lithium batteries, hailed as the “grail”
 
Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 8 2025 5:59 utc | 302
 
—
 
Sodium batteries are the new new thing.  Unlike the highly localised lithium deposits seawater is practically everywhere.
 
Innovation is outpacing investment returns.  Amortisation rates are brutal.
 
There will be pushback against sodium batteries because of the billions of dollars in writedowns lithium miners will have to eat.
 
Also, lithium mines are territorial claims of the investor class, pushing forward globalization. 
 
Allowing  energy production to become more independent of energy resource location is a big win for consumers over market cartels.
 
Mechanical typewriters became obsolete about 60 years after their adoption.  Lithium batteries won’t last a generation.

Posted by: too scents | Oct 8 2025 6:43 utc | 304

Ghostly apparitions can be credited, but not always those who report them. The basic makeup of Candy’s dream is very close to the stereotypical incidence in such cases: a recently deceased person who is emotionally invested appears in a dream to someone who is also emotionally invested. Usually the spirits move on within three to seven days; rarely they’ll hang around for a month; everything else can be considered extraordinary (but it happens). 
 
This information is how the Parapsychologische Beratungsstelle in Freiburg handles things. I have myself had vivid dreams involving the deceased, but never did they bring forth a crucial piece of missing information. I am inclined to assume that it would not have been much different with Candy’s experience; in other words, it’s likely that the dream was real (whatever that means – she didn’t make it up) but the information she was given merely reinforced what she already believed. All in all, it makes sense to relate such a story.

Posted by: persiflo | Oct 8 2025 7:40 utc | 306

By the way, Russia holds massive amounts of gold (and China reportedly much more than officially reported). So west blowing up its financial system causes escape to gold, while Russia and China also reap large gains from this.

Posted by: unimperator | Oct 8 2025 8:05 utc | 308

Meanwhile EU is increasing pressure on Belgian officials to use Russian assets in their scheme to give funds to Ukraine. 
 
Posted by: unimperator | Oct 8 2025 8:02 utc | 307
 
—
 
Decree No. 693. Checkmate.
 
https://publication-pravo-gov-ru.translate.goog/document/0001202509300001?_x_tr_sch=http&_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp
 
The decree allows for the seizure and subsequent resale of Western assets worth one trillion USD.
 

Posted by: Nobody | Oct 8 2025 8:43 utc | 310

Even Bank of England today 8 Oct warning re the Ai dot-com bubble burst with worldwide”corrections”…stocks overvalued and are leading Nasdaq rise..etc

Posted by: Jo | Oct 8 2025 10:49 utc | 312

overvalued and are leading Nasdaq rise..etc
 
Posted by: Jo | Oct 8 2025 10:49 utc | 312
 
—
 
How did NASDAQ come to be?
 

[Bernie] Madoff made history by launching Nasdaq, the first electronic stock exchange, and advised the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the system.
 
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jan/04/netflix-bernie-madoff-monster-of-wall-street

 
Designed by a Ponzi schemer and well suited for his purposes.
 

Posted by: too scents | Oct 8 2025 11:24 utc | 314

I also recall how they stopped that short squeeze. 
 
They changed the rules of the game. You could only but silver to cover a short but not to go long.

Posted by: arby | Oct 8 2025 11:36 utc | 316

They changed the rules of the game. 
 
Posted by: arby | Oct 8 2025 11:36 utc | 316
 
—
 
Happens every time the wrong people try to corner the market.

Posted by: too scents | Oct 8 2025 11:41 utc | 318

Another American Kill List–
 
Trump Calls Off Diplomacy With Maduro As Secret DOJ-Approved Kill List Revealed

Posted by: arby | Oct 8 2025 11:49 utc | 320

Up another 55 bucks this morning.
 
Posted by: arby | Oct 8 2025 11:58 utc | 321
 
—
 
Careful.  The print is being delayed.

Posted by: too scents | Oct 8 2025 12:05 utc | 322

Well, Gold is winning that contest if in fact there is a contest.

Posted by: arby | Oct 8 2025 13:03 utc | 324

Posted by: jared | Oct 8 2025 12:39 utc | 323

It’s also astonishing to see the US dollar going up against its G7 counterparts. While gold is going up against the US dollar.
 
That to me implies that capital is flying out of all G7 currencies to gold. No wonder when you look at France, Germany, UK, Japan and USA. Gold will start correcting when G7 starts  reversing their budget deficits (I wouldn’t be holding my breath on that).

Posted by: unimperator | Oct 8 2025 13:29 utc | 326

Some more thoughts on dreams and afterlife. – Actually I did have a dream where a deceased person gave me crucial information, or at least I read it that way. This only happened last week. My interpretation is quite far out there, which is why I didn’t remember it right away probably. 
 
