decide..."
“Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country – hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of.”
- Mark Twain
"Vulcan Guiding Principles"
"Vulcan Guiding Principles"
by Moon
"Ideally, do no harm. Harm speeds up the heat-death of the Universe, and indirectly, your own. More practically, do as little harm as possible. We are creations of a Universe in which entropy exists, and therefore see no way of escape, but we do not need to help it."
"Harm no one’s internal, invisible integrities. Leave others the privacies of their minds and lives. Intimacy remains precious only insofar as it is inviolate: invading it turns it to torment. Reach out to others courteously: accept their reaching in the same way, with careful hands."
"Do not murder. The spear in the other’s heart is the spear in your own; you are he. All action has reaction: what force you inflict, inevitably returns. The murder of the other is the murder of your own joy, forever."
"As far as possible, do not kill. Can you give life again to what you kill? Then be slow to take life. Take only life that will not notice you taking it. To notice one’s own death increases entropy. To die and not notice it increases it less, but still does so."
"Cast out fear. Cast out hate and rage. Cast out greed and envy. Cast out all emotion that speeds entropy, whether it be love or hate. Cast out these emotions by using reason to accept them, and then move past them. Use in moderation emotions that do not speed entropy, taking all care that they do not cause others pain, for that speeds entropy as well. Master your passions, so that they become a power for the slowing of the heat-death."
"Do no harm to those that harm you. Offer them peace, and offer them peace again, and do it until you die. In this manner you will have peace, one way or another, even if they kill you. And you cannot give others what you have not experienced yourself."
"Learn reason above all. Learn clear thought: learn to know what is from what seems to be. This is the key to everything: the truth of reality, the reality of truth. What is will set you free.”
Surak’s concept of cthia, the guiding principle of Vulcan society,
as written by Diane Duane in her novel, “Star Trek: Spock’s World.”
- http://www.moonhillproductions.com/
"In Ordinary Times..."
"In ordinary times we get along surprisingly well, on the whole, without ever discovering what our faith really is. If, now and again, this remote and academic problem is so unmannerly as to thrust its way into our minds, there are plenty of things we can do to drive the intruder away. We can get the car out or go to a party or to the cinema or read a detective story or have a row with a district council or write a letter to the papers about the habits of the nightjar or Shakespeare's use of nautical metaphor. Thus we build up a defense mechanism against self-questioning because, to tell the truth, we are very much afraid of ourselves."
- Dorothy L. Sayers
"The Disturbing Advancement of AI ‘Mind-Reading’ Technology"
"The Disturbing Advancement
of AI ‘Mind-Reading’ Technology"
by Leo Hohmann
"Scientists at an Israeli research lab targeted last year by an Iranian ballistic missile attack announced last week they’d created an AI-powered “mind-reading” technology that can recreate images people are looking at by analyzing their brain scans. As part of a study at the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Israeli scientists asked participants to look at photos ranging from images of a baseball game to a dog leaning out of a car and a group hiking across a snowy tundra. Within minutes, the AI program scanned and analyzed their brain-activity patterns and accurately reproduced the pictures – which it had never seen before.
According to France 24, “The Institute is ranked among the best in the world (outside the United States). It also has strong links to the Israeli defense industry.” Professor Michal Irani, from the Weizmann Institute, was quoted in the Daily Mail saying: “There exist nowadays models that translate brain activity into images, and they can even produce impressive reconstructions that preserve the semantic meaning of the image reasonably well. However, they tend to make mistakes in basic features such as composition and color. The new model we developed outperforms them in reconstructing both the content of the image and its details. What’s more, while every other model requires dozens of hours of brain scans to learn to ‘read’ a new person, our model needs only one hour.”
