"Yemen Heats Up… A New Threat to the Global Oil Supply"

Jazan Oil Refinery

"Yemen Heats Up… 

A New Threat to the Global Oil Supply"

by Larry C. Johnson

"We are seeing a major escalation in the Red Sea in the undeclared war between AnsarAllah and Saudi Arabia and this may spill over to the war the US is waging on Iran. As I write this the Houthis have retaliated to a Saudi attack on the Houthi-held port of Hodeidah. So let’s go through this week’s events.

On Wednesday July 22, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed an attack on two Saudi oil tankers, the Encelia and the Layla, transiting the Red Sea, using drones and missiles. The stated justification was that the vessels violated the Houthis’ maritime blockade. Saudi Arabia’s own Saudi Press Agency, citing an official at the Transport General Authority, confirmed the Encelia was hit, reporting a fire at the bow and all crew safe. UKMTO logged a master reporting his tanker struck by an unknown projectile with an onboard fire the crew were fighting. So the Encelia is confirmed by the flag state; the Layla is so far Houthi-claim-only — SPA didn’t provide details on it.

After the Encelia attack (Wednesday) and a further strike Friday on the Saudi vessel NCC MASA (minor hull damage, continued to destination per SPA), the Saudi-led coalition struck Houthi-held Hodeidah late Friday July 24. Al-Maliki framed it as a “proportionate military response against legitimate military targets” - sites used to threaten commercial shipping - and pointedly insisted the port itself wasn’t hit and remains open. The Houthis see it differently: Al Masirah says the strikes hit state telecommunications facilities in Hodeidah city and Kamaran Island (one woman injured there), with explosions reported at the port by Reuters. The Houthi Foreign Ministry warned Riyadh has made “escalation for escalation” the defining feature of the coming phase and that the strike “will prove costly.”

And sure enough, within hours, the Houthis launched 5 ballistic missiles launched at the ARAMCO oil terminal at Jazan Port, Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Aramco facilities in Jazan (also spelled Jizan) represent one of the company’s most ambitious and technologically advanced downstream projects - a fully integrated refinery, petrochemical complex, and power generation hub located in the far southwest of the Kingdom, on the Red Sea coast. The refinery is a full-conversion refinery, meaning it can process heavy crude into high-value light products rather than simply separating crude into fractions. Jazan is the largest gasification-based power facility in the world.

The Jazan complex is not merely a refinery - it is a fully integrated energy ecosystem that converts crude oil into refined products, petrochemicals, electricity, hydrogen, and industrial metals, all while minimizing waste and emissions. It represents Saudi Aramco’s vision of a smarter, lower-carbon downstream future and serves as the economic anchor for one of the Kingdom’s most ambitious regional development initiatives. In other words, the Houthis hit an extremely important Saudi Arabian energy asset.

The ball is now in the Saudi court. Will they escalate and attack the port facilities at Hodeidah or will they decide to call a halt to military operations and seek a diplomatic resolution? The smart move will be to go the diplomatic route. If they choose to strike more targets in Houthi-held territory then the Houthis’ next logical target would be the oil terminals at Yanbu. There are two main crude oil export terminals at Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. These two Saudi Aramco-operated terminals handle the bulk of crude oil exports from the Red Sea port (connected via the East-West Pipeline). Together they have a nominal combined loading capacity of roughly 4.5 million barrels per day (about 1.5 million bpd at North and 3 million bpd at South). An attack that damages or destroys these terminals would add to the global oil shortage. This makes for an interesting weekend, to say the least."

While Iran continued to blast Kuwait and Bahrain, the US was uncommonly quiet on the military front… Nima and I discussed it:

- https://larrycjohnson.substack.com/

"China, Russia Target Thousands of Hypersonic Missiles After Iran War"

Click image for larger size.

"China, Russia Target Thousands of 

Hypersonic Missiles After Iran War"

by Madge Waggy

Excerpt: "The conflict that shook the Middle East may have quietly ignited the world’s next military race. The explosions that echoed across the skies of the Middle East have faded from television screens, but they have not disappeared from the minds of the people who plan wars for a living. As diplomats rushed to negotiate ceasefires and governments counted the political cost of the Israel-Iran conflict, another process had already begun behind closed doors - one that may prove far more consequential than the fighting itself.

Inside intelligence agencies and military headquarters from Washington to Beijing and Moscow, analysts began reconstructing the conflict frame by frame. Satellite imagery was reviewed alongside radar recordings, missile trajectories were compared against interception data, and every second of the engagement was examined with extraordinary attention. To outside observers, the war looked like another dangerous regional crisis. To defense planners, it became something entirely different: one of the largest real-world laboratories for modern missile warfare ever witnessed.

History has a habit of hiding its most important turning points in plain sight. The tank did not transform warfare the day it first crossed a battlefield; its true significance became clear only years later. Radar, aircraft carriers, stealth aircraft and armed drones followed a similar path. Each appeared first in conflict, was studied by rivals, refined through years of development, and eventually reshaped the balance of military power. A growing number of defense analysts now believe the Israel-Iran war could occupy a similar place in history - not because of its political outcome, but because of the military lessons it delivered to countries that never fired a single shot.

Those lessons arrive at a particularly sensitive moment. China has spent years expanding its missile industry while investing heavily in hypersonic technologies capable of flying at speeds exceeding Mach 5. Russia has already integrated several hypersonic systems into its strategic arsenal and continues to present them as a cornerstone of its long-term military doctrine. Neither country needed to participate directly in the conflict to benefit from it. The battlefield itself produced the information. Every interception, every successful strike, every electronic countermeasure and every logistical challenge became evidence that engineers and military planners can study for years.

