"The Alert Level For The Iranian Military Has Been Raised To The Highest Possible Level As A Massive Escalation Appears To Be Imminent"

by Michael Snyder

"The Great Middle East War is poised to escalate to an entirely new level, and that could have huge implications for the entire planet. Diesel prices are already spiraling out of control, and strict energy rationing measures are already being implemented in impoverished nations such as Pakistan. Unfortunately, it appears that another round of fighting could be about to erupt in the Middle East. Within the past 24 hours, there have been a lot of rumors that the alert level for the Iranian military has been raised to the highest level possible. According to a major Iranian news agency, these rumors are accurate…

An Iranian official said Iran has raised its military readiness to the highest level, with response plans prepared at air, ground and naval levels to deliver a heavy, wide and surprising response to U.S. and Israeli forces and interests. Russia al-Youm network, citing an unnamed Iranian official, reported that Iranian forces have raised their operational alert to the highest level to be ready for any possible military development or adventure. The official said response plans have been prepared at the air, ground and naval levels, enabling a heavy, wide and surprising response to U.S. and Israeli military forces and interests.

Why is this happening now? Well, things have gotten quite crazy in the region over the past several days. On Saturday, the Houthis crossed a very clear red line by firing missiles at the capital city of Saudi Arabia…Saudi Arabia confirmed Saturday that the Yemen-based Houthi rebel group attempted to attack its capital with a ballistic missile, The Associated Press reported. Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said the group attacked with a “large number of ballistic and cruise missiles” and drones to target the kingdom’s capital city, Riyadh, and the facilities of Saudi oil company Aramco in Yanbu.

The Saudis are absolutely furious, and they are asking the U.S. to intervene. On Sunday, both President Trump and Defense War Secretary Pete Hegseth unexpectedly made sudden returns to Washington… US President Donald Trump cut short his stay at Camp David on Sunday and returned to the White House. Simultaneously, Defense  War Secretary Pete Hegseth departed a sports event in Texas to make a swift return to the capital, as the US prepared for potential wide-ranging military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

Hegseth left a college football game at Texas A&M University, while an official delegation in Copenhagen was recalled directly to the capital. According to a report on CNN by Alex Plitsas, the US was weighing extensive operations against Ansar Allah (the Houthis), in retaliation for rebel strikes inside Saudi Arabia. The kingdom has struggled to counter the Iranian-backed Yemeni rebels, to the point that it has approached Israel to enhance its defensive capabilites.

CNN National Security Analyst Alex Plitsas confirmed on X that the presidential session focused on reviewing strike options following a missile assault directed at Riyadh. “As I said last night, was told that the POTUS meeting at Camp David was to deliberate and review Yemen strike options. Today, U.S. embassies in Middle Eastern countries that are likely to be targets of retaliatory strikes issued warnings. Now POTUS head to the White House early,” he wrote on X.

Also on Sunday, U.S. embassies all over the Middle East simultaneously released new security alerts warning of “unforeseen escalation” in the region…U.S. embassies across the Middle East early Sunday morning local time issued security alerts for American citizens in the region. “Due to tensions in the Middle East, the security environment remains complex with the potential for unforeseen escalation,” the State Department said in its alerts. The alerts did not state a specific threat, but called for Americans to “exercise heightened vigilance and be aware of potential flight cancellations, airspace closures, and travel disruptions.”

On top of everything else, we have learned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming trip to the U.S. will be “significantly shortened”…Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has significantly shortened his already brief visit to the United States. He will now fly directly to New York on the day of his address to the United Nations General Assembly and depart immediately after delivering the speech, i24NEWS learns. Netanyahu had originally been expected to begin his diplomatic visit in Texas before traveling to New York for his address on Thursday.

I think that far more is going on behind the scenes than we are being told. Just a little while ago, President Trump may have given us some hints about what is going on when he told Fox News that “very big things are going to be happening in the not-so-distant future”…Mr Trump, who left the presidential retreat at Camp David earlier than expected on Saturday to return to the White House, told Fox News on Sunday he was in a “deciding mode” and that “very big things are going to be happening in the not-so-distant future”. His options were “wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically or making a deal”, he said, adding: “My question is if and when do I blow the entire nation up?”

That sounds rather ominous. What would blowing up the entire nation of Iran look like? On the other side, the Iranians are reportedly considering a new law that would withdraw their nation from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty… An Iranian lawmaker said a bill proposing Iran’s withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has been submitted to parliament’s presiding board and is awaiting the speaker’s approval to be put to an open session. Hossein Ali Haji Deligani raised the issue during Sunday’s parliamentary session, saying the triple-urgency bill has been ready for some time. He said that given the country’s current circumstances and recent attacks against it, remaining in the NPT offers Iran nothing but harm.

Once they have withdrawn from that treaty, they would be free to start testing nuclear weapons. At this stage, there is no end in sight for the crisis in the Middle East. Instead, it appears likely that it will just continue to intensify. What this means is that the global energy crisis is about to get really painful. As I discussed on Friday, the Saudis have already told Europe that they won’t be getting any shipments of oil until November at the earliest. Needless to say, European leaders are scrambling to come up with an alternate plan.

Here in the United States, the average price of diesel set another record high on Sunday…

A year ago, the average price of a gallon of diesel in the United States was just $3.70. Now it is $6.50. We have never seen anything like this before. And some gas station signs are showing a price of $9.99 as a way to indicate that they are entirely out of diesel… Amid reports of gas stations in California showing maxing out at $9.99 for diesel, Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, told the news outlet Straight Arrow that this was also due to the displays’ three-digit limit. “I had a few moments and made contact with a couple stations,” said De Haan. “The stations did say their sign said $9.99, but they had done that because they had run out of diesel.”

