Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 6/18/26
"Alert! Moscow Burning, Talks Cancelled,
War In Lebanon Restarts"
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So, we rise from the rubble...
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Friday, June 19, 2026
Thursday, June 18, 2026
"Americans are Starting to Lose Interest in Everything And It's Concerning"
Full screen recommended.
Finance Economist, 6/18/26
"Americans are Starting to Lose Interest
in Everything And It's Concerning"
"You picked up your phone last night at 10:30. You scrolled through nothing. You put it down at 11:15 and stared at the ceiling and felt something heavier than sadness that you could not name. You are not alone. Psychologists didn’t have a word for what you’re feeling until 2021. Half the workforce has quietly quit. 54% of adults feel isolated. 90% say mental health crisis. 264,000 die of despair every year. And the system that made you feel this way did it on purpose. Because a population that has lost interest in everything is the easiest to extract from. Your numbness is not a failure. It is the product."
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Musical Interlude: Jennifer Warnes, "Joan Of Arc"
Full screen recommended.
Jennifer Warnes, "Joan Of Arc"
"I have long adored this song by the late Leonard Cohen, and performed impecably
by Jennifer Warnes. This is the performance at Night of the Proms in Antwerp in 1992."
"A Look to the Heavens"
“What are those red clouds surrounding the Andromeda galaxy? This galaxy, M31, is often imaged by planet Earth-based astronomers. As the nearest large spiral galaxy, it is a familiar sight with dark dust lanes, bright yellowish core, and spiral arms traced by clouds of bright blue stars.
A mosaic of well-exposed broad and narrow-band image data, this colorful portrait of our neighboring island universe offers strikingly unfamiliar features though, faint reddish clouds of glowing ionized hydrogen gas in the same wide field of view. These ionized hydrogen clouds surely lie in the foreground of the scene, well within our Milky Way Galaxy. They are likely associated with the pervasive, dusty interstellar cirrus clouds scattered hundreds of light-years above our own galactic plane.”
The Poet: Mary Oliver, "Lead"
"Lead"
"Here is a story to break your heart.
Are you willing?
This winter the loons came to our harbor and died,
one by one, of nothing we could see.
A friend told me of one on the shore
that lifted its head and opened
the elegant beak and cried out
in the long, sweet savoring of its life
which, if you have heard it,
you know is a sacred thing,
and for which, if you have not heard it,
you had better hurry to where they still sing.
And, believe me, tell no one just where that is.
The next morning this loon, speckled
and iridescent and with a plan
to fly home to some hidden lake,
was dead on the shore.
I tell you this to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world."
- Mary Oliver
"Where Your Gaze Lingers..."
“Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that has nothing to do with you, this storm is you. Something inside you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, and walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up the sky like pulverized bones.
You have to look! That’s another one of the rules. Closing your eyes isn’t going to change anything. Nothing’s going to disappear just because you can’t see what going on. In fact, things will be even worse the next time you open your eyes. That’s the kind of world we live in. Keep your eyes wide open. Only a coward closes his eyes. Closing your eyes and plugging up your ears won’t make time stand still.”
- Haruki Murakami
“Closing your eyes won’t make the awfulness go away. It may be that nothing will. But dwelling on it, dreading the evil, playing out the misery in your head – doesn’t this feed the monster? You can’t close your eyes to life, but you can choose where your gaze lingers.”
- Richelle E. Goodrich
“Sigmund Wollman’s Reality Test”
“Sigmund Wollman’s Reality Test”
by
Robert Fulghum
“In the summer of 1959, at the Feather River Inn near the town of Blairsden in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of northern California. A resort environment. And I, just out of college, have a job that combines being the night desk clerk in the lodge and helping out with the horse-wrangling at the stables. The owner/manager is Italian-Swiss, with European notions about conditions of employment. He and I do not get along. I think he’s a fascist who wants pleasant employees who know their place, and he thinks I’m a good example of how democracy can be carried too far. I’m twenty-two and pretty free with my opinions, and he’s fifty-two and has a few opinions of his own. One week the employees had been served the same thing for lunch every single day. Two wieners, a mound of sauerkraut, and stale rolls. To compound insult with injury, the cost of meals was deducted from our check.
I was outraged.
On Friday night of that awful week, I was at my desk job around 11:00 P.M., and the night auditor had just come on duty. I went into the kitchen to get a bite to eat and saw notes to the chef to the effect that wieners and sauerkraut are on the employee menu for two more days.
That tears it. I quit! For lack of a better audience, I unloaded on the night auditor, Sigmund Wollman.
I declared that I have had it up to here; that I am going to get a plate of wieners and sauerkraut and go and wake up the owner and throw it on him. I am sick and tired of this crap and insulted and nobody is going to make me eat wieners and sauerkraut for a whole week and make me pay for it and who does he think he is anyhow and how can life be sustained on wieners and sauerkraut and this is un-American and I don’t like wieners and sauerkraut enough to eat it one day for God’s sake and the whole hotel stinks anyhow and the horses are all nags and the guests are all idiots and I’m packing my bags and heading for Montana where they never even heard of wieners and sauerkraut and wouldn’t feed that stuff to the pigs. Something like that. I’m still mad about it.
