Jim Kunstler, "The Grifters' Lament"

"The Grifters' Lament"

by Jim Kunstler

"We are the sickest country in the world. That's why we have to fire people at 

the CDC. They did not do their job! This was their job to keep us healthy!" 

- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

"What a gruesome spectacle it was to see HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. take on a conclave of vicious grifters on the Senate Finance Committee straining to warp reality in defense of their mighty patron, the nation-wrecking pharmaceutical companies. Do you understand how deep, convoluted, and grave the political sickness is?

Over the years, the public health agencies and “big pharma” had evolved into a symbiotic vector driving the nation into chronic illness. They allowed the population to poison themselves on a diet of corn syrup, engineered snack foods, and chemical additives. Result: epidemic obesity, diabetes, and many other illnesses. To counter that, they dosed everybody to-the-max with sketchily-tested pharma products while the agency employees raked in royalties and pharma got a get-outa-jail-free card in the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) - legal liability cancelled.

Then, they all badly mis-stepped, conniving in the Covid-19 operation, a still poorly-comprehended scheme to punk the American people and enable mail-in ballot fraud to steal the 2020 election. First, there was Dr. Fauci’s years’ long effort to hatch a novel corona virus, Covid-19, in labs here and overseas. Then, there was the opportune release of the virus in 2019. Then, the pharma response to the virus: a “miracle” mRNA vaccine that was likely already developed in secret, even before Operation Warp Speed was acted-out to pretend that pharma just came up with it. And, of course, there was President Trump 1.0 getting hosed by his Covid Response Team (Fauci, Birx, et al.) on all this.

Thus, you have that battery of US Senators all paid handsomely by Pharma to defend the industry with hysterical obfuscation against the lone figure, Mr. Kennedy, striving to correct all that fantastic corruption. He retorted to their malign nonsense honorably, revealing their conflicts of interest, their cupidity, the bales of dollars paid by pharma to the likes of Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and the rest over the years, and their longstanding silence on the afore-mentioned poisoning and drugging of America.

Incidentally, to understand how this grift got so exorbitant, look to the unfortunate 2010 Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (558 U.S. 310). In a 5-4 ruling (by majority conservative justices, then including Alito, Thomas, and Scalia), SCOTUS decided that previous prohibitions on corporate money in election campaigns were unconstitutional because corporations enjoy legal status as persons, that is, as citizens, and giving money to election campaigns is a form of free speech under the first Amendment, which can’t be abridged by any law.

And so, the spigot opened on vast fortunes laid on politicians by corporations seeking to protect their interests. If anything went to warp speed, it was the Beltway lobbying industry. The Citizens United decision was a singular tragedy for our country. The legal reasoning behind it was specious because corporations, unlike real human citizens, do not have duties, obligations, and responsibilities to the nation, entailed in their citizenship. Rather, corporations have duties, obligations, and responsibilities solely (and explicitly in law) to their shareholders, whose interests are not necessarily consistent with the public interest. Why has no one noticed this?

Well, they haven’t and that is exactly where American politics went badly off-the-rails. The resulting accelerated corruption in the public health agencies of our government has been a disgusting side effect of all that, which RFK, Jr., has been called to clean up, a Herculean task. The most visible manifestation of that corruption is the chronic illness of the people - 76.4 percent of all of us, he told the committee, with eight out of ten young men physically unfit for military service. We’re the sickest nation in the world.

When the senators confabulate over “the science,” what they really mean is the armature of medical authority that has enabled the money-flow to their campaign committees (and eventually to their own bank accounts.) It’s that very scaffold of authority that has collapsed. Why? Because the medical authorities lied over and over about the Covid-19 episode, and especially about the vaccines, which were never properly tested, and were neither safe nor effective.

Your own doctors got paid extravagantly to push the vaccine. The so-called Pfizer Papers, collected, collated, and analyzed by Naomi Wolf’s organization (because nobody else would do it) showed the sloppiness of the whole process behind the vaccines’ development and release, and the pharma companies’ evasion of responsibility for the damage done. The medical journals lied about everything from the origin of the virus to the efficacy of the vaccine. The CDC campaigned against viable, inexpensive treatments for the virus. The CDC pushed the worthless, gamed PCR tests to jack up the case numbers. The CDC pushed the idiotic mask rules, school closings, business closures, and the vaccine mandates. The hospitals killed people with remdesivir and respirators, and got paid for it! The authority of all these parties is blown, especially the CDC’s - and these perfidious senators have the gall to hide behind this “science”?

What Mr. Kennedy is challenged with is sorting through all the official lies told by these agencies - the so-called “data” - to arrive at a comprehensible picture of what really happened. And then to inquire beyond Covid into many other pharma products that might be making Americans sick. Neither the politicians nor the people employed by the agencies when Covid went down want that to happen."

- https://www.kunstler.com/

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Feast of Immortals"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "Feast of Immortals"

"In Irish folklore, Manannán Mac Lir hosted

 banquets at which those who ate never grew old."

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Except for the rings of Saturn, the Ring Nebula (M57) is probably the most famous celestial circle. Its classic appearance is understood to be due to our own perspective, though. The recent mapping of the expanding nebula's 3-D structure, based in part on this clear Hubble image,indicates that the nebula is a relatively dense, donut-like ring wrapped around the middle of a (American) football-shaped cloud of glowing gas. 

The view from planet Earth looks down the long axis of the football, face-on to the ring. Of course, in this well-studied example of a planetary nebula, the glowing material does not come from planets. Instead, the gaseous shroud represents outer layers expelled from the dying, once sun-like star, now a tiny pinprick of light seen at the nebula's center. Intense ultraviolet light from the hot central star ionizes atoms in the gas. The Ring Nebula is about one light-year across and 2,500 light-years away."

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

The Universe

"Life is not what you see, but what you've projected.

It's not what you've felt, but what you've decided.

It's not what you've experienced, but how you've remembered it. 

