"The Doomsday Scenario You Aren't Supposed to Talk About"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 9/15/26

"The Doomsday Scenario You Aren't Supposed to Talk About"

"The reason why they are so haphazardly pursuing AI is stranger than fiction This is a very long video where I talk about every aspect of existential risks pertinent to the AGI/ASI risks. Sit back and have a muse with me."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gerald Celente, "The American Way of Life... More War, More Misery"

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, 9/15/26

"The American Way of Life... More War, More Misery"

"Gerald Celente dives into the latest issue of the Trends Journal, exposing the political, economic, and geopolitical forces driving America deeper into an era of endless war and mounting hardship. As military spending surges, global tensions escalate, and economic pressures intensify, Celente examines who benefits from perpetual war and who pays the price. From Washington's foreign policy agenda to the impact on inflation, debt, declining living standards, and global instability, this episode connects the dots between government priorities and the growing struggles of We the People.The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What's Next in these increasingly turbulent times."

- https://trendsjournal.com/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Everyone Is Losing Interest In Everything, And It's a Sign That..."

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 9/15/26

"Everyone Is Losing Interest In Everything, And It's a Sign That..."

"More and more Americans are losing interest in everything: going out, hobbies, friendships, even their own goals. In this video they explain why, in their own words, and it keeps coming back to the same three things: money, work and stress. A normal week now looks like this: drive to work, work, drive home, completely exhausted. Saturday is chores, Sunday you are already dreading Monday. Meanwhile rent, groceries, gas and insurance keep climbing and the paycheck stays where it was. So the fun stuff goes first: the dinner out, the hobby, the trip. What this video covers: • People who simply stopped caring about going out. • Being trapped in the "success machine." • Not feeling fulfilled in any area of life. • Burned out and done with social media. • Work, home, repeat, with no money and no motivation. • What happens to an economy that runs on people wanting more.

 Every clip is a real person, filmed on their own phone, in their own words. Nothing here is staged. Losing interest in spending is understandable. Losing interest in the people around you is where it gets dangerous. Have you felt this? Tell us below.

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"The Fuel Crisis Has Arrived; 'Weekend At Bernies' Starring Mitch McConnell"

Jeremiah Babe, 9/15/26

"The Fuel Crisis Has Arrived;

 'Weekend At Bernies' Starring Mitch McConnell"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Letters to the Sky: Love Doesn't Fade, It Burns Brighter"

Full screen recommended.

Wonder Spirits,

"Letters to the Sky:

 Love Doesn't Fade, It Burns Brighter"

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Believe"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "Believe"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Massive stars, abrasive winds, mountains of dust, and energetic light sculpt one of the largest and most picturesque regions of star formation in the Local Group of Galaxies. Known as N11, the region is visible on the upper right of many images of its home galaxy, the Milky Way neighbor known as the Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC).

The above image was taken for scientific purposes by the Hubble Space Telescope and reprocessed for artistry by an amateur to win the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures competition. Although the section imaged above is known as NGC 1763, the entire N11 emission nebula is second in LMC size only to 30 Doradus. Studying the stars in N11 has shown that it actually houses three successive generations of star formation. Compact globules of dark dust housing emerging young stars are also visible around the image.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130211.html

"When the Soul Sees the Truth and Can't Unsee It"

The Silent Grace,

"When the Soul Sees the Truth and Can't Unsee It"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"5 Signs You're Not Losing Your Mind - You're Waking Up"

Full screen recommended.

Native American Elder,

"5 Signs You're Not Losing Your Mind - You're Waking Up"

"Aging Is a Privilege"

Full screen recommended.

Delta King's Blues, "Aging Is a Privilege"

"Every gray hair is another sunrise someone else never got to see. “Aging Is a Privilege” is a heartfelt, reflective Delta King’s Blues tune about gratitude, resilience, and embracing the years with quiet pride. It’s a reminder that growing older isn’t something to fear—it’s a gift not everyone receives. A warm, slow-rolling acoustic guitar carries the melody like an old friend walking beside you through memories and milestones. The harmonica breathes with gentle soul, echoing the joy, heartbreak, and wisdom collected over a lifetime. The groove stays steady and comforting, built for peaceful evenings, front-porch reflections, and thankful hearts. This is blues that celebrates every season of life. For those who understand that every wrinkle, every scar, and every silver hair is proof of a life fully lived. Getting older isn’t losing your youth… it’s earning another chance to see tomorrow."

The Daily "Near You?"

New Braunfels, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Now Is No Time..."

 

"Richard Dawkins on the Luckiness of Death"

"Richard Dawkins on the Luckiness of Death"

by Maria Popova

"We are born into the certitude of our eventual death. Every once in a while, something - perhaps an encounter with a robin’s egg, perhaps a poem - staggers us with the awful, awe-filled wonder of aliveness, the sheer luck of it against the overwhelming cosmic odds of nonexistence. But alloyed with the awe is always the half-conscious grief that one day the light of consciousness will be extinguished. It is a heavy gift to hold, this doomed delirium of aliveness. It is also a buoyant gladness, if we are limber enough to stretch into the cosmic perspective that does not come naturally to us small, Earth-bound bipeds corticed with tender self-importance.

Consider this. For each of us, one thing is true: Had any one variable been ever so subtly different - had your parents mated on a different day or at a different altitude, had the early universe cooled a fraction of a second faster after the Big Bang, you would not exist as the particular constellation of atoms configuring the particular consciousness that makes you you. Because chance plays such dice with the universe, and because the die dictates that the vast majority of energy and matter never had the luck of cohering into this doomed delirium of aliveness, it is, in some profound and practical sense, a staggering privilege to die - one that betokens the privilege of having lived. To lament death, then, is to lament our luck, for any negation of the possibility of death is a negation of the improbable miracle of life, a wish for there to be nothing to do the dying - nothing to have partaken of the beautiful, bittersweet temporality of aliveness.

It is easier to bend the intuitive mind into this correct but counterintuitive perspective while walking in a cemetery at the height of summer. Doing this very thing while thinking these very thoughts, I was reminded of a passage from one of the most lucid and lens-clearing books written this side of Darwin - "Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder" (public library) by the visionary and often controversial (which is the social fate of every visionary) British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.

