So, we rise from the rubble...
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Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Free Download: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, "The Little Prince"
Free Download:
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, "The Little Prince"
by Kirstie Pursey
“‘The Little Prince’, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, is a children’s story with some very profound meanings and some quotes that will really make you think. I have to admit that I never read the ‘Little Prince’ as a child. I think I wouldn’t have known what to make of it if I did. Even reading it as an adult I didn’t know what to make of it!
However, it is clear that “The Little Prince” touches on some very deep themes about the nature of life, love, friendship and more. The following Little Prince quotes show just how many philosophical themes are discussed in this small, but profound work.
The story tells of a pilot who crashes into the Sahara desert. He is attempting to fix his damaged plane when a little boy appears as if from nowhere and demands that he draws him a sheep. Thus begins a strange, enigmatic friendship that is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. The Little Prince, it turns out, comes from a small asteroid where he is the only living being apart from a rather demanding rose bush. The Little Prince decides to leave his home and visit other planets to find knowledge. The story tells of these encounters with rulers of strange worlds and de Saint-Exupéry has opportunities to demonstrate some philosophical themes that will make readers think.
On earth, as well as meeting the pilot, The Little Price meets a Fox and Snake. The fox helps him to truly understand the rose and the snake offers him a way to return to his home planet. But his return journey comes at a high price. The book’s bittersweet ending is both thought-provoking and emotional. I would definitely recommend that you read “The Little Prince” if you haven’t already.
It is one of the most beautiful and profound children’s books there are. If you have older children, then you might like to read it with them as it can be a little overwhelming for them to read alone. In the meantime, here are some of the best and most thought-provoking Little Prince quotes:
• “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
• “A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.”
• “All grown-ups were once children… but only a few of them remember it.”
• “Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.”
• “Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.”
• “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.”
• “It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom.”
• “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”
• “I am who I am and I have the need to be.”
• “No one is ever satisfied where he is.”
• “One day, I watched the sun setting forty-four times……You know…when one is so terribly sad, one loves sunsets.”
• “People where you live, the little prince said, grow five thousand roses in one garden… Yet they don’t find what they’re looking for… And yet what they’re looking for could be found in a single rose.”
• “But the conceited man did not hear him. Conceited people never hear anything but praise.”
• “What matters most are the simple pleasures so abundant that we can all enjoy them…Happiness doesn’t lie in the objects we gather around us. To find it, all we need to do is open our eyes.”
• “Where are the people?” resumed the Little Prince at last. “It’s a little lonely in the desert…” “It is lonely when you’re among people, too,” said the snake.”
• “What makes the desert beautiful,’ said the Little Prince, ‘is that somewhere it hides a well…”
• “For me, you are only a little boy just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you have no need of me, either. For you, I’m only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, we’ll need each other. You’ll be the only boy in the world for me and I’ll be the only fox in the world for you.”
• “To forget a friend is sad. Not everyone has had a friend.”
• “Only the children know what they are looking for.”
• “Sometimes, there is no harm in putting off a piece of work until another day.”
• “I should have judged her according to her actions, not her words.”
• “Nevertheless he is the only one of them all who does not seem to me ridiculous. Perhaps that is because he is thinking of something else besides himself.”
• “The one thing I love in life is to sleep.”
• “The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them.”
• “And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me.”
Closing thoughts: I hope you have enjoyed these ‘Little Prince’ quotes. Admittedly, they are sometimes difficult to fathom at first. However, like many things in life, the more you think about them, the more they begin to make sense. This is not an easy book to read and the bittersweet ending may leave you feeling a little heartbroken. However, the book offers so many insights into the human condition that it is well worth the time spent thinking about the philosophical ideas contained between the covers.”
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Freely download “The Little Prince”, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, here:
"Winter Is Coming"
"Winter Is Coming"
by John Wilder
"The last few years have seen more change than the last twenty years, combined. This is to be expected, especially if you give Strauss and Howe’s "The Fourth Turning" idea any credence. A short version of The Fourth Turning (also known as Kondratieff Wave Theory) is that there is a roughly 80-year cycle of human affairs. Let me use the life of my Dad, Pa Wilder, to describe it:
When Pa Wilder was young he spent most of his childhood in Winter, the first defining experience of his life was the Great Depression. Back then, they had printed versions of the Internet that they would get delivered to their house every day, called newspapers. They also had cell phones that never needed charging, and that you could never lose because they were in the living room and conveniently connected by a cord to the wall.
I’m sure all of the kids on the playground talked with Pa about how obvious it was that the Federal Reserve’s® monetary policy, combined with bankers lending to anyone with a pulse led to near financial collapse. Oh, and how their parents couldn’t afford shoes. Thankfully, Pa lived in a farming community, and every little house in town had a very large garden out back. Food from the grocery store?
Why would you spend money on food when you had to pay for the mortgage? That’s the sort of lesson that bored itself into Pa Wilder’s mind. As a kid, he saw people lose houses, he saw people lose fortunes. He saw a nation nearing collapse.
Click image for larger size.
Economic collapse led to the second thing that defined Pa Wilder’s youth: World War II. Not long after Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor he was in boot camp in Ft. Sill and before long was a 2nd lieutenant in the Army. The next four years he spent on an all-expenses-paid European vacation
The end of the war was the end of Kondratieff Winter. What followed was Spring. In post-war United States, growth and unrivaled prosperity followed from 1945-1965. Pa Wilder, like the rest of the G.I. generation, came back and built families and factories and farms. They looked out at a world that was shattered, and they made fortunes rebuilding it. They even found Dean Martin’s favorite eel. Don’t remember that? It’s a moray.
