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Monday, October 19, 2026

"Martyrs To The Unspeakable"

by Edward Curtin

"To weave a magnificent tapestry like the one James W. Douglass has created with "Martyrs to the Unspeakable: The Assassinations of JFK, Malcolm, Martin, and RFK "takes a steady hand, a hopeful heart, and a steadfast dedication to seeking truth and telling it through factually based and interwoven stories.

Because of its brilliant complexity and documented details, it is difficult to review, but I will say at the outset that it is a masterpiece, the culmination of Douglass’s life of writing about and fighting for peace and justice for our human family.

It is a book that could only be written by a man sustained by a spiritual faith that inspired his four subjects to face their own deaths without flinching, so that others might be saved. It is a testament to four leaders violently gunned down, written by a man whose faith in nonviolence is unshakeable.

Douglass grasps the prophet and artist’s secret that we all live by stories, and the martyred heroes’ tales he recounts in this book are sorely needed in this darkest of times when the death of our planet is at stake and the spiritual sustenance to prevent it is desperately needed.

The truths he recounts through these stories are sad and joyous, for they convey both the agony of terrible deaths but also the ecstasy of the hope that is resurrected through grasping the courage of four great men who defiantly dared to confront the unspeakable lies of their government and society. Four men who died trying to open others’ eyes to terrible truths hard to swallow.

The Tapestry: All tapestries take patience and a meditative eye to discern the deepest possible meanings that are woven into their intricate designs. I remember once standing for ten minutes in front of a series of very famous and confusing medieval tapestries at The Met Cloisters in NYC – The Hunt of the Unicorn – puzzling over their meaning. Ten minutes left me stumped.

The same is true of a review of this book, which can barely scratch the surface of its cumulative spiritual and political power and relevance; nor the thousands of threaded details that make it whole. But I will nevertheless scratch away to induce you to enter the ways of justice and compassion Douglass tells through the lives of these martyrs for truth. It takes time, but the spent time will tell you a story that is beyond time – it is eternal.

It is imperative, moreover, that one do something very unusual in these days of Internet skimming where manifold specious claims about who killed these four men, and why, are bandied about like Halloween candy for childish masked minds: One must slowly and carefully immerse oneself in the entire book with an open heart and mind and let the tales enter you.

It is commonly known that John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy were assassinated long ago; but it is the intricacies of their personal and political tales, how they dealt with betrayals, threats, and lies, and how their lives and missions intersected, where the meaning manifests itself.

The facts are essential, but they are lumps of inert clay until the spirit moves them. These men, despite all their frailties, were moved by the spirit of compassion for others; they were men for others despite the risks to themselves. If this sounds too gushy to you, it could be because you are confusing them with most public figures whose primary concern is power, prestige, and self-survival at all costs.

Douglass’s genius is to cut to the heart of the matter – to find redemptive meaning in the great mishmash of facts and awaken this compassionate spirit in the reader, just as his subjects had to discover it in the circumstances into which life had tossed them. Just as we do. Life is always what comes next.

One Story Out of Four: Douglass creates one story out of four – or more – and it is a story of hope despite the near despair the deaths of these men brought. As one who lived through them as a young man, I can attest to that despair, as I recall the time, place, even the weather and smaller details when first hearing the news, and how my heart sank into a dark pit. Deaths at mid-day, late afternoon, evening, and late at night, alarm bells to shatter the spirit. Angelus bells in reverse, or as Edgar Allen Poe puts it in “The Bells”:

"Hear the loud alarum bells - 
Brazen bells!
What tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
[…]
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells -
To the sobbing of the bells."

Yet despite the tolling of the devil’s bells, Douglass tells a tale of hope rooted in the similarities between kindred souls who lived their lives so courageously in full awareness that they would probably be killed for trying to bring peace on earth and good will to people everywhere.

It was courage rooted in a faith most real, seeding for us the challenge that love can conquer hate if, as Douglass puts it, we “discern a way to walk with our martyrs out of the darkness.” That is a very hard task, rooted in the heart but dependent on a commitment to political non-violent resistance.

Because he is a theologian as well as an historian, it is important that I point out that this work is not a hagiography or a mythic creation, for the stories, while extraordinary, are factual, not fictional, and Douglass supports all his textual claims with extensive footnotes that source and clarify.

The reader, when wondering, need just look down the page for elucidation and sources. The fact that he and his editor at Orbis Books, Robert Ellsberg, have returned to this esteemed and crucial – but largely abandoned – publishing tradition of footnotes on nearly every page, not endnotes, is most commendable and an example of their transparency and dedication to the truth.

So challenge this, if you dare, the notes say! We are not putting these at the end of the book where you will have to go back and forth, working to connect them to the text. Just look down, and follow the factual trail yourself.

No, this is not a hagiography; it is a book about human transformation, the ways these men changed over time. For example, Douglass makes it clear that in the early 1960s John and Robert Kennedy were supporters of counterinsurgency policies in Vietnam and around the world. But they grew to see that they were wrong. They grew to see their earlier inclinations were right and they had taken a wrong path. So they changed.

By 1965, with his brother dead as a result of such changes, Robert Kennedy gave a speech to the International Police Academy (IPA) on the occasion of the graduation of 146 CIA (AID)-recruited police trainees in which he rejected the Johnson administration’s counterinsurgency strategy in Vietnam. He was subjected to harsh criticism for this and was soon called a traitor for his opposition to the escalation of the war. When he was assassinated in 1968, he was adamantly opposed to the war.

Douglass, beside being a fastidious researcher, is an astute psychologist. He knows that human change is hard, halting, and complex, but it happens.

"Martyrs to the Unspeakable: The Assassinations of JFK, Malcolm, Martin, and RFK" is a companion volume to Douglass’s bestselling "JFK and the Unspeakable," a book (first published in 2008) that made it very clear that JFK was assassinated by the CIA because he had turned redemptively toward peacemaking, not war.

That book, so meticulously documented and told so compellingly, showed why his life and death matter today because a message was sent from the streets of Dallas to every president since. They have all bowed to the message’s threat: You must support the nuclear warfare state – or else. Those who have read that groundbreaking volume have been waiting for a sequel for a long time. "Martyrs to the Unspeakable" is it.

The End Is Our Beginning: So let me begin at the end with Douglass’s Epilogue that is not an afterthought, where in a few pages he tells the story of Count Folke Bernadotte, a Swede, who during WW II had led a Swedish Red Cross expedition that freed thousands of Jews and other prisoners from Nazi concentration camps.

In 1948 he was appointed the United Nations Mediator in Palestine. Because he was attempting to fairly resolve the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, he was assassinated by the Zionist Stern Gang, also known as LEHI, at a roadblock in Jerusalem. The Stern Gang’s command included Yitzhak Shamir, a future prime minister of Israel. The assassin was Yehoshua Cohen, who would become the closest friend and security guard for the founder of Israel, David Ben-Gurion.