A civilization after Marcus Aurelius celebrated mortality as the key to living fully, half a millennium after Montaigne observed that “to lament that we shall not be alive a hundred years hence, is the same folly as to be sorry we were not alive a hundred years ago,” and a scientific epoch after Darwin contemplated the meaning of mortality in the wake of his beloved daughter’s death, Dawkins writes:

"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?"

Complement with astronomer and poet Rebecca Elson’s exquisite “Antidotes to Fear of Death,” Nick Cave on grief as a portal to aliveness, and Christopher Hitchens on how to live with our mortality, then revisit the science of how alive you really are, examined through the curious lens of trees and Alan Turing."

- https://www.themarginalian.org/

o

"Does Death Make Us the Lucky Ones? 

Existential Luck and the Consolations of Atheism"

o

"How We Grieve: Meghan O’Rourke on the Messiness 

of Mourning and Learning to Live with Loss"

"Thought..."

"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth, more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man."

- Bertrand Russell

"Five percent of the people think;

ten percent of the people think they think;

and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think."

- Thomas A. Edison.

"Now Is the Time of Monsters"

"Now Is the Time of Monsters"

by Jeff Thomas

"In ancient Rome, interregnum was the term given to the period between stable governments when anything untoward might occur, and sometimes did – civil unrest, warfare between warlords, power vacuums and, finally, succession wars. But eventually the dust would settle and the victors, whoever they might be, would at some point restabilise the empire, often with a new map, showing the latest lines of geographic possession.

In 1929, the Italian Antonio Gramsci was in a fascist prison, writing about what he considered to be a new interregnum – a Europe that was tearing itself apart. He anticipated civil unrest, war between nations and repeated changes in the lines of geographic possession. At that time, he was attributed as saying, "The old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters."

And, of course, looking back from our vantage point in the twenty-first century, we have no difficulty in confirming that he was correct in his prognosis. The world war that followed brought forward the worst traits in mankind. The sociopaths of the world came centre-stage. By the time the dust had settled, tens of millions were dead.

What we do have difficulty with is recognizing that the same pattern is again with us. National leaders and their advisors are spoiling for war, building up weaponry, creating senseless proxy wars in other nations’ backyards and playing a dangerous game of "chicken" with other major powers.

This will not end well. It never does. Once the shoving-match has begun, it only escalates. At some point, whether it’s the false-flag assassination of an Archduke, as in World War I, or the false flag attack on Germany by Poland, as in World War II, we can always count on some excuse being created to justify diving headlong into war.

It’s also true that, when empires get into economic trouble that’s too far gone for any viable solution, a trick that’s always employed by political leaders to keep the citizens from removing them from their seats of power, is to start a war. A people will, if they believe their homeland is in peril, accept the "temporary" removal of their freedoms. Even in the United States, the famed "Land of the Free," political leaders have routinely imprisoned dissidents in times of warfare. People tend to get behind their leaders in wartime, no matter how undeserved that loyalty might be.

And so, now is the time of monsters, as Mr. Gramsci rightly stated. A time of uncertainty, when countries are in turmoil and would-be leaders are jostling for power with existing leaders. An interregnum.

Troubled times tend to bring out all the crazies – all the sociopathic-types that would find it hard to succeed in stable, prosperous times. In such times, the average person becomes worried that things are not going to turn out well. That’s perfectly understandable. Unfortunately, most people lack both the imagination and the courage to cope with how the times are impacting their lives. They instead rely on others to provide a torch that might help them escape from the darkness.

Not surprising then, that every snake-oil salesman in town sees an opportunity to offer big promises – promises that he has neither the ability nor the inclination to fulfill. At such times, the people of a country tend to become polarized, placing their faith in one political party or another, hoping that their party will "make the bad stuff go away."

In the US we see, on the liberal side, promises for "free health care for all," a guaranteed basic income, housing for those who cannot afford it, and an endless stream of promises that, if the government were to implement them all, they will not be able to pay for them, even with 100% taxation from those who presently pay tax.

On the conservative side, we see promises such as "Make America Great Again," with tax rebates that do not rejuvenate the economy, breaks for firms that have expatriated, but do not fool them into returning, claims to cut budgets, only to increase them, and promises to eliminate debt, only to expand it.

To be sure, the problem begins at the top. But it doesn’t end there. It sifts down to the proletariat, who, unable to come up with constructive solutions, create their own monsters, trashing the shops and burning the cars of people who had no hand in creating the problem. But surely this is just a one-off phase, in which the best and brightest are temporarily pushed offstage, but will soon return, yes? Well, unfortunately, no. Historically, a period such as this one is followed by one of increased madness. Historically, the next step is societal breakdown. Riots, secessions and revolutions become commonplace, accompanied by economic collapse.

Out of these events come the worst monsters of all. It’s in the wake of such developments that the people of any country then turn away from those that made the empty promises and toward those who promise revenge against an ill-defined group who are characterized as having caused the problems. That’s when the Robespierres, the Lenins, the Hitlers – the greatest monsters – are swept into power. They invariably deliver the same message – that they’ll seek out the aristocracy, the gentry, the patricians, and strip them of their positions and possessions.

Invariably the way that this shakes out is not that the average man rises up, taking his "fair share" of the spoils. Instead, the leaders take the spoils and the proletariat are reduced to an equality of poverty. Our friend Mr. Gramsci found himself imprisoned by Benito Mussolini and died from illnesses incurred in prison. Unfortunately, his approach was to complain, but remain, as his country deteriorated around him. This proved, for him, to be the worst of choices. And, so it is today."

- https://internationalman.com/

"This is Hell, cleverly disguised just 

enough to keep us from escaping."

- Jean-Paul Sartre

"Hell is empty, and all the devils are here."

- William Shakespeare

"How It Really Is"

"Sam's Club Is Dying, Registers Are Out Of Business, Miles Of Lines & Abandoned Checkouts"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 9/15/26

"Sam's Club Is Dying, Registers Are Out Of Business,

 Miles Of Lines & Abandoned Checkouts"

"Sam's Club members pay a fee just to walk in the door. Now they scan their own groceries, wait in lines that never move, fight for refunds, and in one Arizona store, there is not a single register left. This video is what members and employees are saying about it, in their own words. A store used to pay someone to take your money. Now more and more of them want you to do that job yourself, for free, and they call it convenience. Self-checkout does not save a company the price of a machine. It saves the price of a person, year after year, and that saving does not show up as a lower price on the shelf. In a membership store it goes one step further: the member pays to get in, and then works the register for free once inside.

