Lew Rockwell Institute

I was fully prepared to write a snide and scathing attack on Trumpenstein’s return to the White House. On his failure to do anything on “day one.” On his delay in pardoning the January 6 defendants. But I can’t do that. At least not yet. He shut me up. He produced an unprecedented flurry of executive orders, most of them very good.

Trump signed an order banning birth-right citizenship. This was eight years overdue, but better late than never. He signed one to reinstate members of the military who were discharged because they wouldn’t get vaccinated. With his warp speed vaccine, which he’s still bragging about, but still. And with back pay. He withdrew from the World Health Organization. Ordered all government DEI programs closed, and officially recognized the only two biological genders. Perhaps most importantly, he declared a national emergency at the southern border, and seemingly approved the use of U.S. troops to enforce it. Some of these were suggestions of mine, which I claimed Trump would act on, if he wasn’t an orange crisis actor. Maybe Trump does read my Substack. Regardless, these are commendable moves any way you look at it. Executive orders are no guarantee, but at least he signed a bunch of them.

Now, I am a bit concerned about the mass deportations. Which didn’t happen on “day one,” supposedly because of something going on in Chicago, where the deportations are supposed to start. In the last comment from Trump’s hard ass border czar Tom Homan, he was proclaiming that “mass deportations begin today.” That was January 21. I could find no updates on this. This appears to be more in line with what we saw in Trump’s first White House. “Mass deportations begin in two weeks.” Yes, “two more weeks” has become a meme to represent QAnon-style faith. Will we be saying “two more weeks” in perpetuity regarding the mass deportations? It’s perplexing, but all too familiar, to find no one questioning this anywhere online. Maybe Trump will shut me up again, and deport millions by the end of the month. Color me skeptical. But Trump has apparently already declassified the JFK files. So there’s that.

Trump’s inaugural address was fine, although not up to his first one, which in my view was the best since JFK’s. One odd aspect of the ceremony was the fact that Trump didn’t put his left hand on the Bible while taking the oath of office. What, did he watch my friend Bart Sibrel’s Astronauts Gone Wild video, where Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and the boys refused to swear on the Bible that they’d been to the moon? Seriously, that was very bizarre, and to my knowledge no one has asked Trump about this. Was this a sign that Trump doesn’t believe in God? Was he just trying to court more controversy, and get the likes of me to talk about it? Adding to the moment was First Lady Melania Trump, who was dressed in what resembled an art deco undertaker’s outfit, with a Clint Eastwood “Hang ‘em High” hat concealing most of her face. It was an unbecoming look for a woman who usually is elegant.

All the living ex-presidents were there, along with their wives. Except for Michelle Obama. Now, missing Trump’s inaugural might be passed off as attributable to her intense Trump Derangement Syndrome, but then why wasn’t she at Jimmy Carter’s funeral? Surely, she didn’t have anything against the man who was the face of Habitat for Humanity. Speculation is high that the Obamas’ marriage may be on the rocks. There is even a ridiculous rumor that Barack has been dating Jennifer Aniston. Maybe she doesn’t know about Larry Sinclair. Or the preposterous, over the top, scurrilous allegations about Big Mike. Started by Joan Rivers, right before she died suddenly during her ten billionth plastic surgery. Jennifer Aniston would scoff at such “conspiracy theories.” She’s from Hollywood. I wouldn’t get her upset by mentioning the woman who approved Obama’s birth certificate as legitimate being the only casualty in a plane crash. She could ask Trump- he knows all about that.

I don’t want to be a downer until I need to be, but there are some disturbing elements associated with the “Tech Bros” Trump now surrounds himself with. What is all this talk about promoting MRNA? A cancer vaccine? To stop a disease they created? Will they throw us some crumbs, finally give us a little “winning” to distract us from the real agenda? That’s what my friend John Brisson tossed out as a possibility months ago on our weekly “America Unplugged” show. Now Jon Rappaport is alleging that Trump ordered a “blackout” of external communications from HHS, FDA, NIH, and the CDC. HHS is where RFK, Jr. is supposed to be. If he miraculously gets approved that, is. It’s not like his nomination hearing is going to go as smoothly as “Little” Marco Rubio’s did. Where is RFK, Jr., anyway? I don’t remember seeing him at the inauguration. Maybe he was standing behind the giant Barron Trump.