In one hour, this technology can size up your brain patterns and reconstruct your thoughts. The Daily Mail, Slay News and several other conservative news outlets reported on this new development last week. What none of them reported is that the Weizmann Institute is an Israeli research organization heavily involved with the Israeli military. It doesn’t take too much of an imagination to realize how this technology could be used by malevolent governments. It could be used in their quest to have a functioning department of pre-crime in which people could be investigated and even arrested based on their thoughts. It would also come in handy for militaries when interrogating captured POWs.
Weizmann Institute of Science is a postgraduate university and research institute in Rehovot, just south of Tel Aviv. Its Nancy and Stephen Grant Israel Center specializes in genomics, DNA profiling, bioinformatics, preclinical studies and drug discovery. Bioinformatics is defined by American Heritage as “The use of computer science, mathematics, and information theory to organize and analyze complex biological data, especially genetic data.” This is the type of research sought by militaries looking for new and creative ways to kill or harm people. Biowarfare is seen by many military experts and the next frontier in weapons of mass destruction.
The Weizmann research facilities were targeted by Iran with a ballistic missile strike during Israel’s 12-Day War with Iran in June 2025. The Iranian attack on the night of June 14 was said to be in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of 30 top nuclear scientists in Iran approximately 24 hours prior. Iran’s strikes on the research facilities of the Weizmann Institute were heavily censored by the Israeli government, reported France 24.
But according to Wikipedia, citing multiple sources in Israel, the missile strikes resulted in 90% of the Weizmann Institute’s buildings sustaining damage and approximately 25% of its operations being suspended. The attack caused an estimated $600 million in damages but resulted in no human casualties.
WIO News, a New Delhi, India-based news outlet, reported in an article on June 20, 2025 as follows: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, near the site where an Iranian missile struck earlier this week. Amid heightened tensions in West Asia, Iran targeted the Weizmann Institute of Science, damaging crucial research facilities. This came after an Israeli strike killed as many as nine nuclear scientists, with Israel Defense Forces (IDF) calling it a “significant blow to the regime’s ability to acquire weapons of mass destruction.” While no one was killed in the strike on the Weizmann Institute of Science, it caused heavy damage to multiple labs on campus, snuffing out years of scientific research and sending a chilling message to Israeli scientists that they and their expertise are now targets in the escalating conflict with Iran.
“This is the world-renowned Weizmann Institute, where the most advanced research in human biology is conducted - medical research, genetic research,” Netanyahu said during his visit. “This research was shattered by a missile from the evil regime. They seek to destroy human progress. That is the essence of this regime.”
Why was the Weizmann Institute targeted by Iranians? Well, as it turns out, some of this so-called human progress was being militarized. While it is a multi-disciplinary research institute, Weizmann, like other Israeli universities, has ties to Israel’s defense establishment, including collaborations with industry leaders like Elbit Systems, which is why it may have been targeted. “It’s a moral victory” for Iran, said Oren Schuldiner, a professor in the department of molecular cell biology and the department of molecular neuroscience whose lab was obliterated in the strike. “They managed to harm the crown jewel of science in Israel.”
Dr. Yoel Guzansky, senior analyst at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, told the Associated Press that Weizmann Institute symbolizes Israeli scientific achievement. “Iran is saying: You killed our scientists, now we’re coming for yours.”
Unfortunately, the Iranian attacks did not seem to slow down the Weizmann Institute’s dangerous research to invade human minds and read their thoughts, a technology that, if captured and weaponized by governments, could result in dystopian outcomes that make Orwell’s "1984" look like child’s play."
o
"CVS Pharmacies Are Leaving Sick Americans Without Their Medicine"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 10/13/26
"CVS Pharmacies Are Leaving Sick
Americans Without Their Medicine"
"CVS pharmacies are falling behind on the one job people count on them for: getting sick Americans their medicine on time. In this video, CVS customers and pharmacy workers show it from their side: a twenty-person line at the pharmacy counter, a prescription nobody called about, a card stuck in a machine for a week, an insurance billing ordeal, a prior authorization that never cleared, Caremark mail-order prescription mix-ups, and a pharmacist describing what chronic understaffing does to the people waiting in line. We look at why the pharmacy counter keeps breaking down, what it costs patients who need their refills on time, and how to keep a household's medicine supply from hanging on a single pharmacy counter."
