President Trump confirmed a “very productive” phone call with Russian President Putin on Thursday, according to a post on Truth Social. The two leaders are now expected to meet in the near term in Budapest, Hungary, with discussions centered on potential pathways to end the war in Ukraine.

Trump’s latest threat to supply Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles may have been a key driver prompting Moscow’s sudden willingness to engage in talks at the highest level. While full details of the call remain undisclosed, the tone shift signals possible upcoming breakthroughs in negotiations to end the three-year war in Eastern Europe, which has resulted in some casualty figures on both sides at 1.4 million, according to a recent New York Times report, citing U.S. and British government estimates, among other sources. 

What comes out of Budapest remains to be seen. But already, Russian sovereign wealth fund head Kirill Dmitriev is posting on X about Elon Musk’s Boring Company potentially building a 70-mile undersea rail tunnel linking Russia and Alaska through the Bering Strait – a proposed $65 billion megaproject. 

Dmitriev called the potential megaproject the “Putin-Trump Tunnel,” pitching it as a symbol of renewed unity after the Trump-Putin phone call this week. 

This type of rhetoric from the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund wouldn’t be seen on his personal X page unless he saw potential pathways for peace emerging ahead. 

Let’s begin with Dmitriev’s first post on X about the proposed tunnel project that could reshape global supply chains and be completed for $8 billion by Musk’s Boring Company within eight years. It’s important to note that a megaproject of this scale would likely capture Trump’s attention, while neocons and Democrats would be howling in protest if it ever got off the ground.

.@elonmusk, imagine connecting the US and Russia, the Americas and the Afro-Eurasia with the Putin-Trump Tunnel – a 70-mile link symbolizing unity. Traditional costs are $65B+, but @boringcompany‘s tech could reduce it to https://t.co/boCVb8xqjl pic.twitter.com/QXmTYAduqm

— Kirill Dmitriev (@kadmitriev) October 16, 2025

Dmitrie noted, “From the Soviet JFK docs released by @RepLuna : Kennedy–Khrushchev World Peace Bridge “could and should be built between Alaska and Russia at once,” adding, “With modern @boringcompany technology this can become a Putin-Trump tunnel connecting the Eurasia and Americas for .” 

From the Soviet JFK docs released by @RepLuna: Kennedy–Khrushchev World Peace Bridge “could and should be built between Alaska and Russia at once.”

With modern @boringcompany technology this can become a Putin-Trump tunnel connecting the Eurasia and Americas for pic.twitter.com/c84VK75rh5

— Kirill Dmitriev (@kadmitriev) October 16, 2025

“Isn’t it better to link Africa–Eurasia with the Americas, Russia and the US via an Alaska–Russia tunnel than to increase the risks a WW3?” Dmitrie continued. Well, Dmitrie, do you think America’s energy-industrial complex – Trump’s friends – would like the very idea of cheap Russian energy being transported to the U.S.? Also, Ukrainian special forces might take an interest – like they did with Nord Stream.  

In other words, if a potential peace deal between Russia and Ukraine materializes, a so-called “peace tunnel” linking the U.S. and Russia could serve as a trade pact that helps promote lasting stability. Otherwise, what’s the alternative as both countries, actually the world, gear up for the Arctic, more conflicts and war? 

We know one person who is not a fan of the idea:

Trump: “This came up yesterday, a tunnel from Russia to Alaska. That’s interesting. What do you think of that, Mr. President [Zelensky]? Do you have any ideas? How do you like that idea?”

Zelensky: “I’m not happy with this idea.”

Trump can’t help but laugh: “I don’t think he liked it. I don’t think he liked it.”

🇺🇸🇷🇺 TRUMP: TUNNEL FROM RUSSIA TO ALASKA
ZELENSKY: NOT A GOOD PLAN

Trump:

“This came up yesterday, a tunnel from Russia to Alaska. That’s interesting.

What do you think of that, Mr. President [Zelensky]? Do you have any ideas? How do you like that idea?”