I raved on this way for twenty minutes, and needn’t repeat it all here. You get the drift. My monologue was delivered at the top of my lungs, punctuated by blows on the front desk with a fly-swatter, the kicking of chairs, and much profanity. A call to arms, freedom, unions, uprisings, and the breaking of chains for the working masses.
As I pitched my fit, Sigmund Wollman, the night auditor, sat quietly on his stool, smoking a cigarette, watching me with sorrowful eyes. Put a bloodhound in a suit and tie and you have Sigmund Wollman. He’s got good reason to look sorrowful. Survivor of Auschwitz. Three years. German Jew. Thin, coughed a lot. He liked being alone at the night job – gave him intellectual space, gave him peace and quiet, and, even more, he could go into the kitchen and have a snack whenever he wanted to – all the wieners and sauerkraut he wanted. To him, a feast. More than that, there’s nobody around at night to tell him what to do. In Auschwitz he dreamed of such a time. The only person he sees at work is me, the nightly disturber of his dream. Our shifts overlap for an hour. And here I am again. A one-man war party at full cry.
“Fulchum, are you finished?”
“No. Why?”
Lissen, Fulchum. Lissen me, lissen me. You know what’s wrong with you? It’s not wieners and kraut and it’s not the boss and it’s not the chef and it’s not this job.”
“So what’s wrong with me?”
“Fulchum, you think you know everything, but you don’t know the difference between an inconvenience and a problem. If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire – then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. Learn to separate the inconveniences from the real problems. You will live longer. And will not annoy people like me so much. Good night.” In a gesture combining dismissal and blessing, he waved me off to bed.
Seldom in my life have I been hit between the eyes with a truth so hard. Years later I heard a Japanese Zen Buddhist priest describe what the moment of enlightenment was like and I knew exactly what he meant. There in that late-night darkness of the Feather River Inn, Sigmund Wollman simultaneously kicked my butt and opened a window in my mind.
For thirty years now, in times of stress and strain, when something has me backed against the wall and I’m ready to do something really stupid with my anger, a sorrowful face appears in my mind and asks: “Fulchum. Problem or inconvenience?”
I think of this as the Wollman Test of Reality. Life is lumpy. And a lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat, and a lump in the breast are not the same lump. One should learn the difference. Good night, Sig.”
Golden Quiet Things, "A Beautiful World"
Full screen recommended.
Golden Quiet Things, "A Beautiful World"
"Experience 'Beautiful World', a heartwarming cinematic folk ballad celebrating the wonders of nature, adventure, and a life well lived. Follow an older traveler as he journeys through majestic mountains, emerald forests, golden fields, starlit skies, and endless oceans. With warm acoustic guitar, gentle cello, rich harmonies, and nostalgic storytelling, this song is a tribute to the breathtaking beauty that surrounds us every day. Whether you love folk music, travel songs, nature documentaries, relaxing acoustic melodies, or inspirational storytelling, this journey is for you. Mountains and canyons, emerald forests and flowing rivers, Northern lights and starry skies Endless oceans and coastal horizons . A celebration of life, gratitude, and wonder..."
"Let Me Age With Grace, Not Burden"
Full screen recommended.
Delta King's Blues,
"Let Me Age With Grace, Not Burden"
"Don’t ask for forever… just ask for dignity along the way. “Let Me Age With Grace, Not Burden” is a tender, heartfelt Delta King’s Blues tune about growing older with peace, keeping your spirit strong, and hoping to remain a blessing rather than a weight on the ones you love. A gentle, slow-moving resonator guitar carries the melody like a quiet evening rocking chair on the porch. The harmonica breathes soft and reflective, filled with gratitude, hope, and the wisdom of years gone by. The groove stays warm and unhurried, built for sunset skies, family memories, and prayers spoken under your breath. This is blues with humility and grace. For those who don’t fear old age - only the hope of walking through it with kindness, strength, and peace. Let the years change my face… not my heart."
"The Last Watch, Even When I Can’t Stand…I’m Still Yours"
Full screen recommended.
Midnight Corner,
"The Last Watch,
Even When I Can’t Stand…I’m Still Yours"
"A heartbreaking emotional story song about an old loyal dog and her elderly owner, both becoming weak with time, yet still holding on to the love that never fades. “Even when I can’t stand… I’m still yours.” This song is for everyone who has loved a dog like family - the ones who protected us, stayed beside us, waited for us, and gave their whole heart until the very end. May this song touch your heart and remind you that true love does not disappear. It stays in memories, in silence, and in the little places they once filled."
Native Elder, "Why You Shouldn't Be Afraid of Your Final Years"
Full screen recommended.
Native Elder,
"Why You Shouldn't Be Afraid of Your Final Years"
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"If You Look..."