Spring was characterized by extreme faith in government institutions – sure the government had fumbled the ball in the Great Depression, but it had unified the country for World War II. It stayed back enough to allow growth, and Eisenhower’s America got out of North Korea and planted the seeds for the Super Science® projects that would provide unmatched weapons systems and the seeds of space exploration.
Spring gives over to Summer. Around 1965, the spiritual awakening was followed in 1975 by the “Me” decade. In Summer, the economy is humming along, the weather is great, and the first questioning of the previous ideas that led to the success of the country begins. It’s probably no coincidence that the disastrous Immigration Act of 1965, the arguably unconstitutional Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Lyndon Johnson’s voter-plantation Great Society acts (1964 and 1965) took place at the start of Summer when Americans were questioning their values, questioning the things that made America great.
Pa Wilder was an established businessman, working as the president of a very conservative farm bank. You could get a loan, but only if you had collateral and a good income stream. Pa Wilder told more people “no” than “yes” for loans. That bothered him, with the exception of the fact that he told me, “I’ve never had to foreclose on a house, son.” To him, it was a moral duty. Thankfully Pa never served in the paratroopers, otherwise, they would have called him “debt from above.”
In society, however, the big splits had started in 1965. The subversion of colleges started and would be nearly complete by the 1980s. Religious decline started, and Nixon got tired of hiding the fiscal shenanigans of the country that gold was exposing. His solution? Get rid of gold.
But Summer was still a good time. Autumn, however, is harvest. Pa Wilder was pretty close to retirement at this point, and the real economic power had moved to the Boomers. Pa’s natural fiscal conservatism led to a strong and stable business. The people that took over from him, however, would “give a loan to anyone with a pickup and a backhoe.” They even loaned out money on haunted houses, places they were sure were going to be repossessed.
Inertia is important in an economic system. But in 1985 the financial systems of the United States began to be harvested. “Greed is good” became the motto, and systems were run entirely for near-term economic benefit. Everyone from Pa Wilder’s generation was dead or retired – the new people in charge had no living memory of the national crisis brought on by The Great Depression.
The end of Autumn is the first chill of Winter, and the end result was the Great Recession (right on time!) in 2007-2008. In the Winter, things fall apart. I’ve been really quite amazed that things have held together so well since that first cold snap. Obama was, well, a disappointment. Trump seemed (in many ways) overwhelmed by the system and couldn’t figure out how to move the levers of power in any significant and lasting ways – which makes sense on a failing system.
That was the starter’s gun on the crisis, the date Winter began. We should have been a long way through it by now, but this Winter is different: The United States had a uniquely dominant position at the start of Winter, having both complete military dominance as well as a strong economic dominance of the world. The Federal Reserve© decided to just print all the money that it could to spend its way into continued prosperity.
Sure, sometimes government wants to stop a crisis so that the citizens can have a stable country. Sometimes. But other times, governments are waiting for the crisis, looking forward to it. Planning on it. In one article titled Sometimes the world needs a crisis: Turning challenges into opportunities, the Brookings Institute lists the things they love about crises. I admit that some of them are positive, but here are a few that I think are a bit more ominous – these descriptions are directly from Brookings:
Systemic Change: Global crises that crush existing orders and overturn long-held norms, especially extended, large-scale wars, can pave the way for new systems, structures, and values to emerge and take hold. Without such devastation to existing systems and practices, leaders and populations are generally resistant to major changes and to giving up some of their sovereignty to new organizations or rules.
Dramatic Policy Shifts: Sometimes the fear generated from a crisis and corresponding public outcry enables and even forces leaders to make bold and often difficult policy moves, even in countries not involved in or affected by the crisis.
COVID-19 was the big crisis they were waiting for. As the economic systems unwinded under the unsustainable debt the ‘Rona was the perfect opportunity. Imagine the tapestry of that you see was planned. What end was being sought? Well, they told us already. Systemic Change. Changes to virtually every system in the United States. Want to have a nice, neat, prosperous, and orderly community? Too bad. That’s not a thing that’s going to happen. The police will be neutered. How badly will communities suffer? Here’s how bad it was:
● Leftist controlled Chicago: arrests/stops were down 53 percent, murders are up 65 percent.
●Leftist controlled New York City: arrests/stops were down 38 percent, murders are up 58 percent.
●Leftist controlled Louisville: arrests/stops were down 35 percent, murders are up 87 (not a typo) percent.
●Leftist controlled Minneapolis: arrests/stops were down 42 percent, murders are up 64 percent.
●Leftist controlled Los Angeles: arrests/stops were down 33 percent, murders are up 51 percent.
● Leftist controlled St. Louis: in 2020, the murder rate hit “a 50-year high, with 87 out of every 100,000 residents being murdered.”
When there is murder and mayhem there is control. This is their plan. This is the crisis. Remove police – replace with ideological commissars that aren’t bound by law. Now, if they see a “crime” that they feel is wrong, they can punish it however they see fit. Most commonly, this will just be by removing the protection of the law and letting the mob do the rest. The biggest crimes? The crimes against the Left. That’s just the first of the planned Systemic Changes. There are more planned.
● Universal basic income.
● Boards to approve hiring at private companies.
● Equity everywhere.
●More rules than you can imagine. All of them will be based on some fear – guns in rural areas will be restricted because people in the city can’t stop killing each other.
