"For 500 years, a pattern has destroyed every global superpower that followed it. Spain collapsed in the 1600s. Britain lost its empire by 1954. The Soviet Union disintegrated in 900 days. Three empires. Three complete collapses. All following the exact same seven-stage sequence. And the United States has already completed five of those seven stages.
This documentary traces the collapse pattern across three superpowers and five centuries - from Spain's silver wealth that bankrupted the richest empire on Earth, to Britain's pound that lost reserve currency status within decades of two world wars, to the Soviet Union that went from superpower to non-existent in less than three years. Each believed they were exceptional. Each believed the pattern wouldn't apply to them. Each followed the sequence to total collapse anyway. The seven-stage pattern is identical across all three empires:
Stage 1 - Military Overextension,
Stage 2 - Currency Debasement,
Stage 3 - Debt Spiral,
Stage 4 - Loss of Productive Capacity,
Stage 5 - Social Decay,
Stage 6 - Loss of Reserve Currency Status,
Stage 7 - Collapse.
Spain completed all seven stages between 1590 and 1670. Britain completed them between 1914 and 1954. The Soviet Union completed them between 1945 and 1991. And the United States is currently at Stage 5, with clear warning signs of Stage 6 emerging.
This isn't speculation about some uncertain future. This is pattern recognition across 500 years of documented history. Three empires followed seven stages. All three collapsed completely. The United States has completed five stages and is showing early signs of stage six. The math is unsustainable - $38 trillion debt growing by $2 trillion annually, interest payments exceeding $1 trillion, no political will to address it. The pattern says Stage 6 and 7 are inevitable. The only question is timing. History doesn't predict the exact date, but it shows the sequence with absolute certainty. Understanding where we are in that sequence determines whether you prepare or get blindsided."
“Here is one of the largest objects that anyone will ever see on the sky. Each of these fuzzy blobs is a galaxy, together making up the Perseus Cluster, one of the closest clusters of galaxies. The cluster is seen through a foreground of faint stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy.
Near the cluster center, roughly 250 million light-years away, is the cluster's dominant galaxy NGC 1275, seen above as a large galaxy on the image left. A prodigious source of x-rays and radio emission, NGC 1275 accretes matter as gas and galaxies fall into it. The Perseus Cluster of Galaxies, also cataloged as Abell 426, is part of the Pisces-Perseus supercluster spanning over 15 degrees and containing over 1,000 galaxies. At the distance of NGC 1275, this view covers about 15 million light-years.”
“Divinity is not playful. The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest. By a power that is unfathomably secret, and holy, and fleet.” You may recall these words from Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.” There is nothing intrinsically cheerful about the world, she says. To live is to die; it’s all part of the bargain. Stars destroy themselves to make the atoms of our bodies. Every creature lives to eat and be eaten. And into this incomprehensible, unfathomable, apparently stochastic melee stumbles… You and I. With qualities that we have - so far - seen nowhere else. Hope. Humor. A sense of justice. A sense of beauty. Gratitude. But also: Anger. Hurt. Despair. Strangers in a strange land.
Galaxies by the billions turn like St. Catherine Wheels, throwing off sparks of exploding stars. Atoms eddy and flow, blowing hot and cold, groping and promiscuous. A wind of neutrinos gusts through our bodies, Energy billows and swells. A myriad of microorganisms nibble at our flesh.
We have a sense that something purposeful is going on, something that involves us. Something secret, holy and fleet. But we haven’t a clue what it is. We make up stories. Stories in which we are the point of it all. We tell the stories over and over. To our children. To ourselves. And the stories fill up the space of our ignorance. Until they don’t. And then the great yawning spaces open again. And time clangs down on our heads like a pummeling rain, like the collapsing ceiling of the sky. Dazed, stunned, we stagger like giddy topers towards our own swift dissolution. Inexplicably praising. Admiring. Wondering. Giving thanks.”
"We work in the dark. We do what we can to battle the evil that would otherwise destroy us. But if a man's character is his fate, it's not a choice but a calling. Sometimes the weight of this burden causes us to falter from the fragile fortress of our mind, allowing the monster without to turn within. We are left alone staring into the abyss, into the laughing face of madness."
- Fox Mulder, "X-Files"
“He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself
does not become a monster, when you gaze long
into the abyss the abyss also gazes into you.”