It's not what you've forged, but what you've allowed.

And it's not who's appeared, but who you've summoned.

And this should serve you well until you find what you already have."

- The Universe

○

“There are no accidents. If it's appeared on your life radar, this is why: to teach you that dreams come true; to reveal that you have the power to fix what's broken and heal what hurts; to catapult you beyond seeing with just your physical senses; and to lift the veils that have kept you from seeing that you're already the person you dreamed you'd become. There are no accidents. And believe me, that was one heck of a dream.”

“Tallyho,”

The Universe

“Thoughts become things... choose the good ones!”

- www.tut.com

Gerald Celente, "Bad Labor Market News"

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, PM 9/4/25

"Bad Labor Market News"

"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."

- https://trendsjournal.com/

Comments here:

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"The Economy Has Destroyed This City, Businesses Are Gone Forever, The Shocking Aftermath"

Full screen recommended.

Jeremiah Babe, PM 9/4/25

"The Economy Has Destroyed This City, 

Businesses Are Gone Forever, The Shocking Aftermath"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Millions Of Americans Are Living In Third World Conditions"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 9/4/25

"Millions Of Americans Are Living

 In Third World Conditions"

"It's 2025 and the American middle class is dead. Completely gone. And we're acting like this is fine. The country we grew up believing in doesn't exist anymore. The promise that hard work gets rewarded? That's over. Millions of Americans are living in conditions that would make third-world countries feel sorry for us.

The average person has been completely abandoned. Corporate overlords have squeezed every drop of wealth out of the working class and now demand we thank them for it. You're expected to sacrifice your entire existence - 70, 80 hours a week - just to barely survive. This isn't politics. This is economic warfare. The numbers are depressing and the people running this show are counting on us being too exhausted to fight back.

A basic one-bedroom apartment for $1,800 requires $64,800 annual income to qualify. 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Median household income is $70,000, but after taxes and necessities, people are drowning. We've created a system where most Americans can't afford basic shelter. When people can't afford traditional housing, where do they go? The answer should terrify you. Americans paying to live in storage units with no running water, no proper ventilation, no emergency exits, risking their lives because the alternative is homelessness.

And here's the thing - we're not just becoming a third-world country. We're becoming worse than one. At least in developing nations, people have communities, they have extended families, they have social structures. Here? You're on your own. You work 80 hours a week and die alone.

Let's talk about healthcare - and I want you to understand how completely we've been betrayed by this system. Emergency room visits that cost $7 in Vietnam are costing Americans $3,000 WITH insurance. Medical bankruptcy affects 530,000 families annually in America. That's more than the entire population of Wyoming going bankrupt every year just from getting sick.

This is American healthcare in 2025. People are choosing between insulin and rent. Between cancer treatment and keeping their homes. Families with decent jobs and insurance are being destroyed by medical debt. And the worst part? This was designed. This isn't an accident - this is how the system is supposed to work. It's a wealth extraction machine, and you're the product.

What we're witnessing is the complete destruction of the American economic model that built the middle class. For 75 years after World War II, we operated on a simple premise: work hard, follow the rules, get rewarded with a middle-class life. That social contract doesn't just exist anymore - it's been deliberately torn up and burned.

The question isn't whether Americans can adapt to third-world conditions - clearly we can. The question is what happens to a superpower when the majority of its population has nothing left to lose. Because that's where we're heading. And when we get there, when the cost of living exceeds human capacity to earn money, when 80-hour weeks aren't enough anymore - what happens then? The social contract between the American people and their government has been completely shattered. And historically, when that happens, very dark things follow."

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The Daily "Near You?"

Columbia, Tennessee, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"The Worst and the Stupidest?"

"The Worst and the Stupidest?"

by Victor Davis Hanson

"Elites have always been ambiguous about the muscular classes who replace their tires, paint their homes, and cook their food. And the masses who tend to them likewise have been ambivalent about those who hire them: appreciative of the work and pay, but also either a bit envious of those with seemingly unlimited resources or turned off by perceived superciliousness arising from their status and affluence.

Yet the divide has grown far wider in the 21st century. Globalization fueled the separation in a number of ways. One, outsourcing and offshoring eroded the rust-belt interior, while enriching the two coasts. The former lost good-paying jobs, while the latter found new markets in investment, tech, insurance, law, media, academia, entertainment, sports, and the arts making them billions rather than mere millions.

So, the problem was one of both geography and class. Half the country looked to Asia and Europe for profits and indeed cultural “diversity,” while the other half stuck with tradition, values, and custom - as they became poorer.

The elite found in the truly poor - neglecting their old union-member, blue-collar Democratic base - an outlet for their guilt, noblesse oblige, condescension at a safe distance, call it what you will. The poor if kept distant were fetishized, while the middle class was demonized for lacking the taste of the professional classes, and romance of the far distant underclass.

Second, race became increasingly divorced from class - a phenomenon largely birthed by guilty, wealthy, white elites and privileged, diverse professionals. For the white bicoastal elite, it became a mark of their progressive fides to champion woke racialism that empowered the non-white of their own affluent class, while projecting their own discomfort with and fears of the nonwhite poor onto the middle class as supposed “racists,” despite the latter’s more frequently living among, marrying within, and associating with the “other.”

The net result was more privilege for the elite and wealthy nonwhites, more neglect of the inner-city needy, and more disdain for the supposedly illiberal clingers, dregs, deplorables, chumps, and irredeemables.

The results of these contortions were surreal. The twentysomething who coded a video game that went viral globally became a master of the universe, while the brilliant carpenter or electrical contractor was seen as hopelessly trapped in a world of muscular stasis. Oprah and LeBron James were victims. So were the likes of Ibram X. Kendi, Ilhan Omar, and the Obamas, while the struggling Ohio truck driver, the sergeant on the frontline in Afghanistan, and Indiana plant worker became their oppressors. Or so the progressive bicoastal elite instructed us.