● Climate change lunacy: to meet climate goals, Americans would be restricted to four pounds (344 milliliters) of meat a year. This will be walked back.
● And your ideas: they probably won’t be as bad as the real plans.
To be clear: Winter is here. The Left has an endless list of Leftist goals to accomplish during the crisis to come. The Winter will be dark. Where are our goals? The Right cannot just have the goals of “what the Left wants, but less,” or, “the opposite of what those guys want."After that? Organization. And leadership. And longjohns. Winter is here."
"How It Really Is"
And yet, despite it all, despite knowing better, we still hope...
“What happens to people living in a society where everyone in power is lying, stealing, cheating and killing, and in our hearts we all know this, but the consequences of facing all these lies are so monstrous, we keep on hoping that maybe the corporate government administration and media are on the level with us this time. Americans remind me of survivors of domestic abuse. This is always the hope that this is the very, very, very last time one’s ribs get re-broken again.”
- Inga Muscio
"A Time of Unimaginable Sorrow is Upon Us"
"A Time of Unimaginable Sorrow is Upon Us"
by Mike K.
"It was a nice cool sunny morning with some blue birds soaking up the sun, all in a row on the high wire. It took some time to figure out what happened. There were a few low rumbles, they seemed to be coming from north of here. We live on a farm out in the wooded hills of southern Missouri, and north would be up towards St Louis. Soon as the booming sounds started the power went off. At first, I didn’t pay much attention, but with all the military stirrings going on in the world these days, you just don’t know what to expect.
I went inside the house, but with the power off there’s no internet, so no way to find out what’s going on. At least until the power comes back on, or until I get the generator started up. More distant thunderous booms that echo now less like thunder and more like tremendous explosions – and I’m starting to get worried. My kids are at work and the grandkids are in school. I swear I‘m seeing sparks and smoke coming from under the hood of my car, but it’s not running. Now the power line where those bluebirds were singing looks like it’s getting really hot and smoke is coming from the bucket transformer on the poles. Wow! The transformer just blew up sending a shower of sparks and molten metal flying all around the pole! I can hear blasts all over the countryside from more pole transformers exploding. All the fences are sparking and smoking. The woods around the power lines and transformers are starting to go up in extremely violent flames. And the cars are now on fire – all of them! Even the old broken-down ones out in people’s pastures. Our emergency generators are smoking – I’ve got to get them away from the houses before they burn up.
Now I’ve got an idea of what’s happening, because I’ve heard of what an EMP event could do to electrical circuits. Electromagnetic Pulse. That’s what happens when a nuclear weapon explodes. The only other thing I can think of that would do this is a coronal mass ejection from a solar flare. It happened back in 1859 and it was named the Carrington Event. Fortunately, the world did not have much electrical infrastructure back then, just telegraphs, and the induced currents caused the wires to catch fire – sort of like what’s happening to the power lines out here right now. I don’t think it’s a solar event either, because the warmongers in Washington have been beating the nuclear drums for a while, and I’ve been afraid the Russians were going to get spooked and do a first strike. I guess this is it.
A big problem for those of us who might survive a while because we live in areas that aren’t targets is that we lose all sources of information. We don’t have any way of knowing what’s happening. Don’t know if it’s a first strike or a retaliatory strike. Does Washington DC even exist anymore, or is it just a huge radioactive smoking crater? Are those beautiful, magnificient buildings of the Kremlin still standing?
How many of our big cities are destroyed? I remember seeing pictures of the devastation that was Nagasaki and Hiroshima when that monster Truman murdered all those Japanese civilians, and thinking that those bombs were tiny compared to what the psychopaths have in their arsenals today – the Russians have bombs that could literally flatten New York City and/or Houston. I cannot, nor can anyone else, begin to fathom the destruction of a 10 or 20 megaton thermonuclear weapon could wreak on a major city.
Lights go off and then nothing. No TV; no internet. No football – the treasury department that writes all the government checks is gone. Fear-crazed citizens make runs on WalMarts and grocery stores and take everything they can. No one tries to stop them; the store employees are in a panic to get home. Problem is, with no operable vehicles, the only things people can take are what they can carry by hand. Everyone has to walk, even the police are stranded out on the highways. All troopers, city cops, and sheriff deputies are trying desperately to get home to their loved ones. No cops on duty anymore. No traffic moving anymore. Just lots of people running, screaming, hoping they can just get home, and that there still is a home.
Fires are blazing everywhere from the powerlines and transformers exploding. All electrical substations in the country are smoldering and blazing chaos. Forest fires are rampant and out of control all over the nation and there are no operable fire trucks. No firefighting planes or helicopters are available to fight the fires. Houses hundreds of miles away from the many ground zeros are burning both from the unchecked wildfires, and from EMP induced electrical shorts in home wiring. Almost every building in every town is on fire with no way to put them out. And these towns are far away from the targeted places where the bombs actually hit.
This is truly a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, the like of which has never been witnessed in all of human history. There will never be electricity in this country again. Let that sink in. Freezers will thaw out and food will ruin. Untold thousands of people will perish, starting with those vaporized, then those being burned up in their homes, and there are no fire departments available to help anyone. No hospitals; doctors and nurses are gone, understandably abandoning useless smoldering medical facilities. No industry, no UPS deliveries, no more dog food for the pups. If your house didn’t burn to the ground, at least you may (for a while) have a (dark) shelter from the elements.