"We have got some very big problems confronting us and let us not make any mistake about it, human history in the future is fraught with tragedy. It's only through people making a stand against that tragedy and being doggedly optimistic that we are going to win through. If you look at the plight of the human race it could well tip you into despair, so you have to be very strong."
- Robert James Brown
Dan, I Allegedly, "Are Banks More Powerful Than Governments?"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 6/18/26
"Are Banks More Powerful Than Governments?"
"Who really has more power over your life: the government you vote for or the bank that controls your mortgage, credit cards, savings, and access to money? In this video, I break down why central banks, interest rates, lenders, and financial institutions may have more influence over your daily life than elected officials. From home loans and credit scores to inflation and rising living costs, we're going to examine who really calls the shots. We'll discuss unelected decision-makers, why higher interest rates hurt working families, why banks get bailed out when things go wrong, and what you can do to protect yourself financially. Whether you're concerned about inflation, housing, debt, retirement, or the economy, this conversation affects every American. The question is simple: Are banks more powerful than governments? Watch this video and let me know what you think in the comments below."
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"Shopping in a Soviet Food Market In 2026"
Full screen recommended.
Travelling With Russell, 6/18/26
"Shopping in a Soviet Food Market In 2026"
"Where do Russians go shopping? What does a Soviet food market look like inside? Join me at Moskvoretsky Market Food Market to find out what an original Soviet shopping center looks like. First opened in 1937, with more than 700 different shops inside."
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"Judge Napolitano, Judging Freedom, 6/18/26"
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/18/26
"Larry Johnson: Trump Caves on All Iran’s Demands!"
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Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/18/26
"Prof. Mohammad Marandi: Do Iran and the US Have a Deal?"
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Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/18/26
"Max Blumenthal: Israel In Panic"
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Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/18/26
"Col. Douglas Macgregor: Israel The Real Loser"
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"U.S. Oil Stockpiles Fall To Critically Low Levels As Iran Continues To Control The Strait Of Hormuz"
"U.S. Oil Stockpiles Fall To Critically Low Levels
As Iran Continues To Control The Strait Of Hormuz"
by Michael Snyder
"Those that believe that the global energy crisis is going to be magically solved by a “memorandum of understanding” that is already being violated by both sides are going to be in for a very rude awakening. As you will see below, the Iranians have continued to launch drones at commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. How are shipowners and insurance companies supposed to feel comfortable while this is going on? In the “memorandum of understanding”, Iran agreed to allow commercial vessels to travel through the Strait at no charge for a period of 60 days. Hopefully that will actually happen. After the 60 day period is done, the Iranians have already announced that they are going to go back to charging ships to pass. Any ships that do not pay up will be subject to attack. Meanwhile, global oil supplies will just continue to get tighter and tighter.
Over the past couple of months, the U.S. has been the supplier of last resort for the entire world. This has kept oil prices at reasonable levels. But once our stockpiles are gone, we won’t be able to do that any longer.
Unfortunately, our stockpiles are rapidly disappearing. It is being reported that total U.S. oil inventories have now fallen for 10 weeks in a row…"U.S. crude oil inventories fell for a 10th straight week last week as demand surged, pushing total stockpiles to their lowest level in over 40 years as the Iran war continues to upend global energy markets, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Total crude inventories, including commercial stocks and those in the Strategic Petroleum, plunged by 17.2 million to 758.5 million barrels last week, its lowest since March 1985, the EIA said."
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is in better shape than commercial oil inventories, but even it has fallen to the lowest level since 1983…"The U.S. supply of emergency oil has hit its lowest level since 1983, according to newly released federal data. The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is down to 340.3 million barrels, according to the data released on Monday." The last time that levels were this low was 1983, when the Reagan administration was filling up the reserve for the first time. The U.S. established the emergency oil reserve in 1975 after an oil producer embargo against the country triggered an energy crisis.
We should have never allowed ourselves to reach such a dangerously low level. But I am far more concerned about what is happening to our commercial oil inventories. The tanks in Cushing, Oklahoma are about to hit critical operating levels, and even CNN is writing about this… Today, neighboring Cushing is the hub of America’s energy market. It literally provides the oil plumbing for the United States. It’s where America’s benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil is priced and warehoused. From there, it’s piped to refineries around the country.
In normal times, Cushing stores around 40 million barrels of oil with capacity of up to 75 million. These are not normal times. Right now, there are approximately 21.6 million barrels of oil at Cushing. That sounds like a lot. But as CNN has correctly noted, once the tanks at Cushing drop below 20 million barrels of oil “they effectively hit empty”…
"Cushing’s current inventory is 21.6 million barrels, according to the US Energy Information Administration. That’s dangerously close to operational stress levels, the tipping point at which Cushing struggles to supply all of its customers with the oil they demand. When Cushing’s reserves get below 20 million, they effectively hit empty, scraping the bottom of the barrel of what is largely unusable sludge." And when Cushing runs empty, strange things happen to the oil market.
