"Yeah, Seizing An Oil Tanker That Had A Russian Flag And That Was Protected By Russian Warships Is A Great Way To Make Peace With Russia"

"Yeah, Seizing An Oil Tanker That Had A Russian Flag And That Was 

Protected By Russian Warships Is A Great Way To Make Peace With Russia"

by Michael Snyder

"If we wanted to make Russian President Vladimir Putin and his minions extremely angry, we have certainly accomplished that task. When I learned that the U.S. had seized an oil tanker that was displaying a Russian flag and that was being protected by Russian warships, I was absolutely stunned. I have been relentlessly warning that being extremely aggressive with the Russians will backfire severely. If we truly want peace with the Russians, diplomacy is the only solution. Punching the Russians in the face won’t work, and if we continue to go down this path it could easily lead to the unthinkable.

For those that have not heard yet, the U.S. military just seized two more oil tankers. One of them was a Russian-flagged vessel…The United States has seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic following a dramatic weekslong chase on the high seas. The operation to seize the sanctioned vessel, which changed its name from the Bella 1 to the Marinera after fleeing the American blockade of Venezuela last month, was carried out early Wednesday. The U.S. also announced the seizure of another sanctioned tanker, the M/T Sophia, which it said was “conducting illicit activities in the Caribbean Sea.”

The tanker that was formerly known as the Bella 1 had gotten permission from the Russians to register as a Russian vessel. And the Russians had just dispatched Russian warships to escort it…"Russia has sent a submarine and other naval assets to escort an empty, rusting oil tanker that has become a new flashpoint in U.S.-Russia relations, according to a U.S. official. The tanker, formerly known as the Bella 1, has been trying to evade the U.S. blockade of sanctioned oil tankers near Venezuela for more than two weeks. The vessel failed to dock in Venezuela and load with oil. Despite being empty, the U.S. Coast Guard has pursued the ship into the Atlantic in a bid to crack down on a fleet of tankers that ferry illicit oil around the world, including black-market oil sold by Russia."

Grabbing an oil tanker that was being protected by Russian warships was an insane thing to do. And we did it even though the Russians specifically asked us to stop pursuing the tanker…"Russia has asked the U.S. to stop pursuing the vessel, according to three other U.S. officials. On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it was monitoring “with concern” the situation surrounding the tanker, according to state news agency RIA."

Needless to say, the Russians are furious. Russia’s Foreign Ministry immediately released a statement that strongly denounced what the U.S. had just done…"In a statement, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the ship is sailing in international waters under the Russian flag and is operating “in full compliance with international maritime law.” Moscow added that it expects Western nations to uphold that principle in practice."

This is a major turning point in our relations with Russia. One member of Russia’s parliament is accusing the U.S. of “outright piracy”…"In response to the interceptions, Andrei Klishas, a member of the upper house of Russia’s parliament said the US actions were ‘outright piracy.’

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put the world on notice by saying that the blockade of Venezuelan oil is in full effect, and said no ship is safe anywhere in the world. The Russian Transport Ministry then responded by saying: ‘no state has the right to use force against vessels properly registered in other countries’ jurisdictions.’ It added that US forces boarded the Marinera at 3pm Moscow time, where communications were shortly lost with the vessel after. And one of the most prominent voices inside Russia, Alexander Dugin, is warning that it is now time for “full fledged war with the West”…

Dugin is extremely influential. I would not take his words lightly. Even before this incident, there was zero chance that a peace deal with Russia was going to happen. But now we are looking at a scenario in which direct conflict between the United States and Russia becomes quite probable. We should be thankful that the Russian warships that were accompanying the seized oil tanker didn’t intervene. We might not be so fortunate next time.

The fact that we are seizing oil tankers has also greatly angered the Chinese… China is livid, and they’re not hiding it. After Trump announced the U.S. will refine and sell up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil previously frozen under sanctions, Beijing fired back, calling the move a blatant power grab and a direct hit on their interests. Why? Because that oil wasn’t just sitting there, China had already paid for a big chunk of it, through loan-for-oil deals and state-backed agreements with Maduro’s regime.

China has been buying more oil from Venezuela than the rest of the world combined. And the Chinese have lent tens of billions of dollars to the Venezuelans. Is China just going to sit there and watch the U.S. take control of Venezuela and grab all the oil?

Apparently the U.S. is ordering Venezuela to cut off all ties with both Russia and China…"The US authorities demand that Venezuela should sever economic ties with Iran, China, Cuba and Russia as a condition for increasing oil production, ABC News television channel reported. According to the US-based television broadcaster, Washington put forward several demands to the acting President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez.

Firstly, the Bolivarian Republic will have to “expel China, Russia, Iran, Cuba and sever economic ties” with these countries. Secondly, Caracas is required to agree to “exclusive cooperation with the United States in the field of oil production,” ABC News reported."

The Chinese have invested an enormous amount of money in the Venezuelan oil industry. Today, Venezuela possesses the largest proven oil reserves in the entire world, and China needs that oil. Most people don’t realize this, but China imports about 70 percent of the oil that it uses. So losing all access to Venezuelan oil would be a tremendous blow.

How far will the U.S. be able to push China before the Chinese decide that enough is enough? And how far with the U.S. be able to push Russia before the Russians decide that enough is enough? Many Americans are cheering the fact that we are starting to aggressively push other countries around, but it is only a matter of time before they start pushing back."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

o

"China Loses Access to Venezuelan Oil" 1/8/26

"Grand Illusion"

"Grand Illusion"

by Chris Hedges

“We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.” - Stephen Miller to Jake Tapper on CNN, Jan. 5, 2026.

