Full screen recommended.
Il Divo, "Wicked Game" ("Melanconia")
Live In London 2011
So, we rise from the rubble...
StatCounter
Friday, October 9, 2026
Musical Interlude: "Peak Focus Soft House Study Music with Beta Isochronic Tones"
Full screen recommended
"Peak Focus Soft House Study Music
with Beta Isochronic Tones"
by Jason Lewis
Headphones Are Not Required
"What does this track do? A soft house upbeat study music mix with beta wave isochronic tones. Part of my peak focus for complex tasks series.Designed to produce a deep focus mental state while studying or working. This session stimulates Beta, SMR and Alpha, alternating in 2 minute increments to help keep the user relaxed and engaged. Note: SMR (sensorimotor rhythm) relates to the frequency range between 12 – 15Hz. It’s associated with sensory processing and motor control. Stimulating this can result in relaxed focus and improved attention. This session is meant to speed up the brain while keeping the left hemisphere dominant (good for attention, concentration and reducing emotional response and hyperactivity). ADD and similar disorders are often characterized by “slow-wave” EEG patterns, particularly in the left frontal region. As such, this session stimulates the left brain hemisphere with Beta frequencies and the right with SMR.
Can it be used to help with studying and if so, when should you listen to it? Yes, it can be helpful to use while studying, and if you read through the many comments about this track, you’ll see that many people have successfully used it for studying. You can either listen to it while you are studying, to get your brain into a good mental state when you need it. Or if you are someone that gets a bit distracted by music while studying, listen to it just before you begin.
How Loud Should The Volume Be? There is varying advice and opinions on the impact of volume with brainwave entrainment, with some saying the louder it is the more impact it has. From my own experience, my advice is to play it at a volume level you feel comfortable with. The main thing to consider is that it should be loud enough to hear the repetitive isochronic tones, so you don’t want it so quiet you can hardly hear them. But you also don’t want it so loud that its uncomfortable for you. Somewhere in the middle is my recommendation.
Use this session in the morning or afternoon, to train your brain for better cognition, such as clearer and faster thinking. You can either sit somewhere quiet and comfortable with your eyes closed and give your brain a nice workout, or you can also listen to this while doing an activity that requires a boost in concentration, like studying.
How long should you listen for to get a good effect? It takes around 6 minutes for your brainwaves to fall in step with the tones and become entrained. It then takes time to be guided along the frequency range used in the track. Listening to about half way through is the minimum in my opinion, but 30 minutes is the optimum and preferred length to listen for.
IMPORTANT RECOMMENDATIONS:
• Drink some water – Make sure you are well hydrated before listening to brainwave entrainment.
WHY? Your brain is made up of around 75% water, so it needs plenty of water to function well. When you stimulate your brain in this way, you’re increasing electrical activity and blood flow in the brain and giving your brain a good workout, so it can be a good idea to drink before listening, so that your brain can fire on all cylinders.
• It is not recommended to listen to this while driving or operating machinery.
WHY? Brainwave entrainment involves a process of stimulating your brainwaves and changing your mental state. While this is safe to do and use in normal situations, it can sometimes zone you out during the track, as you focus in on the sound of the tones. This could result in you being distracted temporarily, which is not a good thing while you’re driving or operating machinery. Some people also experience tingling and other sensations from the stimulation. While that might feel quite nice sitting in a comfortable chair at home, it could cause you to be distracted while driving and result in an accident.
• It is not recommended to listen to this while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or any mind altering substance.
WHY? When your brain is under the influence of drugs or alcohol it’s not operating to it’s full capacity, and you react differently to stimulation and situations, compared to when you are sober. So as a precaution and because I don’t know how you will react in that situation, I recommend you do not use it in that situation.
• Who should NOT listen to this audio? Those who should not listen to this video/audio include: Those who are prone to or have had seizures, epilepsy, pregnant or wear a pacemaker should NOT listen to this video/audio.
WHY? There is insufficient research data in this area, so as a precaution, if you are among the categories listed above, I would recommend you consult a doctor or medical professional before listening to this video/audio.”
○
○
Whether you want to know it or not we're all in the fight of our lives, for our lives. Some of you reading this will not survive, and I may not either, so I for one will take any edge I can get, and so should you. This works, I suggest you use it.
- CP
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Blown by fast winds from a hot, massive star, this cosmic bubble is huge. Cataloged as Sharpless 2-308 it lies some 5,000 light-years away toward the constellation of the Big Dog (Canis Major) and covers slightly more of the sky than a Full Moon. That corresponds to a diameter of 60 light-years at its estimated distance. The massive star that created the bubble, a Wolf-Rayet star, is the bright one near the center of the nebula. Wolf-Rayet stars have over 20 times the mass of the Sun and are thought to be in a brief, pre-supernova phase of massive star evolution.
Fast winds from this Wolf-Rayet star create the bubble-shaped nebula as they sweep up slower moving material from an earlier phase of evolution. The windblown nebula has an age of about 70,000 years. Relatively faint emission captured by narrowband filters in the deep image is dominated by the glow of ionized oxygen atoms mapped to a blue hue. Presenting a mostly harmless outline, SH2-308 is also known as The Dolphin-head Nebula.”
"This Beautiful World"
Full screen recommended.
