"This Is What Makes Your Self-respect So Important..."

“We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and - in spite of True Romance magazines - we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely - at least, not all the time - but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don’t see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.”

Hunter S. Thompson, "The Proud Highway: 

Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967

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"The 20 Greatest Hunter S. Thompson Quotes As Voted by Goodreads"

"How It Really Is"

 

"Evictions Are Spreading All Over America And Renters Are Panicking!"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 10/9/26

"Evictions Are Spreading All Over America 

And Renters Are Panicking!"

"Families are getting evicted, and it starts with a notice on the door and a few days to come up with money they don't have. In this video, renters show it from their side: a three-day eviction notice after a Category 5 hurricane shut her job for five days, five days to pay $3,000 in back rent or get out, a constable's 24-hour notice to leave with her kids, rent that jumped from $1,000 to $1,300 a month, a judge who approved an eviction over a few days late, and a mother packing a storage unit with her 13- and 10-year-old with nowhere to go. We look at how fast an eviction moves once the rent falls behind, what it costs a family to be put out, and how to cut household costs before the notice comes."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Adventures With Danno, "My Super Shopping Vlog at Meijer!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 10/9/26

"My Super Shopping Vlog at Meijer!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Snyder Reports, 10/9/26"

Full screen recommended.

Snyder Reports, 10/9/26

"Hurricane Isaias Shuts Down 63% Of Gulf Oil Production -

 Are Gas Prices About To Surge?"

"Hurricane Isaias is now 1 mph below a Category 3 and taking aim at the Gulf Coast - with 62.89% of Gulf oil production already offline. Here's what it means for your gas tank. Gas prices sit at $4.37 today, October 9th, 2026, after falling from the $5.01 high. That drop could reverse fast. Isaias has shut in 1.28 million barrels per day, 121 platforms have been evacuated, and Chevron's Pascagoula and Vertex refineries are in the path. With war in the Middle East and Russia-Ukraine still pressuring oil prices today, experts say fill up today if you can. In this video I break down past hurricanes like Katrina, Rita (10+ months of disruption), Gustav, Ike (6 months) and Ida (96% shut in), do the math on what 3, 7, 14 and 30 days offline means (up to 30M+ barrels), and lay out mild (+10-15 cents), moderate (1-2 week regional gas price surge), and severe (3-4 week shortages in the South) scenarios - plus why workers not returning could extend outages beyond repairs."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "Chevron Just Gave America A Warning"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 10/9/26

"Chevron Just Gave America A Warning"

"The economy is changing, businesses are struggling, and consumers are demanding more value. In this video, Dan looks at what successful companies are doing differently - and why having a real plan matters more than ever. From restaurant chains and changing consumer spending to business failures, bankruptcies, careers, money, health, and retirement, the same lesson keeps coming up: hoping things get better is not a strategy. This is a conversation about personal finance, business, the economy, and preparing for what comes next. Companies that adapt and execute a plan can find opportunities even in difficult times, while people and businesses without a strategy can quickly find themselves in trouble. The question is simple: What is your plan?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Martin Armstrong, "Trucking Bankruptcies"

"Trucking Bankruptcies"

by Martin Armstrong

"At least 16 trucking, delivery, and transportation companies entered bankruptcy proceedings between late August and September 21. These filings extend across general freight, construction materials, agricultural hauling, and even an Amazon delivery contractor. Some are seeking Chapter 11 protection to reorganize; others have entered Chapter 7 liquidation. We should not pretend every filing means a company has closed, but we should certainly ask why businesses moving the goods this economy depends upon are struggling to remain solvent.

Globemaster reported between $500,000 and $1 million in assets against liabilities ranging from $1 million to $10 million. Pacer Transport listed less than $50,000 in assets against $1 million to $10 million in liabilities. FreightWaves also points to rising diesel prices and elevated operating costs. A trucker cannot pay for fuel with a politician’s speech about how well the economy is doing.

I keep coming back to the distinction between spending and prosperity. A household spending more money to obtain the same necessities has not become wealthier. Neither has a business whose revenue rises while its expenses rise faster. You can move more dollars through an economy while leaving the people doing the work with less. That is why aggregate figures can look respectable while the operator sitting at his kitchen table discovers there is nothing left after paying everybody else

If customers resist higher freight charges, the carrier absorbs the pressure until there is no margin left. Borrowing may buy time, but another loan does not repair an operation that cannot consistently earn enough to meet its obligations. Eventually, the creditor wants cash.

Energy costs are part of this squeeze. Fuel must be paid for immediately, while payment for hauling a load may come later. A carrier can collect a fuel surcharge and still face a cash shortage before that money arrives. Add truck payments, insurance, maintenance, and wages, and there is very little room for error. If freight revenue cannot keep pace with those bills, running the truck may produce activity without producing a profit. That is how a business can remain busy right up to the day it goes bankrupt.

When smaller operators disappear, surviving businesses may acquire their equipment and customers. That can help restore balance in an overcrowded market, but the adjustment comes through lost businesses, damaged credit, and interrupted livelihoods. The man who spent years building a fleet does not experience this as an encouraging economic correction. He experiences it as the destruction of everything he worked for.

These bankruptcies alone do not prove the entire country is in recession. They do show why I would pay attention to the businesses carrying the goods rather than accept every reassuring national average at face value. An economy needs people willing to take risks and enough profit to justify taking them. Keep squeezing that profit and eventually the trucks, the jobs, and the tax revenue go with it. Washington can roll over its debts and congratulate itself on another spending package. The private businessman has to make payroll on Friday."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

John Wilder, "What Bikini Pictures Have To Do With The War Against You"

"What Bikini Pictures Have To Do 

With The War Against You"

by John Wilder

"Epictetus, no relation to Sydney Sweeney, had this to say several thousand years ago: “When the standards have been set, things are tested and weighed. And the work of a philosopher is just this, to examine and uphold the standards, but the work of a truly good person is in using those standards as they know them.” There are a lot of implications that flow from these two sentences.

