Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 10/23/26
"Alert! Russia Evacuating Scientists,
France Prepares for Martial Law + Nuclear War"
Comments here:
So, we rise from the rubble...
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Friday, October 23, 2026
"A Dream You Never Want to Wake From"
Full screen recommended.
"A Dream You Never Want to Wake From"
"Step into a peaceful dreamlike fantasy world where enchanted palaces float above the clouds, crystal forests sparkle beneath the stars, glowing flowers drift across magical lakes, and waterfalls fall softly into the endless sky. This relaxing fantasy ambient music combines soft violin, warm piano, delicate harp, angelic vocal textures, crystal bells, and gentle atmospheric sounds to create a calm and sleepy atmosphere. Let the music carry you through this magical kingdom and slowly leave the noise of the world behind. Perfect for sleep, relaxation, meditation, studying, reading, dreaming, and peaceful nighttime moments."
Musical Interlude: 2002, "Kindred Spirits"
Full screen recommended.
2002, "Kindred Spirits"
"Once we sailed upon the seas. Now we sail among the stars. This song was composed as a tribute to our friend, harpist Hilary Stagg, who left us far too soon. Hilary loved the sea and he loved the stars."
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Like delicate cosmic petals, these clouds of interstellar dust and gas have blossomed 1,300 light-years away in the fertile star fields of the constellation Cepheus. Sometimes called the Iris Nebula and dutifully cataloged as NGC 7023 this is not the only nebula in the sky to evoke the imagery of flowers. Still, this remarkable image shows off the Iris Nebula's range of colors and symmetries in impressive detail. Within the Iris, dusty nebular material surrounds a hot, young star.
Click image for larger size.
The dominant color of the brighter reflection nebula is blue, characteristic of dust grains reflecting starlight. Central filaments of the dusty clouds glow with a faint reddish photoluminesence as some dust grains effectively convert the star's invisible ultraviolet radiation to visible red light. Infrared observations indicate that this nebula may contain complex carbon molecules known as PAHs. The bright blue portion of the Iris Nebula is about six light-years across.”
"Alone..."
“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”
Free Download; Henry Hazlitt, "Economics in One Lesson."
"'Economics In One Lesson':
A Review of a Classic"
by Sean Ring
"If you’ve ever found yourself cornered at a dinner party by that one guy with a conspiratorial gleam in his eye and a penchant for explaining why the economy is “just a series of smoke and mirrors,” you’ll appreciate Henry Hazlitt’s "Economics in One Lesson." It’s The Book that offers the economically curious a set of brass knuckles to face the muddled nonsense of popular economic “thought.” And by “thought,” I mean whatever passes for it in political speeches, social media debates, or the average op-ed.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First, a quick primer: Hazlitt’s book is an economics classic, albeit one that uses plain language to dismantle the kind of Keynesian tomfoolery that has turned deficit spending into a national sport. Published in 1946, it’s a slim volume that packs a heavyweight punch. Think of it as the literary equivalent of Muhammad Ali in his prime - quick, elegant, and devastatingly effective.
A Double-Edged Sword: Hazlitt begins with the titular “One Lesson”: the art of economics consists of not just looking at the immediate effects of any policy but at the longer-term effects, as well. Further, it demands that the consequences of that policy be examined for all groups, not just one. A lesson so obvious it seems like common sense - until you realize it’s precisely what most policymakers and pundits ignore.
Why? Looking at all the consequences of an economic policy requires work, patience, and critical thinking. It’s far easier to promise free lunches than to explain why those lunches aren’t free. Hazlitt’s brilliance lies in his ability to show how economic fallacies perpetuate precisely because they focus on immediate, visible effects while conveniently ignoring long-term, invisible ones. The result? Politicians handing out economic band-aids while ignoring the arterial bleeding beneath.
Smashing Windows (and Fallacies): Hazlitt’s first stop is the famous “Broken Window Fallacy.” You’ve heard the argument before, even if you didn’t realize it: destruction stimulates economic activity. The idea is that rebuilding a shattered window, for example, creates jobs for glaziers, boosts spending, and pumps life into the economy. What could possibly be wrong with that? Everything.
Hazlitt dismantles this nonsense by pointing out the unseen cost: the money spent on the new window could have been used for something else - perhaps a new pair of shoes. Instead of creating new value, we’ve merely replaced what was lost. It’s like celebrating a flat tire because it “supports” the tire repair industry. Hazlitt’s takeaway: destruction doesn’t create wealth; it squanders resources. So, the next time someone extols the “economic benefits” of rebuilding after a hurricane or a riot, feel free to remind them that their logic is as sound as a screen door on a submarine.
Not Free, But Taxpayer-Funded: Ah, public works! The bread and circuses of modern governance. Hazlitt addresses the perennial myth that government spending on infrastructure - roads, bridges, statues of politicians with dubious legacies - is a magic wand for economic growth.
But wait, you ask, aren’t those things good? Sure, they can be. The problem, Hazlitt reminds us, is that taxes fund such projects. And taxes, lest we forget, take money out of the pockets of individuals and businesses. What could those people have done with that money? We’ll never know because the government has already spent it on a bridge to nowhere. Hazlitt’s biting critique should be required reading for anyone who still believes in the economic tooth fairy.
Luddites of the World, Unite! Ever since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, there’s been a persistent fear that machines will destroy jobs. Hazlitt gleefully trashes this notion, pointing out that technological progress doesn’t eliminate jobs; it reallocates them. Machines increase productivity, lower costs, and free up human labor for other pursuits - like writing snarky economic reviews. It’s a shame Barack Obama didn’t read this book. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have bemoaned how ATMs took the jobs of bank tellers. (They didn’t; see here.)
The real “curse” of machinery isn’t job destruction; it exposes the economic illiteracy of those who cry wolf every time a new technology emerges. Remember when computers were going to put us all out of work? Funny how that turned out.
