Bill Bonner, "Greatest Show on Earth"

"Greatest Show on Earth"

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "Even the planet seems to have turned against the US empire. On the occasion of 250th anniversary, temperatures soared. Crowds disappeared. And the AC stopped working. The Independent: "In a segment from the fair, CNN’s Tom Foreman reported Wednesday that the event had suffered “intermittent power problems” and air conditioning units at some exhibits had failed. The fair suffered a similar power outage the day after its official opening last Thursday, causing frozen desserts to melt.

“You can’t expose yourself to this for very long,” Foreman warned viewers amid the searing heat. “They’ve lost AC today, so much that the workers there simply left their stations and said, ‘Fend for yourself,’” Foreman claimed."

And then came the storms. The Daily Beast: "An immediate evacuation order was issued Saturday night for Salute to America, President Donald Trump’s much-hyped July 4th bash on the National Mall, due to severe weather. “The safety of our guests, performers, and staff is our top priority,” Freedom 250 Spokesperson Danielle Alvarez shared in a social media post. “Due to approaching severe storms, Freedom 250, United States Secret Service, United States Park Police, National Park Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and all public safety partners are asking all guests to evacuate event grounds and seek temporary shelter in a nearby building.”

Followed by the nutty explanations. The Independent: "A MAGA faithful and prominent 2020 election denier claimed the intense heat oppressing the nation’s capital and disrupting America’s 250th celebrations was “geoengineered” by a person with Trump Derangement Syndrome. “Same way they geoengineered Trump’s inauguration to be one of the coldest in U.S. history. People with [Trump Derangement Syndrome] hate Trump more than they love America,” Kremer wrote on X.

All part of the Greatest Show on Earth!

This comes after brouhahas about the Reflecting Pool, the Triumphal Arch, the Trump-Kennedy Center, and the West Wing ballroom. But none of these is very important. Nor are they necessarily reflections on the incompetence of the Trump Team. When you try to do things, there are bound to be problems...and the naysayers will say their nays.

But the important issues, too, seem to be plagued by a kind of klutzy dysfunction. Inflation doesn’t go down. DOGE disappears. Deficits increase. The economy stalls. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday: "US snaps hiring hot streak with only 57,000 jobs added in June. The share of the working-age population that is either working or looking for work - known as the labor-force participation rate - edged down to 61.5% in June, the lowest since March 2021."

David Stockman adds perspective: "During the first 18 months of the Donald’s alleged “red hot” US economy, there has actually been a 337,000 job loss outside of the government-funded health care and social services sector. During the four years of the Biden administration, by comparison, in the same sectors, the economy racked up 267,000 new jobs per month. And those who have jobs have suffered negative wage growth for the last two months; consumer prices rose faster than their paychecks.

But it’s the war on Iran that draws the fiercest criticism. The US attacked. Then, the Trump administration seemed unprepared for what came next - a closure of the Hormuz Strait. This sent oil prices skyward...and cut off critical the imports of fertilizers and industrial chemicals needed by US factories and farms.

Team Trump tried to salve the wounds it had inflicted with more taxpayer money to the farmers. It also withdrew some of its own sanctions and tariffs, including those on the object of its aggression. The Week: "US lifts oil sanctions on Iran amid chaotic talks." Fox News: "Donald Trump on Monday declared an emergency aimed at protecting the U.S. food supply and temporarily suspended import duties on certain Moroccan fertilizer products."

Analysts wondered what it was all about. Foreign Policy: "Iran Is a Bigger Defeat Than Vietnam." A war of choice has turned into a strategic disaster for Washington. This prompted a grim thought. What would future historians make of it? What was the point, they will ask? What was accomplished? And how was it possible that the most powerful empire in the history of the world went to war twice against much smaller, s***hole countries...and was humiliated both times? Does the US have the most inept empire ever? Let’s look at it tomorrow."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

o

Well, I for one had never heard of this "show", 

and don't even want to imagine watching it! LOL

"Independence Day Drag"

"I spent the Fourth of July with some of the few sane 

people left in the United States: Drag queens."

by Chris Hedges

"Looking Forward"

"Looking Forward"

by Jeff Thomas

"Since its inception, International Man has offered prognostications about what the future will bring – economically, politically and socially. The principle writers of the publication have been at this for decades. Each one began by studying world economics and politics in order to make the best choices as to where to live, where to invest, where to store wealth, etc. Over the years, each one got better at researching, better at reading the signs and, ultimately, better at predicting future events.

But, today, we’re approaching a worldwide crisis point and the study that we undertook decades ago has become important for literally hundreds of millions of people who, whether they realize it or not, will soon be impacted by events in a major way.

The foremost concern for readers of this publication is that the world’s leading governments have become decidedly fascist and are rapidly heading in a totalitarian direction. There are a number of facets to this development, all of them disturbing: The elimination of personal privacy, the creation of capital controls, confiscation of wealth, the conversion to electronic banking as the sole form of currency, international taxation standards and the creation of a police state. (There are many, many more facets, but these few tend to be at the core of concern.)

We can expect to see all of these concerns come closer to reality in the near future. The events that bring them about will increase in both frequency and magnitude as we get closer. (Historically, this is always the case, as governments that are in trouble race to get controls in place, as their continued ability to control events unravels.)

In these pages, we do our best to provide projections as to “where it’s all headed” and how it will affect the reader. In doing so, we generally discuss events that we believe will occur sometime soon (within a year or two). Often, we delay discussing events that we’ve anticipated many years previously, because they’d appear to most people as being so unlikely that their prediction would seem absurd.