“He who would live must fight. He who does not wish to fight in this world, where permanent struggle is the law of life, has not the right to exist. Such a saying may sound hard; but, after all, that’s how it is.” - Adolf Hitler in "Mein Kampf"

“The Fascist State expresses the will to exercise power and to command. Here the Roman tradition is embodied in a conception of strength. Imperial power, as understood by the Fascist doctrine, is not only territorial, or military, or commercial; it is also spiritual and ethical... Fascism sees in the imperialistic spirit - i.e., in the tendency of nations to expand - a manifestation of their vitality.” - Benito Mussolini in "The Doctrine of Fascism"

"All empires, when they are dying, worship the idol of war. War will save the empire. War will resurrect past glory. War will teach an unruly world to obey. But those who bow down before the idol of war, blinded by hypermasculinity and hubris, are unaware that while idols begin by calling for the sacrifice of others, they end by demanding self-sacrifice. Ekpyrosis, the inevitable conflagration that destroys the world according to the ancient Stoics, is part of the cyclical nature of time. There is no escape. Fortuna. There is a time for individual death. There is a time for collective death. In the end, with weary citizens yearning for extinction, empires light their own funeral pyre.

Our high priests of war, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, Stephen Miller and the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine, are no different from the fools and charlatans who snuffed out empires of the past - the haughty leaders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the militarists in imperial Germany and the hapless court of Tsarist Russia in World War I. They were followed by the fascists in Italy under Benito Mussolini, Germany under Adolf Hitler and the military rulers of imperial Japan in World War II.

These political entities committed collective suicide. They drank the same fatal elixir Miller and those in the Trump White House imbibe. They too tried to use industrial violence to reshape the universe. They too considered themselves to be omnipotent. They too saw themselves in the face of the idol of war. They too demanded to be obeyed and worshiped. Destruction to them is creation. Dissent is sedition. The world is one-dimensional. The strong versus the weak. Only our nation is great. Other nations, even allies, are dismissed with contempt.

These architects of imperial folly are buffoons and killer clowns. They are ridiculed and hated by those rooted in a reality-based world. They are followed slavishly by the desperate and the disenfranchised. The simplicity of the message is its appeal. A magic incantation will bring back the lost world, the golden age, however mythic. Reality is viewed exclusively through the lens of ultranationalism. The flip side of ultranationalism is racism.

“The nationalist is by definition an ignoramus,” wrote Yugoslav-Serbian novelist Danilo Kiš. “Nationalism is the line of least resistance, the easy way. The nationalist is untroubled, he knows or thinks he knows what his values are, his, that’s to say national, that’s to say the values of the nation he belongs to, ethical and political; he is not interested in others, they are no concern of his, hell - it’s other people (other nations, other tribes). They don’t even need investigating. The nationalist sees other people in his own image - as nationalists.”

These stunted human beings are unable to read others. They threaten. They terrorize. They kill. The art of power politics between nations or individuals is far beyond their tiny imaginations. They lack the intelligence - emotional and intellectual - to cope with the complex, ever-shifting sands of old and new alliances. They cannot see themselves as the world sees them.

Diplomacy is often a dark and deceptive art. It is by its nature manipulative. But it requires an understanding of other cultures and traditions. It requires getting inside the heads of adversaries and allies. For Trump and his minions, this is an impossibility.

Skillful diplomats, such as Prince Klemens von Metternich, the Austrian Empire’s foreign minister who dominated European politics after the defeat of Napoleon, do so by crafting agreements and treaties such as the Concert of Europe and the Congress of Vienna. Metternich, no friend of liberalism, adroitly kept Europe stable until the revolutions of 1848.

I reported on Richard Holbrooke, the assistant secretary of state, as he negotiated an end to the war in Bosnia. He was bombastic and enthralled with his own celebrity. But he played the Balkan warlords off each other in the former Yugoslavia until they acquiesced to stop the fighting - with some help from NATO warplanes that pounded Serb positions on the hills around Sarajevo - and signed the Dayton Peace Accords.

Holbrooke had little regard for the diplomats who diddled in conference halls in Geneva while 100,000 people died or disappeared in Bosnia, an estimated 900,000 became refugees and 1.3 million were internally displaced. He had a loathing for military commanders who refused to take risks. He detested the Croatian, Serbian and Muslim leaders he had to corral into signing the peace accord.

Holbrooke, whose blustering style and volcanic eruptions were legendary, left bruised egos and slighted, embittered colleagues in his wake. But he knew how to cajole and mold his adversaries to his will. He was likened, in a not very flattering comparison, to Jules Cardinal Mazarin, the crafty 17th-century prelate and statesman who solidified France’s supremacy among the European powers. “He flatters, he lies, he humiliates: he is a sort of brutal and schizophrenic Mazarin,” a French diplomat told Le Figaro, of Holbrooke, during the Dayton talks.

True. But Holbrooke, however mercurial, understood the interplay between force and diplomacy. This understanding is essential. It is why nations have diplomats. It is why great diplomats are as important as great generals.

Gangster states have no need of diplomacy. Trump and Rubio, for this reason, have gutted the State Department, along with other forms of “soft” power that achieve influence without resorting to force, including the U.S. role in the United Nations, the U.S. Agency of International Development, the U.S. Institute for Peace - renamed Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace after most of the board and staff were fired - and Voice of America.

Diplomats in gangster states are reduced to the role of errand boys. Hitler’s Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, whose primary experience in foreign affairs before 1933 was selling fake German champagne in Britain, appointed party hacks from the SA or Brownshirts - the paramilitary wing of the party - to diplomatic posts abroad. Benito Mussolini’s Foreign Minister was his son-in-law, Galeazzo Ciano. Mussolini - who believed that “war is to man what maternity is to woman” - later executed Ciano for disloyalty. Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steven Charles Witkoff, is a real estate developer, often accompanied on diplomatic missions by Trump’s feckless son-in-law Jared Kushner.

The Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce quipped that fascism had created a fourth form of government, “onagrocracy,” a government by braying asses, to add to Aristotle’s traditional triumvirate of tyranny, oligarchy and democracy.

Our ruling class, Democrats and Republicans, piece by piece, dismantled democracy. In Germany and Italy, the constitutional state, as well, collapsed long before the arrival of fascism. Trump, who is the symptom, not the disease, inherited the corpse. He is making good use of it.

“I believe that to maintain our empire abroad requires resources and commitments that will inevitably undercut our domestic democracy and in the end produce a military dictatorship or its civilian equivalent,” Chalmers Johnson wrote two decades ago in his book, “Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic.” He warned:

"The founders of our nation understood this well and tried to create a form of government - a republic - that would prevent this from occurring. But the combination of huge standing armies, almost continuous wars, military Keynesianism, and ruinous military expenses have destroyed our republican structure in favor of an imperial presidency. We are on the cusp of losing our democracy for the sake of keeping our empire. Once a nation is started down that path, the dynamics that apply to all empires come into play - isolation, overstretch, the uniting of forces opposed to imperialism, and bankruptcy. Nemesis stalks our life as a free nation.

The American Empire, defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan - as it was at the Bay of Pigs and in Vietnam - learns nothing. It leaps into each new military fiasco as if the previous military fiascos did not happen. It believes it needs no allies. It will rule the world.

If occupying Greenland blows up NATO, so what? If funding and arming Israel to carry out genocide and bombing Iran and Yemen alienates huge swaths of the Global South and enrages the Muslim world, who cares? If invading and kidnapping the president of Venezuela stinks of Yankee imperialism, tough! No one else matters.

Nations that stomp around the globe like King Kong infect themselves with a fatal virus. Johnson warned that if we continue to cling to our empire, as the Roman Republic did, we will “lose our democracy and grimly await the eventual blowback that imperialism generates.” Blowback is next and with it the collapse of the crumbling edifice of the American Empire. It is an old story. Although to us, and the cabal of misfits ensconced in our version of Ubu Roi’s court, it will come as a terrible shock."

- https://chrishedges.substack.com/

"Trump Calls To Increase U.S. Military Budget To Rise More Than 50% To $1.5 Trillion"

"Trump Calls To Increase U.S. Military Budget 

To Rise More Than 50% To $1.5 Trillion"

by Gregory Mannarino

"Here’s what Trump’s $1.5T military spending really means, (and why it matters). The current (2026) military budget is $901B. The call for $1.5T in 2027 is roughly a +$599B jump. Unless this massive spending jump is offset, which will not happen, then it’s more borrowing, more Treasury supply, pressure on yields, more FED intervention. (Vast debt expansion, dollar devaluation). The US has become a debt-expansion regime on a GALACTIC LEVEL. A hyper-debt system the likes of which have never been seen before in world history."

- https://gregorymannarino.substack.com/

o

"Trump Calls For $1.5 Trillion Military Budget In 2027, Up From $901 Billion in 2026"

o

“When people speak to you about a preventive war, 

you tell them to go and fight it.”

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Major Retailers Crumble As 12,000 Stores Close Forever"

Full screen recommended.

Michael Bordenaro, 1/8/26

"Major Retailers Crumble As 12,000 Stores Close Forever"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Dividing the Oils of War" (Excerpt)

"Dividing the Oils of War"

by David Haggith

Excerpt: "The new Donroe Doctrine is already taking shape around Venezuela’s vast oil plays. Chevron has just contracted eleven tankers to start transporting oil out of Venezuela, making Big, Big Oil the obvious winner. The normally pro-Trump, but always more pro-Putin Zero Hedge notes,

With the Monroe Doctrine effectively rebranded as the “Don-Roe Doctrine,” reflecting the Trump administration’s new approach to exerting control and influence across the Western Hemisphere and rooting out China and Russia, the developments this past weekend involving U.S. Delta Force operators capturing Maduro do not come as much of a surprise.

Consistent with the Don-Roe Doctrine, Chevron has contracted a fleet of tankers scheduled to arrive in Venezuela later this month, reinforcing its role as the dominant player, for now, a critical conduit for Venezuelan crude into US refineries along the Gulf of America.

The fact is that Chevron already had the largest footprint in Venezuelan oil of any company on earth, so this is no surprise. If this was all that happened, you might just think Chevron was continuing to do what it does every month. While eleven tankers is more than Chevron has contracted for the last two months, the lower numbers were during an unsteady oil embargo when bombs were dropping on boats. Now that the US Navy and Coast Guard are fully in place on the seas around Venezuela and now that the US has settled who is running the show, tanker companies working with US Chevron are probably more comfortable running more ships or, at least, making it easer for Chevron to find ships that want to contract for hauls in the region.

Shares of Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil have jumped on news of regime change in Venezuela, and oil prices are hovering at one-year lows. However, Chevron’s step back to normal in tanker flow was far from the big thing happening today. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Venezuela will turn over 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil, which will be sold at market prices. “That money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States,” Trump said in a social media post….

The 50 million barrels are only the first tranche and shipments will continue indefinitely. You can be sure it will mostly be to the benefit of the United States. “Benefiting the people of Venezuela” by the outpouring of oil from the country is - if this goes like most neocon big-oil wars - mostly window dressing to sell your war to the American people. We’ll have to see who gets the biggest cut from the oil profits that are left after extraction and shipping costs. Proceeds from the oil sales will settle in U.S. controlled accounts, the sources said, with the money released back to Venezuela at the discretion of the U.S.

Well, we do have the power to take the oil; so, of course, it belongs to us if you accept Stephen Miller’s primary ethic as he stated it repeatedly yesterday. Energy Secretary Chris Wright later confirmed the plan at a conference hosted by Goldman Sachs in Miami on Wednesday. “We’re going to market the crude coming out of Venezuela,” Wright said. “First this backed up, stored oil and then indefinitely, going forward, we will sell the production that comes out of Venezuela into the marketplace….” “Secretary Wright remains in close contact with U.S. oil companies and plans to meet with several of them at the Goldman Sachs Energy Conference in Miami on Wednesday,” a Department of Energy spokesperson told CNBC.