The Donald Should Read About Tariffs: Hazlitt’s takedown of tariffs is a masterclass in economic wit. Hazlitt argues tariffs are a tax on consumers disguised as “protection” for domestic industries. Yes, they shield those businesses from foreign competition. But they shield them at the expense of everyone else. Higher prices, reduced choices, and economic inefficiency are the actual costs of protectionism. So, the next time someone suggests that tariffs are a “win” for the economy, remind them that taxing your citizens to prop up uncompetitive industries is about as bright as burning your house down to keep warm.
Inflation: The Illusion of Prosperity: Hazlitt’s chapter on inflation is remarkably prescient in today’s economic climate. He explains inflation is a stealthy way for governments to rob their citizens, not a sign of prosperity. It’s a tax that a central bank unethically levies, not a legislature. Inflation erodes the value of savings, distorts investment, and wreaks havoc on the economy. And yet, inflation is often sold to the public as a necessary evil or even a good thing. Hazlitt’s advice? Don’t buy it. Inflation benefits debtors (read: governments) at the expense of savers and wage earners. It’s the economic equivalent of a shell game, and you’re the sucker being fleeced.
Profit: Capitalism’s Dirty Word: Perhaps one of Hazlitt’s most important lessons is his defense of profits. In an era where “profit” is often treated as a four-letter word, Hazlitt reminds us that profits are essential for economic progress. They signal where resources should be allocated, incentivize innovation, and reward risk-taking. Destroy profits, and you destroy the engine of growth. It’s a message that should resonate with anyone who’s ever complained about greedy corporations while simultaneously complaining about them by posting on X from their iPhones while wolfing down avocado toast and an egg nog latte.
Why You Should Read This Book (Again): Hazlitt’s "Economics in One Lesson" is a survival guide for navigating the economic nonsense that permeates modern discourse. So, the next time someone tells you that we need more government spending, higher tariffs, or artificially low interest rates, do yourself a favor: hand them a copy of "Economics in One Lesson" and watch as their arguments crumble faster than a house caught in a tornado’s path.
Wrap Up: Hazlitt’s "Economics in One Lesson" is a welcome relief in a world celebrating economic illiteracy. It reminds us that good economics is about understanding the unseen, the long-term, and the big picture. So, grab a copy, pour yourself a stiff drink, and prepare to see the world - and its economic absurdities - in a new light. Just be warned: once you’ve read Hazlitt, you’ll never be able to watch the news without yelling at your TV."
Freely download "Economics In One Lesson", by Henry Hazlitt, here:
"Americans Are Borrowing to Survive"
"Americans Are Borrowing to Survive"
by Martin Armstrong
"Americans are increasingly financing the basic necessities of life because their paychecks are no longer stretching far enough. Buy-now-pay-later financing has exploded into a $160 billion industry, according to research cited by the Associated Press, with the use of short-term pay-in-four loans increasing nearly 80% since 2023. What began as a convenient way to purchase electronics or clothing is now being used for groceries, transportation, household bills, and even rent. We have reached the point where people are borrowing against their next paycheck to purchase things they need to survive today.
The Federal Reserve’s latest household survey found that 16% of American adults used buy-now-pay-later services in 2025, compared with only 10% in 2021. Among households earning between $25,000 and $49,999, the participation rate reached 23%, compared with 12% among those earning $100,000 or more. The Fed also found that 30% of users identified affordability as the single most important reason for using installment financing. Another 20% reported using these services for groceries or food delivery. Think about what those numbers are telling us. Millions of Americans are dividing relatively small purchases into installments because paying the entire amount upfront would place too much pressure on their finances.
The situation becomes even more alarming when examining repayment problems. The Fed found that 26% of buy-now-pay-later users made at least one late payment during 2025. Among users earning less than $25,000, that figure reached 40%, while 33% of those earning between $25,000 and $49,999 fell behind. Compare that with only 11% of users earning $100,000 or more. These are enormous differences that demonstrate how lower-income consumers are increasingly struggling to manage even short-term obligations. Of those who paid late, 64% reported being charged additional fees. The people least able to absorb another expense are often the very people being penalized for falling behind.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau uncovered another troubling pattern. Its study of 2022 borrowing found that approximately 63% of buy-now-pay-later borrowers had multiple simultaneous installment loans, while 33% borrowed from more than one provider. The average borrower originated 9.5 loans during the year, and roughly one in five borrowers took out more than one loan per month on average. This is how relatively small obligations accumulate into a serious financial burden. A consumer may believe that four payments of $25 are manageable, but what happens when that person has ten separate payment schedules running simultaneously? The money has already been committed before the next paycheck even arrives.
The Federal Reserve’s October 2026 Survey of Consumer Finances reveals that this financial deterioration extends far beyond installment purchases. The share of American families reporting that they were behind on loan payments increased from approximately 12% in 2022 to nearly 20% in 2025. Families devoting more than 40% of their income to debt payments increased from 6.5% to 8.6%, the highest share since 2013. The median debt-payment-to-income ratio climbed to 15.4%, while the overall debt-to-income ratio reached 94.9%.
The Fed reported that real median family income increased 7% between 2022 and 2025, reaching $82,200, yet median net worth increased only 2% after adjusting for inflation. The bottom quarter of households experienced a staggering 50% decline in net worth, while the wealthiest households continued benefiting from appreciating financial assets. Among families holding stocks, median stock holdings increased 36% to $77,400. This is why the stock market can continue making new highs while millions of people struggle to pay their bills. The financial press looks at rising asset prices and declares prosperity, but a family with no meaningful investments receives absolutely no benefit from that rally.
We must also understand what inflation has done to the average household since 2020. Prices surged during the pandemic, and those increases were NEVER reversed. The politicians continue discussing inflation as though a decline in the annual rate somehow restores purchasing power. It does not. A family that was spending $1,000 on necessities before the pandemic may now need approximately $1,300 to purchase a comparable basket of goods and services, depending on the items involved. Another 3% or 4% inflation increase comes on top of that already elevated expense.
The latest retail sales figures provide another example of how misleading the economic statistics have become. September retail sales increased 0.8%, but gasoline station sales surged 7.1% as energy prices rose. The retail sales control group used in GDP calculations increased only 0.1%, below expectations. Retail sales are reported in nominal dollars, meaning that higher prices can inflate the sales figures without consumers purchasing additional goods. When gasoline becomes more expensive, Americans still have to drive to work. The government records higher spending, but the consumer has less disposable income available for everything else. This is hardly evidence of improving living standards.