That process matters because modern wars are no longer judged solely by who wins territory or secures diplomatic leverage. Increasingly, they are judged by what they reveal about the strengths - and limitations - of advanced military technology. Simulations can estimate how missile-defense systems might perform under pressure. Exercises can train personnel to respond quickly. Yet neither can fully reproduce the uncertainty of combat, where hundreds of variables unfold simultaneously and decisions measured in seconds determine the outcome. Real conflicts expose realities that no laboratory can replicate.

Among those realities, one observation appears to have drawn particular attention. Israel’s multilayered air-defense network performed with remarkable effectiveness, intercepting the overwhelming majority of incoming missiles and drones with support from the United States and regional allies. That achievement reinforced confidence in modern defensive technology. At the same time, however, it highlighted another fact that military professionals have understood for decades but rarely see demonstrated on such a scale: even the most sophisticated defensive systems operate within physical and logistical limits. Interceptors must be manufactured before they can be launched. Radar stations can monitor only a finite number of targets at any given moment. Command centers process enormous quantities of information under extreme time pressure, while replacement missiles, spare parts and trained personnel all depend on industrial capacity far from the battlefield itself.

None of this suggests that air-defense systems failed. On the contrary, their performance was widely regarded as a major success. The concern emerging inside defense circles lies elsewhere. Military planners are increasingly interested in understanding what happens when the number of incoming threats continues to grow - not from dozens, but potentially from hundreds arriving in coordinated waves over an extended period. That is a fundamentally different question, and one that reaches far beyond the Middle East."

Full, most highly recommended article is here:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

"How It Horribly Really Is"

And how about you, Good Citizen? How's that job going? Current with all the bills? Health insurance affordable, keeping you well? If you're in Appalachia I hope you're wisely spending that $750 they gave you to replace losing your home and everything you owned, if you could even apply... But of course your own food stamp balance and available cash balances look like this, right? Right?

10 MILLION illegals in 2024 alone automatically got $5,000 pre-paid debit cards, free phones,  and free transportation wherever they liked? Free health care and housing? While 700,000 Americans are homeless, including 60,000 veterans, 22 of whom commit suicide EVERY day?! Hungry children, elderly can't afford life-saving medicines,150,000 drug overdoses in the last year! $380 BILLION for Ukraine, God knows how many BILLIONS to Israel, and you, Good Citizen, what do they do for YOU?!

WTF, and I repeat WTF is wrong with this country?!

The Poet: e. e. cummings, "Humanity I Love You"

"Humanity i love you because when you’re hard 

up you pawn your intelligence to buy a drink..."

"Humanity I Love You"

"Humanity i love you

because you would rather black the boots of

success than enquire whose soul dangles from his

watch-chain which would be embarrassing for both

parties and because you

unflinchingly applaud all

songs containing the words country home and

mother when sung at the old howard

Humanity i love you because

when you’re hard up you pawn your

intelligence to buy a drink and when

you’re flush pride keeps

you from the pawn shop and

because you are continually committing

nuisances but more

especially in your own house

Humanity i love you because you

are perpetually putting the secret of

life in your pants and forgetting

it’s there and sitting down on it

and because you are

forever making poems in the lap

of death 

Humanity, i hate you"

- e. e. cummings

"The Line Separating Good And Evil..."

“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart -  and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains … an unuprooted small corner of evil.

Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world: They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.”

- Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

"I No Longer Trust Anyone"

"I No Longer Trust Anyone"

by Todd Hayen

"Sad, but true. Since the Covid fiasco, I’ve seen the true nature of people - or at least the nature they were willing to show once the fear got turned up and the herd started moving. Most of them are still firmly under the sheep banner, content to graze wherever they’re told. A small handful stand under the “critical thinker” banner. Those are the ones I still trust.

The sheepies? I don’t trust them anymore. Did I ever, really? I thought I did, back when I was younger and still believed most people were basically decent when the chips were down. Turns out that was optimistic.

Lately this loss of trust has had me thinking about the American Wild West. Not the Hollywood version p the real one. Back then, almost every man who wanted to stay alive carried a revolver on his hip. It wasn’t for show. You never knew when some mean-eyed bastard might decide your horse, your money, or your life was worth more to him than it was to you. The sensible ones stayed ready. They watched people. They didn’t assume good intentions just because someone smiled and said howdy. Trust was something you earned slowly, usually after a man had proven he wouldn’t sell you out the first time it became convenient.

So, did folks in that dusty, hard country go around trusting their neighbors? Hell no. You bet your boots they didn’t. And the ones who did - the tenderfoots who rode into town believing everybody was basically good underneath - usually got fleeced, shot, or both. The sheep of that era didn’t last long.

I keep coming back to that because it feels uncomfortably close to where we are now. The difference is the wolves don’t need to hide behind a bandana anymore. They wear white coats, or sit in glass offices, or smile at you from a television screen while they tell you what you need to do for your own good.

And the sheep-types? They didn’t just follow along during Covid. A lot of them became enthusiastic enforcers. They reported neighbors for having too many people over for dinner. They cut off family members who wouldn’t take the shot. They posted smug little memes about how the unvaccinated were selfish and stupid while their own kids were losing years of school and their elderly parents were dying alone in nursing homes. They did it with a clear conscience, because the authorities had given them permission to be cruel.