So, yeah, we’ve got the oil and that is largely what this war was all about, not drugs; so we will convene a consortium to figure out how we are going to dive the plunder; but there is more in the geopolitical sphere (a lot more) to all of this. You may recall my speculating that gaining leverage over China right where it hurts was likely a big part of this oil play. We got confirmation of that today."

Complete article is here:

- https://www.thedailydoom.com/

Scott Ritter, "NATO is "Rabid Dog" - Russia Ready to Put it Down"

Scott Ritter, 1/7/26

"NATO is "Rabid Dog" - Russia Ready to Put it Down"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Douglas Macgregor, 2026 Doomsday Forecast: Doors Will Blow Off America - Mass Poverty Ahead"

"Douglas Macgregor, 2026 Doomsday Forecast:

 Doors Will Blow Off America - Mass Poverty Ahead"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "Moment of Grace Part 1"

Full screen recommended.

Liquid Mind, "Moment of Grace Part 1"

"A Look to the Heavens With Chet Raymo"

“Like Rubies Ringed With Gold”

by Chet Raymo

“Here’s a Hubble Space Telescope composite photograph of two colliding galaxies in the constellation Corvus.

Each of the three books of Dante’s “Divine Comedy” ends with the same words: “the stars.” The Inferno concludes with distant stars glimpsed through the narrow exit of hell. “We emerged,” says the poet, “and saw the stars.” The poet’s journey through Purgatory ends on Earth’s highest mountain, with the heavens seemingly not so far away. He is “ready to ascend to the stars.” Finally, Dante looks down upon the stars from above, from the luminous realm of Paradise. He has experienced “the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.” The beauty of that final destination, the Empyrean Sphere that encloses the created universe in divine brilliance, taxes the poet’s powers of description:

“I saw light in the shape of a river

Flashing golden between two banks

Tinted in colors of marvelous spring.

Out of the stream came living sparks

Which settled on the flowers on every side

Like rubies ringed with gold…”

Nothing in Dante’s experience could have prepared him for the splendors of the heavens as revealed by the Hubble. The photograph of colliding galaxies in Corvus is a work of genius in the tradition of the “Divine Comedy” – imagination in service to humankind’s loftiest aspirations and longings.

In Dante’s time, astronomy was one of the seven liberal arts – with grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, and music – required of every student who aspired to a university degree. Of all the secular sciences, astronomy was deemed most likely to lead one to the contemplation of things divine. Yesterday’s Hubble pic made the hair stand up on the back of my neck, which is about as close to the divine as I ever get. Dante’s “Divine Comedy” is based on the medieval astronomical conception of the world – a system of concentric spheres centered on the Earth and bounded just up there by the Empyrean.

In the Hubble photograph of colliding galaxies we see something akin to Dante’s paradisal vision, but it is not a cosmos centered on the Earth. Here are other Suns and other Earths being born, in prodigious numbers, massive stars destined to die soon as supernovas, and other less massive stars that will live long lives, perhaps evolving life or consciousness on their planets. We see in the Hubble photograph a universe of a fullness and dimension that makes Dante’s human-centered cosmos of concentric spheres seem like a dust mote in an immense cathedral.

Astronomy is no longer a required course of study in our universities, and it’s something of a shame. Who can look at the photograph of colliding galaxies and not be moved to rapture? An understanding of the size, age, and prodigality of the universe should be part of every liberal arts graduate’s intellectual furniture.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

The Poet: Fernando Pessoa, “I Don’t Know If The Stars Rule The World”

“I Don’t Know If The Stars Rule The World”

“I don’t know if the stars rule the world,

Or if Tarot or playing cards

Can reveal anything.

I don’t know if the rolling of dice

Can lead to any conclusion.

But I also don’t know

If anything is attained

By living the way most people do.

Yes, I don’t know

If I should believe in this daily rising sun

Whose authenticity no one can guarantee me,

Or if it would be better (because better or more convenient)

To believe in some other sun,

One that shines even at night,

Some profound incandescence of things,

Surpassing my understanding.

For now...

(Let’s take it slow)

For now

I have an absolutely secure grip on the stair-rail,

I secure it with my hand –

This rail that doesn’t belong to me

And that I lean on as I ascend...

Yes... I ascend...

I ascend to this:

I don’t know if the stars rule the world.”

- Fernando Pessoa

"The More I Learn..."

"The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog."

- Mark Twain

"Russian Orthodox Christmas - What The Western Media Won’t Show You!"

Full screen recommended.

Scottish Guy In Moscow, 1/7/26

"Russian Orthodox Christmas - 

What The Western Media Won’t Show You!"

"Today is Orthodox Christmas Day here in Russia. I will take you on a walk through one of my favorite streets in the centre of Moscow and show you what you will never seen on TV in western media."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Lisa The Russian, 1/7/26

"First Days in Vladivostok! Different from Moscow?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Durand, Michigan, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Alert! USA Captures Russian Ship! Russia Activates World's Biggest Nuclear Submarine"

Prepper News, 1/7/26

"Alert! USA Captures Russian Ship! 

Russia Activates World's Biggest Nuclear Submarine"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

"Trump rachets up tensions with Moscow as U.S. military seizes Russian tanker in international waters and talks more about taking Greenland by force. Russia responds with demands to safely return its citizens currently being detained by the U.S. military."

"How Russia Could Destroy the Entire World"

"How Russia Could Destroy the Entire World"

"In today’s world, the threat of global annihilation is a very real possibility. Among the nations with the power to end all civilization in a matter of minutes, Russia stands out as number 1. With advanced weapons systems capable of unparalleled destruction, Russia could trigger the end of the world in just five minutes and bring humanity to its knees."