Okay, I located RFK, Jr. in a photo. It was almost like playing “Where’s Waldo?” He was stuck in the second row of the “Tech Bros” section, right behind the Saul-like free speech convert Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos’ Latino fiancee. I think his gaze appears to be a bit lower than the fiancee’s cleavage, but she reportedly was receiving a lot of attention from the other “Tech Bros.” You have to figure that group has some former lonely nerds in it. Incels until they started making lots of money. Elon Musk has a penchant for goofy looks. And thrusting his arm out, almost like a Nazi. He acts way too exuberantly for the world’s richest man. But I guess that’s what you’d expect from someone who told some poor sap with the same number of followers on Twitter as me, to fuck himself in the face. And where was Vivek? Trump himself has lost weight, and his slightly altered hairstyle doesn’t look quite as fake.

I know what you’re saying; okay, Mr. I haven’t tucked my shirt in since 1979, what do you want the guy to do? You said he wouldn’t do anything on “day one,” and you’re still complaining. And I get it from the other side as well; stop throwing your lack of formal education in our face, bragging like you’re Jethro Bodine with a twelfth grade education, and pretending that Trump isn’t one of them. That comes with the territory when you’re a Trump Agnostic. I always treat Trump fairly. When he says something good, as he often does, I support him. When he does something good, which is rare, then I give him credit. I think I’ve done that in this Substack. If Trump lives up to his rhetoric, I’ll admit that I was wrong in coming up with the whole Trumpenstein Project thing. But if he governs like Trumpenstein again, then perhaps some of you will give me a little credit.

While Trump was rushing towards the Oval Office again, like the bull in a china shop he often resembles, outgoing President Joe Biden exited with class and dignity. Just kidding. It was about as undignified and classless as it gets. I thought that the rumors about him giving preemptive pardons to Deep State villains, in case Trump actually tried to prosecute some this time, were just racist hate concocted by the White Supremacists who really rule this land. But no, Biden actually did all that and more. He also pardoned his family members. Hunter isn’t the only criminal in that bunch. Among those pardoned were the honorable Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was the front man for the Greatest Psyop in the History of the World, and Liz Cheney and all the other members of the unconstitutional January 6 Committee, who tried in vain to get even the dumbed down American sheeple excited about their fake “insurrection.”

I’m not sure who Trump is going to prosecute, if he still intends to “drain the swamp.” He’s already said that Bill and Hillary are “good people.” The way he was carrying on with Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter’s funeral, you know he’s not about to look into his history. No, I think whatever else he actually does, Trump will not be prosecuting any member of the Deep State. And the built in excuse will be, “Hey, what could he do? That damn Biden pardoned them all!” That may be the excuse for none of his important executive orders being implemented as well. “Hey, it’s not Trump’s fault that an Obama appointed judge overruled his executive order!” Except that it could easily be a Trump appointed judge as well. But the excuse will be the same. The problem is Judicial Review, which only Thomas Jefferson and I seem to care about. Interestingly, some people have started telling me that I look like Jefferson. I think I’m more flattered than when they used to say I looked like Michael J. Fox.

By pardoning people who haven’t been charged with any crimes, the beloved Joe Biden advertised the fact that he thinks they might be guilty of something. The same people who are applauding Biden’s blanket pardons became apoplectic at the suggestion that Trump should have pardoned all the J6ers before he left office. “You can’t pardon someone who hasn’t been charged!” They screeched at the time. And yet now, four years later, their hero Biden has done just that. It’s a phony paradigm thing, you wouldn’t understand. Some pardons are apparently more equal than others. I’m sure Fauci won’t feel any remorse, as he collects the largest federal pension in history. It won’t stop Liz Cheney from pontificating from a position of moral authority. It’s amazing that she hasn’t been turned into a pillar of salt.

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Yesterday, there were a number of “headlines” in the US media claiming all foreign aid was stopped—except for Israel and Egypt. But the Pentagon weighed in today denying that it affects Ukraine:

“A Pentagon official confirmed that Trump’s executive order freezing foreign aid applies only to development programs, not security assistance to Ukraine.” -VOA

When I spoke with Judge Napolitano and Nima today, I had not seen these reports. However, while Trump’s order does not curtail security assistance (i.e., weapons, vehicles and ammunition) already in the pipeline, it does freeze the assistance funds that flow through State Department channels:

The Trump administration has reportedly frozen USAID projects as part of its foreign assistance audit

The Trump administration has frozen projects in Ukraine that were funded through the US Agency for International Development, Reuter reported on Friday, citing a USAID official.