Huge blasts of radioactive winds blow hundreds of miles from the explosions, of which there have been many. The first wave was intended to take out the military establishment. No way of knowing, but there’s no reason to believe that anything remains of the Pentagon, DC or Langley, Norfolk, San Diego, Chicago, Houston, or any of the coastal cities where there are refineries. All cities with military infrastructure of any kind will be destroyed. The joke that has been for years a missile defense system has been exposed. The sick joke that a nuclear war could be “winnable” has also been exposed. The numbers of people succumbing to radiation sickness is beyond belief. There will be no schools, no stores, no food, and no government services; no disaster relief will be forthcoming. All banks will have ceased to function, so even if there is any money left, it won’t be worth anything. The bankers never were.
If you take medications to stay alive, you’d best have a good supply, because there won’t be any more. All livestock will either be dead from radiation, burned to a crisp in the fires, or promptly slaughtered by starving survivors, and it doesn’t matter to whom they belonged. Same with property. People will no longer obey private property signs, they will go anywhere they think there might be resources, food, water, at the risk of their lives, which aren’t worth much right now anyway. There will be no law!
Every military ship on and under the ocean, with the likely exception of a few submarines, will be sunk. All of the nuclear-powered ships will go to the bottom with reactors likely damaged, spewing radioactive contamination. Like dozens, maybe hundreds, of Fukushimas. Even the reactors that aren’t damaged will undergo meltdowns with no controls. The bible says that something will kill all of the fishes in the oceans, maybe this is how that happens.
The USSR detonated a bomb of around 50-megaton yield back in 1961. It was called the Tsar Bomba. The weapon had a 100-megaton capacity, but for safety they modified the yield. Awe inspiring is just too mild of a description of what that looked like. Since the bomb was so powerful, they calculated that the plane that dropped it had only a 50 percent chance of surviving – that is even after the plane released the weapon several thousand feet up in the air with a parachute to slow it down while the plane flew away from the scene at full speed. It did almost destroy the plane – they said the blast wave overtook the plane some 45 miles from the explosion and it lost over a kilometer of altitude before the pilot, Andrey Durnovtsev, could regain control and keep it from crashing. That thing made a mushroom cloud 37, yes 37 miles, (60 km) high! An uninhabited village, Severny, 34 miles (55 km) from ground zero was obliterated, and buildings 100 miles away were damaged! The blast would have caused third degree burns 62 miles (100 km) from the explosion. I would expect if they still have these in their arsenal, they would use one on Cheyenne Mountain. It would probably take out Denver and Amarillo, TX and certainly everything in between. Instantly vaporized. What are our “leaders” thinking?
It sounds crazy, but if this happens, I want to be at one of the ground zeros. As bad as being vaporized sounds, it would be infinitely better than surviving into the nightmarish existence that would ensue. There will be marauding gangs of survivors, undoubtedly armed, in various stages of hunger, disease, emaciation, and injury. It will probably be a situation where anyone you encounter will be apt to kill you. For one thing, they won’t know whether you are out to kill them too, or maybe you have something they want/need to survive. A can of tuna or a bowl of beans might cost your life.
The landscape will be nightmarish. Imagine a few days or weeks after the event. There will be burned out stumps on land that was beautiful forest, now riddled with stagnant pools of black muddy radioactive slime, full of human and animal bones, charred flesh, and entrails. Few buildings will exist intact, and many will perish fighting over them. There will be no light at night. Light would attract unwanted guests. No music. No one will have any idea what’s going on. There may be a few survivors in places like subway tunnels, abandoned train cars, or in remote wilderness areas, but such people will have resorted to the basest of behavior, including cannibalism, in short order. Imagine! Human beings who once inhabited a civilized nation and lived decent lives will have to worry about being killed and eaten by other human beings! Zombie apocalypse, just with regular people, not zombies, although with burns and wounds, hair falling out and all out of sorts with radiation poisoning, they probably will look the part.
I have heard people talking like they plan to survive and stay healthy by hunting and foraging. Well, if a nuclear winter follows a nuclear apocalypse, foraging is going to be slim pickings. And the deer won’t last long if they manage to survive the bombs, radiation, and fires, there’ll probably only be a few very unhealthy specimens left, but if a gunshot rings out, I’m pretty sure it will attract whatever starving people hear it, so there might be more to deal with than just dressing a deer.
Bedraggled survivors will wander in shock around former cities in hopes of disaster relief which will never come. Desperate people will offer anything – gold, jewelry, ammunition, their own bodies, for sustenance. Helpless parents will watch in horror as their children starve, hoping against hope that they will awaken from this nightmare, but when this all comes down, it’ll be too late for them.
And we still won’t know what happened. Who decided that a nuclear war would be a good idea? Who “won” the war? Did any of our leaders survive to sign a surrender, and to whom? Or did Russia or China surrender? Will there be hordes of soldiers from some faraway land invading our country after the radiation dies down?
And what of the wealthy folk who built the magnificent bunkers filled with the necessities of life in which to wait out the nuclear winter? Do they actually believe they will emerge into a second garden of Eden complete with succulent fruit trees and minstrels singing their praises? First of all, the bible speaks of a great earthquake, such as has not occurred since people have been on earth, so I think a big part of those individuals will be entombed in those lavish bunkers. So maybe a few do survive, and after some months, maybe a few years tucked away, they stumble blindly onto the surface, a hardly recognizable landscape littered with human skulls, burned out cars and buildings, and destroyed terrain. When they went into the holes, they were wealthy, but after what has transpired, of the few commoners left, no one will be interested in their gold – and those old bank accounts? Well the digital age has completely and utterly vanished, and all those millions or billions they had on their ledgers is now squat.