However, we’re getting much closer to the crisis and, consequently, much of what once might have seemed absurd may now look quite possible to more people. But, even now, we tend to confine our prognostications to the international crisis itself. We rarely discuss what the world will look like after the market crashes have occurred, after the currencies have failed, after the governmental systems have broken down.

So, let’s have a snapshot look at what the overall landscape might look like after the dust has begun to settle. What will some of the greatest powers in the world look like in, say, five to ten years’ time?

To begin, we’ll assume that the more catastrophic events of economic collapse have taken place in the world and we’ll be observing the subsequent knock-on effects – the deterioration that would occur thereafter. Historically, any government that’s leading up to a collapse invariably tightens controls to the max, as it’s aware that, following a collapse, it will lose control, either entirely or in part.

Once markets have collapsed, we can expect a deflationary trend that governments will respond to by creating massive inflation, very possibly leading to hyperinflation. At some point, we can expect to see a collapse in currencies, as a result of the unsustainable debt load – the heroin that has kept them going for decades. This is particularly important with regard to the US, as the US presently possesses the world’s default currency. A collapse in the dollar will send other currencies into a tailspin.

Following a currency collapse, it will no longer be possible for governments to continue to expand their debt loads, as there will no longer be any takers. In addition, government income streams will be diminished. As businesses decline, the tax revenue will be greatly diminished. Whether they like it or not, for the first time in their careers, political leaders will be forced to cut costs, and cut them dramatically.

So, where will they cut? In the US, Social Security represents 15% of recurrent expenditure; Medicare and Medicaid represent another 15%; poverty entitlements are another 10% and a further 15% goes to “defense,” or more accurately, “foreign aggression.” Together, that’s 55%, yet, to diminish any of these (with the possible exception of foreign aggression) would make the blood of Americans boil.

Interest on national debt represents another 9%, but that would quickly be defaulted on. Next to be cut would be the “non-essentials” – the departments of Agriculture, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, Immigration, plus prisons, drug control, conservation and national parks. Cuts in each of these would cause less civil unrest than diminishing the “big four” that make up 55% of the budget.

They would likely keep funding for Homeland Security, the IRS, and the Capitol Police and, in fact, would be likely to increase funding for all three. (Bear in mind that the Capitol Police is unlike any other police force; it is a virtual army, designed to protect legislators within the beltway from what will soon be classified as “domestic terrorism.”)

Along the way, those states that are net receivers of largesse from the federal government will find their allowances cut dramatically. This will mean that, for state and city governments, roads, garbage collection and departments such as Fire and Motor Vehicles, will all receive cuts, along with state and city police departments. This latter move will not only result in increased lawlessness, but will result in police themselves becoming more lawless, or a law unto themselves, sometimes acting in sympathy with the public against the central government, sometimes acting with aggression towards the public.

But these cuts will only be the beginning, as they will be insufficient to address the shortfall. Confiscations of bank accounts will take place, but they too will be insufficient. Cuts in Medicare and Medicaid will eventually be put into effect, along with cuts in Social Security (primarily through inflation). For the over 50% of people who are presently recipients of these mainstays of collectivism, the cuts will quickly create anger, unrest, then riots.

As stated above, veterans (some 10% of the population) will be unceremoniously dumped. They will react by joining those who protest the cuts. Those still employed in the armed forces and Homeland Security will be torn as to whom to side with. (Remember, the invasion of ancient Rome by the barbarians was made possible when the mercenary Roman soldiers simply walked away.)

In total, what we’re looking at is a government that will no longer have the level of control to operate an effective tax collection service, capital controls, or outbound migration, let alone to continue to aggress against other nations. The U.S., more than any other nation, is therefore most greatly at risk of holding itself together following a collapse. As stated in The Art of War, by Sun Tzu in the fifth century BC, “Those who are waging war should get rid of all the domestic troubles before proceeding to attack the external foe.” Essential advice today, as it was then.

It’s clear there are some ominous social, political, cultural, and economic trends playing out right now. Many of which seem to point to an unfortunate decline of the West. As space here is limited, we can only offer a thumbnail sketch of these events; however, it’s not essential that we labor over the fine details of conditions that will exist after the collapses have taken place. A sketch suffices to allow us to plan our own agenda – to locate ourselves geographically away from the hot spots and shift our investments into those things that might be likely to be more depression-proof. And we can move whatever wealth we might have to jurisdictions where its safety is most assured. Those concerns are more urgent than ever and the time remaining is decidedly uncertain."

- https://internationalman.com

"A Time Capsule From The 1930s: What's Different Now"

"A Time Capsule From The 1930s: 

What's Different Now"

"If we compare health and endurance, well-being, security, general attitudes, family 

and community ties and values, we would conclude that it is we who are impoverished."

by Charles Hugh Smith

"We're taking care of my 92-year old mother-in-law here at home. She has the usual aches and pains and infirmities of advanced age but her mind and memory are still sharp. Her memories of her childhood are like a time capsule from the 1930s.

My mom-in-law has always lived in the same general community here in Hawaii. She's never lived more than about 10 miles from the house where she was born (long since torn down) in 1931. Listening to her memories (and asking for more details) is to be transported back to the 1930s, an era of widespread poverty unrelated to the Great Depression. Many people were poor before the Depression. They were working hard but their incomes were low.

