Speak Your Mind 2 Cents at a Time
If you have some time, review the American University Poll. Some of it is rather superficial (my opinion). It does cover quite a bit of territory. Think about some of what you would like in a president? Tough, intellectual, political, neighbor next door . . . Mostly, I believe we are still stuck in the […]
The post Americans remain skeptical of electing a female president appeared first on Angry Bear.
The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Danish Blend coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads:
• Inside the Credit Card Battle to Win America’s Richest Shoppers: The fierce fight between Amex and Chase is playing out over higher fees, extravagant events and every perk imaginable. (Bloomberg) free.
• How mega batteries are unlocking an energy revolution. These might look like shipping containers in the desert, but they are actually the key to unlocking a clean energy revolution. Across California, installations of mega batteries store power from renewable sources and distribute it when people need it most. The sun provides most of California’s electricity during the day. But it is a different story at night. Batteries provide the answer. (Financial Times) see also AI Data Centers, Desperate for Electricity, Are Building Their Own Power Plants: Bypassing the grid, at least temporarily, tech companies are creating an energy Wild West; ‘grab yourself a couple of turbines’. (Wall Street Journal)
• YouTube Just Ate TV. It’s Only Getting Started: In two decades, the app has grown from a user-generated circus into the most powerful platform on earth. CEO Neal Mohan on his $100 billion vision for YouTube’s future and the disruption it’s left in its wake. (The Hollywood Reporter)
• Hetty Green: The Witch of Wall Street: Hetty Green was the richest woman you’ve never heard of. In the late 1800s, she built a fortune worth billions today in a world designed to stop her. Women couldn’t vote, couldn’t own property, and weren’t even allowed on the stock exchange floor. (Farnam Street)
• The Rules of Investing Are Being Loosened. Could It Lead to the Next 1929? A group of financiers is trying to convince the public to invest heavily in private equity and crypto — a risky gambit with some real 1920s vibes. (New York Times) see also The Lesson of 1929: Debt is the almost singular through line behind every major financial crisis. (The Atlantic)
• Why Some Americans Don’t Invest in the Stock Market: While about half of Americans report owning stocks either personally or jointly with a household member, a substantial portion of the population remains without stock investments. Why don’t more people participate in the stock market? (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia)
• Everything Is Television: A theory of culture and attention.(Derek Thompson) see also The last days of poptimism: The new stars are old-school cool (Unherd)
• A Chat with A. Lange & Söhne CEO Wilhelm Schmid about Numbers, Community, and Luxury Retail: From production insights to the ever-shifting landscape of luxury retail, Schmid offers a candid glimpse into the brand’s ethos and his personal odyssey as the leader of one of horology’s most esteemed names. (Watchonista)
• These 2 quick tests can tell you if you’re as fit as an 80-year-old elite athlete. Measure your strength, power and coordination with these two simple fitness checks. (Washington Post)
• Thousands Of Words About The Bearer Bonds In DIE HARD: You will learn things from this blog post! (Calm Down)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Liz Ann Sonders, Chief Investment Strategist, Charles Schwab & Co. Named “Best Market Strategist” by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, she is also on Barron’s “100 Most Influential Women in Finance” every year since the list’s inception.
AI is already having a massive impact on the economy. Specifically, investment, i.e. spending on AI-related hardware and software
Source: Carson Group
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The post 10 Weekend Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.
Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,
The geostrategic context of newfound pressure upon each, their increased bilateral tensions, and rising fears that false flag provocations in Europe could manipulate them into war with one another make it likely that their planned Budapest Summit will be more successful than the Anchorage one.
The next Putin-Trump meeting will soon take place in Budapest. Prior to their last one in Anchorage, the vision that they were working towards was a resource-centric strategic partnership that could then become a steppingstone towards a more comprehensive one in the future. For that to happen, either Putin had to freeze the frontlines or Trump had to coerce Zelensky into withdrawing from Donbass, but neither could agree to what was requested of them so their New Détente went nowhere.
Even worse, the Europeans then became serious obstacles to peace, even going as far as teaming up with the Brits and Zelensky to propose dangerous “security guarantees” that riled Russia.
Trump ramped up his rhetoric against Putin afterwards, arguably due to him being manipulated by Lindsey Graham and Zelensky, thus culminating in the latest talk about sending Tomahawks to Ukraine.
It was within this tense context that they talked again, right before Zelensky’s trip to DC, and agreed to meet in Budapest.
Each side is also coming under a lot of newfound pressure nowadays that conceivably influenced their latest call and plans to meet.
From Russia’s side, the new TRIPP corridor will inject Western influence along Russia’s southern flank via NATO member Turkiye (despite Russia’s thaw with Azerbaijan), Poland is reviving its long-lost Great Power status along Russia’s western flank, and Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) revealed last month that French and UK troops are already in Ukraine’s Odessa Region.
As for the newfound pressure that the US is nowadays coming under, this concerns the nascent Sino-Indo rapprochement after America’s bullying of India backfired, Russia finally clinching a long-negotiated deal with China to build the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline on presumably favorable terms for Beijing, and all of this resulting in the failure of Trump 2.0’s Eurasian balancing act.
At the same time, Russia and the US could be manipulated into war with one another by possible British and/or Ukrainian false flags.
SVR warned twice about their alleged false flag plots in the Baltic, which was followed by the suspicious drone incident in Poland that was weaponized by deep state elements in a failed bid to manipulate its new president into war with Russia. Shortly afterwards, Estonia claimed that Russia violated its maritime airspace, which led to NATO threatening to shoot down Russian jets, then there was a Russian drone scare in Scandinavia. SVR since warned that Ukraine is now plotting a false flag attack in Poland.
The geostrategic context that was just outlined suggests that a grand compromise might now be possible so as to alleviate some of the aforesaid pressure on each, reduce bilateral tensions, and thus prevent any false flags from manipulating them into war.
To that end, Russia might accept some limited Western “security guarantees” for Ukraine, the US might curtail its arms exports to Ukraine and NATO, and then they might clinch their hoped-for strategic resource deals upon freezing or outright ending the conflict.
Informal quid pro quos, such as Russia helping the US “manage” Iran so long as the US gets Zelensky to implement a degree of (at least symbolic) “denazification” and possibly withdraw from Donbass, could also be agreed to for facilitating this arrangement.
At the same time, Ukraine, the EU, and the UK might carry out provocations to sabotage the Budapest Summit. In any case, if Putin and Trump do end up meeting again sometime soon, then they’re expected to agree to something tangible this time around.
Tyler Durden Fri, 10/17/2025 - 23:25Film and TV production in the Los Angeles area has hit an all-time low, sinking to levels worse than the SAG union strike of 2023. The city has introduces new tax incentives to generate enthusiasm but many in Tinseltown are questioning if the industry will ever recover.
FilmLA, the city and county’s film permitting office, said Tuesday that on-location production in the greater Los Angeles area declined 13.2% from July through September 2025 compared to the same period last year. Once again, this continues a multi-year trend in declining local production.
LA motion picture employment dropped from 142,000 in 2022 to 100,000 by end-2024 - a 30% cut (42,000 jobs gone). Below-the-line crew were hit hardest; 63% earned less in 2024, and 41% are considering an exit. High taxes in LA and California have forced some productions to leave the area, but total US film and TV productions are still in decline no matter where you go in the country. There has been a 28% drop in theatrical releases since 2019 and a 25% drop in scripted TV projects.
The vast majority of film and TV media are shot in the greater Los Angeles area due to proximity to studios, editing facilities, effects houses and actor pools. A drop in Hollywood and LA production indicates are decline in the film industry as a whole. The plunge in activity coincides with the overall drop in box office receipts since 2019.
Profits never recovered after the pandemic shutdowns and this has been used for years by the progressive media as the excuse for Hollywood's failures. However, by 2023 US markets were wide open along with most foreign markets and the covid scapegoat no longer exists. Adjusted for inflation, theatrical numbers were already in decline after 2015.
Another factor that many analysts don't take into account is Democrat mismanagement on cities and states, leading to higher costs, higher crime and an underlying malaise that suffocates business. This has been taking place for many years; well before covid.
From 2015 to 2019 audience numbers had already dropped around 10%. Today, audience numbers are at least 30% below 2015 levels. What no one in the business wants to address is the woke takeover and its negative effects on media. The industry's woke shift has clearly been affecting receipts.
Production companies cite the rise of inflation and higher ticket costs as a ticket killer. This makes more sense than the covid claims, but it does not explain why movies without woke messaging continue to greatly outperform movies that push woke messaging. The solution to Hollywood's dilemma seems clear: Stop making woke garbage, hire decent writers, and the cash will roll in.
Tyler Durden Fri, 10/17/2025 - 23:00Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Popular protein powders and shakes contain high levels of lead, Consumer Reports (CR) said on Oct. 14.
Twenty-two of 23 products tested by CR had detectable amounts of lead, and more than two-thirds had unsafe levels of lead, according to the organization.
Protein powder, in an undated file photograph. Nick Starichenko/Shutterstock
“About 70 percent of products we tested contained over 120 percent of CR’s level of concern for lead, which is 0.5 micrograms per day,” CR said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says there are no known safe levels of lead.
“The FDA can take action if it finds unsafe lead levels, but the lack of enforceable standards means it doesn’t happen nearly enough,” Brian Ronholm, CR’s director of food policy, said in a statement.
He said that the FDA should establish enforceable limits for foods and supplements.
“FDA does not comment on outside studies. The agency continues to follow gold-standard science to protect consumers,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, the parent agency of the FDA, told The Epoch Times via email.
An FDA spokesperson also told CR that it would review the findings from the testing “along with other data we have collected to better inform where to focus our testing efforts and enforcement activities.”
CR is a nonprofit that describes itself as working with consumers “for truth, transparency, and fairness in the marketplace.”
