Jeremiah Babe, 8/11/26
"More Proof Americans Are Broke -
Wake Up And Prepare For The Greatest Depression In History"
Comments here:
So, we rise from the rubble...
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Tuesday, August 11, 2026
Gerald Celente, "Trump Card... The Joker's Wild"
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 8/11/26
"Trump Card... The Joker's Wild"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What's Next in these increasingly turbulent times."
Comments here:
"Real Courage..."
"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."
~ "Harper Lee", "To Kill a Mockingbird"
“The Science of Stress and How Our Emotions Affect Our Susceptibility to Burnout and Disease”
“The Science of Stress and How Our Emotions
Affect Our Susceptibility to Burnout and Disease”
by Maria Popova
"I had lived thirty good years before enduring my first food poisoning - odds quite fortunate in the grand scheme of things, but miserably unfortunate in the immediate experience of it. I found myself completely incapacitated to erect the pillars of my daily life - too cognitively foggy to read and write, too physically weak to work out or even meditate. The temporary disability soon elevated the assault on my mind and body to a new height of anguish: an intense experience of stress. Even as I consoled myself with Nabokov’s exceptionally florid account of food poisoning, I couldn’t shake the overwhelming malaise that had engulfed me - somehow, a physical illness had completely colored my psychoemotional reality.
This experience, of course, is far from uncommon. Long before scientists began shedding light on how our minds and bodies actually affect one another, an intuitive understanding of this dialogue between the body and the emotions, or feelings, emerged and permeated our very language: We use “feeling sick” as a grab-bag term for both the sensory symptoms - fever, fatigue, nausea - and the psychological malaise, woven of emotions like sadness and apathy.
Pre-modern medicine, in fact, has recognized this link between disease and emotion for millennia. Ancient Greek, Roman, and Indian Ayurvedic physicians all enlisted the theory of the four humors - blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm - in their healing practices, believing that imbalances in these four visible secretions of the body caused disease and were themselves often caused by the emotions. These beliefs are fossilized in our present language - melancholy comes from the Latin words for “black” (melan) and “bitter bile” (choler), and we think of a melancholic person as gloomy or embittered; a phlegmatic person is languid and impassive, for phlegm makes one lethargic.
And then French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes came along in the seventeenth century, taking it upon himself to eradicate the superstitions that fueled the religious wars of the era by planting the seed of rationalism. But the very tenets that laid the foundation of modern science - the idea that truth comes only from what can be visibly ascertained and proven beyond doubt - severed this link between the physical body and the emotions; those mysterious and fleeting forces, the biological basis of which the tools of modern neuroscience are only just beginning to understand, seemed to exist entirely outside the realm of what could be examined with the tools of rationalism.
For nearly three centuries, the idea that our emotions could impact our physical health remained scientific taboo - setting out to fight one type of dogma, Descartes had inadvertently created another, which we’re only just beginning to shake off. It was only in the 1950s that Austrian-Canadian physician and physiologist Hans Selye pioneered the notion of stress as we now know it today, drawing the scientific community’s attention to the effects of stress on physical health and popularizing the concept around the world. (In addition to his scientific dedication, Selye also understood the branding component of any successful movement and worked tirelessly to include the word itself in dictionaries around the world; today, “stress” is perhaps the word pronounced most similarly in the greatest number of major languages.)
But no researcher has done more to illuminate the invisible threads that weave mind and body together than Dr. Esther Sternberg. Her groundbreaking work on the link between the central nervous system and the immune system, exploring how immune molecules made in the blood can trigger brain function that profoundly affects our emotions, has revolutionized our understanding of the integrated being we call a human self. In the immeasurably revelatory "The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health and Emotions" (public library), Sternberg examines the interplay of our emotions and our physical health, mediated by that seemingly nebulous yet, it turns out, remarkably concrete experience called stress.
With an eye to modern medicine’s advances in cellular and molecular biology, which have made it possible to measure how our nervous system and our hormones affect our susceptibility to diseases as varied as depression, arthritis, AIDS, and chronic fatigue syndrome, Sternberg writes: "By parsing these chemical intermediaries, we can begin to understand the biological underpinnings of how emotions affect diseases… The same parts of the brain that control the stress response play an important role in susceptibility and resistance to inflammatory diseases such as arthritis. And since it is these parts of the brain that also play a role in depression, we can begin to understand why it is that many patients with inflammatory diseases may also experience depression at different times in their lives.
Rather than seeing the psyche as the source of such illnesses, we are discovering that while feelings don’t directly cause or cure disease, the biological mechanisms underlying them may cause or contribute to disease. Thus, many of the nerve pathways and molecules underlying both psychological responses and inflammatory disease are the same, making predisposition to one set of illnesses likely to go along with predisposition to the other. The questions need to be rephrased, therefore, to ask which of the many components that work together to create emotions also affect that other constellation of biological events, immune responses, which come together to fight or to cause disease. Rather than asking if depressing thoughts can cause an illness of the body, we need to ask what the molecules and nerve pathways are that cause depressing thoughts. And then we need to ask whether these affect the cells and molecules that cause disease.
We are even beginning to sort out how emotional memories reach the parts of the brain that control the hormonal stress response, and how such emotions can ultimately affect the workings of the immune system and thus affect illnesses as disparate as arthritis and cancer. We are also beginning to piece together how signals from the immune system can affect the brain and the emotional and physical responses it controls: the molecular basis of feeling sick. In all this, the boundaries between mind and body are beginning to blur."
