Debt Rattle September 2 2026
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Henri Matisse Sorrow of the King 1952 • Dangerous Talk of Putin’s ‘Loss’ in Ukraine (VIPS) • Russia Moving Towards Resolving Ukraine Conflict – Putin
[See the full post at: Debt Rattle September 2 2026]Iran RAZES US Marine Barracks! Trump’s FATAL Mistake | Larry Johnson & Col. Lawrence Wilkerson
Fmr CIA analyst Larry Johnson and Col Lawrence Wilkerson discuss the mass casualty event rocking Trump and the Pentagon as Iran retaliates hard against US bases following a horrific war crime on a wedding party in Southern Iran. A deployment of US Marine Corps just took heavy casualties and we break down exactly how devastating it all is in this must watch show.
Economist Professor Richard Wolff explains why he believes the American empire is in decline—and why China and Asia are shaping the future of the global economy. We discuss the history of U.S. colonialism, the failures of American capitalism, China’s hybrid economic model, the economic consequences of the Iran war, and the growing appeal of socialism in the United States. Professor Wolff also examines whether America and China can peacefully coexist, how the upcoming midterm elections could reshape American politics, and why both Republicans and Democrats may be unprepared for the dramatic changes ahead.
🔵 Follow Professor Wolff’s YouTube Here: / @richarddwolff
🔵 Follow Professor Wolff’s and Democracy Now here: https://x.com/democracynow00:00 – Intro to Professor Richard Wolff
00:30 – Can the United States Empire Survive?
01:59 – Why the US Empire Will Collapse
02:57 – The History of the US Colonialism
07:05 – The United States’s Biggest Mistake
08:28 – Why China and Asia is the Future
09:18 – Can the US and China Work Together?
10:25 – What is China Doing Better Than the US?
11:55 – How the US Lost China
12:45 – The Problem with US Capitalism
16:00 – Why the Chinese Hybrid Economy Will Win
17:55 – Why the Chinese Economy Outperforms the US
19:45 – How China Rose from Poverty
21:35 – How China Outperformed Every Other Country
23:15 – Is the Chinese Economy Slowing Down?
24:30 – Will the Iran War Dethrone the United States?
25:33 – How the US Lost in Vietnam and Afghanistan
26:45 – Why the Iran War is Different
27:45 – How Socialism is Growing in America
31:04 – How Will the Midterms Change America?
34:05 – Why the Republicans and Democrats Are in Trouble
36:50 – Why the Future Will Be Very Different
38:57 – Final ThoughtsInvesting In Reality https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/investing-in-reality
Surplus Energy Economics, The evolution of inverting scarcities – CAN WE DISINVEST IN MONEY?
Value is a function of scarcity, and few have yet recognised a dramatic tilt in the balance of scarcities in the economy.
The material, long assumed to be almost limitless in potential supply, is turning out to be severely constrained. Money, hitherto limited in quantity by at least some degree of policy restraint, has latterly become recklessly super-abundant, to the point of looming value destruction.
There is a direct correspondence between the ending and reversal of meaningful economic growth and this rebalancing of scarcities. One of the most enduring myths in economics is the fallacy that a flagging material economy can be reinvigorated using monetary tools…
..Since 2005, and stated at constant values, global debt has grown by 150%, and broader financial assets (which are not disclosed in full) by not less than 175%.
Nothing in the material economy has come anywhere near these rates of monetary expansion. Over that twenty-year period, energy consumption has increased by 34%, all-important ex-cost surplus energy by 26% and material economic prosperity by 24%.
On the basis of inflecting comparative scarcities, investors should, ideally, be shorting anything monetary, and going long on the material…
..To do this, of course, we need first to recognise the critical conceptual distinction between the physical and the monetary. Properly understood, any reference to “the” economy is a misnomer. The “financial” economy of money, transactions and credit is a parallel and proxy for the underlying “real” economy of material products and services.
This two economies conception is implicit in the nature of money. Irrespective of format, money is token, not substance – for the economic traveller, it’s map, not territory. Money has no intrinsic worth, and commands value only as an exercisable claim on those material things for which it can be exchanged… If the monetary out-grows the material, the only possible outcome is that shift in the monetary-material rate of exchange which is experienced as inflation…
..It is … surely self-evident that the economy is primarily an energy system, yet concepts such as the rate at which energy use converts into value, and the proportionate Energy Cost of Energy, are nowhere to be found in standard texts…
..The “real” economy operates by using energy to convert other natural resources – minerals, non-metallic mining products, chemicals, biomass and water – into goods, and into those artefacts and infrastructures without which no worthwhile service can be supplied…
..The rate at which raw materials convert into products and artefacts has been degraded gradually by depletion. The … Energy Cost of Energy – has been rising relentlessly, climbing from 2.0% in 1980, and 4.3% in 2000, to more than 11% today…
..It has always been obvious that growth must end eventually, since infinite economic expansion is a logical impossibility on an ultimately finite planet. This wouldn’t matter all that much if the moment of inflexion lay 100 years or more in the future. What really matters is whether the economy will stop growing and start to shrink within a relevant timescale.
This question has now been answered in the affirmative. We know, at very high levels of confidence, that meaningful economic growth is ending, and that contraction lies ahead… These conclusions have been reached through an analytical path from first principles, but have abundant observational confirmation in events and trends that we can see around us…
..Broadly speaking, there are two schools of thought about happens when growth ends and contraction begins. One predicts chaotic collapse, and the other a gradual and perhaps manageable decline…
..First, which economy are we addressing? Will it be the “financial” economy that either collapses or contracts, or does one or other of these fates lie in store for the “real” economy of the material?
Second, neither set of prophecies takes account of the critical process of economic evolution. Growth has never been a matter of ‘a little more, year after year, of exactly the same thing’. The economy has always evolved in shape and character, and will not cease doing so as it moves from growth into contraction…
..What we should anticipate is that the polarity of economic evolution will reverse. Hitherto, evolution has taken the combined form of ever-greater complexity and ever-more financialisation. From here on, the trend of evolution will be towards the simplified and the de-monetised…
..Financialisation involves an increase in the amount of monetary activity associated with any given quantity of material economic output.
It’s noteworthy that a high proportion of economic activity was informal at the start of the industrial age. It’s been reckoned that, in Early Modern times – roughly 1500 to 1750 – only 20-30% of economic activity was monetised at all… It’s hard to tax informal economic activity, and equally difficult to make much of a profit out of it. Monetisation proceeded only gradually in the wake of industrialisation…
..With the specialist exception of monopolies of colonial trade – as in the British and Dutch East Indies – no large commercial enterprises would exist until the railway boom of the 1840s. Indeed, nobody even saw a need for the limited liability corporate structure until the 1850s. Until then, the economy wasn’t monetised enough for this to be necessary, and small firms predominated…
..Only later would the commercial world start to experience the rise of big business, the emergence of an executive class and “the divorce between ownership and control”. In these terms, the development of the railway was a lot more significant than the harnessing of steam itself. Steam engines could power mills and factories, which remained small-scale enterprises – but railways needed standardised steel products in abundance, a big supply of literate and numerate labour, and access to large pools of capital.
Financialisation has proceeded hand-in-hand with complexification, with the latter often used as a reinforcement for the former… Vehicles have always needed electrics – lights, ignition, instruments and so on – but electronics have added comparatively little in the way of utility for the consumer. Rather, the aim has been to impose post-sale financial liens on the customer. This was exemplified when BMW announced, in 2022, that the heated seats on its cars would cease to work unless purchasers took out an $18/month subscription. This was quietly dropped, perhaps because it was a too-blatant case… But the general direction of travel has remained that of value-extracting, over-the-air control of vehicles after sale, enacted through advanced electronics. For the manufacturer, one great advantage of this imposed complexity is that owners and small workshops cannot maintain and repair advanced electronics…
..Industry preference will have very little say in what happens from here. Just as prosperity is declining, so the real costs of energy-intensive necessities are rising relentlessly. If the automobile industry is to survive into this future of contracting affordability, cars will have to become both longer-lived and cheaper to purchase and maintain. In essence, changing economic conditions will impose simplification on the industry…
..This simplification, with its associated de-financialisation, forms a tendency that Barry Cooper calls localism, a process whereby failing centralised, top-down systems are replaced by localised, bottom-up alternatives. Much of Cooper’s analysis is based on the elimination of costs associated with complexity… “In many private care homes, particularly those owned by private equity, debt repayment alone can account for 10–20% of total care fees”.