The official told the news agency that USAID officers responsible for projects in Ukraine were told to stop all work. The projects that were frozen reportedly include support for schools and healthcare, including maternal care and the vaccination of children.

So part of the Ukrainian grift machine is shut down for the next three months. That is a start in the right direction.

Even if the US under the Trump administration continues to funnel weapons to Ukraine, this does not solve Ukraine’s fundamental weakness — i.e., the lack of trained soldiers. The New York Times published a bizarre piece of illogical nonsense today under the title, Ukraine Is Losing Fewer Soldiers Than Russia — but It’s Still Losing the War. This is simply a pile of fetid horse manure. I am not even going to waste time deconstructing the lies the permeate this piece of propaganda. Let’s deal with facts:

1. Russia has at least an 8:1 advantage in artillery shells since 2022.
2. Russia has air supremacy and is able to drop massive glide bombs on Ukrainian positions, while Ukraine has not comparable capability.
3. Russia has more drones and has deployed drones guided by fiber optic cable and artificial intelligence. Ukraine has no such capability.
4. Russia has more tanks and armored personnel carriers.

But we also have hard numbers from Ukrainian sources about a Ukrainian / Russian exchange of dead soldiers. Check out this graphic:

Yes, you are reading that correctly. Russia received the bodies of 49 soldiers and, in turn, delivered the remains of 757 Ukrainian troops. In other words, for every dead Russian soldier there were 15 dead Ukrainians. That data tells you everything you need to know about the true extent of Ukrainian losses and exposes the prevarication of the New York Times reporters.

However, the Times makes one damning admission:

Western intelligence agencies have been reluctant to disclose their internal calculations of Ukrainian casualties for fear of undermining an ally. American officials have previously said that Kyiv withholds this information from even the closest allies.

Yes, the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency are not reporting the real Ukrainian losses because of politics. Just one more example of the politicization of intelligence.

Turning to prospects for negotiations, President Putin spoke clearly and pointedly today about what to expect and blamed Trump’s actions in his first term, which created more tension with Russia:

This originally appeared on Sonar21.

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In a matter of days, the news of China’s AI sensation, DeepSeek R1, has gone from a gentle breeze to a Force 5 hurricane. It’s clear now that no one in Silicon Valley or Washington DC had the slightest idea that their world was about to be turned upside-down by an innovative new product that would shift the geopolitical plates further eastward. But that, in fact, is what has happened. And it’s not simply because DeepSeek’s latest version matches or exceeds the performance of America’s best model, OpenAI; but because it is cheaper, more accessible and more transparent. This is AI for everyone regardless of their station or income. And its sudden emergence from ‘out of the blue’ has cast doubts on the ability of western tech giants to anticipate the capability of their competitors or to lead an industry that is essential for Washington to preserve its ever-loosening grip on global power. Here’s a brief recap from Venture Beat:

….thanks to the release of DeepSeek R1, a new large language model that performs “reasoning” similar to OpenAI’s current best-available model o1 — taking multiple seconds or minutes to answer hard questions and solve complex problems as it reflects on its own analysis in a step-by-step, or “chain of thought” fashion.

Not only that, but DeepSeek R1 scored as high or higher than OpenAI’s o1 on a variety of third-party benchmarks…, and was reportedly trained at a fraction of the cost…, with far fewer graphics processing units (GPU) under a strict embargo imposed by the U.S., OpenAI’s home turf.

But unlike o1, which is available only to paying ChatGPT subscribers of the Plus tier ($20 per month) and more expensive tiers (such as Pro at $200 per month), DeepSeek R1 was released as a fully open source model, which also explains why it has quickly rocketed up the charts of AI code sharing community Hugging Face’s most downloaded and active models. Why everyone in AI is freaking out about DeepSeek, Venture Beat

“Freaking out” is probably the understatement of the century. Silicon Valley is in a full-blown emotional meltdown and the path forward is far from certain. As we will see further along, western tech mandarins are going to have to return to Square 1 and modify their approach to the new reality. In short, the agenda is being set by people with different priorities, values and beliefs who live 10,000 miles away. They do not ascribe to the idea that advances in technology should reinforce police-state surveillance or other repressive forms of social control.(as they do in the West) Their vision of the future is altogether different, but invariably optimistic.

