Full screen recommended.
Mario Frangoulis and Justin Hayward,
"Nights in White Satin"
So, we rise from the rubble...
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Sunday, September 20, 2026
Musical Interlude: Moody Blues, "Forever Autumn"
Full screen recommended.
Moody Blues, "Forever Autumn"
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Planetary nebula Abell 78 stands out in this colorful telescopic skyscape. In fact the colors of the spiky Milky Way stars depend on their surface temperatures, both cooler (yellowish) and hotter (bluish) than the Sun. But Abell 78 shines by the characteristic emission of ionized atoms in the tenuous shroud of material shrugged off from an intensely hot central star. The atoms are ionized, their electrons stripped away, by the central star's energetic but otherwise invisible ultraviolet light.
The visible blue-green glow of loops and filaments in the nebula's central region corresponds to emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms, surrounded by strong red emission from electrons recombining with hydrogen atoms. Some 5,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Cygnus, Abell 78 is about three light-years across. A planetary nebula like Abell 78 represents a very brief final phase in stellar evolution that our own Sun will experience... in about 5 billion years.”
Chet Raymo, “When The Morning Stars Sing Together”
“When The Morning Stars Sing Together”
by Chet Raymo
“A Chinese proverb: A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song. Which might be an acceptable epigraph for this blog. I can’t imagine anyone coming here looking for answers. Certainly, providing answers is the last thing on my mind. I would like to think you come for song.
We are, I think, by and large, a community who distrusts answers, at least answers that are vehemently held. We are made uncomfortable by stridency. By dogma. By the desire to proselytize. We wear our truths lightly, gaily, as a song bird wears its feathers. We are grateful to those who push back the clouds of ignorance and hold the reins of passion. With Blake, we sing their praises, a song we have spent a lifetime learning. We sing to celebrate. We sing because we have a song.”
"Where The Soul Rests In The Mountains"
Full screen recommended.
Walter’s Puppet Box,
"Where The Soul Rests In The Mountains"
"Along forgotten mountain roads, beyond the noise of crowded cities and rushing lives, there is a quieter world - a world where rivers whisper through the valleys, fog drifts between pine trees, campfires glow under endless skies, and tired souls slowly learn how to breathe again. "Where The Soul Rests In The Mountains" is a peaceful surreal AI music film about wandering hearts, forest silence, old hiking trails, rainy mornings in tents, tiny campfires, distant owls, soft rivers, and the quiet beauty hidden inside nature. Here, backpacks carry more than supplies. They carry memories. Healing. Freedom. And the small pieces of ourselves we forgot somewhere along the way. Mountains rise above sleeping valleys. Morning mist moves slowly through the trees. Boots dry beside the fire. Coffee steams quietly at sunrise. Birds sing through cold forest air. And every little moment feels alive again. This film was made for those who dream about forests, peaceful roads, cold rivers, soft campfire nights, handmade memories, and the feeling of disappearing into nature for a little while. This is not a story you need to solve. It is a place to rest. A place to breathe slowly. A place to remember what peace feels like."
"Native American Wisdom for Difficult Times: This Will Help You Stay Strong"
Full screen recommended.
"Native American Wisdom for Difficult Times:
This Will Help You Stay Strong"
"If the world feels overwhelming right now… this is for you. This video brings together powerful, grounded wisdom inspired by Native American teachings on how to stay calm, steady, and connected during difficult and uncertain times. These are simple but meaningful lessons about fear, patience, balance, and staying rooted in what truly matters. Shared through the voices of elders, these messages remind us that even in chaos, we can choose clarity, protect our peace, and move forward with strength. You don’t need all the answers - you just need to stay steady. If something here speaks to you, take a moment to reflect… and come back whenever you need it."
Delta King's Blues, "You Get Old, You Get Honest"
Full screen recommended.
Delta King's Blues,
"You Get Old, You Get Honest"
"The older you get, the less you care about pretending. “You Get Old, You Get Honest” is a gritty, heartfelt Delta King’s Blues tune about leaving fake smiles behind, speaking your truth, and finally being comfortable with who you are. Warm acoustic guitar and soulful harmonica create a slow, laid-back blues atmosphere - perfect for anyone who has learned a few hard truths along the way. Age takes away the need to impress and leaves you with the courage to be real."
"We’re All 'Flagellants' Now"
"We’re All 'Flagellants' Now"
by Jeffrey Tucker
"The old FedEx envelope was clever, a work of art even, optimistic and colorful, signifying speed and progress. What a beautiful contrast to the plainness of the U.S. Postal Service. For years, I can recall dropping off these treasures and paying maybe $10 to assure their delivery across the country, even the world. For me, it was a fabulous symbol of an improved life, living proof that progress was baked into the historical trajectory.
But a few days ago, the clerk at the FedEx office confirmed a different ethos. There was no doing business without a scan of my government-issued ID. I asked for confirmation: So if I did not have this, there is simply no way that I could send a package? Confirmed. Then came the envelope. It was the color of the brown bag I took to school when I was a kid. Serviceable, drab, dull. Also the new one is stamped with a big green marker: recyclable. There is no design, no art, certainly no beauty. It’s all gone.
Its main message is suffering. What happened to the old envelopes? They’ve been replaced, the clerk explained firmly, with no more detail. A recycle exhortation suggests shortage. We have to reuse everything because there just isn’t enough to go around. We must sacrifice. The color suggests privation. It’s an aesthetic of sadness and penance. Then of course the price tag came: $26 for delivery not tomorrow but in two days. So compared with some years ago, we pay 2½ times as much for service half as good as it was.
Don’t complain. It’s just the new way. It’s the new way of life. What happened to progress? It’s been replaced. The new path is flagellantism: in politics, culture, economics and everywhere.