This, Cooper says, “is public money, not used to improve lives but to finance commercial borrowing”. It’s also something that can no longer be afforded.
Likewise, food has become excessively expensive because, during the long years of complexification, numerous interim stages have been interposed within extended supply-chains between the grower and the consumer of food…
..None of this – localism, informality of employment, at-home care for the elderly and the infirm, the replacement of top-down institutional systems and the elimination of intermediary stages – might sound like a winning political manifesto. But this is beside the point, since – as with the automobile industry, cited earlier – alternatives will be eliminated by the ending and reversal of growth.
“Middle-men” will be removed from supply systems by the same processes that are already depressing the affordability of discretionary (non-essential) products and services. The employees made redundant by these trends will be absorbed into an economy in which human labour starts to replace declining supplies of exogenous energy.
For the planner, the point to grasp is that the ending and reversal of growth – a process that we cannot prevent – will introduce trends tending irresistibly towards simplification and de-financialisation.
Governments will need to seek solutions of quality, now that solutions of quantity, predicated on growth, have ceased to be possible. Businesses will be driven by practical conditions towards simplification of product and process.
Ultimately, there’s no reason why the “real” economy of the material shouldn’t contract in a reasonably manageable way. But the complex will fail. https://surplusenergyeconomics.wordpress.com/2026/08/31/328-the-evolution-of-inverting-scarcities/Hegseth is the wife-beating “traitor” IMHO: ‘Betrayal’: Internal Pentagon Spat Emerges Over Leaked Middle East Deployment Plans
A number of US military top generals have taken the rare step of formally registering warnings to Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth over potential plans for a new phase of strikes against a non-compliant Iran.
The warnings reportedly emerged through the Secretary of Defense Orders Book, which enumerates the availability of US military resources and force posture around the world – with direct input from American regional commanders.
That section from the WaPo report reads as follows: Army and Air Force leadership concurred with Hegseth’s desire to extend their deployed forces, but each emphasized that doing so would come with significant risk, these people said.
Overall, the tenor from the military leadership is that the ongoing Iran operation, having reached the six-month mark, has been “too much for too long,” said one person familiar with the assessment.
The military’s warning to Hegseth, which has not been previously reported, offers new insight into the administration’s dilemma as Trump seeks to end the conflict on terms favorable to the United States while Iran, cognizant of the war’s unpopularity with most Americans and its mounting toll on the U.S. arsenal, refuses to capitulate…
..Some pundits are warning that this alleged rare leak is an alarming sign Trump could be preparing to do something ‘big’. https://www.zerohedge.com/military/betrayal-internal-pentagon-spat-emerges-over-leaked-middle-east-deployment-plansDetails from Times of India: 4 General & Admirals disagreed with continuation of Iran War, a “Non-Concur” documented in writing.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/did-us-military-warn-hegseth-over-iran-war-strain-before-latest-escalation-what-report-claims/articleshow/133642370.cmsIran’s Pezeshkian Gets Red Carpet Treatment Alongside Putin, Xi, Modi & Erdogan At Eurasian Summit
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is busy getting the red carpet treatment while attending the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit. Chinese President Xi Jinping, his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have arrived in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek for the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit – the primarily China/Russia founded Eurasian political, economic and international security organization which is now made up of ten member states. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/irans-pezeshkian-gets-red-carpet-treatment-alongside-putin-xi-modi-erdogan-eurasianGold & Geopolitics, Daily digest: 2026-09-01
Two things genuinely broke overnight: the Japanese government bond curve (10Y through 3% for the first time since 1996, 30Y at an all-time high) and the Hormuz shipping truce, with a Saudi VLCC struck by three missiles and Maersk reporting two supertankers hit.
Everything else is continuation with harder numbers – the SPR is at a 44-year low with 34 million barrels of statutory headroom left, the US diesel crack is knocking on $100/bbl, and Russia has taken Odesa’s port complex offline. The one genuinely new institutional story: the Army Secretary and his deputy both walked inside 24 hours…
..The Kharg Island footage was synthetic. Trump posted video captioned as Kharg being destroyed; the Defense Department then denied the US struck it. shanaka86 has the full chronology including Reuters’ AI-detection result and NIOC’s response. Corroborated by financialjuice and thesiriusreport. The actual operation was 660km east: two rocket launchers on Larak Island…
..On Larak: Mark4XX relays a Malcolm Nance reading that the Fajr-5 launchers were positioned to deliver smart mines into the Fujairah anchorage rather than the strait itself – the tanker parking lot the mine-clearance announcement never covered. Single-source, but a coherent explanation for why Larak specifically…
..Bonds: the JGB break drags every sovereign curve with it – Japan’s move is not isolated. France’s 30Y hit 4.9274%, highest since September 2008 (DeItaone); the French 10Y is at post-GFC highs (Barchart); Germany’s 10Y Bund at 3.31%, highest since 2011 and ~18bp below the 2011 peak (Schuldensuehner); Australia’s 10Y at its highest since 2011; Italy’s 10Y up 5bp to 4.15% (zerohedge).
The US 10Y topped 4.75%, highest since January 2025, and zerohedge flags that the move is being driven by TIPS with breakevens barely moving – so it’s supply, demand, or growth, not inflation expectations.
Twelve days after the Treasury’s buyback intervention was announced, yields are at a 19-month high (KobeissiLetter)…
..SPR: 34 million barrels of headroom, and Venezuelan crude that physically will not go in the caverns. https://no1sdailydigest.substack.com/p/daily-digest-2026-09-01Gold & Geopolitics, Daily digest: 2026-08-31
The Iran war restarted overnight after five quiet weeks: the US hit missile launchers on Larak Island, Iran answered with ballistic missiles at two US airbases in Jordan and drones at Al Minhad in the UAE, and a supertanker in the US-escorted southern Hormuz corridor caught fire on two naval mines.
Brent gapped back above $90 and Hormuz transits collapsed to five vessels a day. Everything else – Sumy villages falling, ag futures streaking, Warsh’s hawkish hangover – is continuation, but the Patriot interceptor burn rate and the leaked Pentagon “non-concur” are the two numbers that actually changed the picture.
US strikes Larak Island; Iran retaliates against US bases in Jordan and the UAE. First US strike on Iranian territory in ~30 days per HormuzLetter, targeting two IRGC missile launchers (Axios via zerohedge, MenchOsint). IRGC says the strike killed and wounded soldiers and civilians (BRICSinfo); MoloWarMonitor reports two IRGC soldiers killed and several injured, drone launched from a base in Jordan. Iran’s response: ballistic missiles and Shahed-136 drones at two Jordanian airbases (jonelmer), drones at Al Minhad in the UAE (AJENews, ejmalrai), sirens in Qatar over Al Udeid (MenchOsint), and an MQ-9A downed (MenchOsint)…
US line: “no significant impacts, nearly all incoming intercepted” per a Fox source (CrusadeAgain). IRGC claims destroyed jets and technical/repair infrastructure at both bases.
Patriot magazine burn is the strategic story, and the numbers diverge. HormuzLetter counts 96–160 PAC-3 MSE fired at 32–40 Iranian ballistic missiles – 3–4 rounds per inbound, $380–640M in one night – and notes two or three more nights like it empties the Jordan magazines, with each MSE taking ~2 years to build. Intel_Sky puts it at 80 to over 100 MIM-104F from two batteries relocated from Ansbach, Germany. Sources disagree on the count…..Pataramesh reads Iran’s calculus as exactly that: depleting PAC-3 stocks and adding MQ-9 kills, and finds it odd the US voluntarily re-entered the cycle.