That’s the part that still sticks in my throat. Not the government lying - governments always lie when it suits them. Not even Big Pharma doing what Big Pharma does - make scads of money and not giving a crap who suffers for it. It was the ordinary people, the ones I used to think were mostly harmless, who turned out to be so willing to turn on anyone who stepped out of line.

The masked Karens. The vaccine passport enthusiasts. The ones who genuinely seemed to enjoy punishing others for non-compliance. I saw longtime friends and even family members do things I would have sworn they were incapable of. And they did it without a second thought. That’s what really got to me - not the betrayal itself, but how easily it came to them. How little it seemed to cost them.

The rest of us were the ones who kept their powder dry. We asked questions when the story kept changing. We noticed the bodies didn’t match the narrative. We refused to pretend that “following the science” meant following whatever the people who owned the science told us to do. For that, we got called dangerous, selfish, and - my personal favourite - grandma killers. The irony was almost funny if you had a dark enough sense of humor. The real danger was coming from the people screaming the loudest about keeping everyone safe.

I don’t know if this loss of trust is permanent. Maybe it softens over time. But right now, it feels pretty solid. I still have my circle. Those are the people I can still talk to without wondering whether the conversation is going to end up on some government list or get repeated at the next family gathering as evidence of how crazy I’ve become. With them I can lower my guard a little. We’ve got each other’s backs. That counts for something in a world where most people will throw you under the bus the moment the authorities give them a good enough reason.

Everyone else? I’ll be polite. I’ll make small talk. I’ll even hold the damn door. But I’m not handing over trust again just because someone seems nice or shares my politics or went to the same school. That ship sailed somewhere around 2021, and I don’t see it coming back into port anytime soon. Once you’ve watched people you cared about turn into informants and punishers, it changes how you move through the world. You don’t go back to the old way of seeing things. You can’t.

Maybe that’s the real lesson buried in all this mess. The Wild West never actually ended. The outlaws just got better costumes and much better PR. And the sheep-types learned to police each other instead of waiting for the sheriff. The thinkers are still here, though - eyes open, hands near the metaphorical holster, not particularly interested in pretending everything is fine just to make other people comfortable.

All this has seemed to calm down a bit. But don’t kid yourself. It is still there. That’s the hard part now; you can’t tell who from who. But you know it is there. There are still occasional masks, a tell-tale sign the murmuring sheep-mind is still bubbling underneath. We don’t have to be mean to strangers; we can still love our fellow human beings no matter how lost they may be, but we must be wary, and not automatically expect a helping hand if needed.

So yeah. I no longer trust anyone the way I used to. And I’m not sure that’s entirely a bad thing. It’s clarifying, at least. You find out who’s really with you when the pressure is on. And you find out who was only ever along for the ride until it got inconvenient. The ones who stayed? Those are my people now. The rest can go graze somewhere else."

- https://off-guardian.org/

Todd Hayen PhD is a registered psychotherapist practicing in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He holds a PhD in depth psychotherapy and an MA in Consciousness Studies. He specializes in Jungian, archetypal, psychology. Todd also writes for his own substack, which you can read here

"You Will Be Shocked by What They Have in Store for Us"

Full screen recommended.

Finance Economist, 7/25/26

"You Will Be Shocked by What 

They Have in Store for Us"

"You will be shocked by what they have in store for us. Starting in September 2026, a series of events will unfold across this country that most Americans have no idea are coming. SNAP funding is only confirmed through September 30 and 3.5 million people have already lost benefits from new work requirements. The Social Security COLA announcement arrives in October and the projected 2.5 to 3 percent increase will not cover the 4.2 percent inflation that retirees are actually experiencing. States must implement Medicaid work requirements by December 31 and most are nowhere near ready. The CBO projects 5 million will lose health insurance. Bird flu fall migration begins in September and the flyways pass directly over Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota, the top egg and poultry states. Another government shutdown is possible at the fiscal year transition on September 30. 

The 2025 shutdown lasted 43 days and halted SNAP payments. USDA harvest reports in September and October will confirm the worst crop year in decades with wheat at a 50-year low and corn and soybeans under drought stress. Medicare open enrollment starts October 15 after 2.9 million seniors were forced off their plans. The student loan system overhaul launches into a Department of Education that has been gutted. Midterm elections in November will paralyze the institutions that are supposed to respond. And the homeowner's insurance market is collapsing heading into peak hurricane season. Ten converging crises in one 90-day window on a consumer with a 2.6 percent savings rate. It begins in September."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/\

Adventures With Danno, "Massive Price Drops At Aldi"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 7/25/26

"Massive Price Drops At Aldi"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "This is Unsustainable - The Economy Is on the Brink"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 7/25/26

"This is Unsustainable - 

The Economy Is on the Brink"

"In this video, I break down why everything feels like it’s getting more expensive, more unstable, and harder to manage all at once. From natural gas prices exploding and heating bills shocking families, to real estate cracks, layoffs, automation, and the growing gap between executives and everyday workers, the pressure is building everywhere you look. These aren’t isolated stories - they’re signals of a system under strain. We also cover what’s happening with jobs, travel, media, AI, and how quietly these changes are reshaping daily life. While some people are thriving, many are being squeezed with fewer options and higher costs, and that imbalance is becoming impossible to ignore. This isn’t about politics - it’s about reality on the ground and the economic signals most people aren’t talking about. Watch closely, because this environment isn’t sustainable."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 7/25/26

"Albertsons Just Issued a Serious Warning"

"For years, grocery stores have been one of the best real-time indicators of the American economy, and now Albertsons is issuing a warning that should concern everyone. The company says shoppers are buying fewer discretionary items, switching to generic brands, and focusing almost exclusively on necessities. Combined with rising food prices, utility bills, housing costs, and ongoing inflation, this is another sign that American consumers are under increasing financial pressure. In today's video, we break down Albertsons' latest earnings, why consumer spending is slowing, and what this could mean for the economy going forward. We also discuss grocery inflation, shrinkflation, loyalty rewards programs, cybersecurity concerns involving customer data, self-checkout risks, the affordability crisis, luxury apartment construction, consumer behavior, travel spending, and why businesses across multiple industries are reporting the same trend: Americans are cutting back. If you're interested in the economy, personal finance, saving money, grocery shopping, inflation, recession indicators, real estate, and consumer trends, this video explains why one grocery store's warning may be much bigger than most people realize."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gerald Celente, "AI Goes Bust As Trump's Iran War Goes Boom!"