CR found Huel’s black edition, chocolate flavor, and Naked Nutrition’s Vegan Mass Gainer had the highest levels of lead per serving. Huel did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
A Naked Nutrition spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the tested product is a weight gainer, so it has a larger serving size than standard protein powders.
“This difference means that comparing ‘per serving’ data across products with drastically different serving sizes does not provide an accurate, apples-to-apples comparison. When viewed on a per-gram basis, our results are consistent with other plant-based protein products,” the spokesperson said, adding later that “Naked Nutrition remains fully committed to transparency, science-based quality standards, and providing our customers with safe, high-quality nutrition products that meet or exceed all U.S. safety regulations.”
Other powders and shakes with unsafe levels, according to CR, included Momentous’s 100 percent plant protein and KOS organic superfood plant protein.
A Momentous spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the products CR tested have been discontinued. The spokesperson also said that its own testing found lower levels of lead than CR did.
A KOS spokesperson said that the amount of lead and metal in each serving of its protein powders is “significantly small.”
CR recommended seven powders and shakes with lower levels of lead, including Owyn’s Pro Elite High Protein Shake and BSN’s Syntha-6 Protein Powder.
A spokesperson for Owyn told The Epoch Times in an email that the company carefully sources all of its ingredients and that every ingredient “is compliant with all applicable state and federal safety standards.” BSN did not return an inquiry by publication time.
CR also said it detected cadmium and inorganic arsenic, two toxic heavy metals, at unsafe levels in three products.
CR first tested protein shakes in 2010. It detected lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury in some products.
In the new testing, the average level of lead was higher, and fewer products had undetectable amounts.
“It’s concerning that these results are even worse than the last time we tested,” Tunde Akinleye, the CR researcher who led the project, said in a statement.
* * * Looking for lead-free protein powder with peptides?
We've been to the pharmaceutical-grade lab. Wore the stupid hairnets.You could eat off the floor.
Tyler Durden Fri, 10/17/2025 - 21:45The Hill has recently estimated that some 10,000 American troops are currently supporting the Trump-ordered counternarcotics operations in the Caribbean.
At this point the military intervention has killed 27 people, including individuals who are likely not Venezuelan (for example, Colombia earlier said one of its boats was hit, and The Guardian now says two citizens of Trinidad and Tobago have been among the deceased). Many American forces among this new US build-up are likely deployed at Puerto Rico currently, as well as spread out among the US Navy's eight ships stationed in regional waters.
President Trump's most recent explanation to reporters for this unprecedented Pentagon build-up off Venezuela's coast was surprisingly reminiscent of the failed "war on drugs" which hearkens all the way back to the days of Richard Nixon, when he famously declared it "public enemy number one".
DEA head Robert Stutman with intercepted Medellin Cartel drugs at a press conference in 1988.
"They have emptied their prisons into the United States of America," Trump said this week. "They came in through the border." The president has been framing the controversial military intervention as necessary to fight drugs, terrorism, and illegal migration and criminal gangs.
"They have allowed thousands and thousands of prisoners, people from mental institutions, insane asylums emptied out into the United States," he continued. "They are the worst abuser."
Trump then left open the possibility of a land war in Venezuela - and he linked it to the drug war: "A lot of Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea, but we're gonna stop them by land also," he said. This after confirming that CIA coverts ops have been authorized, as we reported in the following:
Overthrow: Trump Authorizes CIA Covert Ops Targeting Venezuela's Maduro
For those who are aware of the CIA's 20th century decades-long legacy in Latin America, the idea that the United States government and its intelligence agencies are fundamentally and on principle stand against drug trafficking is laughable.
There was a time, not too far back in history, where the CIA itself was the biggest narco-trafficker in United States and perhaps the entire Western hemisphere (if not the world). This was to fund regime change and covert operations in Latin America after a belated Congressional crackdown on taxpayer funding for black ops.
For a crucial trip down memory lane at a moment Trump is renewing a 'war on drugs' in the heart of Latin America, we offer an important summary of the declassified and historical record by the late great investigative reporter William Blum, republished in full below...
* * *
In August 1996, the San Jose Mercury News initiated an extended series of articles linking the CIA’s “contra” army to the crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles. Based on a year-long investigation, reporter Gary Webb wrote that during the 1980s the CIA helped finance its covert war against Nicaragua’s leftist government through sales of cut-rate cocaine to South Central L.A. drug dealer, Ricky Ross. The series unleashed a storm of protest, spearheaded by black radio stations and the congressional Black Caucus, with demands for official inquiries. The Mercury News‘ Web page, with supporting documents and updates, received hundreds of thousands of “hits” a day.
While much of the CIA-contra-drug story had been revealed years ago in the press and in congressional hearings, the Mercury News series added a crucial missing link: It followed the cocaine trail to Ross and black L.A. gangs who became street-level distributors of crack, a cheap and powerful form of cocaine. The CIA’s drug network, wrote Webb, “opened the first pipeline between Colombia’s cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles, a city now known as the ‘crack’ capital of the world.” Black gangs used their profits to buy automatic weapons, sometimes from one of the CIA-linked drug dealers.
CIA Director John Deutch declared that he found “no connection whatsoever” between the CIA and cocaine traffickers. And major media–the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post–have run long pieces refuting the Mercury News series. They deny that Bay Area-based Nicaraguan drug dealers, Juan Norwin Meneses and Oscar Danilo Blandon, worked for the CIA or contributed “millions in drug profits” to the contras, as Webb contended. They also note that neither Ross nor the gangs were the first or sole distributors of crack in L.A. Webb, however, did not claim this. He wrote that the huge influx of cocaine happened to come at just the time that street-level drug dealers were figuring out how to make cocaine affordable by changing it into crack.
Many in the media have also postulated that any drug-trafficking contras involved were “rogue” elements, not supported by the CIA. But these denials overlook much of the Mercury News‘ evidence of CIA complicity. For example:
“In my 30year history in the Drug Enforcement Administration and related agencies, the major targets of my investigations almost invariably turned out to be working for the CIA.” — Dennis Dayle, former chief of an elite DEA enforcement unit.
The foregoing discussion should not be regarded as any kind of historical aberration inasmuch as the CIA has had a long and virtually continuous involvement with drug trafficking since the end of World War II.
1947 to 1951, France
CIA arms, money, and disinformation enabled Corsican criminal syndicates in Marseille to wrest control of labor unions from the Communist Party. The Corsicans gained political influence and control over the docks–ideal conditions for cementing a long-term partnership with mafia drug distributors, which turned Marseille into the postwar heroin capital of the Western world. Marseille’s first heroin laboratories were opened in 1951, only months after the Corsicans took over the waterfront.
Early 1950s, Southeast Asia
The Nationalist Chinese army, organized by the CIA to wage war against Communist China, became the opium baron of The Golden Triangle (parts of Burma, Thailand, and Laos), the world’s largest source of opium and heroin. Air America, the CIA’s principal proprietary airline, flew the drugs all over Southeast Asia.
1950s to early 1970s, Indochina
During U.S. military involvement in Laos and other parts of Indochina, Air America flew opium and heroin throughout the area. Many GI’s in Vietnam became addicts. A laboratory built at CIA headquarters in northern Laos was used to refine heroin. After a decade of American military intervention, Southeast Asia had become the source of 70 percent of the world’s illicit opium and the major supplier of raw materials for America’s booming heroin market.
1973 to 1980, Australia
The Nugan Hand Bank of Sydney was a CIA bank in all but name. Among its officers were a network of U.S. generals, admirals, and CIA men–including former CIA Director William Colby, who was also one of its lawyers. With branches in Saudi Arabia, Europe, Southeast Asia, South America, and the U.S., Nugan Hand Bank financed drug trafficking, money laundering, and international arms dealing. In 1980, amidst several mysterious deaths, the bank collapsed, $50 million in debt.
1970s and 1980s, Panama
For more than a decade, Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega was a highly paid CIA asset and collaborator, despite knowledge by U.S. drug authorities as early as 1971 that the general was heavily involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. Noriega facilitated “guns-for-drugs” flights for the contras, providing protection and pilots, safe havens for drug cartel officials, and discreet banking facilities. U.S. officials, including then-CIA Director William Webster and several DEA officers, sent Noriega letters of praise for efforts to thwart drug trafficking (albeit only against competitors of his Medellín cartel patrons). The U.S. government only turned against Noriega, invading Panama in December 1989 and kidnapping the general, once they discovered he was providing intelligence and services to the Cubans and Sandinistas. Ironically, drug trafficking through Panama increased after the U.S. invasion.
1980s, Central America
The San Jose Mercury News series documents just one thread of the interwoven operations linking the CIA, the contras, and the cocaine cartels. Obsessed with overthrowing the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua, Reagan administration officials tolerated drug trafficking as long as the traffickers gave support to the contras. In 1989, the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations (the Kerry committee) concluded a three-year investigation by stating: “There was substantial evidence of drug smuggling through the war zones on the part of individual contras, contra suppliers, contra pilots, mercenaries who worked with the contras, and contra supporters throughout the region. . . . U.S. officials involved in Central America failed to address the drug issue for fear of jeopardizing the war efforts against Nicaragua. . . . In each case, one or another agency of the U.S. government had information regarding the involvement either while it was occurring, or immediately thereafter. . . . Senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the contras’ funding problems.”
In Costa Rica, which served as the “Southern Front” for the contras (Honduras being the Northern Front), there were several CIA-contra networks involved in drug trafficking. In addition to those servicing the Meneses-Blandon operation (detailed by the Mercury News) and Noriega’s operation, there was CIA operative John Hull, whose farms along Costa Rica’s border with Nicaragua were the main staging area for the contras. Hull and other CIA-connected contra supporters and pilots teamed up with George Morales, a major Miami-based Colombian drug trafficker who later admitted to giving $3 million in cash and several planes to contra leaders. In 1989, after the Costa Rica government indicted Hull for drug trafficking, a DEA-hired plane clandestinely and illegally flew the CIA operative to Miami, via Haiti. The U.S. repeatedly thwarted Costa Rican efforts to extradite Hull to Costa Rica to stand trial.