To say that “strange things” will occur is a major understatement. Once we hit the 20 million barrel mark at Cushing, there will be widespread panic. We cannot drop below that level, because the storage tanks need a certain amount in them in order to be able to keep operating…In oil storage tanks, “tank bottoms” refer to the unusable layer of sludge, sediment, water, paraffin, and other residues that settle at the base. These cannot be easily pumped or processed without operational issues.
At the Cushing hub level, the operational stress threshold is around 20 million barrels. Below this, pipelines lose pressure, blending and transfers between tanks become difficult or impossible, and outbound flows to refineries or export terminals can be curtailed or delayed. Experts note that much of the remaining volume at current levels (potentially only 1–1.6 million barrels truly usable) consists of this sludgy material.
There is no way that we can keep supplying the rest of the world. In fact, in very short order we won’t have enough oil to supply everyone in this country. On Wednesday, President Trump openly told the press that the U.S. is on pace to “run out of reserves in about four weeks”…President Trump’s comment at the tail end of the G7 press conference about rapidly depleting crude reserves may have been the clearest admission yet of what is really driving the urgent push for an MoU with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. “We run out of reserves in about four weeks,” Trump told reporters.
This is one of the reasons why Trump was so desperate to make a deal with Iran. But the deal is already failing. According to NBC News, the Iranians “launched multiple drones toward commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz” after the memorandum of understanding was signed…"Iran has launched multiple drones toward commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz since the United States and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding on Sunday, according to a US official, NBC News reported on Tuesday.
The official said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been carrying out repeated drone launches targeting shipping lanes in the strategic waterway. US forces have intercepted the drones before they could threaten commercial or military vessels, the report said.
According to NBC News, the official added that the IRGC has launched multiple drones each night since the agreement was signed, and that the US military continues to coordinate with commercial shipping operators to support safe transit through the Strait of Hormuz."
The Iranians were supposed to open the Strait of Hormuz. Of course we were told the exact same thing when the first ceasefire agreement was signed, and that never materialized either. But let’s assume that the Iranians stop attacking vessels in the Strait and decide to keep their word. According to the text of the memorandum of understanding, the Iranians will have the right to control traffic through the Strait of Hormuz once a 60 day period of free passage is over…
"Upon the signing of this MOU, Islamic Republic of Iran will make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge for 60 days only from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman, and vice versa. The traffic of commercial vessels will immediately start, and considering the need for removing the technical and military obstacles and demining by the Islamic Republic of Iran will be instated within 30 days. The Islamic Republic of Iran will conduct dialog with the Sultanate of Oman to define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz in discussion with other Persian Gulf or littoral states in line with the applicable international law and the sovereign rights of coastal states of the Strait of Hormuz."
As I have discussed previously, the Iranians have repeatedly stated that they intend to charge ships to pass through the Strait once the 60 day period has been completed. And even if everything goes perfectly, it would still take many months for traffic through the Strait to return to close to pre-war levels. Meanwhile, the world will continue to run an oil deficit. Stockpiles will continue to be depleted, and there will be shortages. Hopefully the shortages will be isolated. But I wouldn’t count on that, because I am convinced that the war in the Middle East is far from over. If all-out war erupts again, that will make the crisis that we are facing so much worse. So let us hope for the best, but let us also get prepared for the worst."
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Bill Bonner, "What AI Won't Do, Part Three"
Turtles on a log.
"What AI Won't Do, Part Three"
by Bill Bonner
Youghal, Ireland - Will AI make us all “very rich,” as Mr. Trump assures us? Will it make anyone rich? Take the softball first. Will it make us all rich? It will not — and the very asking of the question betrays a mind that has never paused to consider how the world is actually put together.
“Rich” is a relative thing, not an absolute one. We can no more all be rich than we can all be in the ninetieth percentile; the word itself would be meaningless. So it is with “truth.” With “good.” With “handsome,” and with very nearly every adjective a fellow can pull from the dictionary.
A battery, to carry a positive charge, requires a negative ground; flip it as you please, but you cannot have the one without the other. And when “good” or “fast” or “rich” floods the land in overwhelming quantity, you may as well have none of it at all.
Consider the tallies of yesterday morning. Between the ringing of the IPO bell and his next breakfast, Elon Musk is reckoned to have gained some $400 billion. But the old principle of declining marginal utility tells us that each fresh dollar is worth less than the last. Spread across a whole economy this melancholy truth wears the name “inflation,” and it gnaws quietly at every dollar in your pocket. For a man like Elon, sitting upon roughly $1,400,000,000,000, the next single dollar is worth approximately nothing. Park that fortune in U.S. Treasuries and it throws off some $56 billion a year in interest. Every second is worth $29 to Elon. So, the dollar lying on the sidewalk is not worth stooping to pick it up.
Hold this in mind as we proceed, for it is the very hinge on which the whole contraption swings, and it explains why AI is apt to prove a fat and conspicuous flop. The principle is this: that which is too easily had is not worth having, and that which is already too plentiful is not worth piling higher. In Stockholm a fine bronze tan draws admiring glances; in Dakar or Kinshasa, not so much.