Bank of America Institute reported this week that nearly one in five households using buy-now-pay-later financing had repayments exceeding $500. Its analysts did not characterize the overall trend as an immediate crisis, but the growing reliance on installment financing deserves attention when combined with weakening labor conditions and rising household delinquencies. A person who uses credit strategically to avoid interest is in a very different position from someone who must finance groceries because there is insufficient money in the checking account.
We are developing two entirely different consumer economies. Those with substantial assets, investment income, and mortgages locked in at 3% can continue spending while benefiting from rising markets. Those dependent upon wages face higher rents, expensive vehicle financing, mounting insurance premiums, and increasingly difficult choices about ordinary household expenses. The latest Federal Reserve data show that nearly one in five families have fallen behind on loan payments, while the use of installment financing continues expanding. These people are not purchasing luxury yachts or speculating in the stock market. Many are simply attempting to maintain a standard of living that their income no longer supports.
The financial industry has discovered how to divide an unaffordable purchase into four manageable-looking payments, but it has not solved the underlying problem. Every installment is a claim against future income, and when enough of those claims accumulate, the household loses the flexibility to absorb even a minor emergency. Americans are being encouraged to finance the present with money they have not yet earned, while Washington continues spending money it must borrow. The numbers reveal an economy where financial pressure is building beneath the surface, and the people experiencing that pressure are increasingly the ones who can least afford another setback."
"All the Colors of the Revolution"
Click image for larger size.
"All the Colors of the Revolution"
by Dan Denning
Laramie, Wyoming - "Gross. We’re talking about gross things today. Gross interest, specifically. And we’re going to deal with an objection we get from readers about government spending and a gross misunderstanding of its supposed benefits. This week’s first research item is inspired by the year-end Monthly Statement of the Treasury that came out this week. We already knew the total deficit for the government’s fiscal year was just under $2 trillion. But there were two devilish details in the report worth mentioning.
First, since the TV is full of awful election ads, the chart above should remind you that America is already a welfare state. Fully 60% of total federal spending of $7.4 trillion, or $4.46 trillion to be exact, comes from Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and unemployment and disability payments.
Democrats want to extend some of those benefits to everyone–including anyone in the country illegally. Republicans probably disagree, but don’t do a really good job of saying so (and the worst argue for some kind of ‘amnesty’ or ‘path to citizenship’ which might then at least put some workers on payrolls paying FICA).
‘Morons,’ to quote from The Princess Bride. If you include ‘Net Interest’ in the spending calculation, the totals leap to $5.51 trillion and 75% respectively. So once the interest on the national credit card is included, three quarters of every Federal dollar goes to just a handful of programs. And that’s not even the worst of it.
Buried in the pages of the monthly report is the ‘gross interest’ figure. This includes interest paid on bonds held by Federal agencies or authorities. It is not part of the ‘net’ calculation for that reason. But the ‘gross interest’ figure is $1.35 trillion, or 47% of all the money generated from income taxes in 2026 ($2.84 trillion).
Half your tax dollar is being spent on money already borrowed and already spent. Even though the 10-year US Treasury yield fell on the week, it still closed above 5% today. And this buried little nugget of debt finance, like a tumor in the liver, is the reason the Primary Trend for bond prices is down (and up for yields). Is there NO silver lining to this?
Well, some readers write in to us from time to time, complaining that when we gripe about the size of government spending and its fake contribution to GDP, we fail to note that the spending is going somewhere…ending up in someone’s pocket…and in some sense…contributes to the ‘general welfare,’ or at least the specific prosperity of the firepower industry, the banks, or the politicians, bureaucrats, and fraudsters who are paid to dole out or receive taxpayer money.
It’s an interest expense for the government. But it’s income for someone, somewhere, right? A pithy response would be ‘whatever.’ The government produces nothing of value and can only spend what it takes from someone else.
A more considered response is that you have to look beyond what is seen to see what’s missing. We owe this insight to Frederic Bastiat and, later, Henry Hazlitt. All the money the government spends comes from taxpayers. That’s money that isn’t saved, invested, or spent based on the preferences and wants of individuals and households. It gets collectivized. And the things that people would have invested in, created, or purchased never happen. That’s what’s unseen.
Borrowing money to spend, rather than paying for it out of taxes, only hides its negative effects. If the money is borrowed, it still has to be paid back later by taxpayers or their children. Or paid for in the way of high inflation. That’s the government’s plan now. And that’s a problem for us.
The core of the problem is the modern mindset of thinking you know how to spend other people’s money better than they do…and not having enough self-knowledge (or historical knowledge) to realize that government spending tends to subsidize failure and raise prices for services (education, health insurance, accounting). You’d have to be a moron or a communist not to understand this, yet still support it.
As Milton Friedman pointed out, when you’re spending somebody else’s money on someone else, you don’t care about the cost or the quality of the goods or services. Think of when you spend your own money on yourself. You care about both.
Friedman understood that even well-meaning people in government end up being wasteful and unproductive losers when it comes to spending other people’s money on other people. Friedman once said the only executive Departments worth keeping, and required by the Constitution for the Federal government to do its job – were the Department of State, Department of the Treasury, Department of War, and the Justice Department.
You could throw everything else in the garbage bin. If there was work that needed to be done, let the private sector do it. If there are discretionary services certain States wish to provide, let them pay for it. No collective burden sharing for regional or local priorities. Decentralization of government, more of which shortly. But a bit more on accounting for the real cost of debt, this time in the private sector and via a chart.
This is Robert Shiller’s cyclically adjusted price earnings ratio (CAPE) already making a new all-time high…IF you include the real interest cost of debt held off the balance sheet of S&P 500 companies in special purpose vehicles (SPVs). New research from New Constructs reckons there is around $230 billion in interest expense that is un-accounted for in the reported earnings of S&P 500 companies. So what?