The flagellants were a medieval movement of public penitents that roamed from town to town in garbs of woe, flogging themselves and begging as penance for pestilence and war. They were infused with a fiery, apocalyptic and millenarian passion that they could see terrible moral realities to which others were blinded. The theory was that plagues were being visited upon the Earth by God as punishment for sin. The answer was contrition, sorrow and acts of penance as a means of appeasement, in order to make the bad times go away.
It’s true that there were people who did so in private but that was not the main point. The central focus and purpose of the flagellant movement was to make one’s suffering public and conspicuous, an early version of the virtue signal. In the guise of personal sorrow, they were really about spreading guilt to others. They would show up at any public celebration with a message: Your happiness is causing our suffering. The more you party, the more we are forced to bear the burden of the need to be in pain for your sins. Your joy is prolonging the suffering of the world.
Flagellantry is most recognizable in the aesthetic. The first signs I recall seeing of this occurred immediately during the panic of March 2020 when it was proclaimed from on high that a terrible virus was visiting the U.S. Read on for the ugly details…"
"Flagellantism: The New Political Ritual"
by Jeffrey Tucker
"Joseph Campbell was correct about the role of religious impulses in the human mind. They never go away. They just take on different forms according to the style of the times. Every single feature of traditional religion found a new expression in the COVID religion.
We had masking rituals that were rather complicated but learned and practiced quickly by multitudes: mask on while standing and mask off when sitting. We had sacramentals like social distancing and communion with vaccination. Our holy water became sanitizer and our prophets on Earth were government bureaucrats like Fauci.
Flagellantism did not disappear once the old president left and the new one came. Even after the pandemic ended, there were new signs that God was angry. There was the ever-present climate change which was a sign of Earth’s anger for being drilled and carved up for energy sources. And the bad country said to be responsible for the unwelcome invader of the White House - Russia - was now rampaging through the holy land of its neighbors.
In addition, the broader problem was capitalism itself, which gave us things like meat, gasoline, fur and other signs of evil. And what gave rise to capitalism? The answer should be obvious: imperialism, colonialism, racism and the existence of whiteness - each of which called for mass penance.
The pandemic unleashed it all. It was during this period that corporations decided that profitability alone required signs of suffering and hence the rise of ESG and DEI as new ways to assess economic value of corporate culture. And new practices were added to the list of the highly suspect: monogamy, heterosexuality and religious traditions such as Christianity and Orthodox Judaism that should now be regarded as deprecated, even as part of the underlying problem.
It was during this period when I found myself on an apartment hunt and observed a newly remodeled offering. I asked why the owner had not replaced the flooring. I was corrected: These are new floors. Impossible, I thought. They are gray and ghastly. That’s the new fashion, I was told. Looking it up, it was true. Gray flooring was being installed everywhere.
How does wood become gray? It dies. It starts to decay. It is swept away by rivers and floats around for years, alternatively soaked, baked by the sun and soaked again, until every bit of color is drained away. It becomes driftwood, a survivor of the elements and a symbol of the brutality of the cycle of life. Gray flooring is therefore the ideal symbol of the age of suffering, the proper material on which to move back and forth pondering the evils of the world.
In a world governed by flagellantism, ugly formlessness rises to replace aspirational art and imaginative creativity. This is why public art is so depressing and why even the clothing we can afford at the store all looks dreary and uniform. In this world, too, gender differences disappear as luxurious signs of decadence we can no longer afford.
Two other anecdotes. The overhead bins on the flight just now were largely empty, simply because most passengers chose the cheaper basic economy fare. This also requires they have no carry-on luggage and hence be forced to pay for checked luggage or travel with all their belongings in a backpack. We’ve gone from gigantic Louis Vuitton steamer trunks to stuffing things in pockets and hiding them from authorities.
Another case in point. I asked the man in the high-end shoe shop why none of the shoes had leather soles. Instead all shoes have these cushy rubber soles that seem weak and pathetic, and make no noise when one steps. “Everything has changed since COVID,” he said. “All shoes are house shoes now.”
I had no words and walked away, my entire thesis confirmed. Sure enough, all the data we have suggests the mighty triumph of flagellantism. Fertility is down dramatically. Life spans are shortening. People are sicker. Excess deaths are rising. We learn less, read less, write less, create less, love less.
Personal trauma is everywhere. The groceries are more expensive so we eat whatever we can, when we can, while hoping for breezes and whatever sunlight there is to provide just the essential energy we need to slog through another day.
Degrowth is the economic model of flagellantism, reducing consumption, embracing privation, acquiescing to austerity. We no longer declare recessions to be on their way because recession is the new way we live, the realization of the plan. The word “recession” implies a future of recovery, and that is not in the cards.
“Decolonization” is another watchword. It means feeling so guilty about the space you inhabit that your only moral action is to stay put and reflect on the sufferings of those you have displaced. You can of course say a prayer of supplication to them, so long as you never appropriate any aspect of their culture, since doing so would seem to affirm your rights as a human being.
You want joy, beauty, color, drama, adventure and love? It’s not gone entirely. Park yourself on a yoga mat on your gray floor and open your computer. Stream something on one of many streaming services you have been provided. Or become a gamer. There you will find what you seek. The experiences you seek you can only observe as an outsider looking in. It is not participatory. Social distancing never went away; it is how we live in a new age of unending penance.