Prior to the tourist boom initiated by statehood and affordable airfare, Hawaii's economy was classically colonial: large plantations owned by a handful of wealthy families and/or corporations (known as The Big Five) employed thousands of laborers to raise and harvest sugar cane and pineapple. Pearl Harbor, Hickam air base and Schofield Barracks were large military bases on Oahu. Travel between islands was expensive (ferries) and each island was largely self-sufficient. Even taking a bus for the 12-mile ride to the island's sole city was a rare luxury, an excursion that occurred a few times a year.

Plantation workers were not yet unionized in the 1930s, and wages were around $20 a month for backbreaking field labor - work performed by both men and women. Typical of first and second-generation immigrant communities of the time, families were generally large. Six or seven children was common and nine or ten children per family was not uncommon. Many families lived in modest plantation-provided camps of two bedroom houses.

Gardens were not a hobby, they were an essential source of food to feed a table of hungry kids and adults. Candy, snacks, sodas, etc. were treats rserved for special occasions and holidays. Kids usually went barefoot because shoes were outside the household's limited budget.

Staples were bought at the company store (or one of the few privately owned groceries) on credit and paid off when the plantation paid wages.

Credit issued by banks was unknown. Neighborhoods (kumiai) might pool a few dollars from each family every year and offer the sum to the highest secret bidder or by lottery. Those households that scraped up enough to open a small business often worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week (or equivalent: 14 hours 6 days a week).

Neighbors helped with births and deaths.

Since no one could even dream of owning a car, transport was limited. Children and adults walked or biked miles to school or work. Many sole proprietors made a living delivering vegetables, meat and fish around the neighborhoods. (This distribution system is still present in rural France where my brother and sister-in-law lived for many years). Each vendor would arrive on a set day / time and housewives could gather to buy from the proprietor's jitney or truck. Children could eye the few candies longingly, and if they were lucky, a few pennies would be given to them to buy a candy.

Locally baked bread was delivered by boys. Milk was delivered by small local dairies.

Nostalgia is a powerful force, but I don't think we can dismiss the general happiness of my Mom-in-law's childhood as airbrushed impoverishment. The poverty seems obvious to us now, but at the time it was normal life. Everyone was in the same general socio-economic class. The plantation manager lived in a mansion with servants, but those with wealth were few and far between. In other words, wealth and income inequality was extreme but the class structure was flat: the 99% had very similar incomes and opportunities - both were limited.

Employment was stable, community ties and values were strong without anyone even noticing, and everyone had enough to eat (though not as much as they might have wanted, of course).

This secure plantation structure of work and community was still firmly in place in 1969-1970 when I lived on the pineapple plantation of Lanai (and picked pineapple with my high school classmates in the summer), and so I was fortunate to experience it first-hand. My Lanai classmates speak fondly and with a sense of loss when they recall their youth. Life was secure and protected, and with unionization of the workforce, the wages sufficient enough for frugal households to save enough to send their children to college off-island. I can personally attest that fond memories of 1970s plantation life are not distorted by nostalgia. These memories are accurate recollections of a far more secure, safe and nourishing place and time.

Compared to today, the typical 1930s diet was locally grown/raised and therefore rich in micro-nutrients. Grains such as rice and flour came from afar, but other than canned fish and similar goods, food was local and fresh. Little if any was wasted. People typically worked physically demanding jobs that burned a lot of calories.

There are many people 90+ years of age in our neighborhood. My Mom-in-law's brother - like many of the men in this age bracket, he was a World War II veteran of the famed 442nd unit -died last year at 96, despite smoking a half-pack of cigarettes daily until the end. A neighbor/friend just passed away at 99 (he was also a 442nd veteran). Our neighbor (cared for by her daughter and son-in-law, just like us) just turned 100. These people are generally healthy and active until the end of their lives.

If we look for causal factors in their advanced age and generally good health, we cannot ignore the high-quality, near-zero-processed foods diets of their youth and their strong foundations in community ties and values.

If we compare the financial and material wealth most enjoy today with the limited income and assets of the pre-war era, we would conclude they lived in extreme poverty and their lives must have been wretched as a consequence. But if we compare health and endurance, well-being, security, general attitudes, family and community ties and values, we would conclude that it is we who are impoverished and it was their lives that were rich in these essentials of human life.

The world has changed since the 1930s, of course. Materially, our wealth and options of what to do with our lives are off the charts compared to the 1930s. But if we look at health, security, well-being, community ties, social cohesion and civic virtue, our era seems insecure, disordered and deranging.

The irony is that those who have grown weary of our divisive, rage-inducing socio-economic system yearn for all that's been lost in the rise to material wealth and opportunities to spend that wealth. Those who grasp the emptiness of spectacle and material wealth and who have the means to do so are seeking the few enclaves that still have a few shreds of community and social cohesion left. These enclaves then get listed on "best small towns in America" or "best places in the world to retire" and the resulting influx of wealthy outsiders destroys the last remaining shreds of what everyone came for.

I recently harvested some of our homegrown green tomatoes, and my Mom-in-law gave me a handwritten recipe for Fried Green Tomatoes from her collection. The first ingredient was "two tablespoons of bacon drippings." Um, okay, if we were all working 10-hour days hauling 80-pound loads of sugar cane on our backs, no problem, but we're a household of three seniors, 69, 70 and 92. I think we'll substitute two teaspoons of olive oil for the bacon drippings..."