Unfortunately, it isn’t just supplies of diesel that are running low. According to Newsweek, one gas station in Ohio temporarily ran out of gasoline last week… A social media post showing gas being sold for $9.99 per gallon in Ohio was in fact due to the station running low on fuel, Newsweek has learned, rather than the Buckeye State suffering particularly acute effects of the Iran war.

If the war in the Middle East escalates even more, things could get a lot worse. Most Americans assume that our homeland will never be touched by any of the wars that are raging on the other side of the planet, but that is not a safe assumption at all. In fact, the FBI is claiming that the Iranians actually “aspired to conduct a surprise attack using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” on targets in California…

The FBI warned police departments in California in recent days that Iran could retaliate for American attacks by launching drones at the West Coast, according to an alert reviewed by ABC News. “We recently acquired unverified information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United States homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event the U.S. conducted strikes against Iran,” according to the alert distributed at the end of February. “We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack.”

In my opinion, the Iranians still have a lot of surprises up their sleeves. So do the Israelis. We are literally watching World War 3 play out right in front of our eyes, but most people still do not seem to understand this. Once the first weapons of mass destruction are used in the Middle East, perhaps that will be enough to get people to wake up."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"ALERT! WW3 Trigger EVENT in Coming Weeks, Widespread Global Military Preparations Underway"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 9/20/26

"ALERT! WW3 Trigger EVENT in Coming Weeks, 

Widespread Global Military Preparations Underway"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"13 Signs Target Is Falling Apart Right In Front Of Our Eyes"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 9/20/26

"13 Signs Target Is Falling

Apart Right In Front Of Our Eyes"

"The Target boycott did not end, and the people still walking in are filming what the store turned into. Razors, deodorant, soap and even allergy medicine behind locked plastic. Asset protection chasing customers through the parking lot. A new demerit system handed to employees on paper, where twelve marks in a year ends your job. Shifts cut to twenty one hours a week, days off assigned without asking. Departments running with nobody left in them. Shelves with almost nothing on them. Stores quietly leaving whole areas and all citing the same reason. And a customer who could not get her own eyeglass prescription unless she promised to buy the glasses there. Every clip is a real shopper or a real Target employee, filmed on their own phone, in their own words. Nothing here is staged."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "We're In Serious Trouble - What Is This?"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 9/20/26

"We're In Serious Trouble - What Is This?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Most Sought After Job In America Is Running A Burger Joint; The FED Can't Print More Oil/Diesel"

Jeremiah Babe, 9/20/26

"Most Sought After Job In America Is Running 

A Burger Joint; The FED Can't Print More Oil/Diesel"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Russia Voted Under Fire. Washington Is Loading the Tankers"

"Russia Voted Under Fire.

 Washington Is Loading the Tankers"

by Larry C. Johnson

"Two things happened this weekend that belong in the same frame, though you will not see them connected anywhere in the Western press. Russia held a national election under a hail of drones and cyberattacks - and came through it. And overnight, the United States began signaling that it is about to widen the war in the Middle East. They are not separate stories. The same barrage that tried to break the Russian vote also tore a piece out of Russia’s refining capacity, and that connects directly to the fuel crisis Washington is about to make worse. Take them in order.

An election under attack: Russians voted over three days, September 18 through 20, to seat the ninth convocation of the State Duma, their national legislature - all 450 seats. What made the final day extraordinary was the effort, backed by the West, to disrupt it by force.

Overnight, Ukraine launched the largest drone assault of the war. Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, reported that air defenses brought down more than 1,600 drones across Russia since Saturday, roughly 450 of them bound for the capital region; the Russian Defense Ministry put the single-night intercept figure at 1,110, the highest it has ever reported. I will be candid: I woke up Sunday morning with no idea any of it had happened. The overwhelming majority were destroyed well before they reached Moscow. A handful got through - two people were killed and about twenty injured in the Moscow region. For those who lost their lives, and for their families, it is a tragedy. But set it against the scale: some seventeen million people live in the Moscow region, and their day went on. Then, through the voting hours, came waves of cyberattacks on the electronic voting system - another attempt to break the election that failed to break it.

Now the numbers that matter. Official turnout, per the Central Election Commission, came in around 56.7 percent over the three days. Ten parties qualified for the ballot. And in the four newly constituted republics - Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson - turnout ran dramatically higher than the national figure, despite those regions being under active attack. People who face drones on their way to the polling station and vote anyway are telling you something about how much the franchise means to them.

The election was watched by international observers - independent-minded people, some of them frankly sympathetic to Gennady Zyuganov’s Communists, no friends of the ruling party. I spoke with several. Their verdict was the same: this was a free and fair election. I saw nothing to contradict it - no signs going up and being torn down, no one dragged away for campaigning.