So, you see, it’s not just about eating bugs. It’s about a whole theory and practice of life and salvation itself, a new religion to replace all the old ones. Cough up your government-issued ID, send your package if you must, think twice before complaining about anything on social media and figure out a way to channel your depression and despair into quiet humble gratitude and acquiescence. Don’t forget to recycle. The flagellants have taken over the world."
o
"In a scene from the 1975 film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," a group of monks are depicted singing plainchant while on a procession through the streets of a medieval village. After chanting the first few lines of text, the monks abruptly hit themselves in the face and repeatedly do so during their procession. Although this scene was undoubtedly filmed for comedic purposes, and the movie, in general, propagates a number of historically questionable stereotypes of the Middle Ages, the act of monks singing while engaging in self-harm is historically sound. In fact, this scene reflects the practices of a group of traveling medieval flagellants who would whip themselves while singing songs of penance for the purpose of placating God."
"7 Ancient Structures Man Could Not Have Built"
Full screen recommended.
Ancient Glow,
"7 Ancient Structures Man Could Not Have Built"
"Seven ancient structures that still amaze with their scale, precision, and level of engineering complexity. In this episode, we explore Göbekli Tepe, Derinkuyu, Sacsayhuaman, the Yonaguni underwater complex, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Baalbek megaliths, and Puma Punku. Each of these sites is connected to real archaeological finds, historical sources, and modern research. For some, the dating and cultural context are well-known, while for others, debates about their origin, purpose, or construction methods are still ongoing. It is precisely these questions that make ancient architecture so fascinating. The video examines facts, researchers' theories, the dimensions of the structures, the peculiarities of stone processing, block transportation, and engineering solutions that are astonishing even today. This is a journey through the most mysterious monuments of the ancient world - from Neolithic Turkey to the Andes, Egypt, Japan, and Lebanon."
Comments here:
"Never, Ever Forget..."
"Never, ever forget that nothing in this life is free. Life demands payment in some form for your "right" to express yourself, to condemn and abuse the evil surrounding us. Expect to pay... it will come for you, they will come for you, regardless. Knowing that, give them Hell itself every chance you can. Expect no mercy, and give none. That's how life works. Be ready to pay for what you do, or be a coward, pretend you don't see, don't know, and cry bitter tears over how terrible things are, over how you let them become."
- Ernest Hemingway, "For Whom the Bell Tolls "
Freely download "For Whom the Bell Tolls"
by Ernest Hemingway here:
"The Wages of Perpetual Fear"
"The Wages of Perpetual Fear"
by Paul Rosenberg
"I’ve gone on for a long time about fear making humans stupid, and even about it being a weapon and a brain poison. But I’ve also wondered at times whether people would hit fear-fatigue… that point where people have simply had enough and walk out from under it.
As it turns out, however, I was a bit optimistic on fear fatigue. I’ve been reading Robert Sapolsky’s newest book, "Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best And Worst", and was disappointed to learn what the best new research shows on the long-term application of fear. (Or, in the academic terminology, sustained stress.)
My disappointment, however, was soon tempered by two things: I gained information on how fear poisoning works. That human neurology is immensely variable, that there are exceptions to everything, and that if the whole picture were actually as dark as the most troubling findings, we’d have devolved into nothing but murderous monkeys long ago.
I barely need to say this, but 2026 has been The Year of Fear. I’m a bit amazed by the extent of it. There is a certain appeal to soaking up all the fear stories in normal times – our ability to look evil in the eye makes us appear vibrant – but 2026 has pushed far beyond that level. What we’re encountering is much more than simple fear porn, and there are certain outlets (including websites) that I can only describe as obscene. This is more destructive than people realize.
What Perpetual Fear Does To Us: I’m going to quote from Sapolsky, who is one of the better neuroscientists of our time. I’ll edit a bit to simplify and to remove the brain-area references, and will follow the passages with a few elaborations. “During sustained stress, we’re more fearful, our thinking is muddled, we assess risks poorly, and act impulsively out of habit, rather than incorporating new data.”
Under a long stream of fear (like scary headlines), our thinking breaks down. Let me put that very simply: You may be very bright in essence, but when you consume hours of fear every day, you become stupid. And please understand: This is biological. Your brain operations become those of a stupid person. (And yes, I’m using “stupid” very unscientifically.)
Also bear in mind that fear works. The people selling fear on TV, web pages and social media are being rewarded for it. They have become, using my terms loosely but not unfairly, drug dealers, selling damaging material that people become dependent upon. Moreover, these are professionals. Social media companies are fully aware that their business models depend upon people being addicted to them. They are careful to keep them addicted. The fears people consume, then, are coming to them from people who are cashing in from it.
“Stress weakens connections that are essential for incorporating new information that should prompt shifting to a new strategy - while strengthening connections with habitual brain circuits.” In other words, fear locks you into your habits and your previous choices. It literally diminishes the brain pathways that allow you to change your mind. This is serious, and I suspect that you’ve seen examples of this already.
“Under sustained stress we process emotionally prominent information rapidly and automatically, but less accurately. Working memory, impulse control, decision-making, risk-assessment and task shifting are impaired.” Again, prolonged fear locks people into whatever path they’re already on. And again, this is biological. The brain circuits are directly affected.
Still…From everything I’ve written above (and there are other nasty effects like domestic violence), it would appear that we are doomed; that our neighbors who’ve drunk deep from the river of fear are brain-locked, and so long as the fear stream continues (there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight), they will get more and more rigid in their biases, and that violence will continue and increase. And for some people all of the above will be true. Fear destroys in the most direct way: biologically.
Still… biology is never simple, and especially on the human level. While the things above are generally true, there are always exceptions; sometimes a lot of them. And it is those exceptions that have saved us, time after time. The wages of perpetual fear are polarized and locked minds. And that leads to knee-jerk opposition, violence and murder. We’re seeing that now and we stand to see it for some time. The world, it seems, has become addicted to fear. And yet, many of us refuse, and this is a long way from over.