Indeed, the relationship between memory, emotion, and stress is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Sternberg’s work. She considers how we deal with the constant swirl of inputs and outputs as we move through the world, barraged by a stream of stimuli and sensations: "Every minute of the day and night we feel thousands of sensations that might trigger a positive emotion such as happiness, or a negative emotion such as sadness, or no emotion at all: a trace of perfume, a light touch, a fleeting shadow, a strain of music. And there are thousands of physiological responses, such as palpitations or sweating, that can equally accompany positive emotions such as love, or negative emotions such as fear, or can happen without any emotional tinge at all. What makes these sensory inputs and physiological outputs emotions is the charge that gets added to them somehow, somewhere in our brains. Emotions in their fullest sense comprise all of these components. Each can lead into the black box and produce an emotional experience, or something in the black box can lead out to an emotional response that seems to come from nowhere."
Memory, it turns out, is one of the major factors mediating the dialogue between sensation and emotional experience. Our memories of past experience become encoded into triggers that act as switchers on the rail of psychoemotional response, directing the incoming train of present experience in the direction of one emotional destination or another.
Sternberg writes: "Mood is not homogeneous like cream soup. It is more like Swiss cheese, filled with holes. The triggers are highly specific, tripped by sudden trails of memory: a faint fragrance, a few bars of a tune, a vague silhouette that tapped into a sad memory buried deep, but not completely erased. These sensory inputs from the moment float through layers of time in the parts of the brain that control memory, and they pull out with them not only reminders of sense but also trails of the emotions that were first connected to the memory. These memories become connected to emotions, which are processed in other parts of the brain: the amygdala for fear, the nucleus accumbens for pleasure - those same parts that the anatomists had named for their shapes. And these emotional brain centers are linked by nerve pathways to the sensory parts of the brain and to the frontal lobe and hippocampus - the coordinating centers of thought and memory."
The same sensory input can trigger a negative emotion or a positive one, depending on the memories associated with it. This is where stress comes in - much like memory mediates how we interpret and respond to various experiences, a complex set of biological and psychological factors determine how we respond to stress. Some types of stress can be stimulating and invigorating, mobilizing us into action and creative potency; others can be draining and incapacitating, leaving us frustrated and hopeless. This dichotomy of good vs. bad stress, Sternberg notes, is determined by the biology undergirding our feelings - by the dose and duration of the stress hormones secreted by the body in response to the stressful stimulus. She explains the neurobiological machinery behind this response:
"As soon as the stressful event occurs, it triggers the release of the cascade of hypothalamic, pituitary, and adrenal hormones - the brain’s stress response. It also triggers the adrenal glands to release epinephrine, or adrenaline, and the sympathetic nerves to squirt out the adrenaline-like chemical norepinephrine all over the body: nerves that wire the heart, and gut, and skin. So, the heart is driven to beat faster, the fine hairs of your skin stand up, you sweat, you may feel nausea or the urge to defecate. But your attention is focused, your vision becomes crystal clear, a surge of power helps you run - these same chemicals released from nerves make blood flow to your muscles, preparing you to sprint.
All this occurs quickly. If you were to measure the stress hormones in your blood or saliva, they would already be increased within three minutes of the event. In experimental psychology tests, playing a fast-paced video game will make salivary cortisol increase and norepinephrine spill over into venous blood almost as soon as the virtual battle begins. But if you prolong the stress, by being unable to control it or by making it too potent or long-lived, and these hormones and chemicals still continue to pump out from nerves and glands, then the same molecules that mobilized you for the short haul now debilitate you."
These effects of stress exist on a bell curve - that is, some is good, but too much becomes bad: As the nervous system secretes more and more stress hormones, performance increases, but up to a point; after that tipping point, performance begins to suffer as the hormones continue to flow. What makes stress “bad” - that is, what makes it render us more pervious to disease - is the disparity between the nervous system and immune system’s respective pace.
Sternberg explains: "The nervous system and the hormonal stress response react to a stimulus in milliseconds, seconds, or minutes. The immune system takes parts of hours or days. It takes much longer than two minutes for immune cells to mobilize and respond to an invader, so it is unlikely that a single, even powerful, short-lived stress on the order of moments could have much of an effect on immune responses. However, when the stress turns chronic, immune defenses begin to be impaired. As the stressful stimulus hammers on, stress hormones and chemicals continue to pump out. Immune cells floating in this milieu in blood, or passing through the spleen, or growing up in thymic nurseries never have a chance to recover from the unabated rush of cortisol. Since cortisol shuts down immune cells’ responses, shifting them to a muted form, less able to react to foreign triggers, in the context of continued stress we are less able to defend and fight when faced with new invaders. And so, if you are exposed to, say, a flu or common cold virus when you are chronically stressed out, your immune system is less able to react and you become more susceptible to that infection."
Extended exposure to stress, especially to a variety of stressors at the same time - any combination from the vast existential menu of life-events like moving, divorce, a demanding job, the loss of a loved one, and even ongoing childcare - adds up a state of extreme exhaustion that leads to what we call burnout.
Sternberg writes: "Members of certain professions are more prone to burnout than others - nurses and teachers, for example, are among those at highest risk. These professionals are faced daily with caregiving situations in their work lives, often with inadequate pay, inadequate help in their jobs, and with too many patients or students in their charge. Some studies are beginning to show that burnt-out patients may have not only psychological burnout, but also physiological burnout: a flattened cortisol response and inability to respond to any stress with even a slight burst of cortisol. In other words, chronic unrelenting stress can change the stress response itself. And it can change other hormone systems in the body as well."