Another Costa Rican-based drug ring involved a group of Cuban Americans whom the CIA had hired as military trainers for the contras. Many had long been involved with the CIA and drug trafficking. They used contra planes and a Costa Rican-based shrimp company, which laundered money for the CIA, to channel cocaine to the U.S.
Costa Rica was not the only route. Guatemala, whose military intelligence service–closely associated with the CIA–harbored many drug traffickers, according to the DEA, was another way station along the cocaine highway. Additionally, the Medellín cartel’s Miami accountant, Ramon Milian Rodriguez, testified that he funneled nearly $10 million to Nicaraguan contras through long-time CIA operative Felix Rodriguez, who was based at Ilopango Air Force Base in El Salvador.
Here is nice little clip of Gary Webb in his own words describing his reporting on the CIA, and the drug running connections with the Contras… pic.twitter.com/uBS9dN6Slu
— Uncommon Sense (@Uncommonsince76) September 2, 2025
The contras provided both protection and infrastructure (planes, pilots, airstrips, warehouses, front companies, and banks) to these CIA-linked drug networks. At least four transport companies under investigation for drug trafficking received U.S. government contracts to carry nonlethal supplies to the contras. Southern Air Transport, “formerly” CIA-owned and later under Pentagon contract, was involved in the drug running as well. Cocaine-laden planes flew to Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and other locations, including several military bases. Designated as “Contra Craft,” these shipments were not to be inspected. When some authority wasn’t apprised and made an arrest, powerful strings were pulled to result in dropping the case, acquittal, reduced sentence, or deportation.
Mid-1980s to early 1990s, Haiti
While working to keep key Haitian military and political leaders in power, the CIA turned a blind eye to their clients’ drug trafficking. In 1986, the Agency added some more names to its payroll by creating a new Haitian organization, the National Intelligence Service (SIN). SIN’s mandate included countering the cocaine trade, though SIN officers themselves engaged in trafficking, a trade aided and abetted by some Haitian military and political leaders.
1980s to early 1990s, Afghanistan
CIA-supported Moujahedeen rebels engaged heavily in drug trafficking while fighting the Soviet-supported government, which had plans to reform Afghan society. The Agency’s principal client was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, one of the leading drug lords and the biggest heroin refiner, who was also the largest recipient of CIA military support. CIA-supplied trucks and mules that had carried arms into Afghanistan were used to transport opium to laboratories along the Afghan-Pakistan border. The output provided up to one-half of the heroin used annually in the United States and three-quarters of that used in Western Europe. U.S. officials admitted in 1990 that they had failed to investigate or take action against the drug operation because of a desire not to offend their Pakistani and Afghan allies. In 1993, an official of the DEA dubbed Afghanistan the new Colombia of the drug world.
Tyler Durden Fri, 10/17/2025 - 21:20With the government shutdown about to enter its third week, the federal court system announced Friday that it will begin operating in a limited, unpaid capacity starting Monday - having exhausted the last of the court fees and other stopgap funds that had kept its doors open since Oct. 1.
Los Angeles Federal Courthouse (Bryan Chan, LA Times)
In a statement, the judiciary said that beginning Oct. 20, it will “no longer have funding to sustain full, paid operations” across its 94 district and 13 circuit courts. The move marks one of the most significant contractions in the judicial branch in decades, as courts transition to the minimum operations required by law until Congress restores government funding.
Essential Functions Only“Until the ongoing lapse in government funding is resolved, federal courts will maintain limited operations necessary to perform the Judiciary’s constitutional functions,” the statement read.
Under the Anti-Deficiency Act, federal employees are prohibited from working without appropriations except in narrowly defined circumstances, such as activities essential to human safety, the protection of property, or the performance of constitutional duties.
Judges, who serve under Article III of the Constitution, will continue to work. But most court employees - including clerks, probation officers, and administrative staff - will either be furloughed or required to work without pay if their duties qualify as “excepted activities.”
Each appellate, district, and bankruptcy court will decide independently how to manage its docket and staffing. Some proceedings will move forward, particularly those involving urgent matters such as detention hearings or imminent deadlines, while other civil and criminal cases are expected to be delayed indefinitely.
Jury Trials, PACER to ContinueDespite the funding lapse, the jury program will remain operational because it draws on funds not tied to congressional appropriations. Jurors have been instructed to continue reporting to courthouses unless otherwise notified.
The judiciary’s electronic filing and case management systems (CM/ECF and PACER) will also remain functional, allowing attorneys to file motions and review case information online. But administrative offices in Washington will be closed, and public telephone lines for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts will go unanswered.
Mounting Strain on a Burdened SystemThe slowdown will deepen the strain on a court system that was already struggling under heavy caseloads before the shutdown began. Legal analysts warn that even a short disruption in operations could ripple through the justice system, delaying trials, probation supervision, and appeals work for months.
The judiciary has been warning since Oct. 1 that it could keep business running only briefly using non-appropriated funds, a senior court administrator who was not authorized to speak publicly told Axios.
The Senate on Thursday rejected a House plan to reopen the government for the tenth time since the shutdown began, and lawmakers do not plan to reconvene on the issue until next week—making it increasingly unlikely that courts will be fully funded before the shutdown enters its fourth week.
With thousands of judicial employees joining the ranks of the hundreds of thousands already furloughed or laid off across the federal government.
Somehow, we imagine activist judges will still find the time to issue TROs whenever Trump issues an executive order.
Tyler Durden Fri, 10/17/2025 - 20:55Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio stated on Friday that gold has started replacing some U.S. Treasury holdings as the riskless asset for investors, amid a continued surge in the yellow metal’s prices.
This comes after he said investors should allocate as much as 15% of their portfolios to gold even as the precious metal surged to new all-time highs this week.
“Gold is a very excellent diversifier in the portfolio,” Dalio said Tuesday at the Greenwich Economic Forum in Greenwich, Connecticut.
“If you look at it just from a strategic asset allocation perspective, you would probably have something like 15% of your portfolio in gold … because it is one asset that does very well when the typical parts of the portfolio go down.”
Dalio took to social media on Wednesday to invite questions about gold as an investment.
His X post saw over 750 replies, with 1200 responses at the time of writing.
While I have been explaining for some time my thinking about gold (I like it) and debt assets (I don't like them) as storeholds of wealth in the context of how the world order is changing, now that gold is hotter than AI stocks (and the meme is now changing to recognize that it…
— Ray Dalio (@RayDalio) October 15, 2025
In a follow-up post on X, Dalio summarized his answers to the many questions and his views on the barbarous relic...
You seem to look at gold and the gold price differently from most people. How do you think about gold?
You're right. I think most people make the mistake of thinking of gold as a metal rather than as the most established form of money, and they think of fiat money as money rather than debt and they think that fiat money will be created to prevent debt defaults. That's because most people have never lived with gold being the most fundamental money, and they haven't studied the debt-gold-money cycles that have occurred in almost all countries over almost all time. However, anyone who has seen gold-money and debt-money evolve over time has a different view. In other words, to me gold is money like cash—over time, it has had about the same real return (1.2%)—because it doesn't produce anything. But like cash, it has buying power that can be used to create money that is borrowed and enable people to do things like build money-making businesses that are owned via stocks. If those stocks are solid and produce the cash needed to pay back the loans, then of course the stocks are better. When they can’t pay back the loans and fiat money is printed to prevent the default problems, then non-fiat money (gold) is most valued. So, to me, gold is money like cash, except unlike cash it can’t be printed and devalued. It’s a good diversifier to stocks and bonds when bubbles pop and/or when people and countries don’t accept each other's credit, like in wars.
In other words, to me gold is the most sound fundamental investment rather than a metal. Gold is money like cash and short-term credit, but unlike cash and short-term credit which creates debt, it settles transactions—i.e., it pays for things without creating debt and it pays off debt.
Anyway, it has been obvious to me for some time that the relative supplies and demands of debt-money and gold-money were shifting against debt money’s value relative to gold money’s value. As for the right price for debt money to be relative to gold money, given the ratios of supplies and demands for each of them, and given the sizes of bubbles that could go pop, I know that I want to keep my piece of gold that’s part of my portfolio, and I think that those who are wrestling between having no gold at all or a small amount of gold are making a mistake.
Why gold? Why not silver, platinum or other commodities, or inflation-indexed bonds as you have suggested.
While other metals can be good inflation hedges, gold occupies a unique place in the portfolios of investors and central bankers because it is the most universally-accepted non-fiat currency-based medium of exchange and store-hold of wealth, and it is a good diversifier to other assets and currencies in these portfolios. Unlike fiat currency debt, it doesn't have the same inherent credit and devaluation risks—in fact, it diversifies against them because when they are doing worst, gold does best —acting almost like an “insurance policy” within a diversified portfolio.
While silver and platinum share some similarities with gold—particularly in terms of industrial applications—they do not possess the same level of historical and cultural significance as a store of value. Silver, for instance, is more heavily influenced by industrial demand, which can lead to greater price volatility, though it has been used as the basis of currency systems before. Platinum, though valuable, is even more constrained by its limited supply and specific industrial uses. Consequently, neither metal enjoys the same universal acceptance or stability as gold when it comes to wealth preservation.
Regarding inflation-indexed bonds, while they are a good and under-appreciated inflation hedge asset in normal times (depending on the real interest rate they offer at the time) and I believe more investors should consider them in their portfolios, they are still fundamentally debt obligations. So if there is a big debt crisis, their performance is tied to the creditworthiness of the issuing government. They are also subject to government rigging, like rigging the official inflation numbers or other terms governing them, which history has shown to be the common problem with inflation-indexed bonds when there was high inflation in countries led by leaders who wanted to get around high debt-service costs. Moreover, while effective in combating inflation, they do not provide the same degree of diversification or safety net as gold during systemic financial crises or periods of severe economic distress.