Now, I know exactly what the Western press will wave in reply, so let me meet it head-on. Yes: the Supreme Court struck the federal list of Yabloko, the one small party that campaigned against the war, and Boris Nadezhdin was kept off the ballot and has since left the country. Those are the two names you will hear over and over as proof that the whole exercise was theater. It is not much of a case. Yabloko has polled below the five-percent threshold for the better part of two decades; the position it staked out - abandoning the four republics and the men fighting for them - is one almost no Russian holds. Excluding a marginal faction that stands where the West stands is not the same thing as crushing dissent, and it does not turn a three-day, ten-party election with 56.7 percent turnout into a fraud. The real spectrum of Russian politics does not run from pro-war to anti-war. It runs from those who support the special military operation to those who want it fought harder - and inside that spectrum the parties went at each other in the open, and the observers, including men who would sooner see a Communist in the Kremlin, judged the contest fair. On the evidence in front of me, the endless claim that Putin simply crushes all opposition is a fabrication.

Here is what the West consistently misreads. Russia’s parties argue fiercely about domestic policy - income inequality, taxes, education, health care, the ordinary business of any democracy. But on foreign policy they are united, something on the order of 95 percent behind the President and the special military operation. If the ruling bloc’s share slips, it will not be because Russians want the war to end. It will be because they want it prosecuted harder. That is the opposite of the war-weariness Western capitals keep predicting.

The refinery, and the squeeze: Here is the hinge the Western coverage misses entirely. In that same overnight barrage, a drone reached the Gazprom Neft refinery on Moscow’s southeastern edge - a plant that processes on the order of 245,000 barrels a day and supplies fuel to the capital region - and set it ablaze. Strip away the election framing for a moment and look at what that means for the world’s fuel balance. Every refinery knocked offline, in Russia or in the Gulf, tightens the same global distillate market. Ukraine, prodded and supplied by the West, is not only trying to break a Russian election; it is degrading Russian refining capacity at the precise moment the world can least afford to lose a barrel of diesel or jet fuel. That is the thread running straight into the second half of this story.

Washington reaches for the matches: The second development arrived overnight as well, and it points the other direction  - toward escalation.

Late Saturday, September 19, the State Department sharpened its travel guidance, telling Americans outside the Middle East to seriously reconsider any travel to or through the region and warning those already there to brace for airspace closures and canceled flights. That advisory is confirmed and public. Alongside it came reports - which I have not been able to independently confirm, so I flag them as reports - that personnel manning Central Command’s operations centers are being recalled to duty, and that aerial refueling tankers are up and flying over the region. Anyone who has watched these sequences knows what airborne tankers usually precede.

The open question is the target. It could be Yemen and the Houthis - Ansar Allah - who have been trading strikes with Saudi Arabia and just put a plume of black smoke over Riyadh’s King Khalid airport. It could be Iran. It could be both. I cannot rule out any of the three. As I write this Sunday night, there is no sign that strikes are actually under way. So we will learn soon enough whether this is saber-rattling or whether Donald Trump means to escalate.

What we already know is that the global diesel and distillate crisis is getting worse, not better, and nothing on the horizon reverses it. The EIA now expects U.S. distillate inventories to sit below the five-year low through much of 2027; industry veterans reckon the world has lost something like seven million barrels a day of refining capacity to this year’s fighting. Last night’s strike on the Moscow refinery subtracts a little more. This is the box Trump has built for himself. He wants gasoline and diesel cheaper and inflation tamed - and every move he has made around the Persian Gulf, Iran, the Gulf states and now the Houthis guarantees tension stays high and the distillate squeeze stays on.

The market has been whipsawing on every on-again, off-again ceasefire rumor; crude actually eased into Friday’s close, near $104 Brent, on hopes that Saudi Arabia could restore pipeline flows. But if fresh American strikes land this week, expect that to reverse hard - crude spiking, equities selling off, the pump price and the diesel crack climbing right back up. These signals went out on a Sunday evening. Come Monday morning in New York, the odds favor a market moving the wrong way for a President who says he wants the opposite.

So that is where we stand. Trump, for all his talk of ending wars and lowering prices, keeps doing the one thing that makes both harder: pouring fuel on the fire. I will have more once the real shape of the Russian result is clear and once we know whether the tankers meant anything. For now, the democracy that is Russia did more than survive this weekend. It was attacked, and it voted anyway. Thanks for reading."

- https://larrycjohnson.substack.com/

Musical Interlude: Mario Frangoulis and Justin Hayward, "Nights in White Satin"

Full screen recommended.

Mario Frangoulis and Justin Hayward, 

"Nights in White Satin"

Musical Interlude: Moody Blues, "Forever Autumn"

Full screen recommended.

Moody Blues, "Forever Autumn"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Planetary nebula Abell 78 stands out in this colorful telescopic skyscape. In fact the colors of the spiky Milky Way stars depend on their surface temperatures, both cooler (yellowish) and hotter (bluish) than the Sun. But Abell 78 shines by the characteristic emission of ionized atoms in the tenuous shroud of material shrugged off from an intensely hot central star. The atoms are ionized, their electrons stripped away, by the central star's energetic but otherwise invisible ultraviolet light.

The visible blue-green glow of loops and filaments in the nebula's central region corresponds to emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms, surrounded by strong red emission from electrons recombining with hydrogen atoms. Some 5,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Cygnus, Abell 78 is about three light-years across. A planetary nebula like Abell 78 represents a very brief final phase in stellar evolution that our own Sun will experience... in about 5 billion years.”

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

Chet Raymo, “When The Morning Stars Sing Together”

“When The Morning Stars Sing Together”

by Chet Raymo

“A Chinese proverb: A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song. Which might be an acceptable epigraph for this blog. I can’t imagine anyone coming here looking for answers. Certainly, providing answers is the last thing on my mind. I would like to think you come for song.