Zelensky:

“I’m not… https://t.co/Dp2yVN4rvx pic.twitter.com/NHaJ5jwhuT

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 17, 2025

Certainly an interesting development to track, as it could be one of the most geopolitically transformative infrastructure undertakings of our generation if it ever gets off the ground. Rewiring global supply chains for the 2030s. 

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Are we going to invade? “We are certainly looking at land now,” said Trump.

Head of the U.S. Military’s Southern Command Resigns

The New York Times reports Head of the U.S. Military’s Southern Command Is Stepping Down

The officer, Adm. Alvin Holsey, is leaving his job as head of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees all operations in Central and South America, even as the Pentagon has rapidly built up some 10,000 forces in the region in what it says is a major counterdrug and counterterrorism mission.

It was unclear why Admiral Holsey is suddenly departing, less than a year into what is typically a three-year job, and in the midst of the biggest operation in his 37-year career. But one current and one former U.S. official, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said that Admiral Holsey had raised concerns about the mission and the attacks on the alleged drug boats.

“Prior to Trump, I can’t think of a combatant commander who left his or her post early, ever,” said Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.

Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, was even more pointed in his criticism.

“At a moment when U.S. forces are building up across the Caribbean and tensions with Venezuela are at a boiling point, the departure of our top military commander in the region sends an alarming signal of instability within the chain of command,” Mr. Reed said in a statement.

Since early September, U.S. Special Operations forces have struck at least five boats off the Venezuelan coast that the White House says were transporting drugs, killing 27 people. American officials have privately made it clear that the main goal is to drive Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, from power.

As a matter of international law, for a nonstate group to qualify as a belligerent in an armed conflict — meaning its members can be targeted for killing based on their status alone, not because of anything they specifically do — it must be an “organized armed group” with a centralized command structure, and engaging in hostilities.

The size and scope of the U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean region is significant. There are now about 10,000 U.S. troops, most of them at bases in Puerto Rico, but also some 2,200 Marines on amphibious assault ships. In all, the Navy has eight warships and a submarine in the Caribbean.

Trump Authorizes CIA Covert Operations in Venezuela

In the irony of the day, please note Trump Authorizes CIA Covert Operations in Venezuela

President Trump has authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct covert action in Venezuela, while also floating the idea of land strikes, in a broadening campaign against alleged drug trafficking.

“I authorized for two reasons,” Trump said Wednesday at the White House, alleging Venezuelan leaders have “emptied their prisons into the United States of America” and “we have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela.”

The authorization enables the CIA to operate clandestinely in the country and potentially take action against Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, his government and drug traffickers, according to an administration official. Covert action, which is authorized in what is known as a presidential finding, can involve a range of secret activities including paramilitary and lethal operations meant to influence political, economic or military conditions in foreign countries.

The move by Trump comes amid the biggest U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean in decades.

The administration is facing questions from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle about the legality of the boat strikes. It has argued that Trump’s designation of the gangs as foreign terrorist organizations earlier this year grants the Pentagon authority to use military force against them, an argument that many experts say isn’t legally sound.

Covert Operations

Am I the only one who finds it amusing that we are announcing “covert” operations.

A covert operation is a secret military or political activity where the identity of the sponsoring government is concealed or publicly denied. Unlike a clandestine operation, which emphasizes concealing the action itself, a covert operation primarily aims to obscure its source. 

U.S. Military Looms Offshore

The Wall Street Journal reports Venezuela Mobilizes Troops and Militias as U.S. Military Looms Offshore

Venezuela is moving troops into position on the Caribbean coast and mobilizing what President Nicolás Maduro asserts is a millions-strong militia in a display of defiance against the biggest American military buildup in the Caribbean since the 1980s.

The strongman’s regime has cranked up its propaganda machine. On state television, radio and social media, announcers are telling Venezuelans that the U.S. is a rapacious Nazi-like state that wants to dig its claws into the country’s oil wealth but that the Venezuelan military, the National Bolivarian Armed Forces, are positioning to repel any invasion.