,
"This Beautiful World"
"All music, lyrics, and creative direction are original. AI was used as a creative tool to shape the visuals, but the heart of the story is fully human. Thank you for watching. If this journey touched you, I’d love to hear which place stayed with you the most."
Native American Elder, "3 Weaknesses You Must Never Show No Matter Who Is Watching"
Full screen recommended.
Native American Elder,
"3 Weaknesses You Must Never Show
No Matter Who Is Watching"
Comments here:
Delta Blues Brother, "These Were the Good Days"
Full screen recommended.
Delta Blues Brother,
"These Were the Good Days"
"Most people don’t recognize the good old days while they’re living them. They notice them later. After the house gets quiet. After the pictures fade. After the voices they loved become memories. After ordinary mornings start looking like gifts. "These Were the Good Days" is a warm Delta blues reflection about gratitude, aging, memory, family, simple moments, and learning to recognize a good life before it becomes nostalgia. The resonator guitar rolls gently through the song like sunlight moving across an old wooden floor. The harmonica drifts with warmth and tenderness, carrying the feeling of a memory you didn’t know you were making at the time. The groove stays peaceful, bittersweet, and deeply human… like someone finally learning that ordinary days are often the ones we miss most. This is the blues of noticing. Not chasing more. Not waiting for someday. Not realizing too late that today was already enough."
The Poet: David Whyte, "In the Beginning"
"In the Beginning"
"Sometimes simplicity rises
like a blossom of fire
from the white silk of your own skin.
You were there in the beginning
you heard the story, you heard the merciless
and tender words telling you where you had to go.
Exile is never easy and the journey
itself leaves a bitter taste. But then,
when you heard that voice, you had to go.
You couldn't sit by the fire, you couldn't live
so close to the live flame of that compassion
you had to go out in the world and make it your own
so you could come back with
that flame in your voice, saying listen...
this warmth, this unbearable light, this fearful love...
It is all here, it is all here."
~ David Whyte
Kahlil Gibran, "The Prophet: On Good and Evil "
"The Prophet: On Good and Evil "
"Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.
For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?
Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves,
and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.
You are good when you are one with yourself.
Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.
For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house.
And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among
perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom.
You are good when you strive to give of yourself.
Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself.
For when you strive for gain you are but a root
that clings to the earth and sucks at her breast.
Surely the fruit cannot say to the root,
Be like me, ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance.
For to the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need to the root.
You are good when you are fully awake in your speech,
Yet you are not evil when you sleep
while your tongue staggers without purpose.
And even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue.
You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps.
Yet you are not evil when you go thither limping.
Even those who limp go not backward.
But you who are strong and swift,
see that you do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness.
You are good in countless ways,
and you are not evil when you are not good,
You are only loitering and sluggard.
Pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the turtles.
In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness:
and that longing is in all of you.
But in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with might to the sea,
carrying the secrets of the hillsides and the songs of the forest.
And in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles and
bends and lingers before it reaches the shore.
But let not him who longs much say to him who longs little,
Wherefore are you slow and halting?
For the truly good ask not the naked,
Where is your garment?
nor the houseless, What has befallen your house?"
- Kahlil Gibran
○
Freely download a PDF version of "The Prophet" here:
"The Truth"
I've always believed you can handle the truth, given the chance...It may not be what you want to hear, but it is the truth to the best of my ability to determine. What you do with it is of course up to you... - CP
"How Did It Get So Crazy, So Fast?"
"How Did It Get So Crazy, So Fast?"
by John Wilder
"One of the comments on a post a few weeks back asked a pretty good question: “How did we get so crazy, so fast?” The answer actually involves several intertwining threads, mice, Soviets, and gasoline engines, so let’s see of we can weave a web that covers at least a chunk of what has made us so crazy, so quickly. This is a distillation of the last seven years’ worth of study and writing, so some of it might be pretty familiar. Also, it’s not necessarily complete yet, but here are the major threads that I see that have led to what Heinlein called The Crazy Years.
First: Societal Malaise Due to Abundance: I’ve written several times about John Bumpass (that’s his real middle name according to the Internet) Calhoun’s Mouse Utopia experiment, see immediately below this paragraph for links to two previous posts. The short summary is Dr. Calhoun asked a crazy question: what would happen if you gave a population of mice everything they could want: food, water, freedom from predation, space to live, bedding material, and places to make nests.
The result? The mice died out. At a certain point they stopped mating, mother mice stopped taking care of infant mice, gangs formed, and some mice (the “beautiful ones”) just spent their time grooming themselves and not really interacting. If this sounds like Reddit® or TikTok™ or the Democratic National Convention, well, you’re right. For a certain subset of the population, abundance has ruined them.
I think it started in the 1960s. I’m just guessing. I like to blame the hippies, so they’re likely the early-version. It then continued into the wildest era of abundance the world has ever seen: the 1990s. If you look at any time lapse, that’s when the United States started leading the world (it has spread now, literally) in having obesity, not hunger, be the bigger (pun intended) health problem.
I think this started to manifest itself, big time, in the music of the 1990s. We went from Warrant singing about Cherry Pie to Kurt Cobain mumbling about how living in the suburbs with all the Pop Tarts™ his fat face could eat was killing him. Turns out that shotguns are even more deadly than Pop Tarts©. Who knew? We had a generation that was lost because they had everything. I think a candidate for the hallmark phrase of this Crazy Cause is: “Why are we even here, dude?”