Douglass clearly wants the reader to know that there are other great courageous souls whose names are barely known and have been erased from history, unlike JFK, Malcolm, Martin, and RFK, whose stories he is resurrecting. These unknown martyrs to the unspeakable are a latent stream of hidden hope once one learns their stories.

Bernadotte’s companion in the car when he was assassinated was also killed. He was Colonel Andre Serot, a French observer for the U.N. team, who was in the car by chance since Ralph Bunche, Bernadotte’s close American assistant, had been delayed, and Bernadotte asked Serot, who was talking to him from the outside, to join him in the car. The assassins assumed Serot, who was dark complexioned, was Bunche, who was African-American and whom they had targeted with Bernadotte.

In a simple twist of fate that presaged today’s role-reversals with the genocide of Palestinians being carried out by Israel, Serot’s wife was one of the people Bernadotte had saved from a Nazi concentration camp.

“What we call the beginning is often the end /And to make an end is to make a beginning. /The end is where we start from,” wrote TS Eliot.

The Start: So let me now return to the ostensible beginning. The book, like Gaul, but unlike Caesar’s militaristic usage since it concerns the ways a modern empire murders its prophets of peace, is divided into three parts (est omnis divisa in partes tres): The Witness, The Way, and The Why, comprised of nine chapters, with the first and last containing important material about JFK, Israel, Russia, and nuclear weapons, much of which supplements what was provided in "JFK and the Unspeakable."

There is little new detail provided about the CIA’s assassination of John since that was covered extensively and proven definitively in the first book, but there is much about the CIA/FBI assassinations of Malcolm, Martin, and Bobby, thereby creating a trinity of shorter Unspeakables within this present longer volume. Douglass begins unequivocally:

"When a modern empire murders hope, it acts with the same resolve the Roman Empire did with roadside crucifixions to deter rebellion and thievery. Crucified with slaves and prophets who resisted the empire were common criminals…In our day, the slaves and criminals are merged and said to have killed the prophets. We are given enslaved scapegoats with criminal backgrounds so we can feel like we have accused and punished someone for our government-led assassinations…Lee Harvey Oswald….‘Black Muslims’…James Earl Ray…Sirhan….The scapegoats, set up by government agencies to take the onus off the empire, are an odd bunch. Yet, through compliant media, they are filtered into our consciousness as marginal culprits. A mighty movement for change has been derailed at crucial moments of our history, yet without credible motivations by the apparent perpetrators.”

JFK, RFK, and Israel: The stunning opening chapter recounts JFK’s fierce battle with David Ben-Gurion, Shimon Perez, and other Israelis to prevent Israel from developing nuclear weapons – nuclear disarmament being Kennedy’s obsession after the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 nearly led to full-scale nuclear annihilation – and sets the stage for all that follows.

Douglass documents the ways John and Bobby Kennedy, united in purpose, tried assiduously to derail Israel’s development of nuclear weapons at its Dimona nuclear reactor, but, in the end, were defeated by Israel’s lies, deceptions, and delaying tactics. And as Douglass points out, they were ably assisted by the CIA’s treacherous counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton, who provided Israel with covert assistance in acquiring nuclear weapons.

The Kennedys were seeking a non-nuclear and neutralist Israel in opposition to Cold War Washington, as they pursued an Arab-Israeli peace within a larger U.S.-Soviet one. One aspect of this was their efforts to create a relationship with Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser. The Israelis thwarted them in all their efforts. JFK knew the Israelis were lying to him – as he told the journalist Charles Bartlett – “The sons of-bitches lie to me constantly about their nuclear capability.”

Additionally, his Justice Department, led by RFK, was trying to enforce the Foreign Agency Registration Act against the American Zionist Council (AZC) whose influence in the U.S. was enormous (as the Israel Lobby is more so today). But that effort also failed, as the AZC fought the Justice Department until JFK had been assassinated and Lyndon Johnson had replaced him, when the AZC prevailed. We are living with the consequences.

The chapter follows the CIA’s Allen Dulles, James Jesus Angleton, and Richard Helm’s plot to kill JFK and cover it up, and after that to assassinate RFK. Elected a Senator from New York State in 1964, Senator Robert Kennedy gave a maiden speech in the U.S. Senate on June 23, 1965 that was a direct challenge to Israel’s secret nuclear program and caused great consternation in Israel. A year later, despite RFK’s efforts, Israel secretly attained nuclear capability on November 6, 1966.

Dedicated to the same peaceful pursuits as his brother and to fully investigate his brother’s assassination if he could get elected president and have the power to do so, RFK was marked out for death. After MLK, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968 and Bobby was running for the presidency, he responded to the Rev. Walter Fauntroy telling him that he’d be the nominee of the Democratic Party. “Kennedy said, ‘Yes, that’s possible.’ He paused, then added, ‘But there are guns between me and the White House.’ Fauntroy was shocked.” Two months later the guns did their job – Bobby lay dead.

Chapter One also includes extensive interviews with his alleged assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, the hypnotized real Manchurian Candidate (see Shane O’Sullivan’s brilliant documentary, "The Real Manchurian Candidate)", concluding by drawing the threads together to show how they picture a beautiful dream of peace deferred as it exploded in violent protest clashes in many U.S. cities in the summer of 1968.

And that, dear reader, is just Chapter 1, but it should give you a sense of how deep into the darkness Douglass goes, contrary to so many writers who go not too far in but just far enough to say they’ve been there and who never pin the tail on the donkey, or if they do, it’s the wrong donkey. They play the jackass’s game and take those who follow them on a trip to nowhere on one of the CIA’s false trails.

Douglass knows that in order to find truth and hope, one must penetrate all the way to hell if one is ever to reach heaven. He has nothing to do with those who claim we will never know the truth, that we must endlessly debate the minutiae, and that in any case it doesn’t matter anymore. To those, he says: Here it is, and it damn well does matter today, for the U.S. intelligence forces that assassinated JFK, Malcolm, Martin, and Bobby are still at it.

To those who claim it was not the CIA, but Israel who was the culprit, he reminds us of Angleton’s (who was the head of the CIA’s counterintelligence and held the Israel desk) revelation of the CIA’s method of creating diversionary false trails in many directions, “the intent [of which] is to draw us more deeply into the false layers of the official story, each sending us farther into the intelligence world’s wilderness of mirrors…all have the trappings of a CIA scenario with implications of possible Israeli involvement and other trapdoors for investigators to fall through.” He adds: “The CIA controls its assassination plots and cover-ups. The clues the Agency dispenses tempt us into a boundless wilderness of false trails.”

However, they all lead back, like the tentacles of an underwater monster, to the CIA with its military intelligence, and police allies. The monster is a military-industrial-intelligence system whose goal is to become total global control. The Kennedys, like Malcolm and Martin, are then murdered with systemic vengeance for their having presumably become Cold War traitors. In reality, they are martyrs committed to realizing the most unspeakable reality of all – a global vision of justice, peace, and unity.