The regime’s aggressive posturing obscures the vulnerability of its armed forces against the world’s most powerful military. Experts say the U.S. buildup isn’t enough to support an invasion of Venezuela but would be sufficient to support sustained strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs to the U.S. or the bombing of targets on Venezuela’s soil, as President Trump has warned.

What’s Being Deployed

• Guided-missile destroyers

• F-35B jet fighters

• MQ-9 Reaper drones

• Special operations ship

• Eight Navy warships

• An attack submarine

• P-8 Poseidon spy planes

• Army’s secretive 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the “Night Stalkers”

• B-52 bombers

• 10,000 troops

Deployment bullet points compiled from the preceding links.

Is That enough?

Trump said Wednesday that strikes could take place on suspected drug smugglers on Venezuelan soil.

“We are certainly looking at land now because we’ve got the sea very well under control,” he told reporters.

Trump on Afghanistan

In September 2017, the Trump administration began deploying more than 3,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, bringing the total number of US forces in Afghanistan to more than 14,000.

Biden finally ended the nonsense after Trump promised to and failed.

Biden made a big mess of the exit but at least he got us out after Trump failed to deliver. But now what?

Please note Trump suggests U.S. troops could return to Afghan base over China concerns

President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested that he is working to reestablish a U.S. presence at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, four years after America’s chaotic withdrawal from the country left the base in the Taliban’s hands.

Trump floated the idea during a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he wrapped up a state visit to the U.K. and tied it to the need for the U.S. to counter its top rival, China.

“We’re trying to get it back,” Trump said of the base in an aside to a question about ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

We were going to leave Afghanistan, but we were going to leave it with strength and dignity.  [Yeah right. Why didn’t you do it?]

More involvement in Afghanistan is madness.

And yet another ridiculous regime change operation is taking place in Venezuela. Shhh. This one is a covert secret.

We never learn.

Authored by Victoria Taft via PJMedia.com,

With the arrests and federal indictments of two California men announced on Thursday, we’re now getting an idea of how California’s billions of dollars to “end homelessness” vanished without a trace. Instead of helping to solve the problem of rampant tent encampments filled with addicts on the beaches and streets in California, things got worse. Where did all that money go? 

An audit in 2024 revealed that no one knew how the homeless money was spent. I wrote about this in “No Wonder Gavin Newsom Didn’t Want an Audit to Track $24 Billion in Homeless Spending.” The audit revealed that there were no guardrails or accountability for the use of that money or its expenditure. 

How could that be?  

No one was watching the store. California and Los Angeles handed out billions of dollars approved by voters to help end homelessness, and when homelessness got worse, no one in government could answer where all that money went—because no one checked. 

Now, the federal Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force has begun running down the homeless scams that possess all the hallmarks of the ones Californians saw in its COVID spending and the notoriously poorly vetted unemployment scam, in which Nigerian princes and prison inmates alike received federal and state unemployment money. And then came the $100 million FireAid scam. All of this happened on Gavin Newsom’s watch.  

The Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force, which includes the IRS, FBI, and the Central California Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, whose nomination sits untouched by the U.S. Senate, announced the alleged scams that had escaped the notice of Los Angeles homeless officials and the State of California.

One of the scams was run by the former chief financial officer at a downtown Los Angeles-based developer of affordable housing. Another was run by a property flipper who allegedly sold a property to a homeless housing developer for twice what he’d just paid for it, and lied to the original seller that he was going to develop the property for himself. 

The former CFO of the affordable housing developer, Cody Holmes, is charged with mail fraud, which could land the 31-year-old man in federal prison for 20 years. 

The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) “paid approximately $25.9 million in grant money – for a state homelessness project called “Homekey” – to Shangri-La Industries LLC, a downtown Los Angeles-based developer of affordable housing.” The money had to be used to purchase, construct, and operate a homeless housing development in Thousand Oaks. The company already had other homeless developments in the works as well.