Which brings the follow-up question. If not all of us, then who? At first squint, the prizes would seem to fall to those chasing them - recklessly, even, with great barrowloads of other people’s money. We refer to the hyperscalers, financed by the trusting shareholders of Microsoft, Meta, Google, SpaceX and the rest. If a queue is forming for those destined to strike it rich, surely they stand at the head of it. But as we saw yesterday, those apparently best placed to seize a new technology are commonly those most thoroughly chained to the old one.
We all remember Kodak. Its “Kodak moment” marched straight into common usage. Kodak even invented the digital camera back in the 1970s. But it could never coax a profit from it, and slid into bankruptcy in 2012. Today’s Kodaks may meet the same undertaker.
The true Henry Fords of AI may not be those with household names, nor the glittering IPOs. They may not even be Americans. Politico: "People around the world see a winner on AI - and it’s not the US. Respondents in key U.S.-allied countries increasingly see China as the world’s AI leader, while American optimism about the technology continues to erode."
Whatever. But there lurks a further possibility: that AI may simply turn out to be a dud. It deals in words, designs, fake videos, scraps of information - and it scoops these ‘ideas’ from the internet, where the human race has deposited them in great reeking heaps, like guano upon some forgotten island. A little manure does wonders for the roses. Shovel on too much and they wilt and die. Dollars cheapen as they multiply, and so do ideas. In the stock market, when every last soul is certain a share will rise, one thing alone is sure: it will not rise - for who is left to buy once “everyone” has already laid down his bid?
The machines can ape Shakespeare’s sonnets, draft an airplane, untie a mathematical knot - and do it in an instant. They also work around the clock, without rest. Every eleventh-grader now knows AI can knock out a term paper better than the boy himself and trim a screenplay in a wink, and all of it at very nearly no cost at all.
In the time it takes your editor to grind out one of these dispatches, the machine called Claude can produce a hundred - no exaggeration; we put it to the proof. It needs less than five minutes for Claude to write one. In the six or seven hours we spend chiseling a single column into shape, Claude turns out dozens, and they all sound smarter than we do - like a celebrated economist, like a Financial Times editorial, like a man who actually knows what he is talking about. And then - here is the rub - the next iteration of the machine will feed not upon our labors but upon its own, for it has manufactured so many more of them.
The Conversation: "More than half of new articles on the internet are being written by AI. The experts now put AI-generated stuff at 80 percent of the top search results. And since these AI artifacts are groomed and pimped by the algorithms of AI itself, the AI-driven search shows a tender preference for its own offspring. AI-optimized. AI-written. AI-ready. The upshot is that the human sources which once made the machine seem clever are buried in a mounting pile of its own derivatives. AI has stopped imitating human intelligence in other words; it now imitates AI intelligence.
A doubter once accosted Thomas Huxley - the great Victorian naturalist - as he was explaining how the planets wheel about the sun, insisting instead that the world lay flat upon the back of a turtle.
“And what,” asked Huxley, hoping to drive his questioner into an absurdity, “does the turtle stand upon?”
“Another turtle,” said the woman.
“And that turtle - what does it stand upon?”
“No, no, Mr. Huxley, you do not understand. It’s turtles all the way down.”
And so it shall be in the brave new world of AI - a counterfeit world, quality smothered beneath quantity, and humbug all the way down."
"You're Watching The American Empire End"
Full screen recommended.
Finance Economist, 6/17/26
"You're Watching The American Empire End"
"Jeffrey Sachs Columbia professor, advisor to three UN Secretaries General, twice named Time’s 100 Most Influential gave six interviews in four months declaring that American hegemony is over. He called the Iran war the breaking point. He said the SWIFT sanctions began dethroning the dollar. He said China’s industrial dominance is the real power shift. He said the political class is trapped in 1991. He said multipolarity has already arrived. Past tense. Done. One publication described his analysis as “an autopsy of an empire that still believes it is immortal.” Gold is at $4,722. The dollar is at a 30-year reserve low. Your television didn’t show you any of it. This video does."
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"Alert: The Iran War is Not Over, The MOU Is A Sham. Round 2 Will be Worse"
Canadian Prepper, 6/17/26
"Alert: The Iran War is Not Over, The MOU Is A Sham.
Round 2 Will be Worse"
Wednesday, June 17, 2026
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Galaxies don't normally look like this. NGC 6745 actually shows the results of two galaxies that have been colliding for only hundreds of millions of years. Just off the above digitally sharpened photograph to the lower right is the smaller galaxy, moving away. The larger galaxy, pictured above, used to be a spiral galaxy but now is damaged and appears peculiar. Gravity has distorted the shapes of the galaxies.
Although it is likely that no stars in the two galaxies directly collided, the gas, dust, and ambient magnetic fields do interact directly. In fact, a knot of gas pulled off the larger galaxy on the lower right has now begun to form stars. NGC 6745 spans about 80 thousand light-years across and is located about 200 million light-years away."
"He Cannot Help..."