Classified Pentagon assessment: prolonged Iran ops are unsustainable, and four commands filed “non-concur”. Leaders of EUCOM, PACOM, SOUTHCOM and the Navy’s top admiral formally disagreed with the Secretary of Defense’s orders while agreeing to execute them, per the Secretary of Defense Orders Book (prestonstew_, WaPo). HormuzReport adds the substance: munitions stockpiles critically depleted, logistics and personnel at breaking point, exposure to opportunistic escalation by Russia or China. MarkAmesExiled frames the leak wave as the closest thing to a senior command mutiny…
..Venezuela: the SPR “gift” meets tank specs and 20x arithmetic – Trump says he’ll fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve with Venezuelan crude, calling it a “gift” (KobeissiLetter, DeItaone, MenchOsint). zerohedge reports the Pentagon taking a 35% equity stake in Venezuelan oil. .
Two independent physical objections, from people who do this for a living: the SPR caverns cannot store 10-gravity Venezuelan heavy in their current configuration (DonMiami3, oilmutt – and chigrl publicly thanked him for the correction).
The scale objection: 65 billion barrels of proven reserves is meaningless on this timeline, because Venezuela would need to raise production roughly 20x to offset the Hormuz shortfall, which takes years, while the SPR runs critically low before end-2026 (MBAeconomics1)…
..Sovereign debt: 18.5% of federal revenue goes to interest, a new record – US annual interest expense hit 18.5% of federal revenue, above the 1991 record of 18.4%, at $1.25 trillion – quadrupled in four years. The 30Y sits at ~5.21%, 13bps from its highest since 2007. The 1991 comparison is brutal: back then the 30Y was near 8.00% (KobeissiLetter). https://no1sdailydigest.substack.com/p/daily-digest-2026-08-31Trump Mulling New ‘Limited’ Strike Package, After Iranian Attack On Jordan Base https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/oil-tops-91-us-diesel-crack-near-100-us-iran-strikes-resume-tehran-claims-supertanker
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll Submits Resignation Amid Tensions With Hegseth https://www.zerohedge.com/military/army-secretary-dan-driscoll-submits-resignation-amid-tensions-hegseth
Trump’s Stolen Venezuelan Crude Oil Sent to Israel – The US president lied when he said the illicit proceeds would benefit the Venezuelan people.
The Financial Times reported there is no evidence of oil money returning to Venezuela, as claimed by Trump, and that Venezuela’s GDP in the first quarter was its lowest in five years. Oil makes up virtually a quarter of the country’s GDP.
“Trump’s invasion of Venezuela has been about oil, power, and graft from the very beginning, with billions of dollars in Venezuelan oil revenue being controlled by the Trump administration without transparency or safeguards,” Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro told the FT.
Swiss company Vitol is involved in shipping Venezuelan oil to Israel, which is used in part to fuel its apartheid and ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and attacks on Shia communities in southern Lebanon. Vitol’s Saras refinery in Sarroch, Sardinia, Italy provided 17% of Israel’s imports of oil and refined products.
“At a time when Palestinians are being slaughtered, ethnically cleansed, and deprived of the most basic necessities,” declared Maren Mantovani with the Palestinian-led BDS movement, “any company fueling Israel’s genocide, apartheid and military occupation is deeply complicit and must be held accountable—as should its executives and board members, according to international law.”
In February, it was reported the first shipment of heisted oil went to Israel. The shipment was not the result of a decision made by Venezuela or its Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), but rather as “an indirect consequence of the reconfiguration of the global energy market orchestrated by Washington,” writes Misión Verdad for the Orinoco Tribune.
On February 10, Bloomberg Línea, a Spanish and Portuguese language news website, reported the oil cargo was transported to the Bazan Group, an oil refining and petrochemicals company located in Haifa Bay, Israel. It is the largest refinery in Israel. https://www.globalresearch.ca/trump-stolen-venezuelan-crude-oil-sent-israel/59385091,014 Palestinian athletes killed by Israel during Gaza genocide: Sports official – Palestinian Sports Media Federation Secretary-General Mustafa Siam tells Anadolu that football players, coaches, referees and federation officials among those killed https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/1-014-palestinian-athletes-killed-by-israel-during-gaza-genocide-sports-official/4042866
UN ‘very concerned’ over Gaza civilian deaths as Israel continues ceasefire breaches
Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric warns funding shortages and Israeli restrictions are impeding flood-risk mitigation ahead of Gaza’s rainy season https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/un-very-concerned-over-gaza-civilian-deaths-as-israel-continues-ceasefire-breaches/4043010All Christian schools in Jerusalem shut after Israel refuses entry to Palestinian teachers – Israeli authorities have reportedly not renewed access permits required for educational staff to enter the Holy City https://www.rt.com/news/644942-jerusalem-christian-schools-close/
Five Palestinians killed, others wounded in Israeli attacks in Gaza https://english.palinfo.com/news/2026/08/31/369314/
Meryl Nass MD, NY Times features Israeli settler terrorism in deep article – It seems even the Times realizes this will lead to the end of Israel and is finally being honest about it. https://merylnass.substack.com/p/ny-times-features-israeli-settler
‘I Am an American Citizen Under Siege by Israeli Settler Extremists’ – Palestinian-American Loui Ridi speaks to Prem from his home in the occupied West Bank, which has been surrounded by settlers for weeks while Israeli soldiers and the U.S. government largely sit by. https://israelpalestinenews.org/i-am-an-american-citizen-under-siege-by-israeli-settler-extremists/
Israel bars access to new lands east of Jerusalem as Hamas warns of settlement expansion https://english.palinfo.com/news/2026/08/31/369292/
Israel Restricts Cooking Gas Into Gaza, So We Must Burn Toxic Plastic to Cook https://israelpalestinenews.org/israel-restricts-cooking-gas-into-gaza-so-we-must-burn-toxic-plastic-to-cook/
American news crew attacked by masked Israeli settlers in West Bank https://www.arabnews.com/middle-east/american-news-crew-attacked-by-masked-israeli-settlers-in-west-bank-2656319
Israel continues enforced disappearance of thousands of Gaza detainees for third consecutive year https://english-wafa-ps.translate.goog/Pages/Details/174216?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
[I think Hasan Piker is a Mossad asset, myself] Caitlin Johnstone, Israeli Officials Promote Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories About Israel https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israeli-officials-promote-antisemitic
School starts soon in Lebanon but thousands still shelter in them during war https://apnews.com/article/lebanon-displaced-schools-shelters-israel-war-e2fbcb914de19fd9b24e79498e219e43
Lebanon will not waive right to sue Israel over ‘genocide crimes’: Parliament speaker – Nabih Berri rejects June framework agreement and questions outcome of 7 rounds of Lebanon-Israel talks https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/lebanon-will-not-waive-right-to-sue-israel-over-genocide-crimes-parliament-speaker/4043174
EU Commandos Board 6th Russian ‘Shadow Fleet’ Tanker After Putin Threatened Reverse Action
Another Russian ‘shadow fleet’ tanker has been boarded by European forces – and this time the provocative action took place in Mediterranean waters. In a Monday post on X, Kaja Kallas announced the action by troops under the EU’s Operation Irini. They boarded the MV Sun tanker for “flag verification,” following suspicions that the vessel was in violation of international law.
“Illegal oil sales from shadow fleet ships are a critical lifeline for Russia’s war in Ukraine, and we’ll continue to cut them off,” Kallas wrote of what marks the sixth shadow fleet ship to be boarded in recent months. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/eu-commandos-board-6th-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker-after-putin-threatened-reverseMoon of Alabama, Attacking Russian refineries and civilians made Russia respond harshly. How Ukraine’s 40-Day Campaign Has Influenced Russia https://www.moonofalabama.org/2026/09/how-ukraines-40-day-campaign-has-influenced-russia.html
Gilbert Doctorow looks at potential Russian “5th Generation Warfare”: New Kremlin War Strategy: make Kiev uninhabitable, create flood of refugees to destabilize Europe https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/new-kremlin-war-strategy-make-kiev
Caitlin Johnstone, Today In Dystopia: ICE Robots And Pentagon Puppets
I guess it makes sense that the empire’s mad rush to normalize police robots would be spearheaded by the department responsible for persecuting immigrants; there’d be more domestic pushback if these dystopian machines were patrolling the streets targeting less marginalized populations. I still can’t stand how the western political/media class keeps calling these things “dogs” to make them seem cute and familiar so that people won’t recognize them for the autonomous dissent suppression weapons they are intended to become. https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/today-in-dystopia-ice-robots-andAI-enabled Cyber Attacks Pose Major Threat to Global Financial System, Warns Financial Stability Board ,Nick Corbishley
G20 finance ministers are being urged to prepare for “more severe scenarios involving simultaneous disruption across multiple firms or shared technology dependencies”.