In 2022, when Holmes was Shangri-La’s CFO, he “knowingly submitted fake bank records to HCD that purportedly showed approximately $160 million supposedly controlled by Shangri-La and its affiliates to prove that Shangri-La had the capacity to fulfill the homeless housing projects for which it had co-applied for grants from HCD, including the Thousand Oaks project.” 

The bank accounts were fake. 

Nobody double-checked proof of funds, apparently. 

In the case of the property flipper, Steven Taylor, he is accused of constructing a labyrinth of bankers and lenders and lying to each of them to establish lines of credit. 

Get out your scorecard; you’ll need one to keep up with this guy’s moves: 

He is further alleged to have lied to Lender B in opening the $3 million credit line with Lender B, falsely telling Lender B that he had closed his $1 million unsecured line of credit with Lender C.  He lied by fabricating and sending a document that purported to be an email from an employee of Lender C falsely confirming that the Lender C credit line was closed. In fact, Taylor continued to keep open and draw down on his line of credit with Lender C, even after he opened his $3 million line of credit with Lender B, and the email from Lender C was forged…

And then he’s accused of using “the fraudulently obtained lines of credit to make down payments on real estate that he also obtained with the fraudulent loans.” Whoa. Can’t stop, won’t stop. 

He could go away for more than 30 years. 

And now you know why billions have been lost in an effort to “end homelessness.”

Voters and appropriators use other people’s money to do what they think is good and then assume someone else will do the bean-counting. All programs like this must fund a program chief, an auditor, special master, and cops to keep watch over the cheaters, fakes, and bad guys. Any program that doesn’t at least have those guardrails can’t go forward.

California’s political class once again has beclowned itself and should be forced to undergo oversight and show a little humility. They’re the real scam in the state. 

It’s hard to be on the straight and narrow when the people making the decisions are as corrupt and greedy as California as the inmates in state prison.

The Democratic Party’s dark-money NGO network, bankrolled by left-wing billionaires, is reportedly preparing to activate a coordinated, color-revolution-style mobilization across the U.S. this weekend – a replay of failed agitation attempts seen earlier this year targeting President Trump and Elon Musk. The operation, marketed under the “No Kings” banner and portrayed publicly as a grassroots movement, in reality functions as a professionalized protest-industrial complex. Its composition includes a blend of paid activists, white boomers suffering from Stage 4 Trump Derangement Syndrome, and a smaller contingent of organic, unhinged leftists who recite MSNBC talking points by heart. 

A grown man with severe Trump Detanglement Syndrome beats a Trump doll at the Beverly Hills, California ‘No Kings’ protest.
pic.twitter.com/IeVjQ9O9dh

— RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) June 15, 2025

Little do these white boomers know, the “No Kings” movement, supposedly against “kings and billionaires”, is, in reality, funded by leftist billionaire kings themselves. In truth, No Kings is bankrolled by far-left foundations backed by the same billionaire class that has been waging a political war against President Trump since his first term. Essentially, one faction of billionaires hates another, so their woke non-profit soldiers create a front group, brand it “No Kings,” and bankroll an army of paid protesters and unhinged left-wing activists. This is America in 2025: the permanent protest-industrial complex of hate and chaos, financed by the left.

Drilling down into the dark-money network funding No Kings are investigative researchers Peter Schweizer and Seamus Bruner of the Government Accountability Institute. Their new bombshell report exposes how the protest-industrial complex, dubbed “Riot, Inc.,” is, in their words, “FUELED BY BILLIONAIRES.”

🚨 BREAKING UPDATE: This Saturday, Oct 18 — “No Kings 2.0” goes GLOBAL. Organizers claim to stand against “kings and billionaires.” But new @peterschweizer team research into ‘Riot, Inc.’ shows the unrest is FUELED BY BILLIONAIRES. 🔥 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/13HdjFPVKe

— Seamus Bruner (@seamusbruner) October 16, 2025

“We traced $294,487,641 to the official No Kings 2.0 partners & organizers…all funneled through the same “Riot Inc.” dark-money networks: Arabella network $79.7M+ Soros network $72.1M+ Ford network $51.7M+, Tides $45.5M+, Rockefeller $28.6M+, and Buffett $16.6M+,” Bruner wrote on X. 