What this video covers: • A Sam's Club in Tempe, Arizona with no registers at all, where everything goes through the app • Scan & Go charging one shopper four times for the same order • Cafe registers being removed too • One-way gas pumps and long lines • Pizza shrinkflation, expired food, and an employee talking about moldy products • Refunds denied for missing items, and a $120 refund that never came back • One cashier, an endless line, and angry members • A membership downgrade denied, and a member banned over a fruit tasting • What an app-only checkout really means for workers and for your data.

 Every clip is a real person, filmed on their own phone, in their own words. Nothing here is staged. The cashier is one of the most common jobs in America, and it is the job this model is designed to remove. When it works for one company, every competitor sees the same numbers. And a checkout run through an app is a record of what you bought, when, and in what order, tied to your name. The old register forgot you the moment you walked away. The new one remembers everything."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Even The Mainstream Media Is Admitting That “The Great Fuel Crisis” Is Here"

by Michael Snyder

"For months, we were told that this moment was approaching. At first a lot of people didn’t want to believe it, and those that were sounding the alarm were mocked. But now even the mainstream media is being forced to admit the truth. When the war with Iran began, the world was sitting on vast stockpiles of oil that we could chew through to keep the global economy operating normally. Unfortunately, those stockpiles have rapidly dissipated and the conflicts on the other side of the planet are intensifying. As a result, we now find ourselves in unprecedented territory.

The world is using a lot more oil than it is currently producing. So something has got to give. For over six months we have been running through our reserves, and at this stage the mainstream media is openly telling us that a tipping point has arrived. The following comes from a Wall Street Journal article entitled “Oil executives say the great fuel crisis is here”…American oil executives warned for months that the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz was bound to cause a fuel crisis. Now, they say it is here.

Commercial fuel stocks around the world have been depleting for more than six months, and strategic crude reserves can’t be tapped much further. Attacks last week shut down a crucial crude pipeline in Saudi Arabia that bypassed the Strait, stranding at least 2.5 million barrels a day from an already tight global oil market, analysts estimate. “All these mechanisms helped to mitigate the price and supply risk,” Chevron Chief Executive Mike Wirth said Friday at an energy conference in Austin, Texas. “Those have largely now played out, and we don’t have nearly the buffers in the system that we did when it began.”

Those oil executives are right. It is here. Thanks to recent developments, energy industry insiders now fear that the conflict in the Middle East “risks spinning out of control”…"Veteran energy advisers say that with no resolution to the Iran war in sight, the situation risks spinning out of control. Diesel prices have soared to a record $6.23 a gallon and gasoline prices, which slipped below $4 a gallon this summer, have rebounded to $4.32. Some energy analysts say they have been fielding investor questions about when consumers pinched by the high prices will start pulling back on new purchases."

For months, we were told that a deal to end the war with Iran was imminent. That kept markets stable for a long time. But now reality is catching up with us in a major way. On Tuesday, average prices for both gas and diesel in the United States increased yet again…

Just look at those numbers. A year ago, the average price for a gallon of diesel in the United States was just $3.68. Last month, it was sitting at $5.43. Now it is up to $6.26. Of course we should consider ourselves to be fortunate, because Europeans are paying between 9 and 11 dollars per gallon…

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning, because global oil supplies are about to get even tighter. It is becoming apparent that the damage to Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline is more extensive than we were originally told…Saudi Arabia’s oil problem just multiplied. What looked like a single Houthi hit on the East-West pipeline is now looking like a coordinated hammering of the whole system. Fresh satellite imagery shows Pump Station 9 badly damaged, with Pump Station 8 possibly hit too, both feeding the same artery that carries crude clear across the country to the Red Sea. Take out one pump station and you have a headache. Take out two on the same line and you have a pipeline that could sit largely dead for 3-5 weeks, maybe longer.

Yes, the Saudis could feverishly work to repair the damage that has been done. But then the Houthis could just strike the exact same locations again. On Tuesday, the Houthis hit the Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company, and for now all activity at the Yanbu export terminal has been suspended…

Oil loadings seemed to have stopped at Saudi Arabia’s main Red Sea port Tuesday as a major refinery there reportedly burned after an attack. Shipping industry sources told Reuters on Tuesday that loadings at the Yanbu export terminal had been suspended, four days after a drone attack shut the East-West Pipeline that feeds it, the outlet reported. Earlier Tuesday, an attack struck the Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company, known as YASREF, according to a post from the Hormuz Letter account on X. The post cited footage it said showed a fire at the site and NASA satellite heat detections inside the refinery.

This is a major economic disaster for Saudi Arabia. And it is going to turn into a major economic disaster for Europe too, because the Saudis have reportedly told refiners in Europe that they will not be receiving the shipments that they were expecting… Europe’s energy supply outlook is deteriorating after Reuters reported Tuesday that Saudi Arabia had notified some European refiners that their September-loading crude cargoes would be canceled following the shutdown of its critical East-West pipeline after a drone attack. Beyond a diesel shortage in the West, Europeans are also dealing with low natural gas stockpiles heading into the Northern Hemisphere winter, with prices reaching their highest level since December 2022.

What will Europe do? One source is claiming that there will be no more Saudi oil for Europe until at least November… Saudi Aramco has cancelled all of its September European crude oil allocations and is scrapping every cargo slated for late-September loading onward, with a European lifter saying no Saudi oil cargoes at all until November, per initial reports citing oil trading firm Onyx and market sources. That takes the world’s largest exporter out of the European market for the rest of September and all of October, a de facto force majeure on Saudi crude to Europe from the 3rd largest energy producer in the world.

If you live in Europe, I would go fill up your vehicles immediately, because nothing quite like this has happened to Europe before. Meanwhile, the Ukrainians just hit another Russian refinery after President Trump specifically asked them not to do so… President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that Ukrainian forces struck the Syzran refinery in Russia’s Samara region, about 75 miles west of Samara and 466 miles southeast of Moscow. The strike comes days after President Trump urged Ukraine to halt attacks on Russian refineries, as average US retail diesel prices jumped above $6 a gallon and alarming disruptions to global refining capacity threaten fuel supplies ahead of the Northern Hemisphere winter.