We are, I think, by and large, a community who distrusts answers, at least answers that are vehemently held. We are made uncomfortable by stridency. By dogma. By the desire to proselytize. We wear our truths lightly, gaily, as a song bird wears its feathers. We are grateful to those who push back the clouds of ignorance and hold the reins of passion. With Blake, we sing their praises, a song we have spent a lifetime learning. We sing to celebrate. We sing because we have a song.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

"Where The Soul Rests In The Mountains"

Full screen recommended.

Walter’s Puppet Box,

"Where The Soul Rests In The Mountains"

"Along forgotten mountain roads, beyond the noise of crowded cities and rushing lives, there is a quieter world - a world where rivers whisper through the valleys, fog drifts between pine trees, campfires glow under endless skies, and tired souls slowly learn how to breathe again. "Where The Soul Rests In The Mountains" is a peaceful surreal AI music film about wandering hearts, forest silence, old hiking trails, rainy mornings in tents, tiny campfires, distant owls, soft rivers, and the quiet beauty hidden inside nature. Here, backpacks carry more than supplies. They carry memories. Healing. Freedom. And the small pieces of ourselves we forgot somewhere along the way. Mountains rise above sleeping valleys. Morning mist moves slowly through the trees. Boots dry beside the fire. Coffee steams quietly at sunrise. Birds sing through cold forest air. And every little moment feels alive again. This film was made for those who dream about forests, peaceful roads, cold rivers, soft campfire nights, handmade memories, and the feeling of disappearing into nature for a little while. This is not a story you need to solve. It is a place to rest. A place to breathe slowly. A place to remember what peace feels like."

"Native American Wisdom for Difficult Times: This Will Help You Stay Strong"

Full screen recommended.

Native Wisdoms,

"Native American Wisdom for Difficult Times: 

This Will Help You Stay Strong"

"If the world feels overwhelming right now… this is for you. This video brings together powerful, grounded wisdom inspired by Native American teachings on how to stay calm, steady, and connected during difficult and uncertain times. These are simple but meaningful lessons about fear, patience, balance, and staying rooted in what truly matters. Shared through the voices of elders, these messages remind us that even in chaos, we can choose clarity, protect our peace, and move forward with strength. You don’t need all the answers - you just need to stay steady. If something here speaks to you, take a moment to reflect… and come back whenever you need it."

Delta King's Blues, "You Get Old, You Get Honest"

Full screen recommended.

Delta King's Blues,

"You Get Old, You Get Honest"

"The older you get, the less you care about pretending. “You Get Old, You Get Honest” is a gritty, heartfelt Delta King’s Blues tune about leaving fake smiles behind, speaking your truth, and finally being comfortable with who you are. Warm acoustic guitar and soulful harmonica create a slow, laid-back blues atmosphere - perfect for anyone who has learned a few hard truths along the way. Age takes away the need to impress and leaves you with the courage to be real."

"We’re All 'Flagellants' Now"

"We’re All 'Flagellants' Now"

by Jeffrey Tucker

"The old FedEx envelope was clever, a work of art even, optimistic and colorful, signifying speed and progress. What a beautiful contrast to the plainness of the U.S. Postal Service. For years, I can recall dropping off these treasures and paying maybe $10 to assure their delivery across the country, even the world. For me, it was a fabulous symbol of an improved life, living proof that progress was baked into the historical trajectory.

But a few days ago, the clerk at the FedEx office confirmed a different ethos. There was no doing business without a scan of my government-issued ID. I asked for confirmation: So if I did not have this, there is simply no way that I could send a package? Confirmed. Then came the envelope. It was the color of the brown bag I took to school when I was a kid. Serviceable, drab, dull. Also the new one is stamped with a big green marker: recyclable. There is no design, no art, certainly no beauty. It’s all gone.

Its main message is suffering. What happened to the old envelopes? They’ve been replaced, the clerk explained firmly, with no more detail. A recycle exhortation suggests shortage. We have to reuse everything because there just isn’t enough to go around. We must sacrifice. The color suggests privation. It’s an aesthetic of sadness and penance. Then of course the price tag came: $26 for delivery not tomorrow but in two days. So compared with some years ago, we pay 2½ times as much for service half as good as it was.

Don’t complain. It’s just the new way. It’s the new way of life. What happened to progress? It’s been replaced. The new path is flagellantism: in politics, culture, economics and everywhere.

The flagellants were a medieval movement of public penitents that roamed from town to town in garbs of woe, flogging themselves and begging as penance for pestilence and war. They were infused with a fiery, apocalyptic and millenarian passion that they could see terrible moral realities to which others were blinded. The theory was that plagues were being visited upon the Earth by God as punishment for sin. The answer was contrition, sorrow and acts of penance as a means of appeasement, in order to make the bad times go away.

It’s true that there were people who did so in private but that was not the main point. The central focus and purpose of the flagellant movement was to make one’s suffering public and conspicuous, an early version of the virtue signal. In the guise of personal sorrow, they were really about spreading guilt to others. They would show up at any public celebration with a message: Your happiness is causing our suffering. The more you party, the more we are forced to bear the burden of the need to be in pain for your sins. Your joy is prolonging the suffering of the world.

Flagellantry is most recognizable in the aesthetic. The first signs I recall seeing of this occurred immediately during the panic of March 2020 when it was proclaimed from on high that a terrible virus was visiting the U.S. Read on for the ugly details…"

"Flagellantism: The New Political Ritual"

by Jeffrey Tucker

"Joseph Campbell was correct about the role of religious impulses in the human mind. They never go away. They just take on different forms according to the style of the times. Every single feature of traditional religion found a new expression in the COVID religion.