As for stocks, especially those in high-growth sectors like AI, they undeniably carry the potential for substantial returns, though they have proven to be bad performers in inflation-adjusted terms both because their inflation hedging characteristics are limited and because, during really bad times, the economy and the businesses do badly.
To summarize, gold is a uniquely good diversifier to these other assets and diversification matters, so it has a place in most portfolios.
Hi Ray, at least AI has enormous upside and debt instruments pay interest, while gold may only look pretty solid until any of the big holders like the banks want to sell.
I can see that you don't like gold for the reasons you said, and I don't want to advocate for it (or any other investment) because I don't want to drift into becoming a tipster. That won't do anyone any good. I just want to share what I know about the mechanics. As for investing, I'm more in favor of great diversification than in favor of any single market, though I tilt my portfolio significantly based on my indicators and what I think, which for quite some time has led (and still leads) me to a big tilt toward gold. If you're interested in why, my book How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle explains my thinking much more comprehensively than I can do here.
As far as the alternative markets you mention, it seems to me that in the case of AI stocks, in the long run their upside depends on their pricing relative to their future cash flows, which are extremely uncertain, and, in the short run, it depends on bubble dynamics. I believe that we should be mindful of the lessons that analogous cases in history provide, in which the breakthrough technology companies became very popular as they are now. I'm not saying definitively that these companies are in bubbles—though they are showing lots of signs of being in bubbles based on my bubble indicator. In any case, an awful lot about the markets and the economy hinges on the AI boom companies doing better than is discounted in their pricing, because, if they don't, their stocks will go down. These stocks have accounted for 80pct of the gains in U.S. stocks, the top 10pct of income earners own 85pct the stocks and account for half of consumer spending, and these AI companies' capital expenditures have accounted for 40pct of this year's economic growth, so a downturn would be really bad for people's wealth and the economy. It seems obvious that some diversification of one's holdings would be prudent.
As far as your observation that "debt instruments pay interest," for these debt instruments to be good storeholds of wealth, they have to pay a decent real after-tax interest rate. There is a lot of pressure to lower the real interest rate, and there is an oversupply of debt that is being added to more quickly than the demand for it. So, we are seeing a diversification out of debt and into gold, while there isn't enough gold to diversify into.
Putting aside tactical considerations, gold is a very effective diversifier to these other investments and if individual and institutional investors and central banks put an appropriate share their portfolios in gold for diversification purposes, the price would have to be much higher (I will soon send you my analysis of it) because the quantity is so limited. In any case for me, I want to have some piece of the portfolio in it, and figuring out what that piece should be is important. Without giving specific investment advice, I do recommend that people ask themselves the fundamental question of how much to allocate to gold. For most investors, I think this is likely 10-15pct.
Now that the price of gold has gone up, should I still own it at this price?
To me, the most simple and fundamental question that everyone should ask themselves and answer is what percentage of my portfolio should I have in gold if I don’t have a clue about the direction of gold and other markets? In other words, how much gold should I have for strategic asset allocation reasons, rather than because I want to make a tactical bet on it. Because of its historical negative correlations with other assets (mostly stocks and bonds), most importantly when the real returns of stocks and bonds are bad, the answer is that about 15pct is best because that would give the best portfolio return-to-risk ratio.
However, because gold's expected return over time is low just like the return of cash is low (though it behaves spectacularly in the times of greatest need), over long periods of time that better return-to-risk portfolio comes at the expense of a lower return. Because I like the better return ratio and don't want to lower the expected return, I hold my gold position as an overlay, or I lever up the whole portfolio a bit so as to have both the better return-risk ratio and the same expected return. That’s how I view, the right amount of gold to have for most people.
As for tactical bets, that's another subject that I have shared my points of view about and won't reiterate here, other than to say I wouldn't encourage others to make them.
How has the expansion of gold ETFs (dominated by retail) affected the overall direction of the price of gold?
The price of anything equals the total amount of money buyers have to give sellers divided by the quantity of the item that sellers have for buyers. The motivations of buyers and sellers and the vehicles used to buy and sell are of course important influences. The rise of gold ETFs has created more vehicles to buy and sell for both retail and institutional investors, and this change has generally increased liquidity and transparency while making it marginally easier for a broader range of investors to participate. But at the same time, the market for gold ETFs is still much smaller than traditional physical gold investment or central bank holdings, so it has not been the main source of buying or the main reason for the price increase.
Has gold begun to replace US Treasury holdings as the riskless asset? If so, can gold support a massive shift in holdings?
A factual answer to your question is yes gold has begun to replace some US Treasury holdings as the riskless asset in many portfolios, most importantly in central banks and large institutional portfolios. The holders of these portfolios have decreased their U.S. Treasury holdings relative to their gold holdings. By the way, anyone with a long-term historical perspective would say that, compared to Treasuries or any other fiat currency denominated debt, gold is the more riskless asset.
Gold is the most well-established currency—in fact it is now the second largest held by central banks—and has proven to be much less risky than all government’s debt assets. Historically and now, debt assets are commitments by debtors to deliver money to the creditor. Sometimes that money was gold and sometimes it was fiat money that could be printed. Historically when there was too much debt to be paid back with the money that existed, central banks printed money to pay back the debt. This devalued it. When money was gold, they defaulted on their promises to pay back in gold and instead paid back with printed money, and when the money was fiat money, they just printed the money. History shows us that the biggest risk is that debt assets like U.S. Treasuries will either be defaulted on or devalued, more likely devalued. History has also shown that gold is a money and store-hold of wealth that has intrinsic value, so it doesn’t depend on anyone giving the holder of it anything other than the gold itself. It has been a timeless and universal money. History has also shown that, since 1750, about 80pct of all currencies have disappeared and the other 20pct have all been severely devalued.
Finally, Dalio reminded readers that gold stands apart as a hedge in times of monetary debasement and geopolitical uncertainty: “Gold is the only asset that somebody can hold and you don’t have to depend on somebody else to pay you money for,” he said.
Tyler Durden Fri, 10/17/2025 - 20:30Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times,
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is deploying the Texas National Guard and state troopers to Austin ahead of a planned “No Kings” protest Saturday.
The governor in a post on X described the protest as “Antifa-linked.” He didn’t say how Antifa is connected to the scheduled protest.
Antifa is a far-left extremist group that originated under the Soviet Union and functioned as the violent wing of Germany’s Communist Party to target political rivals. The group generally labeled its perceived enemies as “fascists.” Antifa’s mission is to stop people it deems to be fascists by “any means necessary,” including violence, its leaders say.
Abbott’s action follows President Donald Trump’s designation of Antifa as a domestic terrorist group on Sept. 22. Trump also signed a presidential memorandum on Sept. 25 with the aim of dismantling what he said are left-wing terrorism networks in the United States. The presidential actions were taken after conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking at an event at a university in Utah on Sept. 10.
“No Kings” protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests of illegal immigrants are also planned for Saturday in Dallas, Houston, and other locations across Texas and the United States.
“Texas will not tolerate chaos,” Abbott wrote on X. “Anyone destroying property or committing acts of violence will be swiftly arrested.”
In a statement, Abbott said that the surge in troops will support the thousands of Texas Department of Public Safety troopers already stationed throughout the state.
However, the governor didn’t specify if guardsmen would be sent to other Texas cities involved in the protests, such as Houston, Dallas, and Lubbock.
The state’s Homeland Security Division is actively monitoring the planned protest in Austin, as well as any other potential violent demonstrations across the state, according to the statement.
“These law enforcement officers and soldiers will be supported by aircraft and other tactical assets,” Abbott’s release stated.
“DPS will investigate any links to known terrorist organizations and swiftly bring charges against those who engage in unlawful activity.”
In June, Abbott sent guardsmen to “No Kings” protests statewide after anti-ICE riots broke out in Los Angeles.
Masses of demonstrators participated in “No Kings” protests in cities across the United States on June 14, rallying against Trump’s agenda.
Organizers of the protests said millions had marched in hundreds of events.
Earlier this month, Abbott also deployed 400 Texas National Guard members to Chicago in support of Trump’s ongoing immigration enforcement operations.
Tyler Durden Fri, 10/17/2025 - 20:05Former Rep. George Santos reported to prison in late July to serve an 87-month sentence.
The sentence followed his unprecedented expulsion from the House before a criminal conviction.
President Trump on Friday commuted the more than seven-year prison sentence of Santos for fraud and identity theft, ordering his immediate release.
Santos pleaded guilty to inflating fundraising figures and falsifying donor names to secure the Republican Party’s financial support during the 2022 election cycle.
He was expelled from the party in December 2023.
“George Santos was somewhat of a ‘rogue,’ but there are many rogues throughout our country who aren’t forced to serve seven years in prison,” Trump said on Truth Social.
“Therefore, I just signed a commutation, releasing George Santos from prison IMMEDIATELY,” he added.
Trump said that he decided to commute Santos' sentence after he was reminded of other lawmakers who falsified their backgrounds, including Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal who lied about serving in Vietnam.
"[Blumenthal] stated for almost twenty years that he was a proud Vietnam Veteran, having endured the worst of the War, watching the Wounded and Dead as he raced up the hills and down the valleys, blood streaming from his face," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
"He was 'a Great Hero,' he would leak to any and all who would listen — And then it happened! He was a COMPLETE AND TOTAL FRAUD.
"He never went to Vietnam, he never saw Vietnam, he never experienced the Battles there, or anywhere else," Trump continued.
"His War Hero status, and even minimal service in our Military, was totally and completely MADE UP. This is far worse than what Santos did, and at least Santos had the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to always vote Republican."
Trump has previously pardoned other criminals, including 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants.
Tyler Durden Fri, 10/17/2025 - 19:40Authored by Amy Denney via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
In the most unexpected way, Jenny Dunlap stumbled upon a solution for her oldest son’s attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Halfpoint/Shutterstock
When her youngest child was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, Dunlap’s whole family stopped eating sugar and grains. By eliminating these foods, her older son, John - whose behavioral and social struggles hadn’t been resolved with various therapies or medication - was suddenly like a different person.