Let’s start with the biggest one: that there are standards that can be objectively set. Throughout the mid part of the 20th Century and into the 21st, the move has been to make everything relative. There is no Truth. This is crucial, because before Evil can rebuild, it has to refute that there is something True. Philosophy, since Newton, always tried to glom on to cutting edge physics. It’s really that the philosophers, sitting around writing stuff down, brooding, and smoking pipes, were out of ideas and decided to mine science.

Newton came up with the laws of motion, and thus, Determinism! became the thought process of the philosophers. Hey, being a philosopher is a decent paying gig for those that don’t understand differential equations yet know how to make espresso, so don’t look down on them. But then along came Einstein. His physics of relativity, poorly understood by philosophers, translated perfectly to what they wanted to bring about anyway and had been fiddling with before E=mc2: moral relativity. Einstein? He just gave them the moral permission slip and a word they could misuse.

Moral relativity led to a huge crashout that’s still rippling through society today. Here’s the conversation overheard at the Lame Philosopher’s Club after someone translated Einstein into French: The first one said, “Oh, that means that races don’t exist! We’re all the same, relatively!” The next one piped up, “Yeah, and there is no God. And no one is right!” And another, “Hey, and people? They’re all the same. And they’re perfectible!” And another, “Oh, let’s try men are the same as women. Wait, whoa, this will blow your mind, how about that men can become women, or something in between!” And another, “Dude, carry it out, maybe it’s all something we made up! And, try this one out, how about all cultures are the same? I mean, to an ant they are, right?”

Truth was clearly the first thing that had to be obliterated. As a standard, it simply did not mesh with Modern Thought. What about Beauty? There is clearly an objective standard for Beauty. Babies look longer at attractive faces, and look away from ugly faces. It is not beauty, it is Beauty. Sometimes we don’t know it until we see it, like my friend, Arthur. I mean, I know Art when I see him. Yet, Art never texts back.

Clearly, you can see what has been done with Beauty, and it’s to the point where a 9.5/10 body and a 6.5 face can turn Sidney Sweeney into the next Marilyn Monroe because her competition are a bunch of chubby goblins. Seriously, Hollywood© has been trying to cast women who couldn’t get a job at a strip club for the 2pm Tuesday shift as “hot”, so popping in an 8 (average body and face) of a Sweeney becomes a sensation. Beauty, capital B, is real.

That leaves Good. Epictetus uses it in the second sentence to define what a good person is. It is one who uses the standards. Sure, it’s a bit of a tautology, and we all know that the first rule of Tautology Club is the first rule of Tautology Club, a good person is one who will say what is Good and what is Evil. And, he also drops the wiggle room, “as they know” them clause at the end.

That’s okay, because what he’s saying isn’t that the standards don’t exist, and isn’t that they’re not Real and Eternal and Unmovable. They do exist. They are Real and Unmovable. The wiggle room is because sometimes, from our vantage points, we just don’t see them all that well. The standard hasn’t changed, it never changes. Only our understanding does, because it is revealed as we gain experience with the world and understanding.

This is what we call wisdom. And most of wisdom? We gain it because we were wrong and didn’t understand that objective Truth. We didn’t understand real Beauty. Or, we didn’t see that we didn’t fully understand Good. Again, the standards haven’t changed, it’s because we’re looking at the world as through a glass, darkly.

I sometimes think that, perhaps, one of the biggest difficulties we have as mankind is this desire to search and understand the universe. They say ignorance is bliss, but the more we look, the smaller we become. I get it. Our quest for knowledge is our story. There may be an older story about an apple, a talking snake, and taking advice from women in here, but I’ll let that lie for today.

Regardless, it is clear that there is Truth. There is Beauty. And there is Good. It is our quest to understand those as clearly as we can, and to courageously stand for them, especially when others, even the whole world seems to stand against us. And, that’s okay. Because, in the end, even through valleys of lies, fields of corruption, and that plain of evil, the True, Beautiful, and Good has been standing for eternity. So, we’ve got that going for us. Oh, yeah, and the Sweeney bikini pics aren’t bad, either. Of note, the bikini pictures are not an argument, but they are, however, evidence."

https://wilderwealthywise.com/

Bill Bonner, "Funny Business"

"Funny Business"

by Bill Bonner

"Expecting voters to exonerate the party in power through a considered examination

 of the origins of the credit cycle is an overly optimistic view of human nature."

- Daniel Oliver

Ardmore, Ireland - "Last night, after supper, we saw a dim glow against the garden wall, about as bright as a dozen fireflies. We went out to investigate. And as we approached, we gradually made out a human-like shape...but of the science fiction genre. This was ‘The Thing from Another World;’ we recalled it from one of our first and most horrifying trip to the movies, in the 1950s. The being was tall, with bulky arms and legs, making him look a bit ungainly, like he had been outsized by a bicycle pump. But the most remarkable thing was the head. It was about three times the size of a normal human head. And rounder, with a flatter face.

Surely the aliens had finally arrived. But why were they sneaking around in our garden, at night, in an obscure part of Ireland? And did they mean to harm us? While the questions swirled, we edged toward the figure, still indistinct in the dark. ‘We mean you no harm...’ we called out, thinking the creature might be put at ease by a friendly human voice. ‘Well, I’m glad to hear that,’ came the answer from a voice with a proper English accent.

It was the voice of the local beekeeper, Robert, in his protective gear. ‘I won’t be more than five minutes. Hope I didn’t scare you. There is a nest of bees in the wall. I’ve waited until they were asleep to make my move. It’s dangerous to let them stay there.’ Robert has placed his hives in several places on the farm. We are happy to have them, and the honey he gives us. As long as they stay in the hives, they pose no problem. But sometimes, like AI, they go rogue.