Well, that amounts to about a 9% reduction in the earnings of S&P 500 companies, assuming the calculation for the ‘real’ interest expense is correct. Price is the numerator in a P/E ratio. Earnings are the denominator. Ratios being ratios, reducing earnings by $230 billion increases the ratio. Et voila…you get CAPE now going past the previous 1999 high at the peak of the dot.com bubble.
If you’re a long-time reader, you already know this. The only real question, then, is if it means we’re any closer to a sell-off in the entire market, or in just the AI hyperscalers. That’s where the market’s best performance has come from since 2022. And that’s where most of the off-balance sheet debt (and interest expense) currently lives."
P.S. What color would you like your American coup? Picking up on last week’s note about the history of propaganda and psychological warfare used by American agencies against the American people @DataRepublican on X published leaked recordings from a webcall that reveal a strategy to provoke a constitutional crisis prior to the 2028 election.
Headed by ex-USAID officials and former and current intelligence officers and Pentagon officials, the plan is to use ‘useful idiots’ like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) to cause violence, rioting, property damage and chaos in certain major American cities. The aim is to provoke President Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and quell the dissent with the military or National Guard. Then, local officials (including prominent and sympathetic mayors and governors) would declare the Federal action illegitimate and call for major constitutional reforms while annulling Federal authority.
Don’t get me wrong. I tend to support things that result in a smaller and less powerful central government. But the move here isn’t to make the government less powerful. It’s to replace democratically elected representatives with a permanent unelected elitist cabal. These are the same people who’ve been destabilizing and invading foreign countries for decades, leaving them in shambles and their people in misery. Now, in the name of ‘democracy,’ they have a plan to set the American people straight. Just great.
Those in charge reckon you only need 3.5% of the population engaged in non-violent resistance/civil disobedience or active insurrection to engineer a change in the control of major institutions, at which point you can re-write the rules (admit several new states to the Union, pack the Supreme Court, and send all who disagree to jail or to re-education camps). What do you think? Worst case scenario? Or highly likely? How are you preparing? More on this next week."
"Millions of Americans Stopped Eating Out - Now Restaurants Are Shutting Down"
Full screen recommended.
The History Minute and America's Checkout,
"Millions of Americans Stopped Eating Out -
Now Restaurants Are Shutting Down"
"Millions of Americans are starting to rethink eating out as restaurant prices continue to rise while portions, quality, and overall value don't always keep up. In this reaction and commentary video, we look at social-media clips showing what customers are experiencing from a $73 grocery receipt and a working woman relying on a food bank, to restaurant bills filled with unexpected charges for ice, napkins, patio seating, live music, and kitchen fees. We also look at restaurant closures, changing customer habits, expensive meals that disappoint, $18 burgers, $13 salads, and the growing argument that cooking at home can make more financial sense than eating out. These individual experiences do not represent every American or every restaurant. Prices, service, food quality, and customer experiences can vary significantly by location and business. Would you still eat out if your favorite restaurant became this expensive? Or have you started cooking at home instead?"
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Adventures With Danno, "Amazing Prices At Aldi"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 10/23/26
"Amazing Prices At Aldi"
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"Snyder Reports, 10/23/26"
Full screen recommended.
Snyder Reports, 10/23/26
"Americans Warned: Things Get Worse
Before They Get Better - Here's The Real Timeline"
Moments ago the data confirmed it: U.S. consumer sentiment just slipped to a five-month low on inflation - and multiple economists are now saying what's coming is worse, not better. In today's update I break down the five things hitting your wallet at once, what happens right after the November 3rd midterms, and why experts don't see a real recovery until the third quarter of 2027."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Snyder Reports, 10/23/26
"Economic Warning:
The Iran Conflict Is About to Get Worse"
"The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations told the Financial Times the war with Iran could last another year, and even a ceasefire wouldn't undo the damage to prices. In this video I break down the AAA national average ($4.29 today, up from $3.07 a year ago), why President Trump is signaling a strike after the midterms, and the threat almost nobody is covering: Iran's reported plans to cut Gulf undersea cables - and what that would do to your internet, your overseas payments, and your fuel bill. Then I rank the risks from lower to highest, and show you the one that hits every single American consumer."
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"You Need to Be on Guard - Your Money, Your Food, Your Safety"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 10/23/26
"You Need to Be on Guard -
Your Money, Your Food, Your Safety"
"I'm filming in beautiful Corona del Mar, California, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, but the stories we're talking about today are a serious reminder that we all need to be on guard. From reports of hackers disrupting supermarket refrigeration systems in France to the 911 outage in Riverside County, California, we have to ask important questions about our security, our infrastructure, and our ability to protect ourselves when essential systems fail. We also look at growing concerns about AI agents accessing bank accounts, cybersecurity, protecting your personal information, and why you should take steps now to safeguard your money and your family."
Comments here:
"How It Really Is"
”Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies – or else? The chain reaction of evil – hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
”I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”
- James Baldwin
"Riots in the Streets, Repression in the Markets: Europe's Collapse Enters Its Next Phase"
"Riots in the Streets, Repression in the Markets:
Europe's Collapse Enters Its Next Phase"
by Chris MacIntosh
"Every empire dies the same way: slowly, then all at once, and always while its institutions insist all is well. Rome’s senators kept debating procedure while the granaries emptied. The British aristocracy kept dressing for dinner while the Raj slipped away. And today, European finance ministers keep issuing communiqués about "resilience" and "strategic autonomy" while the economies supporting these parasites fail in real time.
The math is simple. Debt-service costs now compete with defense and healthcare for the marginal euro and pound. Energy costs have made whole industries uncompetitive against Asia and North America… and that was before the chaos now being unleashed across the energy sector, from Russia through the Middle East. Demographics guarantee the tax base keeps shrinking just as the liabilities keep growing. And the pointy shoes have responded to all three by borrowing more, regulating more and pretending it’s a communication problem.
We’ve written plenty about the West-to-East capital rotation and the sovereign debt spiral in the US, Japan, Germany and France. Europe is further down that road than most, and Britain is running the experiment furthest and fastest of all. Most of Western Europe runs structural deficits it has no political mechanism to close, which incidentally is why they’re going to war.