Second: Societal Anxiety Due to No Challenges: I recently made the comment on X® that a lot of people would e better off if they had been bullied as kids. Was I serious? Yeah, I was. One response was, “Why do you want to make things worse?”
The truth is, for me, that bullies actually helped me build my character and my resolve. And, believe it or not, sometimes the bullies were right and the things that they bullied me about (second graders can be assholes) were things I needed to fix to be a better person. Did I lift harder to get stronger because of it? Yes. Did I develop the internal resilience so that the people who (rightfully) bullied the smarmy second grader that I was eventually earned the respect of the bullies?
Yes. Males, even young males, need to develop a hierarchy and understand their place in it and why they are inferior to Chuck Norris.
No child is born perfect, and it is the challenges in life that help define and develop character. Without challenge, development is stunted.
I think that today’s twentysomethings have the problem that they look into a future that certainly looks grim to them, yet they’ve never had a chance to develop their character and are told again and again how perfect they are and how their choices are important.
Newsflash: the choices of a second grader generally deserve about as much attention as the choices my dog wants to make. Both will eat all of the cake in the house if you let them and make messes everywhere. It’s our job as parents to not care what they think when it’s important to develop character and virtue.
As a society we face many of the same problems: what is it we stand for and what are we trying to accomplish? We don’t have Soviets to fight, we’re actively encouraging invaders into our country to replace us, and we don’t have any cool national purpose like the Apollo program. I think a candidate for the catchphrase of this crazy cause is: “Why am I so worthless?”
Third: Societal Atomization Due To Tech: As humans, we have minds that are built around smaller social systems, mainly. The big move from rural to urban happened in the west only recently. Our legacy social structure is (mainly) to live in a town for a very long time, put down roots, make friends, make a reputation.
Most people aren’t leaders, they’re followers, and want to be led. Why else would sane people want zoning regulations? But now, put us in a constantly churning urban landscape where we don’t know the next-door-neighbor in the apartment building? Who do we turn to? Well, whatever latenightjokeman says or whatever TikTik™ says or whatever InstaFace© allows to be printed. People are defining themselves on how YouTube™ says Europeans feel about Donald Trump.
They are also allowed to pick whatever gender they are. How do I know tech is driving this? Back when COVID made everyone homeschooled, transgenderism dropped. Why? No one to identify to – which is why “transwomen” with no girl parts get offended when gynecologists won’t give them appointments. Yes. That’s a thing.
The iPhone™ is a big driver. It puts connections in the hands of kids. I talked with one Millennial, and he said that at the start of his high school career, kids “cruised main” looking for other kids. By the end of high school, it was all phones. Friendships dropped, and dating dropped. Mix that with the first two causes above, and it leads to fewer kids.
Dating sites magnify this, and make every girl “4” think that she deserves a Chad ranked 9 or higher because one time a drunk Chad had sex with her. This leads to Chads being happy, but girls being sad and hollow inside. I think a catchphrase for this Crazy Cause is “Who or what the heck am I?”
Result of these interacting strands of Crazy are a large number of people who:
• Stand for nothing.
• Have no examples of virtue other than seeking money in their lives.
• See no point in anything other than the present moment.
• Are distracted.
• Think they’re too good for PEZ™.
• Are filled with the combination of anxiety and narcissism.
• Do and feel whatever the media tells them to do.
• Haven’t built social circles of any particular strength – clubs and churches are on constant decline.
There’s good news. All of this is self-limiting. We’re not mice, and plenty of good humans haven’t fallen into Calhoun’s Behavioral Sink. Many of those same people have overcome challenges sufficient to shape their character for the better. Finally, there are enough of us that don’t follow. We lead. Or we choose our own path. And? We’re gonna win."
"Trump Warns Of Coming Great Depression, It's Already Begun; Margin Debt Nightmare"
Jeremiah Babe, 10/9/26
"Trump Warns Of Coming Great Depression,
It's Already Begun; Margin Debt Nightmare"
Comments here:
"This Is What Makes Your Self-respect So Important..."
“We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and - in spite of True Romance magazines - we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely - at least, not all the time - but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don’t see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.”
Hunter S. Thompson, "The Proud Highway:
Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
o
"Evictions Are Spreading All Over America And Renters Are Panicking!"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 10/9/26
"Evictions Are Spreading All Over America
And Renters Are Panicking!"
"Families are getting evicted, and it starts with a notice on the door and a few days to come up with money they don't have. In this video, renters show it from their side: a three-day eviction notice after a Category 5 hurricane shut her job for five days, five days to pay $3,000 in back rent or get out, a constable's 24-hour notice to leave with her kids, rent that jumped from $1,000 to $1,300 a month, a judge who approved an eviction over a few days late, and a mother packing a storage unit with her 13- and 10-year-old with nowhere to go. We look at how fast an eviction moves once the rent falls behind, what it costs a family to be put out, and how to cut household costs before the notice comes."
Comments here:
Adventures With Danno, "My Super Shopping Vlog at Meijer!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 10/9/26
"My Super Shopping Vlog at Meijer!"
Comments here:
"Snyder Reports, 10/9/26"
Full screen recommended.
Snyder Reports, 10/9/26
"Hurricane Isaias Shuts Down 63% Of Gulf Oil Production -
Are Gas Prices About To Surge?"
