I’m off to a Brownstone gathering today and tomorrow. Given the mega storm, we’ll see how many actually show up. But there are some very intriguing names on the list…
Now for the Friday Fat Pipe…
Trump Abroad
Trump is either wildly uninformed or part of the operation:
Operation Warp Speed was not "The greatest military operation ever" unless your definition of success is, "It killed and harmed more Americans than any war in our history." Either Trump knows this, or he doesn't; which is worse? https://t.co/mWVY3b0WFa
— Chris Martenson (@chrismartenson) January 22, 2026
After all, Warp Speed wasn’t just about forcing the death and disease jabs on everyone, right down to 6-month-old infants, but included enforcing authoritarian lockdowns and incoherent rules like ‘six feet apart’ and you have to wear your mask in a restaurant, until or unless you are sitting down.
However, I’ve been told by several people I really trust that the full speech is a real tour de force and that Trump made them really proud (once you get past the first 10-15 minutes of blustery self-congratulations). I have yet to listen to the whole thing:
Full Trump speech at the WEF.I'm seeing clips everywhere, but not the full, so here it is. pic.twitter.com/q0NWsSMjNI
— Thumperella 5×5 (@sheshelynnie) January 21, 2026
Exponential Thinking Makes The Main Stage
A core component of the Crash Course is the insight about how exponential growth operates and has been embedded as the central mechanism of our system of money and economic growth and therefore of resource extraction. As I am fond of saying, perpetual exponential growth on a finite planet is not possible. Worse, it’s a terrible idea to pursue to its illogical ends.
Finally, the thinking has hit the main stage. Billionaire investor Robert Friedland observes what 3% growth in copper consumption implies:
Robert Friedland on the masive copper shortage to meet future grid, clean energy and AI demand: “We’re consuming 30m tonnes of copper a year. Only 4m tonnes of which is recycled. That means to maintain 3% GDP growth — with no [further] electrification — we have to mine the same… pic.twitter.com/CInU78MViZ
— Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) January 22, 2026
Then casually informs the audience, “You people have no idea whatsoever
by cmartenson 