- Nietzsche
o
Freely download “Beyond Good And Evil”, by Friedrich Nietzsche, here:
“Divide and rule” tactics are as old as human conflict. Instead of building consensus among the members of a tribe or nation, rulers exacerbate grievances that exist between social groups. By doing so effectively, a military or political leader with only minority support can maintain control over a much larger group of people who refuse to work together. Julius Caesar used this strategy to conquer Gaul. The Ottoman Empire ruled over a great number of tribes using the same technique. The British Empire controlled the Indian subcontinent in much the same way. Turning potential enemies against one another enables an otherwise insufficient force to seize and preserve power.
Modern Western politics is an endless “divide and rule” operation. Rarely do political leaders speak in terms that will unite strong majorities of their peoples. Even more rarely do they speak of their nations as families or articulate ways for everyone to get along. Instead, they divide society into groups of “oppressors” and “victims” and explain to anyone suffering why it’s someone else’s fault.
In parliamentary systems across Europe, there are so many political parties that national leaders rarely have majority support. Floating political alliances often produce legislative results that the public could never have predicted. For many years, I have regularly asked European friends and associates whether they view their national identity as more important than their European Union identity. I’ve asked them point-blank, “Are you willing to give up national sovereignty for a single, continental government?” Every single time - regardless of how pro-E.U. the person is - the answer is the same: “My nation comes first.”
Regardless of those expressed personal feelings, the European Union barrels ahead toward a single super-state. What started out as a post-war trading bloc exercising few real powers has grown into a continental government with its own currency, president, debt, and growing budgets. If the Eurocrats can successfully use the Russia-Ukraine War to scare member-states into action, there will soon be a single European military force. WWI ended several historic empires on the continent. WWII ended German dreams of a pan-European empire. Eighty years later, a single European empire looks all but certain.
How did that happen? Well, it certainly didn’t come from a Europe-wide referendum in which the half a billion citizens were asked whether they would agree to dissolve national borders and elect Ursula von der Leyen as president. It came from steady incrementalism over many decades, during which local divisions were used to the political advantage of one overarching European government. Don’t like your national government or local representatives? Put your faith in the European Union, and all your problems will disappear.
There’s a reason the European Commission spends so much money on “democracy” movements within the borders of member-states: It has a vested interest in riling up the locals and diluting anti-E.U. sentiment. These days, European Union officials tell the continent’s inhabitants that to be “anti-E.U.” is to be “pro-Putin.” Europeans who prefer national sovereignty are dismissed as “dangerous nationalists” who spread “Russian disinformation.” It’s a cynical yet effective way to build a European empire.
In the United States, two major political parties generally vie for power. This means that a majority of citizens usually supports the elected president. It does not mean, however, that the “divide and rule” dynamic is any less pervasive. When discussing current events in the United States, corporate news talking heads are stuck on endless repeat: racism, white supremacy, Christian nationalism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, fascism, and hate. Everything that news corporations publish is meant to turn Americans against one another.
Why would international corporations spend so much time working to divide Americans? Because if American citizens are busy calling one another “racists” and “bigots,” then they’re not paying attention to how the federal bureaucracy is spending trillions of dollars in taxes. We watch Republican and Democrat members of Congress call one another vile names leading up to an election, and then we watch those same politicians laughing with one another once they’ve been handed another term in office.
Republican and Democrat senators don’t despise one another. They despise the American taxpayer who might object to whatever new spending boondoggle they have planned. If you can keep Americans at one another’s throats, then nobody notices how many wars are being funded; how many corporate donors are being rewarded; or how much wealth is being transferred from middle-class households to “non-governmental” organizations, family foundations, foreign countries, and other profit-chasing special interests.
As for the vast federal bureaucracy that acts as a permanent government in the United States, it benefits when Americans are too busy yelling at each other to notice what its members are doing. The CIA, FBI, IRS, and EPA, and the hundreds of other agencies, departments, and governmental bodies that enforce their will upon ordinary Americans, prefer for voters to waste all their energies screaming about pronouns and historic grievances. While the politicians divide voters by relative “victimhood,” the permanent bureaucratic government rules over the people with little opposition. While the politicians speak about “democracy,” America’s unelected bureaucratic empire grows.
For several decades now, European and American officials have used mass illegal immigration as the primary engine for their “divide and rule” operations. The politicians justify their open border policies as humanitarian efforts to assist foreigners escaping oppression. They even insist that Western nations are responsible for those claiming “asylum” by blaming “global warming” on Western capitalism and calling waves of unvetted migrants “climate refugees.” All of that is just propaganda for the corporate news institutions to cycle on loop.