One of the most profound such changes affects the reproductive system - extended periods of stress can shut down the secretion of reproductive hormones in both men and women, resulting in lower fertility. But the effects are especially perilous for women - recurring and extended episodes of depression result in permanent changes in bone structure, increasing the risk of osteoporosis. In other words, we register stress literally in our bones.
But stress isn’t a direct causal function of the circumstances we’re in - what either amplifies or ameliorates our experience of stress is, once again, memory. Sternberg writes: Our perception of stress, and therefore our response to it, is an ever-changing thing that depends a great deal on the circumstances and settings in which we find ourselves. It depends on previous experience and knowledge, as well as on the actual event that has occurred. And it depends on memory, too.
The most acute manifestation of how memory modulates stress is post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. For striking evidence of how memory encodes past experience into triggers, which then catalyze present experience, Sternberg points to research by psychologist Rachel Yehuda, who found both Holocaust survivors and their first-degree relatives - that is, children and siblings - exhibited a similar hormonal stress response.
This, Sternberg points out, could be a combination of nature and nurture - the survivors, as young parents for whom the trauma was still fresh, may well have subconsciously taught their children a common style of stress-responsiveness; but it’s also possible that these automatic hormonal stress responses permanently changed the parents’ biology and were transmitted via DNA to their children. Once again, memory encodes stress into our very bodies. Sternberg considers the broader implications: "Stress need not be on the order of war, rape, or the Holocaust to trigger at least some elements of PTSD. Common stresses that we all experience can trigger the emotional memory of a stressful circumstance - and all its accompanying physiological responses. Prolonged stress - such as divorce, a hostile workplace, the end of a relationship, or the death of a loved one - can all trigger elements of PTSD."
Among the major stressors - which include life-events expected to be on the list, such as divorce and the death of a loved one - is also one somewhat unexpected situation, at least to those who haven’t undergone it: moving. Sternberg considers the commonalities between something as devastating as death and something as mundane as moving: One is certainly loss - the loss of someone or something familiar. Another is novelty - finding oneself in a new and unfamiliar place because of the loss. Together these amount to change: moving away from something one knows and toward something one doesn’t. An unfamiliar environment is a universal stressor to nearly all species, no matter how developed or undeveloped.
In the remainder of the thoroughly illuminating "The Balance Within", Sternberg goes on to explore the role of interpersonal relationships in both contributing to stress and shielding us from it, how the immune system changes our moods, and what we can do to harness these neurobiological insights in alleviating our experience of the stressors with which every human life is strewn.”
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Related:
"Neuroscience Says Listening to This Song
"Neuroscience Says Listening to This Song
Reduces Anxiety by Up to 65 Percent"
By Melanie Curtin
By Melanie Curtin
Full screen recommended.
"Everyone knows they need to manage their stress. When things get difficult at work, school, or in your personal life, you can use as many tips, tricks, and techniques as you can get to calm your nerves. So here's a science-backed one: make a playlist of the 10 songs found to be the most relaxing on earth. Sound therapies have long been popular as a way of relaxing and restoring one's health. For centuries, indigenous cultures have used music to enhance well-being and improve health conditions.
Now, neuroscientists out of the UK have specified which tunes give you the most bang for your musical buck. The study was conducted on participants who attempted to solve difficult puzzles as quickly as possible while connected to sensors. The puzzles induced a certain level of stress, and participants listened to different songs while researchers measured brain activity as well as physiological states that included heart rate, blood pressure, and rate of breathing.
According to Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson of Mindlab International, which conducted the research, the top song produced a greater state of relaxation than any other music tested to date. In fact, listening to that one song- "Weightless"- resulted in a striking 65 percent reduction in participants' overall anxiety, and a 35 percent reduction in their usual physiological resting rates. That is remarkable.
Equally remarkable is the fact the song was actually constructed to do so. The group that created "Weightless", Marconi Union, did so in collaboration with sound therapists. Its carefully arranged harmonies, rhythms, and bass lines help slow a listener's heart rate, reduce blood pressure and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
When it comes to lowering anxiety, the stakes couldn't be higher. Stress either exacerbates or increases the risk of health issues like heart disease, obesity, depression, gastrointestinal problems, asthma, and more. More troubling still, a recent paper out of Harvard and Stanford found health issues from job stress alone cause more deaths than diabetes, Alzheimer's, or influenza.
In this age of constant bombardment, the science is clear: if you want your mind and body to last, you've got to prioritize giving them a rest. Music is an easy way to take some of the pressure off of all the pings, dings, apps, tags, texts, emails, appointments, meetings, and deadlines that can easily spike your stress level and leave you feeling drained and anxious.
Of the top track, Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson said, "'Weightless' was so effective, many women became drowsy and I would advise against driving while listening to the song because it could be dangerous." So don't drive while listening to these, but do take advantage of them:
10. "We Can Fly," by Rue du Soleil (Café Del Mar)
9. "Canzonetta Sull'aria," by Mozart
8. "Someone Like You," by Adele
7. "Pure Shores," by All Saints
6. "Please Don't Go," by Barcelona
5. "Strawberry Swing," by Coldplay
4. "Watermark," by Enya
3. "Mellomaniac (Chill Out Mix)," by DJ Shah
2. "Electra," by Airstream
1. "Weightless," by Marconi Union
I made a public playlist of all of them on Spotify that runs about 50 minutes (it's also downloadable)."