“He brought home A [grades]. All of his teachers were happy. He was organized. His constipation went away. All sleep issues went away. There were no peer problems anymore. It was literally like a light switch,” Dunlap said. [ZH: we're sure John appreciates the world knowing about his constipation, thanks Mom...]
John Dunlap (left) smiles alongside younger brother, Will, whose Type 1 diabetes diagnosis led to John's ADHD improvements. Courtesy of Jenny Dunlap
Removing certain foods from a child’s diet appears to be a promising therapeutic approach for those with ADHD. Diet is not likely to be recommended in a conventional setting because special diets are among lifestyle modifications that are often dismissed for too little evidence or benefit to recommend. However, there is evidence for guidance elsewhere.
Power of EliminationSome children with ADHD may benefit from eliminating foods from their diet, according to a review on the role of nutrition in managing ADHD. Published in Current Nutrition Reports, the review found scant evidence to support supplementing with micronutrients, probiotics, and omega-3 fatty acids.
However, a diet described as a “few-foods diet” may become a therapeutic option for children with ADHD. The strategy involves eliminating most foods from the diet for a period of time and then slowly reintroducing them one at a time to see whether they trigger ADHD symptoms.
Up to 60 percent of those using the diet responded positively, the authors wrote, revealing the role food intolerance may play in ADHD symptomatology.
“This promising personalized nutrition-based approach to the management of ADHD deserves further systematic investigation and should be considered in all children with ADHD,” the authors stated.
The review noted several double-blind placebo-controlled studies that have linked foods to ADHD triggers and the few-foods diet to improvement of symptoms. The few-foods diet eliminates all but easily digestible, plain foods, such as lamb, turkey, rice, butter, corn, potatoes, honey, and some vegetables.
Other research has shown that hyperactivity in children is associated with artificial food colors and chemical preservatives.
Currently, the American Academy of Pediatrics’ treatment recommendations highlight diet modification among non-medication treatments for ADHD that have either too little evidence to recommend or have little or no benefit. The academy didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ question about whether recommendations have been updated to include diet.
Official RecommendationsCurrently, conventional treatment for children with ADHD offers a dichotomy of either behavioral therapy starting in preschool-age children or medication.
Medication should not be a first-line treatment for preschoolers. Instead, younger children should receive behavioral classroom interventions as the first line of treatment.
Parent training in behavior management is so effective for all children that the guidelines suggest it be recommended before pursuing an ADHD diagnosis.
Methylphenidate, a nervous system stimulant known by brand names such as Concerta and Ritalin, can be used for 4- and 5-year-olds if behavioral interventions don’t result in significant improvement and if there is moderate to severe functional disturbance.
“The clinician needs to weigh the risks of starting medication before the age of 6 years against the harm of delaying treatment,” according to guidelines.
There is concern, however, that medication might be given too soon in many cases. A recent study published in JAMA Network Open found that among preschool-age patients who visited their primary care doctor for ADHD at eight U.S. health systems, 68.2 percent were prescribed medication, and 42.2 percent had medications prescribed within 30 days of their diagnosis.
The guidelines note that methylphenidate is the only ADHD medication that can be used for preschoolers, as it has the best safety and efficacy record. Nevertheless, the guidelines said that the drug does not have U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for use in preschool-age children. Methylphenidate can cause low appetite, sleep disruption, headache, increased heart rate, and other side effects.
Proper Use of MedicationDunlap was less concerned with the official guidelines and more focused on following her intuition when John was young. That meant avoiding medication as long as possible.
The wild one of her three children, John, often got into trouble, lost friends, and was kicked off a team sport. His teachers frequently complained, and after various vitamins, cognitive behavioral therapy, coping skills, and meditation failed, Dunlap finally relented to the medication she’d been avoiding. By then, he was in the fourth grade.
Until his diet changed, John Dunlap couldn't focus on schoolwork. Courtesy of Jenny Dunlap
Jenny Dunlap continues to be amazed by the unprovoked emails from teachers who tell her what a great kid her son John is. For years, the only notes she received were about his disruptive behavior. Courtesy of Jenny Dunlap
John tried several stimulant medications until he ended up on Concerta, which she describes as “the best of the worst.” Still, the drug wasn’t a panacea. He struggled emotionally and didn’t have optimal sleep or bowel movement habits.
Reflecting on John’s journey, Dunlap was frustrated that nutrition or diet was never addressed at any of the appointments John had over the years, particularly after failed cognitive behavioral therapy and continued struggles.
“It’s just so easy to label everybody, and it’s too easy to hand out these prescriptions,” Dunlap said. “Parents aren’t told, ‘Hey, let’s check some other avenues and see why your kid is behaving this way.’”
Food as a Root Cause?It’s conceivable that poor, sugar-laden eating patterns are driving symptoms that mimic or exacerbate ADHD, psychotherapist Karen A. Dwyer-Tesoriero told The Epoch Times.
One common scenario is children who eat sugary cereals for breakfast, starting their school day with a sugar crash that causes them to act out or become lethargic and inattentive, she said.
Psychologists and researchers Bonnie J. Kaplan and Julia J. Rucklidge recommend dietary changes before counseling and family therapy.
In their book, “The Better Brain,” they recommend that mental health clinics educate all new referrals on nutrition and how to shop for whole foods. They estimated that one-third of mental health referrals, including ADHD, would need no further services if they adjusted their diets.
“Given that all our mental health resources are stretched very thin, isn’t this a good-news story?” they wrote, adding that in years of practice, clients reported that they could better implement therapeutic strategies once they began eating more whole foods.
The Ease and Affordability of DietA good start is eliminating artificial dyes, flavors, and additives, according to Julie Matthews, certified nutrition consultant and author of “The Personalized Autism Nutrition Plan,” a book that also covers ADHD.
From there, parents can consider a gluten-free or dairy-free diet, or the Feingold diet, a whole-food diet with no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives that is also low in naturally occurring salicylates, a toxin produced by some plants, she told The Epoch Times.
In an observational study she authored on various healthy diets in children with autism, the Feingold diet was found to reduce hyperactivity by 45 percent.
“It comes down to what is bothering the individual and removing that,” Matthews said. “It’s a bit tragic that something so simple could make such a profound difference, and yet people are not hearing about it when it’s such an easy thing to change.”
In some cases, she said, there may be imbalances in the gut microbiome or other nutritional changes that are more complicated to pinpoint. However, in many cases, it boils down to eating a healthier diet with fewer additives.
A plant-based Mediterranean diet, for instance, has proven beneficial for brain health, among other lifestyle interventions such as sleep and exercise.
Careful Integration of GuidelinesMedication is helpful, and it holds a place among other tools.
Integrative pediatrician Dr. Joel “Gator” Warsh told The Epoch Times that a careful application of ADHD recommendations should involve earnestly trying behavioral therapy and parent training before medication, particularly in younger children, as the guidelines suggest.
Cognitive behavioral therapy begins with a diagnosis that identifies a child’s unique struggles and then involves tools that target that child’s specific struggles, such as improving focus or reducing impulsivity.
Parent training is used to educate parents on the way their child’s brain works and how to best support deficiencies with tools learned in therapy.
“When symptoms remain severe—impacting safety, school performance, relationships, and daily functioning—medications can have an important role,” Warsh said. “In those cases, short-term use of stimulants, carefully monitored, can give children the ability to focus, follow routines, and begin building healthier work and life habits.”
The goal is to use the lowest effective dose for the shortest time necessary while continuing to work on behavioral, educational, and lifestyle changes, he added.
Other OptionsBesides behavioral and parental training, experts said there are plenty of other ways to deal with symptoms such as hyperactivity, behavioral outbursts, and lack of focus that are common in young children.
Warsh suggested offering daily opportunities for vigorous play, creating more structured routines, reducing screen time, and optimizing sleep. Additionally, there could be underlying contributors such as anxiety, learning differences, and poor gut health.
Be cautious about trendy programs, he added, such as mindfulness apps and broad elimination diets, in which evidence is mixed. Consider asking about an individualized education program at school.
Dwyer-Tesoriero suggested some strategies that can work in the morning and evening when parents are most likely to be with their children:
It’s helpful to remember that not all ADHD traits are negative, Dwyer-Tesoriero added, noting that some are actually quite useful.
“There are a lot of careers out there that really lend themselves to ADHD,” she said. “Our society is filled with adults who have ADHD, and it is not, for lack of a better word, like the kiss of death.”
* * * [ZH] The first two weeks are the hardest. We recommend this channel for more.
Tyler Durden Fri, 10/17/2025 - 19:15The U.S. Department of Energy has released its Fusion Science and Technology Roadmap, a national strategy to fast-track the development and commercialization of fusion energy on what it calls “the most rapid, responsible timeline in history.” The plan outlines the department’s Build–Innovate–Grow strategy, aligning federal investment with private-sector innovation to deliver commercial fusion power to the grid by the mid-2030s, according to a DOE press release.
According to the DOE, the roadmap represents the first unified national effort to coordinate research, infrastructure, and industry activity across the U.S. fusion enterprise. It aims to strengthen America’s energy security, rebuild supply chains, and reinforce the nation’s leadership in clean, reliable energy production.
“The Fusion Science and Technology Roadmap brings unprecedented coordination across America's fusion enterprise,” said Dr. Darío Gil, DOE’s Under Secretary for Science. “For the first time, DOE, industry, and our National Labs will be aligned with a shared purpose—to accelerate the path to commercial fusion power and strengthen America’s leadership in energy innovation.”
The DOE writes that the initiative supports the Administration’s broader goal of expanding domestic energy production under President Trump’s Executive Order Unleashing American Energy, which calls for restoring U.S. energy dominance through advanced technologies.