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, 7/24/26

"AI Goes Bust As Trump's Iran War Goes Boom!"

"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present facts and truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for what's next in these increasingly turbulent times."

- https://trendsjournal.com/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Wait For Me"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "Wait For Me"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Many spiral galaxies have bars across their centers. Even our own Milky Way Galaxy is thought to have a modest central bar. Prominently barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672, featured here, was captured in spectacular detail in an image taken by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. Visible are dark filamentary dust lanes, young clusters of bright blue stars, red emission nebulas of glowing hydrogen gas, a long bright bar of stars across the center, and a bright active nucleus that likely houses a supermassive black hole.

Light takes about 60 million years to reach us from NGC 1672, which spans about 75,000 light years across. NGC 1672, which appears toward the constellation of the Dolphinfish (Dorado), has been studied to find out how a spiral bar contributes to star formation in a galaxy's central regions."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200406.html

"I'm Glad I Grew Old With You"

Full screen recommended.

oltsev art, "I'm Glad I Grew Old With You"

"Nobody warns you about this part. The way ordinary mornings become everything. The way you stop counting years and just live inside them. The way loving someone long enough turns into something that doesn't have a word yet. This one's for the person who's still there. "I'm Glad I Grew Old with You." AI doesn't always prove the Dead Internet Theory. I'm open about using AI - and genuinely glad to be. Not as a shortcut, but as a tool. The way a filmmaker uses a camera, or a composer uses a piano. A knife can cause harm or prepare a meal. It depends entirely on the hands holding it. Every idea on this channel begins in a human mind. The concepts, the imagery, the words - they come from me. And lately, more and more often, they begin with you - with stories you leave in the comments that stay with me long after I've read them. The lyrics are mine. The visual direction is mine. The subtle details and quiet references woven into each frame - I'm always quietly hoping someone will notice them, and every time you do and write about it, it means everything. Reading hundreds of your comments, I feel something I didn't expect: that this work reaches people in the way I hoped it would. That it makes you feel something real. That's the whole point. That's always been the whole point."

"The Clock Ticks: Make It Matter"

"The Clock Ticks: Make It Matter"

by John Wilder

"Death twitches my ear; 'Live,' he says... 'I'm coming.'" 

- Virgil

"When Scott Adams shuffled off this mortal coil that event got me thinking about the big D: death. Adams, the Dilbert author who turned office satire into a cultural touchstone for nerds like me, left me thinking about his legacy. Adams wasn’t just a cartoonist; he was a man who rewired how we see persuasion, hypnosis, and the Clown World® we call reality. His passing was foreshadowed, but when it happens, the inevitability of it doesn’t make it better.

That’s Adams, who has left us, but there’s a contrast in George R.R. Martin, still kicking (for now). Today (my today, not yours) I read an interview where he whined at a fan who had asked if he was going to finish his Song of Fire and Ice series (Game of Thrones to most people) before he died. To his face. Martin griped about this confrontation. “I’m not dying,” he grumbled, as if that’s the point.

George, buddy, hate to break it to you and subvert your expectations, but you are. So am I. So is everyone reading this post. We’re all dying, right this second. Tick-tock, the clock doesn’t care if you’re an author with $120 million in the bank lounging in Santa Fe while some flunkies sand off your bunions with sandpaper made from diamonds or a blogger hammering keys in the Midwest who ran out of beer last weekend. Every breath is one closer to the last.

We have an end date stamped on us like milk, but the Universe keeps the label hidden. Could be tomorrow in a freak duck attack (hey, it happens), or decades from now after a life of quiet desperation that had no more impact on the world than a potted fern. The point? We’re terminal from day zero. I think Adams knew this; he talked about it in his books, framing life as a series of systems to hack for maximum output.

Martin? He’s procrastinating his way through what could be his magnum opus, letting plot threads dangle like cat toys. Ignoring the reaper doesn’t make him go away, it just wastes the sand in my hourglass.

In our rush to the grave, have we forgotten the miracles? Yes, miracles. Not the flashy water-to-wine kind. I’m not good at those. But what about the everyday wonders that make existence sparkle? Bite into a ripe strawberry straight from the plant. The explosion of sweet yet tart on my tongue? Phenomenal.

Or cracking a cold beer after mowing the lawn on a scorching day, sweat dripping, the pilsner hitting like a high-five from my guardian angel. Crisp linens on a freshly made bed, sliding in like you’re royalty in a five-star hotel are another feast for the senses.

These aren’t mundane bits of life: they’re tiny miracles, proof the universe isn’t all entropy, Indians, Somalians, and taxes. We take these amazing things for granted, missing the point. We get one shot on this merry-go round. Enjoy it.