Full screen recommended.

"This Is What a Nuclear War Would 

Look Like Minute by Minute"

o

"Russia Puts Advanced Sarmat 

Nuclear Missile System On ‘Combat Duty’"

"Moscow has put into service an advanced intercontinental ballistic missile that Russian President Vladimir Putin has said would make Russia’s enemies “think twice” about their threats, according to reported comments by the head of the country’s space agency. Yuri Borisov, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, said Sarmat missiles have “assumed combat duty”, according to Russian news agency reports.

“The Sarmat strategic system has assumed combat alert posture,” the state-run TASS news agency quoted the Roscosmos chief as saying. “Based on experts’ estimates, the RS-28 Sarmat is capable of delivering a MIRVed warhead weighing up to 10 tons to any location worldwide, both over the North and South Poles,” TASS said in its report.

Putin said in February that the Sarmat – one of several advanced weapons in Russia’s arsenal, is deployed now. In 2022, some two months after Russian troops invaded Ukraine, Putin said the Sarmat would “reliably ensure the security of Russia from external threats and make those, who in the heat of aggressive rhetoric try to threaten our country, think twice”.

The Sarmat is an underground silo-based missile that Russian officials say can carry up to 15 nuclear warheads, though the United States military estimates its capacity to be 10 warheads. Known to NATO military allies by the codename “Satan”, the missile reportedly has a short initial launch phase, which gives little time for surveillance systems to track its takeoff.

Weighing more than 200 tons, the Sarmat has a range of some 18,000km (11,000 miles) and was developed to replace Russia’s older generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICMBs) that dated from the 1980s. Russia test-fired the Sarmat missile in April 2022 in the Plesetsk region of the country, located some 800km (almost 500 miles) north of Moscow, and the launched missiles hit targets on the Kamchatka peninsula, in Russia’s far east region."

- https://www.aljazeera.com/

o

RS-28 Sarmat

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-28_Sarmat

15 warheads per missile, 11,000 mile range, hypersonic speed of 15,880 mph.

One Sarmat can destroy an area the size of Texas or France.

A hypersonic nuclear missile launched from Russia will hit Washington, DC in 23 minutes.

o

The Poseidon Torperdo

Full screen recommended.

Fully operational and deployed, the Poseidon torpedo with a 100 megaton warhead explodes deep underwater, causing a 1,600 foot high tidal wave which destroys everything on the U.S. East Coast as far inland as West Virginia. England would simply disappear beneath the waves...

It would look exactly like this, only twice as high...

Do we really want to do this? Pray to God we don't...

"Putin's Nuclear Poseidon To Hit US Like Tsunami? What Russia's 'Super Weapon' Can Do"

Full screen recommended.

Times Of India, 10/29/25

"Putin's Nuclear Poseidon To Hit US Like Tsunami?

 What Russia's 'Super Weapon' Can Do"

"Russia has conducted its second nuclear-capable test in 10 days - this time of the Poseidon underwater “super weapon,” following the Burevestnik nuclear cruise missile trial. President Vladimir Putin announced the successful test of the Poseidon 2M39, calling it a revolutionary nuclear-powered torpedo capable of evading all existing defences. The Kremlin described it as a “strategic breakthrough,” signalling Moscow’s determination to revive the 21st-century arms race. The Poseidon, powered by a compact nuclear reactor, can reportedly travel thousands of miles underwater at high speeds and to extreme depths, carrying a warhead up to two megatons - 133 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Weighing over 90 tons and stretching nearly 60 feet in length, it is designed to trigger tsunami-like destruction along enemy coastlines. The weapon, known to NATO as Kanyon and to Russian engineers as Status-6, could be deployed aboard the Belgorod nuclear submarine. Watch for more details."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Full screen recommended.

The Poseidon torpedo with a 100 megaton warhead explodes deep underwater, causing a 1,600 foot high tidal wave which would destroy everything on the U.S. East Coast as far inland as West Virginia. England would simply disappear beneath the waves...

o

Full screen recommended.

"The True Power of Russia's Tsunami Bomb"

"Mankind has reached a point in its destructive capabilities that it is literally beyond our comprehension. So what is it we really have to fear? The Poseidon (Russian: Посейдон, "Poseidon", GRAU index 2M39, NATO reporting name Kanyon), previously known by Russian codename Status-6 (Russian: Статус-6), is an autonomous, nuclear-powered unmanned underwater vehicle reportedly in production by Rubin Design Bureau, capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear warheads. The Poseidon is one of the six new Russian strategic weapons announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on 1 March 2018."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Horrifyingly Really Will Be"

 

Full screen recommended.

"The 2026 Super Crash: Why It Begins in January"

"Is the "Soft Landing" a lie? Economist Harry Dent is predicting a historic 90% Stock Market Crash beginning in January 2026. While Wall Street celebrates the AI boom, the "Everything Bubble" is facing a critical breaking point that could dwarf the 2008 financial crisis. In this video, we break down the terrifying math behind Dent’s prediction and why the "Demographic Cliff" makes an economic collapse inevitable this year. We explain why the 17-year cycle is ending and how the corporate debt wall will trigger a cascade of bankruptcies."

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Adventures With Danno, "My Amazing Shopping Day at Costco!"

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Adventures With Danno, 1/7/26

"My Amazing Shopping Day at Costco!"

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o

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Frugal Fit Mom, 1/7/26

"The End of Dollar Tree, Insane Price Increases!?"

"Join me for a store walkthrough as we discuss the end of an era: the Dollar Tree's dollar pricing. With inflation impacting everything, the shift from $1 to $1.25 and now even higher prices is changing how we approach shopping. This video explores customer reactions and news reports on the Dollar Tree's evolving pricing strategies, offering smart shopping tips to navigate these changes."