France hasn’t balanced a budget in half a century and is now fighting over pension reform its own street can veto. Italy carries debt north of 130% of GDP into a demographic profile that guarantees the ratio gets worse. Germany, the supposed fiscal hawk, has binned its debt brake in all but name to fund rearmament and industrial subsidies it can’t pay for any other way… so war is the answer.
Sure, we told you all this years ago, but now it’s happening, and it’s showing up exactly where you’d expect: the term premium on long-dated Bunds and gilts, the widening spread between core and periphery paper, and foreign central banks increasingly reluctant to hold the stuff at all.
When your marginal buyer becomes your own central bank, you’ve just moved the problem onto a balance sheet that has to print to close the gap. From here it’s financial repression, same as every over-indebted sovereign since the invention of paper money. Push real yields negative, force domestic institutions (pension funds, insurers, banks via capital rules) to hold the debt whatever it returns, and inflate the liabilities away while telling the public the money illusion is prosperity.
Germany is the big one. For 70 years the German export machine made the rest of the European project solvent-adjacent. Cheap Russian gas, cheap Chinese demand, and an undervalued currency (courtesy of sharing one with Greece) let German manufacturers run surpluses that financed everyone else’s deficits. All three legs of that stool are gone. Energy costs several multiples of what US or Gulf competitors pay. The Chinese have moved up the value chain and now compete head-on in autos, machine tools and chemicals instead of buying German kit.
You can see it in the closures: chemical plants idled or relocated, automakers cutting shifts and moving capacity to the US and China, energy-intensive industry leaving for good instead of waiting for a cheaper grid that isn’t coming. Europe priced itself out the moment it decided to kill reliable baseload power faster than it could build the replacement. And once the capital, the supply chains, and the skilled workers leave, they don’t come back on a four-year political cycle. A Germany without its industrial surplus is simply a much bigger version of the fiscal problem the rest of the eurozone already has.
Then there’s the liability side that can’t be voted away, because every European welfare state was built on a population pyramid that no longer exists. EU fertility has sat well below the 2.1 replacement rate for a generation (closer to 1.4 to 1.5 across most of the core, lower still in parts of the south and east). And that only compounds. Fewer workers paying in, more retirees drawing out, and a state that raises the retirement age by increments too small to matter and taxes by increments too large to ignore.
Immigration was the policy answer. It’s partly offset the raw numbers and created a second, harder problem: large-scale, low-integration migration is now one of the defining political fractures on the continent - the Netherlands, Germany, France.
A welfare state designed around a homogeneous, high-participation workforce doesn’t translate to a different demographic mix without much higher growth or much lower benefits per head. Europe has produced neither, so the gap gets papered over with more debt. Add pensions that are mostly unfunded pay-as-you-go promises, and you’ve got a continent that has already spent money it doesn’t have and increasingly can’t generate.
Speaking of which… Britain. If Europe is a slow puncture, the UK decided to test how fast the tire could deflate. Every problem above - an ageing population, a shrinking industrial base, some of the highest electricity prices in the developed world - plus a stack of self-inflicted wounds all its own. Gilt yields have spent years telling the political class something it refuses to hear: the market no longer gives Britain the benefit of the doubt.
Debt-to-GDP is above 100% for the first time since the early 1960s, and this time there’s no post-war growth boom coming to grow it away. The Bank of England is trying to fight inflation while managing a debt-service bill that rises every time it does its job.
The North Sea, once Britain’s fiscal cushion, is a declining, heavily taxed basin. Deindustrialization is running the same way as in Germany, but with a smaller, less diversified economy to absorb it. The NHS eats an ever-larger share of a shrinking budget and delivers less for the marginal pound than it did a decade ago. Net migration is running at levels that would have been a political earthquake 20 years ago and now barely lasts a news cycle. And because a growing population with flat per-capita output shows up as growth in the headline number, the stagnation everyone actually lives with never makes the statistics.
Sterling’s reserve-adjacent status is the last asset Britain has left to spend, and it’s been drawn on heavily. A currency crisis in a G7 nation was supposed to be unthinkable. The 2022 gilt crisis should have ended that idea for good. It was a preview.
Now, read these two together, because they landed in the same news cycle and neither makes sense without the other. First, UK Chief of the Defense Staff Richard Knighton, on the record: Russia is a threat to Britain and "our sons and daughters must be ready to fight." More dangerous, he said, than at any point in his career.
Second, within hours: the Express, the Daily Star, the Mirror and Yorkshire Live, each running a near-identical story on what happens to a Briton who refuses conscription, each citing "severe" penalties, each hung on a former NATO commander’s warning that the Middle East conflict could spiral into global war. Multiple news desks ran the same story, the same angle, and the same word - "severe" - on the same day. Coincidence? Yeah, right.
This is what coordinated messaging looks like when a state needs a population to accept, in advance, an outcome it has never been asked to vote on but which has already been decided. A credible official raises the threat level. A compliant press runs the penalties-for-refusal angle before the policy even exists. The public gets used to conscription as thinkable, then plausible, then expected, without a single vote cast. Programming the peasants. Conscription is the logical next tool for a state that has run out of easier ones.
We’ve just been through why Britain and its neighbors can’t fund their promises through growth or taxes, and are turning to financial repression to close the gap on capital. Conscription is the same logic applied to labor: when a state can’t buy what it needs at a price the public will tolerate, it compels it. Historically, monetary repression and conscription turn up together, because they come from the same place - a state that has exhausted its ordinary means."
"Gladness and Silence Amid Chaos and Violence"
"Gladness and Silence Amid Chaos and Violence"
By Doug “Uncola” Lynn
"The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart - and through all human hearts." - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, "The Gulag Archipelago", 1918–1956
"Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits by many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. The name written on her forehead was a mystery: Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes, and of the abominations of the earth."