- http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/

- https://www.zerohedge.com

o

Full screen recommended.

"1930s USA - Fascinating Street Scenes of Vintage America"

"Step back in time with us as we unveil a mesmerizing journey through 1930s America like you've never seen before! While the Dustbowl was heating up in the southwest, the country as a whole was fighting through the Great Depression. All the while, Americans were living their day-to-day lives, and getting on as best as they could. 

In this captivating video, we've meticulously colorized a collection of stunning photographs that capture the essence of a tumultuous yet resilient period in American history. From bustling cityscapes to serene countryside vistas, witness the contrast between hardship and hope that defined an entire generation. Discover the intricate details of everyday life as we explore the highways and byways of the past, complete with corner gas stations, storefronts, and bustling city streets. Journey through snapshots of the stunning architecture that emerged during this era, from Art Deco skyscrapers to quaint suburban homes. Each frame is a window into a world where innovation and creativity thrived despite adversity. 

Join us on this mesmerizing visual journey, as we honor the legacy of the past and celebrate the indomitable spirit of the American people. Don't miss out on this unique opportunity to experience the 1930s in an entirely new light. Whether you are a history enthusiast, a lover of vintage aesthetics, or simply curious about the past, this video offers an immersive visual experience that will evoke a sense of nostalgia and leave you with a renewed appreciation for the beauty of the human experience."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Economic Market Snapshot 7/6/26"

"Economic Market Snapshot 7/6/26"

Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...

Only the consequences are real - to you!

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"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 

You and I are not in the Big Club."

- George Carlin

o

Market Data Center, Live Updates:

- https://www.marketwatch.com/market-data 

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- https://www.asktraders.com/analysis/

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Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."

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- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

Job cuts and much more.

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- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

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- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

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- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

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- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

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Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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"The more I see of the monied classes,

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

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Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...

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And now... The End Game...

o

"Nobody Can Deny How Broke Everyone Is Getting Now"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist,

"Nobody Can Deny How Broke 

Everyone Is Getting Now"

"Nobody can deny how broke everyone is getting now, and this video breaks down the numbers behind why working full time no longer covers the cost of living. You will see the receipt, the rent, and the wage that stopped adding up. Gallup recorded a record 55% of Americans saying their situation is getting worse, the highest measured in over two decades. If your paycheck feels like it disappears before the month ends, this video explains what is happening and why.

If any of this matches what you are seeing at the checkout, leave a comment and tell us what has gone up the most in your area. Subscribe for more breakdowns that connect the data to what real people are living through. Share this video with someone who has been told their money problems are their own fault.This video looks at the cost of living crisis, wage stagnation, rent and housing affordability, living paycheck to paycheck, rising insurance and utility bills, home ownership out of reach, and why so many working Americans feel broke right now despite steady jobs and full-time hours."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"111 Million U.S. Adults Do Not Have A Job And America Spends More Than A Trillion Dollars Per Year On A Social Safety Net For Them"

"111 Million U.S. Adults Do Not Have A Job And America Spends

 More Than A Trillion Dollars Per Year On A Social Safety Net For Them"

by Michael Snyder

"Did you know that the number of Americans that are out of work right now is far higher than it was at any point during the Great Recession? I know that sounds crazy, but I will prove it to you in this article. A whopping 111 million Americans do not have a job, and we are spending more than a trillion dollars a year on the social safety net that supports them. Of course we cannot afford to do this, because the national debt has already reached 39 trillion dollars and it is growing at an astounding rate. If we do not fix our economy, disaster is inevitable.

The bureaucrats in Washington keep telling us that the unemployment rate is low even though there are vast numbers of adults all around us that are not working. The way that they are able to do this is by dumping almost everyone that is not working into a category known as “not in labor force”. This allows them to keep the official rate of unemployment suppressed even as the labor force participation rate hits an insanely low level…

"On the surface, a June drop in the unemployment rate helped provide some upside to what was an otherwise downbeat jobs report - but it was for all the wrong reasons. That’s because the decline in the jobless level to 4.2%, the lowest in a year, came largely from an exodus of workers from the labor force, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data Thursday. In fact, the measure of the working-age population either employed or looking for a job slid to 61.5%, the lowest since March 2021. Excluding the Covid-era jobs market, it was the lowest labor force participation rate in exactly 50 years."

Today, there are just over 7 million Americans that are officially unemployed. That doesn’t sound bad at all. But they rarely mention those that are considered to be not in the labor force. This is how the Federal Reserve defines that category…"Persons who are neither employed nor unemployed are not in the labor force. This category includes retired persons, students, those taking care of children or other family members, and others who are neither working nor seeking work."

As you can see from the chart below, the number of people that they have been dumping into that category has grown dramatically since 1990. Right now, there are 104 million Americans that do not have a job that are considered to be not in the labor force…

When you add the 7 million Americans that are officially unemployed to the 104 million Americans that are considered to be not in the labor force, you get a grand total of 111 million Americans that do not have a job right now. At no point during the Great Recession did that combined figure ever reach 100 million. That is how bad things are in the U.S. at this moment.

Of course the 111 million Americans that are not working need to be supported somehow. Some of them are supported by other family members that have incomes coming in. But most of them are either partially or totally supported by our social safety net.