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"Unemployment Explosion Coming in 2026, Mass Layoffs Begin"

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Snyder Reports, 1/7/26

"Unemployment Explosion Coming in 2026, 

Mass Layoffs Begin"

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Jay Reed, 1/7/26

"GM Lays Off Entire Team As Car Market Collapsed, 

Now Workers Are Furious"

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- https://www.youtube.com/

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Jay Reed, 1/7/26

"How Is Best Buy Still Open, Stores Empty"

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"¡Don't Cry For Me, Venezuela!"

"¡Don't Cry For Me, Venezuela!"

by Joel Bowman

“Maduro, whom I met, is a dictator, plain and simple.”

~ Joe Biden

Buenos Aires, Argentina - "Whoa! What a difference a year makes! On January 10, waaay back in the Olden Days of 2024, Joe Biden’s totally qualified press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, threw some baitfish to the seal-clapping propagandists performing in the White House press cesspool. There she explained, in no uncertain terms and using her very best “serious Obama” voice, the Biden administration’s tough, no-nonsense stance on Nicolás Maduro, a man the administration openly and repeatedly labeled an “illegitimate” president:

“Let us quickly turn to Venezuela, where Maduro once again demonstrated his complete disregard for democratic norms and proceeded with his illegitimate inauguration. As President Biden emphasized earlier, during his meeting with President Elect, Edmundo González, on Monday January 6, we believe that it is essential that the will of the Venezuelan people is respected.” Jean-Pierre then went on to announce that the reward money for information that led to Maduro’s arrest, as part of the United States’ “narcotics rewards program,” would be increased to $25 million.

Gee... for a moment there, it almost seemed like they wanted the man arrested or something? That they did not recognize his legitimacy as Venezuelan president. That rather than a pillar of democracy, Biden & Co. considered him a threat to it.

In Their Own Words: Indeed, Biden’s own state department openly declared as much. Here’s his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken: “Maduro lost clearly the 2024 presidential election and does not have the right to claim the presidency. The United States does not recognize Nicolás Maduro as president of Venezuela.” And Ned Price, State Department spokesperson: “Again, Maduro is a dictator. His repression, corruption, and mismanagement have created one of the most dire humanitarian crises this hemisphere has seen.”

Their words, dear reader. Of course, Mr. Biden’s administration was not alone in refusing to recognize Maduro’s “illegitimate” claim to the presidency. The European Union likewise refused to legitimize the military strongman’s proclaimed victory and officially withheld participation in his inauguration. The United Kingdom and G7 issued statements denouncing the “lack of democratic legitimacy” in Maduro’s proclaimed continuation in power and resoundingly condemned what they considered his regime’s grave repression of civil liberties.

Neighboring nations Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico all denied Maduro’s election claim, while several countries in the western hemisphere went so far as to officially recognize the opposition leader, Edmundo González Urrutia, as the legitimate president-elect. These countries included The United States, Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, and Uruguay.

Nobel Aside: As astute readers will recall, Edmundo González, who was widely considered to have won by a landslide (and who actually produced the electoral receipts to prove it), had the backing of popular opposition leader María Corina Machado, whom he replaced on the ballot after she was barred from running for office by “officials” from Maduro’s regime. Señora Machado even won a prize for her efforts, a prize enlightened individuals in academia and the legacy media used to care about, no less...

According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, María Corina Machado was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize: “...for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” One can only imagine that things got a bit icy for the Nobel Committee when Machado dedicated the award “to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause.” Hmm...

Strange Bedfellows: Of course, Sr. Maduro was not without support... as a handful of countries with deep interests and ongoing “trade deals” – in drugs, arms, oil, humans... you know, the usual stuff – recognized his claim to the presidency, among them those notable bastions of free and open democracy, Russia, China, Cuba, Nicaragua and Iran. Curiously, these countries are not often at the top of the list when people yammer on about human rights records and civil liberties.

Who, then, would stand beside them... and beside Maduro himself? That is, for those who claim to cherish democracy... if the US, the EU, the UK and the G7, along with the majority of Venezuela’s South American neighbors – to say nothing of the Venezuelan people themselves... eight million of whom were forced into exile in the past decade alone – did not recognize Nicolás Maduro as the legitimate president of that country... then the obvious question begs itself: What was he?

Put another way, if Maduro was occupying The Miraflores Palace (Venezuela’s equivalent of The White House) illegally, if he was doing so “against the will of his people,” and creating the “most dire humanitarian crises this hemisphere has seen”...would that not make him, as Mr. Biden so bluntly put it, “a dictator, plain and simple”?

Again, these are not our words, dear reader... but those of our enlightened moral and political betters, who let us know whether we are “at war with Oceana or Eurasia,” as George Orwell had it in his classic novel, "1984". After all, democracy is not our favorite plaything, nor have we spent the last eight years telling anyone who would listen that “democracy is on the ballot.” We’re simply asking the obvious question...

As for “taking out” brutal dictators (or escorting them on non-military aircraft to courts of law where they have been formally indicted on criminal charges), it would be beyond naive to pretend that superpowers do not do what they please, when they please, so-called “international law” be damned.

We do not say this is right... only that it has been the way of the world, observably, since the dawn of time. It’s what governments – and the psychopathic actors who typically head them – do. Statists gonna State, in other words. It’s what men in dark suits sometimes call “realpolitik.”

Heads of State: Indeed, compared to the treatment of similar dictators this century, Maduro may come to feel rather fortunate to find himself in a New York courtroom, with his head still attached to his shoulders, and not dragged through the streets, publicly tortured and executed... or at the bottom of the deep, blue sea.