Did you notice that “DeepSeek R1 scored as high or higher than OpenAI’s o1 (while) under a strict embargo imposed by the US”?

In other words, these Chinese whiz-kids created their cutting-edge version with one hand tied behind their back. They shrugged off Washington’s onerous sanctions and beat Uncle Sam at his own game, which is quite an accomplishment. (Forbes: “U.S. export controls on advanced semiconductors were intended to slow China’s AI progress, but they may have inadvertently spurred innovation.”) Here’s more:

thanks to the fact that it is fully open source, people have already fine-tuned and trained many multiple variations of the model for different task-specific purposes such as making it small enough to run on a mobile device or combining it with other open-source models. Even if you want to use it for development purposes, DeepSeek’s API costs are more than 90% cheaper than the equivalent o1 model from OpenAI. Why everyone in AI is freaking out about DeepSeek, Venture Beat

Cheaper, more adaptable and more transparent. Is there more? There is:

Most impressively of all, you don’t even need to be a software engineer to use it: DeepSeek has a free website and mobile app even for U.S. users with an R1-powered chatbot interface very similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Except, once again, DeepSeek undercut or “mogged” OpenAI by connecting this powerful reasoning model to web search — something OpenAI hasn’t yet done…Why everyone in AI is freaking out about DeepSeek, Venture Beat

Is the author right; are the tech-honchos and their moneybags allies “freaking out” over DeepSeek or do they see it as a minor glitch on the road to AI supremacy? Here’s how he answers that question:

A message posted to Blind… has been making the rounds suggesting Meta is in crisis over the success of DeepSeek because of how quickly it surpassed Meta’s own efforts to be the king of open source AI with its Llama models.

It sounds like a lot of people are very concerned, and for good reason. DeepSeek is a nuclear bomb detonated in the heart of Silicon Valley. It is a straight-up challenge to America’s de facto Royal Family of tech Brahmins who thought their reign would last forever. Now they find themselves playing ‘catch-up’ with an upstart cadre of bluestocking brainiacs who are bringing their world crashing down around them. More importantly, the future of AI is being decided in Hangzhou not Palo Alto which means we might see a lull in the warmaking as Uncle Sam finds it harder to finance his endless bloodletting. What a welcome reprieve that would be.

The author of the above piece even quotes one of my favorite analysts on X, Arnaud Bertrand, an invaluable source of unbiased information about developments in China. Here’s what he said:

“There’s no overstating how profoundly this changes the whole game. And not only with regards to AI, it’s also a massive indictment of the US’s misguided attempt to stop China’s technological development, without which Deepseek may not have been possible…”

Yep, the whole semiconductor embargo-thing backfired spectacularly illustrating once again that we are ruled by incompetent lamebrains who love to punish people for violations to rules they make up on-the-fly. Just look at the mess these ‘geniuses’ have made.

We’ll end with Bertrand’s insightful critique of Trump’s $500 billion Stargate boondoggle which will be obsolete before they even break ground:

Stargate, if it goes forward, is likely to become one of the biggest wastages of capital in history:

1) It hinges on outdated assumptions about the importance of computing scale in AI (the ‘bigger compute = better AI’ dogma), which DeepSeek just proved is wrong.

2) It assumes that the future of AI is with closed and controlled models despite the market’s clear preference for democratized, open-source alternatives

3) It clings to a Cold War playbook, framing AI dominance as a zero-sum hardware arms race, which is really at odds with the direction AI is taking (again, open-source software, global developer communities, and collaborative ecosystems)

4) It bets the farm on OpenAI—a company plagued by governance issues and a business model that’s seriously challenged DeepSeek’s 30x cost advantage.

In short it’s like building a half a trillion dollars digital Maginot line: a very expensive monument to obsolete and misguided assumptions. This is OpenAI and by extension the US fighting the last war.
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand

Or, as Jim Fan said: the … future of AI is democratization…. It’s the tide of history that we should surf on, not swim against.…Jim Fan @DrJimFan

Indeed, it is.