According to the House Ways and Means Committee, we spend more than a trillion dollars a year on more than 80 different social safety net programs…"Buying Americans out of poverty is undermining incentives to work, with families living in poverty relying more on taxpayer-funded welfare checks than income from work, according to a newly released report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Costing well over $1 trillion, America’s social safety net encompasses more than 80 federal programs, and is discouraging beneficiaries from seeking income from work.

The report, which was requested by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08), shows low-income families are becoming increasingly dependent on government transfers. In 1979, families living below the poverty line earned about 60 percent of their income from work. In 2021, that number dropped to an all-time low of around 25 percent. The report also shows how the dramatic increase in dependency on government transfers for low-income families was accelerated by COVID-era benefits."

Read that first paragraph again. I had no idea that it was this bad. For over a decade I have been writing about America’s ongoing economic collapse, and now we have reached a very advanced stage. If the federal government was not supporting them, tens of millions more Americans would be living in poverty right now. So what would our society look like if we stopped borrowing gigantic mountains of money to fuel this system? And each day, even more Americans are losing their places in the middle class because they are getting laid off.

In fact, it is being reported that Microsoft is preparing for yet another round of massive layoffs…"Microsoft is reportedly planning another round of layoffs, expected to be announced as early as next week. The cuts will impact thousands of roles across sales, consulting, and the Xbox gaming division. Total layoffs will amount to less than 2.5%% of the company’s workforce. Microsoft employs roughly 220,000 people across the globe. The company eliminated approximately 15,000 positions just last year - 6,000 layoffs in May 2025 and another 9,000 layoffs in July 2025."

But if we just throw the entire country into the “not in labor force” category, we can pretend that the unemployment rate is at 0.0 percent and that everything is just fine, right?

What a joke. Of course most Americans that are actually working are really struggling these days. Home prices in the U.S. have risen by about 60 percent since the beginning of the last pandemic, and at this stage housing in the U.S. is more unaffordable than it has ever been before…"Home prices have grown by roughly 60 percent since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to JP Morgan data. Mortgage rates are historically high, and have been so since 2022. And the U.S. homeownership rate hit its lowest level since 2019 last year, at 65 percent, according to Census data.

“I think right now the housing market is pretty unprecedented,” Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, told Newsweek. “We have the highest home prices that have ever been on record, along with pretty high mortgage rates. The mortgage rates aren’t the highest we’ve seen on record - they exceeded 18 percent in 1981 - but they are higher than they have been for the last 10 years or so. And so housing affordability has gotten really bad, especially for young people who don’t already own homes. Breaking into the housing market is incredibly tough.”

How are young adults supposed to purchase homes in this environment? Home prices have risen far faster than incomes have, and this has “put homeownership out of reach for millions of millennial and Gen Z Americans”…Back in 1975, a typical home cost about 2.4 times as much as the average under-40 household earned in a year, a standard measure of housing affordability, according to a new report from Pew Research Center. By 2019, that price-to-income ratio had risen to 2.9. In 2024, it reached 3.5. Over the past decade, home prices have risen much faster than wages. The rising ratio of price to income, coupled with elevated interest rates, has put homeownership out of reach for millions of millennial and Gen Z Americans.

This is one of the biggest reasons why young adults are so angry. They simply can’t afford to live normal lives. Last year, the percentage of first-time homebuyers dropped to the lowest level ever recorded…First-time buyers represented only 21% of all home purchasers in 2025, a record low, according to the National Association of Realtors. The typical age of a first-time buyer climbed to 40, an all-time high.

Meanwhile, virtually everything else is becoming more expensive too. For example, the price of ground beef is up 13 percent over the past year, and that price of steak is up 16 percent over the past year…"The average price of ground beef was $6.75 per pound in May, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, up nearly 13% from a year ago and just below April’s record high of $6.90. Beef steak prices averaged $12.80 per pound, up 16% from a year earlier and the second-highest level on record."

Tens of millions of Americans are deeply hurting right now, and what we have experienced so far is just the beginning. This is why I rant about the economy so much. I hear from so many people out there that are in very real pain. Decades of very foolish decisions have resulted in decades of economic decline, and now we really have reached a breaking point."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "Newport Beach California Erupts Into Civil Unrest"

Jeremiah Babe, 7/5/26

"Newport Beach California Erupts Into Civil Unrest"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

"SoCal: Absolute Mayhem in Newport Beach as Non-Residents Brawl, Riot

 and Loot on July 4th – Grocery Store Destroyed, Bars and Beaches Closed"

Musical Interlude: Afshin, "Prayer of Change"

Full screen recommended.

Afshin, "Prayer of Change"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is a mere 35 million light-years away, toward the constellation Leo. Relatively bright in planet Earth's sky, NGC 3521 is easily visible in small telescopes but often overlooked by amateur imagers in favor of other Leo spiral galaxies, like M66 and M65. It's hard to overlook in this colorful cosmic portrait, though.

Spanning some 50,000 light-years the galaxy sports characteristic patchy, irregular spiral arms laced with dust, pink star forming regions, and clusters of young, blue stars. Remarkably, this deep image also finds NGC 3521 embedded in gigantic bubble-like shells. The shells are likely tidal debris, streams of stars torn from satellite galaxies that have undergone mergers with NGC 3521 in the distant past."

"More Often Than Not..."

“Human beings have always employed an enormous variety of clever devices for running away from themselves, and the modern world is particularly rich in such stratagems. We can keep ourselves so busy, fill our lives with so many diversions, stuff our heads with so much knowledge, involve ourselves with so many people and cover so much ground that we never have time to probe the fearful and wonderful world within. More often than not we don’t want to know ourselves, don’t want to depend on ourselves, don’t want to live with ourselves. By middle life most of us are accomplished fugitives from ourselves.”