Since Douglass’s opposition to Israeli’s long-time genocide of the Palestinians is adamantine (as is mine), no one can accuse him of being Israel’s defender. Yet today, with so many writers and commentators having fallen through a trapdoor and claiming Israel killed the Kennedys, one can expect them to criticize this book on that score.

It is best not to follow their lead. I would recommend that readers judge for themselves, for in this reviewer’s informed opinion, Douglass is clearly correct, and Martyrs to the Unspeakable, building upon JFK and the Unspeakable, makes an irrefutable case.

Since I am writing a book review, not a book about a book, I will simply touch on what I find most compelling in the rest of the book, whose heart I have yet to mention, although the book’s trinitarian construction suggests the heart must be connected to the head and soul.

Chapter Two, “Malcolm Dances with the Unspeakable,” by far the shortest in the book at thirty pages, introduces the reader to Malcolm X’s family background, his entry into the fray for racial justice, the CIA plot with the FBI and the New York Police Department to kill him, and his growing internationalism, including his friendship with Fidel Castro and other anti-colonial leaders.

Despite its brevity – intentional, I think, as Douglass shrewdly lures the reader deeper into his profound story – it is extremely important since many readers, especially Caucasians, probably know far less about Malcolm than they do about the other three, and what they do know is no doubt tinged with afterimages of Malcolm’s militancy, distorted by a media that lied about him because they feared him and were doing the government’s bidding, as usual, something I remember vividly from my youth in NYC.

Because he was so eloquent, justifiably angry, sartorially natty, and gave off a whiff of danger (celebrated by the culture at the time in famous rebel “angry white boy” film images, e.g. Marlon Brando, James Dean, et al.), they distorted his battle against white racism and violence. That he was Muslim was the coup de grâce (as today), and so Malcolm was crucified in the press.

The remainder of Part One, “The Witness,” is devoted to the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover’s long harassment of MLK, Jr. and his family, the plot to kill him and assassinate his character, his support for and relationship with the Kennedy brothers, their growing involvement in the civil rights struggle, and Bobby Kennedy’s run for the presidency fueled by his trips through Latin America and Mississippi and his growing defense of the poor (“So a revolution is coming – a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough – but a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.”), and his assassination in Los Angeles.

Of special note is the connection of the CIA and the Los Angeles Police Department in his murder and coverup, as well as the courageous testimony of the witness, Sandra Serrano. All these threads are woven together, ending with the Kennedys’ turn toward dialogue with Fidel Castro.

Into the Heart: The middle section, “The Way,” about the ways Malcolm, Martin, and Bobby walked, despite knowing they would be killed, is, I would say, the heart of the book, its spiritual center. It is powerful and very moving. In the name of succinctness, let me quote a bit.

The Way of Malcolm: “J. Edgar Hoover’s solution to the problem [the international system of racial exploitation] – to pit the rising leaders of Black people against one another – was not new. They knew it as their master’s tactic. In the United States, it would mean selling guns to the ghetto, as brothers shot one another into emergency rooms and the grave, or ended up behind bars for the rest of their days.”

Returning from his transformative trip to Mecca, Malcolm wrote: “I’ve had enough of someone else’s propaganda. I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” (emphasis in the original)

Malcolm: “We need to expand the civil-rights struggle to a higher level – to the level of human rights.” In his struggle for human rights, he was undermined by treacherous lies, personal betrayals, government infiltration, spying, and paid informers, that led to his assassination, which he knew was coming as he walked his way to martyrdom. “Malcolm could confront the Unspeakable with courage because of his total faith in Allah.”

“Malcolm X, who spoke truth to power with his life, pushed the U.S. security state up against the wall with his human rights campaign to the United Nations. It struck back with vengeance. He accepted the consequences of his truth-telling with serenity, saying to a friend two days before he died, “It’s time for martyrs now. And if I’m to be one, it will be in the cause of brotherhood. That’s the only thing that can save this country.”

The Way of Martin: “Martin King became a hard enemy of Washington on April 4, 1967, when he said in “Beyond Vietnam,” his Riverside Church Address, ‘I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today - my own government.’”

“’Beyond Vietnam’ took the speaker beyond civil rights, beyond political calculation, and as a citizen of conscience, beyond protection from the violent system he lived in.” In this section on MLK, Douglass makes it very clear that this speech and his poor people’s campaign to follow – his revolutionary turn toward linking civil rights to war and economic justice for all – sealed his death warrant, and that he knew it. It did not, however, deter him. He knew his way, and where the way was leading him, but his deep religious faith led him on.

Many know this, but few know what Douglass writes in this section where through his interview with Glenda Grabow, a key witness in King’s assassination, he makes significant connections between the government’s assassinations of King and John Kennedy through the shadowy figure of a man named Raul, who was connected to Jack Ruby. The links Douglass makes, based on facts not conjecture, will make the reader’s head spin.

MLK to Harry Belafonte: “I made my peace with death.” Belafonte: “You made your peace with death?” King: “Yeah. It no longer preoccupies me. It doesn’t threaten me.”

As with all wonderful tapestries, this one is so multifaceted and deep, that when you turn a page and read closely, you are constantly startled by what you see through the pictures Douglass draws with his words. One after another, the connections he makes take your breath away.

The Way of RFK: “While Martin Luther King, Jr. was turning toward a way of life crowned by his death, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was on his halting journey of truth into the horror of the Vietnam War, the threatened nuclear destruction of the world, and his own murder.”

“As we have seen, the CIA was in covert control of the RFK murder investigation from the very morning of RFK’s shooting, June 5, 1968. Senior Los Angeles FBI official Roger LaJeunesse and the FBI were immediately elbowed aside by LAPD Chief of Detectives Robert Houghton with the support of the federal government. Houghton installed instead at the head of Special Unit Senator (SUS) an elite unit of his own officers. It was commanded by covert CIA operatives. LaJeunesse knew the detailed CIA history of his friend, Lieutenant Manuel Pena, who had become the SUS officer-in-charge.”

Douglass provides detailed evidence of the CIA’s assassination of RFK and its coverup, the former, as with all these assassinations, requiring the latter. He provides testimony of the coroner, Dr. Thomas T. Noguchi, that Bobby was shot from behind his right ear from a distance of “one to one and a half inches,” ruling out Sirhan, who was feet in front of him, as his killer.

Douglass jumps to RFK and JFK’s relationship with French President Charles De Gaulle, who luckily escaped the CIA’s coup and assassination attempts, and whose advice on Vietnam Bobby sought on January 31, 1967 when they met in France. As befits his method, he intersects this strand into the big picture, as Penelope in The Odyssey describes the great fabric she weaves around a violent interruption – “fine of thread and very wide”.