📊We traced $294,487,641 to the official No Kings 2.0 partners & organizers…all funneled through the same “Riot Inc.” dark-money networks:
💰 Arabella network $79.7M+
💰 Soros network $72.1M+
💰 Ford network $51.7M+
💰Tides $45.5M+
💰 Rockefeller $28.6M+
💰 Buffett $16.6M+ pic.twitter.com/b6zFla79UP

— Seamus Bruner (@seamusbruner) October 16, 2025

George Soros

💸 Billionaire #1: GEORGE SOROS

Soros’s Open Society network directly contributed $72 million+ to official No Kings 2.0 organizers & partners. Soros is a primary architect of the “Riot Inc.” political protest model and a master of “color revolutions.” pic.twitter.com/nOLLmeHNZm

— Seamus Bruner (@seamusbruner) October 16, 2025

Mark Zuckerberg

💸 Billionaire #2: MARK ZUCKERBERG

Zuck orgs funneled $50 million+ into the Riot Inc. dark-money network through Arabella- and Tides-linked foundations. His money helps underwrite the same protest infrastructure now powering “No Kings 2.0.” pic.twitter.com/iPNT6irpHo

— Seamus Bruner (@seamusbruner) October 16, 2025

Hansjorg Wyss

💸 Billionaire #3: HANSJÖRG WYSS
The Swiss-born mega-donor is the largest foreign financier of the U.S. protest complex. GAI traced $245 million+ from Wyss to the Arabella network — the operational hub behind “No Kings 2.0.” pic.twitter.com/OPUemwyjZo

— Seamus Bruner (@seamusbruner) October 16, 2025

Bill Gates 

💸 Billionaire #4: BILL GATES
Gates Foundation pumped $100 million+ into the same Arabella–Tides–Ford infrastructure funding this weekend’s global protests. pic.twitter.com/36F8OwUehQ

— Seamus Bruner (@seamusbruner) October 16, 2025

Marc Benioff 

💸 Billionaire #5: MARC BENIOFF

Salesforce billionaire funds added $20 million+ to the mix. Together: $294.4 million from billionaire-backed networks fueling the “No Billionaires” protests. 🔥💰 pic.twitter.com/pDA2BzR66f

— Seamus Bruner (@seamusbruner) October 16, 2025

Bruner concluded, “OBVIOUSLY “No Kings 2.0” isn’t grassroots. This level of coordination requires serious funds. 👇🏻 The protestors should just own it! Instead they hold up anti-billionaire signs funded by…billionaires. Are they being dishonest or ignorant?” 

🚨🪧OBVIOUSLY “No Kings 2.0” isn’t grassroots. This level of coordination requires serious funds. 👇🏻 The protestors should just own it! Instead they hold up anti-billionaire signs funded by…billionaires. Are they being dishonest or ignorant? 🥀 pic.twitter.com/z5q1KWyHeH

— Seamus Bruner (@seamusbruner) October 16, 2025

Recall that Bruner and Schweizer penned a note (read here) in mid-June that revealed more than $100 million was plowed into No Kings and partners via the Arabella dark money network. 

Dark-Money Network Funneled Millions Into ‘No Kings’ Nationwide Color Revolution Operation https://t.co/VDDFccxAN5

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 13, 2025

By late summer, the Gates Foundation abruptly severed ties with the Arabella network due to political pressure regarding funding for color revolution-style operations on city streets. 

Last week, during the Antifa roundtable at the White House, Bruner briefed President Trump (read here): “We have identified dozens of radical organizations, not just the decentralized Antifa organizations, but dozens of radical organizations that have received more than $100 million from the Riot Inc investors.” In fact, tackling Antifa is not the proper strategy, as Bruner told Trump, start with dark-money NGOs. 