"Something’s Coming, We Don’t Know What It Is But It Is Going To Be Bad"
"Something’s Coming, We Don’t Know
What It Is But It Is Going To Be Bad"
by Edward Curtin
“With a click, with a shock
Phone’ll jingle, door’ll knock, open the latch
Something’s coming, don’t know when but it’s soon . . . “
– “Something’s Coming,” lyrics by S. Sondheim,
music by L. Bernstein – "West Side Story"
"Shock should not be the word, but when World War III breaks fully loose many who are now sleeping will be shocked. The war has already started, but it’s full fury and devastation are just around the corner. When it does, Tony’s singular fate in West Side Story will be the fate of untold millions. It is a Greek tragedy brought on by the terrible hubris of the United States, its NATO accomplices, and the genocidal state of Israel and the Zionist terrorists who run it.
Tony felt a miracle was due, but it didn’t come true for him except to briefly love Maria and then get killed as result of a false report, and only a miracle will now save the world from the cataclysm that is on the way, whether it is initiated by intent, a false report, an accident, or the game of nuclear chicken played once too often.
Let us hope but not be naïve. The signs all point in one direction. The gun on the wall in the first act of this tragic play is primed to go off in the final one. Every effort to avoid this terrible fate by seeking peace and not war has been rejected by the U.S. and its equally insane allies. Every so-called red line laid down by Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Palestinians, and their allies has been violated with impunity and blatant arrogance. But impunity has its limits and the dark Furies of vengeance will have their day.
“It is the dead, not the living,” said Antigone, “who make the longest demands.” Their ghostly voices cry out to be avenged.
I wish I were not compelled by conscience to write this, but it seems clearly evident to me that we stand on the edge of an abyss. The fate of the world rests in the hands of leaders who are clearly psychotic and who harbor death wishes. It’s not terribly complex. Netanyahu and Trump are two of them. Yes, like other mass killers, I think they love their children and give their dogs biscuits to eat. But yes, they also are so corrupted in their souls that they relish war and the sense of false power and prestige it brings them. They gladly kill other people’s children. They can defend themselves many times over, offer all kinds of excuses, but the facts speak otherwise. This is hard for regular people to accept.
The great American writer who lived in exile in France for so many years and who was born 100 years ago this month, James Baldwin, wrote an essay – “The Creative Process” – in which he addressed the issue of how becoming a normal member of society dulls one to the shadow side of personal and social truths. He wrote: "And, in the same way that to become a social human being one modifies and suppresses and, ultimately, without great courage, lies to oneself about all one’s interior, uncharted chaos, so have we, as a nation, modified or suppressed and lied about all the darker forces in our history." And lie and suppress we still do today.
Imagine, if you will, that Mexico has invaded Texas with the full support of the Russian, Chinese, and Iranian governments. Their weapons are supplied by these countries and their drone and missile attacks on the U.S. are coordinated by Russian technology. The Seven Mile Bridge in Florida has been attacked. The U.S. Mexican border is dotted with Russian troops on bases with nuclear missiles aimed at U.S. cities.
It’s not hard to do. That is a small analogy to what the U.S./NATO is doing to Russia. Do you think the United States would not respond with great force? Do you think it would not feel threatened with nuclear annihilation? How do you think it would respond. Now how do you think the Russians are going to respond? How many red lines will they allow the U.S. to cross without massive retaliation? And what kind of retaliation?
Switch then to the Middle East where the Iranians and their allies are retaliating to the US/Israeli attacks on their soil. No one knows when but it seems soon. Something is coming and it won’t be pretty. Will it then ignite a massive war in the region with the U.S. and Israel pitted against the region? Will nuclear weapons be used? Will the wars in Ukraine/Russia and the Middle East join into what will be called WW III?
While the U.S. continues to massively arm Israel, Russia and China are arming their ally Iran and training them in the use of those weapons as the U.S. is doing in Ukraine. The stage is set. We enter the final act. Natanyahu wants and needs war to survive. So he thinks. Psychotic killers always do. The signs all point in one direction. No one should be shocked if the worst comes to pass. “Phone’ll jingle, door’ll knock, open the latch.” If you have time."
o
"There are a multitude of fuses affixed to dozens of powder-kegs and little kids with matches are on the loose. I don’t know which of the fuses will be lit and which powder-keg will blow, but someone is bound to do something stupid, and then all hell will break loose. It could happen at any time. One military miscue. One assassination. One violent act that stirs the world. And the dominoes will topple, setting off fireworks not seen on this planet since 1939 – 1945. I can see it all very clearly." - Jim Quinn
"How It Really Is""
“The only difference between the Republican and Democratic
parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when
corporations knock on their door. That’s the only difference.”
- Ralph Nader
"Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse On The March" (Excerpt)
"Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse
On The March" (Excerpt)
by Jim Quinn
“The least-bad scenario is a hard landing, global recession worse than the 1930s. The worst-case borrows from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: war, famine, pestilence, and death.” - Kenneth S. Deffeye
“When hopes and dreams are loose in the streets, it is well for the timid to lock doors, shutter windows and lie low until the wrath has passed. For there is often a monstrous incongruity between the hopes, however noble and tender, and the action which follows them. It is as if ivied maidens and garlanded youths were to herald the four horsemen of the apocalypse.”
- Eric Hoffer
Excerpt: "I don’t pretend to be a biblical scholar or have any particular expertise in interpreting scriptures, and certainly not the Book of Revelation, supposedly written by John of Patmos during the reign of Roman emperor Domitian sometime between 81 AD and 96 AD. But I did suffer through twelve years of Catholic school, with plenty of time reading the bible for homework assignments. I know many people take everything in the bible literally. I do not adhere to that understanding. I believe most, if not all, of the bible is parables and symbolism written by men as a means to guide early Christians in how they should live their lives. The wisdom imparted by these writers is vast and deep. The Book of Revelation is the most apocalyptic, mysterious, and prophetic.