Globalization and its geography, along with the end of ecumenical class concerns, certainly widened the ancient mass-elite divide. But there was a third catalyst that explained the mutual animosity in the pre-Trump years. The masses increasingly could not see any reason for elite status other than expertise in navigating the system for lucrative compensation.

An Incompetent Elite: In short, money and education certification were no longer synonymous with any sense of competency or expertise. Just the opposite often became true. Those who thought up some of the most destructive, crackpot, and dangerous policies in American history were precisely those who were degreed and well-off and careful to ensure they were never subject to the destructive consequences of their own pernicious ideologies.

The masses of homeless in our streets were a consequence of various therapeutic bromides antithetical to the ancient, sound notions of mental hospitals. The new theories ignored the responsibilities of nuclear families to take care of their own, and the assumption that hard-drug use was not a legitimate personal-choice, but rather a catastrophe for all of society.

From universities also came critical race theory and critical legal theory, which were enshrined throughout our institutions. The bizarre idea that “good” racism was justified as a get-even-response to “bad” racism, resonated as ahistorical, illogical, and plain, old-fashioned race-based hatred.

The masses never understood why their children should attend colleges where obsessions with superficial appearances were celebrated as “diversity,” graduation ceremonies matter-of-factly were segregated by race, dorms that were racially exclusive were lauded as “theme houses,” Jim-Crow-style set-aside zones were rebranded “safe spaces,” and racial quotas were merely “affirmative action.”

Ancient notions such as that punishment deters crime were laughed at by the degreed who gave us the current big-city district attorneys. Their experiments with decriminalizing violent acts, defunding the police, and delegitimizing incarceration led to a Lord of the Flies-style anarchy in our major cities. Note well, those with advanced or professional degrees who dreamed all this up did not often live in defunded police zones, did not have homeless people on their lawns, and found ways for their children to navigate around racial quotes in elite college admissions.

So, the credentialed lost their marginal reputations for competency. Were we really to believe 50 former intelligence heads and experts who claimed Hunter Biden’s laptop was “Russian disinformation”? Even if they were not simply biased, did any of them have the competence to determine what the laptop was?

Or were we to take seriously the expertise of “17 Nobel Prize winners” who swore Biden’s “Build Back Better” debacle would not be inflationary as the country went into 9 percent plus inflation? Did we really believe our retired four-stars that Trump was a Nazi, a Mussolini, and someone to be removed from office “the sooner the better”?

Or were we to trust the 1,200 “health care professionals” who assured us that, medically speaking, while the rest of society was locked down it was injurious for the health of people of color to follow curfews and mask mandates instead of thronging en masse in street protests?

Middle Class Competence: On the operational level, the elite proved even more suspect. Militarily, the middle classes in the armed forces proved as lethal as ever, despite being demonized as racists and white supremacists. But their generals, diplomats and politicians proved so often incompetent in translating their tactical victories in the Middle East and elsewhere into strategic success or even mere advantage.

Nationally, the failure of the elite that transcends politics is even more manifest. The country is $37.3 trillion in debt. No one has the courage to simply stop printing money. The border is nonexistent, downtown America is a No Man’s Land, and our air travel is a circus - and not an “expert” can be found willing or able to fix things. 

The universities are turning out mediocre graduates without the skills or knowledge of a generation ago, but certainly with both greater debt and arrogance.

Our bureaucratic fixers can only regulate, stop, retard, slow-down, or destroy freeways, dams, reservoirs, aqueducts, ports, and refineries - and yet never seem to give up their own driving, enjoyment of stored water, or buying of imported goods.

Is it easier to topple than to sculpt a statue? A generation from now, in the emperor has no clothes fashion, someone may innocently conclude that most “research” in the social sciences and humanities of our age is as unreliable as it is unreadable, or that the frequent copy-cat Hollywood remakes of old films were far worse than the originals. Yet this lack of competence and taste among the elite is not shared to the same degree in a decline of middle-class standards.

Homes are built better than they were in the 1970s. Cars are better assembled than in the 1960s. The electrician, the plumber, and the roofer are as good or better than ever. The soldier stuck in the messy labyrinth of Baghdad or on patrol in the wilds of Afghanistan was every bit as brave and perhaps far more lethal than his Korean War or World War II counterpart.

How does this translate to the American people? They navigate around the detritus of the elite, avoiding big-city downtown USA. They are skipping movies at theaters. They are passing on watching professional sports. They don’t watch the network news. They think the CDC, NIAID, and NIH are incompetent - and fear their incompetence can prove deadly.

Millions increasingly doubt their children should enroll in either a four-year college or the military, and they assume the FBI, CIA, and Justice Department are as likely to monitor Americans as they are unlikely to find and arrest those engaged in terrorism or espionage.

When the elite peddles its current civil-war or secession porn - projecting onto the middle classes their own fantasies of a red/blue violent confrontation, or their own desires to see a California or New York detached from Mississippi and Wyoming - they have no idea that America’s recent failures are their own failures.

The reason why the United States begs Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia to pump more oil is not because of lazy frackers in Texas or incompetent rig hands in North Dakota, but because of utterly incompetent diplomats, green zealots, and ideological “scientists.”

Had the views of majors and colonels in Afghanistan rather than their superiors in the Pentagon and White House prevailed, there would have been no mass flight or humiliation in Kabul.

Crime is out of control not because we have either sadistic or incompetent police forces but sinister DAs, and mostly failed, limited academics who fabricated their policies.

Current universities produce more bad books, bad teaching, bad ideas, and badly educated students, not because the janitors are on strike, the maintenance people can’t fix the toilets, or the landscapers cannot keep the shrubbery alive, but because their academics and administrators have hidden their own incompetence and lack of academic rigor and teaching expertise behind the veil of woke censoriousness.

