The Senate will no longer enforce a dress code for senators a few months after Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) made headlines for disregarding the rules.

In the past, the film industry was perhaps the only industry (besides politics) in which abject failure has been met with consumer empathy and largesse.  Ever since the days of the Great Depression, the American public has wanted Hollywood to succeed; to continue to entertain us with tales of adventure and drama.  For if Hollywood survived, so did people's hopes for American culture.  

There was an era when Hollywood celebrities and film creators were treated as a kind of modern royalty, a representation of the heights to which the average person could strive and “make it big.”  The glitz and the glamour were viewed as the culmination of the American dream.  But as with all fantasies, the story must end and reality must return.  Was the movie business always a farce?  Yes.  However, it was a farce that the public held up even in the worst of times as something of value; something more than frivolity.  

In the spans of around 7 years Hollywood has lost every ounce of social capital they had gained in the past century.  That takes an epic level of ignorance and arrogance.  It takes criminal levels of malicious intent and an unprecedented display of stupidity.  The populace was willing to put up with almost any level of degeneracy from Tinsel Town as long as they could make compelling movies, and yet, they couldn't even do that.

Today, the consequences of their hubris are punching them right in the nether regions as the business collapses in on itself.  And this time, no one seems to care.  In fact, many people are cheering their inevitable demise.

In the past 4 years alone theaters across the country have seen a 50% plunge in box office attendance.  Meaning, the industry somehow lost half its consumer base from 2019 to 2023.  The media attempted to play down the crash as a symptom of the covid pandemic, but the fact is that the decline started well before the lockdowns, the closures in red states ended quickly, and some movies (such as Spider-Man: No Way Home and Top Gun: Maverick) had explosive success while most other films lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the midst of the covid hype.

It should be noted that a large percentage of celebrities and Hollywood corporate interests supported and promoted the covid lockdowns.  They also joined the online lynch mobs seeking to shame and destroy anyone who defied the mandates.  Now they're pretending like none of that ever happened, but the public has not forgotten.    

Cars with foreign plates have been showing up in Africa in staggering numbers, with the majority hailing from Canada and the United States.

A whopping 80 percent of stolen vehicles in Canada are said to leave the country's ports and most end up in countries like Ghana.

Authorities have also noticed an increase in the number of stolen cars departing the United States for West Africa. An ongoing investigation has seized cars at major shipping ports like New Jersey and Baltimore.

In August, Homeland Security said it had already seized about 300 stolen vehicles at the Port of Newark this year, marking a a 32 percent increase from last year.

Many vehicles are carjacked, a process that is becoming easier with push-to-start technology. Syndicates will retag a stolen car by altering its Vehicle Identification Number, or VIN, a unique serial number.

The international gangs may then obtain a counterfeit Certificate of Title, which serves as the official proof of ownership, to match the new VIN. The cars are then sold to people who will ship them overseas.

Simply put, Bidenomics is borrowing trillions from China, to spend on a green new deal and to enrich China and its U.S. and international supporters.  As part of this green new deal, cut off as much oil and gas production in the U.S. as possible to drive prices higher.

In addition, part of the green new deal is to enact a host of regulations on everything, including alcohol, beer, cars, ceiling fans, fertilizer, gas stoves, lawnmowers, light bulbs, plastics, vaccinations, etc.  Essentially regulate for the American people everything from alcohol to zoos.

And, as they are spending and splitting trillions and they have raised prices on everything, they have put a few programs together that might save the American people millions.  Remember, trillions for them, millions for the rest of us.

Open the border, and allow millions of illegal aliens into the country to supply cheap labor.

Stigmatize white Americans into unemployment just for being white.

Therefore, money is drying up for corporations that embrace it, and the cash they dole out to downstream institutions, such as universities, think tanks, activist groups, and big white-shoe foundations. The Bud Light fiasco pretty well shows what happens to those who dive in to embrace woke.

It's not just scandal-plagued groups like Black Lives Matter, which has done little but riot in cities (hitting black-owned businesses hard) and feather its leaderships' nests, that has suddenly seen both a drop in public support and incoming funds.

Now it's the fancy stuff, the university think tanks, such as Boston University's Center for Antiracist Research, led by Ibram X. Kendi, which is seeing big layoffs.

In what critics are denouncing as a full-on assault on parental rights, California has passed a battery of bills that all take aim at families who disagree with gender ideology.

The schedule of pro-“trans” legislation includes AB 957, AB 665, AB 5, and AB 1078, all of which have passed in both houses of the state legislature. The related SB 407 passed in May in the State Senate by a landslide margin. It is currently being considered by the State Assembly. 

In a commentary piece for The Daily Signal, Tyler O’Neil called the series of bills a “transgender inquisition,” remarking, “‘We’re here, we’re queer, we’re coming for your children’ might as well become the new slogan of the Golden State.”

“What would the state need to launch a transgender inquisition?” he asked:

 Former President Donald Trump said during an interview that aired on Sunday that the federal indictment of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, does not prove that the U.S. justice system is fair.