According to the United Nations (ESCWA) data, Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi’s scalp is said to have cost the United States just over $1 trillion (including ongoing regional instability through 2025), with between ~14,500 and ~18,900 deaths (all sides). Gaddafi was dragged through the streets, publicly beaten, tortured and then executed for his troubles.

Sadam Hussein’s head cost the US$1.7 trillion dollars and 4,500 American soldiers... not to mention 268,000-295,000 total deaths (which is a low estimate; The Lancet reckons closer to 600,000 “excess deaths” over the entire Iraq War, with all its dubious casus belli). Hussein was later hanged and his body destroyed.

But the costliest scalp of the 21st century (so far) goes to Osama bin Laden. Until his capture and killing in 2011, according to estimates from Brown University, the War in Afghanistan cost the United States empire between $3.2 trillion and $4 trillion.

The Costs of War Project estimates roughly 176,000 total deaths in the Afghanistan War, including civilians, Afghan security forces, and opposition fighters. Within hours of bin Laden’s killing (according to the official story), he was transported by helicopter to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, then to the USS Carl Vinson, from which his body was dumped in the North Arabian Sea, never to be seen again...

Readers will no doubt notice that all of these killings were carried out on the other side of the world, in poor and backward places that could not conceivably have posed a serious, existential threat to the mighty US Empire. And yet, they were dealt with mercilessly. As for this latest scalp, captured in what might be called America’s “near abroad,” there are certainly many questions outstanding...

The Latest Scalp: If Maduro was, indeed, an illegitimate dictator, why hand the leadership baton to his equally illegitimate Vice President, Delcy Rodríguez, and not to the candidate who was, until five minutes ago, officially recognized by the US (and many others) as the country’s true leader, Edmundo González (or his Nobel Prize winning backer, María Corina Machado)?

Was Maduro’s capture “pre-arranged,” as some have suggested, staged for all the world to see? Did Rodríguez serve her former boss up to Trump as part of a power negotiation, in which she would tow Washington’s line while he would grant her some level of immunity? What of the remaining power brokers and cartel henchmen in the country and around the region? They are unlikely to go along with any of Trump’s plans that do not involve a significant slice of the lucre.

And what of Maduro himself? Now that he is in US custody, what fates do the Powers That Be have in store for him? Will he be banished to a Five Star retreat for his remaining days... or will he be “suicided,” Epstein style?

What does this mean for the global balance of power, in particular vis-á-vis Maduro’s staunchest supporters/trading partners in Russia, China, Cuba, Iran? And what of the long-suffering Venezuelan people themselves, who not only endured the worst humanitarian crisis of the present century, but now have to hear about how the rights of a man the world once knew as a “brutal dictator” are suddenly more precious than their right to live peacefully in their own country? See their hopeful celebrations here in Buenos Aires in our weekend Note, here.)

Given the rhetoric from both sides of the political aisle over the past few years, we are not at all surprised that Maduro’s head was the latest to roll (if only metaphorically)... but we will be shocked if it is the last. Power plays in Venezuela… rumblings from Greenland to Colombia… and now news that the UK and France are mulling a “coalition of the willing” to put boots on ground in the Ukraine... And 2026 is barely a week old!"

- https://joelbowman.substack.com/

Bill Bonner, "Back to Barbarity"

"Back to Barbarity"

by Bill Bonner

Baltimore, Maryland - "On to Greenland! CBS News: "White House discussing range of options for acquiring Greenland, Leavitt says."

But whoa. Let’s slow down. We look back to the ‘indictment’ of Nicolas Maduro for a residue of ‘due process of law.’ He is to be tried by a legitimate court on legitimate charges. No mention of Fentanyl. No reference to the mythical group, Cartel de los Soles. Nothing about stealing oil. Instead, he’s charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

Readers might wonder why the time and unique skills of US military forces...and billions of dollars...should be engaged in what is really a relatively minor law-enforcement effort. The engineers actually built a replica of the Venezuelan presidential palace, so US troops could rehearse without scaling a high wall or bumping their heads on a low door. As it turned out, they all came back, as if from a lark, safe and sound, with nary a scratch or a powder burn.

Why bother? Everyone knows the supply of cocaine in the US will not go down, not by one jot or tittle, thanks to this headline kidnapping. But that is the advantage of asymmetric power. You don’t have to justify your actions. We kidnap them; they don’t kidnap us. We bomb Nigerians; they don’t bomb us. We lay down the law...and then walk all over it. We don’t need a good excuse.

Another example is America’s partner, Israel. With US backing, last year, Israel attacked Palestine, Iran, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria and Yemen. It also carried out strikes against flotillas that were trying to bring aid to Gaza. The number of attacks was breath-taking - a total of 10,631 up to December 5th, 2025. You can’t do that unless you’re pretty sure they can’t strike back.

But watch out. Asymmetry is a temptation to wickedness. The gods will put up with it - even relish it - for a long time. But not forever. Then, asymmetry flips. Human history is a pendulum, swinging back and forth between progress and retrogression...prosperity and poverty...civilization and barbarity. The material and technical progress of humankind is manifest, all around us. It seems to go forward, step by step, with little backsliding. Indoor plumbing and refrigeration, for example, are clear winners. Once installed, people rarely want to live without them.

But not every new thing is ‘progress.’ A baby born in the US today immediately takes on his share of a $38 trillion debt -' about $115,000 each. Is that progress? In human affairs, progress, if there is any, is tentative and cyclical. After WWII, steps were taken toward a more foreseeable, and more civilized, world. The US Department of War was renamed the Department of Defense in 1947. The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights was put forward in 1948. The Geneva Convention came out in 1949. All were intended to avoid another WWII-type bloodbath..

Trump’s re-re-renaming of the War Department tells us all we need to know about the direction this administration is headed. It is leading a counter-trend, returning to an era where nations use their power to get what they want. The Trump team bombs Nigeria and kidnaps the first couple of Venezuela not because it is fulfilling the law, but because it is thumbing its nose at it.