The Naked Emperors’ Furious Search for Fig Leaves: The war between blue and red and mass versus elite is really grounded in the reality that those who feel they were the deserved winners of globalization and who are the sole enlightened on matters of social, economic, political, and military policy have no record of recent success, but a long litany of utter failure.

They have become furious that the rest of the country sees through these naked emperors. Note Merrick Garland’s sanctimonious defense of the supposed professionalism of the Justice Department and FBI hierarchies - while even as he pontificated, they were in the very process of leaking and planting sensational “nuclear secrets” narratives to an obsequious media to justify the indefensible political fishing expedition at a former president’s home.

The masses increasingly view the elites’ money, their ZIP codes, their degrees and certificates, and their titles not just with indifference, but with the disdain they now have earned on their own merits. And that pushback has made millions of our worst and stupidest quite mad."

- https://amgreatness.com/

"Average Americans Will Suffer As A Result Of SNAP Benefit Cuts"

Snyder Reports, 9/4/25

"Average Americans Will Suffer 

As A Result Of SNAP Benefit Cuts"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Snyder Reports, 9/4/25

"Warning - 

American Jobs Are Slowly Disappearing"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "Is the American Dream Dead? Housing Emergency Declared!"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, M9/4/25

"Is the American Dream Dead? 

Housing Emergency Declared!"

"Is the American Dream dead? Today, we’re diving into the unfolding housing crisis, the potential federal declaration of a housing emergency, and what it could mean for homebuyers and the economy. From discounted new constructions to potential forgivable loans and fast-tracked permits, the proposed solutions could shake up the real estate market. Plus, hear how these changes might impact homebuilders, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and even your local community. It’s not just housing—everything from rising food costs to economic struggles with automobiles and insurance policies is creating chaos. We’ll also touch on hunger action month, the challenges facing charities like Joseph Dreamhouse, and how small acts of kindness can make a big difference."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Let’s turn compassion into action! Join us this Hunger Action Month by donating what you can. Together, let's unite to nourish our veterans and families suffering from food insecurity.

Please Donate Now www.jdhcdc.org

OR You can mail your donation to: Joseph Dreamhouse, 

5846 S. Flamingo Road,

Cooper City, FL 33330

o

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, PM 9/4/25

"You Are Lucky if You Have a Job"

Comments here:

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"How It Really Is"

"If only"... you don't stop because you can't stop.

If you do it's all over. It's all over anyway, you're just buying time.

Tell me I'm wrong...

Joel Bowman, "An Abuse of Statistics"

Congreso de la Nación Argentina, home of the 

best Argentine politicians money can buy…

"An Abuse of Statistics"

by Joel Bowman

“Democracy is an abuse of statistics.”

~ Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)

Villa la Angostura, Argentina - "It’s election season here in Argentina, which means political scandal, media mud-racking, plus high crimes and misdemeanors for all and sundry. Par for the course in a country with a sorry history of public folly. As one confidential insider observed in a recent communiqué, “Unfortunately, this is nothing new – so-called ‘campaña sucia’ or ‘smear campaign’ tactics are a defining characteristic of the Argentine political ecosystem during the electoral season.”

For those of us following along, that very season kicks off with this weekend’s provincial election in the capital of Buenos Aires, a traditional Peronist stronghold which accounts for about 40% of the electorate. With 46 seats in the Provincial Chamber of Deputies and 23 seats in the Provincial Senate up for grabs, the election will be seen as a kind of bellwether for President Javier Milei’s administration.

As that bastion of journalistic objectivity, Reuters, reported…"BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina's wild-haired, firebrand President Javier Milei will face a crucial litmus test in an upcoming local election that could derail ambitious economic reforms as his austerity-fueled experiment fuels social tensions.

Milei has been able to tame runaway inflation with a ruthless austerity plan and he aims to keep his unorthodox economic experiment going by generating more investor confidence and blocking any laws that the current opposition-controlled Congress could pass that would affect the country's finances.

Yes, dear reader, according to the long-disgraced newswire, the “radical right-wing leader” has dared rein in government spending with a “ruthless” economic plan… that has seen inflation plummet by more than 90% since the “wild-haired firebrand” assumed office. It’s the kind of “austerity-fueled experiment” citizens around the world would be glad to endure.

But there are obstacles ahead for the self-described “anarcho-capitalist” president… including detractors from within the libertarian establishment and even allegations of corruption inside the Milei government itself. Never a dull day. We’ll have more on the Greatest Political Experiment of Our Age next week… but for now, your editor is spending some quality time with family down at the actual End of the World, here in snowy Patagonia.

While we relish a few peaceful days ahead of the election season madness, we invite you to enjoy a guest column penned by our friend, MN Gordon, all about the latest goings on at the other end of the Americas. Mr. Gordon writes the excellent Economic Prism publication, from which we occasionally feature selected commentary.

In today’s guest essay, he takes a look at President Trump’s latest round of firings and what they might portend for the markets and the economy at large. Please enjoy his thoughtful musings, below… and do feel free to dive into the comments section with your own 2 cents. Cheers ~ JB"

"Here Comes the September Swoon"

by MN Gordon, founder of Economic Prism

"Government bureaucrats thought they had it made. High paying jobs that are practically guaranteed for life. Great retirement benefits. A certain air of importance. Now they’re walking on eggshells. Tiptoeing around. Trying to stay out of President Donald Trump’s crosshairs.

Several weeks ago, Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner Erika McEntarfer. If you recall, he blew a gasket following revisions to the May and June jobs report, which adjusted total jobs created from 291,000 to 33,000. He said the numbers were rigged for political reasons and gave McEntarfer a pink slip.

Last week, it was Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook’s turn to get the boot. Cook had apparently taken liberties on several mortgage applications in 2021. She claimed two places as principal residences – in Ann Arbor, and Atlanta – to get better mortgage terms. Trump said this fraud is sufficient cause to remove Cook from her position. Cook disagrees. She has lawyered up.