I would agree with scholars who say Revelation does not refer to actual people or events but is an allegory of the spiritual path and the ongoing struggle between good and evil. But, as our modern-day world seems to be coming apart at the seams, the battle between good and evil is reaching a zenith, only seen at crucial turning points in history.
The scale of propaganda designed to mislead the public, scope of deceit exhibited by our hand-picked leaders, level of wickedness in the purposeful destruction of economic systems based on climate crisis lies, purposeful infliction of pain and suffering upon the masses through destruction of conventional food and energy structures, implosion of the financial system due to incompetence and/or willfully malicious motivations, and incessant provocations of Russia and China designed to ignite a global conflagration, are all part of one demonic plan.
Knowing we are reaching the most violent phase of this Fourth Turning and this kind of horrendous whirlwind has occurred during the fall of previous empires, does not make it any easier to confront or endure.
As the stock market implodes, draining the retirement savings of working men and women once again, inflation rages out of control, pushing lower and middle class families to the brink, our president implements a country destroying agenda at the behest of his globalist handlers designed to incite a civil war, and the Deep State/Military Industrial Complex attempts to monetize Iran, Ukraine and Taiwan to fill their coffers with billions in war profits, the world teeters on the brink of a collapse which will make the Great Depression/World War II era seem like a walk in the park.
And very few people see it coming or are prepared in any way for the consequences. They have spent too much time in government school indoctrination centers, soaked up too much propaganda spewed by the corporate legacy media doing the bidding of those in power, have been misinformed and misled by the left wing Silicon Valley social media conglomerates, and are too distracted by their gadgets, social media likes, fake reality TV, and modern day sports circuses.
I’m certainly not predicting the end times or second coming of Christ, but the parable of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse sure seems applicable in this modern-day Crisis – the latest times that try men’s souls. We are in a time of Crisis, just as we were in the 1780’s, 1860’s, and 1940’s, all 80 years apart. The 2020’s will also go down in history as a time of fateful decisions, great battles, heroes, villains, and ultimately a purging of the existing social order - to be replaced by something better or far worse."
Full article is here:
"America Is Entering a Crisis It May Not Be Able to Stop"
Richard Wolff, 8/11/26
"America Is Entering a
Crisis It May Not Be Able to Stop"
"America is facing a profound shift in the global balance of power - and economist Richard Wolff believes the consequences could be far bigger than most Americans realize. In this discussion, Wolff examines the changing position of the United States, the confrontation with Iran, the growing influence of China and BRICS, and the pressures developing inside America itself. His central argument is stark: the extraordinary period of American global dominance that followed World War II may have already passed its peak. What happens when a superpower struggles to adjust to a world where other nations have greater economic, military, and political leverage? And could attempts to preserve the old order actually make the crisis more dangerous? This video explores Wolff’s perspective alongside original commentary and context. His statements and predictions represent his own analysis and should not be treated as established outcomes."
Comments here:
"Wars And Rumors Of Wars: The Middle East"
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom 8/11/26
"Scott Ritter: US is Out of Ammo and Oil"
Comments here:
o
Daniel Davis/Deep Dive, 8/11/26
"Col. Doug Macgregor -
Iran War: The Art Of Defeat"
Comments here:
o
John Mearsheimer, 8/11/26
"Trump’s Massive Lies Fall Apart as Iran
Makes a U Turn – Pentagon Goes Full Panic"
Comments here:
o
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom 8/11/26
"Prof. John Mearsheimer:
What Comes Next in Iran?"
Comments here:
Adventures With Danno, "Grocery Prices At Sam's Club!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 8/11/26
"Grocery Prices At Sam's Club!"
Comments here:
Dan, I Allegedly, "Food is Now Unaffordable - Americans are Cutting Back"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 8/11/26
"Food is Now Unaffordable -
Americans are Cutting Back"
"Food is becoming unaffordable, and Americans are being forced to change the way they shop, eat, and spend. Grocery prices, fast food, labor costs, fertilizer, transportation, weather and rising operating expenses are all putting pressure on consumers. From the grocery store to Taco Bell and Papa John’s, the era of cheap food is disappearing—and businesses are starting to feel the impact as customers cut back. I take a look at what is driving food inflation and why this problem could get even worse. But food isn't the only thing changing. This video also looks at consumer spending, rising business costs, AT&T price increases, AI-powered pricing at thrift stores, credit card debt, movie theater prices, and the growing pressure on American households. These are the business and economic warning signs I cover every day on iAllegedly - real-world stories about inflation, the economy, banking, debt, jobs, retail, housing, and the cost of living. Make good choices, protect your money, and stay prepared."
Comments here:
Monday, August 10, 2026
"I Miss My Old Dog"
Full screen recommended.
Delta King's Blues, "I Miss My Old Dog"
"Some friends don’t talk much…but they understand everything. “I Miss My Old Dog” is a tender, slow-burning Delta King’s Blues ballad about loyalty, quiet companionship, and the kind of love that never needed words. A soft, fingerpicked acoustic guitar carries the memory gentle and true. The harmonica cries warm and lonesome, like a call across an empty yard at dusk. The groove moves slow and heartfelt, built for porch lights and fading sunsets. This is blues for the best kind of goodbye. For the ones who waited at the door, rode shotgun without complaint, and never once judged. He may be gone… but he’s still walking beside you."
o
Full screen recommended.