"Hurricane Isaias is now 1 mph below a Category 3 and taking aim at the Gulf Coast - with 62.89% of Gulf oil production already offline. Here's what it means for your gas tank. Gas prices sit at $4.37 today, October 9th, 2026, after falling from the $5.01 high. That drop could reverse fast. Isaias has shut in 1.28 million barrels per day, 121 platforms have been evacuated, and Chevron's Pascagoula and Vertex refineries are in the path. With war in the Middle East and Russia-Ukraine still pressuring oil prices today, experts say fill up today if you can. In this video I break down past hurricanes like Katrina, Rita (10+ months of disruption), Gustav, Ike (6 months) and Ida (96% shut in), do the math on what 3, 7, 14 and 30 days offline means (up to 30M+ barrels), and lay out mild (+10-15 cents), moderate (1-2 week regional gas price surge), and severe (3-4 week shortages in the South) scenarios - plus why workers not returning could extend outages beyond repairs."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Snyder Reports, 10/9/26
"American Debt Crisis:
20% Behind On Payments - Worst Since 2008"
America's debt problems are flashing a warning not seen since the Great Recession - and the Fed just confirmed it. In this video I break down the Fed's Survey of Consumer Finances showing families behind on loan payments soared from 12% to nearly 20% by end of 2025, with over 8% two months or more behind. Payment-to-income ratios over 40% jumped to 8.6%, the highest since 2013. Plus what a bank insider showed me about late mortgages, why banks are sitting on thousands of defaults instead of foreclosing, and why car repossessions hitting 1.73 million could push toward 3 million. We cover the American debt crisis, rising mortgage default risk, the car repossession surge, and what this great recession 2008 comparison means for your wallet in 2026."
Comments here:
Dan, I Allegedly, "Chevron Just Gave America A Warning"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 10/9/26
"Chevron Just Gave America A Warning"
"The economy is changing, businesses are struggling, and consumers are demanding more value. In this video, Dan looks at what successful companies are doing differently - and why having a real plan matters more than ever. From restaurant chains and changing consumer spending to business failures, bankruptcies, careers, money, health, and retirement, the same lesson keeps coming up: hoping things get better is not a strategy. This is a conversation about personal finance, business, the economy, and preparing for what comes next. Companies that adapt and execute a plan can find opportunities even in difficult times, while people and businesses without a strategy can quickly find themselves in trouble. The question is simple: What is your plan?"
Comments here:
Martin Armstrong, "Trucking Bankruptcies"
"Trucking Bankruptcies"
by Martin Armstrong
"At least 16 trucking, delivery, and transportation companies entered bankruptcy proceedings between late August and September 21. These filings extend across general freight, construction materials, agricultural hauling, and even an Amazon delivery contractor. Some are seeking Chapter 11 protection to reorganize; others have entered Chapter 7 liquidation. We should not pretend every filing means a company has closed, but we should certainly ask why businesses moving the goods this economy depends upon are struggling to remain solvent.
Globemaster reported between $500,000 and $1 million in assets against liabilities ranging from $1 million to $10 million. Pacer Transport listed less than $50,000 in assets against $1 million to $10 million in liabilities. FreightWaves also points to rising diesel prices and elevated operating costs. A trucker cannot pay for fuel with a politician’s speech about how well the economy is doing.
I keep coming back to the distinction between spending and prosperity. A household spending more money to obtain the same necessities has not become wealthier. Neither has a business whose revenue rises while its expenses rise faster. You can move more dollars through an economy while leaving the people doing the work with less. That is why aggregate figures can look respectable while the operator sitting at his kitchen table discovers there is nothing left after paying everybody else
If customers resist higher freight charges, the carrier absorbs the pressure until there is no margin left. Borrowing may buy time, but another loan does not repair an operation that cannot consistently earn enough to meet its obligations. Eventually, the creditor wants cash.
Energy costs are part of this squeeze. Fuel must be paid for immediately, while payment for hauling a load may come later. A carrier can collect a fuel surcharge and still face a cash shortage before that money arrives. Add truck payments, insurance, maintenance, and wages, and there is very little room for error. If freight revenue cannot keep pace with those bills, running the truck may produce activity without producing a profit. That is how a business can remain busy right up to the day it goes bankrupt.
When smaller operators disappear, surviving businesses may acquire their equipment and customers. That can help restore balance in an overcrowded market, but the adjustment comes through lost businesses, damaged credit, and interrupted livelihoods. The man who spent years building a fleet does not experience this as an encouraging economic correction. He experiences it as the destruction of everything he worked for.
These bankruptcies alone do not prove the entire country is in recession. They do show why I would pay attention to the businesses carrying the goods rather than accept every reassuring national average at face value. An economy needs people willing to take risks and enough profit to justify taking them. Keep squeezing that profit and eventually the trucks, the jobs, and the tax revenue go with it. Washington can roll over its debts and congratulate itself on another spending package. The private businessman has to make payroll on Friday."
John Wilder, "What Bikini Pictures Have To Do With The War Against You"
"What Bikini Pictures Have To Do
With The War Against You"
by John Wilder
"Epictetus, no relation to Sydney Sweeney, had this to say several thousand years ago: “When the standards have been set, things are tested and weighed. And the work of a philosopher is just this, to examine and uphold the standards, but the work of a truly good person is in using those standards as they know them.” There are a lot of implications that flow from these two sentences.