Comments here:
"Compare “Mad” King Ludwig II of Bavaria to Today’s Psycho Leaders"
"Compare “Mad” King Ludwig II of Bavaria
to Today’s Psycho Leaders"
by John Leake
King Ludwig II of Bavaria was declared mad because he built “fairy tale” castles. His Neuschwanstein cost (inflation adjusted) 57 million Euros, and now brings in 100 million Euros per annum. Right after I posted my interview with Dr. Joseph Sansone “Are Many Western Elites Sadistic Psychopaths?” I thought of the irony that King Ludwig II of Germany was declared mentally incompetent and deposed on June 10, 1886 and found dead in Lake Starnberg - along with the psychiatrist who evaluated him (Dr. Bernhard von Gudden) - three days later.
People thought that Ludwig was nuts because of his fondness for building “fairy tale” castles like Neuschwannstein.
Compare Neuschwannstein - which cost (inflation-adusted) the equivalent of 58 million Euros and now brings in about 100 million per year in revenue - to the trillions that governments across the West spend on nonsensical crap, corrupt deals, and weapons. When was the last time a major leader in Europe proposed building something beautiful that would would inspire awe and admiration in visitors from all over the world?
Upon meeting the 18-year-old king, Richard Wagner perceived that his romantic character to be so at odds with the harsh reality of the world that he wouldn’t last long. "Today I was brought to him. He is sadly so beautiful and wise, soulful and lordly, that I fear his life must fade away like a divine dream in this base world… You cannot imagine the magic of his countenance: if he remains alive it will be a great miracle."
o
Full screen recommended.
Don McLean, "Vincent"
"This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you..."
"Yes, Donald Trump Really Did Just Say That “An Economic Depression Much Like 1929” Could Be Coming"
by Michael Snyder
"A lot of people may not like what Donald Trump just said about the economy, but it is accurate. As you will see below, he recently warned that we could soon be facing “an economic depression much like 1929”, and without a doubt the stage has been set for a downturn of that magnitude. Right now, we are in the midst of a global bond crisis, the housing market is paralyzed by high mortgage rates, stores and restaurants are closing all over the nation, there have been mass layoffs in the tech industry, demand at food banks is soaring, and we are experiencing a seemingly endless cost of living crisis that stretches back all the way back to the beginning of this decade.
So I very much agree that we are potentially facing a full-blown economic depression. Earlier this month, Trump caused quite a shock when he publicly stated that the U.S. “will have an economic depression much like 1929” if the Democrats win the midterms… Trump made the warning while promoting his pledge to give every adult American $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate. “If the Democrats win, you will have an economic depression much like 1929,” Trump said in a video posted to Truth Social on Saturday. He also argued that Republican control would allow the administration to return money to Americans, citing record tariff revenue and economic gains. Trump has estimated the proposed “Trump dividend” would cost about $1 trillion.
Of course Trump is convinced that an economic depression can be avoided if Republicans win the midterms. At the moment, pollsters are telling us that such an outcome is very unlikely. The latest surveys indicate that Democrats are almost certainly going to take the House, and there is a good chance that they will also take the Senate. Needless to say, the pollsters have been wrong before, and they could be wrong again. So we will just have to wait and see what happens.
But without a doubt, our economy is teetering on the brink of disaster. Today, we learned that pending home sales in the U.S. just hit their lowest level in more than 12 years…U.S. pending home sales are down to their lowest level since spring 2014–with the exception of April 2020, when the onset of the pandemic ground the housing market to a halt. Pending home sales declined 4% from a month earlier in September on a seasonally adjusted basis–the biggest monthly drop in more than three years. This is a real-time indicator of what’s happening in the housing market; fewer homes went under contract in September largely because mortgage rates rose steadily, surpassing 7% by the end of the month.