Even I, the mighty John Wilder sometimes get bogged down in the daily grind. Bills, deadlines, that endless loop of work-eat-write-drink-sleep-shower-rinse-repeat. It’s easy to zombie through days, forgetting the biggest miracle and gift of all: being alive. Heart pumping, lungs filling, neurons firing symphonies in my skull. We’re stardust animated by the Great Cosmic Spark, yet we whine about traffic or the price of eggs.

Adams would call this a bad frame. Zoom out. Reframe. Boom. The mundane becomes amazing magic. Martin’s dragons and ice zombies are cool (I mean the first three seasons with all the hot naked chicks), but they are pale imitations next to the real epic: Life, unfolding heartbeat by heartbeat.

Here’s the kicker: we have a choice. Every. Single. Day. That next moment? It’s yours. Infinite power in that moment. No matter if you’re chained to a desk, stuck in traffic, or lounging on a yacht (I see you, Elon), that sliver of time belongs to you. You get to choose to squander it on despair, or seize it like a Spartan grabbing a Persian neck at Thermopylae.

Adams seized life. He didn’t just draw funny strips; he changed the United States. He changed the entire national conversation on politics, race, and the matrix of media manipulation. Some X™ dweeb (responding to me) called him a victim of the woke mob after his cancellation. Victim? Please. Adams knew the game. He poked the bear on purpose, shifting Overton windows at scale.

Martin? He’s the flip side. He hit the jackpot with Thrones, turned his fantasy story into a cultural juggernaut, then found himself unable to stick the landing. Hell, he hasn’t even landed, and almost certainly never will now. It’s way more than a decade and his books are not only unfinished, they will never be finished by him. His writing chops are leagues above mine (I’ll admit it), but finishing an epic like that?

Nah. He’s got time left, but he’s squandering it on forgettable side quests while the sand runs out on the hourglass? That’s the opposite of Adams’ hustle. One built empires of influence; the other built a throne of delays.

There’s hope, though. If you want to change the Universe, it’s likely that you still can. You think, “I don’t have an audience.” True, but Adams started with zero. Sketched in a cubicle, built it strip by strip. Me? I peck away at the laptop, hoping to nudge minds.

Tomorrow, what can you do? Write that book. Start that business. Mentor a kid. Plant a tree. Convince an Indian to move back to Mumbai. Make the most of every second. Death’s coming, but until then? Make it matter.Adams left a blueprint: hack reality, persuade boldly, point out and mock the absurd. Martin’s a cautionary tale: don’t let potential rot. Me? I’m typing this, hoping it sparks something in you. The clock ticks for us all. Use it wisely. You’ve got one life. Make it matter."

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/

"If you caught a glimpse of your own death,

would that knowledge change the way you live the rest of your life?"

- Paco Ahlgren, "Discipline"

o

Blue Oyster Cult , "Don't Fear The Reaper"

Native Elder, "What the Old Ones Knew About Death and What Waits After"

Full screen recommended.

Native Elder,

"What the Old Ones Knew About

 Death and What Waits After"

"Mama Has Settled Down To Die, Then An Old Friend Shows Up"

Full screen recommended.

"Mama Has Settled Down To Die, 

Then An Old Friend Shows Up"

"The 59-year-old chimpanzee Mama was very ill and stopped taking food and drink at the Royal Burgers Zoo in Arnhem, Netherlands. Professor of Behavioral Biology, Jan van Hoof has known Mama since 1972. In the video he visits to say goodbye to her. Mama is asleep, but is slowly awakened by Jan. When she sees who is visiting, she lights up. She takes the food she has previously refused to eat. In the video, the old friends are enjoying and kidding each other before Jan finally takes one last goodbye. Mama died one week after the visit."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"I Forgot Why I Walked Here"

Full screen recommended.

Delta King's Blues,

"I Forgot Why I Walked Here"

"You ever stand in a room, knowing you had a reason… just not the reason? “I Forgot Why I Walked Here” is a wry, self-aware Delta King’s Blues tune about aging, wandering thoughts, and laughing through the little losses. A lazy, shuffling acoustic guitar moves like footsteps that stopped too soon. The harmonica drifts in and out, just like the thought you almost caught. The groove stays slow and playful, made for smiles with a hint of truth underneath. This is blues that laughs at itself. For people who still get where they’re going - even if they forget why they started. Some memories wander off… the music stays."

The Daily "Near You?"

Streator, Illinois, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"The Tree Of Liberty..."

 

"Traitors! Congress Votes To Merge Our Military With Israel’s!"

Full screen recommended.

Kim Iversen, 7/23/36

"Traitors! Congress Votes To 

Merge Our Military With Israel’s!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.”

- Marcus Tullius Cicero

The traditional penalty for treason must be applied massively...

"Alastair Crooke: Iranians Want Vengence - Don't Bend to Trump's Will"

Daniel Davis/Deep Dive, 7/24/26

"Alastair Crooke: Iranians Want Vengence -

 Don't Bend to Trump's Will"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Russia 'Enters' Red Sea War; Putin's Huge Warning To Arab Leaders, Trump As Iran Ally Attacks Ships"

Full screen recommended.

Times Of India, 7/24/26

"Russia 'Enters' Red Sea War; Putin's Huge Warning To

Arab Leaders, Trump As Iran Ally Attacks Ships"

"Russia has warned that escalating tensions in the Persian Gulf are increasing the risk of major shipping disruptions in both the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea. The warning comes as Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia and advised ships linked to Saudi ports to reduce their electronic tracking to avoid being targeted. Ship-tracking data shows multiple oil tankers have already changed course, raising fears of a broader disruption to global energy supplies and international trade. With two critical maritime chokepoints under pressure, concerns are growing over a wider regional conflict and its global economic impact."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 7/24/26"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 7/24/26

"INTEL Roundtable w/ Johnson, McGovern, and Joe Kent - 

Weekly Wrap 24-July"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Truth Out? Hundreds of U.S. Soldiers in Critical Condition"

Full screen recommended.