Let’s start with the biggest one: that there are standards that can be objectively set. Throughout the mid part of the 20th Century and into the 21st, the move has been to make everything relative. There is no Truth. This is crucial, because before Evil can rebuild, it has to refute that there is something True. Philosophy, since Newton, always tried to glom on to cutting edge physics. It’s really that the philosophers, sitting around writing stuff down, brooding, and smoking pipes, were out of ideas and decided to mine science.
Newton came up with the laws of motion, and thus, Determinism! became the thought process of the philosophers. Hey, being a philosopher is a decent paying gig for those that don’t understand differential equations yet know how to make espresso, so don’t look down on them. But then along came Einstein. His physics of relativity, poorly understood by philosophers, translated perfectly to what they wanted to bring about anyway and had been fiddling with before E=mc2: moral relativity. Einstein? He just gave them the moral permission slip and a word they could misuse.
Moral relativity led to a huge crashout that’s still rippling through society today. Here’s the conversation overheard at the Lame Philosopher’s Club after someone translated Einstein into French: The first one said, “Oh, that means that races don’t exist! We’re all the same, relatively!” The next one piped up, “Yeah, and there is no God. And no one is right!” And another, “Hey, and people? They’re all the same. And they’re perfectible!” And another, “Oh, let’s try men are the same as women. Wait, whoa, this will blow your mind, how about that men can become women, or something in between!” And another, “Dude, carry it out, maybe it’s all something we made up! And, try this one out, how about all cultures are the same? I mean, to an ant they are, right?”
Truth was clearly the first thing that had to be obliterated. As a standard, it simply did not mesh with Modern Thought. What about Beauty? There is clearly an objective standard for Beauty. Babies look longer at attractive faces, and look away from ugly faces. It is not beauty, it is Beauty. Sometimes we don’t know it until we see it, like my friend, Arthur. I mean, I know Art when I see him. Yet, Art never texts back.
Clearly, you can see what has been done with Beauty, and it’s to the point where a 9.5/10 body and a 6.5 face can turn Sidney Sweeney into the next Marilyn Monroe because her competition are a bunch of chubby goblins. Seriously, Hollywood© has been trying to cast women who couldn’t get a job at a strip club for the 2pm Tuesday shift as “hot”, so popping in an 8 (average body and face) of a Sweeney becomes a sensation. Beauty, capital B, is real.
That leaves Good. Epictetus uses it in the second sentence to define what a good person is. It is one who uses the standards. Sure, it’s a bit of a tautology, and we all know that the first rule of Tautology Club is the first rule of Tautology Club, a good person is one who will say what is Good and what is Evil. And, he also drops the wiggle room, “as they know” them clause at the end.
That’s okay, because what he’s saying isn’t that the standards don’t exist, and isn’t that they’re not Real and Eternal and Unmovable. They do exist. They are Real and Unmovable. The wiggle room is because sometimes, from our vantage points, we just don’t see them all that well. The standard hasn’t changed, it never changes. Only our understanding does, because it is revealed as we gain experience with the world and understanding.
This is what we call wisdom. And most of wisdom? We gain it because we were wrong and didn’t understand that objective Truth. We didn’t understand real Beauty. Or, we didn’t see that we didn’t fully understand Good. Again, the standards haven’t changed, it’s because we’re looking at the world as through a glass, darkly.
I sometimes think that, perhaps, one of the biggest difficulties we have as mankind is this desire to search and understand the universe. They say ignorance is bliss, but the more we look, the smaller we become. I get it. Our quest for knowledge is our story. There may be an older story about an apple, a talking snake, and taking advice from women in here, but I’ll let that lie for today.
Regardless, it is clear that there is Truth. There is Beauty. And there is Good. It is our quest to understand those as clearly as we can, and to courageously stand for them, especially when others, even the whole world seems to stand against us. And, that’s okay. Because, in the end, even through valleys of lies, fields of corruption, and that plain of evil, the True, Beautiful, and Good has been standing for eternity. So, we’ve got that going for us. Oh, yeah, and the Sweeney bikini pics aren’t bad, either. Of note, the bikini pictures are not an argument, but they are, however, evidence."
Bill Bonner, "Funny Business"
"Funny Business"
by Bill Bonner
"Expecting voters to exonerate the party in power through a considered examination
of the origins of the credit cycle is an overly optimistic view of human nature."
- Daniel Oliver
Ardmore, Ireland - "Last night, after supper, we saw a dim glow against the garden wall, about as bright as a dozen fireflies. We went out to investigate. And as we approached, we gradually made out a human-like shape...but of the science fiction genre. This was ‘The Thing from Another World;’ we recalled it from one of our first and most horrifying trip to the movies, in the 1950s. The being was tall, with bulky arms and legs, making him look a bit ungainly, like he had been outsized by a bicycle pump. But the most remarkable thing was the head. It was about three times the size of a normal human head. And rounder, with a flatter face.
Surely the aliens had finally arrived. But why were they sneaking around in our garden, at night, in an obscure part of Ireland? And did they mean to harm us? While the questions swirled, we edged toward the figure, still indistinct in the dark. ‘We mean you no harm...’ we called out, thinking the creature might be put at ease by a friendly human voice. ‘Well, I’m glad to hear that,’ came the answer from a voice with a proper English accent.