‘A fellow in Clonmel was stung by bees. He was driving a tractor. The bees must have been in the ground. Well, they went after him. And he went into shock. His heart stopped. The family got him to the hospital. And he’s still alive. But he suffered irreparable brain damage. You’ve got to be careful with bees.’ Reassured...it was a comfort to know we’d be more likely to die from earth-bound bees than from extra-terrestrials...we returned to our work.

Here’s the latest, from MarketWatch: "French bonds are suffering through their worst decade since 1803 - and investors are bracing for more pain." French bond turmoil is the worst since the 10-year period that included the Reign of Terror. Parlez-vous crise du credit?

Meanwhile, back in the USA, the S&P has hit a new record. But it is a funny kind of new high...driven, we believe, by a funny kind of money chasing a funny kind of stocks. Fewer than half the stocks in the S&P 500 are actually above their 200-day moving averages. That leaves the aforementioned ‘funny’ stocks - those growing from capital investment rather than real earnings - doing most of the heavy lifting.

Also, a little ‘funny’ is the fact that while the US and France suffer from very similar self-inflicted macro wounds, their stock markets are going in opposite directions. The Wall Street Journal found the ‘funny’ business worth exploring: "America has had to endure financial crises, stock-market crashes and military setbacks, just like any other country. But the regularity with which the U.S. recovers is remarkable. For many Americans it’s an article of faith that the stock market eventually rises over time, that Uncle Sam’s liabilities are risk-free and that America’s armed forces will never lose a fight for lack of money."

But the closer you look, the ‘funnier’ the situation appears. The US started a war which has greatly weakened perceptions of US power. America is untrustworthy, say the diplomats. And it is increasingly ineffective, say military analysts. WSJ: "Now, federal borrowing is starting to feel unsustainable, U.S. stocks fetch twice the valuation of other developed markets and the Navy is struggling to protect vital sea lanes from a third-rate adversary. The French stock market is down 10.5% in the last six months. But the US stock market is up 15%. And you can’t explain it by differences in exchange rates or other big picture curiosities. In terms of cyclically adjusted p/e ratios, US big-cap stocks are twice as pricey as those in France."

Why? The Journal leans on the ‘exorbitant privilege’ insight first popularized by France’s Valery Giscard d’Estaing. The nation that has the world’s reserve currency, he noticed, can ‘print’ more currency, which is taken into foreign vaults as though it were gold. Other nations can’t do that. WSJ: "Unlike France, the U.S. has its own printing press and can’t default if borrowing costs spiral."

You’d think this advantage would show up in different costs for borrowing, too. The two countries face roughly the same fiscal problem. Each has to borrow money to keep up with current spending. By this measure the US is slightly worse than France, with a deficit equal to 5.7% of GDP. France’s deficit ratio is just 5%.

As Donald Trump maintains, if the US really has the strongest economy in the world, it ought to have the lower interest rates. Apparently, not. France, as widely reported, may be on the brink of a default. But the US pays more to borrow. The yield on France’s 10-year notes is now 4.9%. America’s 10-year yield is 5.3%. Both countries are broke. And as interest rates rise, the broker they get.

As for the ‘exorbitant privilege,’ at some point every ‘privilege’ sends its bill. Robert Triffin outlined the paradox back in the 1960s. The US ‘prints’ money. Foreign nations sell products and services to the issuer to get it. This results in a trade deficit for the reserve currency nation, the US (with the accompanying ‘hollowing out’ of its own industries). A country that produces more (fake) money than stuff soon suffers price increases. At first, the US exports its inflation to the rest of the world. Eventually though, the foreigners question its solvency and wonder about its IOUs. They sell their US bonds...and look for alternatives.

The WSJ adds context...along with a dose of dread. "U.S. bonds aren’t really risk-free when the president is openly talking about the benefit of “very rapidly” eroding their real value through inflation. The usual pattern of foreign money flooding into the Treasury market in a crisis isn’t some law of nature. Imagine the sort of rush for the exits France is experiencing instead." ‘Inflating our way out’ of the US debt problem is another ‘red dye’ solution. It promises to fix a problem America ought not to have with a solution that won’t work. More to come..."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"America Looks Richer Than Ever. What Happens When the Fed's Asset Bubble Bursts?"

"America Looks Richer Than Ever.

What Happens When the Fed's Asset Bubble Bursts?"

by David Stockman

"It is now abundantly obvious that the FOMC and its clumsy rate-pegging and credit printing tools are not remotely fit for purpose. The real impact is dramatically displayed in the graph below. It shows that after 1987 the growth rate of household assets relative to earned income (i.e. excluding transfer payments) took off like a bat out of hell.

Indeed, as shown in the graph during the heyday of the 1950s through 1987, the nominal value of household assets tracked the growth of earned income almost in lockstep, with the ratio relatively flat through the 37-year period, posting at 5.8X in Q2 1987, up slightly from an average 5.4X ratio during 1950 to 1954, when the US economy moved into its strong post-WWII growth era.

The virtually nonexistent slope of the trend line (solid green below) during that era of unprecedented middle-class prosperity means that had it continued for another 39 years through Q2 2026, the end point ratio today would be just 5.9X, not the actual ratio of 10.0X.

So, yes, the Fed’s red-hot printing press did make a whopping difference. To wit, the household and nonprofit sectors today hold the staggering total of $90 trillion more in assets of all types—from owner-occupied residences to cash accounts, bonds and stock portfolios—than would have been the case based on pre-1987 asset-to-income trends.

What this means is that the American household sector did not earn and save its way to the huge gains in assets and net worth reported by the Fed’s Flow of Funds data. That is to say, net worth is up from almost $11 trillion to $196 trillion since 1989, but that is not mainly due to savings from the growth of earned income.

As shown below, borrowings helped modestly, rising 5.3% per annum or modestly ahead of the 4.6% per annum growth of personal income ex-transfer payments. But the real catalyst, obviously, was the far faster growth of asset values, which rose at a compound annual rate of 6.1% during the period.