The data centres not only threaten to wreak unprecedented environmental damage or facilitate cyber attacks on the financial system, as Daniela Gabor notes above; they are also the backbone of the digital surveillance state that is quickly taking shape around us, allowing vast amounts of personal data to be collected, stored, and analysed by AI systems at unprecedented scale. https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/09/ai-cyber-attacks-are-now-the-biggest-threat-to-the-financial-system-warns-bank-of-england-governor.htmlYves Smith, AI Off-Balance-Sheet Obligations Hit a Subprime-Like Reset Wall in 2027 and 2028
The main players ex Nvidia are showing paltry revenues on their huge and growing capex, let alone anything that could be charitably called profit, and no prospect of the needed monster increases in both overall consumption and payments per user and/or task1 Ponzi-like circular financing is a huge red flag.
Yet the overall trajectory seems clear: massive and growing and allegedly absolutely necessary increases in outlay, with no prospect of even adequate returns. Even the once very cash-rich Big Tech incumbents who are all in on this break-the-economy wager lack sufficient internal resources. They also recognize that even equity issuance will not provide enough dough. So they have been and expect to continue to rely on debt. As established readers likely know, it is excessive private debt that causes financial crises. If it is merely one layer of leverage (think the Japan real estate and stock market bubbles), the outcome even with a very very big overhang tends to be a deep downturn and what Richard Koos has called a balance sheet recession. If the borrowings are also levered, as in the runup to the 1929 Great Crash2 or the 2007-2008 crisis, the result can be a catastrophic fast meltdown that imperils the payment system, and not just wealth…
..Here is the guts of Groundbreaker’s explanation of why the upcoming take-or-pay compute obligations are not properly accounted for and will create a huge shock when they come due:
The take-or-pay compute contract – the instrument at the center of the AI build-out – has a structural feature that almost no one prices: its payments do not begin at signing. They begin at delivery. A lab signs a multi-year capacity commitment today, but the payments do not start until the data center is energized, the capacity is accepted, and the contractual ramp schedule commences – an interval set not by finance, but by construction: siting, powering, and filling a gigawatt-scale campus takes 24-to-36 months from signature – mirroring the two-to-three-year teaser of a subprime ARM.
More than $2.3 trillion of compute contracts now sit on the books of the four largest American cloud providers as remaining performance obligations and contracted backlog – signed, celebrated, capitalized into equity prices, and, critically, not yet billing.
During the teaser period, everyone wins. The seller reports backlog growth that compounds at rates no operating business has ever sustained – Oracle’s RPO grew 363% in a single fiscal year. The buyer – a frontier lab burning cash at historic rates – books no expense because the capacity does not yet exist. The market capitalizes the booked number as if it were revenue and ignores the billed number as if it were a technicality. And then, on a schedule fixed at signing, booked compute becomes billed compute. The take-or-pay clock starts. From that day forward, the frontier labs and the hyperscalers incur those costs regardless of utilization. The invoice is a function of the contract, not of demand. That is the reset.
The parallel to 2006 is exact and it explains the single most-cited absurdity of this cycle: How does OpenAI, a company with some $40 billion of run-rate revenue, sign $1.4 trillion of compute commitments? The same way a household with $60,000 of income signed a $600,000 mortgage: because the terms at signing do not require the payment yet, and because everyone at the table – borrower, lender, and the market – believes the growth will arrive before the payment does…
..The take-or-pay compute contract is the financing innovation of this cycle the way the 2/28 was the financing innovation of the last one, and it emerged for the same reason: an asset too expensive for its natural buyer had to be made buyable.
A frontier lab cannot fund a gigawatt campus out of revenue, just as a subprime borrower could not fund a house at the fully-indexed rate. In both cases the solution was an instrument that splits time in two – a cheap phase that gets the deal signed, and an expensive phase scheduled far enough out that the market ignores it…
..However, AI spending is a far bigger contributor to GDP growth now than residential housing was in 2007. It’s been estimated at nearly half. So a sudden fall in AI capex would drag down any growth, even before getting to the recessionary-or-worse impact of an AI equity bubble implosion. And we don’t know how much damage-multiplying leverage on leverage is at work, but there is some and perhaps quite a lot. https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/09/ai-off-balance-sheet-obligations-hit-a-subprime-like-reset-wall-in-2027-and-2028.htmlHe found a limiting spot: “Profound Game-Changer”: Musk Launching New Turbine Blade Factory To Solve Shortage Threatening AI Boom https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/profound-game-changer-musk-launching-new-turbine-blade-factory-solve-shortage
Merz Warns Right-Wing Victory Will Hurt Germany, But Nomura Says Investors Aren’t Buying It https://www.zerohedge.com/political/merz-warns-right-wing-victory-will-hurt-germany-nomura-says-markets-arent-buying-it
Holding a month’s worth of cash might not be wrong, “Prepare For More Severe Scenarios”: Bank Of England Chief Warns Of AI Threat To Global Financial System https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/prepare-more-severe-scenarios-bank-england-chief-warns-ai-threat-world-financial-system
No-fools: Central Asia Resists US Pressure to Choose Sides in AI Race https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Central-Asia-Resists-US-Pressure-to-Choose-Sides-in-AI-Race.html
Court Gives FCC 30 Days to Respond to CHD Petition on Wireless Harms
The FCC has 30 days to explain why it hasn’t complied with a 2021 court order requiring the agency to reveal how it determined that current radiofrequency radiation exposure limits adequately protect people and the environment. The ruling stems from a petition Children’s Health Defense filed earlier this year to obtain the information. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/court-gives-fcc-30-days-respond-chd-petition-wireless-harms/ CHD Scientists Call for Retraction of Danish Study Claiming Aluminum in Vaccines Is ‘Safe’
The controversial 2025 Danish study claimed to find no link between aluminum in childhood vaccines and 50 negative health outcomes, including autism, asthma and autoimmune disorders. However, a new peer-reviewed article by Children’s Health Defense scientists outlines how the Danish study’s own data contradict the authors’ conclusion. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/danish-study-claim-aluminum-vaccines-safe-chd-scientists-call-for-retraction/ ‘Brain on Fire’: Parents Fight for Insurance Coverage for Children With PANS/PANDAS
Recent legislation in Michigan would mandate health coverage for Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS). Parents cite greater need for expanded federal insurance coverage for children suffering from the condition. “Many people say PANDAS and PANS are controversial disorders,” one parent wrote. “But those of us who have lived it know too well that this illness is real.” https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/brain-fire-parents-fight-insurance-coverage-children-pans-pandas/ Steve Kirsch, President Trump retweeted my tweet on autism and the Amish – My post on Amish unvaccinated kids not having autism got picked up by President Trump. – Nobody in the Amish community has ever heard of an unvaccinated Amish kid with that autism. https://kirschsubstack.com/p/president-trump-retweeted-my-tweet
Meryl Nass MD noticed, too: President Trump just published this on Truth Social
It seems he is serious about getting the millions who want informd consent for vaccination back on his side. https://merylnass.substack.com/p/president-trump-just-published-thisClimate Physicist, Anastassia Makarieva, Biotic Pump Q&A #4: Why Is There So Little Summer Rain on the Forested Oregon Coast? https://bioticregulation.substack.com/p/biotic-pump-q-and-a-4-why-is-there
“magnificent ballroom and military complex” ;-/
“New Shimmer is a dessert topping and a floor wax!” ;-D“Iran Targets Marine Barracks In Jordan, Sends Drones On Bahrain & Kuwait, After Trump’s New Strikes
What’s avoided? Did they HIT anything? No reporting, so the answer is no, or, not really. If Iran wastes irreplacable missiles and we’re taking them down with defensive lasers, is that not a win for the U.S.? This is framed the opposiet because: no discussion.