“A person who has not been completely alienated, who has remained sensitive and able to feel, who has not lost the sense of dignity, who is not yet ‘for sale’, who can still suffer over the suffering of others, who has not acquired fully the having mode of existence – briefly, a person who has remained a person and not become a thing – cannot help feeling lonely, powerless, isolated in present-day society. He cannot help doubting himself and his own convictions, if not his sanity.”
- Erich Fromm
"The American Empire: Promises Broken, Truth Buried, No Liberty, No Freedom"
Celente & The Judge, 6/17/26
"The American Empire: Promises Broken,
Truth Buried, No Liberty, No Freedom"
"Gerald Celente and Judge Andrew Napolitano break it down - calling out America’s transformation into an empire driven by endless wars and global dominance. From the Iran War racket to decades of deception, they expose the pattern: lies sold to the public, promises never kept, and policies that leave nations destroyed and economies sinking. This hard-hitting conversation uncovers the truth behind the war machine and the consequences for America’s future.
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.
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Jeremiah Babe, "The FED Will Crash The Dollar Or The Stock Market"
Jeremiah Babe, 6/17/26
"The FED Will Crash The Dollar Or The Stock Market"
Comments here;
"15 Americans Reveal What's Really Happening Across The Country And It's Scary"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 6/17/26
"15 Americans Reveal What's Really Happening
Across The Country And It's Scary"
"The economy looks 'fine' on paper, so why does everyone feel like they're falling behind? This video pulls together real people sharing what daily life actually costs right now: layoffs, rent hikes, rising grocery prices, and student loan debt that won't budge. You'll hear from a worker laid off the same week her rent jumped $1,100, a homeowner whose mortgage rose over $7,000 a year, and a teacher shopping on a $50 summer budget. What this video covers:
• Layoffs hitting workers with strong performance reviews and great clients.
• Rent jumping while wages stay flat against $1,600 to $2,000 bills.
• Grocery prices climbing while portions and quality shrink.
• Homeowners watching property taxes push monthly mortgage payments higher .
• Student loan and medical school debt reshaping people's life plans.
• The wide gap between everyday struggles and wealthy spending habits.
If any of this hits close to home, drop a comment about what's stretching your budget the most right now. Share this with someone who keeps hearing that things are 'fine' when their own numbers say otherwise. Subscribe for more compilations that put real voices to what people are dealing with. This video looks at the rising cost of living, layoffs and unemployment, rent increases, grocery prices, student loan debt, mortgage and property tax hikes, and the growing gap between paychecks and bills that so many people are facing right now."
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"Hand In Hand"; "A Very Old Town"
Full screen recommended.
Gengu AI,
"Hand In Hand"; "A Very Old Town"
"Welcome to Gengu AI – your ultimate destination for AI-generated music and next-generation sound experiences. This channel is dedicated to creating unique, high-quality tracks powered by artificial intelligence, blending creativity and technology to deliver music that feels fresh, emotional, and immersive. AI was the tool. The story came from human feeling. If this film gave you a quiet breath, a memory, or a moment of peace, thank you for being here."
"Getting Old Sucks (But Everybody’s Doing It)"
Full screen recommended.
Delta King's Blues,
"Getting Old Sucks (But Everybody’s Doing It)"
"Ain’t nobody enjoys the creaks and cracks… but we’re all heading there together.“Getting Old Sucks (But Everybody’s Doing It)” is a funny, brutally honest Delta King’s Blues tune about stiff joints, fading energy, and learning to laugh at the universal ride of getting older. A gritty, easy shuffle acoustic guitar keeps the groove moving like an old truck that rattles but still runs. The harmonica grins and groans at the same time, carrying equal parts humor and truth. The rhythm rolls slow and steady, built for folks who know aging ain’t pretty - but it sure makes for good stories. This is blues for everybody feeling the years. For people who ache a little more, nap a little longer, and laugh a little harder about it. Getting old may suck… but the alternative ain’t much better."
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"I'm One of the Last of My Tribe... I Need to Tell You Something Before I Go"
Full screen recommended.
Native Elder,
"I'm One of the Last of My Tribe...
I Need to Tell You Something Before I Go"
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"How It Really Is"
Everywhere you look, faces buried in the phone. Several generations of idiots...
"The problem isn't that Johnny can't read. The problem isn't even that Johnny can't think.
The problem is that Johnny doesn't know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling."
- Thomas Sowell
"It’s Not Van Life – Millions of Americans Are Living in RVs Just to Survive"
Full screen recommended.
The Unfolded States, 6/17/26
"It’s Not Van Life – Millions of Americans
Are Living in RVs Just to Survive"
"Millions of Americans are now living in RVs, vans, and cars, not for freedom or adventure, but because traditional housing has become financially out of reach. As the housing crisis continues to worsen across the United States, more working people are being pushed into a form of hidden homelessness that most people never see. In this video, we break down the real economics behind vehicle homelessness, including why rent has outpaced wages, how housing supply shortages created a severe affordability gap, and why RVs have become the last fallback option before street homelessness. We also examine how rising insurance, healthcare, and living costs are quietly reshaping what survival looks like for millions of Americans.