At the end of the day, however, the comparison which says it all is the gap between asset growth at 6.1% per annum and income growth of just 4.6%. In a word, assets grew 35% faster than income over that three and one-half decade period because, well, the Fed inflated them with its red-hot printing presses.

For want of doubt, we show the opposite trend in the household savings data, meaning that the American public has not saved its way to riches since Alan Greenspan discovered the printing presses in the basement of the Eccles Building soon after he took office in the midst of Black Monday’s 23% collapse of the Stock Market on October 19, 1987.

The juxtaposition of the savings graph below and asset graph above, in fact, tells you all you need to know. Since 1975, the true household savings rate—measured as personal savings divided by household income less transfer payments (used as the denominator here because the government’s 160 million Welfare State beneficiaries save virtually nothing on a net basis) has been plodding steadily lower (dotted red line), from an average of 13.3% of income in 1975 to 6.7% of income at present. At the same time, the constant dollar level of savings pencils out anemically, indeed. The growth rate (blue lines) in real terms has been just 0.6% per annum since 1975.

So, no, America did not save its way to $196 trillion of net worth after the era of Keynesian monetary central planning commenced in October 1987. The Fed inflated asset prices to a fare-the-well.

Of course, all this inflated net worth is just the half of it. The more onerous dimension lies in who got it or in the distribution. In that regard, the graph below speaks for itself. Since Q1 1989, household net worth has risen by an aggregate of $154 trillion. As it happened, however, the bottom 50% got 3% of the gain, while the top 1% harvested 32% of the loot. Some earnest commentators are now mystified as to why the hoary doctrine of socialism seems to be making a comeback in certain quarters of American politics.

The geniuses at the Fed, however, should not be confused at all. It’s all their handiwork. In the land of the central bank printing presses, the rich do get richer, indeed, and not because they earned it on an honest free market operating based on sound money. In fact, the chart above reflects the true failure of Greenspanian central banking. And when the massive inflationary bubbles embodied in this graph above finally do blow sky-high, don’t blame it on the free market. In short, what amounts to free money has been the real culprit all along."

- https://internationalman.com/articles/

"Trump Just Told You How He’ll Pay Off the Debt"

"Trump Just Told You How He’ll Pay Off the Debt"

by Joel Bowman and Lau Vegys

"Inflation is not an act of God… Inflation is a policy.”

~ Ludwig von Mises, 

"Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow" (1959)

Excerpt: Pipa Beach, Brazil - "Remember the good ol’ days, dear reader, when a trillion dollars seemed like a lot of money? When so-called “conservative” politicians at least pretended to care about fiscal sanity… balanced budgets… sound money… And when so-called “liberal” politicians pretended to care about things like the cost of living… free speech… the plight of the worker…

Neither side meant what it said, of course, insofar as their records stand in stark contrast to their empty promises, with nothing behind them save a trail of jilted voters and despondent, former believers. (And a few stubborn die hards, bless them!)

Perhaps that’s why so many “regular people” – sensible folks who wouldn’t trust their elected officials to water their cactus, never mind balance the nation’s books – find themselves political orphans, abandoned by their traditional parties. But though the political divide appears as vast as it has ever been, there is one thing both parties always seem to agree upon:

Inflation. How do we know that for sure? Well, the last time Americans were treated to a bout of sustained, consumer-price deflation was back in 2009, during the Great Recession. Before that, you have to go back to 1949, when CPI fell about 1.0% for the year. That’s 14 separate administrations, from Truman to Trump, stretched out over three-quarters of a century, each delivering for the American people exactly what the system is designed to produce: higher and higher everyday prices.

Again, politicians don’t usually admit as much, systematic currency debasement being somewhat out of favor for anyone who bothers reading their history. At least that was the case until last week, when POTUS actually said the quiet part out loud. For anyone who was listening, the frank admission (in an interview with Time Magazine) was tantamount to pointing out the empire had no clothes.

Devaluation, according to our good friend and founder of the excellent SNAFU Investing with Lau Vegys, is not an accident… it’s the plan. “Not default. Not cut spending,” as Lau writes below. “Inflate the debt away, hopefully quietly enough that nobody riots.” Yikes! “But what about the lenders?” we hear the savvy reader inquire. “Won’t they just walk away?”

Turns out, it’s a little more complicated than that. In today’s guest essay, Lau does a fantastic job of walking you through the mechanics of exactly how inflation works as a debt-reduction tool, how the administration intends to use “other means” to ensure a steady supply of lenders who cannot say “no,” and how those same hard-working people always end up footing the bill. Please enjoy today’s guest essay and be sure to find more of Lau’s writing at SNAFU Investing with Lau Vegys… there’s plenty more where this came from."

Full article is here:

- https://joelbowman.substack.com/

Jim Kunstler, "The Ripening"

The Gold Dust Twins, Barack Obama with John Brennan

"The Ripening"

by Jim Kunstler

“Everybody's restless and they got no place to go,

Someone's always trying to tell them something they already know,

So their anger and resentment flow.” 

- Warren Zevon, "Mohammed’s Radio"

"In the stark October light, events and personalities skulk in the shadows like scavengers in an orchard of poison fruit. The dread builds as the dooryards get populated with the motorized effigies of blood-beasts, werewolves, phantoms, and ghouls. Halloween and Election Day have become the conflated celebration of a national death trip. How has it come down to our country, in a crucial election, seriously entertaining the antics of jihadis and Jacobin riffraff?

Some somebodies are orchestrating this frightful show from the sinister shadowland behind our politics. My guess would be Barack Obama and John Brennan, with a whole lot of help from a supporting cast of entrenched Deep State racketeers enlisted in their service, with their status and livelihoods at stake. Mr. Obama acts as if he is untouchable, probably due to being the personification of Liberalism’s “Best Camper” trophy it gave itself to validate the Civil Rights struggle session of the century gone by. We are good people, we really are, and President Obama is proof positive of our goodness!