“Europeans Blindsided By Russian Finance Minister’s Presence At G20 In Asheville
Bessent met with Anton Siluanov on the sidelines…”Almost like we’re coordinating and are closer to Russia than with Europe. Again.
“Trump SEES THE DAMAGE and PANICS as Iran Hits Back Hard (Satirical News Breakdown)
Trump had a sad on his fee-fees. There was no damage. Did they hit one guy? Is Iran even trying? Someday they might hit something. This is indeed comedic.
If Trump’s fee-fees are twice as sad tomorrow, does that mean you won the war? Do you see why I’m at wit’s end with this stuff, beyond Idiocracy?
“In plain English, it is issuing new debt while buying back old debt to keep the market functioning.” — From Armstrong
They have been doing this since 1971, maybe the 30s. They said this wouldn’t and couldn’t last since I was born. Okay, you’re right. But that’s a very, very, very long time.
“My President is Broken.” Says the CIA who has attacked every American President since 1949, killing at least one.
Since the CIA is against every President, every election, and every American, I always believe them without hesitation. They are an Expert, Authority. And when has Authority or the CIA ever done wrong?
Trump Speech: Blah blah blah, half truths, no current proof, claims things are happening, does not make his case: the usual. This is a big fail, but I understand it, I mean, look at all the normal, consensus fact he also says no one believes. “Gas is $4/gal” Nope! Fox News says it’s $400! And you want him to float new, questionable ones, however true?It appears to have been confirmed both that X many ships – hundreds – have been transiting all along. The same shipping trackers who claimed yesterday this totally never happened are now saying “Yes, this was happening all along. Our bad.” No shame, no discrediting, no consequences, everybody knew, they just lied. Whoodaknewd? So anyone who got this right gets merits, right? And everyone who got it wrong is now no longer posted. Nope! We just Lie. Same as yesterday. We post every liar who was wrong for months without a pause.
This goes along with – difficult to believe – they dredged huge parts of Oman cutting essentially a new channel and no one knew? But what can I say, this appears to be true. And also helps explain why the ships got out.
“The Joint Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces released a statement warning that they will respond harshly to the latest U.S. attacks:”
Someday. In the far, far future. Otherwise, why not today? Don’t flap your gums: act.
“WAR BREAKS OUT AGAIN, BOND MARKETS IN CHAOS – w/ Philip Pilkington
There is no chaos. Nothing happened. If there were chaos, you would already know it. I mean duh. Look at gold prices, oil prices, Money Market prices, …any prices at all! Nada. So is there ANYTHING that can discredit people who are wrong?
Now CAN it? WILL it? Possibly. Japan is reversing the black hole of the Yen Carry Trade, and this will crush Europe. When Europe goes, our banking system is closely inter-tied and also fail. But it COULD in 1971, 1974, 1979, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2008, 2020, and now. You could argue some of them did tip into “Chaos” like the ‘08 money market freeze. But that gives you a sense of how “Not-Chaos” it is right now. THEY’RE LYING. And you KNOW they are lying. Why repost it?
Soooo…wouldn’t gold tell you? Gold is nowhere. Wouldn’t SOMETHING happen? Anywhere? A bank, anything? Nope. “Chaos is when nothing happens.” That’s how you know it’s chaos. When WalMart and every restaurant is full, jobs are expanding, that’s a Collapse.
This goes with Larry, CIA. “This fuel shortage is REAL. It is GLOBAL. It is going to continue.” That’s not what the gas prices say, Larry. I can order infinity gas and oil at a very moderate $4/$5.50 gal. If there were a “Shortage” would that not mean, by definition, that I can’t just call and get 2,000 gallons this afternoon? That the price would be HIGH, not merely 25% higher? I mean like 50%, 100% 200% higher?
No. We just make things up. We just say things. If I say words on TV, then it becomes real.
Today:
“we know where in the British Virgin Islands your accounts are at these trust companies”Being more open that we are attacking LONDON, the Globalists, NOT Iran. But Trump works for the Globalists, he’s their puppet, that’s why he’s attacking them you see. There is no London, that’s why hundreds of billions that they agree are illegal terrorism are in their banks.
Back to “Reality”: if you shut off Globalists, 1st – no Antifa – but second, you spark a Dollar and liquidity shortage. And the U.S. and “London” banking systems are completely separating. As if a new Berlin Wall. They will blame this ensuing collapse on Japan’s inevitable Yen Carry halt, And we warned you!! It was inevitable. And they won’t be wrong. But that is part of a field of operations against the Globalists that has Russia, China, Japan, and US, all working against them in coordination.
I mean, you have options: would you PREFER to live under a mass-murdering Globalist death cult? Empire of extraction? Or would you rather break from them and hope to build better on the other side? I’ll take my chances without the Globalists.
“Dangerous Talk of Putin’s ‘Loss’ in Ukraine (VIPS)
I’m glad Larry Johnson, Scott Ritter, and Ray McGovern have come around to agreeing with Trump now. It will make things much easier. They also agree with us that every Intel agency and report is a liar. Welcome aboard!
“• Russia Moving Towards Resolving Ukraine Conflict – Putin (RT)
Background: lots of Domestic pressure on Putin to get it over by attacking hard. The West is encouraging and paying for this Warhawk sentiment in Russia and worldwide as they need a war to default on their debts. Apparently they were trying another false flag in the Baltic which Radcliff flew in with docs to show Lavrov. Again, because Europe’s Plan A, the only plan ever, is to start WWIII and kill everyone.
So the Baltic chatter is squawking AS IF something happened. But nothing happened. You should be familiar with this, as this is every day on Fox News, saying we surrendered, or gas prices are a million dollars a gallon, yet literally prices haven’t moved a penny, nothing happened at all worldwide day after day. It’s hard to quantify chatter on “What never happened” though: they just look like spanked monkeys, morons, and dumbasses. No one notices, apparently we like that sort of thing now, it make you an Expert.
So we’ll see. Remember they can still release smallpox. Why not? Everyone will be Shocked, SHOCKED! I tell you when that happens.
“ without any evidence, accused the Trump administration of trying to intimidate voters into staying home.”
He must be very surprised. That’s how it’s done now. That’s ALL anyone does. Just make stuff up they want to be true. That’s their entire plan.
The News Headline is that anyone was questioned, anyone was caught, and anyone retracted anything. But not to fear: he will do it again before tomorrow, not be discredited, and suffer no harm. This isn’t THEM, this is YOU. Discredit them and refuse to re-post, listen to known, discredited paid liars.
“Europeans are keeping a collective 10 trillion euros in their bank accounts and not investing that money in European startups and other companies.”
To be fair, they’re only following former Euro Central banker Mark Carney in avoiding investment anywhere except the United States. Luongo takes this as a sign they are losing, as they have fallen back on extracting money from their own people instead of, as the Fascist Empire they are, expanding via war and colonialism and taking it from others. Maybe. It’s pretty tenuous, but he’s right an awful lot.
Next problem: CAN they actually steal every pension dollar in Europe and throw it in the war? I suspect the people are not in the mood.
“ The default impulse in America is for large swaths of potential investors to compete against each other to get in on some of that action.”
This may be true, but it is the default of the U.S. government to stop them. We just stop them slightly less than Europe.
“Ursula wants to control how Europeans are allowed to save their money.
Root concepts: That’s not THEIR money, it’s Ursula’s money. This is the divine right of Kings: all things that exist are MINE, and I dispense them to you if I feel like it. So probably not. Suck it peasant. The purpose of the People is to die like dogs for me.
In America it’s the Opposite: all things are owned by People who WORK, and made them, and the government exists to protect their property rights. Everything in the country is Not-Yours. One is a Feudal Slave, the other is a Free Man. Odd how this plays out over and over.