We had masking rituals that were rather complicated but learned and practiced quickly by multitudes: mask on while standing and mask off when sitting. We had sacramentals like social distancing and communion with vaccination. Our holy water became sanitizer and our prophets on Earth were government bureaucrats like Fauci.

Flagellantism did not disappear once the old president left and the new one came. Even after the pandemic ended, there were new signs that God was angry. There was the ever-present climate change which was a sign of Earth’s anger for being drilled and carved up for energy sources. And the bad country said to be responsible for the unwelcome invader of the White House - Russia - was now rampaging through the holy land of its neighbors.

In addition, the broader problem was capitalism itself, which gave us things like meat, gasoline, fur and other signs of evil. And what gave rise to capitalism? The answer should be obvious: imperialism, colonialism, racism and the existence of whiteness - each of which called for mass penance.

The pandemic unleashed it all. It was during this period that corporations decided that profitability alone required signs of suffering and hence the rise of ESG and DEI as new ways to assess economic value of corporate culture. And new practices were added to the list of the highly suspect: monogamy, heterosexuality and religious traditions such as Christianity and Orthodox Judaism that should now be regarded as deprecated, even as part of the underlying problem.

It was during this period when I found myself on an apartment hunt and observed a newly remodeled offering. I asked why the owner had not replaced the flooring. I was corrected: These are new floors. Impossible, I thought. They are gray and ghastly. That’s the new fashion, I was told. Looking it up, it was true. Gray flooring was being installed everywhere.

How does wood become gray? It dies. It starts to decay. It is swept away by rivers and floats around for years, alternatively soaked, baked by the sun and soaked again, until every bit of color is drained away. It becomes driftwood, a survivor of the elements and a symbol of the brutality of the cycle of life. Gray flooring is therefore the ideal symbol of the age of suffering, the proper material on which to move back and forth pondering the evils of the world.

In a world governed by flagellantism, ugly formlessness rises to replace aspirational art and imaginative creativity. This is why public art is so depressing and why even the clothing we can afford at the store all looks dreary and uniform. In this world, too, gender differences disappear as luxurious signs of decadence we can no longer afford.

Two other anecdotes. The overhead bins on the flight just now were largely empty, simply because most passengers chose the cheaper basic economy fare. This also requires they have no carry-on luggage and hence be forced to pay for checked luggage or travel with all their belongings in a backpack. We’ve gone from gigantic Louis Vuitton steamer trunks to stuffing things in pockets and hiding them from authorities.

Another case in point. I asked the man in the high-end shoe shop why none of the shoes had leather soles. Instead all shoes have these cushy rubber soles that seem weak and pathetic, and make no noise when one steps. “Everything has changed since COVID,” he said. “All shoes are house shoes now.”

I had no words and walked away, my entire thesis confirmed. Sure enough, all the data we have suggests the mighty triumph of flagellantism. Fertility is down dramatically. Life spans are shortening. People are sicker. Excess deaths are rising. We learn less, read less, write less, create less, love less.

Personal trauma is everywhere. The groceries are more expensive so we eat whatever we can, when we can, while hoping for breezes and whatever sunlight there is to provide just the essential energy we need to slog through another day.

Degrowth is the economic model of flagellantism, reducing consumption, embracing privation, acquiescing to austerity. We no longer declare recessions to be on their way because recession is the new way we live, the realization of the plan. The word “recession” implies a future of recovery, and that is not in the cards.

“Decolonization” is another watchword. It means feeling so guilty about the space you inhabit that your only moral action is to stay put and reflect on the sufferings of those you have displaced. You can of course say a prayer of supplication to them, so long as you never appropriate any aspect of their culture, since doing so would seem to affirm your rights as a human being.

You want joy, beauty, color, drama, adventure and love? It’s not gone entirely. Park yourself on a yoga mat on your gray floor and open your computer. Stream something on one of many streaming services you have been provided. Or become a gamer. There you will find what you seek. The experiences you seek you can only observe as an outsider looking in. It is not participatory. Social distancing never went away; it is how we live in a new age of unending penance.

So, you see, it’s not just about eating bugs. It’s about a whole theory and practice of life and salvation itself, a new religion to replace all the old ones. Cough up your government-issued ID, send your package if you must, think twice before complaining about anything on social media and figure out a way to channel your depression and despair into quiet humble gratitude and acquiescence. Don’t forget to recycle. The flagellants have taken over the world."

- https://dailyreckoning.com/

o

"In a scene from the 1975 film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," a group of monks are depicted singing plainchant while on a procession through the streets of a medieval village. After chanting the first few lines of text, the monks abruptly hit themselves in the face and repeatedly do so during their procession. Although this scene was undoubtedly filmed for comedic purposes, and the movie, in general, propagates a number of historically questionable stereotypes of the Middle Ages, the act of monks singing while engaging in self-harm is historically sound. In fact, this scene reflects the practices of a group of traveling medieval flagellants who would whip themselves while singing songs of penance for the purpose of placating God."

- https://www.medievalists.net/

"7 Ancient Structures Man Could Not Have Built"

Full screen recommended.