McEntarfer and Cook, from our perspective, are the lucky ones. Their jobs shouldn’t exist to begin with. Producing bogus data and price fixing interest rates are endeavors which cause more harm than good. Thanks to Trump, they now both have the opportunity to find gainful employment doing real, useful work. Jobs like fixing leaky faucets or packing meat that provide a real benefit to society. They should be happy that they no longer must waste their lives doing garbage work.

Trump, for his part, will likely replace Cook with someone that’s one hundred percent favorable to his cause. Someone who is willing to cut rates, pump credit, and do his or her part to assist the Treasury in financing the U.S. government’s massive deficit. Now, after getting hammered on by Trump for many months, it appears that Fed Chair Jerome Powell is finally coming around…

Transitory Inflation? In case you missed it, the annual central banking powwow in Jackson Hole recently came and went. Fed Chair Powell, in what may be his final appearance in Jackson Hole as the world’s most important central banker, delivered a speech on Friday, August 22. There he strongly hinted that the Fed is ready to pull the trigger on a rate cut as soon as the September Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.

Powell’s message was that the balance of economic risk is shifting. All year, the Fed has been holding the federal funds rate steady (currently between 4.25 and 4.5 percent). Over this time, inflation has ticked stubbornly higher while the labor market has cooled down, thus setting the stage for an episode of stagflation.

The Fed’s attention since Trump came into office has been focused on limiting inflation. Powell’s remarks suggest the Fed is now more worried about the economy sputtering than prices spiraling out of control. According to Powell, it’s a “challenging situation” where, in the near term, “risks to inflation are tilted to the upside, and risks to employment to the downside.” What exactly does that mean?

On the inflation side, Powell noted that the effects of higher tariffs across trading partners “are now clearly visible,” pushing up prices for consumers. However, he downplayed the long-term threat, stating, “A reasonable base case is that the effects will be relatively short-lived—a one-time shift in the price level. Of course, ‘one-time’ does not mean ‘all at once.’”

This is all conjecture and guesswork. The logic seems to be that if the price increases from tariffs are just a temporary, one-off ‘transitory’ event, the Fed doesn’t need to slam on the brakes with higher rates. It can afford to focus on the other half of their dual mandate: maximum employment. Maybe so. But if you recall the last time Powell said inflation was transitory – in 2021 and 2022 – he sat on his hand while consumer prices spiraled to a 40 year high. Will he be wrong again?

Downside Risks to Employment: Powell spent part of his speech discussing the labor market. While the unemployment rate remains low, around 4.2 percent, recent jobs data, including McEntarfer’s downward revisions to previous months, has been signaling a slowdown in hiring. Powell described the current state of the jobs market as a “curious kind of balance” resulting from both supply and demand for workers slowing. He then delivered the line that really got the markets buzzing: “This unusual situation suggests that downside risks to employment are rising. And if those risks materialize, they can do so quickly in the form of sharply higher layoffs and rising unemployment.”

The words “downside risks to employment are rising” are about as close as a Fed Chair gets to explicitly stating a rate cut is coming. Hence, the major stock market indexes spiked following his remarks.

So, what does this all mean for the September 16 and 17 FOMC meeting? Before the speech, the odds of a September rate cut of 25 basis points were already relatively high. After Powell’s comments, that probability skyrocketed, with market futures now pricing in the move as an almost certain outcome. Some estimates put the probability at nearly 90 percent.

The markets believe Powell’s Jackson Hole speech was, in effect, laying the groundwork for a September cut. By cutting rates now, and making borrowing cheaper for consumers and businesses, Powell is hoping to get ahead of a cooling labor market. Unless there’s a strong August jobs report or a dramatic inflation surge, you can be certain there will be a 25 basis point interest rate cut when the FOMC meets next month. What to make of it?

Here Comes the September Swoon: Powell’s dovish pivot in Jackson Hole was enough to send markets rallying. Investors, anticipating a rate cut at the upcoming September 16 and 17 FOMC meeting, have been “buying the rumor” by bidding up stocks. The “sell the news” stage of the trade will come later and depends on several factors.

The market’s reaction has already priced in a significant likelihood of a rate cut. The good news is already baked into stock prices. So, the magnitude of the cut is critical. If the Fed overdelivers, with a 50 basis point rate cut, speculators will celebrate with more buying. But if there’s just a 25 basis point rate cut, followed by a somewhat hawkish Fed statement, there could be a wave of selling. Powell’s speech was careful to say that the decision is not on a preset course. That it will depend on incoming data. Hence, investors and speculators will be closely watching new inflation and employment reports leading up to the September meeting.

If these data points surprise to the upside, the Fed could be forced to hold off on a cut, leaving investors who bought into the rumor exposed to a selloff. Regardless of the outcome, many may sell to lock in profits immediately after the FOMC meeting to avoid being caught on the wrong side of the trade.In short, you can expect there to be wild price springs over the next three weeks…and don’t forget, September has historically been the worst month for the U.S. stock market, with the S&P 500 averaging negative returns since 1926. By this, conditions are ripe for a September swoon. Prepare accordingly."

MN Gordon

Founder of Economic Prism

- https://joelbowman.substack.com/

Bill Bonner, "DIT Is The New DEI"

"DIT Is The New DEI"

by Bill Bonner

Poitou, France - "The news yesterday included an extraordinary event in the Southern Caribbean. ABC: "US military strikes alleged drug boat, Trump says, '11 terrorists killed'. The president said the alleged drug boat came out of Venezuela. If we knew so much about the boat – who was on it, where it came from, what it was carrying -- way down near South America…why not wait for it to arrive in North America…and ask some questions? Who was it going to meet? What it was really doing? Why not find out? And since when was commerce, between willing adults, punishable by death? Since when did the US military become judge, jury and executioner?