- John Gardner

"We May Know..."

“We may know that the work we continue to put off doing will be bad. Worse, however, is the work we never do. A work that’s finished is at least finished. It may be poor, but it exists, like the miserable plant in the lone flowerpot of my neighbor who’s crippled. That plant is her happiness, and sometimes it’s even mine. What I write, bad as it is, may provide some hurt or sad soul a few moments of distraction from something worse. That’s enough for me, or it isn’t enough, but it serves some purpose, and so it is with all of life.”

- Fernando Pessoa

"The Courage To Meet Eddie"

"The Courage To Meet Eddie"

by Alex Noble

"Life, like good theater, is full of surprises and unexpected twists in the plot. How satisfying it is when we can surprise ourselves, break through "stereotypes," and move beyond fear to embrace more compassionate points of view. I experienced this on a trip to Los Angeles.

I drove into the city at sunset, into the older part of downtown where turn-of-the-century office buildings barely hold their own against the rising tide of urban decay. As the sun gilded skyscrapers, broken neon signs flickered in the windows of delicatessens and novelty shops on Spring Street. Old newspapers blew up and down the sidewalks, fluttering like wounded birds in debris-laden corners. Winos and addicts slumped against buildings or lay down on the sidewalk to catch a few moments of merciful sleep. Drugs were being sold on the street corners. Disoriented men and women wandered listlessly about, some of them shouting, some of them just staring blankly ahead. An old woman pushed a broken-down supermarket cart filled with faded clothes and torn shopping bags. A tired-looking man held up a sign scrawled on cardboard: "Will work for food." Shiny BMW's and Mercedes whispered through the darkening streets, bearing tired executives home to well-watered gardens.

I was early, and the parking lot next to the theater was still almost empty. A bored-looking attendant stood by the gate to keep the homeless and drunks from accosting the arriving theatergoers. A restless, warm wind tossed newspapers in front of my car.

An angry-looking man in a black coat three sizes too large for him shuffled by, trying to get the attention of anyone who might listen to his litany of complaints about the government. I felt uncomfortable and looked forward to getting inside the marble foyer of the theater, and then into the performance itself. There, for a few hours, we the audience would suspend our disbelief and enter into an imaginary world where we would laugh and cry and be entertained. For a few hours, we would forget our own problems and the problems of the world, which in this immediate area appeared to be a vivid reality of suffering that pressed upon one at every turn.

I drove to the back of the lot and parked, dreading the walk to the theater entrance, haunted by questions. Should I hand out dollar bills to those in need? Should I stop and try to talk if someone seemed rational? Should I carry a supply a supply of Salvation Army meal tickets for occasions like this?

I gathered my courage and got out of the car. As I locked the door, I heard a voice calling to me. "Hey, can you spare some change?" I froze with dread and looked up. On the other side of the 10-foot chain-link fence I saw a man. His hands gripped the wire. His head was shrouded in the navy-blue hood of a stained, torn jacket. Suddenly I was painfully aware of my glistening car and colorful clothes. I felt frightened and awkward, even with the fence separating us. Was I in danger? Did he have a gun? Was he going to shout at me, ask questions I could not answer, make me feel guilty for having so much when there are so many who have so little?

I saw in my mind's eye a sunset scene from the airport in Jakarta, where the plane I was on had stopped to refuel. There was a similar fence, but against that fence hundred of people crowded, looking hostile, saying with their eyes and in a language I could not understand. "You are the enemy. We do not want you here. Go home." Even with the fence as a barrier between us, I could feel the hatred, and I felt helpless to do anything about it except send back thoughts of peace, respect, and compassion.

Now I had a choice. I could turn and walk away. I could move closer, perhaps say a kind word. The man called again, "Hey, Beam!" I was startled for a moment, but then I realized that he could see my license place, "BEAM 1." "Hey, Beam, I need to eat. Can you help me out?"

A force larger than my intellect or my sense of danger drew me toward the fence. I was painfully aware that the total cost of what I was wearing could feed this man for several months. I kept my eyes on the ground. I seemed to be moving slowly, as if in a dream, wanting to help but not knowing how, my feet feeling heavy yet moving ahead anyway.

I reached the fence and looked up. I looked first, as the stained hands holding onto the fence, then I looked into the eyes. They were kind, even friendly. The man smiled a shy smile. "What's your name?" I asked. My feet felt lighter. My fear hung in the air between us. In my imagination, I watched it evaporate, like a cloud of steam. "Eddie," he replied. I handed him a $10 bill. "Get yourself a good dinner, Eddie." "Thanks, Beam. I really appreciate this." I felt tears trembling behind my eyelids, and I turned to walk away. "You be good, Eddie," I said over my shoulder.

In two minutes, I was in the crowded theater lobby, threading my way through well-dressed theatergoers. I was detached, remembering Eddie's kind eyes, his hands holding the fence, his playful smile. I realized, with some sadness, that it was quite possible I'd just given an addict the money for his next hit of crack or worse, and I did not feel very good about this. The play began, and for three hours I disappeared into a mythic world of illusion, transformation, and redemption. The basic message: Within every dragon is a princess, and within every inferno there is a paradise, if we know what to look for and if we have the eyes and the heart to see.