Reprinted with permission from The Unz Review.

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In recent articles I have emphasized that President Trump and his supporters are in a life and death fight with cultural marxists who are dedicated to America’s destruction and who are institutionalized in every American institution—media, universities, law schools, Democrat Party, feminists, DEI contractors and corporations, Wall Street as epitomized by Blackrock, and the bureaucracies of every cabinet department and every federal agency.  Essentially, it is President Trump and a few appointees at war with the entirety of the US government and educational and media establishments. Trump has arrived at the fight late in the game when the long march through the institutions is essentially complete. 

In an article in the current issue of the City Journal, “Counterrevolution Blueprint,” Christopher F. Rufo, describes the extent to which the US government is in the hands of the enemy.  In the 2020 presidential election  employees of the Justice (sic) Department, gave 86 percent of their political contributions to Democrats. Labor Department employees gave 88 percent to Democrats. Health and Human Services 92 percent, and Education Department employees gave 97 percent.  Rufo reports that these one-sided political donations are mirrored by tech companies and universities, bastions of left-wing ideologies and activism.

To give you an idea of just how bad the situation is, the Treasury Department, the task of which is economic policy, financing the debt and raising revenue, during the Obama regime added a new bureaucracy, “The office for Minority and Women Inclusion,” that is totally outside the Treasury’s responsibilities.  This office continued under Trump’s first term, Rufo reports, and proselytized “critical race theory as an operating ideology, hiring consultants to conduct training programs teaching Treasury employees that America is a nation of systemic racism with a 400-year history of racial terrorism” that continues today. 

During the Biden regime another activist left-wing bureaucracy was created in the Treasury, an Equity Hub with a Counselor for Racial Equity. Janet Yellen, the Jewish Secretary of the Treasury, and Kamala Harris, the black Vice President, quickly announced a $8.7 billion fund for lending only to minority-owned businesses, a blatantly discriminatory policy in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 14th Amendment.  You can imagine how many “minority-owned” firms were quickly created  so that “deserving” people could be made millionaires by the US taxpayers.  And you can rest assured that neither Yellen nor Harris were held accountable for violating law and the Constitution.

Not even this was enough. The Treasury forced federal contractors to implement DEI and monitored tax returns to make sure that tax-exempt donations to charities were racially balanced.

Rufo describes the efforts of Nixon, Reagan, and Trump 1 to get the bureaucracy in compliance with the President’s policy.  All failed.  Nevertheless, Rufo has hope for Trump 2, and he sets out the necessary elements for taking back the President’s and the people’s power from a hostile civil service that is united against American values and are substituting the values of cultural marxism in their place.

Rufo makes it clear that if Trump 2 fails, “the American experiment will come to an end: bureaucratic rule will devour the constitutional order.”

I certainly agree, having made many of these points myself.  The question is:  How realistic is it that Trump and a few appointees can subdue millions of people whose far-left ideology is guiding the US government and who not only despise Trump’s view of America but also hate Trump personally.  It is impossible for Trump to achieve unity with ideologues supported by the Democrat Party who are totally opposed to his view of America.

The competence and objectivity of the civil service, long under liberal attack, was finished off when the Clinton regime pushed the white male senior civil service into early retirement in order to “make room” for blacks and females. It was part of “affirmative action.” The DEI legions have been growing for decades.  They are firm in their belief that white heterosexuals are racist, and they intend to finish the process started with discriminatory “affirmative action” to make normal white Americans second class citizens in law and position. Insouciant whites have enabled their own suppression by turning over positions of power to their enemies.  It remains to be seen whether this was a fatal mistake that has doomed a merit-based color-blind society.

Where among critical race theorists and denouncers of Western–which means white–Civilization is there good will to which Trump can appeal? Democrat judges and a number of insouciant Republican ones will act to block Trump’s efforts. Trump has to be prepared to ride roughshod over them, their rulings be damned, just as they have ridden roughshod over the American people for decades.  Trump cannot accept the rulings as anything but weaponized judicial statements no different than the weaponized law used against him, the January 6 protesters, and the right-to-life protesters.