- Revelation 17:1-5
"I had been emotionally involved a few times with women with enough of a record of promiscuity to make me vaguely uneasy. It is difficult to put much value on something the lady has distributed all too generously. I have the feeling there is some mysterious quota, which varies with each woman. And whether she gives herself or sells herself, once she reaches her own number, once X pairs of hungry hands have been clamped rightly upon her rounded undersides, she suffers a sea change wherein her juices alter from honey to acid, her eyes change to glass, her heart becomes a stone, and her mouth a windy cave from whence, with each moisturous gasping, comes a tiny stink of death."
- MacDonald, John D., “Darker Than Amber”
Excerpt: "We live in an age of wizards and whores where souls are sold in the pursuit of material pleasures. Time-honored principles have been traded for profit and power as lawlessness intensifies. The word “mystery” is defined as “something not understood or beyond understanding” or, in a religious sense: “truth that one can know only by revelation and cannot fully understand”. This would imply more than simply not knowing. A mystery can be that which exceeds human understanding.
There is a saying I’ve heard over and over in my life that has… for the most part… been stated by older men with whom I’ve been related and/or acquainted: “The older I get, the less I know”. I can’t recall ever hearing a woman make that statement; perhaps because they know it all already (wink, wink). But, seriously, I speculate that assertion is made by men more often than women, because, when younger, we males tended to consider ourselves as invincible. However, over time, the experience of life engenders humility.
In my youth, I never would have predicted a doomsday scenario where vaccines would be used to simultaneously kill and maim the sheep while rendering the shepherds powerless or, worse, turning them into wolves. The wolves are devouring the weakest of the herd, and they now gather for a final feast. They won’t be bargained with, because they have forfeited their very souls. There is nothing left within them to petition or persuade. Their eyes have turned to glass, their hearts have become stone, and they breathe death. They lurk in the shadows of “good intentions”, “following orders”, and plausible deniability and they are magically controlled by wizards that are safely ensconced high above the pack, out of reach; and behind armed security.
My 81-year-old mother-in-law suffered a stroke after Thanksgiving and my life has been hectic since. Like so many people I know, the wizard’s fearful spell caused her to trust Fauci, the experts, and Trump before she received two Moderna shots. She failed to heed the warnings of my wife and me and… within weeks of her second shot... my wife took her mom to the emergency room on two separate occasions for nosebleeds that wouldn’t stop. I would guess the shots caused her stroke but she had a stroke prior, in 2019. The first one diminished her vocabulary along with moderate memory loss but both afflictions appeared to accelerate after being vaccinated against Covid. Or, maybe it was merely the result of old age. How can one know for sure? I suspect the ever-generated spike protein aggravates and augments the negative consequences of pre-existing conditions, but I can’t prove anything. She remains in skilled care.
My mother-in-law’s mother lived well into her nineties and refused to leave her farm in her dotage. My mother-in-law inherited the same farmwife stubbornness… I mean… independent spirit yet she may not be able to live on her farm, even with abundant family and medical assistance. I always thought my mother-in-law would be an asset during the apocalypse. She has her allegorical “black belt” in all of the old ways: Canning, sewing, gardening, cooking, baking, etc. Although my wife acquired these as well, she is minus the extra decades of experience as a daily practitioner.
Growing old and failing physically can serve as a metaphor for a dying society: Just as aging organs revolt against the body via malfunction and decay, so does civilization descend into decadence and degeneration until the center no longer holds. Moreover, when systems break down, individual autonomy is lost as those in authority prioritize safety over liberty.
Just as my mother-in-law has lost autonomy as her physical body fails, so, too, will once-free people lose their liberty as civilization collapses into Central Bank Digital Currency, digital identity, the WHO Global Pandemic Treaty, and the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 mandates – all for the well-being of humanity, of course. At this point, progress unfolds as a result of math; same as civilizations past. Although I understand the inevitabilities, it’s hard to know exactly what may happen next and when. The older I get, the less I know."
Full, most highly recommended article is here:
Hat tip to The Burning Platform for this material.
o
Freely download "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich"
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, here:
Freely download "The Gulag Archipelago"
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, here:
"Time To Heel – Or Fight"
"Time To Heel – Or Fight"
by Jim Quinn
"In Part 1 of this article I discussed how our country has devolved from Huxley’s Brave New World of distraction and irrelevancy into Orwell’s world of Big Brother surveillance and Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago. Now I will make the case for joining the fight against the Great Reset. As more than half the country sleep-walks into the clutches of Marxism and tyranny, they fail to heed the wisdom of those who experienced the cruelty, oppression, and degradation after a similar revolution in the last century.
“A revolution never brings prosperity to a nation, but benefits only a few shameless opportunists, while to the country as a whole it heralds countless deaths, widespread impoverishment, and, in the gravest cases, a long-lasting degeneration of the people.”
– Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Dangerous Chuck Schumer: "Now we take Georgia then we change the world!" – Shore News Network. Schumer’s slip of the tongue about changing the world and then putting on his mask (to push the masks work narrative) and declaring he will change the country when they win the two Georgia Senate seats reveals the global nature of this ongoing coup attempt by the global elites and the Deep State. I was highly suspicious of the engineered hysteria for this China flu back in March when I wrote "P for Pandemic" and stand by my conclusions reached then:
“As this incomprehensible national shutdown extended into April, tens of thousands of small businesses were forced to close their doors for good. Local restaurants, hair salons, delis, hardware stores, and thousands of other small businesses were involuntarily shuttered for good. The national chains collected their government largess, produce PR campaigns to pat themselves on the back, and absconded with the profits of the now deceased small businesses. The corporate fascists became ever more powerful. Why were we letting this happen?”
I’m infuriated every time I see an Applebees, Wal-Mart, or Amazon commercial touting their bravery and fortitude during these troubled times. These mega-corporations, with powerful lobbying departments and unlimited financial resources, have reaped tremendous profits and seen their stock prices soar to all-time highs, while hundreds of thousands of small restaurants and retailers have closed for good. Somewhere between one-third and one-half of all small businesses in America have closed or will close permanently.
The bullshit slogan “We are all in this together” has been beaten to death by the propaganda media, while our wealthy elite overlords work remotely in their multi-million-dollar mansions, doing their daily Peleton workouts, sending their kids to expensive private schools and dining on white truffles and caviar at the French Laundry for $1,200. We are not in this together.