Even by this time, there will undoubtedly still be a few scroungy survivors, but instead of the fawning proles these rich folks were used to in the old world, those survivors will undoubtedly have a taste for some well-fed and plump upper crust brisket, so thanks for preserving some. It won’t help their situation any when they discover that some of the survivors actually know they caused, or at least played a part in causing the disaster. The scenario described does not take into account the likelihood that hapless survivors will undoubtedly spend their time searching for air vents to the bunkers in which to pour gasoline or whatever else they can find to upset living conditions in said refuges down below. Any who survive this carnage will be on a mission and will not easily be placated!
Who knows what the final outcome will be. How many millions, or hundreds of millions of people will be counted among the slain? When this calamity happens, it will obviously involve the deaths of millions. This destruction, I believe is prophesied as the destruction of the modern Babylon in Revelation 18, and most people I’ve heard seem to think (as I do) that the place named as Babylon is the United States, and it is utterly destroyed in the space of one hour, by fire! Completely devastated to the point that (verse 22) “the music of harpists and musicians, pipers and trumpeters, will never be heard in you again,” and “no worker of any trade will ever be found in you again,” this decadent place will cease to be! According to scripture, it’s not a bad thing that this evil place is destroyed. “Rejoice over her, you heavens! Rejoice, you people of God! Rejoice apostles and prophets! For God has judged her with the judgement she imposed on you.” Time will tell, but I’m afraid we don’t have much."
o
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought,
but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
- Albert Einstein
"Trump May Use Israel to Launch a Nuclear Strike on Iran"
Daniel Davis/Deep Dive, 9/22/26
Col. Doug Macgregor,
"Trump May Use Israel to Launch a Nuclear Strike on Iran"
Comments here:
o
Daniel Davis/Deep Dive, 9/22/26
Col. Doug Macgregor,
"The Next Phase of Both Wars Much Harder to Contain"
Comments here:
"France Is Running Out Of Fuel"
by Michael Snyder, 9/22/26
'It has begun. Hundreds of gas stations all over France are reporting that they are out of at least one type of fuel, and there are quite a few nations in Asia that are now imposing very strict measures in order to conserve energy. I have no idea why this isn’t making more news here in the United States. Maybe the big news outlets don’t think that there is any way that this could ever happen here. Or maybe there is a coordinated effort to keep the public calm. I don’t know. But without a doubt, this is a very big deal.
I knew that Europe was facing a severe energy crunch, but I didn’t realize that things had gotten so bad already. It is being reported that 16 percent of all gas stations in France are out of at least one type of fuel… Official French pump data on Monday showed that 16 percent of stations are short of at least one main fuel, diesel or petrol. That was slightly better than Sunday evening (17 percent) but worse than Friday (13 percent). About 9,900 stations are in the count, according to prix-carburants.gouv.fr. Shortages were worst this morning in Pays de la Loire (20 percent); Grand Est (19 percent); Île-de-France, Centre-Val de Loire, and Normandy (18 percent); Nouvelle-Aquitaine (17 percent); and Brittany, Hauts-de-France, and Occitanie (16 percent).
We aren’t just talking about a few isolated cases. We are talking about hundreds upon hundreds of French gas stations that are experiencing outages. This is serious. If you can actually find fuel in France, prices are absolutely outrageous. The average price of a liter of diesel in France is up to €2.406, which is approximately $10.45 a gallon. Europe is facing its worst energy crisis in history, and there is no end in sight.
In fact, Saudi Arabia has told Europe that there will be no shipments of oil for them for the entire month of October…The trigger this week was a drone strike on Sept. 10 that closed Saudi Arabia’s East West pipeline, the line carrying crude from the eastern oil fields to Yanbu on the Red Sea without touching Hormuz. Aramco has now told European refining customers they will receive no crude at all in October under long-term contracts, reported Bloomberg. The decision applies to every European buyer. What this means is that the shortages that we are witnessing in Europe right now are likely to get even worse.
Meanwhile, several countries in Asia have been forced to institute fuel rationing. In Pakistan, many types of businesses are being forced to close early in order to save energy…From September 17, shops and malls across Pakistan must close by 09:00 PM, wedding halls by 10:00 PM, and restaurants by 11:00 PM. This Cabinet Division order runs for the next three months. Moreover, government vehicles lose 50% of their fuel allocation, with security fleets exempt. The government banned new vehicle purchases and official foreign travel, and ordered a 5% cut to non-employee spending for fiscal 2026-27.
In Bangladesh, almost all businesses must now shut down by 8 o’clock at the latest… Shops, markets, and shopping centres must shut by 8 PM, an hour earlier than before, and lit billboards go dark from 7 PM. Only hospitals, pharmacies, food shops, and emergency services are exempt. Industry is taking the same hit. Garment factories, the country’s main source of foreign currency, face rationing and temporary closures, and one Gazipur plant reported four or five power cuts a day.
In Indonesia, there are now extremely strict rules about when citizens are allowed to fill up their vehicles…By September 11, queues at Makassar pumps ran as long as one kilometer. Ride-hailing drivers described three-hour waits and called it the worst shortage they had ever seen. South Sulawesi’s answer was rationing by decree on September 12. Cars can only refuel on days matching their plate number, private vehicles must show a fuel gauge below one bar, and trucks and buses may fill up only between 06:00 PM and 04:00 AM. I always felt like Asia was going to get hit harder than anyone else because they are so dependent on oil from the Middle East.