I found myself thinking kind thoughts about Eddie, sending him kindness in the night, knowing all was well with him. As I left the theater, there was a gathering of rumpled, untidy street people at the theater entrance. Some people stopped to visit with them, give them a few dollars. Others walked by, lost in their own worlds. By the time I got to the parking lot, many of the cars had left, and the attendant was no longer there.

As I walked to the back of the lot to get to my car, I noticed a man, leaning against the fence, right where Eddie had been, and my heart froze. I stopped. The man called out: "Hey, Beam, come here a minute."

I felt as though I had no choice. My humanity, compassion, or maybe just sheer craziness would not let me turn away. I walked to the fence and looked Eddie in the eyes, those kind brown eyes. I felt my fear dissolving again, watched that imaginary cloud disappear. "I had a great dinner. I waited around for you because I wanted to thank you. I don't need any more money. I just really appreciate your kindness. It helps. I was a medic in 'Nam."

We visited for a few moments. I began to feel badly about the fence. I was safe. There was not danger. I thought about the many kinds of fences we put up in our lives, and about how much we shut out. My fear was gone. We laughed and joked a bit. I told him I had to get on my way, as I had a long drive home. "You be good, Eddie," I said. "God loves you a lot." "God loves you, too." I got in my car and looked back at the place where he had been, but there was only a pool of light from the streetlamp."

- Alex Noble passed away in December 2018. Her website is gone.

Her real first name was Alexandria, hence Alex.

The Poet: Barbara Crooker, "In the Middle..."

"In the Middle..."

"In the middle

of a life that's as complicated as everyone else's,

struggling for balance, juggling time.

The mantle clock that was my grandfather's

has stopped at 9:20; we haven't had time

to get it repaired. The brass pendulum is still,

the chimes don't ring. One day you look out the window,

green summer, the next, and the leaves have already fallen,

and a grey sky lowers the horizon. Our children almost grown,

our parents gone, it happened so fast. Each day, we must learn

again how to love, between morning's quick coffee

and evening's slow return. Steam from a pot of soup rises,

mixing with the yeasty smell of baking bread. Our bodies

twine, and the big black dog pushes his great head between;

his tail is a metronome, 3/4 time. We'll never get there,

Time is always ahead of us, running down the beach, urging

us on faster, faster, but sometimes we take off our watches,

sometimes we lie in the hammock, caught between the mesh

of rope and the net of stars, suspended, tangled up

in love, running out of time."

~ Barbara Crooker

The Daily "Near You?"

Rock Port, Missouri, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Where the Old Winds Wander Slow"

Full screen recommended.

Gengu AI, 

"Where the Old Winds Wander Slow"

"Welcome to Gengu AI – your ultimate destination for AI-generated music and next-generation sound experiences. This channel is dedicated to creating unique, high-quality tracks powered by artificial intelligence, blending creativity and technology to deliver music that feels fresh, emotional, and immersive. At Gengu AI, you will find a wide variety of genres including lofi hip hop, chill beats, ambient music, cinematic soundtracks, electronic music, relaxing music, study music, sleep music, and background music for videos. Every track is carefully crafted using advanced AI tools to bring you smooth melodies, deep atmospheres, and inspiring vibes. AI was the tool. The story came from human feeling. If this film gave you a quiet breath, a memory, or a moment of peace, thank you for being here."

Native Elder, "The Truth About Narcissist People"

Full screen recommended.

Native Elder,

"The Truth About Narcissist People"

"Some People Age… Some People Grow"

Full screen recommended.

Delta Blue's Kings,

"Some People Age… Some People Grow"

"Getting older is automatic. Growing wiser isn’t. “Some People Age… Some People Grow” is a Delta blues reflection on maturity, bitterness, gratitude, and the quiet truth that time changes everyone - but not everyone learns from it."

"The Level Of Intelligence..."

"If man were relieved of all superstition, and all prejudice, and had replaced these with a keen sensitivity to his real environment, and moreover had achieved a level of communication so simplified that one syllable could express his every thought, then he would have achieved the level of intelligence already achieved by his dog."

- Robert Brault

"How It Really Is"

Very strong language alert!

George Carlin, "The American Dream"

"The Truth..."

“Freedom is not defined by safety. Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference. Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live in such a fictional place. Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens’ lives. Liberty has meaning only if we still believe in it when terrible things happen and a false government security blanket beckons.”

- Ron Paul

"How the Great Depression Forged the Modern World" (Excerpt)

"How the Great Depression Forged the Modern World - and Why It's 

Darkest Echoes Still Reverberate Through the Twenty-First Century"

by Milan Adams

Excerpt: "History has seldom unfolded with the theatrical violence that popular imagination so readily associates with catastrophe. Civilizations have more often succumbed not beneath the thunder of artillery or the conflagration of invading armies, but beneath the silent corrosion of confidence. Markets collapse without the sound of explosions. Banks perish without smoke rising from their vaults. Entire nations may descend into deprivation while every building remains standing, every boulevard retains its familiar outline, and every cathedral continues to cast its shadow upon the same stones it has overlooked for centuries. Such was the singular horror of the Great Depression, a calamity whose most devastating weapon was neither steel nor fire, but the gradual evaporation of belief itself. It extinguished faith in prosperity, in financial permanence, in governments, and even in the seemingly immutable assumptions upon which industrial civilization had erected its magnificent façade. Long after stock exchanges recovered and factories resumed production, that invisible wound remained embedded within the institutional memory of nations, shaping economic doctrine, political authority, and public psychology in ways that continue to define contemporary society.

