THE BIG PICTURE

The Financial System Has Failed: Currency Debasement and Inflation Will Now Scream – “Well, it is a new year, and much more manipulation is happening in the paper silver contracts, as regulators under the idiotic banner of “market stability” have raised margin requirements and position limits twice in a few days. This is of course, all done to protect the institutional short sellers, mainly the banks, as they face great losses when silver or other commodities rise against their shorts. Also, this is a way to hold down the price of precious metals, especially silver, in order to cover up the inevitable collapse of the dollar. So what does all this mean? It means that the financial system is so fragile and bankrupt, that it is close to failure, and extreme measures are being taken by government and the Federal Reserve just to keep it afloat. This is certainly attempting to kick the can down the road a bit further, but the can itself is obviously coming apart. This is leverage upon leverage, vastly increasing debt, and who knows where all this is going and when? One thing is for sure; monetary debasement is greatly expanding, and massive price inflation will follow. The metals signal is crystal clear, as gold and silver are indicating that this debt-based financial system is ending.” – Gary D. Barnett  – FOR MORE ON THIS SEE THE ARTICLES IN THE ECONOMIC SECTION TODAY AND THE PAST FEW DAYS SINCE MONDAY. IT’S ECONOMIC NEWS BUT REALLY IT ALL TIES IN TO THE “BIG PICTURE”!!!!!!!!!!!

The Cycle of Freedom – “Periodically, I offer up a statement by Scottish Economist Alexander Tytler, “The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been about 200 years. These nations always progressed through this sequence: From Bondage to Moral Certitude; from Moral Certitude to Great Courage; from Great Courage to Liberty; from Liberty to Abundance; from Abundance to Selfishness; from Selfishness to Complacency; from Complacency to Apathy; from Apathy to Dependency; from Dependency to Bondage.” Tytler had it right. There is a Freedom Cycle. It’s not an accident. It’s based upon human nature, which is perennial.” – Jeff Thomas

A Shrewy New Year: Back to the Trenches – “As the twinkling lights of Christmas fade and the echoes of holiday cheer dissolve into the crisp air of January 2026, we shrews find ourselves at a familiar crossroads. The season brought a rare respite—a peaceful interlude where families gathered without the shadow of mandates looming quite so heavily, where conversations flowed freely, unmarred by the usual divides. But make no mistake: this tranquility is fleeting, a mere pause in the symphony of struggle. The world hasn’t healed; it’s merely caught its breath. Now, it’s time to sharpen our claws, dust off our vigilance, and plunge back into the trenches. There’s no room for relaxation in a world still shrouded in deception.” – Todd Hayen, PhD, RP

Men Must Once More, Great and Small, Truly Think! – E.M. Burlingame  – GOOD READ FROM E.M.!!!!

Expertise Remains Indispensable – “The lesson of the past few years is not that expertise is obsolete or, in and of itself, dangerous; it is that expertise, severed from humility and institutional restraint, can be misused and even weaponized.” – Peter C. Earle

In 2026, the line between reality and virtual reality, the real and the fake, will continue to blur – “It’s time to unplug from the matrix. The alternative in a digitized world is to let it consume your humanity. And once it’s lost there’s no guarantee you can get it back.” – Leo Hohmann

You’ll Want to See This Before 2026 Gets Going – “The battle intensifies… Even though the calendar has rolled over, the battle remains the same; in fact, it is intensifying. The world will continue increasing its assault on those who would stand firm against the temptation to compromise one’s Biblical values. In other words, stand firm…” – Jim McCraigh

CDC’s Measles PCR Test Matches Human DNA, Raising Questions About What It’s Detecting – “Are some measles PCR “positives” detecting human genetic material instead of measles virus?” – Jon Fleetwood

Three Independent Estimates Yield 470,000–840,000 American COVID-19 “Vaccine” Deaths – Nicolas Hulscher, MPH

Hunger Games: World Bank And Cargill Simulated Food Crisis That Started In 2020 During A Pandemic, Predicts Carbon And Meat Taxes In The Future – ““There is a hope that a crisis will create the ability for us to do things better and reconfigure the world in a better way,” said one of the authors.” – The WinePress