 House Speaker Kevin McCarther (R-CA) blasted President Joe Biden’s energy policies as an “attack” on American energy that is empowering our enemies. 

 Video appears to show a person who was driving a stolen vehicle bash into a retired police chief who was out on a bicycle ride in Las Vegas last month.

 Former President Donald Trump criticized Republican governors who have signed pro-life laws — also known as “heartbeat laws” — that ban abortion after six weeks, calling the bill signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.”

 Two female models have been reportedly found dead in their luxury apartments in downtown Los Angeles within the last week, sparking an investigation from authorities who have not confirmed if any link exists between the two deaths.

Milley Says He Never Received ‘Illegal’ Order From Trump After 2020 Election

 North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un left Russia on Sunday with several explosive drones and other unique gifts as his rare trip outside of his country came to an end. 

 General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, insisted that he was not sure what the word “woke” means.

 A Texas land developer has established a sprawling settlement north of Houston where thousands of illegal immigrants are believed to have settled, raising concerns among experts and elected officials that the development 400 miles in the interior of the United States could become a strategic asset for cartels.

 The U.S. military asked the public on Sunday for help in locating a missing F-35 fighter jet.

 House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said that he will subpoena President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, as the House prepares to begin its impeachment inquiry into the president.

 Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) said that “everything’s on the table” when it comes to potentially ousting House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from his speakership.

Weekends and holidays are the perfect time to catch people off guard…

Like a street thug committing a mugging, capital controls blindside most people - otherwise, they wouldn’t be effective.

The government declares a surprise bank holiday and shuts all the banks - mere hours after they denied they were even thinking about such actions.

They impose capital controls to stop citizens from taking their money out of the country.

Cash-sniffing dogs, which make drug-sniffing dogs look friendly, show up at airports and border crossings.

At this point, your savings are like a lobster in a trap. It’s not hard to see what comes next…

Once a desperate government has your money within its reach, it’ll find a way to take as much of it as possible.

Don’t be surprised if your local currency suffers a massive devaluation, bank deposits are suddenly worth a fraction of what they were just yesterday, or the government imposes an emergency tax.

Whatever the method or pretext, the outcome is always the same: a wealth transfer from you to the government.

This familiar story has played out in many countries in recent years. The pattern is clear and should surprise no one the next time it happens.

It’s all but certain governments in financial trouble will turn to capital controls as a desperate, misguided solution—with devastating consequences for ordinary people.

September 15 was the International Day of Democracy and this year, the theme was “Empowering the next generation”.

According to the UN, this is intended to place focus "on young people’s essential role in advancing democracy and ensuring that their voices are included in the decisions that have a profound impact on their world."

As Statista's Martin Armstrong shows in this infographic, based on an analysis collated by Our World in Data highlights just how fragile democracy can be.

The share of the world living in either an electoral or liberal democracy was at its highest in the year 2000 when the figure was at 54 percent.

This took a steep dive in 2019, dropping from 50 percent down to just 32.

While the fragility of democracy is also plain to see elsewhere in the chart, this is the most dramatic example over the assessed period.

You will find more infographics at Statista

What makes the spending stop? Looking at the 1970s again for a similarity, here is what was found:

One of the things that forced the government to end the social-spending and war-debt monetization of the 1970s was when corporate America’s capital actually went on strike. This eventually forced on the austerity concept of neokeynesianism as we couldn’t spend anymore. Capitalism went on strike. That is what happened.

Capitalists Go On Strike in the Late 1970s

When Capital finally threw in the towel, union demands and government debt monetization had to start backing off because capital simply stopped investing in US.

The ROC on capital had shrunk too much while ROL Return on Labor had gotten too big. Efficiencies in production were ignored as everything was just price raised, added on, and passed through (wage-price spiral) until it could no longer continue due to Capital going on strike and just parking itself in 10% CDs domestically or going overseas.

That’s what stopped the wage-price spiral: Capital going on strike and govt credit running out.. they couldn’t keep the ponzi going, so they called in Volcker.

Anti-ivermectin statements made by the FDA are not being changed, even after an appeals court ruled against the agency.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is refusing to change its statements against ivermectin, even after a court said it acted outside of its authority when it told people to stop using it to treat COVID-19.

The U.S. appeals court said that the FDA's statements, including one telling people to "stop" using ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment, went beyond the authority conferred on the agency by Congress.

“FDA can inform, but it has identified no authority allowing it to recommend consumers ‘stop’ taking medicine,” U.S. Circuit Judge Don Willett wrote in the Sept. 1 ruling.

Two weeks later, FDA social media posts and a key webpage remain unchanged.

Police are pleading for information about a passenger who filmed a sickening video of his friend mowing down a retired police chief as he cycled down a Las Vegas highway. 

The 17-year-old driver was charged with murder after allegedly fatally ploughing his 2016 Hyundai Elantra into Andreas Probst, 64, in the northwest of the city on August 14.  

The driver was arrested soon after the crash and taken to the Juvenile Detention Center - but more than a month later his passenger who filmed the horrific incident and goaded him to strike Probst is still on the loose.   