It’s us and THEM. You know who THEY are. The millions of formerly middle class and poor are lining up at foodbanks because authoritarian governors like Newsom, Cuomo, Whitmer, Murphy, and Wolf have shut down small businesses without any science to back up their dictatorial actions, while allowing Wal-Mart, Costco, Lowes, and other favored companies to remain open. Political donations appreciated.
As the months of idiotic government tyranny gotworse, I couldn’t help but experience an Inspector Finch moment while pondering the confluence of events surrounding this pandemic/plandemic/scamdemic. “I felt like I could see everything that happened, and everything that is going to happen. It was like a perfect pattern, laid out in front of me. And I realized we’re all part of it, and all trapped by it.” – Finch – "V for Vendetta"
The purposeful destruction of the US and EU economies through unnecessary, unwarranted and un-Constitutional lockdowns of citizens and small businesses; mandatory masking for a virus that can easily penetrate a mask, with a survival rate of 99.5% for those under 70 years old; using the virus to steal a presidential election though mail-in ballot fraud, social media manipulation, and Dominion software vote switching; and now the rollout of a vaccine that was supposedly 95% effective, when the regular flu vaccine is only 40% effective after decades of study, and no one has a clue regarding any long-term consequences of the vaccine, is all part of the plan.
We also know the drug companies have legal immunity from whatever terrible side effects might arise. Whenever confronted with a confusing sequence of events and baffling governmental measures, it is always a safe bet to just follow the money. Leftist ideology is only a means for evildoers to justify the destruction of our society.
“Ideology - that is what gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
If you drive 50% of small businesses into insolvency, all those sales and profits must gravitate to the connected mega-corporations, as we have already seen. They then payoff politicians to enforce regulations and mandates to keep the profits flowing and small businesses from competing. By stealing the presidential election and accomplishing the same result in the Georgia Senate races, the Marxist loving global elite will change the world.
By packing the Supreme Court with four leftists, abolishing the filibuster rule and making Washington DC and Puerto Rico states, the coup will be complete. America as we know it will cease to exist and those not connected to the oligarchs will sink into impoverishment and slave-hood status. The oligarchs will reap the riches, while they retain control through an iron fist and sophisticated technological surveillance.
The “miraculous” Gates/Fauci Covid vaccine, which was being marketed by the MSM talking heads, became mandatory to work, travel, shop, or enter sports venues. Big Pharma was already reaping billions in profits, while being shielded from liability when it goes wrong – as designed. By acquiescing to the demands of these evil totalitarians we are sentencing future generations to a digital gulag – with the threat of a real gulag for dissenters.
“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand-fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
"Big Brother is home. He is installed in the item you just dragged home from the Apple store.” ― Julian Assange
Even though all “scientific” studies, prior to the pandemic, by the CDC, WHO, prestigious universities, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the published Danish mask study all concluded masks do not protect anyone from viruses, our totalitarian overlords saw the opportunity to impose their will upon the masses as a test to see how far they could go before meeting resistance.
Fauci, the Surgeon General, and the head of the CDC weren’t lying when they all told the public, masks didn’t protect them. They lied since then. The scientific proof can be easily observed by looking at a chart of cases in states with mandatory masking. The cases skyrocketed (due to the purposely faulty PCR test) despite mask mandates and lockdowns. I guess the manufacturers of these masks were telling the truth.
The masks have not been about health, they’ve been about control and conditioning the population for further restrictions of liberties and rights – in the name of safety and security. Knowing the ignorance and lack of critical thinking skills of at least half the population, those in control of the pandemic narrative are weaponizing that ignorance to invoke fear and loathing among the pliable populace.
By dehumanizing us as nothing more than germ carrying super spreaders, their plan was to drastically reduce interaction by like minded people who might resist and create suspicion and distrust among neighbors and families. And it worked beyond their wildest expectations, as a nation of Karens were on the lookout, reporting non-compliance to the authorities. Big Brother now wears a mask, along with recording every electronic communication you make and tracking your every movement. This isn’t Orwellian fiction. It is a modern-day version of Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago.
“Always eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or bed - no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters in your skull.” – George Orwell, "1984"
“A network of informants saturated the population. Secrecy and distrust permeated the people, so much so that any overt activity was perceived as a provocation. How many denunciations there were against one’s own close relatives or against friends who had fallen under the sword!” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Our world is descending into darkness, but it is not the Dark Winter narrative being spewed by the vacuous bimbo faux journalists on the boob tube at the behest of their corporate chieftains. The ramping up of fear using fraudulent statistics, while withholding the truth regarding the minuscule danger to healthy people under the age of 70, was essential for the global elite to successfully achieve their Great Reset, where you will own nothing and be happy.
For decades they have been slowly chipping away at the foundations of our society: family, faith, personal responsibility, honesty, hard work, community standards, good will towards your fellow man, the freedom to make your own choices, and adherence to agreed upon societal rules. Today we have drag queen story hour at the library for five year olds, Epstein and his cadre of rich celebrity elites practicing pedophilia, and men pretending to be women as health experts and women athletes. Now they are ready for the final destruction of our foundational values.
You will eat bugs and fake meat, to preserve the planet. You will be denied fossil fuels, for the planet. You will be provided just enough digital currency to survive. You will do menial jobs and be thankful to your overlords. You will dutifully take your vaccination boosters without question or face the gulag. You will gladly agree to being chipped and electronically monitored. You will only consume government messaging and will not be allowed to contemplate contrary views.
You will no longer hide behind the safety of the U.S. Constitution, as a new world order supplants that outdated scrap of parchment. They want billions of obedient automatons with the same face and thoughts, adhering to their mandates and proclamations. Once these Marxists seize power of our government, they will never relinquish it. This battle is for all the marbles. If we lose, we will be subjugated and punished. Orwell understood the mindset of totalitarians.