Karl Marx said that good will was not an operative principle because each class acted only in its own interest.  So what mediates between classes?  Marx said that violence was the only effective force in history.  Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot relied on violence. Formerly I disputed this view of the efficacy of violence, but just as we did not deal with Hitler based on good will, we cannot rely on goodwill when dealing with internal enemies who  intend to destroy America with open borders and legal privileges based on race, gender, and sexual preference. As I am convinced that good will has played a role in effecting reforms, today perhaps I would modify Marx’s claim. I would substitute “effective” in place of “only.”  Violence is an effective force in history. It seems that real change is impossible without it as the American Revolution exemplifies. 

Today the clash is no longer between economic classes based on material interest.  The clash is ideological. The America-is-evil forces are intent on replacing a color-blind merit-based society with a society based on race, gender, and sexual preference privilege. It is an ideological struggle like the one Lenin and Mao launched on Russian and Chinese societies.  

It is truly a fight to the death. If Trump loses, America loses as Rufo said.

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How do we recognize artistic merit today? What relation does it have with popularity? How important is fame in measuring the artist? Why is merit often unmatched by success, whereas the latter and mediocrity are almost one and the same? All one has to do is look at Hollywood and its products of nonstop horror films, but I’m not going there, the place is a burned-out case, pun intended.

The vexing question implicit in my quest is how do we recognize artistic merit? Everyone knew that Mozart was a miracle and that Beethoven, Bach, Schubert, and countless others were geniuses. Their merit stuck out; just think of poor old very talented Salieri. Among poets Keats is the greatest, but you couldn’t get Byron to agree. He badmouthed the dirt-poor and dying Keats because deep down inside he must have known his Byronic verses to be inferior. (Not many will agree with me, but unlike the Brits who adore the mad, bad and dangerous-to-know philhellene, I’m a romantic, and Keats is number one.) Music, painting—the greatest of all is Edward Hopper, the worst the late Picasso—and poetry aside, writing is the art that most intrigues me, an art that can easily be faked, or so it seems at times when I read modern fiction. (Which I admit I never do past a page or two at most.)

“Like all great writers his passion had chosen him, not the other way round.”

Regular readers of yours truly know all about Hemingway and Fitzgerald and how they are the two writers I can never get enough of. The third one is an Englishman, almost unknown today, but he was the richest and most famous of his time, Somerset Maugham. The Bloomsbury literary elite put him down, as they would, their experimental crap being unreadable, they being mostly homosexual, frustrated, and pretty ugly to look at. But Of Human Bondage, Cakes and Ale, The Moon and Sixpence, “Rain,” The Letter, The Razor’s Edge, and countless other stories are superb, psychologically deep, imaginative, technically superior, and precise.

Maugham called himself three-quarters homosexual, but he had fathered a daughter, Lisa—whose beautiful daughter is a friend of mine and is now Countess Chandon—with Syrie Maugham, who by all accounts was a ballbuster. Somerset had at one time four plays running simultaneously in London, and his books were all bestsellers. He was rich and famous and generous, but the English and the critics never went overboard, and I think I know why. Envy is the English disease, and Maugham chose to live in the grand style and visit places most Brits had never heard of.

Is genius originality? I’m not so sure because there are too many con men and con women out there faking the original. Maugham created the perfect human being in Larry Darrell, which is quite a feat for a novelist. Max Kelada, hero of “Mister Know-All,” is annoying, a braggart, a drunk, and a womanizer, but as it turns out more of a gentleman than anyone else on board. Once you’ve read Maugham the mostly feminine auto-fiction of today becomes unreadable. Critics of the time had reservations about him, most likely due to envy and the fact the writer examined pure artistic desire unmotivated by outside influences. Maugham was always extremely humble about his talent, always putting his writing down, but it was not a pose. Like all great writers his passion had chosen him, not the other way round. His books became bestsellers from day one, yet another reason for the envious critics to find fault.

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Ever since the 2008/2009 housing crash, I’ve been hearing one financial guru after another talk about how the United States was heading into another financial collapse. Each had their reasons, all of which sounded plausible. But that didn’t necessarily make them true. There’s something different going on today though… this is, they’re all talking about the impending financial collapse; not just one or two of them.