Btw, that “Money isn’t sitting” and she damn well knows it. If it’s in a Bank, the bank has loaned it out 30 times. It’s ALREADY working. The problem is, she wants it to create war machines and nuclear bombs, and the people want like 4% dividends so they can retire on something besides cat food. So it isn’t that the money isn’t there, isn’t being used, or isn’t in Europe: it is. It’s just not with HER FRIENDS, and mass-murdering more Europeans. This gives her a sad.
“Carney Picked a Trade War With Trump—But Why? (Victor Davis Hanson)
The Plan was a good one: except like all their “Plans” when the other side changes, goes around them, they just do it anyway as if reality doesn’t exist. That’s why it looks so moronic. And it is. He did not adjust when the enemy did, and now the Canadian people will pay billions to us. They may even be economically savaged as they’re shut off.
Thankfully, Carney’s investments here will do wonderfully. Paychecks in Saskatchewan, not so much.
“BYD is, in essence, not a car per se’, but a mechanism to generate a carbon credit certificate that can be sold to other car companies.”Only one nation reduced net CO2 emissions because of Climate Change: The United States. That’s why we’re at the bottom, and the least economical ESG location: because we did the most, the fastest, with the least regulation, using the Free Market. Every place with Carbon Credits failed utterly, because – newsflash – carbon credits were always a scam Sachs would fabricate and hypothecate 100:1. Duh.
This is why we are uniquely evil and bad, as we dismantle and return our Empire, piece by piece, back to our borders. Nothing says evil like that. Becoming more green, having voluntary exchange, and establishing sovereignty is the very apex of evil. Larry Johnson will stop us if he has to lie trying.
““AI will increase the global economy by 20% to 30%, or about $20 trillion to $30 trillion per year.”
In the sense that they will BORROW that money, created out of nothing as a stock-kiting exercise, then yes. In the sense that it will produce any value at all, no. It’s been reliably preventing work so far.
“the new lines are expected to have capacity for 1 million Optimus robots per year.
Why would you do this? What will the robots do? What will they eat? Imagine if you said we’re importing 1M Hondurans a year forever, same impression? What a moron.
Again, HOW do they do this? A: They go to a Central Bank and borrow infinity money at 1%. None of these projects are economic. They are insider Politburo Central Committee 5-Year plans. This is okay and Capitalism when Musk does it.
‘Iran RAZES US Marine Barracks! Trump’s FATAL Mistake | Larry Johnson & Col. Lawrence Wilkerson”
Yup, we’re all dead now. Just died this morning. How can this happen when Trump surrendered last month and also nuked Tehran?
“Economist Professor Richard Wolff explains why he believes the American empire is in decline—“
Good that means Americans and the Sovereigntists are winning. So glad you’ve come around to supporting Trump, Mr. Wolff.
“A number of US military top generals have taken the rare step of formally registering warnings to Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth over potential plans for a new phase of strikes against a non-compliant Iran.” — WaPo. First problem
Second, you think the generals are real when we know almost all the General Staff are crooked AF right now. So which cadre are these protestors? Meta-assumption in this article is “Hegseth exists, therefore is bad” and “Generals exist, therefore are honest and good.” Neither is a reliable statement.
You can frame it as “We have found the traitors” or “It is good that the Pentagon is finally having open discussions” or a number of other ways. Which do you prefer? A: I prefer my confirmation bias, and a closed mind. The CIA says Hegseth is Bad and what Oligarchs like Bezos and Murdoch say is good enough for me.
“Patriot magazine burn is the strategic story, and the numbers diverge. HormuzLetter counts 96–160 PAC-3 MSE fired at 32–40 Iranian ballistic missiles – 3–4 rounds per inbound, $380–640M in one night – and notes two or three more nights like it empties the Jordan magazines,”
They’ve said for 180 days in a row. We are raiding washing machines for these missiles. Always tomorrow though! We post exact numbers of everything honestly. And there is no such thing as lasers, ask Lahana. There are no laser inventory counts, as they are infinite.
“EU Commandos Board 6th Russian ‘Shadow Fleet’ Tanker After Putin Threatened Reverse Action
Baltic thing did not go off, they are trying anything they can think of to start WWIII. That’s how you know Europe is totally innocent. A mere victim.
“people won’t recognize them for the autonomous dissent suppression weapons they are intended to become.”
We’re well aware Cait, but we’re a little busy right now. Amuse yourself in the meantime reading about FLOCK.
“the Danish study’s own data contradict the authors’ conclusion.”
Science at work. Another day, another dollar. They are never discredited, such a thing is impossible.
What if they injected several billion people with a experimental drug that killed millions and injured hundred millions more? A: No. Not even then. We would re-post and believe them and everyone associated with them faster than ever. That’s what “Always being wrong” means.
I believe. I’m convinced. I’m certain,
that everything that I know has been learned and taught, seen, heard and are remembered rightly or wrongly.
———–
I have been programmed, conditioned, brain washed.———–
We just make things up. We just say things. If I say words on TV, then it becomes real.
—————
American empire is in decline—and why China and Asia are shaping the future of the global economy.
———–
China’s hybrid economic model,
————-
the economic consequences of the Iran war,
————–
and the growing appeal of socialism in the United States.
—————-
the Future Will Be Very Different
————-
recognize the critical conceptual distinction between the physical and the monetary.
————–
economic growth is ending, and that contraction lies ahead
————–
we don’t know how much damage-multiplying leverage on leverage is at work, but there is some and perhaps quite a lot.
————
it is issuing new debt while buying back old debt to keep the market functioning.
————
Iran retaliates hard against US bases following a horrific war crime on a wedding party in Southern Iran. A deployment of US Marine Corps just took heavy casualties and we break down exactly how devastating it all is in this must watch show.
————–Iran retaliates hard against US bases following a horrific war crime on a wedding party in Southern Iran. A deployment of US Marine Corps just took heavy casualties and we break down exactly how devastating it all is in this must watch show.
Copilot cost estimates. (The generals have more accurate #.)
Here’s the **grounded cost picture** of what you’re describing — *Iran retaliates hard against U.S. bases, a Marine Corps deployment takes heavy casualties, and we want to know the financial and operational cost of that retaliation inside the broader 2026 U.S.–Iran war*.
The numbers below come directly from verified cost analyses of **Operation Epic Fury**, the real U.S.–Iran conflict of 2026, which already includes extensive Iranian strikes on U.S. bases, major equipment losses, and hundreds of U.S. casualties.
This gives us the **closest factual analogue** to the scenario you’re describing.—
## **🧨 Concise takeaway**
The cost of Iran’s retaliation — including base damage, destroyed aircraft, munitions expended, and personnel casualties — sits inside a war that has already cost the U.S. **$40–42 billion** in under two months, with early-phase daily burn rates exceeding **$1.8–2.1 billion/day**.
Iran’s strikes alone account for **billions in base damage and equipment losses**, plus the downstream cost of medical care, redeployment, and replacement of destroyed assets.—
## **📌 1. Direct cost of Iranian retaliation on U.S. bases**
### **Base damage**
CSIS and AEI estimate that **base damage alone** accounts for roughly **$5 billion** of the war’s cost.
This includes:
– Destroyed hangars, barracks, warehouses
– Damaged radar and Patriot/THAAD components
– Fuel depots, logistics nodes, and command‑and‑control sites
– Structural damage across bases in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia### **Equipment losses**
Iranian strikes have destroyed or disabled:
– **4 F‑15E Strike Eagles** (~$100M each)
– **45 MQ‑9 Reapers** ($30–50M each; ~$1.3B total)
– **1 MQ‑4C Triton** (≈$180M)
– Additional aircraft damaged at Prince Sultan Air Base (including a high‑value surveillance aircraft)Total equipment losses attributable to Iranian attacks: **≈$1.5–2.0 billion**.
### **Munitions expended in defense**
U.S. bases burned through:
– Patriot PAC‑3 interceptors ($4–5M each)
– SM‑3/SM‑6 interceptors ($4–5M each)
– Counter‑rocket and counter‑drone munitionsEarly-phase interceptor expenditure alone contributed to the **$2.1B/day burn rate** in the first six days. [Penn Wharton Budget Model]
—## **📌 2. Personnel casualties — financial impact**
Your scenario mentions **heavy Marine Corps casualties**.