White House releases names funding Antifa, protests and violence in America

We paid for our own protests with over $100 million laundered by Democrats

“We found a network of NGOs”

– George Soros, the Open Society Network
– Arabella Funding Network
– The Tides FIShing Network
-… pic.twitter.com/93FZsh9qnv

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) October 8, 2025

Back to No Kings.

Your “No Kings” Rally is literally sponsored by the Communist Party https://t.co/3LqLkGvjVZ pic.twitter.com/iNllVBRaQ8

— Congressman Brandon Gill (@RepBrandonGill) October 16, 2025

Via Oversight Project.

We’ve been studying “No Kings” for months and have written a detailed report based on the social media activity of its organizers – the group 50501.

The linked thread covers key findings 👇

The report is here: https://t.co/CX9lkNZuPBhttps://t.co/SwDHJHEaIT pic.twitter.com/JBriY2cc8g

— Oversight Project (@ItsYourGov) October 9, 2025

Perhaps No Kings can give ‘Free Palestine’ protesters a job…

Right. 

. . . 

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.”

Authored 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.

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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 !

Poll 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.

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.

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

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 17, 2025

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:

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

— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 16, 2025

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.

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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.

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

GDP is like collecting data on passenger satisfaction with the dessert cart on the Titanic and declaring everyone is delighted as the great “unsinkable” ship settles into the icy waters of the Atlantic.

That Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is an outdated and misleading metric of the economy is widely accepted. The problem isn’t an abstraction, as we manage what we measure and so policymakers and citizens alike make decisions on what’s being measured. If what’s being measured is misleading, then we’re flying blind.

Economist Joseph Stiglitz has long advocated for an overhaul for what we measure economically, focusing on well-being rather than adding up transactions. A new book The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters, explains the difficulty of the overhaul. A recent article on the topic addressed the urgency of the task (Foreign Affairs, May/June 2025, paywalled):

“For Americans, these are tumultuous times. Inequality in income and wealth is at historically high levels. Artificial intelligence is reshaping society at an unprecedented pace, prompting layoffs and putting entire professions at risk. According to an estimate by the Brookings Institution, up to 85 percent of current workers in the U.S. labor force could see their jobs affected by today’s generative AI technology. In the future, that percentage could climb even higher.

At moments of danger and uncertainty, it is usually the task of governments to protect people and help them navigate change–to step in when markets cannot. Yet Americans seem to have little belief in Washington’s capabilities. Over the past two decades, public trust in the U.S. government has plummeted by 40 percent. Some Americans believe the federal government has been absent. Others believe it has failed to meet pressing challenges, including the rising cost of living, and the potential disruptions of AI. Either way, Washington has its work cut out for it as the government tries to regain Americans’ trust.

So where can it start? The Measure of Progress, meanwhile, takes aim at the economic data that states use. According to Coyle, analysts evaluate the economy using outdated, limited metrics, causing policymakers to misunderstand the challenges citizens face.

Coyle’s book is focused on understanding the economy as it exists today. But her argument–that analysts and governments have failed to properly measure peoples’ well-being–is equally essential. The metrics that economists use, Coyle insists, are inherently flawed and do not sufficiently represent the reality of economic activity and value. That poses an immense problem for policymakers and analysts, distorting their view of the world and potentially leading them to faulty conclusions and ineffective policies.”

The problem is multi-faceted. GDP and other metrics were institutionalized in the industrial age, where agriculture and factory production were easy to measure. As these sectors’ share of the economy has slipped, the “hard-to-measure” parts of the economy are now dominant–81.5% by one estimate.

There are many other critical wrinkles in measuring the economy as it is. The book raises the issue of unpaid work, such as families caring for elderly parents and the unpaid “shadow work” that we’re required to do now to keep all of our technology functioning. All this activity occurs outside the traditional market.

Since our metrics don’t put a price tag on clean air and functional ecosystems, these are left out of the calculations, as if they don’t exist. Not only do they exist, they’re critical to our well-being. The book discusses natural capital accounting as an alternative, but alternative measures like this are inherently more challenging than toting up transactions.