Needless to say, all of this bad news has pushed oil prices even higher…Crude oil prices rose Tuesday as traders awaited updates on how long Saudi Arabia’s critical East-West pipeline will be closed. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, were up 2.6% to $108.48 per barrel by 11:06 a.m. ET. U.S. West Texas Intermediate traded 3.2% higher to $104.65. Prices have surged around 20% this month as fighting has sharply escalated in the Persian Gulf.

The good news is that we still have oil left in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The bad news is that the SPR has now fallen to the lowest level that we have seen since 1982…"The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve held 285.4 million barrels after inventories fell by about 1.2 million barrels in the latest week, according to Department of Energy data. The stockpile reached its lowest level since November 1982 as the government continued a planned release of crude oil from the emergency reserve."

If we drain the salt caverns where that oil is stored too low, we risk causing permanent damage. There are some experts that are arguing that we have already crossed that threshold. And federal law places restrictions on non-emergency drawdowns once we get down to 252.4 million barrels. In other nations, there is simply no buffer left.

The global economy really is facing a nightmare scenario, and investors are starting to get really nervous. On Tuesday, the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries hit the highest level in 19 years…"The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield climbed to its highest levels in 19 years on Tuesday as oil prices surge from the Iran conflict and expectations grow that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates on Wednesday. The rate milestone could ripple through the economy as the 10-year yield is a benchmark for consumers loans and corporate funding. The 10-year yield was last up more than 3 basis points to 4.996%. Earlier in the session, it scaled to 5.041%, the highest since July 2007. One basis point equals 0.01 percentage point, and yields and prices move in opposite directions."

To me, it appears that extensive efforts are being made to defend the 5 percent level. If we ultimately reach 5.25 percent, that could be really bad news, because historically we have witnessed tremendous market disruptions once we cross that mark… Treasury yields are closing in on an inflection point where, historically, stocks and bonds have reinforced losses in one another. That points to a regime shift of higher bond and stock volatility and wider credit spreads.

Lines in the sand are often a little too neat for reality, but when it comes to Treasuries there has been a stark change in regime when 10-year yields go much above 5.25%. After that point, the risks to bond volatility and hence stock vol and credit spreads markedly increase. With 10-year yields rising above 5% this week the first question is: will they keep going? Yields may look stretched, rising to levels not seen since 2007 just today, but Treasuries are not yet oversold. Incorporating returns on capital and looking at prices, they are only back to their long-term mean on an annual growth basis.

We are dangerously close to the edge, and it won’t take much to set off a major financial meltdown. All over social media, people are talking about this now. They may not understand all of the specifics, but they can feel that something is coming. We live in such perilous times, and I have a feeling that a tremendous amount of insanity is just around the corner."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"Trump’s War On Iran Is Crashing Entire U.S.-Dominated Petro Dollar System

"Trump’s War On Iran Is Crashing Entire U.S.-Dominated 

Petro Dollar System; It Will Be Replaced With Globalist Sustainable

 Development Based On U.N. Agenda 2030 And Surveillance State"

by Leo Hohmann

"It looks like the globalists who have for years been calling for sharp restrictions on energy usage, getting it down to more “sustainable” levels, are going to finally get their wish. And it’s a “conservative” Republican president who is going to hand it to them on a silver platter.

They want us off our land, in much smaller apartment homes, driving smaller electric cars or riding bicycles, using less air-conditioning and less energy in all aspects of life. The famous mantra of the globalist World Economic Forum has been “you will own nothing and be happy” under their so-called great digital reset. They’ve also argued for a much smaller global population.

Their dream is close at hand as the entire house of cards is getting ready to implode. The fundamental transformation to a fully controlled digitalized society is being driven on battlefields with unnecessary wars, and in the global oil and gas markets, making energy basically unaffordable for average working stiffs like us. And it’s all thanks to Donald Trump’s foolish moves thinking he could destroy Iran, topple its government and steal its oil. His bravado and outsized ego prevented him from acknowledging that Iran gets a vote in that scenario. And they had a plan to spread the economic pain worldwide.

Not only has Trump lost bigly in his gamble to take down Iran, but now his aggression has led to Iran’s allies in Yemen, the Houthis, going on a rampage and taking over all of western Yemen along the vital Red Sea coastline, allowing them to control the Bab el Mandeb Strait. The Houthis also bombed a key oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia that had been allowing 5 percent of the global oil supply to evade the dangers of the war-ravaged Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf.

U.S. Energy Secretary Christopher Wright has tried to downplay the significance of the pipeline’s destruction, saying the Saudis are able to promptly rebuild it and get it back online in a few weeks. Here’s what David Haggith, who publishes the Daily Doom on Substack, posted on the topic: "Into the now rapidly spiraling energy crisis, U.S. Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, attempted to speak some calm into markets. He seems to specialize in saying stupid things. This time he indicated the total shutdown of the east-west pipeline was not a huge concern because the Saudis plan to have the pipeline fully “running very soon.” Since he is always saying empty stuff like that, it would appear the energy secretary’s brain doesn’t have the energy to run a lightbulb."

With the Houthis having seized full control of western end of Yemen, which was generally under Saudi military control until this Friday, the Houthis have gained a lot more missile firing platforms and drone-launching areas along the Saudi border that are now uninhibited, at least locally, by the Saudis from stopping them. The Saudis even fled so fast, Biden style, that they left some valuable equipment behind.

So, it is not hard to figure out what the Houthi game plan will be for that major pipeline, making me think the energy secretary cannot be this dumb, so he must just be another Team Trump liar. With the pipeline totally dead, both parties will wait until the Saudis spend a lot of money and time getting the pumping station back online and until the oil starts flowing again. Then they will immediately blow it all back up, leaving another big mess of spilled and burned oil all over the totally destroyed equipment. Each time, the Saudis will have to clean up the big, charred oil spill before they can even start to rebuild.

The other major risk here is that other countries will enter the war on the side of Saudi Arabia, notably Pakistan and Turkey, which recently signed a mutual defense pact with the Saudis declaring an attack on one country amounts to an attack on all three. This is the first big test of that alliance. The Saudis are also asking Egypt to enter the war on their behalf.