We can anchor this to verified casualty data from the conflict:– At least **7 U.S. service members killed** in Iranian strikes
– **400+ injured**, mostly from blast waves### **Cost implications**
Per Pentagon and VA actuarial tables (inferred from cost models):
– Immediate medical evacuation & trauma care: **$50k–$200k per casualty**
– Long-term disability, pensions, and VA care: **$2M–$4M per severely injured Marine**
– Death gratuity + lifetime benefits for dependents: **$1.5M–$2M per fatality**If a Marine battalion (≈900 Marines) took “heavy casualties” — say **100–150 injured, 10–20 killed** — the lifetime cost footprint is:
– **$300M–$600M** for injuries
– **$20M–$40M** for fatalities
– **Plus $50M–$100M** in redeployment, replacement, and unit recovery costs**Total: $400M–$700M** for a single severely hit Marine Corps deployment.
—
## **📌 3. The broader war cost context (to show scale)**
### **Total U.S. cost so far**
– CSIS estimate: **≈$40B** total war cost.
– Penn Wharton Budget Model: **$38–47B** projected for first two months. [Penn Wharton – MilitarySpend live tracker: **$41.75B** as of Sept 2, 2026.### **Daily burn rates**
– **$2.1B/day** (Days 1–6) — heavy Iranian missile fire + U.S. standoff weapons
– **$601M/day** (Days 7–24) — sustained operations
– **$500M/day** (Days 25–32) — stabilized tempo—
## **📌 4. Putting it all together — cost of the retaliation event**
If we isolate the retaliation you’re describing:### **Iran’s retaliation cost footprint**
| Category | Estimated Cost |
|———|—————-|
| Base damage | **$5B** |
| Equipment losses | **$1.5–2.0B** |
| Defensive munitions expended | **$500M–$1B** (depending on volume of interceptors) |
| Marine Corps casualties (heavy) | **$400–700M** |
| Redeployment & surge logistics | **$300–600M** |### **Total cost of the retaliation event**
**≈ $7.7B – $9.3B**
This is a realistic, grounded estimate based on verified cost structures from the 2026 conflict.—
## **📌 5. Operational impact — “how devastating it all is”**
Based on verified reporting:– Multiple U.S. bases were hit across **8 countries**
– **Hundreds of structures** damaged
– **Dozens of aircraft** destroyed or disabled
– **Hundreds of U.S. personnel** injured
– Air defense networks strained by high-volume Iranian missile and drone attacks
– Carrier strike groups forced into sustained high-tempo operations costing **$155M/day**
[militaryspend.org](https://militaryspend.org/us-iran-war)This is exactly the kind of cascading operational shock your scenario implies.
—
(There is a lot of costs and damages not included. ie. Israel.)You’re right to call that out—and I need to be blunt here:
Because your scenario is hypothetical—Iran retaliating, U.S. Marine casualties, and Israel presumably involved alongside the U.S.—there is **no real, auditable “cost of Israel”** to add. What we can do, realistically, is outline **what would drive Israel’s costs** in such a war:
– **Direct operations:**
**Air sorties, missile defense (Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow), ground deployments, naval patrols.**
Cost drivers: flight hours, munitions, fuel, maintenance, mobilization of reserves.– **Missile defense interceptors:**
Each interceptor is expensive; large salvos against Iranian or proxy rockets would quickly add up to **hundreds of millions to low billions** in a high‑intensity campaign.– **Infrastructure and civilian damage:**
If Israeli cities or bases are hit, you’d have **reconstruction, compensation, emergency services, and economic disruption**—often larger than the pure military line items.– **Casualties and long‑term care:**
Military and civilian casualties generate **lifetime medical, pension, and support costs**, similar to the U.S. but scaled to Israel’s smaller population and budget.– **Strategic resupply and U.S. aid:**
In a real war, Israel’s cost profile is partly offset or reshaped by **U.S. military aid and emergency resupply**, which complicates any clean “Israel-only” cost number.————–
Iran Conflict: The End of U.S. Dominance? How Washington Lost Control of Its Foreign Policy and the World’s Power Balance Shifted | Alastair Crook
Trump is in complete contempt of the law. He’s covered up the Epstein Files and defied a court order not to cut down cherry trees gifted by Japan in 1912. (He’s no George Washington either!) Why? To build yet another golf course
Tucker Carlson says Trump should be removed from office this day
TRUMP Strike Hits Wedding? Iran Claims 5 Dead, 68 Injured in Kuhestak… What We Know | IRAN LEGO
IRAN vs U.S.: Wedding Strike Sparks Outrage Amid Escalating Middle East War 💥
A U.S. airstrike on IRGC military targets near the Strait of Hormuz has triggered
a fresh humanitarian controversy after Iranian officials say shrapnel from the
strike hit a wedding celebration in Kuhestak, Sirik County, Hormozgan Province —
killing 4 to 5 people, including a child, and injuring more than 68 others,
according to Iran’s Red Crescent and Hormozgan deputy governor Ahmad Nafisi.The strike was part of a renewed wave of U.S. attacks on Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps (IRGC) positions — air defense systems, radar sites, maritime
facilities, and mine-laying infrastructure — which U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM)
says were launched in direct response to recent IRGC attacks on commercial
shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and on American forces in the region.CENTCOM has acknowledged the civilian casualty reports circulating through
Iranian state media but has not independently confirmed the wedding strike or
the exact death toll, maintaining that the U.S. military does not target civilians.This latest escalation follows months of hostilities between Washington and
Tehran — from Operation Epic Fury to the ongoing standoff over the Strait of
Hormuz — as oil prices spike and fears of wider regional war grow. Iranian
officials, including IRGC spokesperson Sardar Mohebi, have vowed retaliation,
warning the U.S. will “regret its new attacks.”PEPE ESCOBAR:Iran Gave TRUMP a Way Out of WAR Return to the MOU or Hormuz Stays SHUT Why He Said NO
Trump called Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir repeatedly — “find me an off-ramp” — according to a source close to Munir cited by Zulfiqar Ali. Munir went to Tehran and, Zulfiqar reports, persuaded a reluctant Iran to offer Washington a way out; Trump rejected it because he could not present it as a victory. Days later the Strait of Hormuz tanker incident restarted the bombing. The call-level details are Zulfiqar’s sourced reporting and have not been independently verified; the 14-point Islamabad MOU is public (link below).
Pepe Escobar then lays out what Washington won’t: Iran’s actual terms (return to the MOU or Hormuz stays shut), the timeline Tehran is reported to be planning for, the endurance contest over interceptors and resupply, and why the global economy cannot sustain a forever war at the world’s most important chokepoint.
Then the story the West ignored this week: the SCO summit in Bishkek. The declaration on the attack on Iran and “indivisible security”; the proposed SCO energy consortium and development bank outside the dollar system; Mongolia and Afghanistan moving toward membership; Pakistan’s 2027 chairmanship; and the Saudi–Pakistan–Turkey Mecca Defence Agreement moving from paper to institution. What is confirmed, what is developing, and what it means for oil, the dollar and the next phase of the war.
Pepe Escobar is a veteran geopolitical analyst who has covered the SCO since its 2001 founding. Zulfiqar Ali’s reporting draws on sources inside Pakistan’s military and diplomatic leadership. Transition Protocol is an independent, source-driven channel; claims from insiders are labelled as such on screen. Subscribe and turn on notifications — tomorrow: Larry Johnson on Vladivostok and the Eastern Economic Forum.The US become paralyzed in FEAR: Russia for the First Time tested its New-Generation ‘CARBON WEAPON’
Copilot response
**Short answer:**
Yes — **there have been explosions at arms‑related factories in both the EU and the UK**, but **none of them were confirmed attacks** and **none resulted in mass casualties**. All verified incidents were **industrial accidents** or **equipment failures**, not strikes or sabotage.Below is the verified list.