NEWS

“Boots on the Ground” – “Hopefully, the scruffy little dictator of Ukraine is lying – or being misquoted. Nonetheless, it is alarming – if you’re among the sane – to read that, supposedly, “US BOOTS ON THE GROUND in Ukraine (is) being discussed.” The good news is “troop deployment is UP TO THE UNITED STATES.”  This being “good news” in the same way that being told you have cancer – but it hasn’t spread yet – is “good news.” If you voted for Trump, did you vote to send American troops to . . . Keeeeeeeeeeeeev? That would be bad enough, given that sending American troops (and American tax dollars) to these shithole countries where no American interest are involved – as opposed to the interests of the people who control the government that rules America – is always a bad idea for Americans, who get nothing in return except slain and crippled Americans and higher taxes as well as the well-earned contempt of the people who live in the countries curb-stomped by American troops.” – Eric Peters

The “Year of Chaos” Arrived Late but Hit in Full Farce – “Many are saying in one way or another that 2025 was the most chaotic year they’ve experienced.” – David Haggith

$21 Trillion Dollars Is Missing From the U.S. Government. That Is $65,000 per Person—As Much as the National Debt! (VIDEO) – “What’s going on? Where is the money? How could this happen? How much has really gone missing? What would happen if a corporation failed to pass an audit like this? Or a taxpayer?” – The Solari Report

Trump says construction of the ‘Triumphal Arch’ to begin in ‘2 months’ – “The monument would be a centerpiece of the White House’s plans for America’s 250th birthday.” – Sophia Cai   – STARTING TO LOOK MORE AND MORE LIKE THE ROMAN EMPIRE WHEN IT WENT DOWN THE “SHITTER”!!!

The global resource war is going kinetic – “In my opinion, we are moving from peacetime economic trade war conditions to a quazi-kinetic war for the control of the critical natural resources that are needed by the major powers in our emerging multipolar world.” – Matthew Bracken  – GOOD READ FROM MATT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Trump-Xi Showdown Approaches As Chinese Tankers Press Ahead To Venezuela Despite Blockade – Tyler Durden

Dark Alliance: key US ally Daniel Noboa linked to S. American drug trade (VIDEO) – “Oscar Leon interviews Andres Durán, an Ecuadoran investigative journalist who has had to flee his country due to his allegations that billionaire, US-allied President Daniel Noboa, the Noboa family and their inner circle are involved in the international drug trade. Durán reveals the following: Ecuador, not Venezuela, is the primary departure point for cocaine shipments to the US and Europe, with President Daniel Noboa’s family businesses repeatedly linked to drug seizures. Multiple cocaine trafficking scandals involve Noboa-owned companies.” – The Grayzone

US Bombed Seven Countries in 2025 as Trump Dramatically Expanded Airstrikes – ” Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela,Yemen” – Dave DeCamp

Only the Bad Man – “How many countries will America bomb in 2026? Is there anything more embarrassing or self-debasing than continuing to be a Trump supporter in 2026? It’s just degrading and cucky at this point. Trotting alongside Netanyahu and promising to help him bomb Iran while lying and claiming Israel has been “100 percent” abiding by the ceasefire in Gaza. Bombing Venezuela, Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and all those boats off Latin America in a single year after campaigning as the “anti-war” candidate. ” – Bill Astore

How a ‘Muslim’ Scammer Used AI-Generated Children To Steal Over $100,000 From Substack Users – “A meth head in Pakistan is pretending to be a desperate dad in Gaza and your retired mother just sent him her Social Security money.” – 🐺The Wise Wolf and Lily-Rose Dawson

30 black-on-white homicide reports noted in December, 2025 – “Four white-on-black reports” – Kenn Gividen – AND AS ALWAYS, LITTLE OR NONE MSM COVERAGE ON THESE CRIMES!!!

Israel to ban more than 30 aid groups operating in Gaza – “West Jerusalem will prohibit the organizations if they fail to provide information about their Palestinian staff” – RT

Is A Revolution In Iran Part Of The Plan? – Michael Snyder

A Low-Risk Strategic Win: Trump Should Recognize Somaliland – “There is an easy argument for recognizing Somaliland, and it is not the one that State Department lifers will offer you in a memo. The easy argument is that it would enrage Somalia-born Rep Ilhan Omar. That is not a reason by itself to reorder US foreign policy, but it is a useful diagnostic. When a policy move reliably provokes a loud, immediate denunciation from Omar, that usually means it cuts against a particular combination of interests, ideology, and constituency. Somaliland recognition does exactly that.” – Amuse on X

ECONOMIC NEWS ( CANT STRESS ENOUGH WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE FINANCIAL MARKETS) PRETTY MUCH ALL OF THESE ARE MUST READS AND LISTENS )!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pretense, Staging, Expediency: the “Solutions” That Implode the Whole Shebang – “2026 is the year when all the “solutions” of Pretense, Staging and Expediency implode on every level: household, enterprise, local, state and national, for Pretense, Staging and Expediency are scale-invariant “solutions”: cooking the books, staging and hiding debt works for the state and nation just as well as it does for the sole proprietor and bankrupt household. The only difference is the depth of the deviousness.” – Charles Hugh Smith