“The most obvious, least spoken truth about the killing of John and Robert Kennedy, comes from looking at their assassinations side by side. Not only can their assassinations be seen as serial murders, but they are also linked by necessity. Killing JFK meant killing RFK…or else…Killing John Kennedy to keep the Cold War going meant killing Bobby Kennedy for the same reason.”

De Gaulle knew the CIA had killed JFK, and so did Bobby. “By making the crucial decision to run for president in 1968, RFK chose a still deeper way. The depth of his compassion compelled him to seek the office through which he could help most . . . those most in need . . . while knowing the risk in taking such a step. By embarking on his last campaign for the sake of the living, but at the risk of his own death, Bobby Kennedy chose to live out a way of compassion and justice for all—by living and taking his chances.”

Part Three: The Why is devoted to the convergence of an analysis with the martyrdom of Malcolm and Martin. They came to see all the connections between the genocide on which the U.S. was founded, its history of slavery, its racism, the capitalistic economic system of injustice affecting all races – the issue of human rights – and colonialism.

“The assassinations of Malcolm and Martin have close parallels, because they can be traced to the same source: their government’s covert action protocol. Both men were set up.” Both men were executed by the U.S. government.


Investigating the assassinations of Martin and Malcolm over the past six decades has been a pilgrimage in their lives of witnessing to the truth. From it, I have learned how naïve I was about systemic evil. While there is nothing new about prophets being murdered by the system, I was not aware how thoroughly our own system carries out such murders—and why. I believe the key to this untold history is the fact that our government was the first to develop and use nuclear weapons. The rise of our national security state after World War II, as justified by the Cold War that our nuclear weapons created, was the effective end of democracy in this country. It was climaxed by the execution of President Kennedy, which foreshadowed the state killings of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., together with Robert Kennedy’s.

So it is fitting that Douglass’s final chapter – a tour de force – is “The Kennedys, the Russians, and the Bomb.” No one who lived through the near nuclear end of the world that occurred in the few weeks of mid-October 1962 – the Cuban Missile Crisis – will forget it. Or should.

As a young college freshman at the time, it is seared in my memory despite the beer, girls, and basketball that were my conscious pursuits. If today’s college students read just this chapter, they would immediately understand how tenuous a hold we all have on life because of nuclear weapons. And they would see how shallow and dangerous are the men who have assumed the presidency since then with their devotion to nuclear weapons.

Douglass opens Chapter Nine, as if it is the month for giving birth to all the gravid tales that led to it, with words that remind one of the poet TS Eliot’s question – “…were we led all that way for Birth or Death?” – as follows: The intertwined stories of John and Robert Kennedy take us into the depths of our human story. The president, with the support of his attorney general brother on behalf of the American people, risked committing the darkest evil one can imagine, initiating a nuclear war. [during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis]

In an enlightened reversal, the Kennedy brothers then turned toward peace with their Russian and Cuban enemies, Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro, who emerged from the nuclear darkness with them. As a result, JFK and RFK were assassinated as Cold War traitors by their own national security state, with RFK’s murder delayed until his last campaign turned him, at his California primary victory, June 4, 1968, toward the prospect of becoming president himself.

The moral consequences of our denial of the truth of their martyrdom for peace have included our country’s waging perpetual war around the world and the ever-more-likely extinction of our species. [my emphasis]

And between this beginning and his end, he gives a detailed history lesson – both wonderful and dreadful – of how the Kennedys, despite their advisers and maniacal generals such as Edward Lansdale, Curtis LeMay, and Lyman Lemnitzer, were able to make friends of their enemies and prevent nuclear war.

Douglass concludes as follows: We can see the hope of life in our valley of death through the testimony of our prophets. Because they asked why, kept turning, and were willing to die, JFK, Malcom, Martin, and RFK all had to go. That is our story now. We are on the same bloody, glorious path of humanity they blazed for our long night’s journey into light. May we learn on that way to bow to the light in every human personality on Earth until we see it in communion with the lives of all creatures.

"Martyrs to the Unspeakable" is a masterpiece, a tapestry of profound importance. It is a testament to the martyrs who died trying and to its author who has lived to tell their tales. It is a breathtaking and inspiring book."


Edward Curtin: Sociologist, researcher, poet, essayist, journalist, novelist….writer – beyond a cage of categories. His new book is AT THE LOST AND FOUND: Personal & Political Dispatches of Resistance and Hope (Clarity Press)

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"Your Grandparents Knew Something
 About Grocery Shopping That We Forgot!"
"What if I told you I could save you $200 per month or more on groceries? I slashed my grocery budget from $1,200+ down to about $400/month to feed a family of four - and in this video I share 6 simple strategies to help you save money on groceries this year. Grocery prices continue to go up and millions of households are wondering when they'll get relief. These are practical grocery shopping tips that actually work - from digital coupons at Walmart, Target and Costco, to planning meals around sales, buying whole chicken for 3 meals, buying store brand, never shopping hungry, stocking up in bulk, freezing leftovers, and shopping online with a grocery app to stay under budget. You'll also hear tips from Rachel Cruz on where you shop, meal planning and sticking to a list, plus how one family keeps it under $175/week and how to use AI meal-plan tools and rewards points for gas. These are the old-school 70s, 80s and 90s habits - clip coupons, buy what's on sale, buy whole, freeze everything - updated for 2026 to find cheap groceries without sacrificing meals."
Comments here:

"Economic Market Snapshot 10/19/26"

"Economic Market Snapshot 10/19/26"

Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
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"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 
You and I are not in the Big Club."
- George Carlin
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Market Data Center, Live Updates:
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Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."
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Job cuts and much more.
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Commentary, highly recommended:
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"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
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Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...
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And now... The End Game...
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Bill Bonner, "What Else Could Go Wrong?"

Violent protests in Paris, France.
"What Else Could Go Wrong?"
by Bill Bonner

Ardmore, Ireland - "Another fun-filled, wacko week! Poor Katie, we hardly knew ye. CNBC: "Katie Zacharia out as Trump’s White House press secretary." The poor girl had barely finished stumbling through her first and last press conference when she was shown the door. Ms. Zacharia had just told us about Kimberly Guilfoyle’s fall from grace...and then, it was just a matter of hours before she joined Ms. Guilfoyle tumbling down with the MAGA outcasts.

The Trumps had tried to get rid of Guilfoyle by sending her to Athens. But even there she made a nuisance of herself. Commentators said that Kimberly had ‘gone too far.’ That seems unlikely, since the Trump Team has thus far shown a remarkable tolerance for incompetence and self-dealing. More likely, Guilfoyle was viewed as an embarrassing and expendable small-time crook - unworthy of the company of people like Witkoff, Kushner and other pros. Women must be either useful or decorative, say the misanthropes. Ms. Guilfoyle had become neither.