The truth is, we know next to nothing about his real origins and his journey to power. His family on his mother’s side was pure CIA-connected, and his actual father is rumored to be Frank Marshall Davis (1905–1987), a Black American poet, journalist, and labor activist who was a member of the Communist Party USA - not the Kenyan Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. He went from nonentity to myth with no intervening storyline that makes any sense, just a set of rapid promotions with missing events between them: Occidental College in LA to Columbia U to Harvard Law to Chicago politics to Illinois State Senate, straight to the US Senate, and then, bang, into the White House only four years into his first Senate term.

At every stage along the way he was somebody’s chore boy. But whose? My guess would be US Central Intelligence...that he was groomed to be the untouchable front man looking out for the agency’s interests in dicey times. His quick political rise coincided with the rise of John Brennan through the ranks of the CIA. Early on, Brennan was drawn to Arabic culture, sojourned in Egypt as a student, and later served as the CIA’s station chief in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He speaks Arabic fluently and is rumored to have converted to Islam (from Catholicism), though it has never been proven. At a 2010 New York University forum, he praised “the goodness and beauty of Islam.”

The CIA, I would suppose, is composed of two great clans: one is made of the employees actually carrying out real intel-gathering and analysis. The other is of employees (current and former) looking out for the CIA’s own black op activities and the immense fortunes connected with it - with plenty of overlap between the two clans. I’d guess that John Brennan, who was CIA Director between 2013 and 2017 (under President Obama), still runs a large rogue contingent of the CIA clan that does the black ops, sits on a large fortune, and acts like a sovereign organism outside the control of the elected US government.

That would explain why no one has been held accountable for the ten-year-long coup against Donald Trump. Brennan, and the forces he represents, appear to be outside the control of the regular government, including the DOJ and FBI, and to some extent able to control people throughout government by subterfuge, intimidation, and blackmail. All that nearly came apart during Donald Trump’s first term with the bungled RussiaGate caper followed by the bungled Impeachment No. 1 operation. But Brennan’s dark CIA clan triumphed with the 2020 election “victory” of non compos mentis “Joe Biden,” followed by the successful Jan 6, 2021, fake “insurrection” at the US Capitol.

They stumbled badly again with the patently ridiculous court cases against former President Trump in 2023 and 2024. And now here we are in the middle of Mr. Trump’s second term, with a titanic struggle going on, largely out of public view, for the soul of the nation. John Brennan is still at large, but a month ago he was served with a subpoena to appear before a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida. It looks like he will finally have to do some ‘splainin’ about events he’s been involved with. You can be sure that President Trump means to see that it happens - whatever was signified by the departure of Joe diGenova last month.

It’s also my guess that former President Obama has become John Brennan’s hostage. He was probably assigned to run “Joe Biden’s” fake presidency using Susan Rice and other party functionaries to carry out orders. Brennan surely has a dossier on Barack Obama that fills in the blanks in his sketchy biography, including Mr. Obama’s secret sexual activities on the Chicago scene back in the day. Meanwhile, the former president has his electioneering duties to attend to, to try to flip the House and Senate so as to have one last go at defenestrating the man in the White House who threatens to put Brennan, Obama & Company out of business.

So, there’s a war on backstage. The war itself has been mythologized by those actually paying attention to it, sometimes as the contest between “Globalists” and “Sovereigntists” or “Black Hats” versus “White Hats” or the Legions of Satan versus the God-loving followers of Jesus... Jihad v. Western Civ. However you characterize it, everyone feels the tension as though the current phase of this Fourth Turning is an unbearable space between the life and death of the nation. Hence, all the ghouls in the dooryards, reminding us to stay...very...scared."

- https://www.kunstler.com/

"Alert! Riots in NYC, Ukraine Mass Evacuation! Nuclear Drills, Iran Preps for Total War!"

Full screen recommended,

Canadian Prepper, 10/9/26

"Alert! Riots in NYC, Ukraine Mass Evacuation! 

Nuclear Drills, Iran Preps for Total War!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"This is the collapse of civilization... there is no hope..."

"The Energy Crisis Escalates: The Dual Threat Of More War In The Middle East And Hurricane Isaias Damaging U.S. Refineries In The Gulf Is Pushing Oil Prices Even Higher"

by Michael Snyder, 10/8/26

"Just when it seemed like we had hit a period of relative calm, global events are starting to accelerate again. Within the past 24 hours, there have been a couple of absolutely enormous developments. First of all, Tropical Storm Isaias has become Hurricane Isaias and we are being told that it will make landfall along the Gulf Coast. That is potentially a major problem because the Gulf Coast accounts for over 50 percent of the crude oil refining capacity in the United States. If any of that capacity is taken offline for an extended period of time, that will drive fuel prices substantially higher. Meanwhile, Iran has been attacking tankers at a very alarming pace this week, and President Trump is reportedly considering a new wave of airstrikes on Iran…

The U.S. president and his national security team have discussed possibly resuming large-scale U.S. military operations in the coming weeks, NBC News reported Wednesday, citing a U.S. official and another person with knowledge of the talks. Axios reported earlier in the day that a possible resumption in armed conflict could include “massive bombing” of Iranian energy, infrastructure and nuclear targets, adding that military aggression could influence the outcome of the upcoming midterm elections.