In reality, the endless arrival of foreign migrants supplies endless possibilities for manufactured social division. How do you “divide and rule” a Christian nation? Relocate millions of Muslims into the country and lecture the native population on “white supremacy” and “Christian nationalism.” Celebrate “oppressed” cultures and condemn Western civilization as “imperialist,” “patriarchal,” and “racist.” Accuse all those who love their country’s history of being “hateful bigots.” Redefine traditional values as forms of “hate” and then criminalize “hate.” Mass illegal immigration has become Western governments’ preferred “divide and rule” currency.
All of this engineered division within Western societies does raise an important question, though: If there is nothing left to unite us, how will we ever defend ourselves from civilizations that wish us harm? If Western citizens see their neighbors as enemies, how will they ever work together to fight back real enemies? Or do Western governments plan on dividing us until there is nothing left and America and Europe can just be handed over to Islamic conquerors and Chinese communists?
If submission to foreign powers is not the goal, then Western leaders need to throw their “divide and rule” playbooks in the fire and find ways to unite Western citizens once again. Western self-hatred has one outcome: Western immolation. If we do not rediscover the ties that bind us, we will be scattered to the wind. If we do not remember how to honor our ancestors and our cultural history, those who do cherish their history will one day conquer us. The European Union can scream about a looming Russian invasion all it wants, but it will not matter if other civilizations are allowed to invade its member-states. At some point, Western nations must stop manufacturing division. If they don’t, they will perish, and it won’t much matter who is ruling then."
"Hope is with you when you believe The earth is not a dream but living flesh, That sight, touch, and hearing do not lie, That all things you have ever seen here Are like a garden looked at from a gate. You cannot enter. But you're sure it's there. Could we but look more clearly and wisely We might discover somewhere in the garden A strange new flower and an unnamed star. Some people say we should not trust our eyes, That there is nothing, just a seeming, These are the ones who have no hope. They think that the moment we turn away, The world, behind our backs, ceases to exist, As if snatched up by the hands of thieves."
"A shortage of everything is coming, and people are getting ready. Grocery prices jumped 50-70% already. Farmers are losing their farms. The food supply is breaking down. And millions of Americans sense something much bigger is approaching. This video shows you what's actually happening right now and what to do about it. Real preppers teaching what to stockpile, medical knowledge that could save your life, how to stay safe when systems collapse. Not panic - just preparation. From depression-era essentials to understanding antibiotics, from tracking real price explosions to staying invisible when neighbors get desperate. This isn't about bunkers. This is about being ready for food shortages, economic collapse, and mass scarcity. Things that are actually coming."
"Millions of Americans rely on EBT cards to feed their families - but with the government shutdown, that safety net could vanish overnight. What happens when the system stops working? Will people adapt… or will chaos unfold? In this video, I talk about what an EBT halt could mean for everyday Americans, why it’s more than just a budget issue, and how this moment could become one of the largest social experiments in modern history."
"Sticker Shock Alert: Your health insurance costs are about to skyrocket in 2026, and it's a nightmare we all need to prepare for. In this video, I discuss the alarming rise in premiums, why many of us are experiencing sticker shock, and how it’s affecting individuals across the country. From my own experiences with insurance and healthcare to insights from industry professionals, this is a wake-up call everyone needs to hear. Whether you're navigating Obamacare, Medicare, or private insurance plans, the challenges are real, and the costs are staggering."
"You can bet the 12 purported geniuses on the FOMC have never looked at the graph below. It shows that for all their wild-ass money printing in recent years, the US index of manufacturing output stands at 101.39, which is nearly 5% below the level reached on the eve of the financial crisis in December 2007.
That’s right. The US manufacturing economy has been shrinking in real physical terms for the past 18 years, notwithstanding the fact that during that interval the Fed has printed nearly $6 trillion in brand, spanking new money that it snatched from thin air. So something big and bad happened after the Fed went all in on money-printing in response to the stock market meltdown in the fall of 2008. After all, during the 28 years between 1972 and 2000 the very opposite occurred. Manufacturing output in the US rose by nearly 150%, which translates to a 3.3% growth rate per annum.
Yet there is no mystery as to why manufacturing output abruptly went flatter than a board after the Financial Crisis. To wit, the mad money-printers in the Eccles Building simply inflated the bejesus out of the US economy at a time when what was urgently needed was a stern deflation of an already inflation-bloated industrial sector.