The widespread tendency to identify the Great Depression solely with the collapse of the New York Stock Exchange during October 1929 obscures the far more intricate anatomy of the disaster. The infamous days remembered as Black Thursday, Black Monday, and Black Tuesday were not the genesis of the catastrophe but rather the first unmistakable manifestation of an affliction that had been incubating beneath the dazzling prosperity of the Roaring Twenties. Financial exuberance had become detached from productive reality. Credit expanded with astonishing rapidity, speculation eclipsed prudence, and the conviction that prosperity possessed no discernible terminus evolved into an almost theological certainty. Wealth appeared capable of reproducing itself independently of labour, industry, or tangible production. This illusion transformed stock certificates into objects of near-mystical reverence, while ordinary citizens increasingly regarded financial markets not as instruments of investment but as inexhaustible fountains of effortless affluence.

Such optimism concealed profound structural frailties. Industrial productivity accelerated at a pace unmatched by wage growth, generating an imbalance between production and genuine purchasing power. Factories manufactured unprecedented quantities of automobiles, household appliances, textiles, and agricultural machinery, yet a considerable proportion of consumers lacked the sustained income necessary to absorb this expanding abundance. Warehouses quietly accumulated inventories while balance sheets continued to proclaim prosperity. Beneath the surface of apparent economic triumph, an increasingly fragile architecture emerged, supported less by authentic demand than by borrowed capital and speculative expectation. The resulting prosperity resembled an immense cathedral erected upon unstable marshland—majestic in appearance, yet destined to founder beneath its own extraordinary weight.

Perhaps the most insidious characteristic of speculative euphoria lies in its capacity to transform caution into apparent irrationality. Individuals who expressed reservations were frequently dismissed as pessimists incapable of appreciating a new economic era supposedly liberated from the cyclical limitations that had governed previous generations. Newspapers celebrated unprecedented fortunes with almost liturgical enthusiasm. Brokers became symbols of modern sophistication. Banks extended generous loans secured not by substantial collateral but by confidence in perpetually rising asset prices. Margin buying enabled investors to purchase stocks with only a fraction of their own capital, borrowing the remainder under the assumption that tomorrow’s appreciation would effortlessly repay today’s obligations. As long as prices continued ascending, the mechanism appeared almost miraculous. Yet every ascent predicated exclusively upon expectation inevitably reaches an altitude at which confidence itself becomes insufficient to sustain further elevation.

This phenomenon represented more than a financial distortion; it constituted a profound psychological metamorphosis. Economic systems have always depended upon measurable variables—production, consumption, employment, and capital allocation—but they are sustained equally by intangible sentiments. Confidence cannot be quantified with the precision of interest rates, yet its disappearance possesses the destructive capacity of a natural cataclysm. When trust evaporates simultaneously across millions of individuals, commerce ceases not because physical resources have vanished but because belief in future stability dissolves. The Great Depression demonstrated with terrifying clarity that modern economies are constructed as much upon collective expectation as upon factories, railways, or mineral reserves.

The collapse itself unfolded with extraordinary velocity. During the closing weeks of October 1929, selling pressure intensified beyond anything previously witnessed in financial history. Prices descended not gradually but precipitously, annihilating fortunes accumulated across decades within mere hours. Panic became self-reinforcing. Investors liquidated assets not because careful analysis required such action, but because everyone else appeared to be fleeing. This recursive dynamic transformed ordinary market corrections into an avalanche whose momentum exceeded the capacity of any institution to arrest it. Brokerage houses struggled to process orders as telegraph lines became overwhelmed. Crowds gathered outside financial institutions, newspapers issued successive editions throughout the day, and rumours propagated with astonishing speed through cities already gripped by uncertainty. Although later generations often romanticized these scenes through monochromatic photographs, contemporaries experienced them as manifestations of almost incomprehensible disintegration.

The stock market crash, however, represented merely the prologue. The destruction of paper wealth rapidly infiltrated the broader financial system. Banks that had invested heavily in equities or extended imprudent loans discovered that their balance sheets had become catastrophically impaired. Depositors, observing alarming headlines, sought to withdraw savings simultaneously. Modern banking operates upon fractional reserves, a principle permitting institutions to lend substantial portions of deposited funds while retaining only a limited reserve of immediately accessible currency. Under ordinary conditions, this architecture functions efficiently because only a small percentage of customers require withdrawals at any given moment. During widespread panic, however, the mechanism reveals its extraordinary vulnerability. No institution, regardless of reputation, can satisfy every depositor simultaneously when confidence disintegrates.

Bank runs soon evolved into one of the defining spectacles of the Depression. Endless queues materialized before dawn outside imposing financial edifices whose marble façades projected permanence but concealed acute insolvency. Elderly couples clutched passbooks containing the savings of entire lifetimes. Shopkeepers abandoned their businesses in desperate attempts to recover working capital. Labourers who had painstakingly accumulated modest deposits through years of arduous employment discovered that numerical entries recorded within ledgers possessed little meaning once institutions suspended operations. When bank doors failed to reopen, wealth did not merely diminish—it ceased to exist. The psychological devastation inflicted by such losses exceeded their monetary value, for they shattered one of the foundational assumptions of modern civilization: that disciplined thrift would invariably secure tomorrow." 

Full, most highly recommended article is here:

 - https://preppgroup.home.blog/