There is surely ‘more to the story.’ Today, we speculate about what it is.. Is there really a ‘narco-terrorist’ organization known as the ‘Tren de Aragua?’ Or does it exist in the same magic world as ‘weapons of mass destruction?’ Dave DeCamp:

The group the US claims Maduro heads, the so-called Cartel of the Suns, is a term used to describe a network of Venezuelan government and military officials allegedly involved in drug trafficking, but it does not actually exist as an organization. Maduro and other Latin American leaders have denied the US claims. The US military deployment to the Southern Caribbean appears to really be another push for regime change in Venezuela after the failed attempt during the first Trump administration.

Yesterday, we noticed that the feds seem to be becoming more desperate...or more underhanded...in their never-ending effort to separate The People from their money. Instead of direct taxation, they resort to deficits, money-printing, inflation, and tariffs.

This is typical of degenerate governments. As the burden of the feds’ policies increases, the resistance to paying for them also mounts. This is easily understandable. Take the case of Social Security. The first participants were eager. They put in trivial amounts...and reaped big gains. The population and its productivity were both increasing.

But now the native population is falling...and the immigrant population is being deported. Productivity growth is also in a slump. Money Talks News: "Productivity Drop Signals Potential Economic Challenges Under New Tariffs." US productivity declined 0.8% in Q1 2025, marking the first drop since 2022.

Social Security is no longer such a good deal. Imagine, for example, the difference between paying into the social security fund for the last ten years...or using the money to buy Bitcoin. Or to buy a house. BTC is up 40,000%. Houses have doubled. The street value of your Soc. Sec. ‘contributions’ meanwhile, has probably dropped, inasmuch as the ‘fund’ is expected to be insolvent by 2035.

People know what they get for their tax money — more regulation, boondoggles and wars. They don’t want it. So, they resist. And the feds find devious, insidious ways to keep the loot headed their way. That’s why we have deficits, inflation, and tariffs (DIT).

There is nothing new about this. In the early days of the Roman Empire foreign conquests brought glory, booty, and slaves. People were happy to be a part of it. But after 100 AD the conquests largely ended. And as time went on managing the huge empire - with its far-flung garrisons and expensive bureaucracy - became less and less profitable. Taxpayers were squeezed harder and harder to pay for it.

Roman-era feds had their tricks too. The basic coin of Rome - the denarius - was inflated away. It came to be worth so little that even tax collectors wouldn’t take it. In 212, Caracalla expanded the tax base by giving Roman citizenship to all free men in the empire. But the squeeze continued. Gradually, the small farmers - who had been the backbone and muscle of the empire - were forced to abandon their land...and even sell their wives and daughters into slavery in order to keep them alive. Gradually, too, Roman society became decadent, corrupt...and brutal, with more and more resources devoted to the war industry.

The story of Rome’s imperial decline is, grosso modo, a story of shrinking consensual civilization and rising brute force. The center weakened. Armies fought with each other to gain control of the government...often using foreign mercenaries...while also trying to secure a 5,000-mile border.

But the shift of resources from profitable commerce to costly firepower seems to be common to failing governments. Military force is primitive...basic...and difficult to oppose. Who doesn’t want more protection? Who doesn’t support ‘our heroes...our warfighters?’ And who’s going to argue with a man with a gun in his hand?

And so, Mr. Trump is killing ‘terrorists’ without charges or trial. The victims were said to be ‘narco-traffickers,’ said to be transporting drugs, said to be destined for the US, said to be connected to a criminal gang that was said to be in cahoots with the president of Venezuela. Was any of that true? We don’t know, no evidence was presented. No trial held. No defense was permitted. But the pattern is familiar. Identify ‘enemies.’ Tariff them. Sanction them. Blow them up. And keep the money and power headed to the feds."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Massive Sales At Kroger!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, AM 9/4/25

"Massive Sales At Kroger!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Scott Ritter, "Israel Is Losing: Collapse Is Clear!"

Scott Ritter, 9/3/25

"Israel Is Losing: Collapse Is Clear!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Cold, hard, brutal truth about the psychopathically 

degenerate inbred Israeli monsters...

"James Webb Telescope Just Detected Artificial Lights in 3I/ATLAS"

Full screen recommended.

Hidden Headlines, 9/3/25

"James Webb Telescope 

Just Detected Artificial Lights in 3I/ATLAS"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Business Hook, 9/3/25

"Voyager 1 Turned Back… 

And What It Found Is Terrifying"

"Billions of miles from Earth, Voyager 1 has begun sending back signals that defy everything we thought we knew about space. Once a simple probe, it has now entered a realm where silence carries rhythm, dust behaves with purpose, and unseen forces shift its course. From echoes of the golden record to pulses like a heartbeat, this tiny spacecraft has revealed a universe that is not empty but alive with mystery. Was Voyager answered, redirected, or warned? Join us as we uncover what may be humanity’s most unsettling discovery beyond the edge of our solar system."

Comments here: 

- https://www.youtube.com/

"This Has Never Happened Before - Why I'm Terrified!"

Full screen recommended.

Steven Van Metre, 9/3/25

"This Has Never Happened Before - 

Why I'm Terrified!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Snyder Reports, "Terrifying News, Millions Could Be Out Of Work Soon"

Full screen recommended.

Snyder Reports, 9/3/25

"Terrifying News,

Millions Could Be Out Of Work Soon"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Ludovico Einaudi, "Divenire"; "I Giorni"

Full screen recommended.

Ludovico Einaudi, "Divenire"

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Full screen recommended.

Ludovico Einaudi, "I Giorni"

"‘I Giorni’ became one of Steinway Artist Ludovico Einaudi's most-played piano pieces because, in the composer–performer's words, "I was among the first of a new generation to create and to write music that was, let’s say, playable and contemporary. At a certain point, it was difficult to find contemporary repertoire that you could enjoy playing at home. I think the music that I started to create was, in a way, filling the space left open and abandoned by composers." Ludovico Einaudi trained as a classical composer and pianist before continuing his studies with Luciano Berio, a leading composer of the twentieth-century avant-garde. He ultimately turned away from what seemed a glittering classical career to forge his own musical path, giving him the freedom to reconcile his wide-ranging influences."