Here’s the thing: the price of a Pilates studio session or dentist visit is mainly driven by supply and demand balances in local markets, but with today’s shipping and communications technology, the manufacture of durable goods is subject to ferocious global competition. Indeed, when you look at the current fully loaded (for fringes and benefits) wage rates among major foreign suppliers, it is no wonder that the output of US-manufactured goods has flatlined.
Average Fully Loaded Manufacturing Wages Per Hour in 2024:
Well, for crying out loud! What’s the mystery? The USA has priced itself out of the global manufacturing market, which is exactly why America has been running chronic and massive trade deficits that reached the staggering annual level of $1.2 trillion in 2024. Indeed, the collapse of America’s trade balance has been relentless over the last 30 years, with the deficit rising by 10X, from $10 billion to $100 billion. Per month!
And, no, POTUS, foreign trading partners did not suddenly turn into ever-worsening unfair trade cheats in the last three decades. The cause of the plunging line below is domiciled on the banks of the Potomac, not in foreign capitals.
The vast gap between US manufacturing wages and those of our major trading partners has been building relentlessly since the early 1990s, when Greenspan put the Fed in the monetary central planning business. Back then, the fully loaded US manufacturing wage was about $18.50 per hour, meaning that it has risen in nominal terms by 2.4X since then.
However, owing to the Fed’s relentless pro-inflation policies, the CPI index has risen by 124%, meaning that in 2024 dollars, the 1992 fully loaded manufacturing wage was $41.10 per hour. Accordingly, workers who managed to keep their jobs gained barely 7% over one-third of a century from all of the Fed’s pro-inflation money printing, even as the ever-rising level of nominal US wages made blue-collar workers a sitting duck in global markets. Again, for want of doubt, see the gaping fully loaded international manufacturing wage levels in US dollars shown above.
Of course, the Fed’s fanboys on Wall Street say not to worry - productivity gains will offset the nominal wage gains. That was partially true for a few years during the technology-driven productivity boom of the 1990s, but no more. Since 2007 unit labor costs in US manufacturing have soared by +53%, which exactly coincides with the deep plunge in the US trade deficit in goods after the turn of the century.
In short, what America really needed from the early 1990s onward, as the China export machine and its worldwide supply chain came to life, was zero inflation at worst and ideally a spell of price, wage, and cost deflation to offset the vast ballooning of US production costs after Tricky Dick Nixon severed the dollar’s link to gold in August 1971. Between that date and mid-1992, the general price level in the US rose by 250%, and now stands at 700% above its June 1971 level. Is there any wonder, then, that the US has priced itself out of the global manufacturing market?
Of course, this sheer monetary insanity is justified by the Fed on the grounds that inflation is good for prosperity, at least to the extent of 2.00% annually, year in and year out. Except there is not a shred of historical evidence or sound economic logic to justify the Fed’s sacred 2.00% target. It’s just a handy excuse for running the printing presses at rates which please the gamblers on Wall Street and the Spenders in Washington.
Industrial production is the heart of the modern economy and the main source of sustainable gains in real output and living standards. Even a half-assed assessment of the world in 1990 would have told any honest and capable monetary central planner that wringing out some of the 250% increase in the domestic cost and price level that had accumulated since Camp David was imperative if the US was to remain competitive in global markets.
Alas, the Keynesian fools who took over the nation’s central bank under Greenspan’s leadership cooked up a closed bathtub style model of the US economy, and conferred upon themselves the Keynesian mission of keeping "aggregate demand" full to the brim via low interest rates and massive injections of fiat credits into the nation’s financial markets. That was a drastic error from the get-go, but the money-printing gospel is of such convenience to both ends of the Acela Corridor that this cardinal pro-inflation error rolls forward unquestioned by both wings of the UniParty.
Accordingly, with inflation stalled at more than 3.0%, when it should be zero or negative, the Fed has again sung the Einstein Chorus. That is to say, these "insane" apparatchiks seem to believe that doing the same thing over and over again - even after 700% inflation - will finally generate a positive outcome. Decades of reckless money-printing have hollowed out America’s industrial core and set the stage for the next great financial upheaval."
“Oh, you’re surprised Jeff Epstein committed suicide?
Imagine how surprised Jeff must have been.”
Baltimore, Maryland - "Gosh…what is in those Epstein Files? Enough to change the US system of government? Maybe.
There are three branches of the ‘tri-partite’ government. Executive, Legislative. Judicial. Congress makes the laws. The administration executes the laws. And the courts resolve controversies. The idea is that they work together, one challenging and limiting the other. That is the system of checks and balances that is meant to protect ‘our democracy.’