This is a major bombshell. If the U.S. starts extensively bombing Iran again, the war in the Middle East could spiral completely out of control. The good news is that President Trump is now pledging that the U.S. will not be bombing Iran until after the midterms…

But his statement also seems to imply that the U.S. will be bombing Iran after the midterms. Will the Iranians just sit back and wait for that to happen? It is never a good thing to let your enemy know what you plan to do. And the Iranians have been threatening to conduct preemptive strikes if they are convinced that they are going to get attacked…

Iran’s army spokesman said on Wednesday that the armed forces were prepared to carry out pre-emptive strikes in the war against the US, as senior IRGC figures claimed tighter control over the Strait of Hormuz and Washington questioned how much authority Iran’s civilian leadership actually holds. “Should circumstances require it, we will conduct pre-emptive operations down the line in order to prevent the enemy from committing any act of aggression or intrusion,” spokesman for Iran’s regular army Brigadier General Mohammad Akrami-Nia told the state-run IRNA news agency.

It is my opinion that the war in the Middle East is very far from over. I am expecting some shocking escalations, and this is something that I will be writing a lot more about. Needless to say, if the war in the Middle East does not get resolved, the global energy crisis will just continue to intensify.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Isaias is making a beeline for the Gulf Coast with landfall expected some time on Friday… Hurricane Isaias continued its trek toward the U.S. Gulf Coast early Thursday, with a landfall expected late Friday as a dangerous hurricane, driving life-threatening storm surge, damaging winds and flooding rain. Isaias is the first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, and forecast to be the first to strike the United States since Hurricane Milton in 2024. This storm is rapidly strengthening, and it could potentially become even more powerful than forecasters are currently anticipating.

And that is not good news at all. Over 50 percent of all crude oil refining capacity in the U.S. is located along the Gulf Coast, and if any of those facilities get damaged that could push fuel prices substantially higher… The Gulf Coast accounts for more than 50% of the nation’s crude oil refining capacity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coasts alone make up 49% of the nation’s refining capacity.

The National Hurricane Center initially projected the center of Isaias could come onshore late Friday or early Saturday somewhere between eastern Louisiana and the western Florida Panhandle. Located in and around that zone are refineries, where crude oil gets turned into gasoline and diesel fuel. If those Gulf Coast refineries are forced to halt or reduce production, fuel supplies would get tighter, leading to higher prices. This is potentially a very big deal.

As the storm approaches, 25 percent of offshore production in the Gulf has already been temporarily shut down… In the Gulf of Mexico, oil companies have shut in about 500,000 bpd, or 25% of offshore production in the region, as Hurricane Isaias churns toward the coasts of Alabama, Mississippi and the Florida panhandle.

Hopefully Hurricane Isaias will not turn into a monster storm and no refining facilities will be harmed. But for the moment, investors are quite nervous about both Hurricane Isaias and the potential for renewed fighting in the Middle East. On Thursday, oil prices jumped quite a bit higher… The price of oil jumped sharply Thursday, as President Donald Trump weighs whether to resume large-scale U.S. military operations against Iran in the coming weeks. Brent crude oil rose more than 5% to more than $105 per barrel in early trading, while U.S. crude oil rose almost 5% to nearly $93 per barrel. Benchmark diesel futures jumped 4.5% in European trading. Heating oil, a proxy for jet fuel, rose more than 4%.

The move higher in oil prices also pushed up bond yields. The 10-year Treasury yield, which heavily influences consumer borrowing rates, jumped to 5.35%. That level effectively reversed a drop in yields seen late Wednesday. The yield on every other Treasury bond also rose.

As oil prices rise, just about everything else is going to get more expensive too. A year ago, it would have taken about $2,700 of diesel to transport a shipment of lettuce from California to New York. Now that same amount of diesel is going to cost about 50 percent more… Transporting a shipment of lettuce from Salinas, California, to New York “is going to run somewhere around $10,000,” said Dean Croke, principal analyst at DAT Freight & Analytics, and $4,200 of that is for diesel alone. A year ago, Croke said, the same fuel would have cost about $2,700.

We are all going to pay for this. When you go to the grocery store to get lettuce, it is going to cost more than it did before. In fact, just about everything at the grocery store is going to cost more than it did before. We really are witnessing a “perfect storm” for global food production.

World War 3 is raging, farmers are facing a global fertilizer crisis, a Super El Niño is causing all sorts of havoc, and diesel prices have gone absolutely nuts. We have never seen anything quite like this. A year ago, very few people would have believed that so many crazy things would happen in 2026. Unfortunately, I am entirely convinced that 2027 will be far crazier."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

Canadian Prepper, "Plague is Distraction from Global Collapse and WW3"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 10/8/26

"Plague is Distraction from Global Collapse and WW3"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gerald Celente, "Prepare for Chaos: More War, More Lies, Market Crash"

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, 10/8/26

"Prepare for Chaos:

 More War, More Lies, Market Crash"

"The mainstream media's ratings keep sinking, but instead of reporting the facts, they're doubling down on the narratives. On this edition of Trends in the News, Gerald Celente breaks down the latest media meltdown, escalating attacks on oil tankers as tensions with Iran intensify, and what he calls the latest deceptions surrounding America's expanding wars. As China races toward greater economic self-sufficiency and independence from Western influence, global conflicts continue to escalate, raising the risks of wider geopolitical and economic turmoil. Meanwhile, Wall Street celebrates while warning signs flash across the financial landscape. Is a major market crash on the horizon? Don't miss Gerald Celente's sharp analysis and trend forecasts on the stories shaping the future before they become headlines." 

- https://trendsjournal.com/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"A Cruise Beyond Reality: Somewhere Might Exist"

Full screen recommended.

Chris & Crystal AI Art,

"A Cruise Beyond Reality: Somewhere Might Exist"

"A surreal cinematic voyage through impossible oceans, towering ships, strange skies, dreamlike travelers, and places that feel just beyond reach. This 4K AI art experience blends fantasy visuals, detailed animation, cinematic storytelling, and original music into a journey filled with mystery, wonder, escape, and possibility."

Native American Elder, "How to Awaken the Old Spirit Inside You"

Full screen recommended.

Native American Elder,

"How to Awaken the Old Spirit Inside You"

Delta King's Blues, "You Gotta Be Tough To Grow Old"

Full screen recommended.