This is not just a story about homelessness. It is a deeper look at what happens when full-time work no longer guarantees stable housing. From service workers and families to retirees on fixed incomes, this shift reveals how America’s housing market is changing and why safe parking programs may be a sign of a much larger structural problem. If rent in your city suddenly increased by five hundred dollars, how long could you realistically stay housed without borrowing or moving? Share your thoughts in the comments."
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Dan, I Allegedly, "They Sold You a Lie"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 6/17/26
"They Sold You a Lie"
"Today we're covering a major development as 36,000 student loan borrowers receive debt forgiveness after attending colleges accused of deceptive and predatory practices. Many students were promised high-paying careers, only to be left with massive debt, incomplete degrees, and limited job opportunities. We'll break down how these schools operated, why the government is forgiving these loans, and what it means for future borrowers. We also discuss the latest economic news, interest rates, inflation concerns, retail store closures, consumer spending trends, gold accumulation by central banks, vehicle recalls, and personal finance strategies to protect yourself during uncertain economic times. If you're concerned about the economy, debt, investing, banking, or your financial future, this episode is packed with information you need to know."
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Bill Bonner, "What AI Won't Do, Part II"
"What AI Won't Do, Part II"
by Bill Bonner
Youghal, Ireland - "Reuters: "Bank of Japan raises interest rates to 31-year high. The Bank of Japan raised interest rates to a 31-year high on Tuesday, marking another landmark step in normalizing monetary policy as it focused on taming price pressures from the energy shock caused by the Iran war.
Now here is a thing worth turning over. It puts two dots at wide angles...and pulling away from each other. Artificial Intelligence - now coming under the scrutiny of political quacks who couldn’t tell a transistor from a turnip - is supposedly destined to make us all “very rich.” So, the price of money ought to be sinking, not climbing. The logic is plain; the IPOs of the hyperscalers alone are forecast to shower an additional $4 trillion upon the moneyed classes. They will have a lot more money to lend.
Yet the rates rise. All over the world, central banks are raising rates, not lowering them. And with the US inflation reading now higher than the Fed Funds rate, odds are that no editorial, no policy white-paper, no breathless dispatch from a man with stock options will alter the verdict. Cycles, patterns, and History Herself - that grim and unsentimental dowager - always speak last, and they are not in the habit of asking permission. For four decades money grew cheaper. Now it grows more dear. That, we believe, is the primary trend. AI may be magic or mischief, but the tide does not consult the barnacles.
So how to connect the two dots? Consider SpaceX, which last year flung $12.7 billion into AI - thrice what it spent on its - and lost roughly half of it. For all the trumpeting, all the press-agentry, all the worshipful prose, this magnificent enterprise has not produced a single honest penny of new wealth. It has consumed billions in real hours and real material. They are not tucked away on some shelf awaiting a rainy day. They are gone - vanished, combusted, irrecoverable as last year’s snow.
To add to the wealth of the world, a company must make a thing it can sell to a willing and able buyer for more than it cost to make it. This elementary act of commerce - known to every fruit peddler and shoeshine boy since the Phoenicians - SpaceX has not yet performed, and may never perform. So far, measured honestly, it is a destroyer of wealth, not a creator of it. And so is AI.
Skanda Amarnath puts the big techs’ wager at some $2 trillion in software and machinery. In the last year alone the hyperscalers are said to have invested $400 billion in AI - a figure expected to swell to $700 billion this year. By what miracle of arithmetic do they ever get that money back?
Capital is not manna. It does not fall free from heaven. It must be reckoned with. And here the outlays are so monstrous that the depreciation alone is likely to dwarf whatever income the ‘intelligent’ machinery throws off. Translated out of the accountant’s mumble: they will lose money, properly counted, and lose a lot of it.
Strange things do happen, of course. We would not be so reckless as to pronounce success impossible - only improbable, which in the long run amounts to nearly the same thing for the man holding the shares.
When the dot-com bubble burst in the year 2000, hundreds of companies went to their graves even though the internet was still alive and well. But Amazon, Facebook, now known as Meta, Google, now decked out as Alphabet, and Microsoft crawled from the wreckage and prospered. They sold real services to real people and pocketed real profits, and they managed the feat without any “policy framework” to lead them by the hand. Now they shovel those profits into a fresh bet - AI - and the question hangs in the air like cigar smoke: will it pay, or are they merely squandering shareholders’ money to keep themselves looking cool? Nobody knows. Occasionally, an aging gentleman dyes his hair, purchases a scarlet roadster, and happily runs off with a girl half his years. More often, he succeeds only in looking like an old fool.