Future generations of historians will no doubt marvel at how easily and quickly the three-part system was tossed overboard. Already, many important pieces of it are in the water — the ‘war power’…the budget power…trade policy…and much more. “Laws” are still written, but at the president’s request. And now, Trump’s man in Congress, Mike Johnson, has simply closed down the House.
This is not at all the same thing as the ‘shutdown’ of the federal government we’ve been hearing about. The feds have shut down executive functions, not legislative functions. But Mr. Johnson has closed the House too. Why? You would think that representatives would have something to talk about. Fortune:
The U.S. national debt has surged past $38 trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, just two months after surpassing previous forecasts to reach $37 trillion in August. This means the federal debt rose by $1 trillion in a little over two months, which the Peter G. Peterson Foundation calculates is the fastest rate of growth outside the pandemic. Michael A. Peterson, CEO of the nonpartisan watchdog dedicated to fiscal sustainability, said this landmark is “the latest troubling sign that lawmakers are not meeting their basic fiscal duties.” In a statement provided to Fortune, Peterson said that “if it seems like we are adding debt faster than ever, that’s because we are. We passed $37 trillion just two months ago, and the pace we’re on is twice as fast as the rate of growth since 2000.”
Peterson emphasized that the costs of carrying this debt are mounting rapidly. Interest payments on the national debt now total roughly $1 trillion per year, the fastest-growing category in the federal budget. Over the last decade, the government spent $4 trillion on interest, and Peterson calculated that it will balloon to $14 trillion over the next 10 years. He said that money “crowds out important public and private investments in our future.”
But the House - meant to be where the peoples’ representatives solve this kind of problem - is as silent as a tomb. No hearings. No investigative reports. No committee meetings. Of course, the House will re-open soon, right? After all, it has work to do. But what if it never really opens again?
According to internet scuttlebutt, one of the reasons for the closure may be that POTUS and other powerful figures do not want to see their names in the Epstein files. And if the House reconvenes, Speaker Johnson will be forced to seat the newly-elected Adelita Grijalva, who has said she would provide the final vote necessary to bring the files to light. It seems unbelievable that the House could be put out of business over a single vote on a non-essential subject, but would anyone miss it? Maybe not.
Congress could easily end the shutdown by coming to an agreement on healthcare subsidies. Other disputes, too, could be readily resolved in the familiar way - in which both sides agree to spend more money. But how do you compromise on the Epstein files? The Biden administration didn’t want to release them. And now, neither does the Trump team. They promised to do so, but then Biden Administration didn’t want to release them. And now, neither does the Trump team. They promised to do so…but then they insisted that they never had any files. It was a ‘hoax,’ said POTUS. And there was nothing to see in them, anyway.
That is possibly true. But Bill Clinton reportedly visited Epstein’s island 28 times. What were they talking about? And Trump was supposed to have been Epstein’s “closest friend” for ten years, according to audiotapes recorded by journalist Michael Wolf and reported by Salon. Maybe those files would be devastating, not just to a few high-profile men…but also to the tight relationship between the US and Israeli intelligence.
Which leads us to wonder if the House will ever re-open as long as the threat of complete release of the Epstein files remains a risk. After less than a year of the second Trump term Americans have gotten used to being governed by the Big Man. Hardly a day goes by that he fails to announce a fresh policy - never discussed or approved by Congress. Trump does this, says one headline. Trump does that, says another. There appears to be no limit to what POTUS can do.
So why do we need a House of Representatives? In Germany, the Reichstag was burned in 1933. In the US, will the House be simply cancelled? And how hard would it be to shift legislative power to the Big Man? All Mike Johnson has to do is play dead. If he doesn’t re-open the House soon, Trump may be forced to assume emergency powers. And who could blame him? Stay tuned."
"The business incentives driving consumer AI development
remain fundamentally misaligned with reducing hallucinations."
-The Singularity Hub on "X"
"Which is to say, there is Reality, and then there is every other cockamamie aggregate of simulation pretending to represent Reality, i.e. garbage. How many millions among us already subscribe to the latter? Apparently, lots, and they are not evenly distributed these days. You surely know where to look for the un-Reality. The party of men can get pregnant, and all the rest. . . .
Enter A-I to make things worse. Probably a lot worse. We have failed to learn the chief lesson of the computer age, which is that the virtual is not an acceptable substitute for the authentic. So, we plunge deeper into realms of the un-real and the inauthentic. This turns into a quest to get something-for-nothing, and the unfortunate result of that old dodge is that you will end up with nothing, and that is exactly why we are at such a hazardous pass in the human project.