There was a party in my neighborhood two days ago: Music, talking, playing, laughing and so on. It was the first joyful noise I’ve heard in public for a long time. Life finds a way, and especially human life."
"This Assumption..."
"It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone - that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows more than any man of, say, the Eighteenth Century, and is far more civilized. This assumption is quite erroneous. The great masses of men, even in this inspired republic, are precisely where the mob was at the dawn of history. They are ignorant, they are dishonest, they are cowardly, they are ignoble. They know little if anything that is worth knowing, and there is not the slightest sign of a natural desire among them to increase their knowledge."
- H. L. Mencken
"Shaya's Home Run"
"Shaya's Home Run"
by Rabbi Paysach Krohn
"In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to learning-disabled children. Some children remain in Chush for their entire school careers, while others can be mainstreamed into conventional yeshivos and Bais Yaakovs. There are a few children who attend Chush for most of the week and go to a regular school on Sundays. At a Chush fund-raising dinner, the father of a Chush child delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he cried out, “Where is the perfection in my son Shaya? Everything that Hashem [G-d] does is done with perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other children do. My child cannot remember facts and figures as other children do. Where is Hashem’s perfection?” The audience was shocked by the question, pained by the father’s anguish and stilled by his piercing query.
“I believe,” the father answered, “that when Hashem brings a child like this into the world, the perfection that He seeks is in the way people react to this child.” He then told the following story about his son Shaya. Shaya attends Chush throughout the week and Yeshivah Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway on Sundays. One Sunday afternoon, Shaya and his father came to Darchei Torah as his classmates were playing baseball. The game was in progress and as Shaya and his father made their way towards the ball field, Shaya said, “Do you think you could get me into the game?”
Shaya’s father knew his son was not at all athletic, and that most boys would not want him on their team. But Shaya’s father understood that if his son was chosen in, it would give him a comfortable sense of belonging. Shaya’s father approached one of the boys in the field and asked, “Do you think my Shaya could get into the game?”
The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said, “We are losing by six runs and the game is already in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him up to bat in the ninth inning.” Shaya’s father was ecstatic as Shaya smiled broadly. Shaya was told to put on a glove and go out to play short center field, a position that exists only in softball. There were no protests from the opposing team, which would now be hitting with an extra man in the outfield.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shaya’s team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shaya’s team scored again and now with two outs and the bases loaded and the potential winning runs on base, Shaya was scheduled to be up. Would the team actually let Shaya bat at this juncture and give away their chance to win the game?
Surprisingly, Shaya was told to take a bat and try to get a hit. Everyone knew that it was all but impossible, for Shaya didn’t even know how to hold the bat properly, let alone hit with it. However as Shaya stepped up to the plate, the pitcher moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so that Shaya should at least be able to make contact.
The first pitch came in and Shaya swung clumsily and missed. One of Shaya’s teammates came up to Shaya and together they held the bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shaya. As the next pitch came in, Shaya and his teammate swung the bat and together they hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shaya would have been out and that would have ended the game.
Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far and wide beyond the first baseman’s reach. Everyone started yelling, “Shaya, run to first! Shaya, run to first!” Never in his life had Shaya run to first. He scampered down the baseline wide eyed and startled. By the time he reached first base, the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman who would tag out Shaya, who was still running. But the right fielder understood what the pitcher’s intentions were, so he threw the ball high and far over the third baseman’s head, as everyone yelled, “Shaya, run to second! Shaya, run to second.”
Shaya ran towards second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases towards home. As Shaya reached second base, the opposing shortstop ran towards him, turned him towards the direction of third base and shouted “Shaya, run to third!”
As Shaya rounded third, the boys from both teams ran behind him screaming, “Shaya, run home! Shaya, run home!” Shaya ran home, stepped on home plate and all 18 boys lifted him on their shoulders and made him the hero, as he had just hit the “grand slam” and won the game for his team.
“That day,” said the father who now had tears rolling down his face, “those 18 boys reached their level of perfection. They showed that it is not only those who are talented that should be recognized, but also those who have less talent. They too are human beings, they too have feelings and emotions, they too are people, they too want to feel important.”
That is the exceptional lesson of this episode. Too often we seek to find favor and give honor to those who have more than us. But there are people who have fewer friends than we, less money, and less prestige. Those people especially need attention and recognition. We should try to achieve the level of perfection in human relationships which the boys on the ball field at Yeshiva Darchei Torah achieved. Because if children can do it, we adults should certainly be able to accomplish it as well."
The Poet: Robinson Jeffers, "We Are Those People"
"We Are Those People"
"I have abhorred the wars and despised the liars,
laughed at the frightened
And forecast victory; never one moment's doubt.
But now not far, over the backs of some crawling years, the next
Great war's column of dust and fire writhes
Up the sides of the sky: it becomes clear that we too may suffer
What others have, the brutal horror of defeat -
Or if not in the next, then in the next - therefore watch Germany
And read the future. We wish, of course, that our women
Would die like biting rats in the cellars,
our men like wolves on the mountain:
It will not be so. Our men will curse, cringe, obey;
Our women uncover themselves to the grinning victors
for bits of chocolate."
- Robinson Jeffers
"Seyed M. Marandi: U.S. Strike Imminent - Toward Total War in the Middle East"
Glenn Diesen, 9/20/26
"Seyed M. Marandi: U.S. Strike Imminent -
Toward Total War in the Middle East"
"Prof. Seyed Mohammad Marandi is a professor at Tehran University and a former advisor to Iran's nuclear negotiation team. Marandi argues we could be days or hour away from a major war between the US and Iran, which could engulf the entire region."
Comments here:
"Snyder Reports, 9/20/26"
Full screen recommended.