Douglas Macgregor, 7/24/26

"Truth Out? Hundreds of U.S. 

Soldiers in Critical Condition"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"This Is What's Coming to America... And People Are Starting to Worry"

Full screen recommended.

The Unfolded States, 7/24/26

"This Is What's Coming to America...

 And People Are Starting to Worry"

"AI data centers in America are moving closer to ordinary homes, farms, and small communities. Some warnings are supported by public records, while others are built on viral claims and speculation. This investigation separates the documented risks from the stories that cannot be proven. This investigation begins with SPAN XFRA, a distributed computing system that could place NVIDIA-powered equipment beside homes and small businesses. We separate the verified program from the viral claim that homeowners will receive twenty-two thousand dollars a year, then examine the contract questions involving electricity, noise, insurance, maintenance, and equipment liability. 

The video also follows the expansion from residential AI computing to large projects in West Texas, Idaho, and Utah. Using public research on data center energy consumption, data center water usage, grid infrastructure costs, and the proposed Stratos data center, we explain how local communities may gain investment while assuming risks that are difficult to reverse. We also examine construction jobs, permanent employment, tax incentives, groundwater pressure, and the secrecy that allows unsupported theories to spread. The central question is simple: will developers disclose their commitments and pay the full cost of the infrastructure they require?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "105 Million Americans Aren't Working"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 7/24/26

"105 Million Americans Aren't Working"

"The latest labor force numbers are staggering. More than 105.8 million Americans are now classified as not being in the labor force, meaning they are neither working nor actively looking for a job. In this video I break down what that number really means, why businesses continue reporting worker shortages, how early retirements, government programs, and changing attitudes toward work are reshaping the economy, and why this affects inflation, taxes, housing, and every working American."

Comments here:

-https://www.youtube.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Shopping the Great Values at Walmart"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 7/24/26

"Shopping the Great Values at Walmart"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.co

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Full screen recommended.

Travelling With Russell, 7/24/26

"Russia's Newest Low-Cost Supermarket (Opening Day)"

"What does Russia's newest supermarket look like inside? What does a low-cost supermarket in Russia look like inside? Join me at B1 - Perviy Vybor, a hard discount supermarket on opening day in provincial Russia, 40km from Moscow."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Just Shy Of $40 TRILLION And It's Increasing So Rapidly That..."

"Just Shy Of $40 TRILLION 

And It's Increasing So Rapidly That..."

by State Of The Nation

"And do you know why? Because of all the massive covert payments to the Zionist state of Israel since the very founding of that apartheid nation. Even greater are the regular but highly classified and immense outlays made by the Department of Defense, Central Intelligence Agency and other organizations within the U.S. Intelligence Community to countries around the globe that needed to be bought in some way, shape or form for the direct benefit of Israel.

Key Point: Really, where do you think the utterly bankrupt nation of Israel is getting the HUGE amounts of money for this type of desperate gaslighting of the entire human race?!

"Israel now paying influencers up to $7,000 to

post pro-Israel content across cyberspace."

Operation Conquer Venezuela: For example, do you have any idea how much it took for the Trump administration to pay off the Venezuelan government, their military, their Oil and Gas Industry execs, etc. to successfully execute a coup as well as kidnap their president and his wife before taking over the entire country? Think about it. Such a national takeover can only take place with a LOT of U$ petrodollars greasing the whole juggernaut that rolled over Venezuela in a day and a night.

And, by the way, much of the stolen oil went right to Israel because it was Netanyahu who blackmailed Trump to conquer that nation so quickly they didn’t even know what happened. And they still don’t know until they read an exposé like this one.

Now multiply this enormous multi-decade scam of the American taxpayer hundreds of times and you get the picture. Bearing in mind, of course, that every single military adventure and soft coup since the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 has been undertaken to advance Zionism worldwide; and to establish, maintain and stealthily enlarge the modern state of Israel (also known as the Greater Israel project). As folows:

"Major Moves and Massive Maneuvers Across the Global

 Geopolitical Chessboard Being Stealthily Manipulated by THE TRIAD"

Bottom Line:  Guess who was the 3rd Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)/CFO and Pentagon’s financial point-person in 2001 when the $2.3 TRILLION went missing - ordained rabbi Dov S. Zakheim.

WATCH! “Pentagon cannot account for $2.3 TRILLION” — Emphatically stated on September 10, 2001 by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld [the very day before the false flag 9/11 terrorist attacks were carried out one of them blowing apart the Pentagon task force investigating the massive DoD financial scandal.]"

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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"U.S. National Debt Clock, Real Time"

Bill Bonner, "Breaking Down The 'R' Word"

"Breaking Down The 'R' Word"

by Bill Bonner

Poitou, France - "Here it comes - yes - the “r” word. That crackerjack, all-purpose, instant thought-terminator: Racist!

Our meditations on race have precious little to do with our meditations on interest rates or the fevers of the stock market. But they have been penned up in the barn so long, snorting and pawing, that we judged it safer to let them out before they kicked down the door. And, like wokism and antisemitism, ‘racism’ plays an important role in dividing ‘The People,’ and uniting the central planners and busybodies against them.