In Nepal, an extremely serious shortage of cooking gas has created a major national crisis Bottling plants in the Kathmandu Valley were delivering just 5% of the 35,000 to 40,000 cylinders the capital needs each day, the Federation of Nepal Gas Distributors told the Kathmandu Post. Some households have gone a month without a refill. Restaurants say they are close to shutting down, and the Kathmandu Post now describes residents cutting back on food. Nepal imports every litre of fuel through India, so it sits at the end of a supply chain that is itself under strain.
We desperately need the war in the Middle East to end. But instead, fighting could escalate at any moment. On Sunday, I discussed many of the signs that a major escalation could soon happen. Well, it turns out that President Trump actually ordered a huge wave of airstrikes but they were called off at the last minute… Trump had ordered strikes against the Houthis to begin around 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Sunday, but the military was notified shortly after 2 p.m. on Sunday that the order was canceled, the two U.S. officials said.
Sometimes I feel like I am riding a roller coaster. You just never know when there is going to be another change of heart. We are being told that fighter jets had been loaded up with munitions and were all ready to depart when the attack was suddenly canceled… After days of shifting positions in the office of U.S. President Donald Trump, and despite his latest conversation with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the president called off a series of planned airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen at the last minute. According to The New York Times, citing senior U.S. officials, munitions had already been loaded onto fighter jets that were ready for takeoff when Trump announced the change in plans.
Of course the pendulum could swing back in the direction of more conflict tomorrow. In an address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, President Trump warned that he could “annihilate the Islamic Republic” by driving them “into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations”…President Donald Trump told the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday that he has a “big decision” to make when it comes to the war against Iran.
“Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before? Maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world. Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again?” Trump said.
“Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations? But I believe we’ll make a deal right after the election, because it doesn’t make sense for them not to,” Trump continued. “They’re waiting to see how I do in the midterm election. What they don’t realize is that I’m not running. I did that already and won in a landslide.”
That is extremely strong language. On the other side, the Iranians are warning that they are prepared to use “new weapons with new capabilities” if the U.S. attacks again… Iran warned Monday it would use “new weapons with new capabilities” if the U.S. launched a fresh assault after President Donald Trump ramped up the rhetoric against Tehran over the weekend. “If a new aggression takes place, we will definitely change the weapons and geography of the war,” Hossein Mohebbi, a spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Monday, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency. Mohebbi did not provide details on what the new weapons were or which new locations could be hit. Is Iran bluffing, or do they actually have some “new weapons” that they are prepared to unleash? I suppose that time will tell.
For now, the flow of oil out of the Middle East continues to be way below normal levels, and the global energy crisis just continues to intensify. On Tuesday, the average price of a gallon of diesel in the United States hit another new record high…
Click image for larger size.
It is hard to believe that the average price of a gallon of diesel in the United States is now up to $6.52. A year ago, it was just $3.68. Most of our trucks, most of our trains and most of our tractors run on diesel. So just about everything you buy at the store is about to get significantly more expensive.
The global energy crisis has entered a very painful chapter. I don’t see any way that we are going to avoid a major economic downturn. Our entire standard of living depends on cheap energy, but energy is no longer cheap. The changes that are ahead are going to be excruciating, and the world is simply not ready for what is about to happen next."
Dan, I Allegedly, "The Warnings are Coming True"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 9/22/26
"The Warnings are Coming True"
"The warnings are coming true, and the economic pressure is spreading. Rising diesel prices, refinery disruptions, major automotive layoffs, falling electric vehicle values, restaurant closures, and concerns about professional qualifications are raising serious questions about America's economy. Dan at iAllegedly breaks down the latest business news, financial warnings, and what these developments could mean for your wallet, your job, and your future. From energy prices and food transportation to Volkswagen and Porsche layoffs, Wendy's and Domino's closures, gold investing, and the challenges facing consumers and businesses, this episode covers the stories you need to know. Subscribe to iAllegedly for business news you can use, personal finance insights, economic commentary, and a candid look at what's really happening in America."
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"Snyder Reports, 9/22/26"
Full screen recommended.
Snyder Reports, 9/22/26
"She Couldn't Buy Gas To Get To Work -
Credit Crisis Is Here"
"She had $80 in available credit. The gas station wanted a $200 hold. Card declined - and she couldn't get to work. Credit card companies are slashing limits from $10,000 down to $4,000-$6,000, and banks are rejecting applicants for too much debt and not enough income. In this video we break down the growing credit card debt crisis, why gas prices rising is making it worse, and why so many Americans say they're no longer thriving - just surviving. From skipped car maintenance and blown tires at 70 mph, to canceled health insurance, no dentist in years, and unaffordable bloodwork - it starts small with gas, then spirals fast. What changes are YOU seeing in your area?"
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"‘Survival Mode’ – Farmers Crushed As Trump’s War On Iran Sends Diesel Cost Soaring"
"‘Survival Mode’ – Farmers Crushed As Trump’s War On Iran Sends Diesel Cost Soaring"
by Tyler Durden
"As Donald Trump's war on Iran nears the seven-month mark, the economic damage is reverberating all over the world, and all across the United States. Among the Americans who are feeling the most pain from a war their federal legislators never declared are the nation's farmers, who are growing increasingly desperate under the weight of rising costs for diesel, fertilizer and equipment.