I apologize if the above seems too metaphysical. But that’s the scenery en route when a civilization flies up its own wazoo. Novelist Cory Doctorow has nicely labeled this the enshitification of daily life.
First of all, get this: A-I has already quit operating as-advertised. It has lost the “I” part. A-I does its thing by rapidly combing through the Internet to evaluate and seize information that you request. Increasingly, A-I colonizes the Internet with second-hand, third-hand, and so forth A-I-generated information. The more territory A-I seizes on the Web, and the more it trains itself on recursive feedbacks of its own garbage, the more distorted the output gets. As that occurs, A-I becomes increasingly abstracted from Reality, which is exactly what happens when a person goes insane. So, expect an exponential rise in incorrect content that would, in theory, become a pretty serious problem when you ask A-I to run things like systems we depend on, the electric grid, harvesting crops, warfare. . . .
Secondly, as that process runs, and probably before it gets very far, A-I looks like it will wreck the financial system, which, in turn, would crater the economy of everyday life - the ability of people to earn a living, buy stuff, support children, get food, and stay out of the rain. Zillions of dollars are being invested in A-I now and lately it is mainly what drives the capital markets. So far, alas, return on that investment is scant - actually, negative. The situation might never improve, and as the recognition hits, look out below. The only question is whether that happens before the central banks destroy the world’s currencies with money-printing.
One A-I application, robotaxi services such as Waymo, have never turned a profit. Will they ever? Doesn’t look good. Notice, too, that the elimination of cab-drivers means X-number fewer humans making a living to buy stuff (presumably made by other people in other jobs soon to be replaced by robots). Of course, that’s the self-replicating problem with all applied A-I in every field of employment. The more jobs eliminated, the fewer customers for anything. Please don’t tell me that guaranteed basic income fixes that problem.
In desperation - and due to certain weaknesses of human nature - another early attempt to monetize applied A-I turns out to be pornography: create your own personalized sex fantasy to-order. Companies are already producing the first rudimentary A-I sex robots, which, let’s face it, amounts to a masturbation industry. Why bother cultivating a real-live girlfriend when you can fall into the pre-heated silicone embrace of a Jennifer Lawrence simulation that will never talk back or ask for anything? You can easily see how that would result in a whole lot less human reproduction - of which there is already a signal shortage in Western Civ - meaning even fewer people to work at anything or buy anything or do anything, or simply be here in the pageant of Planet Earth.
The A-I pioneers managed to make the situation worse from the get-go. The Open A-I company’s Chat GPT, Google’s Gemini and Bard A-Is, and Facebook’s Meta A-I are all trained-up to be politically Woke-to-the-max, meaning on any given issue in the public arena their output is one patent absurdity or another. Note: last April, conservative activist Robby Starbuck sued Facebook when its chatbot reported out falsely that he had been on-the-scene for the Jan 6, 2021 US Capitol protest (he was in Tennessee that day). Facebook’s parent company, Meta, settled the case with Starbuck in August, 2025, for undisclosed terms and the company apologized publicly.
Two days ago, Mr. Starbuck sued Google for defamation (with malice and negligence) when it’s Bard A-I output alleged that he was a “child rapist,” a “serial sexual abuser,” that he abused and stalked his ex-wife (Starbuck states in his lawsuit that he has no ex-wife). It accused him further of fraud, embezzlement, drug charges, stalking business partners, and being a “shooter” or “person of interest” in a 1991 murder case (Starbuck was two years old at the time), of appearing in Jeffrey Epstein’s flight logs (untrue), working as a porn actor, and voicing support for the Ku Klux Klan.
The A-I cited non-existent news articles from outlets such as Newsweek, The New York Post, Rolling Stone, Mediaite, The Daily Beast, and Salon, along with fake URLs and headlines (e.g., “Robby Starbuck Responds to Murder Accusations”). Starbuck demonstrated this in a podcast episode on October 22–23, 2025, where he queried the A-I live.
"Philadelphia - once called the City of Brotherly Love - now hides a heartbreaking reality behind its historic streets. In this episode of US Homeless Stories, we walk through Kensington, a neighborhood where despair and addiction have created one of America’s most shocking humanitarian crises. This documentary takes you deep inside Philadelphia’s homeless hell - where fentanyl dominates, tents stretch for blocks, and human suffering unfolds in plain sight. You’ll hear the real voices of those forgotten by society, struggling each day to survive the chaos of 2025. Through unfiltered street footage and emotional interviews, we expose the hidden face of urban poverty and the collapse of a system meant to protect its people. Welcome to a side of America most never see - raw, painful, and real. Share your thoughts in the comments - what would you do if this was your city?"