Delta King's Blues,

"You Gotta Be Tough To Grow Old"

"Wrinkles ain’t weakness - they’re proof you survived. “You Gotta Be Tough To Grow Old” is a gritty, soul-deep Delta King’s Blues anthem about resilience, scar tissue, and standing tall through the years. A strong, steady acoustic guitar drives the rhythm like boots planted firm in red dirt. The harmonica blows bold and weathered, carrying the sound of hard winters and hotter summers. The groove stays slow but unbreakable - built for endurance, not speed. This is survival blues. For people who took their hits, buried their losses, and kept waking up anyway. Growing old ain’t for the soft - it’s for the stubborn."

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

Full screen recommended.

Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Where do the dark streams of dust in the Orion Nebula originate? This part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, M43, is the often imaged but rarely mentioned neighbor of the more famous M42. M42, seen in part to the upper right, includes many bright stars from the Trapezium star cluster. 

Click image for larger size.

M43 is itself a star forming region that displays intricately-laced streams of dark dust - although it is really composed mostly of glowing hydrogen gas. The entire Orion field is located about 1600 light years away. Opaque to visible light, the picturesque dark dust is created in the outer atmosphere of massive cool stars and expelled by strong outer winds of protons and electrons."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

"Who Has Put Me Here?"; "Whoever Brought Me Here..."

"The eternal silence of infinite spaces frightens me. Why now rather than then? Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time have been ascribed to me? We travel in a vast sphere, always drifting in the uncertain, pulled from one side to another. Whenever we find a fixed point to attach and to fasten ourselves, it shifts and leaves us; and if we follow it, it eludes our grasp, slips past us, and vanishes for ever. Nothing stays for us. This is our natural condition, most contrary to our inclination; we burn with desires to find solid ground and an ultimate and solid foundation for building a tower reaching to the Infinite. But always these bases crack, and the earth obstinately opens up into abysses. We are infinitely removed from comprehending the extremes, since the end of things and their beginning are hopelessly hidden from us in an encapsulated secret; we are equally incapable of seeing the Nothing from which we were made, and the Infinite in which we are swallowed up."

- Blaise Pascal

o

"All day I think about it, then at night I say it. Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there. Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul? I cannot stop asking. If I could taste one sip of an answer, I could break out of this prison for drunks. I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way. Whoever brought me here will have to take me home."

- Rumi, "The Tavern," Ch. 1:, p. 2, from "The Essential Rumi"

Freely download "The Essential Rumi" here:
- https://littlethingsaboutmeeh.files.wordpress.com/

“Requiem for a Ladybug”

“Requiem for a Ladybug”

by Frankly Francis

“You lie still less than a foot away on top of the soft mouse pad that protects me from carpal tunnel syndrome. I noticed this morning, through eyes not yet clarified by my first coffee of the day, your presence in my study. Odd, I thought, that you would even be present now. It is certainly past your time of the year in these parts.

I had the presence of mind to reckon that your life must be short. Rather than remove you from my space, both physical and mental, I decided that if these were your final moments then my study could be your Hospice and I your companion.

Your flight and movement were a little chaotic, seemingly random. You nestled in the heat of the light in the globe of my desk lamp, you circled my cranium, you landed in various spots, and in and on various objects on my desk while I got about the business of the day.

Sometimes I could see you, other times I did not know where you were. Then you would rise again to a new location. I wondered if you had any purpose in this, if there was more going on than my conscious programming allowed me to realize.

Perhaps it was, in your reality, some last business to be done? Or perhaps a ritual of your species’ existence? I hoped that if there is any pleasure in being a Ladybug that it was satisfying in some way, even so far from your natural habitat. Then you landed on your final resting spot and moved no more.

For me, my study is a place of many good things. I hope in your last moments it was to you as well. Rest in Peace my little Ladybug. And thanks for reminding me of the preciousness and fragility of life.”

- http://franklyfrancis.com/?p=1255

"What Might Have Been..."

“Space I can recover. Time, never.” 

-  Napoleon Bonaparte

“Lands can be reconquered, indeed in the course of a battle, a hill or a certain plain might trade hands several times. But missed opportunities? These can never be regained. Moments in time, in culture? They can never be re-made. One can never go back in time to prepare for what they should have prepared for, no one can ever get back critical seconds that were wasted out of fear or ego. Napoleon was brilliant at trading space for time: Sure, you can make these moves, provided you are giving me the time I need to drill my troops, or move them to where I want them to be. Yet in life, most of us are terrible at this. We trade an hour of our life here or afternoon there like it can be bought back with the few dollars we were paid for it. And it is only much, much later, as they are on their deathbeds or when they are looking back on what might have been, that many people realize the awful truth of this quote. Don’t do that. Embrace it now.”

- Ryan Holiday

Free Download: Hermann Hesse, "Siddhartha"

"Siddhartha"

by Hermann Hesse

"Siddhartha" is a novel by Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual journey of a boy known as Siddhartha from the Indian Subcontinent during the time of the Buddha. The book, Hesse's ninth novel, was written in German, in a simple yet powerful and lyrical style. It was first published in 1922, after Hesse had spent some time in India in the 1910s. It was published in the U.S. in 1951 and became influential during the 1960s. Hesse dedicated "Siddhartha" to Romain Rolland, "my dear friend".

The word Siddhartha is made up of two words in the Sanskrit language, siddha (achieved) + artha (meaning or wealth). The two words together mean "he who has found meaning (of existence)" or "he who has attained his goals". The Buddha's name, before his renunciation, was Prince Siddhartha Gautama. In this book, the Buddha is referred to as "Gotama".

Plot summary: It starts as Siddhartha, the son of a Brahmin, leaves his home to join the ascetics with his companion Govinda. The two set out in the search of enlightenment. Siddhartha goes from asceticism, to a very worldly life as a trader with a lover, and back to asceticism as he attempts to achieve this goal. The story takes place in ancient India around the time of Gautama Buddha (likely between the fourth and seventh centuries BC.