What if we decided to measure the economy by the quality of life of the citizenry? While there are endless possibilities of what goes into quality of life, we can start with these basics:

1. Our physical and mental health.

2. The health of our social order–our social contract, social trust, communities and trust in our key institutions

3. The security and stability of our livelihoods and financial future.

Defining health isn’t that difficult. A healthy person doesn’t need any medications because, well, they’re healthy, so there’s no need for any interventions. A healthy person has an HDL / triglyceride ratio (calculated by dividing your triglyceride level by your HDL cholesterol level) well under 2, can walk a mile without even noticing, can stand on each foot for an extended time, and so on.

As for mental health, numerous studies have found that social connections are critical to our overall health, along with what we might call sufficiency–enough financial resources to secure the basics of life, and enough opportunities to fulfill one’s potential.

Let’s go through some charts of what we already measure. Here is a chart of our metabolic health. Over 50% of adult Americans are diabetic or prediabetic. This is a serious disease that shortens our lives.

Only a quarter of the adult population is normal (i.e. healthy) weight, reflecting an unhealthy lifestyle of processed foods and inactivity.

As for mental health, consider teen depression rates. Teen suicide rates have also risen. There is no way to interpret this as healthy.

Loneliness–a measure of declining social connections–is also rising sharply.

I prepared this chart of our unhealthy lifestyle and built environment in 2008. Nothing has changed. We can try to sugarcoat all these, but sugarcoating doesn’t change reality.

Turning to the social and economic sources of stability, security and opportunity, consider the astounding rise of student loan debt, as attending college / university went from being affordable to requiring lifetime debt serfdom.

Student loan delinquencies reflect precarity and insecurity, not prosperity and security.

As for opportunity in an economy and society that claims to be a “level playing field,” the benchmarks of middle-class security are no longer within reach. The number of 30-year olds who are both married and homeowners has plummeted. Yes, we can quibble about statistics like this, but quibbles are apologists’ favorite tools: it’s not so bad. But this is just more sugarcoating.

This chart of spending by income group reveals an enormous wealth-income divide. The top 10% collect virtually all the unearned income (from investments), collect over 40% of all the earned income and account for half of consumer spending. The bottom 60%–200 million Americans–account for one-quarter of total spending–half of what the top 10% (34 million Americans) spend.

The chart of generational wealth indicates opportunities to build wealth were more accessible pre-2000. Those graduating from high school or university in 2008 or later experienced a much different economy than their parents.

The health of the society is a key element in stability, security and opportunity. Social trust is eroding.

Trust in elites and institutions reflects the wealth-income divide. The top 10% reckon everything’s going great because they’re doing great. Meanwhile, the bottom 90% live in a completely different world.

Being born into a wealthy household offers numerous advantages that are difficult for those without these advantages to match. Admissions to elite university reflect this divide. This reflects a neofeudal economy and social order.

The wealthy own the vast majority of income-generating assets. The majority depend on wages for their living. The decline of wages’ share of the economy over the past 50 years is consequential, reflecting the cumulative transfer of $150 trillion from wage earners to capital over the past five decades.

Wealth and income inequality has reached levels that do not reflect a healthy economy or social order.

The share of income going to the bottom 90% has declined.

The bottom 50% of American households own a tiny slice of the nation’s financial wealth. The vast expansion of central bank stimulus and the resulting asset bubbles haven’t increased the wealth of the bottom 170 million Americans, which hovers at 2.6%–signal noise compared to the 31% owned by the top 1% and the 68% owned by the top 10%.

How would we rate the US economy in terms of quality of life? It’s clear that we’d have to conclude it’s in a deep Depression. Can we really sugarcoat all this with claims everything’s going great because GDP is rising and AI is making some of us rich?

As for all the cheerleading about how great the economy is doing–GDP is like collecting data on passenger satisfaction with the dessert cart on the Titanic and declaring everyone is delighted as the great “unsinkable” ship settles into the icy waters of the Atlantic.