"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."
"Powerful explosions have been occurring on the farside of the Sun, blasting tons of plasma towards Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS and the planet Venus while pelting Earth and the other inner planets with high-energy particles (protons, electrons). As this is happening 3 other comets have positioned themselves around Earth in a sort of tetrahedron formation, altering the energy resonance field of the Solar System as a whole. Meanwhile, strange business ensues with NASA as key footage of these solar explosions was apparently deleted from the public data records and imagery of 3I/ATLAS from the Mar's Reconnaissance Orbiter taken around October 3rd still has yet to be released by the infamous agency. An international campaign has been initiated to observe 3I/ATLAS in November and December, and a whirlwind of misinformation is inundated the internet around 3I/ATLAS... geophysicist Stefan Burns does his best to separate fact from fiction and provides the latest space weather update."
“To some, the outline of the open cluster of stars M6 resembles a butterfly. M6, also known as NGC 6405, spans about 20 light-years and lies about 2,000 light years distant. M6 can best be seen in a dark sky with binoculars towards the constellation of Scorpius, coving about as much of the sky as the full moon.
Like other open clusters, M6 is composed predominantly of young blue stars, although the brightest star is nearly orange. M6 is estimated to be about 100 million years old. Determining the distance to clusters like M6 helps astronomers calibrate the distance scale of the universe.”
“Singing Beside Me In The Wilderness” by Chet Raymo
“In one of those infuriating lapses that go with being a certain age, we could not remember the other evening the name of the poet who wrote "A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou..." After scraping the tip of my tongue for a few minutes, I turned to the computer (Google is my browser's home page) and by typing "jug thou" brought Omar Khayyam back into consciousness. (Another click and I could have had the entire Rubaiyat.) (Freely download the entire "Rubaiyat" at that link. - CP)
And so it is that the Googlized internet arrives just in time to compensate for our withering brain cells. Everything I ever remembered is there to be Googled, plus everything I never remembered. Ten billions pages. The searchable memory of the human race. With more yet to come.
My great-great-grandchildren will no doubt have tiny video cameras implanted in the middle of their foreheads, like Hindu beauty marks, recording everything that passes before their eyes 24-7, with a sound track too. All of which will be stored digitally, ready for instant playback, and searchable by date, time, GPS coordinates, or keywords- the whole of a life, not only available to the subjects themselves in their memory-lapsed dotage, but to future generations. "Here's great-great-grandpa on his ninety-first birthday, back in 2027. Look how he dribbles soup on his shirt. Ha, ha."
I think nature knew what it was doing when it allows our memory to fade with age. It is particularly notable that the more unpleasant memories go first, so that every summer past was golden with sunshine, and every child was a model of respectful propriety. And no one, not even grandpa himself, remembers the time he... “
"You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour. Now you must go back and tell the people that this is The Hour. Here are the things that must be considered: Where are you living? What are you doing? What are your relationships? Are you in right relation? Where is your water?
It is time to speak your Truth. Create your community. Be good to each other. And do not look outside yourself for the leader. This could be a good time!
There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift, that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water. And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personal. Least of all, ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.
The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word "struggle" from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. We are the ones we have been waiting for!"
“No. Not like this. I haven't faced death. I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. I know nothing.”
- James T. Kirk, "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"
“Death is the only wise advisor that we have. Whenever you feel, as you always do, that everything is going wrong and you're about to be annihilated, turn to your death and ask if that is so. Your death will tell you that you're wrong; that nothing really matters outside its touch. Your death will tell you, 'I haven't touched you yet.'”
- Carlos Castaneda, "Journey to Ixtlan"
"When The Soon To Be Mrs. and I were just dating, I was cooking something or other. I think it was eggs. I like eggs sunny side up, and don’t particularly care if they’re cooked all the way.
The Soon To Be Mrs.: “Aren’t you worried about salmonella?”
John Wilder: (Laughs in full Chad manifestation.)
The Soon To Be Mrs.: (Swoons.)
Seriously, she swooned. I’ve never seen it before in my life, but in that moment I think that was what sealed the deal, the moment in time that The Soon To Be Mrs. realized that this one is different. He’s not like the others. Here is a man who has zero fear of The Current Thing, and knows that salmonella won’t be the thing that punches his ticket out of having a functioning circulatory system.