It’s a question that many of us are afraid to ask but can’t ignore any longer. Is the United States on the verge of a massive collapse? Signs are all around us, whispering — or even shouting — that something is about to give. The nation that once prided itself on being a beacon of stability and prosperity is now teetering on the edge of an uncertain future. From economic instability and political turmoil to resource shortages, all signs point to a coming crisis. But are these just fleeting storms, or is this a signal of a larger, inevitable collapse?

Let’s take a look at the indicators that suggest America may be headed for a breakdown. Strap in, because this ride may get a little bumpy.

Economic Instability: The Ticking Time Bomb

One of the clearest signs that the United States is on shaky ground is economic instability. The American economy has often been compared to a house of cards—each card being another fragile piece of a system that could collapse if just one card falls.

Massive national debt, rising inflation, a stagnant job market, and an over-reliance on printed money have all combined to create a perfect storm.

Consider the rising national debt, which currently stands at over $36 trillion. That’s $36,000,000,000,000 — a number so large that it’s almost meaningless to the average person. The problem? It’s not meaningless to the people and nations holding that debt. As interest rates rise, the cost of servicing this debt increases, leaving less money for essential services. Essentially, we’re paying off our credit cards with another credit card, and eventually, the lenders are going to want their money back.

Add to that the skyrocketing cost of living. Inflation has been chipping away at the average person’s buying power, and it’s no surprise that Americans are finding it harder and harder to afford basic necessities. Rent, food, gas—you name it—everything costs more, while wages aren’t keeping pace. The gap between the wealthy and the poor has grown so vast that it’s almost as if they’re living in two different countries. The best thing you can do right now is to be as self-sufficient as possible.

Political Turmoil: The Divide Widens

You don’t need to be a political analyst to see that the United States is deeply divided. Red versus blue, left versus right—it feels like we’re living in an era where people are less interested in finding common ground and more interested in proving that the “other side” is the enemy. This is more than just typical political banter; it’s reaching a boiling point.

The recent re-election of Donald Trump in 2024 has only deepened these divisions. While some celebrate his return, others see it as a catalyst for further instability. Trump’s victory was not without drama—he survived two assassination attempts during the presidential campaign, which has only added fuel to the fire. The fact that these attempts occurred speaks to just how fragile the political climate is, and how far people are willing to go when they feel unheard or threatened.

The constant political gridlock in Washington D.C. means that important decisions are either delayed or never made at all. Congress seems unable to agree on anything, even when the stakes are at their highest. The two-party system—once a proud staple of American democracy—has become more about maintaining power than serving the people. Leaders are more focused on short-term wins for their party than the long-term health of the nation.

Resource Shortages: The Looming Scarcity

When we think of collapse, many of us picture empty grocery store shelves, long gas lines, or electricity blackouts.

The reality is, we’re already seeing signs of resource shortages that point toward a much larger crisis.

Water, for instance, is becoming a scarce resource in many parts of the country. States like California and Arizona have been battling droughts for years, and the overuse of the Colorado River has led to critical shortages. Many Americans still live under the illusion that clean water will always be available—but as shortages spread, it’s becoming increasingly clear that this is a dangerous assumption.

Food shortages are also becoming more frequent. Whether it’s supply chain disruptions, extreme weather, or poor agricultural yields, the reality is that our food system is vulnerable. Global instability only adds to the problem—if we’re reliant on imported goods, then any disruption outside the U.S. affects our supply here at home. The ‘just-in-time’ delivery model, where supplies arrive exactly when needed, leaves no room for errors or delays. The shelves may be stocked today, but one significant crisis could change that overnight.

The Real Estate Market: Another Domino?

The housing market, which was a central player in the 2008 financial crisis, looks unstable again. While some areas have seen home values soar, others are seeing stagnant or dropping prices—a sign that demand is inconsistent and the market is losing its balance.

Mortgage rates are rising, making homes unaffordable for many first-time buyers. We could be on the brink of another housing bubble burst, which would have disastrous consequences for the entire economy.

Homelessness is also becoming an increasingly visible issue. Cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle have seen tent encampments become a permanent part of the landscape. When more and more people are unable to afford a roof over their head, you can be sure that societal collapse is inching closer.

Read the Whole Article

The post For Those of You Waiting on Massive Collapse… Get Ready for a Rocky Financial Road appeared first on LewRockwell.