The oil markets responded predictably to all this Trump-caused chaos. In a matter of days, Brent crude has gone from $90 a barrel to $109 a barrel. At this rate, we could see $150 a barrel by the end of this year. That would mean gasoline prices of $7 to $8 a gallon, and diesel prices of $10 to $12 a gallon. You think food prices are high now? Wait till we have $10 a gallon diesel. Since jet fuel is a derivative of diesel, the airline industry will also be devastated.

Trump will likely declare an “energy emergency” and implement draconian new rules limiting Americans’ ability to purchase fuel for their cars and homes. And if protests get out of hand, he may declare martial law, possibly canceling elections, or postponing the results of the elections from taking effect after suggesting they were “rigged” by China, Russia or Iran. Costco, a major bulk-sale retailer, has already responded by announcing a rationing plan for motor oil, limiting customers to two cans each. Watch for other major retailers to follow suit.

The bigger story is this: The U.S. petro dollar and the empire it propped up is in freefall, right before our eyes, and it’s going uncovered by the media. Americans have no idea how much economic pain is coming their way as a result of Trump’s destructive wars, both military and economic wars, none of which America is prepared to fight and win.

Trump has managed to kill the petro dollar by stupidly starting an illegal and unwinnable war against Iran, allowing it to spread throughout the Middle East, and failing to protect U.S. allies in the region. The entire reason countries like Saudi Arabia decided to sell their oil exclusively in dollars was because they had a protection agreement with the Americans. You build your bases here on Saudi soil and we will sell our oil in your currency, then reinvest the profits in U.S. Treasuries to fund your debt.

In six months, Trump has managed to shatter that entire understanding. The spending party that led to a $40 trillion U.S. national debt is about to come crashing down. I predicted it last year when I started referring to Donald Trump as “The Destroyer,” because he is functioning as a destroyer of nations and the destroyer of the post-World War II U.S.-led rules-based order.

Not that that order was any good, but the system it’s going to be replaced with, a technocracy based on total surveillance and total government control, powered by 6G and AI data centers, is going to be far worse. The AI surveillance cameras on every corner will be the eyes of the oppressive beast system; the data centers will be the brains.

When reporters question Trump about his disastrous policies, he shifts the blame to others. This past weekend, he blamed the diesel shortage on Ukraine bombing Russian oil refineries. Overlooked is the fact that Zelensky has been bombing Russian refineries since June using American technology and American intelligence – Trump allowed it, had no problem with it. Now that diesel is in short supply and the national average price has shot up to around $6.50 a gallon, a fact that is going to cause rampant inflation in the price of all shipped goods, including food, Trump is suddenly acting like it’s a revelation that Ukraine is bombing Russian oil facilities.

While that has been a minor contributing factor in the diesel crisis, the far bigger cause has been Trump’s Iran war, which led directly and predictably to the disruption of oil through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el Mandeb Strait. He is shifting the blame from himself to Zelensky when in fact he is responsible for both wars raging out of control.

At the same time, Trump has drawn down the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserves from around 400 million barrels of oil when he took office to around 275 million barrels today.

Saudi Arabia has been betrayed by Trump and the Americans. Saudi leader Muhammed Bin Salman reportedly called Trump over the weekend begging for Trump to bomb the Houthis and stop them from attacking Saudi oil assets. For whatever reason, Trump refused.

Why would the Saudis renew any contracts with the U.S. to keep American military bases in their country? Instead of protection, those bases have made them a target. And don’t think the other Arab states in the Gulf aren’t taking notes. The U.S. has been exposed as either too weak to fulfill its commitments, or unwilling to fulfill them. Either way, Iran is going to emerge from this war as the unchallenged hegemon of the Middle East, along with Israel. Those two regional hegemons will at some point have to settle their own business. And countries like Saudi Arabia will now be incentivized to get their own nuclear weapons as that might be the only way to deter aggression from outside enemies.

The larger issue here goes beyond Trump and his destructive foreign policy. The bigger question is, how did we get a system in place in America that allowed a monster like Trump to get voted into office, not once, but twice? At the rate he is going, we will not only see America lose its empire, we might lose our country. We could end up with uncontrolled homelessness and poverty and a middle class that is totally wiped out of existence. All thanks to Trump and his obsession with waging an illegal, unconstitutional and unwinnable war against Iran that never had any connection to any legitimate American national-security interest.

As Trump gets more desperate to somehow spin this colossal loss into a sellable win, chances are great that he will dig himself a deeper hole that becomes increasingly impossible to dig himself out of. At that point, I would say the possibility of a major ground war and/or even a nuclear strike on Iran go up substantially.

Pray for peace while preparing for war. The battlefield in America may be more economic than military but the ravages could be just as devastating."

- https://leohohmann.substack.com/

Bill Bonner, "The People’s Money"

"The People’s Money"

by Bill Bonner

"Although there are countless maladies that are forever causing the decline of kingdoms, princedoms, and republics, the following four (in my judgment) are the most serious: civil discord, a high death rate, sterility of the soil, and the debasement of coinage. The first three are so obvious that everybody recognizes the damage they cause; but the fourth one, which has to do with money, is noticed by only a few very thoughtful people, since it does not operate all at once and at a single blow, but gradually overthrows governments, and in a hidden, insidious way."  - Copernicus

Poitou, France - "The man who took the earth out from under our feet and set it spinning around the sun found time, in his off hours, to notice something rather more delicate: that a nation may be swindled as well as robbed. NBC News, with the lead story on Friday: "Diesel hits all-time high of $6 per gallon and just about everything will cost more."

Price increases are in the news. And perhaps for the first time ever, we see a flicker of understanding...a spark in a forest of dead wood...in the (almost) mainstream press. The Washington Examiner: "Stop blaming corporate greed - the real reason you can’t afford anything is fake money." Sen. Rand Paul (D-KY) recently, and quite uniquely, nailed the true cause of the affordability issue. It isn’t corporate price gouging or other standard, conventional scapegoats — such as greedy corporations, or deregulation, or heavy regulation, or environmental restrictions on “drill, baby, drill.” It’s about the money.