It was the voice of the local beekeeper, Robert, in his protective gear. ‘I won’t be more than five minutes. Hope I didn’t scare you. There is a nest of bees in the wall. I’ve waited until they were asleep to make my move. It’s dangerous to let them stay there.’ Robert has placed his hives in several places on the farm. We are happy to have them, and the honey he gives us. As long as they stay in the hives, they pose no problem. But sometimes, like AI, they go rogue.
‘A fellow in Clonmel was stung by bees. He was driving a tractor. The bees must have been in the ground. Well, they went after him. And he went into shock. His heart stopped. The family got him to the hospital. And he’s still alive. But he suffered irreparable brain damage. You’ve got to be careful with bees.’ Reassured...it was a comfort to know we’d be more likely to die from earth-bound bees than from extra-terrestrials...we returned to our work.
Here’s the latest, from MarketWatch: "French bonds are suffering through their worst decade since 1803 - and investors are bracing for more pain." French bond turmoil is the worst since the 10-year period that included the Reign of Terror. Parlez-vous crise du credit?
Meanwhile, back in the USA, the S&P has hit a new record. But it is a funny kind of new high...driven, we believe, by a funny kind of money chasing a funny kind of stocks. Fewer than half the stocks in the S&P 500 are actually above their 200-day moving averages. That leaves the aforementioned ‘funny’ stocks - those growing from capital investment rather than real earnings - doing most of the heavy lifting.
Also, a little ‘funny’ is the fact that while the US and France suffer from very similar self-inflicted macro wounds, their stock markets are going in opposite directions. The Wall Street Journal found the ‘funny’ business worth exploring: "America has had to endure financial crises, stock-market crashes and military setbacks, just like any other country. But the regularity with which the U.S. recovers is remarkable. For many Americans it’s an article of faith that the stock market eventually rises over time, that Uncle Sam’s liabilities are risk-free and that America’s armed forces will never lose a fight for lack of money."
But the closer you look, the ‘funnier’ the situation appears. The US started a war which has greatly weakened perceptions of US power. America is untrustworthy, say the diplomats. And it is increasingly ineffective, say military analysts. WSJ: "Now, federal borrowing is starting to feel unsustainable, U.S. stocks fetch twice the valuation of other developed markets and the Navy is struggling to protect vital sea lanes from a third-rate adversary. The French stock market is down 10.5% in the last six months. But the US stock market is up 15%. And you can’t explain it by differences in exchange rates or other big picture curiosities. In terms of cyclically adjusted p/e ratios, US big-cap stocks are twice as pricey as those in France."
Why? The Journal leans on the ‘exorbitant privilege’ insight first popularized by France’s Valery Giscard d’Estaing. The nation that has the world’s reserve currency, he noticed, can ‘print’ more currency, which is taken into foreign vaults as though it were gold. Other nations can’t do that. WSJ: "Unlike France, the U.S. has its own printing press and can’t default if borrowing costs spiral."
You’d think this advantage would show up in different costs for borrowing, too. The two countries face roughly the same fiscal problem. Each has to borrow money to keep up with current spending. By this measure the US is slightly worse than France, with a deficit equal to 5.7% of GDP. France’s deficit ratio is just 5%.
As Donald Trump maintains, if the US really has the strongest economy in the world, it ought to have the lower interest rates. Apparently, not. France, as widely reported, may be on the brink of a default. But the US pays more to borrow. The yield on France’s 10-year notes is now 4.9%. America’s 10-year yield is 5.3%. Both countries are broke. And as interest rates rise, the broker they get.
As for the ‘exorbitant privilege,’ at some point every ‘privilege’ sends its bill. Robert Triffin outlined the paradox back in the 1960s. The US ‘prints’ money. Foreign nations sell products and services to the issuer to get it. This results in a trade deficit for the reserve currency nation, the US (with the accompanying ‘hollowing out’ of its own industries). A country that produces more (fake) money than stuff soon suffers price increases. At first, the US exports its inflation to the rest of the world. Eventually though, the foreigners question its solvency and wonder about its IOUs. They sell their US bonds...and look for alternatives.
The WSJ adds context...along with a dose of dread. "U.S. bonds aren’t really risk-free when the president is openly talking about the benefit of “very rapidly” eroding their real value through inflation. The usual pattern of foreign money flooding into the Treasury market in a crisis isn’t some law of nature. Imagine the sort of rush for the exits France is experiencing instead." ‘Inflating our way out’ of the US debt problem is another ‘red dye’ solution. It promises to fix a problem America ought not to have with a solution that won’t work. More to come..."
"America Looks Richer Than Ever. What Happens When the Fed's Asset Bubble Bursts?"
"America Looks Richer Than Ever.
What Happens When the Fed's Asset Bubble Bursts?"
by David Stockman
"It is now abundantly obvious that the FOMC and its clumsy rate-pegging and credit printing tools are not remotely fit for purpose. The real impact is dramatically displayed in the graph below. It shows that after 1987 the growth rate of household assets relative to earned income (i.e. excluding transfer payments) took off like a bat out of hell.
Indeed, as shown in the graph during the heyday of the 1950s through 1987, the nominal value of household assets tracked the growth of earned income almost in lockstep, with the ratio relatively flat through the 37-year period, posting at 5.8X in Q2 1987, up slightly from an average 5.4X ratio during 1950 to 1954, when the US economy moved into its strong post-WWII growth era.