"A Look to the Heavens"

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

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

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

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

- Blaise Pascal

"A Time of Unimaginable Sorrow is Upon Us"

"A Time of Unimaginable Sorrow is Upon Us"

by Mike K.

"It was a nice cool sunny morning with some blue birds soaking up the sun, all in a row on the high wire. It took some time to figure out what happened. There were a few low rumbles, they seemed to be coming from north of here. We live on a farm out in the wooded hills of southern Missouri, and north would be up towards St Louis. Soon as the booming sounds started the power went off. At first, I didn’t pay much attention, but with all the military stirrings going on in the world these days, you just don’t know what to expect.

I went inside the house, but with the power off there’s no internet, so no way to find out what’s going on. At least until the power comes back on, or until I get the generator started up. More distant thunderous booms that echo now less like thunder and more like tremendous explosions – and I’m starting to get worried. My kids are at work and the grandkids are in school. I swear I‘m seeing sparks and smoke coming from under the hood of my car, but it’s not running. Now the power line where those bluebirds were singing looks like it’s getting really hot and smoke is coming from the bucket transformer on the poles. Wow! The transformer just blew up sending a shower of sparks and molten metal flying all around the pole! I can hear blasts all over the countryside from more pole transformers exploding. All the fences are sparking and smoking. The woods around the power lines and transformers are starting to go up in extremely violent flames. And the cars are now on fire – all of them! Even the old broken-down ones out in people’s pastures. Our emergency generators are smoking – I’ve got to get them away from the houses before they burn up.

Now I’ve got an idea of what’s happening, because I’ve heard of what an EMP event could do to electrical circuits. Electromagnetic Pulse. That’s what happens when a nuclear weapon explodes. The only other thing I can think of that would do this is a coronal mass ejection from a solar flare. It happened back in 1859 and it was named the Carrington Event. Fortunately, the world did not have much electrical infrastructure back then, just telegraphs, and the induced currents caused the wires to catch fire – sort of like what’s happening to the power lines out here right now. I don’t think it’s a solar event either, because the warmongers in Washington have been beating the nuclear drums for a while, and I’ve been afraid the Russians were going to get spooked and do a first strike. I guess this is it.

A big problem for those of us who might survive a while because we live in areas that aren’t targets is that we lose all sources of information. We don’t have any way of knowing what’s happening. Don’t know if it’s a first strike or a retaliatory strike. Does Washington DC even exist anymore, or is it just a huge radioactive smoking crater? Are those beautiful, magnificient buildings of the Kremlin still standing?

How many of our big cities are destroyed? I remember seeing pictures of the devastation that was Nagasaki and Hiroshima when that monster Truman murdered all those Japanese civilians, and thinking that those bombs were tiny compared to what the psychopaths have in their arsenals today – the Russians have bombs that could literally flatten New York City and/or Houston. I cannot, nor can anyone else, begin to fathom the destruction of a 10 or 20 megaton thermonuclear weapon could wreak on a major city.

Lights go off and then nothing. No TV; no internet. No football – the treasury department that writes all the government checks is gone. Fear-crazed citizens make runs on WalMarts and grocery stores and take everything they can. No one tries to stop them; the store employees are in a panic to get home. Problem is, with no operable vehicles, the only things people can take are what they can carry by hand. Everyone has to walk, even the police are stranded out on the highways. All troopers, city cops, and sheriff deputies are trying desperately to get home to their loved ones. No cops on duty anymore. No traffic moving anymore. Just lots of people running, screaming, hoping they can just get home, and that there still is a home.

Fires are blazing everywhere from the powerlines and transformers exploding. All electrical substations in the country are smoldering and blazing chaos. Forest fires are rampant and out of control all over the nation and there are no operable fire trucks. No firefighting planes or helicopters are available to fight the fires. Houses hundreds of miles away from the many ground zeros are burning both from the unchecked wildfires, and from EMP induced electrical shorts in home wiring. Almost every building in every town is on fire with no way to put them out. And these towns are far away from the targeted places where the bombs actually hit.

This is truly a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, the like of which has never been witnessed in all of human history. There will never be electricity in this country again. Let that sink in. Freezers will thaw out and food will ruin. Untold thousands of people will perish, starting with those vaporized, then those being burned up in their homes, and there are no fire departments available to help anyone. No hospitals; doctors and nurses are gone, understandably abandoning useless smoldering medical facilities. No industry, no UPS deliveries, no more dog food for the pups. If your house didn’t burn to the ground, at least you may (for a while) have a (dark) shelter from the elements.

Huge blasts of radioactive winds blow hundreds of miles from the explosions, of which there have been many. The first wave was intended to take out the military establishment. No way of knowing, but there’s no reason to believe that anything remains of the Pentagon, DC or Langley, Norfolk, San Diego, Chicago, Houston, or any of the coastal cities where there are refineries. All cities with military infrastructure of any kind will be destroyed. The joke that has been for years a missile defense system has been exposed. The sick joke that a nuclear war could be “winnable” has also been exposed. The numbers of people succumbing to radiation sickness is beyond belief. There will be no schools, no stores, no food, and no government services; no disaster relief will be forthcoming. All banks will have ceased to function, so even if there is any money left, it won’t be worth anything. The bankers never were.

If you take medications to stay alive, you’d best have a good supply, because there won’t be any more. All livestock will either be dead from radiation, burned to a crisp in the fires, or promptly slaughtered by starving survivors, and it doesn’t matter to whom they belonged. Same with property. People will no longer obey private property signs, they will go anywhere they think there might be resources, food, water, at the risk of their lives, which aren’t worth much right now anyway. There will be no law!