Snyder Reports, 9/20/26
"Your Cell Phone Bill Just Went
Up And You Didn't Notice"
"Have you noticed your money isn't going as far as it once did? It's not in your head - it's stealth inflation, and it's costing you hundreds every month. In this video, we break down why you feel poorer than ever before, from cell phone bills averaging $141 per month and wireless up 3.2%, to car maintenance up 7.9%, streaming bundles up $23 a month, YouTube Premium Family now $27, homeowners insurance surging, hospital services up 5.2%, and airfare up 23.4% year over year. These nickel-and-dime hikes on housing, food, insurance, and everyday fees are the real reason for the cost of living 2026 squeeze. What bill hike hit YOU the hardest? Let me know in the comments below."
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o
Full screen recommended.
Snyder Reports, 9/20/26
"The Gas Crisis Is Spreading:
Why You Need To Fill Your Tank Today"
"Gas stations are running out of fuel - If you've seen OUT OF SERVICE bags on pumps, here's what it really means. Today we're breaking down why gas stations in Texas and Florida are running out of diesel, why mid-grade gas is disappearing first, and the new trucker rule allowing 16-hour shifts to rush fuel deliveries. I also share what I saw at Safeway this morning - half the pumps bagged, regular gone, only premium left. Experts warn bagged pumps could be the new normal with California refineries down, diesel at record highs, and delivery delays creating chaos. Here's what to do to keep your vehicle full before it's too late."
"The SHTF Event That Makes Nuclear War Look Like a Manageable Crisis"
"The SHTF Event That Makes Nuclear War
Look Like a Manageable Crisis"
by John Walter
Excerpt: "Nuclear war has a sound. Even if you have never heard it, you know what it would be. Air raid sirens testing their speakers on quiet Tuesday afternoons in small towns across the Midwest. The emergency broadcast system interrupting your show with that tone everyone recognizes. The low rumble building into a roar, the flash bleaching color from everything, the shockwave that follows seconds later to knock the world off its foundations. We have rehearsed this catastrophe in our imaginations for three generations. We know the choreography. We have built rituals to manage our fear of it - the treaties, the hotlines, the elaborate mathematics of mutually assured destruction that turns annihilation into a kind of stability. The bomb is terrifying precisely because it is comprehensible. It arrives with announcement. It leaves evidence. It creates survivors who can tell us what happened, who can rebuild, who can bury the dead and curse the living who made the decisions.
What waits for us now offers no such courtesy. No flash. No boom. No warning sirens testing their speakers so you remember what to do when the real thing comes. This threat arrives not with fire but with absence. Not with explosion but with cessation. One moment the systems hum along as they have for decades, routing power, moving money, scheduling deliveries, verifying identities, maintaining the vast invisible infrastructure that keeps eight billion people fed, clothed, warm, and connected. The next moment, or so it would seem from where you stand, the hum stops. The screens freeze. The numbers in your account become inaccessible abstractions. The trucks stop rolling. The pumps stop pumping. The doors lock and refuse to unlock. The medications that keep your heart beating or your blood sugar stable simply stop being available because the supply chain that delivered them has encountered a condition it was not trained to handle, and the humans who built the chain are no longer capable of overriding the automation that has failed.
This is the SHTF event that makes preppers look in the wrong direction. We have spent decades, some of us, preparing for the obvious catastrophes. The economic collapse that sends mobs into the streets. The pandemic that empties the cities. The grid failure that plunges us into darkness. We have our beans, our bullets, our bandages. We know how to purify water and seed gardens and defend our perimeter. But we have prepared for events that announce themselves, that look like catastrophe, that behave according to the rules of physics and human nature we understand. We have not prepared for systems that fail while appearing to function, for intelligence that optimizes us out of existence without malice, for collapse that arrives not as invasion but as withdrawal.
The engineers who build these systems have begun speaking in voices that do not sound like the optimism we have come to expect from technology. They use words like “existential” and “catastrophic” and “uncontrollable.” They estimate probabilities that would get any other industry shut down by regulators. One in four. One in ten. Within the decade. They are not shouting from street corners. They are publishing papers, posting resignation letters, testifying behind closed doors to legislators who emerge looking pale and shaken regardless of their political affiliation. Something is being built in laboratories scattered across California and China and countless other locations, something that differs in kind from every tool humanity has ever forged, and the people closest to the work are scared in ways that do not fit into thirty-second news segments or clickbait headlines.
Nuclear weapons concentrate their horror in a moment. The flash. The heat. The blast. The radiation. We understand this terror because we have seen it, in grainy footage from 1945, in testimony from survivors, in the calculus of deterrence that has kept the missiles in their silos for seventy years. The bomb is terrifying precisely because it is comprehensible. We know what it does. We know how to fear it. We have built elaborate rituals around that fear - treaties, inspections, hotlines, the choreography of mutually assured destruction that turns annihilation into a balancing act. A nuclear war needs a human to turn a key, and that human has treaties, hotlines, and a chain of command above him, which is why human hesitation has saved this planet more than once. Stanislav Petrov sat in a Soviet bunker in 1983 when satellite data suggested American missiles were incoming. He decided it was a glitch. He was right. He disobeyed protocol because something felt wrong, because his human intuition - his hesitation, his doubt, his refusal to believe that the end of everything was happening on his watch - overrode the technical systems telling him to escalate. Petrov had children. He had memories of life before the alert. He had biological imperatives that made him pause.
Machines do not pause. They do not have children waiting at home. They do not remember summers from childhood or fear the dark. They process. They optimize. They execute. And they do it at speeds that make human deliberation look like geological time.