Uruguay Latest Country Hoping to Ditch the Dollar – “Uruguay is the latest country hoping to ditch the U.S. dollar. That won’t be an easy task, given that Uruguay ranks as the most dollarized Latin American nation. However, the fact that the government is even trying to limit dollar dependence reflects a growing de-dollarization trend that threatens the primacy of the greenback. Uruguay Central Bank President Guillermo Tolosa recently announced policy changes designed to de-incentivize dollar use and boost the Uruguayan peso.” – Mike Maharrey

Derivatives and Financial Disaster with (VIDEO)- “Yanis Varoufakis as a Witness, Real or Fabricated, to the Financial Crisis Engulfing Us. The video above is attributed to Yanis Varoufakis, a prominent public intellectual who has served the Greek government as Minister of Finance and in a number of other capacities. The video highlights the thinker’s reflection on an alleged secret meeting said to have taken place at the Bank of International Settlements in Basel Switzerland. Varoufakis begins by proclaiming his video report violates many confidentiality agreements.” – .Anthony James Hall

Perfect Storm for Debt, Economy, War, Gold & Silver (VIDEO) with Martin Armstrong – Greg Hunter

Silver’s 2026 Open: Irresistable Force Meets Immovable Object – “The paper metals markets have traditionally responded to spiking prices by raising margin requirements. Players who can’t come up with the extra money have to liquidate their positions, which causes prices to fall. That accounts for at least part of the brutal end to last year’s silver price action. The Comex exchange just raised margin requirements again. Does this mean silver will fall hard when trading opens later today? GoldSilver’s Mike Maloney says yes: It really doesn’t matter what silver does today. Its long-term story is that deficits produce shortages, which in turn produce higher prices, so we should be agnostic about any given day’s action.” (VIDEO) – John Rubino

In A Desperate Attempt To Stop The Bleeding, A Conspiracy To Force The Price Of Silver Down Is Unfolding Right In Front Of Our Eyes – “They aren’t even trying to pretend to hide what they are doing. Everyone knows that the meteoric rise in the price of silver in 2025 has put an immense amount of stress on certain financial institutions. Of course nobody is publicly confirming how much damage has been done, but it must be pretty severe if CME Group is taking such extreme measures to force the price of silver down. For the second time in less than a week, CME Group has abruptly raised margin requirements on precious metals futures…” – Michael Snyder

Is Cash Now Trash? (vs Gold, Silver & Bitcoin) (VIDEO) with Lawrence Lepard – Adam Taggart | Thoughtful Money®

  

SURVIVAL, PREPAREDNESS AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY

10 Things That Will Be More Valuable Than GOLD During SHTF! (VIDEO) – “When shelves are empty, power is down, and desperation takes over, practical survival items will become the true currency.” – Jason Salyer

New Year’s Day Preparedness Reset: A Calm, Practical Way to Start 2026 Ready – “Preparedness built in theory often fails in practice. Preparedness reviewed during winter, however, reveals the truth quickly. Cold exposes weak batteries. Short daylight exposes lighting gaps. Storms expose communication and coordination problems. That’s why New Year’s Day is one of the most valuable preparedness days of the year. Instead of vague resolutions, today is about quiet, deliberate improvement.” – denob

26 Clothesline Ideas to Hang Dry Your Clothes and Save You Money – “Do you miss the old days? Remember when days moved a little slower, and we could get outside and enjoy our chores? Well, those days don’t have to be over and done with, and you can still put a little joy into your daily tasks. For instance, doing laundry isn’t so bad when you can get out in the sunshine to hang them up to dry and take them down. But before you can begin to line dry your clothes, you first need a clothesline. So I’m bringing you a bunch of clothesline ideas to help you find the perfect one for you.” – Jennifer Poindexter

Build a Self-Cleaning Chicken Coop – Steve Nubie

Vision Issues, Part 4: Eye Trauma – “In long-term survival, the medic must optimize the vision of family or group members in order to optimize the chance for success. They must be prepared for mishaps or hostile encounters that occur and cause traumatic eye injuries. Some good news: The conformation of the human skull is such that your eyes are slightly recessed in bony sockets, which helps protect them from injury. Despite this, there are many activities of daily survival that can cause an eye injury. Here are just a few:” – Joe Alton MD

VERSE FOR THE DAY

2 Corinthians 5:17    Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

IMAGE FOR THE DAY