The virtually nonexistent slope of the trend line (solid green below) during that era of unprecedented middle-class prosperity means that had it continued for another 39 years through Q2 2026, the end point ratio today would be just 5.9X, not the actual ratio of 10.0X.
So, yes, the Fed’s red-hot printing press did make a whopping difference. To wit, the household and nonprofit sectors today hold the staggering total of $90 trillion more in assets of all types—from owner-occupied residences to cash accounts, bonds and stock portfolios—than would have been the case based on pre-1987 asset-to-income trends.
What this means is that the American household sector did not earn and save its way to the huge gains in assets and net worth reported by the Fed’s Flow of Funds data. That is to say, net worth is up from almost $11 trillion to $196 trillion since 1989, but that is not mainly due to savings from the growth of earned income.
As shown below, borrowings helped modestly, rising 5.3% per annum or modestly ahead of the 4.6% per annum growth of personal income ex-transfer payments. But the real catalyst, obviously, was the far faster growth of asset values, which rose at a compound annual rate of 6.1% during the period.
At the end of the day, however, the comparison which says it all is the gap between asset growth at 6.1% per annum and income growth of just 4.6%. In a word, assets grew 35% faster than income over that three and one-half decade period because, well, the Fed inflated them with its red-hot printing presses.
For want of doubt, we show the opposite trend in the household savings data, meaning that the American public has not saved its way to riches since Alan Greenspan discovered the printing presses in the basement of the Eccles Building soon after he took office in the midst of Black Monday’s 23% collapse of the Stock Market on October 19, 1987.
The juxtaposition of the savings graph below and asset graph above, in fact, tells you all you need to know. Since 1975, the true household savings rate—measured as personal savings divided by household income less transfer payments (used as the denominator here because the government’s 160 million Welfare State beneficiaries save virtually nothing on a net basis) has been plodding steadily lower (dotted red line), from an average of 13.3% of income in 1975 to 6.7% of income at present. At the same time, the constant dollar level of savings pencils out anemically, indeed. The growth rate (blue lines) in real terms has been just 0.6% per annum since 1975.
So, no, America did not save its way to $196 trillion of net worth after the era of Keynesian monetary central planning commenced in October 1987. The Fed inflated asset prices to a fare-the-well.
Of course, all this inflated net worth is just the half of it. The more onerous dimension lies in who got it or in the distribution. In that regard, the graph below speaks for itself. Since Q1 1989, household net worth has risen by an aggregate of $154 trillion. As it happened, however, the bottom 50% got 3% of the gain, while the top 1% harvested 32% of the loot. Some earnest commentators are now mystified as to why the hoary doctrine of socialism seems to be making a comeback in certain quarters of American politics.
The geniuses at the Fed, however, should not be confused at all. It’s all their handiwork. In the land of the central bank printing presses, the rich do get richer, indeed, and not because they earned it on an honest free market operating based on sound money. In fact, the chart above reflects the true failure of Greenspanian central banking. And when the massive inflationary bubbles embodied in this graph above finally do blow sky-high, don’t blame it on the free market. In short, what amounts to free money has been the real culprit all along."
"Trump Just Told You How He’ll Pay Off the Debt"
"Trump Just Told You How He’ll Pay Off the Debt"
by Joel Bowman and Lau Vegys
"Inflation is not an act of God… Inflation is a policy.”
~ Ludwig von Mises,
"Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow" (1959)
Excerpt: Pipa Beach, Brazil - "Remember the good ol’ days, dear reader, when a trillion dollars seemed like a lot of money? When so-called “conservative” politicians at least pretended to care about fiscal sanity… balanced budgets… sound money… And when so-called “liberal” politicians pretended to care about things like the cost of living… free speech… the plight of the worker…
Neither side meant what it said, of course, insofar as their records stand in stark contrast to their empty promises, with nothing behind them save a trail of jilted voters and despondent, former believers. (And a few stubborn die hards, bless them!)
Perhaps that’s why so many “regular people” – sensible folks who wouldn’t trust their elected officials to water their cactus, never mind balance the nation’s books – find themselves political orphans, abandoned by their traditional parties. But though the political divide appears as vast as it has ever been, there is one thing both parties always seem to agree upon:
Inflation. How do we know that for sure? Well, the last time Americans were treated to a bout of sustained, consumer-price deflation was back in 2009, during the Great Recession. Before that, you have to go back to 1949, when CPI fell about 1.0% for the year. That’s 14 separate administrations, from Truman to Trump, stretched out over three-quarters of a century, each delivering for the American people exactly what the system is designed to produce: higher and higher everyday prices.
Again, politicians don’t usually admit as much, systematic currency debasement being somewhat out of favor for anyone who bothers reading their history. At least that was the case until last week, when POTUS actually said the quiet part out loud. For anyone who was listening, the frank admission (in an interview with Time Magazine) was tantamount to pointing out the empire had no clothes.
Devaluation, according to our good friend and founder of the excellent SNAFU Investing with Lau Vegys, is not an accident… it’s the plan. “Not default. Not cut spending,” as Lau writes below. “Inflate the debt away, hopefully quietly enough that nobody riots.” Yikes! “But what about the lenders?” we hear the savvy reader inquire. “Won’t they just walk away?”