"The Heavenly Reunion:
Edgar Cayce's Truth About Seeing Your Pet Again"
"Will you ever see your beloved pet again? Edgar Cayce reveals the breathtaking spiritual truth about the heavenly reunion with your departed dog or cat. Discover exactly how they wait for you and what happens at the exact moment you cross over. The quiet grief of pet loss brings a heavy, burning question to the heart of every pet parent: "Will I ever actually see you again? And if I do... how does it even happen?" If you have ever looked up at the stars, begging for a concrete answer about where your soulmate dog or cat is right now, you are in the exact right place. We are moving beyond the poetry of the Rainbow Bridge to explore the profound, metaphysical revelations of Edgar Cayce (the "sleeping prophet"). Cayce accessed the Akashic Records to reveal the undeniable truth about animal souls, proving that the heavenly reunion is an absolute, unbreakable law of the universe. Understanding the eternal journey of animal souls, according to Edgar Cayce and the Akashic Records, can profoundly heal your grieving heart.
This isn't just about comforting theories; it's about recognizing that the unbreakable bond of unconditional love never fades. We delve into concepts like vibrational frequencies, soul individualization, and how the universe orchestrates your ultimate reunion. This video aims to be a vital sanctuary of clarity and spiritual awakening for anyone navigating the quiet, chronic ache of pet bereavement. Ultimately, Edgar Cayce's message is one of infinite hope: death is only a transition, and your magnificent reunion is already written in the stars. Have you loved and lost multiple pets? Which beautiful souls are you waiting to reunite with?"
"Alert! The Mother of All WW3 False Flags is Set. Biblical Climate Events Are Unfolding Globally"
Canadian Prepper, 8/10/26
"Alert! The Mother of All WW3 False Flags is Set.
Biblical Climate Events Are Unfolding Globally"
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"Supermarket Extinction Event: Chains Collapse Coast To Coast"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 8/10/26
"Supermarket Extinction Event:
Chains Collapse Coast To Coast"
"Seven grocery stores shut their doors in one weekend. An eighty-eight-year-old family market turned off its lights for the last time. A Kroger closed and left the seniors who walked to it with no way to reach food at all. This is not one bad quarter for one struggling chain. It is a nationwide contraction happening store by store, mostly unannounced, filmed by the people it happens to. In this video you'll watch Americans stand in the aisles and do the math out loud. A thirty-dollar roast at a discount grocery store. A hundred and thirty-nine dollars for a cart that looks like nothing. Twenty-one items that cost forty-six percent more than the same twenty-one items a year ago. A single mother with eleven dollars and three kids to feed. A worker walking her last shift. A neighborhood watching its only source of fresh produce get boarded up.
The pattern underneath is measurable. Between 2019 and 2024 food-at-home prices climbed about 25 percent while paychecks moved 21. In 2024 retailers announced more than 7,100 store closures, a 69 percent jump on the year before. USDA put food insecurity in single-mother households at 35.2 percent. United Way's ALICE data counted 29 percent of U.S. households as employed and still unable to cover essentials. What closes with a grocery store is not just a building. It is the last walkable place to buy fresh food in a neighborhood that already had nothing else."
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"A Look to the Heavens"
"What's happening at the center of the Trifid Nebula? Three prominent dust lanes that give the Trifid its name all come together. Mountains of opaque dust appear near the bottom, while other dark filaments of dust are visible threaded throughout the nebula. A single massive star visible near the center causes much of the Trifid's glow. The Trifid, cataloged as M20, is only about 300,000 years old, making it among the youngest emission nebulas known.
The star forming nebula lies about 9,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Archer (Sagittarius). The region pictured here spans about 10 light years. The featured image is a composite with luminance taken from an image by the 8.2-m ground-based Subaru Telescope, detail provided by the 2.4-m orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, color data provided by Martin Pugh and image assembly and processing provided by Robert Gendler."
Chet Raymo, “Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright…”
“Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright…”
by Chet Raymo
“Divinity is not playful. The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest. By a power that is unfathomably secret, and holy, and fleet.” You may recall these words from Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.” There is nothing intrinsically cheerful about the world, she says. To live is to die; it’s all part of the bargain. Stars destroy themselves to make the atoms of our bodies. Every creature lives to eat and be eaten. And into this incomprehensible, unfathomable, apparently stochastic melee stumbles… You and I. With qualities that we have - so far - seen nowhere else. Hope. Humor. A sense of justice. A sense of beauty. Gratitude. But also: Anger. Hurt. Despair. Strangers in a strange land.
Galaxies by the billions turn like St. Catherine Wheels, throwing off sparks of exploding stars. Atoms eddy and flow, blowing hot and cold, groping and promiscuous. A wind of neutrinos gusts through our bodies, Energy billows and swells. A myriad of microorganisms nibble at our flesh.
We have a sense that something purposeful is going on, something that involves us. Something secret, holy and fleet. But we haven’t a clue what it is. We make up stories. Stories in which we are the point of it all. We tell the stories over and over. To our children. To ourselves. And the stories fill up the space of our ignorance. Until they don’t. And then the great yawning spaces open again. And time clangs down on our heads like a pummeling rain, like the collapsing ceiling of the sky. Dazed, stunned, we stagger like giddy topers towards our own swift dissolution. Inexplicably praising. Admiring. Wondering. Giving thanks.”
◆
“The Tyger”
“Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?
And what shoulder, and what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”
- William Blake
"Every Day..."
Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans to gain or maintain power. What is more, those who choose not to empathize may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it through our own apathy. If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”
– J. K. Rowling, Harvard Commencement, June 5, 2008
"Calamity: Oil Blows Out. So Does War. So Does Finance. So Will Food."
"Calamity: Oil Blows out. So Does War.
So Does Finance. So Will Food."
by David Haggith
"So many big stories in the news today, it’s hard to know where to begin and end. Let’s start with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). It fell below 300-million barrels, just reported for last week. The energy department claims today that the effective bottom (the level at which you start destroying the salt caverns by going any lower) is 70-million barrels. That’s nonsense. It’s what the government wants you to believe or what it wants to believe it can do if it has to, or what it wants Iran to believe, which is all just more denial of reality. Throughout the entire time of the war, the oil industry has been saying the effective bottom of the SPR is around 250-million barrels.
The oil industry has generally accepted that the operational minimum for oil in the SPR, a point at which it would be more difficult to pump out the oil, is somewhere between 250 million and 300 million barrels. Meanwhile, sizing studies done on the SPR in the 1970s recommended an inventory minimum of 250 million barrels…That means we are there… or very close.
“The SPR’s drawdown, distribution and fill capabilities are currently limited and are at risk going forward due to longstanding issues with aging infrastructure compounded with ongoing major construction intended to address them,” the GAO warned in the report. “When you do a drawdown, then you accelerate kind of the degradation of the wells themselves and some of the equipment,” Goldwyn said. “It’s like anything else — you use it a lot, you have to maintain it.” (Morningstar)
The Government Accounting Office says that partial collapse has already been happening. Additionally, equipment failures have left us to where the government cannot pump as low as it claims, even if it decides it wants to. More than a quarter of that [remaining] oil is physically inaccessible, blocked by failing pumps, corroded pipes, and underground salt caverns that have deformed beyond their operational parameters, according to internal government documents. (Eastern Herald)
Somewhere not far below the present level, you start to increase the risk of collapsing the salt caverns. (Because they pump water down into the caverns to float the oil up, and once they have to pump that much water in, the salt dissolves enough to collapse.) The mechanics of salt cavern geology mean that caverns left idle, or drawn down rapidly and then not refilled, can shift in ways that compromise the borehole integrity needed for reliable extraction. Repairing that kind of structural degradation requires engineering work that goes well beyond standard maintenance: remediation of the cavern walls, replacement or relining of wellbore casings, and in some cases the permanent abandonment of caverns that have deformed beyond recovery.
So, we are now close to what we might call “cavern bottoms,” like the phrase “tank bottoms” where they really mean the effective bottom of oil tanks because the final 10-20% fills up with sludge composed of sand, water, paraffin, tars, etc. that you can’t get much fuel out of.
Energy executives made their concern explicit to Congress in June. Oil company representatives warned Trump administration officials and lawmakers that the country’s energy price shock exposure had grown sharply with each successive drawdown, pressing the administration to prioritize refilling over other uses of the reserve.
Keep taking the caverns down below their present level, which now has a 200-handle, and we start significantly increasing the risk of severely damaging the caverns. In fact, they say we should begin refilling them now to avoid causing damage because just sitting at the present level will cause deformity over time due to lack of oil pressure against the sides of the salt and due to the water.
"For now, the United States is carrying the lightest emergency oil buffer it has held in more than four decades, and a significant portion of that buffer cannot be mobilized at the pace the reserve was designed to provide. What the Department of Energy decides next, whether to fund the repairs, begin purchases, or defer both while oil prices are relatively low, will determine whether the SPR exits this period as a functioning emergency instrument or continues to erode toward a level at which it cannot absorb a serious shock." That paragraph was written more than a month ago. The whole situation is only worse now.
Spotty fuel shortages start to hit: The shortages in fuels are starting to emerge. I covered this at greater length in my weekend Deeper Dive, but will add a little here from the latest headlines: First, let’s note that US oil (West Texas Intermediate) has broken back solidly above $80/bbl ($82.20 at the time of this writing), and Brent Crude is pushing back toward $90 ($87.89 at the moment).
Airlines are now scrambling for jet fuel. I already reported on how Gatwick told all pilots flying into London at the start of last week to tank up before heading to London because Gatwick would be out of fuel before the end of last week. (Whether they got their hands on any additional fuel and/or staved off enough refueling to end the week with some jet fuel still in their tanks, I haven’t heard.)
In July, several European airlines announced that they were at risk of running out of jet fuel. Europe has turned to the United States and Asia for alternative fuel imports in recent months but continues to feel the strain of the shortages. The United Kingdom, France, and Germany are extremely vulnerable due to their heavy reliance on the Middle East for their fuel supplies.
Europe set itself up for this to happen if a situation like the present developed. It did that by dialing back its existing refining operations in preference for green energy, and not approving new refineries, making Europe more reliant on fuels refined in the ME. It has regulated itself into deep troubles. The US has done somewhat the same, but still refines enough to export fuels to Europe; however, doing so at such an accelerated rate raises fuel prices for Americans.
On 18th June, the consultancy Energy Aspects forecast a jet fuel supply deficit across Europe of almost 600,000 bpd in the third quarter of the year, compared to surpluses of around 116,000 bpd in the United States and 425,000 bpd in Asia-Pacific. Europe’s inventories totalled around 38 million barrels at the beginning of June, equivalent to roughly 30 days of its fuel demand. The International Energy Agency (IEA) made a similar estimate.
That situation, too, has only gotten worse in the month that has transpired since that report. EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen said that the region could face jet fuel shortages near the end of the summer season but that Brussels plans to coordinate releases of national reserves as required. Several European countries have also turned to alternative suppliers to fill the gap.