Every military ship on and under the ocean, with the likely exception of a few submarines, will be sunk. All of the nuclear-powered ships will go to the bottom with reactors likely damaged, spewing radioactive contamination. Like dozens, maybe hundreds, of Fukushimas. Even the reactors that aren’t damaged will undergo meltdowns with no controls. The bible says that something will kill all of the fishes in the oceans, maybe this is how that happens.

The USSR detonated a bomb of around 50-megaton yield back in 1961. It was called the Tsar Bomba. The weapon had a 100-megaton capacity, but for safety they modified the yield. Awe inspiring is just too mild of a description of what that looked like. Since the bomb was so powerful, they calculated that the plane that dropped it had only a 50 percent chance of surviving – that is even after the plane released the weapon several thousand feet up in the air with a parachute to slow it down while the plane flew away from the scene at full speed. It did almost destroy the plane – they said the blast wave overtook the plane some 45 miles from the explosion and it lost over a kilometer of altitude before the pilot, Andrey Durnovtsev, could regain control and keep it from crashing. That thing made a mushroom cloud 37, yes 37 miles, (60 km) high! An uninhabited village, Severny, 34 miles (55 km) from ground zero was obliterated, and buildings 100 miles away were damaged! The blast would have caused third degree burns 62 miles (100 km) from the explosion. I would expect if they still have these in their arsenal, they would use one on Cheyenne Mountain. It would probably take out Denver and Amarillo, TX and certainly everything in between. Instantly vaporized. What are our “leaders” thinking?

It sounds crazy, but if this happens, I want to be at one of the ground zeros. As bad as being vaporized sounds, it would be infinitely better than surviving into the nightmarish existence that would ensue. There will be marauding gangs of survivors, undoubtedly armed, in various stages of hunger, disease, emaciation, and injury. It will probably be a situation where anyone you encounter will be apt to kill you. For one thing, they won’t know whether you are out to kill them too, or maybe you have something they want/need to survive. A can of tuna or a bowl of beans might cost your life.

The landscape will be nightmarish. Imagine a few days or weeks after the event. There will be burned out stumps on land that was beautiful forest, now riddled with stagnant pools of black muddy radioactive slime, full of human and animal bones, charred flesh, and entrails. Few buildings will exist intact, and many will perish fighting over them. There will be no light at night. Light would attract unwanted guests. No music. No one will have any idea what’s going on. There may be a few survivors in places like subway tunnels, abandoned train cars, or in remote wilderness areas, but such people will have resorted to the basest of behavior, including cannibalism, in short order. Imagine! Human beings who once inhabited a civilized nation and lived decent lives will have to worry about being killed and eaten by other human beings! Zombie apocalypse, just with regular people, not zombies, although with burns and wounds, hair falling out and all out of sorts with radiation poisoning, they probably will look the part.

I have heard people talking like they plan to survive and stay healthy by hunting and foraging. Well, if a nuclear winter follows a nuclear apocalypse, foraging is going to be slim pickings. And the deer won’t last long if they manage to survive the bombs, radiation, and fires, there’ll probably only be a few very unhealthy specimens left, but if a gunshot rings out, I’m pretty sure it will attract whatever starving people hear it, so there might be more to deal with than just dressing a deer.

Bedraggled survivors will wander in shock around former cities in hopes of disaster relief which will never come. Desperate people will offer anything – gold, jewelry, ammunition, their own bodies, for sustenance. Helpless parents will watch in horror as their children starve, hoping against hope that they will awaken from this nightmare, but when this all comes down, it’ll be too late for them.

And we still won’t know what happened. Who decided that a nuclear war would be a good idea? Who “won” the war? Did any of our leaders survive to sign a surrender, and to whom? Or did Russia or China surrender? Will there be hordes of soldiers from some faraway land invading our country after the radiation dies down?

And what of the wealthy folk who built the magnificent bunkers filled with the necessities of life in which to wait out the nuclear winter? Do they actually believe they will emerge into a second garden of Eden complete with succulent fruit trees and minstrels singing their praises? First of all, the bible speaks of a great earthquake, such as has not occurred since people have been on earth, so I think a big part of those individuals will be entombed in those lavish bunkers. So maybe a few do survive, and after some months, maybe a few years tucked away, they stumble blindly onto the surface, a hardly recognizable landscape littered with human skulls, burned out cars and buildings, and destroyed terrain. When they went into the holes, they were wealthy, but after what has transpired, of the few commoners left, no one will be interested in their gold – and those old bank accounts? Well the digital age has completely and utterly vanished, and all those millions or billions they had on their ledgers is now squat.

Even by this time, there will undoubtedly still be a few scroungy survivors, but instead of the fawning proles these rich folks were used to in the old world, those survivors will undoubtedly have a taste for some well-fed and plump upper crust brisket, so thanks for preserving some. It won’t help their situation any when they discover that some of the survivors actually know they caused, or at least played a part in causing the disaster. The scenario described does not take into account the likelihood that hapless survivors will undoubtedly spend their time searching for air vents to the bunkers in which to pour gasoline or whatever else they can find to upset living conditions in said refuges down below. Any who survive this carnage will be on a mission and will not easily be placated!

Who knows what the final outcome will be. How many millions, or hundreds of millions of people will be counted among the slain? When this calamity happens, it will obviously involve the deaths of millions. This destruction, I believe is prophesied as the destruction of the modern Babylon in Revelation 18, and most people I’ve heard seem to think (as I do) that the place named as Babylon is the United States, and it is utterly destroyed in the space of one hour, by fire! Completely devastated to the point that (verse 22) “the music of harpists and musicians, pipers and trumpeters, will never be heard in you again,” and “no worker of any trade will ever be found in you again,” this decadent place will cease to be! According to scripture, it’s not a bad thing that this evil place is destroyed. “Rejoice over her, you heavens! Rejoice, you people of God! Rejoice apostles and prophets! For God has judged her with the judgement she imposed on you.” Time will tell, but I’m afraid we don’t have much."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

- https://folkpotpourri.com/

o

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, 

but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

- Albert Einstein