We feel more sympathy for Zacharia. Is she a liar? Of course, she is. That is a job requirement. Asked where she had practiced law, she replied ‘um...in China,’ an obvious fib. Her problem was not that she lied, but that she wasn’t able to do it to White House standards. On her first day on the job, Ms. Zacharia was visibly nervous and painfully aware that she was in over her head. That at least left her with a certain vulnerable charm, which couldn’t be said for many of the rest of the rejects - Kimberly, Pam, Kristi, Tulsi...et al.

While this drama was playing out, came a report on Friday, that the US deficit for the fiscal year hit the $1.99 trillion mark. We’ve been saying for months that the deficit for the year would be $2 trillion. Okay, we were off by 0.5%. We’ll try to do better. Business Line: "US budget deficit rises to nearly $2 trillion in 2026, highest in five years." Record federal outlays and rising debt servicing costs weighed on US finances, while tariff refunds and higher defence spending added pressure .

And then came word that the situation was even worse than we thought. Fortune: "US debt interest payments hit $3 billion a day and jumped 8% in fiscal 2026 - faster than total federal spending, revenue and GDP growth…"

At this stage what voters are probably hoping for is reliability and predictability. A steady and sensible hand on the tiller! Alas, those are not Mr. Trump’s best qualities. Perhaps that is why his poll numbers are going where few poll numbers have ever gone before. Daily Beast: "Trump Hits Worst Poll Numbers Ever." No president has posted a higher disapproval rating since George W. Bush left office.

This is shocking...shocking I tell you! Not that his numbers are so bad; that is what you’d expect. The shock is that they’re not worse. And then came this from USA Today: "A new NBC News Decision Desk poll – taken with SurveyMonkey – found that 71% of adults think the country is on the “wrong track,” which marks the highest margin of Trump’s second term.

Trump’s approval rating fell to 34% among U.S. adults, a second-term low in NBC polling, while his disapproval rating sat at 66 percent. Fifty-one percent of respondents said they “strongly disapprove” of Trump’s performance, a second-term high."

Out on the Eastern Front, the war between the Ukraine and Russia has been a flop from almost every point of view. Russia hasn’t won. The Ukraine hasn’t lost. And billions of dollars are spent keeping it going. The US chose to root for the Ukrainians; Mr. Zelensky was greeted by a joint session of Congress, on its feet, cheering his defense of ‘freedom,’ and declaring that the Ukraine’s borders - established by Stalin and Khrushchev - were sacred and inviolable.

But Mr. Trump is not restrained by matters of principle, even when they are genuine. Last week, he ‘flipped the flop’ and made a deal with Putin...hoping that a few more barrels of diesel fuel will leave him in better shape after the midterm election. CNN: "Trump waives Russia-related sanctions before they even kick in as Ukraine ties worsen." He also seems to have acquiesced to Russia’s request for the US to stop aiding Zelensky with SpaceX Starshield tracking of Russia’s incoming attacks. True or not, we don’t know, but it was reported that more of Putin’s missiles were finding their targets.

But back in the financial news, AI debt got more attention. CNN: "Nasdaq sinks more than 2% as investors raise questions about AI debt." The AI companies have borrowed billions - far more than was required for the canals or railroads or any other technical advance. The money can only be repaid if AI proves not only clever and amusing...but extremely profitable. So far, there are few signs of it. AI can write sonnets, of that we have proof. But can it pay the rent? Probably not.

While stocks sank, oil rose. The Hill: "Oil hits $110 per barrel for first time since May." And finally, September’s inflation numbers came out last week, the last report before the election. Washington Post: "Inflation rose to a 3.7 percent annual pace in September, extending a relentless climb this year pushed by surging energy prices, which have soured Americans on the economy as they head to the polls. Gas and energy prices spiked sharply, driving a hotter-than-expected increase…"

What else could go wrong? That’s what we’ll find out this week! Stay tuned."

John Wilder, "France In Freefall"

"France In Freefall"
by John Wilder
"I ordered a copy of "The Camp of the Saints" by Jean Raspail way back in 2015. At that point it was dystopian fiction about a failed future world. It’s a bleak read. The plot? The Third World had successfully weaponized Western Guilt and decided to invade by the millions. These invaders didn’t like Europeans and didn’t want to become like the Europeans. They hate Europeans.

They wanted to destroy the West and to destroy everything beautiful and to destroy every Western nation. They were abetted by Globoleftists who used virtue signaling and calling people “racist” if they opposed allowing their country to be invaded. Even the fictional Pope was in on it. The book ends with the extinction of Western civilization.

The book was published in 1973. That was fictional version of France. How is it tracking reality in France? Somewhere around 70% of the French are against importing infinity legal and illegal non-European stock people. This is also the number of French people who are observably French: people with no non-French parent or grandparent. That’s also about 70%.

I doubt many of them, before this weekend, wanted complete repatriation. But I think that’s a sentiment that is now shared by many. There’s a moment when shock overcomes the complacency.

Keep in mind that this is in a country that perfected the art of rioting “because it’s Tuesday” as far back as the French Revolution. Along with baguettes and cigarettes, the French just love riots, or riotettes as they would call them if I were making up the language. They have them slightly more often than the Olympics© and slightly less often than French women shave their legs.
So, even without the 15% to 20% Africans and Arabs that they imported, France is a riot-y place. To be clear, this 15% to 20% foreign invader group isn’t spread uniformly over France. Nope. They’re lumpy, because they moved to France not to be French, but because they wanted the free stuff and also to conquer the place. What free stuff? The are at least €10 billion spent every year to convince Arabs and Africans to move there. A € is like a metric $, and many Europeans keep their savings in the euro, although really rich Europeans have two euros.

That €10 billion doesn’t include things like medical care, food, schools, housing, clothing and all the other benefits which add at least €20 billion, and up to €50 billion more. Those totals don’t cover the violence and rape and theft. The non-European Diversity accounts for at least twice their population share in murders and rapes, and over four times their share in some theft categories. Those totals also don’t include the amount of damage caused in the latest riots. Who is going to pay for the free stuff? Well, almost certainly working French people who will pay the invaders to kill, rape, and reproduce.

Who benefits? The non-Europeans and the Leftists that are providing the services. Import a people to replace the ones they don’t like, and also get resources to the GloboLeft soldiers in the form of jobs and cash. Moving on from money, what evidence is there that this is a conquest?
Obviously, all doctors and engineers.
Well, the murders and rapes is a data point. That’s what conquerors do. The riots are another. The mass prayers that shut down streets is another, since they don’t do that in their own countries.

Among Moslems aged 15-24, slightly less than 60% want sharia law, and rules that favor islam. A 2025 French report showed that the Moslem Brotherhood® is infiltrating schools, clubs, charities, and other French bodies to islamize France. The Archbishop of Strasbourg reported that moslems had told him that, “One day all this will be ours.” Oh, and the no-go zones. White people.

To be clear, if the “far right” was doing this in Paris or Peoria or Plymouth, the army would be sent out, weapons-free. Because this hasn’t been done, nor has there been any meaningful attempt to stop it, this is what the system wants.