I had this USian guest here, who I took in when she was factually homeless. It was great experience for both of us, because it went so deep, and we were not afraid. She has meanwhile moved on and now lives with a man she met via some dating app, btw – I made sure to talk her through all my worries, I have met him briefly myself, and I think it will be okay. This is, for lack of a better word, an energetic journey. A quite  proper expression would be to state that she has recovered her mojo during her stay with me. 
 
During this time – just three weks – her father died. He is a problematic figure in her life, because he chose to leave her mother and siblings behind for whatever reasons. When she told me the news I immediately felt, well, something – him? – I’m inclined to say it was him, but there is now way to tell for sure. He seemed longing to express that he did care, after all. And then, he was in my dream, doing the same. This is not completely unprecedented, as I have had “encounters” in dreams and visions with people I did not meet before after their death.
 
I will not recount the dream here, but it was extremely vivid to be sure, and after waking I wrote it down immediately and sent her the text, knowing full well that this is a very difficult territory to enter. But since it was all so deep anyway I went ahead and trusted her judgement about it. What she replied still surprised me. She came up with an interpretation that involved all but myself and my current struggles, and it made complete sense as well. Now what to make of that? Well, there is not necessarily a contradiction involved. As I had felt (and even reported here) it was something mutual in this encounter … As it stands, it is logically tricky, perhaps impossible to tell apart a spirit encounter from an anonymous message which is only transported by the spirit as a messenger of sorts. Such hints courtesy of  “the universe” need not always be personal, as is well documented in the field of parapsychology; or rather, it is a working assumption that any instances of extraordinary experiences should be viewed in that light. What does it tell me?
 
Both the question and the typical way we are presented with hints are quite close to what Freud said about dreams. Of course this is a consequence of the particular approach one chooses when trying to make sense of these things, but it is the current state of the art in the Freiburg research institute, and all I would add is that we may also want to question what “the other side” is trying to get across perhaps outside of our immediate situation (where classical psychoanalytical interpretations are based). 
 
Dreams are sometimes revealing, that is my bottom line. And Aleph, thanks for sharing your “where’s my trousers” episodes here – I have nothing yet to say at this point, but it gives me a vibe, and perhaps an idea will follow. If it does, I will share it with you in private if you’re interested.

Posted by: persiflo | Oct 8 2025 14:05 utc | 328

From Candace’s encounter with Charlie Kirk’s “betrayed” ghost, to the significance of dreams, this line is a compelling mixture of personal & political, physical & metaphysical. Perhaps I can agree with Freud on this alone: the borderline is inherently fuzzy. It’s in the nature of cognition — even for nonhumans — that imagination and perception cannot be completely untangled.
 
But that doesn’t mean there’s no such thing as truth. If the truth of who killed Charlie doesn’t matter, then we’ve given up entirely. Lost our souls to Satan. Alastair Crooke agrees with me that Kirk’s is the most high-profile assassination in USA since JFK. Should it come to pass that culpability in the former instance matters, attention will naturally turn to the latter.
 
Stew Peters, who exults in CNN having christened him the world’s leading antisemite, sells a new “Guess Who Silenced Him?” t-shirt with a hand over Charlie’s mouth. Might as well be an orange hand. As with the Epstein stonewall, where you find “Israeli” influence you find the tiny hand of America’s foremost Zionist.
 
‘Nutso stuff’: New conspiracy theory implicating Trump flagged as a ‘big breach’ in MAGA
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2674164104/

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Oct 8 2025 14:50 utc | 330

The real question is is the dollar underheating fast?

Posted by: arby | Oct 8 2025 15:16 utc | 332

Dreams are sometimes revealing, that is my bottom line. 
 
Posted by: persiflo | Oct 8 2025 14:05 utc | 328
 
—
 
So are omens, and they happen when you are awake.

Posted by: too scents | Oct 8 2025 16:49 utc | 334

Re: Freud ?
Consider what ethnic sub-group his patients and research subjects came from.
 

Posted by: exile | Oct 8 2025 17:22 utc | 336

Doesn’t Putin look good? He started dumping US treasuries and buying Gold in 2014.

Posted by: arby | Oct 8 2025 18:10 utc | 338

Alep_Null
 
Have you seen Ian Carrol showing those “no blood” vids on his show?