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said it is still 'actively working to identify the passenger in the car.'

President Biden is sending a team from the White House with the aim of helping to resolve the strike of the nation's largest autoworkers union with the Big Three automakers planning to be in Detroit to support negotiations 'early in the week.'

White House adviser Gene Sperling and acting Labor Secretary Julie Su traveled to Detroit with the aim of reaching an agreement to end the strike initiated by the United Auto Workers union, which began on Friday. 

Sperling, who has been actively involved in key issues related to the union and the auto companies, has been coordinating efforts with Su.

An administration official stated, 'Both Sperling and acting Secretary Su are engaging with the parties by phone, as they have for weeks, with the intention of being there early in the week. The Administration is pleased that the parties are continuing to meet as they had been before the contract expired.' 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he believes World War Three could become a reality if the U.S. does not continue to support Ukraine having already contributed roughly $70 billion towards the effort.

Speaking on 60 Minutes Sunday night, Zelensky compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler.

'The whole world [has to] decide whether we want to stop Putin, or whether we want to start the beginning of a world war. We can't change Putin. Russian society has [lost] the respect of the world,' Zelensky said. 

'They elected him and re-elected him and raised a second Hitler. They did this. We cannot go back in time. But we can stop it here.' 

Zelensky is expected at the White House and on Capitol Hill this week as he visits the U.S. during the United Nations General Assembly. 

In an exclusive interview with an American broadcaster, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said that Ukraine's counteroffensive "will take a considerable length of time," refusing to speculate on how long it might take for Kiev to achieve its goals.

"This offensive, although significant, has operational and tactical objectives that are limited in the sense that they do not, even if they are fully achieved, they do not completely kick out all the Russians, which is the broader strategic objective that [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelensky have" Milley said in an interview with a American broadcaster.

The military official refused to speculate on how long it might take Ukraine to achieve its goals, noting that it "will take a considerable length of time."

In addition, Milley described Ukraine's ongoing counteroffensive as "long, hard, bloody."

Russia began its military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. Ukraine launched its latest counteroffensive in early June. Three months later, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Ukrainian counteroffensive had failed, with Ukraine suffering 71,000 casualties. Several Western officials also admitted that the Ukrainian counteroffensive had not been successful.

Webmaster addition: Gee, ya think?

It is important for Western countries to find a way to maintain relations with Russia, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said on Sunday.

"I don’t mean any great friendship, but the capability to tolerate, even understand each other a bit," Niinisto said in an interview, adding that trust will be needed after the end of the Ukraine conflict to ensure that "a new war is not waiting behind the door."

Speaking about the risks of a nuclear war, Niinisto said that countries supplying weapons to Ukraine need to take into account the possible escalation of the conflict into "a big war, that’s world war."

"We’re in a very sensitive situation. Even small things can change matters a great deal and unfortunately for the worse. That is the risk of such large-scale warfare. The risk that nuclear weapons could be used is tremendous," the Finnish president added.

With summer nearing the end, and fall set to begin, so does the colder weather, but we as a nation will once again be dealing with higher electricity bills as the price of gas continues to rise. Autumn is when we start pulling out our warmer clothes and begin our preparations for the upcoming winter which starts on December 21 of this year.

For some, like Stefan and I, it is time to stock up on cords of wood for the fireplace, pull out the sweaters, gloves and scarves, because Autumn does start to get chilly up in the mountains.

Those in warmer climates have a little more leeway in deciding when to start winter preparations because Autumn doesn't get quite as cold as it does in colder climates, but with inflation rising again, food costs approximately 20% higher in 2023 than it was in 2020, gas prices on the rise now that the manufactured relief from Joe Biden releasing the Strategic Reserves is almost all gone, it is likely a prudent idea to get everything in order earlier, before prices rise any more.

The 2024 Old Farmer’s Almanac predicts snow, seasonable cold, and all of winter’s delights! This winter’s forecast will surely excite snow bunnies and sweater lovers alike, promising a lot of cold and snow across North America! 

• Snowfall will be above normal across most snow-prone areas (except for the Pacific Northwest). Get prepared for oodles of fluffy white throughout the season! Keep a shovel at the ready early, especially in the Northeast and Midwest, where snow will arrive beginning in November with storms, showers, and flurries continuing through the start of spring.
• Along with above-normal snow, we’ll see normal to colder-than-normal temperatures in areas that typically receive snow. Expect just the right amount of chill in the air for an afternoon of adventurous snow sports or enjoying a big ol’ mug of hot cocoa by a crackling fire. Only snowy New England and the Atlantic Corridor will enjoy winter temperatures milder than typical for their regions.

The facts are still open.

The US had a major terrorist incident on 9/11 and it’s still not clear who was behind it.

One thing is clear: governments are in the terror business.

On 9/11:

* The physics were impossible
* The logistics were impossible
* The official story is complete BS

So who did it?

One thing we know for sure: al Qaeda did not have the capacity to do it.