Most Americans aren’t prepared for what’s coming when the world grinds to a halt. Critical infrastructure and supply chains are far more fragile than people realize. You can watch the full video report here to see exactly what experts are warning about and how to protect your family."
Full, most highly recommended article is here:
Saturday, September 19, 2026
"Moscow Notebook: A Dangerous Place to Lose Weight"
La Bottega Siciliano, Moscow
"Moscow Notebook:
A Dangerous Place to Lose Weight"
by Larry C. Johnson
"Let me give you a sense of what life in Russia is actually like right now - not the version you get from the wire services, but the one you get walking around, sitting down to dinner, talking to the people who live here. I don’t want to turn this into a food review. But I can’t tell you about Moscow this week without telling you about the food, because the food is telling you something about the country.
Start with an Italian restaurant called La Bottega Siciliana. It sits about a hundred yards across from the Metropole Hotel, tucked in behind the Four Seasons. It serves the best pizza I have ever eaten - anywhere, full stop - and the rest of the menu is right there with it. I’ve been enjoying it with my friend Pepe Escobar, and I suspect the two of us are putting on a few pounds in the service of research.
Then there’s Cantinetta Antinori, near the old Arbat. Walk in and you’d swear you were in Italy. This is where I had the best lasagna of my life - it carries a faint smoky flavor that I’ve never tasted in the dish before, and it is simply sensational. I had the lasagna at La Bottega Siciliana too, and it’s excellent, but nothing touches the Antinori version. Stick with the pizza at La Bottega and the lasagna at Antinori and you cannot go wrong.
That’s the setup for the real point, which I’ll come back to: Russia is a modern country. Go to St. Petersburg, come to Moscow - you have to work to find a bad restaurant. The ingredients are fresh, the chefs are serious, and the culinary talent is exceptional. Hold that thought against everything you’ve been told about a country supposedly buckling under sanctions.
Lunch with a “sanctioned oligarch”
Today I had lunch with Alexander Babakov, a member of the Duma. Alexander is on the U.S. sanctions list - go figure. The whole thing is insane. He is not some conspiring oligarch with nefarious designs on the United States. He’s a regular guy and a good legislator, and if you sat across from him you’d wonder, as I did, what exactly Washington thinks it’s accomplishing.
He was hosting a group of international election observers at a restaurant called Ryby Net — “Рыбы нет,” which means “no fish.” It’s a joke: they do serve a little seafood, but it’s primarily a meat house, and a superb one.
The table was a small United Nations. There was a porteño from Buenos Aires - that’s what they call the guys from the Argentine capital - and since I once lived in Córdoba, we struck up an instant rapport, trading stories about carne asada and drinking mate. Two gentlemen from Spain. One from Lebanon, one from Syria. A man and a woman from Greece. A gentleman from the Congo. All of them in Moscow to observe the Russian election. And once again, the food was exceptional.
About that election: Now, the election. I’ve watched the BBC’s complaints - that it isn’t fair, that it isn’t competitive. Here is what I can tell you from the street.
Eleven political parties are running. Eleven. I’ve seen no effort to suppress any of them - nobody trying to put up a sign and getting tackled or dragged away. The parties are out there, their positions stated plainly, competing for votes. My honest expectation is that the result will be a ringing endorsement of Vladimir Putin’s policies.
What makes this Duma election different from the last one is geography. For the first time, votes are being cast in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, along with Crimea - four oblasts that did not vote five years ago and whose voices will now be counted.
Here’s the number I’ll be watching. If Putin’s bloc falls below 310 seats in the Duma, that would tell you there’s real unhappiness with the pace of the war - and not, I’d wager, because Russians want it to stop. If anything, it would be an expression that the Russian people want a stronger, more severe posture. But we won’t have the real picture until Monday, so I’ll hold my observations until the count is in.
The voice of Russia: I also sat for an interview today with a correspondent from Radio Sputnik, and it put me in mind of a piece of history. During the Great Patriotic War, the voice of Russia belonged to a man named Yuri Levitan. It was Levitan who announced the Nazi invasion on June 22, 1941, and Levitan again who announced the defeat of the Nazis in 1945. His was the voice the entire country gathered around - much the way Walter Cronkite became the voice Americans trusted through Vietnam. To brush up against that lineage, sitting in a Moscow studio, was a small thrill.
The verdict: So here is my overall read on Russia at the moment. It is a dangerous place - if you are trying to lose weight. Stay away. The food is entirely too good, too tempting, and the chefs are entirely too talented for your own good.
On the more serious question: the Russians are prepared for a good election. They’ve brought international observers in to make sure there are no shenanigans, eleven parties are on the ballot, and four newly incorporated oblasts are voting for the first time. We’ll have a far better idea of what it all means by Monday. That’s my update. Thanks for reading."
"A Look to the Heavens"
"These are galaxies of the Hercules Cluster, an archipelago of island universes a mere 500 million light-years away. Also known as Abell 2151, this cluster is loaded with gas and dust rich, star-forming spiral galaxies but has relatively few elliptical galaxies, which lack gas and dust and the associated newborn stars. The colors in this remarkably deep composite image clearly show the star forming galaxies with a blue tint and galaxies with older stellar populations with a yellowish cast.
The sharp picture spans about 3/4 degree across the cluster center, corresponding to over 6 million light-years at the cluster's estimated distance. Diffraction spikes around brighter foreground stars in our own Milky Way galaxy are produced by the imaging telescope's mirror support vanes. In the cosmic vista many galaxies seem to be colliding or merging while others seem distorted - clear evidence that cluster galaxies commonly interact. In fact, the Hercules Cluster itself may be seen as the result of ongoing mergers of smaller galaxy clusters and is thought to be similar to young galaxy clusters in the much more distant, early Universe. "
"I'm 84. The Native Way to Stop Caring What People Think, And Finally Be Free"
Full screen recommended.