Even if they step in with the remainder of their crude reserves, they are going to find they don’t have the refining capacity to utilize that crude, now that so much of their supplemental ME refining has been knocked out along with so much Russian refining. It won’t matter that they have the crude, if they don’t have available refining capacity—something I’ve always pointed to as a major chronic problem that would come out of both the war in Iran and the war in Ukraine.
The U.S., Nigeria, Canada, India and South Korea have all stepped in to provide Europe with jet fuel. Meanwhile, in Italy, refiners boosted jet fuel production by around 10 per cent during the first four months of the year, helping to meet national demand. As jet fuel contributes around 20 to 25 per cent of an airline’s operating costs, keeping ticket prices down has been difficult. Some airlines have already been forced to cut flights… The low-cost Irish airline Ryanair said that 20 per cent of its unhedged fuel was hit hard by price spikes, leading operating costs to increase by 11 per cent.
Californian government operates with the same kind of heat-damaged brains that Europe does, pushing for more green energy by tightening the noose on the energy they already have, so it is in the worst condition of any US state as we move now into the tighter phase of the energy crisis where physical fuel shortages are just starting to emerge in major parts of the world, putting more demand on US fuel, which will raise US fuel prices.
More war, even with less war: From there, let’s talk about the war because that will have something to say about how much worse the crisis gets (which is already going to be way worse than most people realize because we’ve been riding on buffers that are now pretty well wrung out). As I’ve said, when the buffers run out completely on their ability to deliver, then the fuel shortages will start showing up. In some countries that is already happening, but not noticeably yet in the US, though things have gotten really tight for airlines, and prices on Ag diesel have been through the roof compared to anything farmers have seen in years before.
Trump has now caved in on his air strikes, as I said in my last Deeper Dive was looking much more likely now. Today he announced that, instead of relying on more bombing, he’s going to rely on the effectiveness of his own blockade at laying siege to Iran. That means Iran keeps its blockade in place, something it has announced in the headlines below that it will do, regardless, until the US meets several of its demands, which present a very high bar for Trump. So, that means no flow of oil as Iran will continue to enforce its blockade via its war on shipping.
Those banking on the deal between Iran and Oman to open the Strait of Hormuz, have been breathing the carbon monoxide of burning oil wells, pipelines and refineries far too long. As I made clear in my Deeper Dive (“Oil Pressure on Prices Is Rising Dramatically and Has Just Entered the Danger Zone”), Iran has said several time in the last few days (officially) that the deal it is striking with Oman will NOT open the strait back up!
The deal only determines how navigation through the strait will be controlled and profited off of by Iran and Oman after it finally does open up. As I noted in the Deeper Dive, some other Arab states have already signed their acquiescence to the new agreement, so Trump’s opinion on it no longer even matters. You can read in the headlines below about all the demands Iran has now added to Trump that must be met before it will reopen the strait.
In fact, the war continues to rage on from Iran’s side as it attacked several more ships over the weekend, noted in that Deeper Dive and in the headlines below. This it does to continue to rigidly enforce its own blockade. So, no, there is no reprieve in site for the flow of oil out of the either of the bodies of water that line the Arabian Peninsula.
To put a good face on it, President Trump now says he is only “semi-negotiating” with Iran. That is all he has been doing, according to Iran, for some time, because they kept telling him, “We don’t know who it is you think you are negotiating with, but it isn’t us!” When they announced weeks ago they would no longer negotiate with Donald Trump, they meant it; but he kept saying they were begging him for a deal and were deep in negotiations with the US. Their list of their demands that emerged over the weekend, which they say must be met before they will end their blockade on either major body of water, is certainly not what “begging for a deal” looks like. As I reported last Thursday, “Iran Has Trump Right Where it Wants him and Is Turning up the Heat!”
As I also said over the weekend, Trump will do his best to spin his retreat into something that helps him avoid losing face, and that’s why he’s calling it “partial negotiations.” “Whatever,” says Iran. “Still not negotiating.”
The perfect storm
Another powerful story is told by Bob Moriarty in the the video I’ve posted below. He notes the same confluence of storms coming against the US and the world that I’ve been calling out this year and says they are going to merge at a catastrophic level this fall. (I’ve started the video at the part where it gets dangerous, but you can also take it back to the beginning to get a good overview of the precious metals market as it stands right now.)
Just as I’ve been doing, Bob connects the dots of our many shortages with troubles in Japan and says the troubles being faced by the yen and supported by the US Treasury are going to become a lot worse than what we’ve heard so far. A financial typhoon has broken out in Japan, and it is on a path directly toward the US since Japan is the largest foreign bond holder of US debt right now.
Bob also predicts a serious global famine due to the fuel shortages, fertilizer shortages, worker shortages (in the US) and the Super El Niño - risks I’ve been tracking here as well, though I haven’t been as strong on the famine prediction, aiming more along the line of food shortages. That is something I’ve never heard him predict this forcefully in the past either, but risks of the perfect storm in food and finance are certainly compounding, and some parts of the world are almost certain to face famine.
There is also a lot of powerful stuff about the collapse of the labor market in the headlines today and how bad it really is. I’ve been saying all year that the labor situation is worse than the headline figures would let on - calling it a stealth recession - and now we are seeing, just like with the distortions that have already formed in those salt caverns, that, beneath the surface, the trouble is deeper than headline numbers like the unemployment rate let on. I may get to that in a Deeper Dive, but this is enough for today."
o
Bob Moriarty, "Good News & Terrifying News"
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