Posted by: will moon | Oct 8 2025 20:51 utc | 340

From Reuters
Colombia’s Petro suggests last vessel bombed by US was Colombian
 
From ZH
Only 48% Of US Adults Under The Age Of 30 Have A Full-Time Job
 
Watch Live: Trump Hosts Roundtable On Antifa As Race To Dismantle Radical Left NGOs Accelerates
Let the witch hunts begin….oh, thats tight, they already have
 
The shit show continues until it doesn’t and it certainly isn’t boring these days

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 8 2025 23:08 utc | 342

Have you seen Ian Carrol showing those “no blood” vids on his show?
@ will moon | Oct 8 2025 20:51 utc | 340
 
Holy stuff! Thanks for mentioning that. Carroll recently introduced his listeners to a Marine medic — someone experienced with deadly arterial wounds — who appeared on another podcast called Valhalla VFT (a beefy Special Forces host covered in tats). The footage scrutinized was of four guys attended to Kirk right after his body fell out of his chair. Not a drop of blood on any of their hands, left or right. No urgency to pack the artery with a ripped-off t-shirt, nothing — when all of those guys know what to do, know Kirk will be dead in a minute from arterial bleeding.
 
The capper: a view of the grass whence they just removed Kirk’s body: not a drop of blood visible. A little splash on the corner of the table, and that’s it. This is irrefutable video evidence of something mighty strange going on here: a miraculous, not to say heroic, forebearance from inconvenient bleeding, on Charlie’s part. Ian Carroll has no idea what to conclude from this evidence.
 
The smoke/steam from Charlie’s “exploding” lavalier mic, possibly, came not from the propulsion of a projectile, but from the sizzle of an electic shock. I’m guessing Kirk was electrocuted by that thing, synchronized with a gunshot sound to create confusion, because that’s the only scenario accounting for both Kirk’s death and the lack of blood. You heard it here first, unless someone else has independently derived the same wild-ass guess.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Oct 8 2025 23:25 utc | 344

Layers of Insanity (corrected)
https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1976021009288646810

Posted by: John Gilberts | Oct 8 2025 23:32 utc | 346

The Psychopaths Have Taken the Controls
Dr. Luke Kemp from Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk argues that collapse isn’t just about oil, climate, or economics — it’s about who’s in charge of the system. His work with Nate Hagens (The Great Simplification) puts it bluntly: once hierarchies form, the Dark Triad — psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism — rises to the top.
 
These traits thrive in bureaucracies and corporate empires where charm and ruthlessness are currency. Psychopaths don’t feel empathy, shame, or love; they mimic those emotions to manipulate others. They treat people as assets, not beings. In small tribal societies such types were exiled, sometimes executed. In modern systems, they get promoted.
 
A single manipulative person can wreck a team. Scale that up to parliaments, boardrooms, and intelligence agencies and you get a civilization shaped by moral blindness — where cruelty is rebranded as “efficiency” and deceit as “strategy.” Studies suggest that while about 1% of the general population is psychopathic, it jumps to 3–4% in corporate management and may reach 20–25% in elite circles. In short: the higher you go, the colder it gets.
 
This explains the current polycrisis better than most economic models. Our ruling class cannot empathize. They can simulate emotion on camera but feel nothing when policies destroy lives. They aren’t “corrupt” in the normal sense — they’re neurologically indifferent. That’s why every crisis becomes an opportunity for extraction. War, pandemic, climate disaster — each just another round of Monopoly.
 
Kemp’s warning is that this isn’t accidental. Hierarchical, surplus-driven systems select for predatory psychology. The “free market” and the “rules-based order” are just polite language for survival of the least empathic. Collapse isn’t coming despite them — it’s coming because of them.
 
The antidote lies in what we once had: small-scale cooperation, empathy, reciprocity — the Paleolithic norm still alive in Indigenous and hunter-gatherer societies. Evolutionary biology says it clearly:
 
“A group of doves will outcompete a group of hawks.”
 
It’s time we remembered that before the hawks finish the job.

Posted by: dodger | Oct 8 2025 23:44 utc | 348

This isn’t just about economics, climate, or geopolitics — collapse is fundamentally psychological. How power, hierarchy, and predatory personalities interact with social scale may determine whether societies unravel or endure. Gaza and Ukraine are merely today’s playing field garnering all the negative attention.
 
No one has it all figured out. Each thinker brings a different focus, but all the better ones — Hagens, Hickel, Raworth, Schmachtenberger, Turchin, Kemp — share a basic recognition that biosphere services, cooperation, and reciprocity are essential for survival. Yet everywhere, capitalism in some form persists. Even China, for all its collective rhetoric, depends on growth and hierarchy. The best that can be said is that its government has the authority to implement regenerative practices on a national scale. But no one individual or nation can “do it all,” and probably no one ever will.
 
Hagens, for instance, doesn’t claim to have a large-scale fix. His work seems more about preparing small groups to endure what comes after systemic collapse — when governments, economies, and social structures fail. His message, echoed by many of his guests, points to the need to rediscover Paleolithic psychology and the wisdom of long-enduring tribal societies — Aboriginal and Indigenous cultures built on reciprocity, restraint, and balance. That mindset is the opposite of today’s pathological “Dark Triad” systems — psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism — that dominate everything from boardrooms to media to politics. Overcoming that pathology isn’t the solution itself, but it’s the precondition for any genuine solutions to work.
 