Asked about the source of the price increases for diesel, however, people are most likely to blame either Iran, for cutting off oil exports, or Donald Trump, for starting the war. Both are guilty, as charged. But the bigger culprit is the one Sen. Paul identifies. The feds began with real, gold-backed money. It kept prices stable for nearly 150 years. Then, in 1971, the feds added a new kind of money - fake money, trillions of it, backed by nothing. 

And since there is plenty of nothing...and very cheap!...And since it is far easier and faster to produce fake money rather than real money (no gold needed!)...And since it is also easier to ‘print’ this new money than it is to make refrigerators or grow avocados... The volume of money greatly surpassed the volume of goods and services it was meant to buy.

And there you have it...the whole gaudy spectacle stripped of its Ph. D upholstery, reduced to a few simple sentences. Tom sent us the startling proof on Saturday. As part of a huge study, involving 167 nations over 67 years, researchers found the US had a long-term money supply growth rate of 7.4% - or more than 2x GDP itself. Guess how much gold went up? 7.6% - almost exactly the same. And the S&P less dividends? Again, 7.5%. In other words, the fake money created the whole Bubble Empire.

In the 1960s, the nation struggled to finance the Vietnam War...along with the Great Society at the same time. But with this new fake money, the whole economy could be pimped up...‘financialized’ so that not only could Wall Street get a bigger piece of the action, the whole guns-and-butter program could be charged to an account no one had to settle. Attacks on Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and others...could be paid for with fake money. Americans had to make no sacrifice…except for those who died. Was it worth it? That’s a question you don’t have to ask…not when you can ‘print’ the money to pay for it. Like a lottery winner, America enjoyed a spending spree.

Over the weekend, the media put on a black armband, wrung its hands and beat its breast, trying to recall 9/11...and the lessons learned since. Most of the commentariat focused on the ‘mistakes’ that came after - notably US foreign policy blunders in the Middle East. But those ‘errors,’ too, were merely another consequence of fake money. A war you have to pay for is one you have to discuss, analyze and justify. The public must be persuaded, not simply bamboozled.

The basic template of all organized societies is this: those that have want to have more. Elites find reasons for non-elites to hand over their wealth and power. What restrains them is real money itself. The People only make so much of it…and they give it up no more readily than a hungry Rottweiler parts with a T-bone steak.

The US Constitution specifically gives the people’s representatives the right and responsibility to decide how much of their money they will give up. All spending and taxing has to be approved by them. But the fake money runs rings around Congress. The People never earned it. They never saved it. It wasn’t taxed from them or lifted from their pockets. And then, prices rise. People feel they are being robbed. But they can’t pick the felon out of the line-up. They curse the ‘greedy rich,’ and vote for more swindlers."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"A Line In The Sand Has Been Crossed - Everyone Is Nervous"

Dan, I Allegedly, 9/15/26

"A Line In The Sand Has Been Crossed -

 Everyone Is Nervous"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Snyder Reports, 9/15/26"

Full screen recommended.

Snyder Reports, 9/15/26

"Mortgage Rates Just Hit A 2 Year High: 

What This Means For You"

"Mortgage rates just jumped past 7% to 7.17% - a nearly two-year high. Millions of buyers and homeowners waiting for lower rates are getting the exact opposite. In this video I break down why mortgage rates 2026 are climbing again, why the 10-year Treasury hitting 5.04% - highest since 2007 - is dictating your payment, and why a potential fed interest rate hike on September 16th could push borrowing costs, layoffs, and rents even higher. You'll hear a real homeowner story - bought at $169,000 for $1,450/month and now can't afford it even after a raise - plus what rising property taxes, insurance, and maintenance mean for owners AND renters, and why more homes are hitting the market as people cash out equity to survive. If you're worried about a 57 housing market crash, refinancing, buying your first home, or just keeping the home you have, this is what it means for you and what to watch next."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Snyder Reports, 9/15/26

"The Real Reason Your Health Insurance

 Is Getting More Expensive"

"Health insurance premiums are about to surge - and your paycheck is about to feel it. Here's why millions are canceling coverage heading into 2027. In this video we break down why health insurance costs are rising at the fastest pace in decades, why employers are shifting more of the bill to workers, and what open enrollment means for your wallet. Mercer projects healthcare costs per employee to jump 8.2% in 2027 - the steepest since 2003 - while Washington State just approved a 22.2% average rate increase for affordable care act plans. With over 165 million Americans on employer coverage and enhanced federal subsidies expiring, healthier people dropping out is leaving a sicker, more expensive pool - driving health insurance premiums even higher for everyone left. We cover what insurers are blaming, why hospitals raising prices hits you twice, how benefit cuts in childcare, gym bonuses and company perks add to the squeeze, and why prices may have to go from bad to worse before they level out."

Comments here:

 - https://www.youtube.com/

"Alert! Saudi Oil Completely Offline! US Admits Weapons In Space! Nukes In Finland!"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 9/14/26

"Alert! Saudi Oil Completely Offline!

 US Admits Weapons In Space! Nukes In Finland!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Plunge Protection Team Couldn't Save Markets Today, No Way Out"

Jeremiah Babe, 9/14/26

"Plunge Protection Team Couldn't Save Markets Today,

No Way Out"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"The Wrong War: Trump Blames Kyiv for a Diesel Crisis His Own Iran War Triggered"

by Larry C. Johnson

"On 14 September 2026, with American diesel having crossed six dollars a gallon for the first time in history, President Trump settled the question of blame in a single sentence posted to social media: “The World’s Diesel price rise is mostly caused by the Russia/Ukraine War, not Iran.” A day earlier, at his golf resort in Doonbeg, Ireland, he had told Zelensky to “stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,” because the strikes were “hurting the world.”

It is a tidy story, and it has one great virtue for the man telling it: it points at a war with someone else’s name on it. It is also, in its central claim, backwards. Not wholly false - the part about Ukrainian strikes is real -  but backwards in the one respect that matters, the ranking of causes. The market data that Trump is implicitly citing say the opposite of what he says they say.

The tell is in the crack spread If you want to know what is driving the price of diesel, you do not look at the price of diesel. You look at the crack spread - the margin between crude oil and the refined product made from it. That number tells you whether the problem is a shortage of oil or a shortage of the refining capacity to turn oil into fuel. And in 2026 the diesel crack did something it had never done in recorded history: it broke one hundred dollars a barrel, hitting a record of roughly $102 on 17 August and pushing past $107 in early September. In a normal, balanced market that spread runs twenty to forty dollars.