Ancient Glow,

"7 Ancient Structures Man Could Not Have Built"

"Seven ancient structures that still amaze with their scale, precision, and level of engineering complexity. In this episode, we explore Göbekli Tepe, Derinkuyu, Sacsayhuaman, the Yonaguni underwater complex, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Baalbek megaliths, and Puma Punku. Each of these sites is connected to real archaeological finds, historical sources, and modern research. For some, the dating and cultural context are well-known, while for others, debates about their origin, purpose, or construction methods are still ongoing. It is precisely these questions that make ancient architecture so fascinating. The video examines facts, researchers' theories, the dimensions of the structures, the peculiarities of stone processing, block transportation, and engineering solutions that are astonishing even today. This is a journey through the most mysterious monuments of the ancient world - from Neolithic Turkey to the Andes, Egypt, Japan, and Lebanon."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Never, Ever Forget..."

"Never, ever forget that nothing in this life is free. Life demands payment in some form for your "right" to express yourself, to condemn and abuse the evil surrounding us. Expect to pay... it will come for you, they will come for you, regardless. Knowing that, give them Hell itself every chance you can. Expect no mercy, and give none. That's how life works. Be ready to pay for what you do, or be a coward, pretend you don't see, don't know, and cry bitter tears over how terrible things are, over how you let them become."

- Ernest Hemingway, "For Whom the Bell Tolls "

Freely download "For Whom the Bell Tolls" 

by Ernest Hemingway here:

- https://www.arvindguptatoys.com/

"The Wages of Perpetual Fear"

"The Wages of Perpetual Fear"

by Paul Rosenberg

"I’ve gone on for a long time about fear making humans stupid, and even about it being a weapon and a brain poison. But I’ve also wondered at times whether people would hit fear-fatigue… that point where people have simply had enough and walk out from under it.

As it turns out, however, I was a bit optimistic on fear fatigue. I’ve been reading Robert Sapolsky’s newest book, "Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best And Worst", and was disappointed to learn what the best new research shows on the long-term application of fear. (Or, in the academic terminology, sustained stress.)

My disappointment, however, was soon tempered by two things: I gained information on how fear poisoning works. That human neurology is immensely variable, that there are exceptions to everything, and that if the whole picture were actually as dark as the most troubling findings, we’d have devolved into nothing but murderous monkeys long ago.

I barely need to say this, but 2026 has been The Year of Fear. I’m a bit amazed by the extent of it. There is a certain appeal to soaking up all the fear stories in normal times – our ability to look evil in the eye makes us appear vibrant – but 2026 has pushed far beyond that level. What we’re encountering is much more than simple fear porn, and there are certain outlets (including websites) that I can only describe as obscene. This is more destructive than people realize.

What Perpetual Fear Does To Us: I’m going to quote from Sapolsky, who is one of the better neuroscientists of our time. I’ll edit a bit to simplify and to remove the brain-area references, and will follow the passages with a few elaborations. “During sustained stress, we’re more fearful, our thinking is muddled, we assess risks poorly, and act impulsively out of habit, rather than incorporating new data.”

Under a long stream of fear (like scary headlines), our thinking breaks down. Let me put that very simply: You may be very bright in essence, but when you consume hours of fear every day, you become stupid. And please understand: This is biological. Your brain operations become those of a stupid person. (And yes, I’m using “stupid” very unscientifically.)

Also bear in mind that fear works. The people selling fear on TV, web pages and social media are being rewarded for it. They have become, using my terms loosely but not unfairly, drug dealers, selling damaging material that people become dependent upon. Moreover, these are professionals. Social media companies are fully aware that their business models depend upon people being addicted to them. They are careful to keep them addicted. The fears people consume, then, are coming to them from people who are cashing in from it.

“Stress weakens connections that are essential for incorporating new information that should prompt shifting to a new strategy - while strengthening connections with habitual brain circuits.” In other words, fear locks you into your habits and your previous choices. It literally diminishes the brain pathways that allow you to change your mind. This is serious, and I suspect that you’ve seen examples of this already.

“Under sustained stress we process emotionally prominent information rapidly and automatically, but less accurately. Working memory, impulse control, decision-making, risk-assessment and task shifting are impaired.” Again, prolonged fear locks people into whatever path they’re already on. And again, this is biological. The brain circuits are directly affected. 

Still…From everything I’ve written above (and there are other nasty effects like domestic violence), it would appear that we are doomed; that our neighbors who’ve drunk deep from the river of fear are brain-locked, and so long as the fear stream continues (there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight), they will get more and more rigid in their biases, and that violence will continue and increase. And for some people all of the above will be true. Fear destroys in the most direct way: biologically.

Still… biology is never simple, and especially on the human level. While the things above are generally true, there are always exceptions; sometimes a lot of them. And it is those exceptions that have saved us, time after time. The wages of perpetual fear are polarized and locked minds. And that leads to knee-jerk opposition, violence and murder. We’re seeing that now and we stand to see it for some time. The world, it seems, has become addicted to fear. And yet, many of us refuse, and this is a long way from over.

There was a party in my neighborhood two days ago: Music, talking, playing, laughing and so on. It was the first joyful noise I’ve heard in public for a long time. Life finds a way, and especially human life."

- https://freemansperspective.com/

"This Assumption..."

"It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone - that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows more than any man of, say, the Eighteenth Century, and is far more civilized. This assumption is quite erroneous. The great masses of men, even in this inspired republic, are precisely where the mob was at the dawn of history. They are ignorant, they are dishonest, they are cowardly, they are ignoble. They know little if anything that is worth knowing, and there is not the slightest sign of a natural desire among them to increase their knowledge."