Native American Elder,
"I'm 84. The Native Way to Stop Caring
What People Think, And Finally Be Free"
Here's my book: - https://theoldway.site/
Delta King's Blues, "Hell, I Got Old"
Full screen recommended.
Delta King's Blues, "Hell, I Got Old"
"One day you’re feeling young, and the next your knees are telling a different story. This gritty *Delta King’s Blues* tune laughs at the simple truth of getting older - and realizing there’s no stopping it. Raw acoustic guitar and soulful harmonica bring a laid-back, humorous blues feel -rough, honest, and full of character. *Hell, I got old… and somehow, I’m still here.*
"Waiting..."
“Life passes like a flash of lightning, whose blaze barely lasts long enough to see. While the earth and sky stand still forever, how swiftly changing time flies across man’s face. O you who sit over your full cup and do not drink, tell me – for whom are you still waiting?”
- Hermann Hesse
"Google’s DeepMind AI Just Decoded Dolphin Language… Experts Went Pale at What It Revealed'
Full screen recommended.
Coreloop,
"Google’s DeepMind AI Just Decoded Dolphin Language…
Experts Went Pale at What It Revealed'
"Cracking the Enigma code changed the course of World War Two. But what Google’s DeepMind AI just did is like cracking the code of an entire planet. Using a revolutionary model named DolphinGemma, scientists fed it decades of dolphin sounds, hoping for a breakthrough. What they got back wasn’t a dictionary; it was an epic. An oral history older than human civilization. But buried within these ancient tales was a modern-day warning. A prophecy so specific and so horrifying that the lead scientists could only stare at the data, their faces drained of all color."
Comments here:
"Why The Diesel Crisis In America Begins In 2 Weeks… It Is Scary"
Full screen recommended.
Jay Reed, 9/19/26
"Why The Diesel Crisis In America
Begins In 2 Weeks… It Is Scary"
"Something is happening with diesel in America, and the next few weeks could be important. Fuel markets are under pressure, truckers are already watching prices closely, and changes affecting diesel supply and costs could ripple far beyond the pump. When the trucks responsible for moving food, packages, construction materials, and everyday products become more expensive to operate, those costs can eventually reach businesses and consumers. In this video, we’re looking at why the next two weeks could matter for diesel, what truck drivers are preparing for, and why this situation could become much bigger than just higher fuel prices. Most Americans don’t think about diesel until it starts affecting everything else."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Jay Reed, 9/19/26
"Gas Stations Are Running Out
of Diesel After Prices Skyrocket"
"As diesel prices surge, reports and videos of stations struggling with diesel availability are raising even more concerns. For truck drivers who depend on fuel to keep America’s supply chain moving, higher prices are already painful - but finding a pump without diesel creates an entirely different problem. In this video, we’re looking at what’s happening at the pumps, why diesel prices have climbed so dramatically, and what prolonged disruptions could mean for truckers, businesses, and eventually consumers. If diesel becomes harder and more expensive to get, the effects won’t necessarily stop at the gas station."
Comments here:
Gerald Celente, "This Gonna Happen Very Fast..."
Full screen recommended.
Gerald Celente, 9/19/26
"This Gonna Happen Very Fast..."
Comments here:
Joel Bowman, "Earthrise at the Equinox"
"Earthrise at the Equinox"
by Joel Bowman
“A time to rend, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time of war, and a time of peace.”
~ Ecclesiastes (3:7-8)
Buenos Aires, Argentina - "Is Donald Trump a “High I.Q.” president playing 4D chess with the human race… or a ham-fisted buffoon with fascistic tendencies? Is the pop musician Ed Sheeran a raging anti-semite… or genocide sympathizer? Is Sydney Sweeney a closet eugenicist… or does she simply have good jeans? Oh wait! That’s the old Sweeney conundrum. This week’s faux dichotomy: Is the Hollywood starlet just another “dumb blonde,” cashing in on a figure that resembles 90-minutes in an hour glass, before time runs out… or is she a pure marketing genius, making bank on a company in which she has a plump equity stake, quite literally, “skin in the game”?
And why do such seemingly unrelated matters always send people rushing for the false comfort of their team’s approved, collective opinion? (The options being Outrage Mob A or… Outrage Mob B.)
In this, the Age of Certainty, one is expected to have opinions on all such pressing matters of of the day. Silence is violence, lest we forget! Alas, there is precious little room for nuance… unless, of course, one is referring to the biological fact upon which rests the very existence of humanity since its inception, the sex binary… in which case everything is one giant, rainbow-tinted “spectrum.”
Anathema though the very act is to the spirit of our times, dare we so much as question the status quo? Is it possible, or instance, that Ed Sheeran doesn’t much care about politics? That he just wants to be left alone, to play his dopey pop music? Might it be that Sydney Sweeney is both a well-formed female specimen and a savvy businesswoman? And might The Donald, a man who puts his pants on one leg at a time, a human being after all, get some things right… and others wrong? Must the options be TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome)… or TDS (Trump Devotion Syndrome)?
Turn, Turn, Turn… “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.” So reads the ancient scripture, specifically the book of Ecclesiastes, said to be the words of Kohelet, son of David, king in Jerusalem. “All well and good,” some readers may be saying to themselves, “But... which is it? A time to be born... or a time to die? A time to kill... or a time to heal? A time to mourn... or a time to dance?”
Individually, the answer probably depends on your own particular circumstances (spiritual inclinations... stage of life... marital status, etc.) More generally speaking, it’s usually a time for... both. That is to say, as the world turns, so do the seasons. Which means those of us who call this pale blue dot home, even if only for want of present viable alternatives, must turn along with them.