Turns out, it’s a little more complicated than that. In today’s guest essay, Lau does a fantastic job of walking you through the mechanics of exactly how inflation works as a debt-reduction tool, how the administration intends to use “other means” to ensure a steady supply of lenders who cannot say “no,” and how those same hard-working people always end up footing the bill. Please enjoy today’s guest essay and be sure to find more of Lau’s writing at SNAFU Investing with Lau Vegys… there’s plenty more where this came from."
Full article is here:
Jim Kunstler, "The Ripening"
The Gold Dust Twins, Barack Obama with John Brennan
"The Ripening"
by Jim Kunstler
“Everybody's restless and they got no place to go,
Someone's always trying to tell them something they already know,
So their anger and resentment flow.”
- Warren Zevon, "Mohammed’s Radio"
"In the stark October light, events and personalities skulk in the shadows like scavengers in an orchard of poison fruit. The dread builds as the dooryards get populated with the motorized effigies of blood-beasts, werewolves, phantoms, and ghouls. Halloween and Election Day have become the conflated celebration of a national death trip. How has it come down to our country, in a crucial election, seriously entertaining the antics of jihadis and Jacobin riffraff?
Some somebodies are orchestrating this frightful show from the sinister shadowland behind our politics. My guess would be Barack Obama and John Brennan, with a whole lot of help from a supporting cast of entrenched Deep State racketeers enlisted in their service, with their status and livelihoods at stake. Mr. Obama acts as if he is untouchable, probably due to being the personification of Liberalism’s “Best Camper” trophy it gave itself to validate the Civil Rights struggle session of the century gone by. We are good people, we really are, and President Obama is proof positive of our goodness!
The truth is, we know next to nothing about his real origins and his journey to power. His family on his mother’s side was pure CIA-connected, and his actual father is rumored to be Frank Marshall Davis (1905–1987), a Black American poet, journalist, and labor activist who was a member of the Communist Party USA - not the Kenyan Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. He went from nonentity to myth with no intervening storyline that makes any sense, just a set of rapid promotions with missing events between them: Occidental College in LA to Columbia U to Harvard Law to Chicago politics to Illinois State Senate, straight to the US Senate, and then, bang, into the White House only four years into his first Senate term.
At every stage along the way he was somebody’s chore boy. But whose? My guess would be US Central Intelligence...that he was groomed to be the untouchable front man looking out for the agency’s interests in dicey times. His quick political rise coincided with the rise of John Brennan through the ranks of the CIA. Early on, Brennan was drawn to Arabic culture, sojourned in Egypt as a student, and later served as the CIA’s station chief in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He speaks Arabic fluently and is rumored to have converted to Islam (from Catholicism), though it has never been proven. At a 2010 New York University forum, he praised “the goodness and beauty of Islam.”
The CIA, I would suppose, is composed of two great clans: one is made of the employees actually carrying out real intel-gathering and analysis. The other is of employees (current and former) looking out for the CIA’s own black op activities and the immense fortunes connected with it - with plenty of overlap between the two clans. I’d guess that John Brennan, who was CIA Director between 2013 and 2017 (under President Obama), still runs a large rogue contingent of the CIA clan that does the black ops, sits on a large fortune, and acts like a sovereign organism outside the control of the elected US government.
That would explain why no one has been held accountable for the ten-year-long coup against Donald Trump. Brennan, and the forces he represents, appear to be outside the control of the regular government, including the DOJ and FBI, and to some extent able to control people throughout government by subterfuge, intimidation, and blackmail. All that nearly came apart during Donald Trump’s first term with the bungled RussiaGate caper followed by the bungled Impeachment No. 1 operation. But Brennan’s dark CIA clan triumphed with the 2020 election “victory” of non compos mentis “Joe Biden,” followed by the successful Jan 6, 2021, fake “insurrection” at the US Capitol.
They stumbled badly again with the patently ridiculous court cases against former President Trump in 2023 and 2024. And now here we are in the middle of Mr. Trump’s second term, with a titanic struggle going on, largely out of public view, for the soul of the nation. John Brennan is still at large, but a month ago he was served with a subpoena to appear before a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida. It looks like he will finally have to do some ‘splainin’ about events he’s been involved with. You can be sure that President Trump means to see that it happens - whatever was signified by the departure of Joe diGenova last month.
It’s also my guess that former President Obama has become John Brennan’s hostage. He was probably assigned to run “Joe Biden’s” fake presidency using Susan Rice and other party functionaries to carry out orders. Brennan surely has a dossier on Barack Obama that fills in the blanks in his sketchy biography, including Mr. Obama’s secret sexual activities on the Chicago scene back in the day. Meanwhile, the former president has his electioneering duties to attend to, to try to flip the House and Senate so as to have one last go at defenestrating the man in the White House who threatens to put Brennan, Obama & Company out of business.
So, there’s a war on backstage. The war itself has been mythologized by those actually paying attention to it, sometimes as the contest between “Globalists” and “Sovereigntists” or “Black Hats” versus “White Hats” or the Legions of Satan versus the God-loving followers of Jesus... Jihad v. Western Civ. However you characterize it, everyone feels the tension as though the current phase of this Fourth Turning is an unbearable space between the life and death of the nation. Hence, all the ghouls in the dooryards, reminding us to stay...very...scared."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)