But if it is okay for the US to take out the president of Venezuela and put in a puppet of its choice, shouldn’t it be okay for China to do the same with Taiwan? China has asymmetric power too. And Russia with the Donbas? The US gave $359 billion to Ukraine to stop Russia from asserting control. But why? America has its reasons for attacking Venezuela. Russia must have its own reasons for taking up arms against the Ukraine.

‘Equal rights’ and the ‘rule of law’ are just concepts. They make human interactions seem ‘fair’ and predictable. But they are not guaranteed, neither by God nor by man. And if an advanced race of aliens landed on the White House lawn, they would have the asymmetric upper hand. Would they respect the Bill of Rights? Would they file US income taxes? Would they stop their space mobiles for red traffic signals and leave handicapped spaces for cripples? Not likely.

And now that Trump, supposedly, has control over the vast oil reserves of Venezuela, the coast is clear for the US to join forces with the Israelis to pull off an even bigger caper. Until now, or so goes the logic, the US was afraid Iran could crush the worldwide economy by cutting off oil supplies. According to the scuttlebutt on the internet, one of the reasons Trump attacked Venezuela was to neutralize that threat. Now, Trump - working with the new Vichy Venezuela - has control over 300 billion barrels of oil reserves. And now, with that accomplished, a bigger war in the Mideast can go forward.

Antiwar.com: "Trump Says He’ll Support an Israeli Attack on Iran If Tehran ‘Continues’ Its Missile Program." "The president made the comments at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida before a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when asked if he would back more Israeli attacks on Iran. “If they continue with the missiles, yes. The nuclear, fast,” he said."

Yes, the US may continue the noble work of George W. Bush, hunting for Weapons of Mass Destruction! And with similar results. America’s real influence will probably go down, as the widening circle of ‘enemies’ finds ways to get even. This is not so much a ‘paradox’ as it is an obvious and predictable swing of the pendulum."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"John Mearsheimer: Venezuela, Greenland & the End of NATO"

Glenn Diesen, 1/7/26

"John Mearsheimer:

 Venezuela, Greenland & the End of NATO"

"John J. Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1982. Prof. Mearsheimer discusses why we may be on the path to the end of NATO."

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"Alert! Russia Is About To Level Ukraine; NATO Troops Greenlight; Greenland Nukes!"

Full screen recommended.

Prepper News, 1/6/26

"Alert! Russia Is About To Level Ukraine; 

NATO Troops Greenlight; Greenland Nukes!"

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"Teachers Are Crashing Out As Something Is Deeply Wrong With America’s Youth"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 1/6/26

"Teachers Are Crashing Out As Something 

Is Deeply Wrong With America’s Youth"

"Teachers across America are reaching their breaking point and they're finally speaking out. In classrooms from elementary schools to high school, educators are witnessing something they've never seen before: students who can't read at grade level, who refuse to follow basic instructions, who see no value in learning because "AI can do it for me." This isn't about one bad day or one difficult class. This is a pattern. And it's getting worse.

In this video, I'm reacting to dozens of teachers sharing their experiences the behaviors they're seeing, the lack of support from administration, the parents who won't pick up the phone, and the students who genuinely don't understand why effort matters. We're talking about eighth graders reading at kindergarten level. Tenth graders who think three paragraphs is "too much." Kids who can't tell you their own address or their parents' names.

What's driving this? It's not one thing. It's everything. Endless screen time from birth. Instant gratification from apps designed to hijack attention. A school system that passes kids along regardless of ability. Parents stretched thin by inflation, cost of living, and the demands of modern life. A culture that rewards victimhood over resilience. And an education system that's stripped teachers of autonomy while piling on responsibilities they never signed up for.

This isn't about blaming kids. They didn't build this world - we did. But if we don't start having honest conversations about what's happening, we're setting up an entire generation to fail. And the teachers trying to sound the alarm? They're burning out and walking away. Watch. Listen. And ask yourself: what are we going to do about it?"

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"Gold Explodes, Layoffs Surge, Venezuela Chaos - Something Is Very Wrong"

Jeremiah Babe, 1/6/26

"Gold Explodes, Layoffs Surge, Venezuela Chaos - 

Something Is Very Wrong"

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Gerald Celente, "Trends Journal's Top Trends Of 2026"

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, 1/6/26

"Trends Journal's Top Trends Of 2026"

"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/

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Musical Interlude: The Alan Parsons Project, "Prime Time"

The Alan Parsons Project, "Prime Time"

"A Look to the Heavens"

Full screen recommended.

"The Astonishing Truth About Trillions of Galaxies!"

The view of the starry night sky is simply overwhelming: but what – or rather, how much – can we actually see? From our earthly perspective, it is simply impossible to see the entire universe. And yet, some time ago, astronomers conducted a “cosmic census” to find out how many galaxies really lie dormant in the observable universe – and in doing so, they uncovered something incredible! The bottom line is that there are at least two trillion galaxies out there – about ten times more than previously thought! Today, we'll show you how experts discovered the truth about these hidden galaxies – and how this has changed our understanding of our cosmic neighborhood!"

The Poet: Rumi, "You Are You"

Rumi, "You Are You"

“You Are You” is a deeply moving and spiritual poem by Rumi, the 13th-century Persian mystic and poet whose words continue to awaken hearts across cultures and generations. This piece is a reflection on identity, presence, and the eternal truth within us. Rumi gently reminds us that we are not defined by our outer struggles or passing thoughts - we are something deeper, timeless, and radiant. This poem invites the listener to pause, turn inward, and remember who they truly are. In this video, you’ll hear a heartfelt English reading of You Are You alongside a meditative interpretation of its meaning and emotional depth. Let Rumi’s words guide you to the stillness and truth within."