Unveiled during the U.S. Fusion Energy Enterprise Summit in Washington, D.C., the roadmap was developed with input from more than 600 scientists, engineers, and industry stakeholders. It identifies critical research and technology gaps that must be closed to realize a Fusion Pilot Plant and ensure U.S. competitiveness in the global fusion market.
The strategy focuses on building key infrastructure to close materials and technology gaps, driving innovation through advanced research and artificial intelligence, and growing the U.S. fusion ecosystem through public-private partnerships, regional hubs, and workforce development.
“Fusion is real, near, and ready for coordinated action,” said Jean Paul Allain, Associate Director of DOE’s Office of Fusion Energy Sciences. “This roadmap provides the strategic foundation for building the scientific, technical, and industrial base needed to ensure American leadership in commercial fusion on an ambitious timeline.”
The roadmap highlights six core challenge areas that must be addressed to achieve commercial readiness: structural materials, plasma-facing components, confinement systems, fuel cycle, blankets, and plant engineering and integration.
More than nine billion dollars in private investment has already advanced fusion research, funding prototype reactor designs and burning-plasma demonstrations. DOE’s coordinated Build–Innovate–Grow framework seeks to complement those efforts by delivering the public infrastructure and R&D support necessary for large-scale deployment.
The roadmap sets near-, mid-, and long-term actions through the next decade, culminating in a domestic fusion industry capable of scaling up commercial operations in the 2030s. While it defines strategic priorities and milestones, specific funding commitments will depend on Congressional appropriations and future public-private partnerships.
The full "roadmap" PDF is available here.
Tyler Durden Fri, 10/17/2025 - 18:50Authored by David Keltz via American Greatness,
The kids are not alright.
Youth sport participation among boys in the United States has been declining rapidly over the past ten years. The cancellation of sports seasons during the unscientific and draconian COVID lockdowns has only exacerbated this devastating trend.
According to a survey conducted earlier this year by The Sports & Fitness Industry Association, the percentage of boys who regularly competed in sports dropped by nine points over the past decade—while the participation rate for girls, while still less than boys, has increased slightly.
The increased youth participation rate among girls should obviously be applauded, but the significant drop among boys is cause for alarm.
So, what exactly is to blame?
There are several contributing factors, including a disturbingly high increase in screen time, with most of that time being spent on social media and video games.
According to Pew Research, 85 percent of U.S. teens say they play video games, and about four in ten do so daily.
The top five reasons that youth athletes play sports are for the enjoyment of competition, meeting new people, getting in better shape, having fun, and building teamwork.
But by the age of thirteen, a staggering 70 percent of youth athletes quit playing sports altogether. The primary reason (surprise, surprise) is that sports competition stops being fun. Other reasons include not getting to play, being scolded by coaches and parents, loss of interest, burnout—particularly among athletes who play one sport year-round, too much of a time commitment, too much emphasis on winning, and too much pressure to perform at a high level.
It is certainly understandable why an adolescent who has spent the majority of their childhood rushing off to soccer or tennis tournaments might one day decide they would rather spend their weekends hanging out with friends in a less competitive environment. Likewise, it is also understandable why a less athletically gifted athlete might decide they would rather devote their time to an activity where they feel more confident and better about their ability.
I get it. Not everyone loves playing sports, not everyone enjoys competition, and not every sport is easily accessible or affordable.
We don’t all have homes slopeside in Park City or within minutes of Pebble Beach.
That being said, in this day and age, it is unlikely that there isn’t at least one sport that an individual can excel at without bankrupting their family. Sorry, Wii golf doesn’t count!
The average monthly YMCA membership cost for a child ranges from $15 to $30 for youth memberships and $70 to $100 for family memberships. Sometimes, half the battle is just showing up and trying something new.
Respectfully, just because you can’t hit a baseball, serve a tennis ball, or catch a football does not mean that there isn’t a sport or physical activity out there for you. It’s also not an excuse to be lazy. Swimming, biking, karate, rock climbing, or, dare I say, pickleball, are just a few of many alternatives.
Yes, it’s true that some parents and coaches can put too much pressure on young athletes to succeed. But the goal does not necessarily need to be “collegiate recruit or bust.” The point is, by failing to even participate in an athletic endeavor, not only are our youth destroying their health, developing lazy habits, and becoming more socially isolated, but they are also missing out on valuable lessons that sports can teach.
Baseball, as in life, teaches you that it’s okay to fail. Even the best hitters only get a hit three out of ten times. But just because a player strikes out in their previous at-bat does not mean they won’t have a more positive result the next time up. Having the right attitude and confidence in your ability to execute is almost as important as having the right mechanics and strong eye-hand coordination. As an aside, there is almost nothing more fun than sitting in a dugout and laughing with your teammates. Even if you can’t hit or field, maybe you can still boost player morale!
Basketball teaches you to trust your teammates as much as you need to trust yourself. Most players will never shoot or dribble as well as Stephen Curry or grow to be seven feet tall, but that does not mean that you can’t still prove that you belong on the court. Maybe you know how to move without the ball and trust your teammates to find you, making a backdoor cut under the basket—for an easy layup. Or maybe you can take pride in being a great rebounder or a strong lockdown defender who makes it difficult for your opponents to score. Talent is important, but so are communication, effort, and hustle.
If team sports aren’t your cup of tea, then why not give tennis a try? Yes, it’s lonely out there, especially when your serve is misfiring, the timing on your backhand is off, and you’re standing flat-footed like you’re in quicksand. But is there a better feeling than problem-solving, honing in on your opponent’s weakness, refusing to miss, and chasing down every single shot until the guy on the other side of the net starts screaming in an inaudible language at anyone and everything in his direction?
Finally, there’s golf, which teaches preparation, patience, and mental toughness. Although it may not be as accessible as other sports, there are still plenty of public courses that are relatively inexpensive. If the course is in rough shape, that’s even more of a reason to learn how to keep it on the fairway, which is what the driving range is for. Yes, it may be one of the most frustrating games ever invented—but at the end of the day, you’re outside with nature, and if you stick with it, there are very few things more rewarding than hitting a hole-in-one.
I could go on about the benefits of playing other sports, but I think you get the idea.
Aside from the obvious fact that physical activity is better for your mental and physical well-being than spending hours sitting in a dark room on a beanbag chair, eating Cheez-Its, and screaming through a headset while playing Fortnite, it is also true that it improves your sense of time management, teaches discipline, and provides camaraderie.
It sure would be nice if the adults in the arena spent less time worrying about promoting the 'pronoun Olympics' and more time promoting the obvious benefits of youth sport participation.
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Tyler Durden Fri, 10/17/2025 - 18:25– by New Deal democrat We continue our exercise in flying blind (into terrain?) as the government shutdown prevented the release of housing permits, starts, and construction this morning; and the Fed did not have the data necessary to update industrial production and capacity utilization. The only current information we have on the housing sector is […]
The post DOGE layoffs hit, but still no significant change in initial or continuing jobless claims appeared first on Angry Bear.
There is nothing more important that regular folks like us can do to protect our democratic institutions than to show Trump and his congressional lickspittles that we oppose what he is doing and we will not be intimidated. For dates and times near you, see here. For an interesting discussion of the logic of protest, […]
The post Don’t forget – No Kings Day is tomorrow appeared first on Angry Bear.
Ken Sweet of the Associated Press reports regional banks' bad loans spark concerns on Wall Street:Wall Street is concerned about the health of the nation’s regional banks, after a few of them wrote off bad loans to commercial customers in the last two weeks and caused investors to wonder if there might be more bad news to come.
Zions Bank, Western Alliance Bank and the investment bank Jefferies surprised investors by disclosing various bad investments on their books, sending their stocks falling sharply this week. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon added to the unease when he warned there might be more problems to come for banks with potentially bad loans.
“When you see one cockroach, there are probably more,” Dimon told investors and reporters on Tuesday, when JPMorgan reported its results.
The KBW Bank Index, a basket of banks tracked by investors, is down 7% this month.
There were other signs of distress. Data from the Federal Reserve shows that banks tapped the central bank’s overnight “repo” facilities for the second night in a row, an action banks have not needed to take since the Covid-19 pandemic. This facility allows banks to convert highly liquid securities like mortgage bonds and treasuries into cash to help fund their short-term cash shortfalls.
Zions Bancorp shares sank Thursday after the bank wrote off $50 million in commercial and industrial loans, while Western Alliance fell after the bank alleged it had been defrauded by an entity known as Cantor Group V LLC. This came on top of news from Jefferies, which told investors it was might experience millions of dollars in losses from its business with bankrupt auto parts company First Brands.
All three stocks recovered a bit Friday. Jefferies' CEO told investors that the company believes it was defrauded by First Brands and there were no broader concerns in the lending market.
The last banking flare up, in 2023, also involved mid-sized and regional banks that were overly exposed to low-interest loans and commercial real estate. The crisis caused Silicon Valley Bank to fail, followed by Signature Bank, and led to the eventual sale of First Republic Bank to JPMorgan Chase in a fire sale. Other banks like Zions and Western Alliance ended up seeing their stocks plummet during that time period.
While banks do fail or get bought at fire sale prices, all bank deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, up to $250,000 per account, in case a of a bank failure. In the nearly 100 years since the FDIC was created in 1933, not one depositor has lost their insured funds.
Still, even the larger banks aren't immune in this latest round of trouble. Several Wall Street banks disclosed losses this week in the bankruptcy of Tricolor, a subprime auto dealership company that collapsed last month. Fifth Third Bank, a larger regional bank, recorded a $178 million loss from Tricolor’s bankruptcy.
That said, the big banks believe that any losses will be manageable and do not reflect the broader economy.
“There is no deterioration, we’re very confident with our credit portfolio,” Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing said, in an interview on Bloomberg Television on Friday.
While the big Wall Street banks get most of the media and investor attention, regional banks are a major part of the economy, lending to small-to-medium sized businesses and acting as major lenders for commercial real estate developers. There are more than 120 banks with between $10 billion and $200 billion in assets, according to the FDIC.