Turchin’s “wealth pump” theory explains this dynamic well: elites rise by luck and moral flexibility, rig the system to maintain their position, and eventually lock out new entrants. This produces overproduction of frustrated elites, social unrest, and, historically, revolutions led by the educated class. He was asked once how to avoid that. His answer: turn off the wealth pump first. But that message never takes hold — it’s anathema to the system itself. Even climate debates are mostly ego-driven echo chambers. Few participants genuinely understand the underlying collapse dynamics, and those who do rarely live according to what they know.
 
That’s why Hagens’ slow-collapse view rings true: dysfunction first, then decades of cascading crises — economic, ecological, political — until a few small, adaptive groups reconstitute something viable. It won’t be uniform or predictable, any more than the Arctic’s eventual Blue Ocean Event. But it’s coming. So prepare, educate, and act like an upstanding tribesman in the ruins.
 
The real insight lies at the edge between sociology, psychology, spirituality, and material reality — where thinkers like Schmachtenberger, Kemp, and Berman intersect. That’s where change happens. Krishnamurti once said transformation of consciousness and material conditions occur simultaneously, not sequentially — both must move together. The same holds here: the internal and external crises are one process.
 
That’s why the wealth concentration issue matters. It’s not the final answer, but the doorway to one. Instead of trying to uplift the collective consciousness of a degenerating population — which won’t happen barring some external miracle — we can at least build preconditions for cooperation, fairness, and empathy to reemerge.
 
Wealth concentration is simple enough to grasp — you don’t need equations or theology. Ironically, the same tools used to control us (AI, digital currency, data tracking) could one day expose and restrain the greed cycle. Or maybe the best we can do is record it plainly, carve it in stone, and bury it for whoever comes next to dig it up and be inspired.
 
Some will survive, no matter what. The rest is mostly noise — government reports, political drama, the endless clanging of saucepans.
 
Better to keep teaching, keep sharing, and let the clowns be clowns.

Posted by: dodger | Oct 9 2025 0:35 utc | 350

WordPress is incorrectly formatting URLs with a trailing “?”
 
The questionmark should be included to instruct the browser  to ignore its internal cache, and fetch a fresh reference.
 
https://example.com?

Posted by: too scents | Oct 9 2025 5:00 utc | 352

a Permant embargo of trade with the USA inclduing the automatic implementation of secondary sanctions on any nation that continued to tdade with the USA.
 
Posted by: dodger | Oct 9 2025 5:05 utc | 353
 
—
 
This is chaos and chaos is unpredictable.
 
China and Russia are prudent. 

Posted by: too scents | Oct 9 2025 5:10 utc | 354

There is a battle underway between gold and bitcoin. Which will be seen as sound money.
Winner take all.
Posted by: jared | Oct 8 2025 12:39 utc | 323
uncertain.

No they are completely different and neither can “win” over the other. Gold has the long-term advantage and indeed I would go so far as to say, that in the long, long term nothing has the slightest chance of beating Gold … with the minor drawback that in the long run we are all dead.
 
Bitcoin (but what is Bitcoin?) has only the first mover advantage in the realm of decentralized crypto currency … the features on offer are convenience and ability to transit over long distances … and maybe smart contracts (Etherium, etc) will win, maybe privacy (Monero) will win … maybe some other thing … maybe everyone will roll there own crypto coin and think nothing of it … long term future of crypto is highly uncertain. The market has not decided.

Posted by: Tel | Oct 9 2025 9:22 utc | 356

In this explosive new episode, returning guest Doomberg (https://newsletter.doomberg.com/) joins host Christian White to dissect the unraveling of the global order. From NATO’s quiet defeat in Ukraine to the crumbling legitimacy of the European Union, Doomberg lays out why we’re entering a historic turning point — economically, politically, and morally.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgDfqC1YMMM

Posted by: unimperator | Oct 9 2025 9:56 utc | 358

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Oct 8 2025 11:22 utc | 313
 
Interesting.
When I was four years old, I used to drift around my neighbourhood (in my sleep).

1. I went through several phases of this afterwards, c.7-9yo, c.20-22, c.27-28. It has not been a regular feature since my late 20’s, although it occasionally occurs, and I’ve spent the past decades wondering what it all means…

When you are floating around the local neighbourhood, or directly over yourself, while sleeping, you just have to start questioning the nature of the body vs. soul.
I used to think I was haunted when I was a kid, but now just think I was exploring, and searching. For what, I have no idea…
 

Posted by: Jon_in_AU | Oct 9 2025 12:21 utc | 360