That single fact reorders the whole argument. As RBN Energy put it plainly, the world is “not terribly short of crude in the traditional sense” - it is struggling to refine enough crude into middle distillates. The refiners themselves are running flat out, above 97 percent utilization, and still cannot keep up; they are draining tanks to cover the gap. And the tanks are nearly empty. US distillate inventories in August sat at their lowest end-of-month level since 1951 - not a typo, 1951 - and near thirty-year seasonal lows. Global refinery runs had fallen by roughly 5.1 million barrels a day year-on-year in the second quarter. This is a refining crisis sitting on top of a decade of closed refineries and underinvestment. It is structural, it is global, and most of it has nothing to do with either Vladimir Putin or Volodymyr Zelensky.

Why “mostly Russia, not Iran” inverts the evidence: Three pieces of evidence, taken together, dismantle the ranking.

First, the timeline. The Ukrainian refinery campaign is not new; it has been grinding on for well over a year. If it were the primary driver of the price, diesel would have climbed with the strike tempo. It did not. The diesel crack spread exploded to its historic highs specifically in the weeks after the United States and Israel went to war with Iran and the Strait of Hormuz - through which something like a fifth of the world’s oil and products move - was throttled. Crude tells the same story in Trump’s own timeframe: Brent ran from around $67 in January to $117 in April after the first strikes on Iran, eased to the low $80s during the ceasefire, and climbed back toward $108 as the fighting resumed this autumn. The price is indexed to the Iran war, phase by phase. It is not indexed to Kyiv’s drones.

Second, the nature of the shock. The Hormuz disruption is a dual shock in a way the Russian strikes are not: it constrains both the crude reaching refiners downstream and the enormous volume of refined product that Gulf refineries themselves export to the world. Add the drone strike that briefly shut Saudi Arabia’s East–West pipeline - the very line built to bypass Hormuz - and you have the Middle East, not Russia, sitting on the pressure point. Analysts across the refining trade have reached the same verdict: record product margins reflect acute supply tightness and lost refining output, with crude prices actually moderating from their wartime peaks even as diesel held firm. Geopolitical disruption is the catalyst, and the disruption doing the heavy lifting is in the Gulf.

Third, the American price specifically. The United States does not buy Russian diesel and has not for years, so $6 at a Miami truck stop is not the sound of Russian barrels failing to arrive here - they were never coming here. What reaches the US pump is global fungibility plus a set of domestic costs Trump did not mention, including roughly $15 a barrel of renewable-fuel compliance baked straight into the price. Even the size of the Russian hit is contested: Kyiv claims it has knocked out 42.7 percent of Russian refining capacity; Reuters put the figure closer to 17 percent in the spring. When the man blaming a shortage is quoting the most generous possible number for it, that is worth noticing.

Why the wrong answer is a convenient one: I try not to read minds, so let me stick to incentives, which are visible enough. Trump is heading into November midterms in which fuel prices have become a straightforward liability for his party. The energy crisis traces, more than to anything else, to a war with Iran that he prosecuted and escalated. “Mostly Russia, not Iran” performs a specific piece of work: it moves the blame from his war to someone else’s, and it hands him a lever to pressure Zelensky into halting the strikes - which, within a day, he claimed to have achieved, announcing a mutual energy-target ceasefire that Kyiv described more cautiously as a proposal. It is also worth recording, without overstating it, that his own energy holdings have appreciated as the Iran war moved the oil market. The framing is convenient on every axis at once. That does not make it false. The evidence makes it false. But it does explain why so implausible a ranking got asserted so confidently.

The honest limits: Two caveats, because the strongest version of Trump’s case deserves an answer rather than a caricature.

The refining diagnosis actually cuts slightly his way. Because this is a distillate-capacity crisis rather than a crude crisis, refinery outages carry unusual weight right now, and Russian outages are among them. In a market this tight, with tanks this empty, even a secondary contributor moves the price more than it would in a normal year - so the strikes are doing more damage at the margin than their raw share of world capacity suggests. Halting them, and lifting Russia’s export ban, would genuinely help. That is a real point, and it is the reason the claim is misleading rather than simply fabricated.

But “would help at the margin” is a very different statement from “mostly caused by,” and the distance between those two is exactly the distance between analysis and spin. A fair account puts the structural distillate shortage first, the Iran war and Hormuz as the acute trigger that tipped a fragile market into crisis, and the Russian refinery outages third - real, aggravating, but not the engine. Trump took the third item and called it the first, and deleted the second item entirely, even though the second item is the one flying his flag. He is not wrong that refineries are the story. He is wrong about which refineries, and which war. And the war he left out is the one that answers to him."

- https://larrycjohnson.substack.com

Musical Interlude: Gnomusy (David Caballero), “Dolmen Ridge”

Gnomusy (David Caballero), “Dolmen Ridge”

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Is our Milky Way Galaxy this thin? Magnificent spiral galaxy NGC 4565 is viewed edge-on from planet Earth. Also known as the Needle Galaxy for its narrow profile, bright NGC 4565 is a stop on many telescopic tours of the northern sky, in the faint but well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices. This sharp, colorful image reveals the spiral galaxy's boxy, bulging central core cut by obscuring dust lanes that lace NGC 4565's thin galactic plane.

An assortment of other background galaxies is included in the pretty field of view. Thought similar in shape to our own Milky Way Galaxy, NGC 4565 lies about 40 million light-years distant and spans some 100,000 light-years. Easily spotted with small telescopes, sky enthusiasts consider NGC 4565 to be a prominent celestial masterpiece Messier missed.”

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210517.html

o

"When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer"

"When I heard the learn’d astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,

When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,

When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured 

with much applause in the lecture-room,

How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,

Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars."

- Walt Whitman

"I'm Glad I Grew Old with You"

Full screen recommended.

oltsev art,

"I'm Glad I Grew Old with You"

"Nobody warns you about this part. The way ordinary mornings become everything. The way you stop counting years and just live inside them. The way loving someone long enough turns into something that doesn't have a word yet. This one's for the person who's still there." 