The bond crisis has driven mortgage rates to absurd heights, and this is absolutely crushing the housing market. The areas that are being hit the hardest were once some of the hottest during the boom years… The declines were biggest on the West Coast: Seattle posted the biggest drop (-24.4% year over year), followed by Los Angeles (-16%), San Diego (-15.8%) and Anaheim, CA (-15.5%). Those Southern California metros are among the priciest in the U.S., so rising mortgage rates hit them hard, pricing many on-the-fence buyers out. Seattle is also expensive, and a bumpy local job market is curbing demand.
It appears to be inevitable that home prices will fall substantially. In fact, this has already started to happen in some parts of the country. That may sound like good news, but the last time this happened our economy plunged into “the Great Recession”. What will happen this time around?
Right now, U.S. households are struggling to keep up with their debts at a level that we haven’t seen since 2010… The ability of U.S. families to stay current on their debts worsened over the past three years, hitting levels not seen since the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the Federal Reserve reported Friday.
In the central bank’s Survey of Consumer Finances, researchers found that while wealth disparities narrowed somewhat, the ability to meet debt payments deteriorated significantly. “Families were more likely to be behind on their financial obligations than at any point since the 2010 survey,” stated the survey, a data-rich document the Fed releases every three years to chronicle the nation’s financial health. The country in 2010 was just emerging from what became known as the Great Recession, a period that ran from December 2007 to June 2009.
The reason why so many Americans are struggling to stay afloat financially is because we are in the middle of the longest multi-year cost of living crisis in U.S. history. For years, I pleaded with our politicians to stop borrowing and spending so much money. For years, I pleaded with the Federal Reserve to stop flooding our financial system with fresh cash. But they didn’t listen.
Now the purchasing power of our money has fallen dramatically and the cost of living crisis is strangling the life out of communities from coast to coast. In West Virginia, just trying to survive has become a daily struggle for countless numbers of people…Those forces have hit especially hard in areas that were already struggling economically, like West Virginia’s once-flourishing coal mining communities. The spike in gas costs means a 45-minute drive to the nearest grocery store can set residents back more than $15. And West Virginians who must comply with the new work requirements to receive food benefits are confronting a lack of jobs and training programs. Since last summer, about 24,000 people, including 8,000 children, have lost food stamps, according to the West Virginia Department of Human Services. “It’s like the pandemic on steroids without funds,” Kirkhart said. “I don’t believe the government needs to provide everything, but if you’re going to ask us to, please help.”
Of course it isn’t just our rural areas that are dealing with hard times. Our major cities are teeming with the impoverished, the homeless and the addicted. In some cities, homeless encampments stretch on for block after block, and hordes of drug addicts wander around like zombies and defecate in the streets.
Such an environment is perfect for rats, and it is no surprise that New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia are the most rodent-infested cities in the United States…A national pest control company has released its annual list of the top 10 most rodent-infested cities in the U.S. — and one Midwest city has now joined the list for the first time. The list is based on rodent control service data from more than 300 Terminix branches nationwide in 2025, ranking cities where residents most frequently used the company’s services. While New York and Los Angeles held onto the top two spots, Philadelphia moved up one spot to No. 3.
If things are this bad now, what will they look like if “an economic depression much like 1929” soon hits us? When I was growing up, our major cities were quite clean and there were no homeless encampments anywhere to be seen. When I was growing up, drug addicts were not publicly urinating in front of children. When I was growing up, millions of Americans were not living in their vehicles.
The middle class has been eroding for decades, and now millions upon millions of U.S. citizens live in third world conditions. This is what long-term economic decline looks like, and now we are being told that “an economic depression much like 1929” could be in our future. Brace yourself, because we are moving into times that are going to be extremely challenging for all of us."
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