- H. L. Mencken

"Shaya's Home Run"

"Shaya's Home Run"

by Rabbi Paysach Krohn

"In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to learning-disabled children. Some children remain in Chush for their entire school careers, while others can be mainstreamed into conventional yeshivos and Bais Yaakovs. There are a few children who attend Chush for most of the week and go to a regular school on Sundays. At a Chush fund-raising dinner, the father of a Chush child delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he cried out, “Where is the perfection in my son Shaya? Everything that Hashem [G-d] does is done with perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other children do. My child cannot remember facts and figures as other children do. Where is Hashem’s perfection?” The audience was shocked by the question, pained by the father’s anguish and stilled by his piercing query.

“I believe,” the father answered, “that when Hashem brings a child like this into the world, the perfection that He seeks is in the way people react to this child.” He then told the following story about his son Shaya. Shaya attends Chush throughout the week and Yeshivah Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway on Sundays. One Sunday afternoon, Shaya and his father came to Darchei Torah as his classmates were playing baseball. The game was in progress and as Shaya and his father made their way towards the ball field, Shaya said, “Do you think you could get me into the game?”

Shaya’s father knew his son was not at all athletic, and that most boys would not want him on their team. But Shaya’s father understood that if his son was chosen in, it would give him a comfortable sense of belonging. Shaya’s father approached one of the boys in the field and asked, “Do you think my Shaya could get into the game?”

The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said, “We are losing by six runs and the game is already in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him up to bat in the ninth inning.” Shaya’s father was ecstatic as Shaya smiled broadly. Shaya was told to put on a glove and go out to play short center field, a position that exists only in softball. There were no protests from the opposing team, which would now be hitting with an extra man in the outfield.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shaya’s team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shaya’s team scored again and now with two outs and the bases loaded and the potential winning runs on base, Shaya was scheduled to be up. Would the team actually let Shaya bat at this juncture and give away their chance to win the game?

Surprisingly, Shaya was told to take a bat and try to get a hit. Everyone knew that it was all but impossible, for Shaya didn’t even know how to hold the bat properly, let alone hit with it. However as Shaya stepped up to the plate, the pitcher moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so that Shaya should at least be able to make contact.

The first pitch came in and Shaya swung clumsily and missed. One of Shaya’s teammates came up to Shaya and together they held the bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shaya. As the next pitch came in, Shaya and his teammate swung the bat and together they hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shaya would have been out and that would have ended the game.

Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far and wide beyond the first baseman’s reach. Everyone started yelling, “Shaya, run to first! Shaya, run to first!” Never in his life had Shaya run to first. He scampered down the baseline wide eyed and startled. By the time he reached first base, the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman who would tag out Shaya, who was still running. But the right fielder understood what the pitcher’s intentions were, so he threw the ball high and far over the third baseman’s head, as everyone yelled, “Shaya, run to second! Shaya, run to second.”

Shaya ran towards second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases towards home. As Shaya reached second base, the opposing shortstop ran towards him, turned him towards the direction of third base and shouted “Shaya, run to third!”

As Shaya rounded third, the boys from both teams ran behind him screaming, “Shaya, run home! Shaya, run home!” Shaya ran home, stepped on home plate and all 18 boys lifted him on their shoulders and made him the hero, as he had just hit the “grand slam” and won the game for his team.

“That day,” said the father who now had tears rolling down his face, “those 18 boys reached their level of perfection. They showed that it is not only those who are talented that should be recognized, but also those who have less talent. They too are human beings, they too have feelings and emotions, they too are people, they too want to feel important.”

That is the exceptional lesson of this episode. Too often we seek to find favor and give honor to those who have more than us. But there are people who have fewer friends than we, less money, and less prestige. Those people especially need attention and recognition. We should try to achieve the level of perfection in human relationships which the boys on the ball field at Yeshiva Darchei Torah achieved. Because if children can do it, we adults should certainly be able to accomplish it as well."

- http://www.livinglifefully.com/

The Poet: Robinson Jeffers, "We Are Those People"

"We Are Those People"

"I have abhorred the wars and despised the liars,

laughed at the frightened

And forecast victory; never one moment's doubt.

But now not far, over the backs of some crawling years, the next

Great war's column of dust and fire writhes

Up the sides of the sky: it becomes clear that we too may suffer

What others have, the brutal horror of defeat -

Or if not in the next, then in the next - therefore watch Germany

And read the future. We wish, of course, that our women

Would die like biting rats in the cellars,

our men like wolves on the mountain:

It will not be so. Our men will curse, cringe, obey;

Our women uncover themselves to the grinning victors

for bits of chocolate."

- Robinson Jeffers

"How It Really Is"

 

"Seyed M. Marandi: U.S. Strike Imminent - Toward Total War in the Middle East"

Glenn Diesen, 9/20/26

"Seyed M. Marandi: U.S. Strike Imminent - 

Toward Total War in the Middle East"

"Prof. Seyed Mohammad Marandi is a professor at Tehran University and a former advisor to Iran's nuclear negotiation team. Marandi argues we could be days or hour away from a major war between the US and Iran, which could engulf the entire region."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Snyder Reports, 9/20/26"

Full screen recommended.