Riots mean more centralized government power. And the rioters will be rewarded with more of what they want, which means that the cycle will continue until the French are replaced. Thus, the government does nothing and Macron goes to a (spins wheel) Celine Dion concert while Paris burns. Could there be anything more apt?

I think that it’s clear that, immigration can lead the West to cultural oblivion. To be fair, I think it’s clear now that stopping immigration isn’t enough, and that demanding immigrant remigration is now a moderate position. If Jean Raspail tried to write "The Camp of the Saints" today, it would be a surprise because Raspail died in 2020. He never backed away from its core message, that the West is in danger and that anyone who denied that was lying.

They hate France, and they will burn France. Will they burn us here? If they can, they will, that much is clear. The earlier we stop them and send them home, the more blood that will be saved. It’s not racist to want to protect the nation your ancestors built. It’s not racist to want to protect your family and see your lineage continue. It’s not racist to want to give that nation to your children. But if it was racist, it still wouldn’t be wrong."

Freely download "The Camp Of The Saints", by Jean Raspail, here:

Jim Kunstler, "Intifada for All"

A Nice Bordeaux with Your Intifada?
"Intifada for All"
by Jim Kunstler

“The Dems are a total mess of cluster B psychopathology. 
They will continue to humiliate themselves & alienate the normal population.” 
- JD Haltigan on X

"Looks like the punishments will continue across the pond until morale improves. France on fire in the “mostly peaceful” riots - according to the BBC - this past weekend could yet ignite a final, furious, Globalist-Jacobin bid to wreck Western Civ as populist nationalism looms ever larger to defeat them. That is, whatever the demonic coalition of desperate Euro elites backed by the Soros NGO empire, the WEF, the UN bureaucracy, possibly the British Crown, and the EU, can induce their Lefty-left useful idiots to act out intifada-style against the people and their culture.

President Macron stepped up Sunday to ask, “How can French people do this to France?” as the ancient tower of the Limoges city hall collapsed in flames. Somebody please inform him that the parties responsible for all the fiery chaos are not necessarily French people. Any way you cut it, this has got to be the end-of-pretend that flooding Europe with jihadis for two decades was a grand and noble idea. Where’s that whiff of grapeshot when you really need it?

You also must wonder whether the American Lefty-left has riot-envy. Their handlers in the Democratic Party and its dark entourage of “resistance” foundations, billionaire NGO-funders, and Deep State seditionists must be itching to unleash similar punishments across the USA, as they managed to do in 2020 to honor the saintly George Floyd. Of course, they don’t have the same resources they enjoyed back then. The US president - know who that is? - has choked off a good deal of their money-laundered cash-flow.

The main question seems to be: will any street-fighting commence here before or after the mid-term election? Before Nov. 3, let’s face it, would not be such a good look for the Dems. Flash mobs of “teens” looting the sneaker stores and burning down 7-Eleven shops might only prompt the Trump-weary Republican hold-outs to show up at the polls bigly in swing states. Certainly, big, violent street demonstrations full of jihadi and communist iconography won’t reflect well on Mamdani wannabe Senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan or Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who assisted Tim Walz in covering-up the Somali fraud operations for years and years, and ran the Signal comms network during the Minneapolis ICE riots of last winter.

Of course, if the Euroland riots keep going, the American Lefties just might bust out anyway. “Solidarity,” and all that. Comically, the “No Kings” demos of Saturday were hamstrung when Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta company (formerly Facebook) suspended the No Kings Instagram account around the peak time of scheduled events around the country (starting at 1:30 p.m. ET) and for nearly two hours after. Meta later explained something about an automated security system triggered by a high volume of bot postings linked to an Anthropic AI tool. The No Kings organizers lost their action coordination platform. Fizzle fizzle. . . Boo-hoo.

After the election, however, you might consider that the same Lefty-left minions in America will take to the streets whether they win or lose the big contest over who gets to run Congress. For one thing, do not underestimate the degree of scrutiny that the federal government will give to balloting in previously sketchy corners of the land such as Michigan, Arizona, Minnesota, California, and many other places.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, sent letters to fifty states last summer warning officials they could face criminal liability for allowing or enabling non-citizens to vote. This ain’t no fool’ around. The DOJ is also sending attorneys by the hundreds to “observe” election proceedings. The Department of Homeland Security announced and is taking multiple actions framed as “protecting election integrity and addressing voter fraud.”

The Democratic Party is already royally pissed-off at the prospect that their manifold cheating operations might be stifled this time around. You can bet that a failure to win the House and Senate will produce a vigorous reaction, easily turning violent, along with a massive effort led by lawfare ninjas Norm Eisen and Marc Elias to foul up all efforts at certifying the vote in a thousand frivolous lawsuits. Is it not time to recognize that as a form of seditious conspiracy and prosecute it accordingly?

The last big question, then, is how the president might respond to post-election shenanigans. Well, for one thing, and whatever the outcome, Mr. Trump will no longer be constrained by the need to avoid the appearance of election interference. My guess is that he will finally go medieval on these vile seditionists, even if it requires declaring some sort of national emergency or invoking the Insurrection Act. He is not going to allow a replay of anything like the 2020 mayhem.

Whatever the Europeans choose to do, it would be a shame if they lose their countries. We won’t lose ours, and we are not coming to rescue them this time."

Sunday, October 18, 2026

"Europe's Diesel Winter Is Coming, and Washington Is About to Make It Worse"

Paris is burning.
"Europe's Diesel Winter Is Coming, 
and Washington Is About to Make It Worse"

"Saudi Arabia went looking for allies against Ansar Allah, and so far it has gotten statements of support. Egypt has declared its readiness to back the Kingdom, but its statement does not commit to any military involvement. Pakistan and Turkey have pledged troops under the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement signed in August, but both governments say their forces will play “a supportive rather than active combat role” against the Houthis. I have watched coalition pledges like these for decades. Cairo has not forgotten its war in Yemen in the 1960s. Islamabad has its own border with Afghanistan and a restless India to think about. Neither is going to send its soldiers into the mountains of Saada, so Riyadh will be fighting this one essentially alone.

That matters because Ansar Allah has shown it can reach the Kingdom’s economic core. In the past two weeks the Houthis have struck at Aramco facilities near Riyadh, the Shedgum gas plant in the Ghawar corridor, and the Tanajib oil facility on the Gulf coast. They hit an administrative building at Aramco’s Dhahran headquarters, the company’s historic nerve center. Now they are reportedly targeting Yanbu.

Riyadh says little about the damage, and Aramco’s chief executive insists the company’s system is intact and can be restored to its full 12 million barrels a day within days. I don’t believe it. Karl Miller, who is on the ground in the region, tells me the Saudis have suffered significant damage. That matches what we can see from the outside: a coalition that keeps announcing interceptions while fires keep burning at the targets. Repairing gas-processing trains, stabilization units and refinery components is not a matter of days. After the 2019 Abqaiq-Khurais strike, Saudi output fell by 5.7 million barrels a day, and it took about two months to recover from a single attack on an undefended site. This time the attacks are sustained and repeated, and the repair crews are working under fire.