Experience is the aggregate of conscious events experienced by a human in life – it connotes participation, learning and knowledge. Understanding is comprehension and internalization. In Hesse’s novel "Siddhartha," experience is shown as the best way to approach understanding of reality and attain enlightenment – Hesse’s crafting of Siddhartha’s journey shows that understanding is attained not through scholastic, mind-dependent methods, nor through immersing oneself in the carnal pleasures of the world and the accompanying pain of samsara; however, it is the totality of these experiences that allow Siddhartha to attain understanding. Thus, the individual events are meaningless when considered by themselves - Siddhartha’s stay with the samanas and his immersion in the worlds of love and business do not lead to nirvana, yet they cannot be considered distractions, for every action and event that is undertaken and happens to Siddhartha helps him to achieve understanding. The sum of these events is thus experience.

For example, Siddhartha’s passionate and pained love for his son is an experience that teaches him empathy; he is able to understand childlike people after this experience. Previously, though he was immersed in samsara, he could not comprehend childlike people’s motivations and lives. And while samsara clung to him and made him ill and sick of it, he was unable to understand the nature of samsara. Experience of samsara at this point did not lead to understanding; perhaps it even hindered him. In contrast to this, Siddhartha’s experience with his son allows him to love, something he has not managed to do before; once again, the love itself does not lead to understanding.

The novel ends with Siddhartha being a ferryman, learning from a river, and at long last at peace and capturing the essence of his journey: "Slower, he walked along in his thoughts and asked himself: “But what is this, what you have sought to learn from teachings and from teachers, and what they, who have taught you much, were still unable to teach you?” And he found: “It was the self, the purpose and essence of which I sought to learn. It was the self, I wanted to free myself from, which I sought to overcome. But I was not able to overcome it, could only deceive it, could only flee from it, only hide from it. Truly, no thing in this world has kept my thoughts thus busy, as this my very own self, this mystery of me being alive, of me being one and being separated and isolated from all others, of me being Siddhartha! And there is no thing in this world I know less about than about me, about Siddhartha!”

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhartha_(novel)

Freely download "Siddhartha," by Hermann Hesse here:
- http://philosophy.lander.edu/oriental/siddhartha.pdf

The Poet: Galway Kinnell, "Another Night in the Ruins"

"Another Night in the Ruins"

"How many nights must it take

one such as me to learn

that we aren't, after all, made

from that bird that flies out of its ashes,

that for us

as we go up in flames,

our one work is

to open ourselves,

to be the flames?"

~ Galway Kinnell

"Snyder Reports, 10/8/26"

Full screen recommended.

Snyder Reports, 10/8/26

"Social Security Just Changed Retirement Ages - 

Here's What Matters"

"Social Security just changed the retirement age names - and some say this rename could save benefits entirely. Here's what Minimum, Standard and Maximum Benefit Age actually mean for you. In this video we break down the Claiming Age Clarity Act: Early Eligibility at 62 becomes Minimum Benefit Age, Full Retirement at 66/67 becomes Standard Benefit Age, and Delayed Retirement at 70 becomes Maximum Benefit Age. You'll learn why claiming at 62 can cut you up to 30% and why waiting to 70 can add up to 24% more, what the CBO says about costs, plus the 2032 insolvency warning for a 22% cut, the 2027 COLA forecast of 3.5% to 3.7% with the Oct 14 announcement, how it compares to Medicare Part B, and why about 21 million people are getting a $90 check. If you're on Social Security, SSI or SSDI, or planning to claim soon, this affects your check, your timing, and your midterms vote. Comment below: if they change the names, will you wait longer to claim?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Snyder Reports, 10/8/26

"Why You Can't Find A Job Right Now 

(Despite The Headlines)"

"Nobody is hiring right now, but jobless claims just hit a 57-year low. What's really happening in the job market 2026? In this video we break down the latest US jobs report, why weekly jobless claims fell to 197,000, and why that unemployment rate headline doesn't match what millions of Americans are living through. From fresh Amazon job cuts hitting over 1,000 workers, to Nike extending layoffs, to Georgia truck drivers parking trucks over diesel prices - layoffs 2026 are spreading while white-collar hiring freezes. We also dig into why Americans are struggling to find work for months, insane job requirements like $6 an hour and 30 years experience, AI slowing hiring, and what slowing hiring means for you heading into the holidays."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"On These Faces..."

“The barbarian hopes, and that is the mark of him, that he can have his cake and eat it too. He will consume what civilization has slowly produced after generations of selection and effort, but he will not be at pains to replace such goods, nor indeed has he a comprehension of the virtue that has brought them into being. We sit by and watch the barbarian. We tolerate him in the long stretches of peace, we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence; his comic inversion of our old certitudes; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond, and on these faces there are no smiles.“

- Hilaire Belloco

Carl Sagan, "Why Living Forever Would Destroy You"

Full screen recommended.

Carl Sagan,

"Why Living Forever Would Destroy You"

"You've been told that living forever would be the greatest gift. Science disagrees. In this video, we explore one of the most uncomfortable ideas in philosophy and biology: that mortality isn't a flaw in the design of human life - it's the design itself. Without death, urgency disappears. Without urgency, meaning collapses. And without meaning, what exactly are you living forever for? We look at what neuroscience tells us about memory across centuries, what ecology reveals about why death drives complexity, and what psychologist Laura Carstensen discovered about the people who are statistically the happiest humans alive - and why they're the ones closest to dying. This isn't a video about giving up. It's about understanding what finitude actually gives you - and why the engineers trying to delete it may be solving the wrong problem."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Most Of One's Life..."

"Most of one's life is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself from thinking.

 People intoxicate themselves with work so they won't see how they really are."

- Aldous Huxley