It's a demographic that leans hard to the right, but now feels let down by Trump and others in Washington. "It's his war that caused this, this war in Iran. We're not winning that war. And many farmers feel like we shouldn't be there," farmer John Boyd, Jr told CNN. Trump says the war in Iran is necessary to prevent the country from building a nuclear weapon. However, going back to 2007 and up to the eve of the war, the US intelligence committee has repeatedly assessed that Iran was not building one.
"I've done this 34 years. I have never worried and stressed like I have the last year," North Carolina farmer Matt Bell told CBS News. "We've cut everything we can cut." Trying every option he can think of to improve his cash flow, Bell has put off replacing equipment, produced some of his own fertilizer, and opened a pumpkin patch and hayride business for the fall. The rising costs come after a difficult period had already weakened his operation's financial security. "We're just getting to the point now there's nothing left to cut," farmer Matt Bell told CBS News
"The last several years in agriculture have been terrible, and we have just cut the fat anywhere we could. But we're just getting to the point now there's nothing left to cut. You cannot run without fuel. You cannot run without fertilizer. You have to have that," Bell said.
As a result of a major reduction in oil exports from the Persian Gulf, the nationwide average cost for a gallon of diesel hit $6.49 this week, up 75% from a year ago, according to the AAA. Lately, the price volatility has led Bell's diesel distributors to offer price quotations that are only good for a matter of hours. He'd budgeted $35,000 for fuel in 2026, but blew past that number in August. "Every piece of equipment on this farm runs on diesel," he emphasized.
In an interview with Sky News, Texas cattle rancher Lynn Fleming said her August outlay for few was almost double what she'd paid in recent years. "Obviously the main [factor] is what we're facing everyday with the Iranian situation," Fleming said. Her husband, Robert, said he felt blindsided by the war. "We had no idea that he was going to pull the prank with the Strait of Hormuz. He didn't tell us ... he was going to go do the military maneuvers and try to control the oil supply over there. We had no warning of what was going to happen." A major cornerstone of Trump's 2024 campaign was his pledge to be a "peace president" who would refrain from starting any new wars.
American farmer on Trump: “We had no idea the he was going to pull the prank with the Strait of Hormuz.. and try to control the oil supply. We had no warning of what was going to happen.” pic.twitter.com/u3IE50pEqn— Molly Ploofkins (@Mollyploofkins) September 18, 2026
In addition to the war, Bell blames Trump's tariff policies for boosting the prices of many of a farmer's essentials. "Everything we're touching, the fertilizer, fuel, chemicals, seed, parts - you know, the whole nine yards, everything that we touch has gone up," he said.
Cattle ranchers say they felt undercut by Trump's decision to combat rising food prices by eliminating tariffs on imported beef -- at a time when US ranchers were already under financial duress. "I'm already absorbing your high fuel prices that came out of nowhere," South Texas rancher Josh Eilers told Sky. "It's like, c'mon guys, just help me out a little bit. I just can't keep absorbing more and more and more, or I simply won't be able to afford to do this anymore." “I’m paying $7 a gallon here for diesel fuel. My combine holds 140 gallons. That’s right at $1,000 to fill up my combine.”
For farmer John Boyd Jr., those numbers illustrate a much bigger problem in American agriculture. Farmers are paying more for the fuel, fertilizer,… pic.twitter.com/lTesmNvLHW— Farm Action (@FarmActionUS) September 16, 2026 "I do not want any American to feel sorry for the American farmer," said Bell. "I want the Americans to be mad that we have been put in this situation. We're fighting for survival and we're running out of options... I am very mad. I think there's been some very bad policy that's been made that has led things to get to where we are."
Most of the farmers and ranchers quoted in this article say they voted for Trump. Their ire over the state of affairs is surely contributing to a major nationwide dip in Republican enthusiasm going into the midterms. Robert Fleming had this to say: "I'm afraid there's going to be some changes made [in] voting. Maybe people not even voting, who knows, because a lot of the people feel like we the people are not being heard."
"Bill Bonner, Hurricano"
"Hurricano"
by Bill Bonner
Ardmore, Ireland - "Today, we talk meteorology. We are looking at three huge storms...each one with winds driven to gale force by official imbecility...each one gathering strength...and each one whipping up rain and waves into what could become a howling nightmare. What happens when they join forces?
The first one is the oil/war hurricano. It seemed easy enough at first. The US would send its thunderbolts onto Iran. Send its leaders to whatever paradise awaits them. Then, they would know they were licked, and sign whatever paper was put before them. The whole thing was to be finished before baseball season. It didn’t work out that way. Instead, it got messy.
The Iranians were so dumb; they didn’t realize they were beaten. Instead, they hit US bases and pinched off the world’s oil supply. And then, last week, the Houthis got into the act. Reuters: "Oil prices rose on Monday after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis launched missile and drone strikes at Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh on Saturday, escalating tension in the Middle East while the US and Iran remained in stalemate. Brent crude futures climbed 81 cents, or 0.78%, to $104.68 a barrel."
The rise in the price of diesel fuel is a sore spot. Commentators tell us that worse is ahead, as refining capacity has been targeted and stocks are running out. America has plenty of diesel fuel. The risk is only higher diesel prices. Those could be moderated by a presidential proclamation making it illegal to export diesel. This would be a plus for drivers in Ohio, but it would leave Europeans shivering. Cut off the diesel from the US and they are likely to conclude that the Russians aren’t so bad, after all. Diesel fuel was $3.63/gallon when Trump came into office. It’s now more than $6 a gallon. Not a good ‘optic’ for the upcoming elections, which is where the second big storm makes landfall.