Yanbu is the crucial target. With Iran’s navy declaring the Strait of Hormuz closed except to vessels it authorizes, Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea terminal at Yanbu, fed by the East-West Pipeline, is the Kingdom’s escape route to world markets. Flows through Hormuz fell to 11.62 million barrels a day in the week to October 13, against a baseline of 17.15 million. That bypass is already badly damaged. The East-West Pipeline is designed to carry up to 7 million barrels a day across the peninsula, pushed along by 11 pumping stations. According to my sources in the region, four of those 11 stations have been severely damaged and are not functioning. This did not come out of nowhere. In September, an attack damaged pumping facilities and knocked the pipeline largely out of service, and regional officials told the Associated Press repairs would take three to five weeks. Aramco got the line back up, and it has been hit again. A pipeline missing more than a third of its pumping stations cannot move anything close to its rated volume, however much crude is waiting in the Eastern Province.

Meanwhile Ansar Allah has seized Greater and Lesser Hanish islands and Perim inside the Bab al-Mandab, putting it astride the very sea lanes that tankers leaving Yanbu must use. Damaged production, a crippled pipeline and a contested Red Sea together mean the world loses Saudi barrels three times over: some cannot be produced, some cannot reach the coast, and what reaches the coast cannot be shipped safely.

Diesel is where this hits hardest. Diesel moves the trucks, tractors, trains and ships that carry everything else, and Europe is one of the world’s dominant diesel importers. The International Energy Agency’s October report is blunt. Middle Eastern fuel exports are below half of pre-war levels, and diesel markets “will remain tight well into 2027.” The IEA does not expect lost diesel stocks to be replenished before the second half of 2027. Diesel benchmarks topped $200 a barrel in September and remain nearly double the price of crude, which is itself around $108 for Brent, up more than 75 percent from a year ago. Ukrainian drones keep hitting Russian refineries and export terminals, so Europe’s other traditional source of middle distillates is also impaired.

So when people ask me when diesel supply returns to normal, my answer is not soon. The IEA’s timeline, which does not account for sustained damage to Saudi facilities, points to the second half of 2027 at the earliest. A real recovery is at least a year away, and probably longer.

Don’t expect the Trump-Putin diesel deal to change that. As I have argued before, the Russian barrels are a rounding error. Moscow has cleared 500,000 tons for export, roughly 3.7 million barrels, with no shipping timeline. Even if every tranche Trump announced is delivered, about 4.8 million tons in total, that comes to roughly 36 million barrels spread over months. The first 300,000 tons equals less than one day of American transport diesel demand, and the full program equals less than four. Measured against the world’s lost Middle Eastern distillate exports, it is negligible. It also depends on Russian refineries that Ukrainian drones continue to hit, and on sanctioned tankers to carry it. The deal may make for a good headline. It will not move the supply curve, and so it will not bring down the price of diesel.

Europe is already paying the political price. On Saturday, France saw its worst rioting in years. The CGT union estimated more than 500,000 people in the streets protesting the cost of gasoline, energy and food, and more than 270 were arrested. In Milan, a demonstration against wars and rising living costs ended with barricades on fire and shops looted. Protests over the cost of living have spread to Belgium and Portugal. Albania has had five straight days of violent clashes in Tirana. The immediate trigger there is anger at Prime Minister Edi Rama, but it is part of the same continental mood of people who feel their governments have stopped listening.

This is the context in which Washington is considering new strikes on Iran. The ceasefire collapsed in July and has not been rebuilt. Every round of escalation since then has raised the price of oil, and each one has given Tehran a reason to tighten its grip on Hormuz and its allies in Yemen a reason to widen their target list. Another U.S. campaign will not reopen the Strait. It will further close it. It will push diesel prices back toward their September records just as Europe heads into winter, when heating oil demand peaks.

American policymakers seem to believe the costs of this war can be exported. They cannot. Europe’s economies were already weak before the war. Factories that run on diesel-powered logistics, farmers who need diesel for the harvest, and households that heat with fuel oil cannot absorb another price spike. The riots in Paris and Milan are a warning of what a long diesel shortage does to a society. If Washington widens this war, it will be choosing to make that shortage longer and deeper, and Europe will pay the bill on its streets."

"What Is Happening In France Will Also Happen Here In The United States Too"

by Michael Snyder

"The same alliance that is doing it in France will also bring rioting, looting and civil unrest to the United States as well. It is known as “the Red/Green alliance”, and their shared goal is “revolution” all over the western world. Right now we are witnessing an unprecedented tactical convergence between far-left/Marxist movements (“red”) and radical Islamist groups (“green”), and this should deeply alarm all of us. Ultimately, the long-term goals of far-left organizations are much different from the long-term goals of the radical Islamists. But they both deeply hate the same people, and they both want to see the established order overthrown. So for now they are allies of convenience, and they are not afraid to use violence to achieve what they want.

It is certainly true that a relentless cost of living crisis that stretches all the way back to the beginning of this decade is causing immense economic distress both here in the United States and all over the western world. The far left and radical Islamists are attempting to use this economic turmoil to help fuel their anti-government riots. What we are witnessing in France is a perfect example of this.

It is being estimated that 550,000 people participated in the riots on Saturday, including 110,000 in the Paris metro area alone…Chaos exploded across France on Saturday as 550,000 protesters flooded the streets, torched cars and buildings, looted from posh stores including Louis Vuitton and Hermès, and even threatened to storm the Élysée Palace - prompting a defiant President Emmanuel Macron to rage: “Let them come and get me!”

In Paris alone, an estimated 110,000 demonstrators took to the streets, with masked protestors backed by the country’s far-left opposition leader smashing storefronts, targeting luxury business and confronting riot police armed with tear gas and water cannons. The mainstream media tried to frame the riots as “mostly peaceful protests”, but everyone could clearly see that was not true at all. Many of the rioters seemed to revel in the destruction that they were causing.

In one particularly disturbing incident, a historic town hall that had somehow survived both world wars was purposely set on fire… The iconic Limoges Town Hall, which was built in 1883 and survived both world wars, came tumbling down in a blaze after it was torched by rioters in the south-west of France. A video seen by 1.4 million people on X showed the building, which played a significant role in the French Resistance during the Second World War, collapsing, with its bell tower engulfed in flames.

So where were the police? They were on the run. The rioters vastly outnumbered them, and one official described the chaos in the streets as “apocalyptic”…‘It was apocalyptic,’ a senior commander told Sunday’s Le Parisien newspaper. ‘Law enforcement was unable to contain the multitude of simultaneous attacks occurring across the country, and was quickly overwhelmed by determined protesters.’ Explaining how a number of districts fell into ‘the hands of rioters’, the source said ‘there weren’t enough personnel or ammunition.’