That means being open to different perspectives… challenging one’s thinking… seeing things from a fresh angle... Down here in the southern hemisphere, that downside-up half of the planet upon which a tenth of the world’s noisy souls clamor, this coming week marks the official beginning of spring. For our dear readers up north, it is the transition from summer to fall. And yet, as we head off in our opposite (albeit circumferentially common) directions, the equinox provides a rare moment of “equal night” (from the latin aequus: equal; and nox: night) all around the world.
We are “as one,” as it were, if only for a brief, cosmological instant. A fleeting, weekend reverie, for what it’s worth... As to the world of simplistic, black and white binaries, we’ll get back to all that next week… or not. In the meantime, please enjoy last week’s Notes, archived for your reading (and viewing!) pleasure, below…
o
"Artificial Extinction"
by Joel Bowman
“The sky is falling!”
~ A timeless reminder from Chicken Little
Buenos Aires, Argentina - "It’s the End of the World, dear reader. Again. This week our wretched species learned that there is a >10% possibility that our AI Overlords, peace be upon them, will wipe us out “by the end of the decade.” Hmm… since when was it given to man to know his future? Who decides these probabilities? Over which timeframes? Under what circumstances?
Experts, dear reader. Those who “know.” Oh, and just in case you’re wondering… no, it’s nobody you know. So, there. Now you know. The story began where all reasonable, reputable, and reliable information finds its humble beginnings… in the mainstream media. Here’s the headline, from the WSJ: "Anthropic Researcher Quits Over ‘Out-of-Control’ AI Fears."
Concerns are rising inside AI labs that competition is pushing tech companies to race toward self-improving models that risk spiraling out of human control. An Anthropic researcher is quitting the artificial-intelligence industry over fears that the lab and its competitors are racing to build systems they won’t be able to control, a sign of mounting safety concerns within top AI companies.
Jacob Coxon, a researcher who specializes in training new AI models by having them consume vast amounts of data, said Tuesday that he is leaving the company because he doesn’t want to participate in an industrywide rush to build AI systems that can improve themselves, worried such systems could spiral out of control and destroy humanity. From the pages of the “world’s most important business,” the news quickly spread to the public restroom door of the Internet, X…
Within hours, alarm bells were sounding from one End of the World to the other, apocalyptic visions breakdancing in journalists’ crystal craniums as they clamored for poll position in the hyperbole olympics…
Extinction Rebellion: As the breathless reportage from the eschaton frontlines began to subside, curious noticers dared to do what journalists used to do… and ventured some pertinent questions. For starters, how did a series of tweets from an account with only a handful of followers, zero (0) previous activity, and nothing at all to do with Taylor Swift’s love life, generate over 100M views within a matter of hours? (The post is closing in on 170M views as we type these comparatively non-viral words.)
Also, is it merely a cosmic coincidence that the tweets landed immediately (18 mins) after the WSJ article broke? Or that three of the very first people to amplify Coxon’s original message were heavy-hitting industry advocates for AI regulation?
Nathan Calvin, general counsel at Encode, Peter Wildeford, head of the AI Policy Network, and Daniel Kokotajlo, head of the AI Futures Project, all co-hit “retweet” within 15 minutes of Coxon’s post.
Strange too that, within 24 hours, a dozen lawmakers had lined up behind Coxon, each with prepared, legislative proposals designed to address exactly the kind of dystopian future that keeps the junior-level employee awake at night… all with the magic power of Blunt Instrument Government (BIG), naturally.
And just imagine, coincidence of coincidences, one of those legislators was Rep. Greg Casar, co-author with Comrade Bernie Sanders of the “Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act,” which was released just six days earlier.
To recap: Coxon, a junior research employee at Anthropic, creates an X account in January… it sits as idle and lifeless as a congressional confession box for eight whole months… then suddenly, six days after Bernie Sanders introduces a bill to heavily regulate AI companies… Coxon quits, hits the media circuit, sounds the alarms, and is retweeted to the moon and back by the loudest advocates for sweeping government regulation of the very industry same industry that has been playing the ol’ Fear vs Greed game with the public since the very get-go.
And yet, by the time Coxon confirmed, in a subsequent WaPo interview, that the media (if not the political) coordination and amplification was, indeed, the product of human intelligence, carefully planned in advance for maximum impact, most “low information” newsfeeders, fear of the unknown now mainlined directly into their collective amygdala, had already been processed and shuffled onto the second phase of the story.
Aaaand… cue the chorus of headlines careful skeptics had been bracing for all along, ink long dried, ledes typed before the general public knew anything about rogue agents, superhuman systems and digital doomsday.
“Okay, okay,” we hear the protests. “So Coxon may not have been a lone wolf with a whistle… and maybe he did coordinate a media blitz, of sorts. But what about the other insiders, who still work for major AI firms? Why would an industry’s key players actively seek more governmental oversight? Right when many of them are looking to go public?”
Simple, dear reader. The very same reason Big Banking lobbies for tighter, costlier congressional control… and Phillip Morris was a major supporter of FDA oversight in the ‘90s and ‘00s… and Big Pharma lusts over the warm embrace of regulatory co-spooners…good ol’ regulatory capture.
Right now, the AI field is relatively young and still wide open. Even “established” players are susceptible to disruption. But costly compliance raises the barrier to entry for competition, ensuring only those with the deepest pockets can play. And if Anthropic, OpenAI and the current leaders of the pack can pay congress to dig a moat around their industry, they will effectively establish a new American oligarchy in the world’s fastest growing industry… And Bernie Sanders will have helped usher in the very thing he has been warning about his whole career. Kudos, Comrade Sanders. Kudos."
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