"AI doesn't always prove the Dead Internet Theory. I'm open about using AI - and genuinely glad to be. Not as a shortcut, but as a tool. The way a filmmaker uses a camera, or a composer uses a piano. A knife can cause harm or prepare a meal. It depends entirely on the hands holding it. Every idea on this channel begins in a human mind. The concepts, the imagery, the words - they come from me. And lately, more and more often, they begin with you - with stories you leave in the comments that stay with me long after I've read them. The lyrics are mine. The visual direction is mine. The subtle details and quiet references woven into each frame - I'm always quietly hoping someone will notice them, and every time you do and write about it, it means everything. Reading hundreds of your comments, I feel something I didn't expect: that this work reaches people in the way I hoped it would. That it makes you feel something real. That's the whole point. That's always been the whole point."

Native American Elder, "How Your TV and Phone Are Hurting Your Soul"

Full screen recommended.

Native American Elder,

"How Your TV and Phone Are Hurting Your Soul"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"A Good Dog Will Teach You More Than Some People"

Full screen recommended.

Delta King's Blues,

"A Good Dog Will Teach You More Than Some People"

“A Good Dog Will Teach You More Than Some People” is a warm, heartfelt blues about loyalty, patience, and the simple wisdom found in a faithful dog. The singer reflects on a lifetime of meeting people who made promises, changed their minds, or disappeared when things got difficult—while a good dog simply stayed by his side. Driven by warm blues guitar and the soulful cry of the harmonica, the song blends humor, gratitude, and old-fashioned Southern wisdom. The voice is weathered and sincere, celebrating a companion who never needed words to show what loyalty really means. A good dog doesn't ask for much… Just love, a little food, and a reason to stay close."

o

"How Could You? A Dog's Story"

by Jim Willis

"When I was a puppy I entertained you with my antics and made you laugh. You called me your child and despite a number of chewed shoes and a couple of murdered throw pillows, I became your best friend. Whenever I was "bad," you'd shake your finger at me and ask "How could you?" - but then you'd relent and roll me over for a bellyrub.

My house training took a little longer than expected, because you were terribly busy, but we worked on that together. I remember those nights of nuzzling you in bed, listening to your confidences and secret dreams, and I believed that life could not be any more perfect. We went for long walks and runs in the park, car rides, stops for ice cream (I only got the cone because "ice cream is bad for dogs," you said), and I took long naps in the sun waiting for you to come home at the end of the day.

Gradually, you began spending more time at work and on your career, and more time searching for a human mate. I waited for you patiently, comforted you through heartbreaks and disappointments, never chided you about bad decisions, and romped with glee at your homecomings, and when you fell in love.

She, now your wife, is not a "dog person" - still I welcomed her into our home, tried to show her affection, and obeyed her. I was happy because you were happy. Then the human babies came along and I shared your excitement. I was fascinated by their pinkness, how they smelled, and I wanted to mother them, too. Only she and you worried that I might hurt them, and I spent most of my time banished to another room, or to a dog crate. Oh, how I wanted to love them, but I became a "prisoner of love."

As they began to grow, I became their friend. They clung to my fur and pulled themselves up on wobbly legs, poked fingers in my eyes, investigated my ears and gave me kisses on my nose. I loved everything about them, especially their touch - because your touch was now so infrequent - and I would have defended them with my life if need be. I would sneak into their beds and listen to their worries and secret dreams. Together we waited for the sound of your car in the driveway. There had been a time, when others asked you if you had a dog, that you produced a photo of me from your wallet and told them stories about me. These past few years, you just answered "yes" and changed the subject. I had gone from being your dog to "just a dog," and you resented every expenditure on my behalf.

Now you have a new career opportunity in another city and you and they will be moving to an apartment that does not allow pets. You've made the right decision for your "family," but there was a time when I was your only family.

I was excited about the car ride until we arrived at the animal shelter. It smelled of dogs and cats, of fear, of hopelessness. You filled out the paperwork and said "I know you will find a good home for her." They shrugged and gave you a pained look. They understand the realities facing a middle-aged dog or cat, even one with "papers."

You had to pry your son's fingers loose from my collar as he screamed "No, Daddy! Please don't let them take my dog!" And I worried for him and what lessons you had just taught him about friendship and loyalty, about love and responsibility, and about respect for all life. You gave me a goodbye pat on the head, avoided my eyes, and politely refused to take my collar and leash with you. You had a deadline to meet and now I have one, too.

After you left, the two nice ladies said you probably knew about your upcoming move months ago and made no attempt to find me another good home. They shook their heads and asked "How could you?"

They are as attentive to us here in the shelter as their busy schedules allow. They feed us, of course, but I lost my appetite days ago. At first, whenever anyone passed my pen, I rushed to the front, hoping it was you - that you had changed your mind - that this was all a bad dream... or I hoped it would at least be someone who cared, anyone who might save me. When I realized I could not compete with the frolicking for attention of happy puppies, oblivious to their own fate, I retreated to a far corner and waited.

I heard her footsteps as she came for me at the end of the day and I padded along the aisle after her to a separate room. A blissfully quiet room. She placed me on the table, rubbed my ears and told me not to worry. My heart pounded in anticipation of what was to come, but there was also a sense of relief. The prisoner of love had run out of days. As is my nature, I was more concerned about her. The burden which she bears weighs heavily on her and I know that, the same way I knew your every mood.

She gently placed a tourniquet around my foreleg as a tear ran down her cheek. I licked her hand in the same way I used to comfort you so many years ago. She expertly slid the hypodermic needle into my vein. As I felt the sting and the cool liquid coursing through my body, I lay down sleepily, looked into her kind eyes and murmured "How could you?"

Perhaps because she understood my dogspeak, she said "I'm so sorry." She hugged me and hurriedly explained it was her job to make sure I went to a better place, where I wouldn't be ignored or abused or abandoned, or have to fend for myself - a place of love and light so very different from this earthly place. With my last bit of energy, I tried to convey to her with a thump of my tail that my "How could you?" was not meant for her. It was you, My Beloved Master, I was thinking of. I will think of you and wait for you forever. May everyone in your life continue to show you so much loyalty."

- http://www.crean.com/jimwillis/

o

"If there are no dogs in Heaven,

then when I die I want to go where they went."

- Will Rogers

Dogs are better spirits than people will ever be...