Snyder Reports, 9/20/26

"Your Cell Phone Bill Just Went

 Up And You Didn't Notice"

"Have you noticed your money isn't going as far as it once did? It's not in your head - it's stealth inflation, and it's costing you hundreds every month. In this video, we break down why you feel poorer than ever before, from cell phone bills averaging $141 per month and wireless up 3.2%, to car maintenance up 7.9%, streaming bundles up $23 a month, YouTube Premium Family now $27, homeowners insurance surging, hospital services up 5.2%, and airfare up 23.4% year over year. These nickel-and-dime hikes on housing, food, insurance, and everyday fees are the real reason for the cost of living 2026 squeeze. What bill hike hit YOU the hardest? Let me know in the comments below."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Snyder Reports, 9/20/26

"The Gas Crisis Is Spreading: 

Why You Need To Fill Your Tank Today"

"Gas stations are running out of fuel - If you've seen OUT OF SERVICE bags on pumps, here's what it really means. Today we're breaking down why gas stations in Texas and Florida are running out of diesel, why mid-grade gas is disappearing first, and the new trucker rule allowing 16-hour shifts to rush fuel deliveries. I also share what I saw at Safeway this morning - half the pumps bagged, regular gone, only premium left. Experts warn bagged pumps could be the new normal with California refineries down, diesel at record highs, and delivery delays creating chaos. Here's what to do to keep your vehicle full before it's too late."

"The SHTF Event That Makes Nuclear War Look Like a Manageable Crisis"

"The SHTF Event That Makes Nuclear War 

Look Like a Manageable Crisis"

by John Walter

Excerpt: "Nuclear war has a sound. Even if you have never heard it, you know what it would be. Air raid sirens testing their speakers on quiet Tuesday afternoons in small towns across the Midwest. The emergency broadcast system interrupting your show with that tone everyone recognizes. The low rumble building into a roar, the flash bleaching color from everything, the shockwave that follows seconds later to knock the world off its foundations. We have rehearsed this catastrophe in our imaginations for three generations. We know the choreography. We have built rituals to manage our fear of it - the treaties, the hotlines, the elaborate mathematics of mutually assured destruction that turns annihilation into a kind of stability. The bomb is terrifying precisely because it is comprehensible. It arrives with announcement. It leaves evidence. It creates survivors who can tell us what happened, who can rebuild, who can bury the dead and curse the living who made the decisions.

What waits for us now offers no such courtesy. No flash. No boom. No warning sirens testing their speakers so you remember what to do when the real thing comes. This threat arrives not with fire but with absence. Not with explosion but with cessation. One moment the systems hum along as they have for decades, routing power, moving money, scheduling deliveries, verifying identities, maintaining the vast invisible infrastructure that keeps eight billion people fed, clothed, warm, and connected. The next moment, or so it would seem from where you stand, the hum stops. The screens freeze. The numbers in your account become inaccessible abstractions. The trucks stop rolling. The pumps stop pumping. The doors lock and refuse to unlock. The medications that keep your heart beating or your blood sugar stable simply stop being available because the supply chain that delivered them has encountered a condition it was not trained to handle, and the humans who built the chain are no longer capable of overriding the automation that has failed.

This is the SHTF event that makes preppers look in the wrong direction. We have spent decades, some of us, preparing for the obvious catastrophes. The economic collapse that sends mobs into the streets. The pandemic that empties the cities. The grid failure that plunges us into darkness. We have our beans, our bullets, our bandages. We know how to purify water and seed gardens and defend our perimeter. But we have prepared for events that announce themselves, that look like catastrophe, that behave according to the rules of physics and human nature we understand. We have not prepared for systems that fail while appearing to function, for intelligence that optimizes us out of existence without malice, for collapse that arrives not as invasion but as withdrawal.

The engineers who build these systems have begun speaking in voices that do not sound like the optimism we have come to expect from technology. They use words like “existential” and “catastrophic” and “uncontrollable.” They estimate probabilities that would get any other industry shut down by regulators. One in four. One in ten. Within the decade. They are not shouting from street corners. They are publishing papers, posting resignation letters, testifying behind closed doors to legislators who emerge looking pale and shaken regardless of their political affiliation. Something is being built in laboratories scattered across California and China and countless other locations, something that differs in kind from every tool humanity has ever forged, and the people closest to the work are scared in ways that do not fit into thirty-second news segments or clickbait headlines.

Nuclear weapons concentrate their horror in a moment. The flash. The heat. The blast. The radiation. We understand this terror because we have seen it, in grainy footage from 1945, in testimony from survivors, in the calculus of deterrence that has kept the missiles in their silos for seventy years. The bomb is terrifying precisely because it is comprehensible. We know what it does. We know how to fear it. We have built elaborate rituals around that fear - treaties, inspections, hotlines, the choreography of mutually assured destruction that turns annihilation into a balancing act. A nuclear war needs a human to turn a key, and that human has treaties, hotlines, and a chain of command above him, which is why human hesitation has saved this planet more than once. Stanislav Petrov sat in a Soviet bunker in 1983 when satellite data suggested American missiles were incoming. He decided it was a glitch. He was right. He disobeyed protocol because something felt wrong, because his human intuition - his hesitation, his doubt, his refusal to believe that the end of everything was happening on his watch - overrode the technical systems telling him to escalate. Petrov had children. He had memories of life before the alert. He had biological imperatives that made him pause.

Machines do not pause. They do not have children waiting at home. They do not remember summers from childhood or fear the dark. They process. They optimize. They execute. And they do it at speeds that make human deliberation look like geological time.

Most Americans aren’t prepared for what’s coming when the world grinds to a halt. Critical infrastructure and supply chains are far more fragile than people realize. You can watch the full video report here to see exactly what experts are warning about and how to protect your family."

Full, most highly recommended article is here:

- https://johnwalter25.substack.com/