Let the subject of immigration be raised, and the word “racist” comes trotting along at its heel, as faithful as a spaniel. Here is the freshest specimen, from CBS: "A disgruntled tenant executed three people over a Twin Cities parking dispute, the charges say. A 30-year-old St. Paul man stands accused of shooting three dead inside a leasing office over a quarrel about a parking garage."

And the man charged? One Tsegaab Binnesu. The name tips you off. But the press did not want to say. Nobody cares whether he chews meat or greens, whether his eyes are blue or brown, whether he kneels in a Protestant pew or a Catholic one. The pith of the story is that he is a thirty-year-old immigrant out of Egypt - and that, once more, a lawless newcomer has gunned down peaceable citizens.

Is it “racism” to say as much? The charge is hotly, indignantly denied. But it all hangs upon the definition of the word - and it is precisely there that we slip into a bottomless bog from which no man emerges with clean boots.

The thought fell upon us Sunday, after an unlovely encounter of our own with immigrants. African, Middle Eastern, or some blend - they were the very folk of whom the English used to say that “the wogs begin at Calais,” a “wog” being any homo sapiens who does not ‘look like us.’ Menaced by them on the road, our first thought was the ancient, reflexive one: they have no business here.

And yet they have more business here than we do. We are a mere visitor, an American who has lived in France, off and on for many years. Our tormentors, by contrast, enjoy the blessing of some post-colonial treaty or family tie that grants them the right to live in France, to draw upon her housing and unemployment subsidies, to make use of her free universities and hospitals...and to cast ballots in her elections.

Still - some people “fit in” better than others, and our three antagonists plainly had no wish to fit in at all. They announced, rather, their intention to “terrorize the bourgeoisie,” into which tribe they had placed us. Most of us are at ease among those whose attitudes and behaviors are familiar and predictable. White people gravitate to white neighborhoods. Jews to Jewish ones. Alcoholics feel at home in bars. The Chinese keep to Chinatown. Are the whole lot of them racists?

But we all have our prejudices - pets and peeves, bugaboos and darlings. A fellow might announce, with perfect candor, “I don’t care for Koreans.” Or “I don’t like kinky hair.” Or “Give me a redhead.” Does that enroll him among the racists?

If so, then racists we all are, every mother’s son, for it is flatly impossible for a normal human animal to go through life without preferences. It is discrimination – choosing the restaurant with the best chef and the builder who does the job on time, for example – that is the piston power of progress. And the man who surveys the whole of humanity with one blank, undiscriminating stare - as though we were so many interchangeable peas - is no model citizen, but a curiosity fit for a jar. Even upon bended knee, “I love you because your kisses are just as sweet as everyone else’s” is unlikely to carry the day as a proposal of marriage.

No - we are all different, and the man who denies it is either a professor or a fool. And even small differences can work large effects. Between the Mount Vernon Club in Baltimore and West Baltimore on the far side of Howard Street lies a distance of scarcely four blocks - but you would not care to cross it, and certainly not after dark. If the mere noticing of such differences makes racists of us all, then we may as well pitch the word into the ash-can, for you cannot indict a man for being precisely what every man is.

But what if we do not merely notice - what if we act upon what we feel? What if we decline to cross Howard Street? What if we steer clear of places stocked with the “wrong” sort of people? And yet - who among us does not hunt for the neighborhood where he feels at home? And where is that? Why, among people like himself!

In our own long and undistinguished career, we labored beside teams from England, India, China, and points beyond. We bore none of them the least ill will. But with some we got along better than others. All spoke English…but it was often difficult to get a point across. Were we racists for preferring to work with those we best understood?

And recall “redlining.” The notion was that lenders drew rings round the districts they cared not to serve - because, presumably, the borrowers therein did not pay them back. Redlining acquired its evil odor when it came out that those districts were peopled largely by “minorities.” ‘Racism!’ shrieked the earnest press, sniffing out a sinister motive.

Yet it strains belief that a profit-hungry institution would turn away a sound customer for the color of his hide or the street of his residence. Redlining was, in all likelihood, nothing more than a crude device for trimming the ledger of bad mortgages not for keeping groups of people without a roof over their heads. But the “racist” charge stuck and red-lining was outlawed.

But if neither noticing differences…nor acting on them…suffice to make a man a racist - what does? Have we been flogged so hard as “racist” that the calumny has lost its sting? On Monday we will take a look at real racism. Not redlining. Not the harmless preferences of ordinary people. But something a good deal nastier. Stay tuned."

-https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"'Erdogan's Ottoman Gambit: Turkey Prepares for a New Regional Order"

"'Erdogan's Ottoman Gambit:

 Turkey Prepares for a New Regional Order"

by Chris MacIntosh

"Turkey is simultaneously dumping US Treasuries, deepening Russia’s energy embrace, rolling out a tax regime to poach capital fleeing the Gulf… and squaring off against an Israeli political class that now speaks openly of Turkey as an enemy. It’s strategic.

Turkey sold nearly all of its US Treasury holdings in March - cutting them from $16 billion to just $1.8 billion in a single month. The official narrative frames this as emergency reserve management amid a weakening lira and inflation running above 32%. But the mechanics of financial stress don’t explain the direction of travel. Nations don’t systematically dump the debt of their allies.

President Erdogan has been explicit. In a recent address he cast Turkey as "one of the shining stars of the new era," invoking the restoration of Ottoman-era influence across the region. Turkey vehemently opposes Israel’s operations in Gaza, and in Ankara’s strategic calculus, Washington and Tel Aviv are increasingly viewed as a single entity. The Treasury sell-off is as much a political signal as a liquidity operation. The Turkish government has smelt blood in the streets and wants to capitalize on the situation.