“We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.” – George Orwell, "1984"
It is time to fight. Not time to heel. The enemy and their tactics have been laid bare to all who choose to acknowledge reality and realize a battle for the soul of our civilization is underway. Being trapped in a normalcy bias bubble is not a viable strategy. You can’t sit out a Fourth Turning. This Fourth Turning has followed the expected path, as the initial financial crisis has now entered the violent upheaval stage, where the future of our country hangs in the balance.
Trump’s team exhausted all legal means to reverse this travesty of an election. The Deep State is powerful and ingrained at all levels of the government bureaucracy. Hoping for the cavalry to arrive in the nick of time to save the day is naïve and dangerous wishful thinking. The future will be determined by individual acts of bravery and courage. Setting an example for others by courageously speaking the truth and standing up to those intent on enslaving us through lies, in their Great Reset dystopian future, is how this war will be won.
If you think we have time to fight at a future date, you are badly mistaken. As we have seen during the four-year attempted coup against a non-cooperative president and this stolen election, these Marxist globalists will resort to anything to prevail. And once they gain complete control, they will not relinquish their power. That is when retribution against Trump supporters will commence. If we do not take the fight to these evildoers now, we will burn in the camps later. Heel or fight. The time has arrived.
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation… We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
"Parsing the Telescreen, Slouching into the Gulag"
"Parsing the Telescreen, Slouching into the Gulag"
by Fred Reed
"Sez I, we are barreling into a world of mixed unreality and invited surveillance, not quite noticed but at warp speed. The unreality? We can now do politicians in video software and make them convincingly say things more reprehensible then they would themselves. The surveillance creeps in like a barely noticed smell. It creeps and will creep. Consider:
Several years ago Vi and I bought a sixty-five inch LG screen that we use for watching YouTube and Netflix. It has search-by-voice. Thus by pressing a button on the remote to wake it up, we can say, “Tianjian automated Chinese seaport,” and it will find the relevant sites on the web. Of course we have no way of knowing whether it is listening the rest of the time. Since it is convenient, we are not important, and we don’t say anything criminal or probably even very interesting, we use it.
The screen also has control-by-gesture. It doesn’t work very well, and I would feel like an idiot waving my arms and gesturing at a television, so I have never learned it. However, we have no way of knowing whether and when it is watching us. Just in case, we confine human sacrifice and orgiastic sex with farm animals to the garage so, if it is watching, we will be boring.
We also have two Alexa boxes, one in the kitchen and one in my office. These are marvels. The speakers aren’t bad for the price and Alexa is good at providing on voice command any music ever written. This is very nice indeed, though I suspect that most of us are so used to such things as not to notice how nice they are. Violeta uses this greatly while cooking.
Alexa’s hearing is eerie. If Vi says, “Alexa, play Lohengrin” while in the kitchen, often Alexa’s sister in my office will respond as well. The the kitchen and the office are in rooms separated by two plate-glass walls and a long hall with a right angle. This is astonishing acuity. Since Alexa in my office will sometimes get the music wrong, the two aren’t communicating electronically. Again, we find the convenience more appealing that the surveillance threatening. Besides, no one would bother listening to us, unless of course we were writing unflattering columns about that unevolved truculence in the White House.
I am writing this in my-office using text-to-speech software. Every time Alexa hears her name, she asks what I want.
I have just read that there is a video game called 'Call of Duty', which apparently millions of the young use to lower their IQs and avoid doing anything useful as they struggle with each other electronically. The parent company, Activision, is now incorporating AI software that listens to the martial shouts of remote and disembodied warriors to check for inappropriate language. This of course includes anything racial, uninclusive, offensive, triggering, sexist, and so on. This is said in today’s awkward English to have as purpose the improving of the gaming experience and the protection of women, though it probably means girls.
Saith the article, one in ten of distaff gamers has been driven to “suicidal thoughts” by insults during her hours as an online Boadicea. This is interesting. In the age of the 'Pride and Prejudice' sort of novel, women were always fainting on any provocation and dashing for the swooning couch, and they had to carry umbrellas in sunny weather so as not to damage their delicate skins. This strikes me as fraud as in my appalling number of years on the planet I have never seen a woman faint or even look as if she were considering it. They were too busy running marathons and scuba diving and wearing bikinis at high noon, to the great betterment of mankind.
But now it seems that they will take poison if insulted by tiresome twerps while killing enemy soldiers online – instead of saying, for example, “Grow up.” It appears that we are going to have moral uplift as pretext for surveillance of conversation. This electro-linguistic mommyism can easily be extended to high school bathrooms, locker rooms, or indeed any place thought proper to be monitored for acceptable values by government, which is to anywhere at all. There is no technical reason why it can’t be extended to Alexa boxes. We should be grateful that we don’t live in a surveillance state like China.
OK, AI and language. Computers today can understand spoken language, or at least come close enough to be dangerous. For example, if I say to my iPhone, “Hey Siri, in Spanish how do you say “If I had more money, I would buy myself a bright red Corvette,” she gets it exactly right, subjunctive, reflexive, conditional. That’s not mechanical replacement. A lot of syntax lives in that short sentence. People with time on their hands can argue about whether machines are conscious and whether they “really understand,” but if what they do is indistinguishable from understanding, that’s close enough for jazz.
That’s not quite understanding because the translation software probably couldn’t answer the question, “What would Fred do if he had the money?” But you can have a real conversation with Chat GPT. Which is real understanding.
If I mistake not, this means that Alexa boxes can, or shortly will be able to, monitor what people are talking about wherever it is practical to put a microphone, which is pretty much everywhere. We are now used to ubiquitous cameras. We pay no attention to them. We would – will? – quickly get used to microphones in public places, and are already comfortable with cameras and microphones in our homes (the Alexa boxes) and in our pockets, iPhones. Any device activated by voice command must be listening for that command, and thus potentially everything we say. Where, if anywhere, other conversation goes is an open question..
If I may throw in a somewhat-related thought, of course all of our credit-card transactions, bank dealings, and their times and places, and phone records, are recorded, this thought harmless because only commercial entities, not the government, have access to them. Read Ed Snowden’s book, 'Permanent Record.' The social media know more about us than we know about ourselves. To all of which, government has access. If you believe otherwise, you should have a second lobotomy. Onward and upward."
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