In the face of rising gas prices and bungled war efforts, the electorate may be turning against the people responsible for it. In the last presidential election, Trump was able to position himself as the candidate with the fury and strength needed for change. No one really knew what changes might come...or what they might mean...including, most probably, the candidate himself. But the voters took him back for a second chance.
The Democrats had nothing going for them. Their candidate was weak. They offered only ‘more of the same,’ served with day old bread. But now it is Mr. Trump who offers leftovers. And it’s Democrats who rage against the menu. Even ‘socialists’ - who couldn’t hope to get elected class president a few years ago - are now making electoral history.
But neither party has much change to offer. Their pockets are empty. The key challenges for a declining empire are its military quagmires and its financial insolvency. Typically, it runs out of money while it engages in expensive, useless wars. Both Democrats and Republicans are committed to sticking to the script. Mr. Trump urges Republicans to make the election not about policies, but about himself. This could be a mistake. Newsweek: Donald Trump’s approval rating hits all-time low
Meanwhile, the eye of the third giant storm is centered on the Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington, with a second center of low pressure over Tokyo. CNN: Global bond markets are getting hammered. And from Japan comes this alarm: "Japan Hikes Interest Rates To Record High Levels, Yen Still Falls."
Mr. Scott Bessent says he is ‘the house’ now. And yes, he may be in the house. But he doesn’t own the house...and doesn’t ultimately decide what goes on in it.
Mr. Market does that. And after a 40-year period of falling yields (rising bond prices), Mr. Market decided that it was time for a change of his own. A real change. So, he switched it up...the bull market in bonds came to an end in July 2020. Since then, the yield on 10-year T-note - the diesel fuel of dollar finance - has gone up more than four times.
The trouble is, there is a pile of debt - maybe trillions of it - that was incurred when rates were much lower...and finds it difficult to breathe at today’s much higher elevations. It needs to be refinanced...along with as much as $3 trillion more (if Trump sends out his $5,000 payoffs to the voters.) The barometer is falling. And Bessent’s cheap plywood, nailed up crooked, in a hurry, won’t stop it."
Monday, September 21, 2026
"We Are On The Verge Of A Full Blown Collapse - Get Ready For Massive Food Shortages"
Jeremiah Babe, 9/21/26
"We Are On The Verge Of A Full Blown Collapse -
Get Ready For Massive Food Shortages"
Comments here:
"When WW3 Begins These Will Be Targets, No Nukes Needed"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 9/21/26
"When WW3 Begins These Will Be Targets,
No Nukes Needed"
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"Stock Up On Heating Fuel Now Because This Is Going To Be A Really Dark Winter"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist 9/21/26
"Stock Up On Heating Fuel Now Because
This Is Going To Be A Really Dark Winter"
"Heating a home in America has turned into a monthly gamble, and a lot of families are losing it. In this video the people living it tell it first-hand, on their own phones, in their own words - the bills, the shutoffs, the propane deliveries they cannot pay for, and what they do to get through the night. One family watches their heating bill jump from about two hundred fifty dollars to over six hundred. A Chicago mom wakes up to a freezing apartment with no heat. A renter lives through a sixth winter without heat in a forty-seven degree living room. The gas company cuts off one family's heat after demanding seven hundred dollars more. An oil company asks for an eight hundred twenty-five dollar hold before it will even deliver. A propane tank runs dry after a snowstorm, and the company locks it while the kids are home sick with fevers. One woman is staring at a twenty thousand dollar propane bill she cannot pay, and another expects half her tax refund to go to January's heat. And at the end, two households show how they got out from under it with wood. Every clip is a real person, filmed on their own phone, telling what happened in their own words. Nothing here is staged."
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"Ukraine Just Wiped Out 45% of Russia's Fuel - US Prices Explode"
Full screen recommended.
Snyder Reports, 9/21/26
"Ukraine Just Wiped Out 45% of Russia's Fuel -
US Prices Explode"
"Diesel just hit $6.51 per gallon - the highest recorded average price EVER. Gas is now $4.47 nationally and Trump is pressuring Zelensky to STOP hitting Russian refineries. Ukraine has knocked out over 45% of Russia's projected refining capacity, and even though the US doesn't buy Russian oil, YOU are footing the bill. In this video I break down why diesel prices and gas prices today are surging, how the trump Zelensky call over diesel could decide what you pay this winter, and why Michigan drivers just saw a 61-cent spike overnight while Florida hit $4.28. When diesel jumps $2.82 in one year - from $3.69 to $6.51 - everything from food to furniture to clothing to utility bills goes up because everything requires oil to produce and ship. With the midterm election coming and experts warning the end of 2026 will be worse than the start, here's what it means for you and how to prepare before early to mid-2027."
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Musical Interlude: Moby, "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad"
Full screen recommended for visual effects.
Moby, "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad"
"A Look to the Heavens"
"NGC 1333 is seen in visible light as a reflection nebula, dominated by bluish hues characteristic of starlight reflected by interstellar dust. A mere 1,000 light-years distant toward the heroic constellation Perseus, it lies at the edge of a large, star-forming molecular cloud.
This telescopic close-up spans about two full moons on the sky or just over 15 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 1333. It shows details of the dusty region along with telltale hints of contrasty red emission from Herbig-Haro objects, jets and shocked glowing gas emanating from recently formed stars. In fact, NGC 1333 contains hundreds of stars less than a million years old, most still hidden from optical telescopes by the pervasive stardust. The chaotic environment may be similar to one in which our own Sun formed over 4.5 billion years ago."
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