Ep. 248: “Bitcoin Jesus” Begs Trump! Rekieta Gets Plea Deal! Pardons, Deportations, Bird Flu & MORE!

The post Watch Robert Barnes’ Epic Takedown of the GOP War Whores and Coporate Lobbyist Deep State Slime Such as Mitch McConnell, Susie Wiles and Other Phony “Conservatives” Sabotaging the RFK Jr./Gabbard Nominations appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks, David Krall. 

The post This Police Department Is Cooked appeared first on LewRockwell.

Click Here:

John Leake

The post Understanding Bioweapons appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks, Saleh Abdullah. 

Daily Mail

The post Chilling Pentagon document reveals war-provoking reason ‘Deep State’ has always feared release of JFK assassination files appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks,  Rick Rozoff.

As Soros is poised to seize control of over 200 radio stations in the U.S.

The post Biden grants friend Soros highest honor as he criticizes “oligarchs” appeared first on LewRockwell.

Writes John Smit:

American people  deserve to be told the real truth about the Israeli attack on the Liberty ship not just about  the assassination of JFK, MLK Jr, RFK. Will Trump do that?

The post Will the American people finally learn the truth about the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty? appeared first on LewRockwell.

Click Here:

Steve Kirsch

The post The latest round in the $2M debate appeared first on LewRockwell.

Ginny Garner writes:

Lew,

Rep. Thomas Massie posted a photo on his X account of him posing with farmer, lecturer and author Joel Salatin that generated a lot of comments. Both liberty loving activists were looking dapper in their tuxes at the MAHA inauguration ball. Salatin shared details on the new documentary about him on his blog.

See here.

The post New Documentary on Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks, John Frahm.

Reclaim the Net

The post Trump Signs Executive Order Banning CBDCs appeared first on LewRockwell.

After all of the crazed, leftist hoopla over the so-called Elon Musk “Nazi salute”, PBS came under fire for posting an article and Tweets claiming it was a real “sieg heil” moment. “Defund NPR” is a thing now, as it should be. Others came along and claimed it was a “Donald Trump White Power moment.”

Even a Jewish New York State Senator claimed that Musk was pretty much signaling the end of the Jewish race because a photograph caught his arm movement in “just the right” position.

Then along came an unnamed person who had too much time on his hands and he created a meme. A beautiful meme.

The post Will the real Nazi please step forward. appeared first on LewRockwell.

Potentially coming to a theatre near you.

The post Pharma Bots appeared first on LewRockwell.

JFK warned that “The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secrecy … We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it.”

The 60-year strategy of lies and secrecy, disinformation, censorship, and defamation employed by Intel officials to obscure and suppress troubling facts about JFK’s assassination has provided the playbook for a series of subsequent crises — the MLK and RFK assassinations, Vietnam, 9/11, the Iraq war and COVID — that have each accelerated the subversion of our exemplary democracy by the Military/Medical Industrial Complex and pushed us further down the road toward totalitarianism.

“A nation that does not trust its people is a nation that is afraid of its people.” A government that withholds information is inherently fearful of its citizens’ ability to make informed decisions and participate actively in democracy.

Thank you, President Trump for trusting American citizens and for taking the first step down the road towards reversing this disastrous trajectory.

The post Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on President Donald Trump’s Declassification and Release of All Documents and Files Pertaining to the Assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK Jr. appeared first on LewRockwell.

Held a giant rally in the Illinois state fairgrounds a mere 57 years after the War to Prevent Southern Independence, as seen in this photo from the time.  The popular governor of Illinois was seeking a third term and obviously thought he would become even more popular by granting a permit to the KKK to hold its rally at the state fairgrounds.

Have we all been lied to when we were taught in the government’s elementary schools that the mid 19th century Yankees from New England and the upper Midwest were so saintly, so holy, so benevolent, so racially enlightened, so self-sacrificing, that they were willing to die by the hundreds of thousands solely for the benefit of black strangers in Mississippi, Alabama, and elsewhere?  If so, why were so many of their descendants in the KKK?  Did the Boston Irish who fought for the Union Army really have that much unbridled love for black people?  Did Abraham Lincoln, who throughout his entire adult life advocated the deportation (aka “colonization”) of all black people?

The post The KKK in the “Land of Lincoln” appeared first on LewRockwell.