While big, these banks can run into trouble because their businesses are not as diverse as the Wall Street money center banks. They’re often more exposed to real estate and industrial loans, and don’t have significant businesses in credit cards and payment processing that can be revenue generators when lending goes south.
Emma Ockerman of Yahoo Finance also reports auto loan delinquencies are soaring, with consumers hit by high car prices:
American consumers are struggling under the weight of soaring auto loan debt.
Auto delinquencies are up more than 50% since 2010 and have transitioned from the safest to riskiest consumer commercial credit product in that time frame, according to a Friday report from VantageScore.
Here’s why: record-breaking car prices, higher maintenance and insurance costs, and elevated interest rates. Longer term loans are also to blame.
“The bigger picture: the auto market is a bellwether for household financial health,” the report says. “A sustained climb in auto delinquencies signals deeper affordability challenges across the consumer economy.”
The country is seeing “the most precarious consumer credit health situation since the last financial crisis,” said VantageScore Chief Economist Rikard Bandebo.
“More and more people are struggling to make ends meet,” Bandebo added.
Delinquencies among other loan categories, like credit cards and first mortgages, have declined since the first quarter of 2010, making autos a bit of an outlier, VantageScore said.
High car prices are a big culprit. The average transaction price of a new vehicle floated above $50,000 in September for the first time, likely pushed higher by luxury models and pricey electric vehicles, according to estimates from Kelley Blue Book.
Meanwhile, data released this week from Edmunds, a car shopping website, showed drivers are increasingly underwater when trading in older models for new cars, meaning their original vehicles are worth less than the amount still owed. Drivers carried more than $10,000 worth of debt in almost a quarter of upside-down trade-ins during the third quarter, for example.
Overall, Americans are carrying more than $1.66 trillion in auto debt, with borrowers tumbling into “delinquencies and defaults at a pace that exceeds pre-pandemic levels and rivals the years immediately preceding the 2008 economic crisis,” a report from the Consumer Federation of America said last month.
“We have people that are financing their car loan over eight years, which is something that we hadn’t seen since the Great Recession,” Erin Witte, the director of consumer protection for the Consumer Federation of America, told Yahoo Finance. “Of course, when you’re extending that financing out, you’re paying more and more. And if you trade that car in before the loan term is over, you’re probably going to owe money on it, which is another cascading problem: You’re paying interest twice — it makes the next car more expensive.”
Car repossessions are also up, and the stock market is on edge after the bankruptcies of the subprime auto lender Tricolor and auto parts maker First Brands, with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon saying that "when you see one cockroach, there's probably more."
Michael Brisson, auto economist at Moody’s Analytics, said the rise in delinquencies can also be traced back to auto lenders loosening their credit standards at a time when credit scores were already broadly increasing — thanks to pandemic-era stimulus and relief programs — while car prices were ticking higher. Some consumers looked healthier than they were.
Add to this Goldman Sachs Group President John Waldron said there’s been an explosion in the growth of credit over the past decade — and that the fallout if things go south won’t be pretty.
Waldron (featured above) was quoted on CNBC as saying there isn't a private credit and public credit market, they're all related and interconnected.
Well, DUH! If the private credit market which isn't regulated suffers a massive crisis, high yield credit spreads in public markets will blow up. Guaranteed.
In another "DUH!" moment, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon stated when it comes to credit woes, "when you see one cockroach, there are probably more."
Many eons ago, I worked with a great guy called Matthew Pugsley at BCA who told me back then: "A bad earnings report is like a cockroach, if you see one, others will follow."
More often than not, that is definitely the case.
As far as this week's credit woes, well, some of it is old news and some of it just confirms the US economy is slowing.
For example, auto loan delinquencies. People are losing their job and can't make payments on their car or insurance. Cars are most expensive, for sure, because of new chips that are needed to run them and that doesn't help.
America is still a tale of two economies -- the ultra rich partying in Miami, and the restless masses trying to make ends meet.
Private credit is just like any other credit, when the economy stalls, defaults go up and if your underwriting is shoddy, guess what, you're exposed to massive losses.
As I stated recently, there are cracks in the AI and private credit bubbles.
It doesn't mean a crisis lies straight ahead, it means there will be more negative surprises as the economy slows and markets adjust to a potential inflation boomerang.
But with the Fed cutting rates and massive fiscal stimulus coming, it feels more like 1998 than 2008.
No wonder gold futures eased on Friday but were still on pace to notch their biggest weekly gain since 2020 in a stunning rally.
I don't get spooked by big headlines, most of which are manufactured headlines from Wall Street that wants to control the narrative.
Late Friday afternoon, the markets have all recovered nicely with exception of the Russell 2000 which remains negative.
In two weeks, President Trump will meet with his Chinese counterpart in South Korea, expect a big announcement (Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is in Malaysia next week to prepare).
We are just beginning earnings season and so far things look great with the big US banks reporting stellar numbers.
Also, if there is a big credit crisis looming, high yield bonds would be selling off hard and they keep on rising higher:
All this to say this week there were a lot of headlines scaring algos and investors alike but there's no real tangible evidence of a looming credit crisis, at least not yet.
Yes, we will undoubtedly hear of more private credit blowups as the US economy slows but it's still way too early to call this a systemic problem like we saw in 2008.
Anyway, here are this week's top performing and worst performing US large cap stocks (full list available here):
Below, Bryn Talkington, Managing Partner of Requisite Capital Management, joins CNBC's "Halftime Report" to explain why she's buying two private credit names amidst concerns in the space. The Investment Committee debate how to the risks in private credit stocks.
Next, Adam Parker, Trivariate Research founder, joins 'Closing Bell' to discuss Parker's thoughts on the credit environment, what could go wrong with capital expenditures and much more.
Third, Tom Lee, Fundstrat, joins 'Closing Bell' to discuss his take on the latest news affecting markets and why he thinks private credit woes will not change tailwinds.
Lastly, Tudor Investment Corporation's Paul Tudor Jones tells Bloomberg's Matthew Miller that if AI is a bubble, it's a historically small one. He sees concentration risk everywhere and expects to find the NASDAQ substantially higher by the end of the year.
This week, I speak with Henry Ward, Chief Executive Officer at Carta, a technology company that provides capitalization table management and valuation software for startups. They discuss founding a business, the growth of private markets, and his lobby efforts for retail investors to access private markets.
The firm manages cap tables, compensation, valuations, liquidity, amidst an assortment of other data for more than 50,000 companies, 8,500 investment funds, and over 2.5 million equity holders’ $2.5 trillion in company equity; they help facilitate $13 billion in secondary sales.
His current reading is here; A transcript of our conversation is available here Tuesday.
You can stream and download our full conversation, including any podcast extras, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Bloomberg. All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here.
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Liz Ann Sonders, Chief Investment Strategist, Charles Schwab & Co. Named “Best Market Strategist” by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, she is also on Barron’s “100 Most Influential Women in Finance” every year since the list’s inception.
Favorite Books
The post MiB: Henry Ward, Carta Chief Executive Officer appeared first on The Big Picture.
Amid a broader shift to advanced nuclear energy which we have been documenting for the past 18 months, NANO Nuclear Energy announced a major step in developing its KRONOS micro modular reactor (MMR), confirming that geotechnical drilling and site characterization with its development partner, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, will begin on October 24, 2025.
At a time when electricity bills are exploding across the country to feed ravenous AI data centers using conventional sources of electricity which are woefully insufficient to power the chatbot revolution, new technologies are coming online to power the grid at a much lower cost.
In one year, this will be the most popular chart on this site pic.twitter.com/h93gWXMoNL
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 11, 2025
Developed to meet the demand for "resilient, modular, and clean energy solutions for artificial intelligence and data centers, industrial projects, military applications, remote communities, and other commercial applications" Nano Nuclear, KRONOS MMR is a stationary, high-temperature gas-cooled microreactor designed to deliver 15 MWe (45 MWth) of carbon-free power, for multi-decade use across multiple industries and environments. More importantly, it allows its power to feed a unique, discreet target, keeping overall generation costs low.
More importantly, multiple KRONOS MMRs can be synergistically used to achieve any desired power level. Using meltdown-resistant TRISO fuel and passive helium cooling, the KRONOS MMR is being designed to shut down and remain in a safe state automatically without any human intervention or external power (so called “walk-away safety”) while seeking to ensure the ability to disconnect from the main grid and operate autonomously during outages or other disruptions (so called “full island-mode microgrid” capability).
Next week's launch event, hosted at The Grainger College of Engineering, marks the first physical phase of construction and is a key milestone toward securing an NRC construction permit in early 2026.
Executives Jay Yu, Founder and Chairman, James Walker, CEO, and Dr. Florent Heidet, CTO, will join university and government leaders at the ceremony next Friday. Global engineering firm AECOM will conduct the site work to inform reactor design and regulatory submissions.
The October 24th event is set to highlight site characterization and drilling activities performed by global infrastructure leader AECOM and serve as an essential milestone ahead of NANO Nuclear’s planned submission of a construction permit application in or around Q1 2026.
James Walker said, “This event represents an important milestone for NANO Nuclear, underscoring our expanding role in the nuclear technology sector and reinforcing confidence in our capacity to deliver on ambitious initiatives.” Dr. Heidet added that the Illinois hub will “anchor the company’s reactor development and accelerate progress toward commercial deployment.”
Project lead Professor Caleb Brooks noted that site data “will support the construction permit application as it undergoes rigorous safety and environmental impact review by the NRC.”
NANO Nuclear also announced plans to establish a manufacturing and R&D facility in Illinois, investing over $12 million with support from the REV Illinois program, which includes $6.8 million in incentives and will create 50 new full-time jobs.
"I’m proud to welcome NANO Nuclear to Illinois’ growing clean energy economy," said Governor JB Pritzker. “With support from REV Illinois, this critical investment from NANO Nuclear will create new jobs for hardworking Illinoisans and promote innovative strides in clean energy solutions.”