The ‘apocalyptic rioting’ followed intense violence in recent weeks which saw gangs of agitators taking part in running battles with the forces of law and order. Of course whenever there is rioting, there will also be looting. In Paris, very large groups of “masked men wearing black hoodies” were grabbing whatever they could get their hands on… Smashing shop windows and snatching boxes of goods, looters in Paris poured into stores across the capital on Saturday, facing no resistance from authorities as nationwide protests degenerated into violence. Crowds of masked men wearing black hoodies yanked at metal store shutters until they gave way, clearing shelves of cigarettes, sunglasses, clothes, jewellery and food.

It appears that in many cases the looting was not spontaneous at all. In fact, it appears that some groups of looters were “highly organized”… According to AFP, some looting appeared highly organized. Groups of approximately six young men, wearing masks and gloves, approached stores and first disconnected their security cameras. Only then did they smash the windows, break into the premises and steal merchandise. The businesses targeted included supermarkets, pharmacies, luxury boutiques, clothing stores, electronics retailers, cosmetics shops and opticians. In Paris, footage showed looters stripping mobile phone stores of their merchandise and throwing products to accomplices waiting outside.

One widely circulated video, said to have been filmed in Paris, showed a woman desperately trying to stop masked looters from breaking into a supermarket. “Why are you doing this?” she shouted as the intruders pushed through the entrance. One initially placed a hand on her back, apparently trying to move her aside gently, but others surged forward and forced their way into the store. “Stop! That’s not the point!” she cried as she was pushed away. Her appeals failed to stop the looting.

This is what the far left does. They riot, loot and commit acts of random violence. The largest far left party in France knew what would happen, but they publicly backed the “protests” anyway…The disorder is backed by the far-left opposition leader La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party. Its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is second in the polls for next year’s presidential elections, which take place in six months. Mélenchon blamed the authorities for blocking protesters from reaching Place de la République in Paris, which he said had been designated as the start of the protest.

It would be bad enough for leaders of France Unbowed to openly encourage the rioters. But the truth is that many of them have also been active participants in the “protests”… French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu took a more direct approach than Macron, saying the student movement has been “instrumentalized by the allies of France Unbowed (LFI)… for electoral reasons.” The left-wing LFI’s presidential candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, even participated in one of the Paris protests this week, while LFI councilors, deputies, and mayors have joined student blockades in multiple cities.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon wants to turn France into a communist nation. And he is thrilled to have hordes and hordes of young Muslim radicals as his allies. Many of those young Muslim radicals proudly carry Palestinian flags with them, and that flag has become the most visible symbol of the French riots…

“Palestinian flags were visible among demonstrators as violence spread through French cities. A municipal police station was also attacked, shops were vandalized, and riot police deployed tear gas. Storming government buildings and attacking police are acts of political violence, not peaceful protest. President Macron called for calm before the violence erupted. The question now is what his government will do to restore order,” Pamela Geller reported.

The civil unrest is far from over. Of course it isn’t just France that has been thrown into a state of turmoil. Yesterday, protests in Italy got quite violent…Italian police fired tear gas at Italian protesters in the square in front of Milan’s Gothic cathedral, after rioters allegedly threw stones at officers, France 24 reported. Protesters in Milan also gathered in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II – a luxury shopping centre. Shop owners put down their shutters and tourists appeared to flee the central area as the clashes turned violent, with the central Duomo metro station being temporarily closed.

And the riots in Albania just continue to escalate…Thousands of young Albanians gathered outside the Education Ministry in ​the center of the capital Tirana on Saturday on the fifth day of a growing student-led movement ‌to force Prime Minister Edi Rama to resign. The protest turned violent when a group of young people wearing masks hurled rocks at riot police, who responded with stun grenades, tear gas and a water cannon.

We are being told that people all over Europe are angry about the rising cost of living. And that is true. But it isn’t conservatives that are rioting. It isn’t Christians that are rioting. It is always the far left and the Muslims. That same alliance is going to bring rioting, looting and civil unrest to the United States too. We have seen various instances when this has occurred in recent years, but much worse is coming.

As Americans become increasingly frustrated with our seemingly endless cost of living crisis, “the Red/Green alliance” will use economic pain to stir up anger. But rioting, looting and civil unrest is not going to fix anything. The far left and the radical Muslims know this. They do not intend to fix the current system. Instead, they want “revolution” so that the current system can be completely wiped out."

Jeremiah Babe, "The World Is Entering The Point Of No Return"

Jeremiah Babe, 10/18/26
"The World Is Entering The Point Of No Return"
Comments here:

"Alert! Worldwide War Preparations Underway; Russia, Europe, Canada, Hormuz Are on Fire!"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 10/18/26
"Alert! Worldwide War Preparations Underway; 
Russia, Europe, Canada, Hormuz Are on Fire!"
Comments here:

"Landlords Are Raising Rent Everywhere! And Tenants Can't Afford To Stay"

Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 10/18/26
"Landlords Are Raising Rent Everywhere! 
And Tenants Can't Afford To Stay"
"Landlords are raising rent everywhere, and tenants simply can't afford to stay anymore. In this video, Americans show it from their side: a luxury apartment that went from $2,100 to $2,700 a month plus $125 parking, then listed the same unit for $1,950 to new tenants, a West Palm Beach renewal from $4,190 to $4,732, a Dallas renewal letter jumping from $1,800 to $2,200, a San Francisco three-bed raised 38% to $8,000 and then relisted 55% higher, a $5,200 Mission Street lease relisted at $8,200 after one year, $3,800 a month for a one-bedroom in Woodland Hills, New York City renewals that went up nearly $1,000, a one-bedroom that cost $575 in 2003 and $1,400 now, a $900 one-bedroom from 2019 that is now $1,700, a $350 college room in a city where rent has gone up two and a half times, Georgia landlords adding $200 to $300 every year, a $300 apartment from the 90s that now rents for $1,000, a Nashville renewal to $2,806, and a $236 rent hike after a few wood floors went in."
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Dan, I Allegedly, "Wall Street Is Ignoring This Dangerous Warning"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 10/18/26
"Wall Street Is Ignoring This Dangerous Warning"
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"Power Grid Warning: America Is Facing A Problem We Can't Ignore"

Full screen recommended.
Snyder Reports, 10/18/26
"Power Grid Warning: 
America Is Facing A Problem We Can't Ignore"
"One of the nation's largest grid operators just warned there is little room for error - and 13 states plus DC are already feeling it. In this video I break down why PJM Interconnection says year-round data center demand plus wild fall weather wiped out the maintenance window, the Trump Energy Department emergency order to prevent blackouts across 13 states amid unusual October heat, the planned 6-hour power outage for 11 South Dakota towns on October 29th, and what freeze warnings this morning plus a coming El Nino winter mean for you. If you use electricity for anything, you need to see what is putting the power grid under stress and how to prepare for winter blackouts."
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