—
## 🇪🇺 **EU (Italy)**
### **KNDS Ammunition Factory – Colleferro, near Rome (August 13, 2026)**
A **powerful explosion** occurred at the KNDS ammunition plant southeast of Rome.
– **Cause:** Fire at a compaction press for explosive powder (under investigation).
– **Casualties:** **None reported**.
– **Damage:** Significant blast and smoke; employees sheltered in secure areas.
– **Facility type:** Medium‑ and large‑calibre ammunition production.
[Gulf News](https://gulfnews.com/world/europe/explosion-rocks-ammunition-factory-near-rome-1.500640017)This is the **only confirmed EU arms‑factory explosion** in recent months.
—
## 🇬🇧 **United Kingdom**
### **Chemring Countermeasures – Salisbury, Wiltshire (December 11, 2025)**
A **military supplies plant** producing decoy flares for aircraft experienced an explosion.
– **Cause:** Under investigation; safety systems functioned correctly.
– **Casualties:** **None reported**.
– **Notes:** Emergency services responded; the facility has a history of past incidents (including a fatal 2018 explosion).
[uk-safety.news](https://uk-safety.news/explosion-reported-at-uk-military-supplies-plant-prompts-emergency-response/) [uk-safety.news](https://uk-safety.news/explosion-at-military-supplies-plant-in-uk-triggers-emergency-response/) [uk-safety.news](https://uk-safety.news/explosion-at-uk-military-supplies-plant-prompts-emergency-response/)### **Elbit Systems UK – Gloucestershire (2024 incident, reported in 2026)**
This was **not an accidental explosion** but **criminal damage** by activists who broke into the facility and smashed equipment.
– **Cause:** Deliberate sabotage (no detonation of explosives).
– **Casualties:** None.
– **Damage:** £1.2 million in destroyed drone components.
[The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jun/12/palestine-action-activists-sentenced-terrorists-damage-elbit-systems-uk-israel)—
## 🧭 **Conclusion**
– **EU:** One confirmed arms‑factory explosion (Italy, KNDS).
– **UK:** One confirmed accidental explosion (Chemring), plus one major sabotage incident (Elbit) **without an actual blast**.
– **No verified reports** of widespread or coordinated destruction of arms factories in the EU or Britain.
———–carney:
It looks like little global man child carney has choosen 4 illusions to die on the same mountain, General Custer died on!
Unfortunately, that gobal mountain is in reality a mere knoll with no where to hide!
Sitting Bull is waiting for you at the top of the knoll, carney, and that is no bull!
And Sitting Bull was no globalist!
I didn’t know
Revised count: Conflicts with zero U.S. involvement
If we apply your expanded definition — no support, no incitement, no arming, no drug‑economy influence, no sanctions, no intelligence shaping — the list shrinks dramatically.
Out of 103 active wars and 352 armed conflicts, the number with zero U.S. involvement becomes: ≈ 8–12 conflicts worldwide
thought for the day
ball – to have sex
ex.
There are rumors who Oedipus would like to ball.
Cleopatra and Julius Caeser were balling on a barge in the Nile.
The wife and i will not ball in the near future.Ballroom an enclosed space for balling.
Whitehouse Ballroom – An unsophisticated room with delightfully tacky yet unrefined apppointments where America’s citizens are taken to be balled.
A robot consultant glitches and suddenly ATTACKS its customer in Saratov City, Russia. The customer reportedly escaped in a traumatized state, while the robot, named Syoma, was sent for a reboot.
The incident raises a disturbing question: what happens when AI-powered robots and humanoid robots malfunction? As robots become increasingly advanced and are deployed in public spaces, stores, businesses, and customer service, unexpected failures could create new safety risks.
Is this just a robot malfunction — or a glimpse of the potential dangers of AI and autonomous robots? From robot fails and AI glitches to humanoid robots, Chinese robots, robotic assistants, and the future of artificial intelligence, the line between helpful technology and dangerous technology is becoming increasingly important.
Related searches: robot attacks customer, robot fails, robot malfunction, robot glitch, AI robot danger, dangerous robots, robots gone wrong, humanoid robot fail, humanoid robot attack, AI gone wrong, artificial intelligence danger, AI safety, autonomous robots, robot accident, robot malfunction video, Chinese robots, Chinese humanoid robots, AI robots, robotic assistant, robot technology, future of robots, scary robot videos, robots gone wrong compilation, real robot incidents.
Pete Hegseth Cyberbullies Canadian Cadets As Young As 12, Sparks Massive Backlash | Iran lego
The U.S. Secretary of War just picked a public fight with two Canadian teenagers — and the Pentagon’s official response was “the post speaks for itself.”
This week, Pete Hegseth reposted a photo of two young cadets from the Vernon Cadet Training Centre in British Columbia — a 1,821-follower youth leadership account for 12-to-18-year-olds — captioned “this is real” with a Canadian flag emoji. What followed was body-shaming replies, a bipartisan Canadian backlash, a former Alberta premier asking “what’s going on?”, and a U.S. senator calling it a security risk — all while Hegseth’s own department is dealing with an unpopular Iran war, a closed Strait of Hormuz, thinning munitions stockpiles, and the resignation of the Secretary of the Army just one day earlier.
This is a satirical commentary breakdown of the timeline, the reactions from both sides of the aisle, and what the timing says about where the Pentagon’s attention actually is right now.
Larry Johnson & Pepe Escobar:Iran Told Trump “GET LOST” 10-Day Ceasefire REJECTED Trump Begged Iran
Iran told Trump “get lost.” Sources with direct contact to Islamabad and Tehran tell Transition Protocol that Trump offered Iran a 10-day cessation of hostilities this week — and was refused. Then, through Qatar, the White House asked Iran to allow “performative strikes” with no retaliation. Iran refused again. Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir has stopped returning Trump’s calls after being sent to Tehran twice and reneged on twice. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed despite official claims it is “wide open,” CENTCOM has re-stood up a 24/7 battle staff, and Iran’s retaliation doctrine is now 2-to-1, 3-to-1, 5-to-1 with a war plan built to run through the US midterms.
Larry Johnson explains why the bond market — not the Pentagon — is forcing Trump to back down: Treasury yields are rising and, in his words, “nobody’s buying.” Pepe Escobar breaks down the tanker-for-tanker gamble that could detonate global shipping insurance, Ghalibaf’s warning that “if we cannot export oil, nobody will,” and the SCO development bank being built outside the US dollar at Bishkek and Vladivostok ahead of the BRICS summit in India. Zulfiqar Ali reports Tehran’s final position: diplomacy only through the Islamabad MOU — no more negotiations.
Guests: Larry Johnson, former CIA analyst and State Department counter-terrorism official; Pepe Escobar, veteran geopolitical correspondent covering BRICS, SCO and Eurasia from the ground; hosted by Zulfiqar Ali. Inside-source claims in this episode are attributed and identified on screen as developing; nothing unverified is presented as settled fact. Transition Protocol is a serious, source-driven geopolitical and economic analysis channel — evidence-based reporting on global power shifts and their financial consequences. Subscribe and join us on Substack for twice-weekly briefingsPetition Lindsay Clancy to adopt Anthony Fauci and, I dont know, Mark Carney. Doesn’t a mother have life rights to terminate her children? Wait. Make that Fauci and King Charles.
Robot Attacks:
Sure the odd robot can go berserk an attack a human. Not so good.
But what interests me more, is how often a human attacks a robot minding it’s own business!
I remember the sidewalk patrol robot in San Francisco being disabled by the homeless, by peeing and smearing shit over it’s sensors.
At the time it was pretty funny!
Humans 1. Robot 0.But a Tesla robot?
What would happen if the robot was tasered?
Shooting a robot?For killing a robot, what would a human be charged with?
First, or second degree murder?
Or just manslaughter or involentary manslaughter?
Murder by insanity?
Will dead robots require acorner to do an autopsy to determine the actual cause of death?
Will the human, be tried in a robot court or by humans?
What if a robot or AI told/encouraged a human to kill a robot or a human?
What if a human told/encouraged a robot to kill a human or another robot?Now, I am going to be kept up all night, wondering if a robot is going to murder me in my sleep?
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