NANO Nuclear’s new 23,500-square-foot facility in the Chicagoland area will support collaboration with the University of Illinois on the KRONOS MMR system. “This new hub will play a central role in our work to construct, demonstrate, and ultimately commercialize our KRONOS MMR Energy System,” said Walker.
Dr. Heidet added, “With the strong presence of nuclear utilities and R&D institutions in Illinois, this is the ideal ecosystem for us to thrive.” Dean Rashid Bashir emphasized that the partnership “reinforces our leadership in this critical sector.”
Chairman Jay Yu said the commencement of fieldwork “is an enormous step toward the construction of our high technology readiness level and patented KRONOS MMR, advancing our progress and bringing us closer to deploying this pivotal technology.”
Tyler Durden Fri, 10/17/2025 - 16:40Authored by James Howard Kunstler,
"Friday is a perfect day to indict Schifty!"
- Svetlana Lokhova
Tomorrow, Saturday, October 18, you might have heard, is this year’s culminating “No Kings” protest demo all over land.
We’ve been to a couple of these curious spectacles since springtime here in the Hudson River Valley, in the next town over.
The crowd there was just about entirely made up of aging Boomers, joyfully re-living the halcyon days of the Vietnam protests. It was kind of like a street production of the old Broadway hit Hair, only with a cast of 75-year-olds. Let the sun shine in! But this rural, small-town corner of America is overwhelmingly geriatric. There is next to nothing for young people to do around here, so they flee at the earliest opportunity. The catch is: turns out that opportunity is rather scarce elsewhere, too.
For sure, many of these hippie elders have children, even grandchildren now, who are exactly those who are not thriving in the places they have fled to. Deep down, they don’t really know who to blame. Something has gone wrong in this country. But their placards said “Resist.” Resist what? We asked. Trump, of course. Trump, Trump, Trump, we go a’marchin’.
He’s Stealing our democracy!
Meaning: Trump is the one responsible for our country’s decades-long descent into economic failure, political animus, and social degeneracy.
You had to wonder who is paying them to yell an empty slogan that Nancy Pelosi has repeated a million times. We are going to find out.
Tomorrow’s “No Kings” action is apt to be a bit livelier in the crisp fall weather, at least in the cities where the under-employed, debt-oppressed, hormonally-driven younger gen folk gravitate into organized cadres more prone to physically acting-out their discontents — groups like Antifa. The street action lately in places like Portland, Oregon, Chicago, and Los Angeles has gotten quite a bit rowdier since last spring.
Positions have hardened, largely because the Democratic Party is going extinct. As that occurs, its tactics wax more desperate, tending more towards riots and violence. A lot of the recent violence is in service to the project of rescuing illegal immigrants from deportation. Democratic Party leaders such as LA Mayor Karen Bass say the protesters are defending “the community.”
Community is a magic word in the argot of The Resistance. Community is a giant, warm, welcoming amoeba that absorbs all comers into its gelatinous folds, conferring solidarity and safety from outside threats such as the US immigration laws. Of course, the reason that the Democrats are so desperate to rescue illegal immigrants is that millions were allowed to enter the country on-purpose by “Joe Biden” in order to provide a gigantic legion of fresh voters inclined to elect Democrats, so the party won’t go extinct. Thus, expelling them, as the professors might say, is problematic.
Flooding the land with illegal immigrants for four years was a deliberate program, then. It was melded with such devices as the motor-voter process that automatically registers to vote anyone who applies for a driver’s license. All a state had to do was declare that anyone, citizen or not, is eligible for the driver’s license. . . and, cazart. . . newly-minted voters by the millions! It was so arrantly in-your-face that you have to wonder why nobody has moved to stop it.
But they didn’t. Not even the hated Trump, at least not yet. But we have reason to hope that motor-voter and the other devices for rigging elections can be disassembled before the 2026 midterms. Surely the mail-in ballot has lost its justification — if it even had any — now that the Covid op is bygone. How can any state justify not requiring voter ID based on proof of citizenship at registration? It’s a sign of how generally psychotic — or nefariously careless —our culture had become that there should be any question about proof of citizenship.
You might have heard the good news that the Dominion Voting Machine company was sold last month to Liberty Vote, a Missouri-based company. Dominion machines had been used in twenty-eight states, including states with the sketchiest election results: Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. Dominion was previously owned and based in Canada, a country lately captured by crypto-Marxists in thrall to European banking interests. The Dominion machines have long been accused of containing modems enabling connection to the Internet, and thus to hacking. Plus, they’d contained lines of Chinese software. The new owner promises major changes in the way that votes are tabulated.
Don’t be surprised if tomorrow’s “No Kings” demo descends into violence, arson, and looting. The Democratic Party needs this happen so it can provoke the president to invoke the Insurrection Act, so they can label him “Hitler” again. It is another absolutely in-your-face move. Mr. Trump has discussed the possibility of having to invoke the act. Such a dynamic course of events will backfire badly on the desperate Democrats. More than half the country has had enough of Woke Marxist roguery. They will probably be glad to see extraordinary measures used to stop it, and to override the rogue judiciary that lets it loose on the nation.
It can’t be hard at all to discover who has been paying for this Resistance uprising that includes the “No Kings” demos. It is relatively easy to track the money trails from one bank to another, or many banks to many others, and to see which NGOs are sending all the dough. . . and then who among the operational units are receiving it. It is all going to be shut down. People will be charged and indicted, perhaps even mayors and governors. The charges will be serious. Stand by to see how all this unspools tomorrow.
* * *
Coming in two weeks: JHK’s new novel, a comedy set during the week of the JFK assassination, November, 1963. JD Salinger makes his debut as a major character in American fiction. You can pre-order here !
Tyler Durden Fri, 10/17/2025 - 16:20Poll after poll has shown that the overwhelming majority of Americans reject direct US military involvement in Ukraine - such as sending troops or other actions which could constitute the start of direct conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.
The reality also remains that most Americans can't find Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia on a map. Does the American public really want to constantly poke the Russian bear over places they can barely pronounce? Do they really care who owns the Donbass? "Where!?..." - your average Joe sixpack is likely asking.
Getty Images
Why then, Mr. Trump, are you actually contemplating giving Zelensky, who you once dubbed the 'greatest salesman on Earth', America's own vital long-range Tomahawk missiles?
Why are you indulging yet a fourth in-person meeting with Zelensky (and specifically his third trip to the Oval Office) since you took office in January? Where is the pressure on Zelensky to cede territory and rapidly end this bloody and tragic war? Where are the loud assurances of no more NATO expansion to Russia's border?
Why can't the Ukrainian government, which has already received billions in US taxpayer funds, so much as admit that it has lost Crimea forever? Even this smallest of admissions and concessions would be a big something offered on the path to peace. And yet Kiev remains vocally against ever ceding Crimea, despite the obviously impossibility of ever getting it back (and absolutely everyone knows this).
Instead of any semblance of the ability to make compromise, even though it's obvious to pretty much all that Ukraine's military has been steadily losing a 'war of attrition', Zelensky is busy meeting with Raytheon executives before walking into the White House on Friday morning.
This is all part of the pressure and pitch to persuade Trump to give Ukraine the sought after long-range missiles capable of reaching all main population centers in Russia.
"We discussed Raytheon's production capabilities, possible ways of our co-operation to strengthen air defence and increase Ukraine's long-range capabilities, and the prospects for Ukrainian-American production," Zelensky posted on Telegram early Friday.
Even mainstream, generally anti-Kremlin outlets like the BBC understand that this would open up a new phase in the war, where powerful American weapons are directly raining down on Russian cities:
We've been reporting that the possibility of the US sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine is causing "extreme concern" in the Kremlin. That's because these missiles could drastically increase Ukraine's range capabilities.
As the map below shows, Tomahawks can strike objects up to 1,600km (995 miles) away - putting dozens of Russian military bases, air defense sites and command centers in the range of fire.
There's also been much reporting saying that American contractors and personnel would have to themselves man the systems or oversee them, which is yet more 'boots on the ground' mission creep which Trump had earlier vowed to resist.
I met with representatives of the defense company Raytheon, which produces, in particular, Patriot systems.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 17, 2025
I told them about the battlefield situation and Russia’s intensified attacks on our people and civilian infrastructure.
We discussed Raytheon’s production capacity,… pic.twitter.com/w5DgX3BkF2
Again, will Washington risk WW3... all in the name of 'leverage' against Putin... while bowing down to yet another Zelensky demand - this time in the form of missiles that can reach 1,000 miles inside Russia? If roles were reversed, and a foreign entity were on our doorstep launching long-range missiles into the United States, we would without doubt immediately go to war and be put on nuclear alert.
Why risk all of this... again, for the question of who owns tiny Ukrainian oblasts halfway across the globe which most Americans could in reality care less about?
There's still hope that rational minds will prevail at the White House, based at least on some of Trump's sarcasm on display last night...
Trump:
— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 16, 2025
I said to Putin: "would you mind if I gave a couple of thousand Tomahawks to your opposition? "
He didn’t like the idea. pic.twitter.com/upTnoOqvDW
Below, a ZeroHedge reader and top commenter submitted this astute observation on the likely true state of things vis-a-vis Washington and Europe in the context of the Ukraine crisis.
* * *
The “Democracy vs. Autocracy” myth died in Ukraine’s trenches. What replaced it is far darker: the engineered deconstruction of Europe itself. Cheap Russian energy was severed (via Nord Stream sabotage), not to help Ukraine win — but to break Europe’s economic spine. Weapons stockpiles were drained into a black hole, and now the continent is left dependent on overpriced U.S. arms, powerless to forge its own peace.
NATO’s eastern expansion was never about defense — it was about destabilizing Russia and locking Europe into vassal status. Now, as Ukraine bleeds dry, the Empire smiles: the real target was never Moscow, but Brussels, Berlin, and Paris. This isn’t a blunder. It’s a controlled demolition.
Tyler Durden Fri, 10/17/2025 - 16:01
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