And perhaps a company grown fat on one technology can vault onto the next. But that is not the way it generally goes. The expert makers of horse drawn carriages did not bolt internal-combustion engines onto their hansoms and cabriolets; instead, they were swept off the road by upstarts named Ford, Dodge, and Olds. Nor, when the internet broke over the land, did the old data-grinders - IBM, Honeywell, Control Data - lead the charge. They were prisoners of their own yesterdays, manacled to the very thing that had enriched them. The new wave was surfed by Gates, Jobs, and Bezos, who had all come to the beach empty handed.
Elon, too, began with nothing, and now gallops at the head of every parade in sight - to Mars, to electric cars, to AI...and his “Boring Company” is busy burrowing beneath Las Vegas. The hyperscalers are resolved not to be left at the post. Even the flush and the canny ‘whales’ are eager to join in. The Wall Street Journal: "Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest person, has bought a more-than $1 billion stake in SpaceX, betting on founder Elon Musk and what she says is the potential for his rocket maker to shape industries for decades."
Ne sutor ultra crepidam - let the cobbler stick to his last. Mrs. R., it appears, has mislaid the maxim. The Journal goes on: "Her closely held company built a giant iron ore mine in Australia’s Pilbara, where Rinehart’s father, Lang Hancock, is widely credited with discovering a bounty of iron ore in the 1950s. Today, roughly half the world’s iron-ore exports come from that region.
She made her fortune the honest, gritty way - by selling Australia itself, by the ton. To leap from the certainties of the Pilbara’s open pits into the dark pool of rockets and thinking machines is a plunge into the genuinely unknown. And who can say - the dice are sometimes kind, even to those who throw them blind.
More to follow - on why, in a world where the price of money is climbing, AI may not make us ‘very rich’ after all."
Adventures With Danno, "Shopping Trip To Target!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 6/17/26
"Shopping Trip To Target!"
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Tuesday, June 16, 2026
"People Are Getting Angry About What's Happening To Their Food"
Full screen recommended,
Epic Economist, 6/16/26
"People Are Getting Angry About
What's Happening To Their Food"
"Shrinkflation is hitting your favorite snacks and meals, and this compilation shows real people opening up bags, boxes, and bags of fast food that came up short. You paid the same (or more) for less product, smaller portions, and packaging that looks emptier every year. From bagels with one raisin to chip bags that rattle, see exactly how the snacks and drinks you grew up with keep getting smaller while the prices climb. If you've noticed your groceries doing the same thing, drop a comment with the product that shocked you most and how much smaller it got. Subscribe so you never miss our next breakdown of shrinking snacks and rising prices, and share this with the friend who keeps saying it's all in your head. This video looks at shrinkflation, smaller snack sizes, rising grocery prices, fast food portion cuts, chip bag fill rates, ice cream bar shrinkage, deli meat weight, and packaging that holds less product than it used to."
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Musical Interlude: Alexandro Querevalú, "El Condor Pasa"
Full screen recommended.
Alexandro Querevalú, "El Condor Pasa"
"'El Condor Pasa' is an original Peruvian Folklore (song) popularized by Simon & Garfunkel in 1970. "If I could" is the best-known Peruvian song from the zarzuela El Cóndor Pasa composed by Daniel AlomÃa Robles in 1913. From 2004 this piece is a Cultural Heritage of Peru from 2004: This theme is considered the second National Anthem of Peru. The Condor flies in both the Americas connecting all natives races. The best ever live version with flute expressed in this musical interpretation by Peruvian musician Alexandro Querevalú with a native Indian flute called Quena and traditional Andes regalias (poncho) is felt deep within the soul.
Alexandro was born in Lima, Peru, to a humble but hard·working family. The oldest son of the family, he dreamed of helping his family financially. With this in mind, he emigrated to Poland at the age of 18. He plays a wide variety of wind instruments, such as the Quena, Quenacho, Antara or Zampona among others Andean and Native American flutes. He has a large repertoire, including 'The Last of the Mohicans', 'El Condor Pasa', and many other favorites. His live performances dressed in different Native American regalias are truly breathtaking.
Alexandro Querevalú is a brilliant performer, one of the best of his kind, and the one whose popularity has spread more than that of any other performer by means of social networks worldwide to the United States, Europe, Asia, the Arab countries and Australia. This is due to the unique way that he plays these indigenous instruments of both North and South America. The versatility, the eloquence, the sadness and the happiness which he expresses in his musical interpretations are felt deep within the soul, which is why he himself says “this song makes me cry.”
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"A Look to the Heavens"
“Why isn't this ant a big sphere? Planetary nebula Mz3 is being cast off by a star similar to our Sun that is, surely, round. Why then would the gas that is streaming away create an ant-shaped nebula that is distinctly not round?
Clues might include the high 1000-kilometer per second speed of the expelled gas, the light-year long length of the structure, and the magnetism of the star visible above at the nebula's center. One possible answer is that Mz3 is hiding a second, dimmer star that orbits close in to the bright star. A competing hypothesis holds that the central star's own spin and magnetic field are channeling the gas. Since the central star appears to be so similar to our own Sun, astronomers hope that increased understanding of the history of this giant space ant can provide useful insight into the likely future of our own Sun and Earth.”
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