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Just ahead of Ukraine’s Zelensky arriving at the White House to meet with President Trump, Russia announced Friday morning that its forces had seized three more villages in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions.

Russian troops captured Pishchane and Tykhe in Kharkiv and Pryvillia in Dnipropetrovsk, the Kremlin said. The development in the Kharkiv region is going be met with particular alarm among Kiev’s backers in the West, given that the Ukrainian’s military’s 2022 counteroffensive had actually retaken much of Kharkiv.

But the Russian military is clearly pushing forward again, and is eyeing the capture of Kupiansk next, which is a crucial logistics hub in the region.

Russia’s military command has at the same time tallied its forces have captured eight Ukrainian settlements in total over the course of the past week.

A statement in TASS says “In the Kharkov direction, Battlegroup North units liberated the settlement of Tikhoye in the Kharkov Region through decisive operations… Battlegroup West units liberated the settlements of Borovskaya Andreyevka and Peschanoye in the Kharkov Region in decisive operations…battlegroup Center units liberated the settlements of Moskovskoye, Balagan and Novopavlovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic through active and decisive operations.”

The Defense Ministry continued listing out: “Over the past week, Battlegroup East units liberated the settlements of Alekseyevka and Privolye in the Dnepropetrovsk Region,” it said.

Without doubt, Moscow has timed its “announcement” touting the capture of all these locations to correspond with Zelensky’s visit to Washington, also coming after Thursday’s Trump-Putin phone call.

The only ‘leverage’ that Ukraine might have is related to its stepped-up long-range drone offensive which has wreaked havoc on Russian oil.

Nobody waited for Zelensky in Washington. So, his PR crew organised a stunt.

They lined up Jermak, the head of Zelensky’s Presidential Office and the pilots of the plane.

The PR female introduces Jermak as if Zelensky did not know his comedy ex-manager.pic.twitter.com/NYFqTz95Q4

— Alternative News (@AlternatNews) October 17, 2025

Depot after depot has been hit over the past weeks and months, including also vital oil shipping terminals on the Crimean coast. If Ukraine received long-range missiles from the West and the United States, it will certainly train them on such vital targets.

The United States will vote “no” to a global carbon tax proposed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on Oct. 17, President Donald Trump said on Truth Social.

“I am outraged that the International Maritime Organization is voting in London this week to pass a global Carbon Tax,” he said in the post on Oct. 16, urging others to reject the proposal.

“The United States will NOT stand for this Global Green New Scam Tax on Shipping, and will not adhere to it in any way, shape, or form.

“We will not tolerate increased prices on American Consumers OR the creation of a Green New Scam Bureaucracy to spend YOUR money on their Green dreams.”

The net-zero framework proposal that was put before the U.N. agency specializing in regulating marine transport would require ships to comply with a global fuel standard for large oceangoing vessels, 5,000 tons or larger, to force the shipping industry’s greenhouse gas emissions down to net zero by 2050.

As T.J.Muscaro reports via The Epoch Times, the president’s opposition to the tax proposal follows a statement his administration made on Aug. 12.

Signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, the statement declared that the United States would retaliate against any of the member states of the IMO that backed it, stating it would be a global carbon tax that “harms the interests of the American people.”

“Under this framework, ships would have to pay fees for failing to meet unattainable fuel standards and emissions targets. These fees will drive up energy and transportation, and leisure cruise costs,” the statement read.

“Our fellow IMO members should be on notice that we will look for their support against this action and not hesitate to retaliate or explore remedies for our citizens should this endeavor fail,” it stated.

“We will fight hard to protect the American people and their economic interests.”

A vote would only occur at the IMO if member states do not agree upon a proposed regulation.

There are 176 member states of the IMO, but a passing vote would require a two-thirds majority of only the 108 member states that ratified previous legislation aiming to reduce shipping pollution.

If passed, the global emissions tax would take effect in 2027 and become “the first in the world” to impose greenhouse gas pricing and mandatory emission limits across an entire industry sector.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the IMO for a response to the U.S. president’s statement.