The energy relationship with Russia tells the same story. Rosatom’s Akkuyu nuclear plant - a build-own-operate project in which Russia retains ownership for decades - just received a further $9 billion in Russian financing, with $4–5 billion deploying in 2026 alone. Turkey has loudly advertised its renewable credentials and a 2053 net-zero target, but Akkuyu sits outside that narrative entirely. When it comes online it will supply roughly 10% of Turkey’s electricity and lock in a structural strategic dependency on Moscow that no solar panel cancels out. Turkey talks diversification; it acts with ruthless pragmatism.

The Iran conflict has handed Erdogan an unexpected opportunity on the capital side. The disruption to Gulf Cooperation Council financial hubs - Dubai chief among them - has put mobile, internationally structured wealth back in play. Investors who relocated to the UAE for zero-tax treatment are now reassessing. Into that gap, Turkey’s parliament recently passed Erdogan’s flagship fiscal incentive package - nine permanent structural reforms that together represent one of the most aggressive capital attraction plays of the decade:

0% income tax on foreign earnings for 20 years.

1% inheritance tax on all wealth.

Full citizenship from $400,000.

2% one-off tax to repatriate overseas assets, no questions asked.

9% corporate tax - permanent.

0% tax on trading through Turkey.

Business registration in one day via AI-assisted process.

Machinery and equipment imports: duty-free, 0% VAT.

Mortgage overhaul: 10% down payment, terms up to 25 years.

The last item deserves particular attention. The mortgage reform isn’t just a financing tweak - it unlocks millions of first-time Turkish buyers who were previously priced out of the market.

That domestic demand surge lands at precisely the moment foreign capital begins flowing in under the new tax regime. Turkey’s residential real estate market was already undersupplied. The combination of newly bankable local buyers and inbound international capital chasing a low-tax domicile points to a meaningful price cycle ahead - at minimum in Istanbul and the coastal cities where foreign demand concentrates.

The architect of Istanbul’s financial hub ambitions goes back to at least 2009, when former Deputy PM Nazim Ekren was championing Atasehir as the anchor of Eurasia’s financial capital. Aran Hawker, who provided trading infrastructure to Istanbul’s exchanges in 2011, expects wealth repositioned not only from the GCC but from North America, Europe, and the UK - from people "not happy with political situations in those respective countries." Istanbul Finance Centre transit trade income is now fully exempt from corporate tax through 2047.

The Greater Israel Shadow: Beneath the fiscal and energy calculations runs a darker strategic undercurrent - one that Ankara is acutely aware of and Western analysts largely ignore. The expansion of Israeli strategic ambition across the region, accelerated by the Gaza operation and the broader Zionist maximalist project, now has Turkey explicitly in its crosshairs.

The Bosphorus - the narrow strait connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, through which a significant share of global energy and grain trade passes - is not simply a Turkish asset. It is one of the most strategically significant chokepoints on earth. Control of it, or the ability to influence who controls it, is a prize that serious regional powers do not ignore.

Israeli political figures have begun to speak with unusual candour about Turkey as a threat rather than a competitor. Israeli Minister of Culture and Sports Miki Zohar stated plainly: "We must begin to treat Turkey as an enemy state." Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett went further, framing Turkey in the same breath as Iran: "A new Turkish threat is emerging. We must act in different ways, but simultaneously against the threat from Tehran and against the hostility from Ankara."

These are not fringe voices. When a sitting minister and a former head of government use the language of simultaneous threat management for both Iran and Turkey, they are signalling a strategic posture - one that has obvious implications for NATO cohesion, for the future of the Bosphorus as a neutral passage, and for the stability of the broader region.

Erdogan reads this clearly. The deepening of Russian energy ties, the rejection of US debt, the cultivation of Ottoman-sphere influence - these are not reactions to Gaza alone. They are pre-positioning against a regional order that Turkey now judges to be hostile to its existence as a sovereign power.

The Greater Israel project, in its maximalist form, envisions territorial and political influence stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates. Turkey sits at the northern edge of that strategic horizon. Control or destabilization of the Bosphorus would fundamentally alter the balance of naval power in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea - a prize of the highest order for any power seeking regional hegemony. Whether or not one assigns full credibility to the maximalist reading, the signals from Israeli political leadership are sufficient for Ankara to treat the threat as real and plan accordingly.

A NATO member that sells US debt, builds Russian nuclear plants, courts capital fleeing Western disorder, and now faces explicit identification as an enemy state by Israeli leadership is not drifting. Rather, it’s repositioning on every front simultaneously.

The picture that emerges is coherent and accelerating…Turkey controls the Bosphorus. It borders the Middle East, maintains NATO’s second-largest military, and imports the energy that geopolitical conflict makes more expensive - hence the inflation, the rate pressure, and the reserve burn. But Erdogan’s response is not to seek Western reassurance. It is to deepen the Russian energy anchor, signal alignment with the Global South’s reading of the Gaza conflict, position Istanbul as the beneficiary of Gulf instability and Western political dysfunction, and quietly fortify against a regional order that now names Turkey an adversary. The Treasury dump is one data point in a larger sequence. The Ottoman ambition is the frame. And the clock is moving faster than most people realize."

- https://internationalman.com/

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"Trump 'Close' To Ordering 'Massive Attack 

Greater Than Anything Before' On Iran"

o

"The Persian Gulf Is Never Coming Back -

 And That’s Exactly What They Want"