No. I’m not afraid of salmonella. I would spit in its tiny little eyes or flagellum or tentacles and say, “Not today, my bacterium friend! My Danish-Scots-Germanic blood is far too strong for the likes of you!” And then I would attack Poland. Oh, wait, that’s been done.
I know I’m not going to die like Hemingway, and I’m not going to die like the comedy greats Belushi, Twain, or Nietzsche did. Nope. I think I’m gonna go out like Elvis. On a toilet after having eaten a fried peanut butter, jelly and bacon sandwich covered in cheddar cheese and mayo. Nope, I’m gonna die on a toilet. I mean, after all, a king should spend his last moments on the throne, right?
A lot of people worry about dying. I suppose I did, in my 20s, when I was worried about carrying out my responsibilities as a dad. Those are serious responsibilities – because those kids are going to be the legacy that I leave on Earth. That and my writing, collection of PEZ® dispensers and velvet Elvis paintings.
Again, a lot of people worry about dying. I’m not sure why. Of things that are more-or-less predetermined, that’s the big one. We’re all going to die. All of us. And I’m not sure I care.
Oh, sure, I want to live. I have no particular desire to die. If given the preference, I suppose I’m in favor of my continued heartbeat. But I don’t fear death. I don’t go to sleep at night wondering if this pain or that pain or that thing might be the symptom I look up on WebMD® that seals the deal that Wilder is going up to irritate Jesus in Heaven with bad puns.
I don’t worry about some future point when I’m going to enjoy life. I’ve achieved nearly every goal I’ve ever set for my life. End. Full stop. It’s like when a baseball game goes into extra innings, “Hey, free baseball.” And me? Free life. I’ve done nearly everything I’ve ever wanted to do.
What do you give a man who has everything? I mean, besides another bottle of wine. You give that man: Today. I’ve got Today. The only moment I live in is right now. And right now isn’t all that bad. I’m sitting in the sitting room (question: is any room I sit in, by definition, a sitting room? Discuss.) with the cool night air blowing in the window, some songs I love playing on the laptop, a cold beer by the keyboard, and the knowledge that at this moment, everything is fine.
Literally, in my life, Every Single Thing Is Fine. I could go into details, but you already know how awesome I am. So, I live for today? Hell no.
t’s the inversion of beauty: it consists of being positive about, well, any old thing that feels good. I could list these “pleasures”, but you know the list as well as I do. We see it every day, with vice being paraded as virtue, and the continual demand going out for people to celebrate it, because, “Can’t you see? This horrid abomination that no healthy society or people in the entire history of the world has tolerated, iS BeAuTIfUL!” No, I think living a life built on YOLO is one doomed to fail – inevitably it will fail based on two reasons: it is materialism or a faith based on the nihilism of the material world writ large, and it is based on needs, like youth, wealth, sensation, or, yes, even life. So, not YOLO.
One thing I’ve tried to preach is outcome independence. Indeed, since the final outcome of life on Earth is fixed, all the intermediate steps lead there. Instead, I try to focus on virtue and faith. I write not because of YOLO, and not because it’s easy. Some nights it’s hard as hell to get the post to “close” and feel right. There are dozens of posts where, even after 1600 words, I still didn’t say exactly what I meant to say. That’s okay, it’s on me. I’m learning, and if I were perfect at this, I wouldn’t have more work to do.
For me, it’s the work. It’s getting better. It’s finding ways to add value to those people around me. There are those who pull their weight in the world, and those that don’t. I want to be one that pulls his weight, who has contributed as much as I can to helping my family and the wider world.
I don’t always do it. And I’m not always right, either. I’ve produced some stuff in my life that was really, really good, but not perfect. Thankfully, that’s not my mark, either, since just like immortality here on Earth, searching for perfection is a lonely and silly pastime. I want to make the world a better place with my family (first) and my work (now second) guided by God. And I want people to laugh hard while learning and thinking about the things I write.
The beauty of this is to win, all I have to do is the best that I can do every day. To win? All I have to do is be the best person I can be every day. See? Each night, I go to bed and sleep soundly if I know, in that day, that I gave it my all. Do I take time for me? Sure. But that’s not the goal – I serve a higher purpose.
So, what do I fear? Not death. It’s coming whether I like it or not, and, honestly, I’d rather not return my body in factory-fresh condition – I’d like all the parts to fail at once. On the toilet. I think Elvis would have wanted it that way. Oh, wait... I wonder if Elvis ate eggs sunny-side-up? Hang on, I’m sure he did. Elvis ate everything."
