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So, we rise from the rubble...
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Tuesday, July 28, 2026
"Yemen Torches Saudi Facilities - Trump and Iran Prepare Their Next Move"
Col. Larry Wilkerson, 7/28/26
"Yemen Torches Saudi Facilities -
Trump and Iran Prepare Their Next Move"
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"Iran Learning Faster in This War"
"Is the Department of War Covering Up the True Extent of US Casualties?"
"Is the Department of War Covering
Up the True Extent of US Casualties?"
by Larry C. Johnson
"Last Wednesday all the signs were pointing to a desperate action by the Trump administration to launch a ground operation inside Iran ostensibly to seize enriched nuclear material from an Iranian nuclear research facility. The report from the Wall Street Journal noted that US special ops forces were once again being deployed to the region to carry out a raid on a Hardened Deeply Buried Target (aka HDBT). But it also revealed something both disturbing and alarming: the deployment of 150 medics. According to the WSJ: "The U.S. is surging forces, medics and weaponry to the Middle East to give President Trump more muscular military options as he considers expanding the conflict against Iran, according to people familiar with the matter.
In the past week, special-operations forces have deployed to the region from their U.S. bases, according to flight-tracking data and U.S. officials. Squadrons of jet fighters have been staged across the Middle East, and bomber aircraft at bases in the U.S. and U.K. are on high alert to ramp up operations, according to one of the officials.
Additionally, more than 150 medics have arrived at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany in recent days, another official said. The hospital is the primary location for treating troops injured in combat in the Middle East."
Twenty years ago I participated in the scripting and execution of a Special Ops exercise that simulated the targeting of an underground nuclear target in the Middle East. The actual location of the field exercise was in the desert of Nevada, northeast of Las Vegas. At the conclusion of that exercise there was a Hot Wash, i.e., a review of lessons learned from that exercise. What was the primary lesson learned? Don’t do it. Too dangerous because the mission would likely to result in significant casualties and expose the soldiers to unhealthy levels of radiation.
Based on the WSJ report it appears that Trump was on the verge of ordering a real-world version of that exercise. However, this report surfaced on the 23rd of July. Two days later, Trump apparently rescinded the order for the ground op and halted the bombings of the Iranian coast in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.
So far, so good. What most people glossed over was the report that 150 US combat medics were deployed to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. This was not an ordinary deployment, nor was it in anticipation of possible casualties from an impending military operation… These men and women were deployed to reinforce a badly stretched medical staff at Landstuhl that were trying to cope with dozens of badly wounded US military personnel that had survived the missile strikes on Muwafaq al-Salti airbase in Jordan and two army bases in Kuwait.
Based on the number of C-17 medical flights reported in open source that departed Jordan following the 17 July missile attack on Muwafaq al-Salti airbase and flew to Ramstein airbase in Germany, which is the entry port for the Landstuhl Medical Center, US casualties numbered over 100, perhaps higher. The large number of wounded may have been another factor contributing to President Trump’s decision to halt the bombing one week later.
While there are no direct talks between the US and Iran, Pakistan, along with Qatar, are working intensively as intermediaries in trying to resurrect the MoU. If the MoU is resuscitated it will be because the US met Iran’s demands that Israeli forces withdraw from Lebanon and that the US unfreeze Iranian assets up front, not at some point in the future. I am sure that Bibi Netanyahu will try to persuade Trump to reignite the war and pursue a more intensive bombing campaign as well as some kind of ground operation on Iranian territory.
For now, the bombs and missiles are not falling. I am skeptical that this current hiatus will hold… I sincerely hope that I am wrong. Once Senator Graham is buried on Wednesday, we may see Trump reverse course once again and renew the bombing campaign. Iran, for its part, is holding firm to its demands that the MoU be fully implemented, otherwise Iran is prepared to continue fighting and inflicting more damage on US assets and personnel."
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 7/27/26
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 7/27/26
"Alastair Crooke:
US Lost the War and Trump Knows It"
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"What Victory Looks Like"
"What Victory Looks Like"
by Phil Butler
"The Fantasy of “Limited War: Before you read what follows, let’s strip away the diplomatic fiction. I have spent decades tracking the patterns of power, and the pattern here is undeniable. The West is playing a deadly game of managed escalation, wrapping total war in the antiseptic language of “containment” and “strategic signaling.” But the recent strikes on economic and civilian nodes inside Russia are not the rogue contrivances of a fractured command. They are a calibrated escalation by European elites, executed with Washington’s tacit approval.
The thesis of what you are about to read is simple and uncompromising: the era of the “limited war” is a Western fantasy. If Moscow is to survive this existential proxy assault, it cannot respond with half-measures or symmetrical restraint. The only rational, historically grounded response is total mobilization and the systematic, comprehensive neutralization of Ukraine’s remaining critical infrastructure. Endless attrition is a losing game. Victory is not a preference; it is an operational necessity. What follows is not a plea for peace. It is a cold, hard look at what victory actually requires, anchored in the only historical precedent that matters.
Kyiv, 1943 – The Historical Precedent: The photograph above is stark: Kyiv, November 1943. Soldiers march through streets flanked by skeletal buildings, their facades blown out, entire districts reduced to rubble and ash. The Dnieper crossing has been secured, but the city behind them is a monument to total war. This is not destruction for its own sake. This is what victory actually looked like when the Soviet Union responded to Operation Barbarossa. Not with calibrated strikes and proportional responses, but with the complete, systematic dismantling of an occupying force and the infrastructure that sustained it.
The Wehrmacht had turned Kyiv into a fortress. Every building, every street, every bridge had been militarized. The German response to losing that terrain was scorched earth—demolitions, fires, systematic destruction of anything that could aid the advancing Red Army. And when the Soviets finally broke through, they did not pause to preserve what remained. They did not worry about civilian infrastructure or economic nodes or the postwar recovery of a city already bled dry by occupation. They fought with the singular objective of annihilation. Victory was the only acceptable outcome, and the physical cost was secondary to the strategic necessity.
This is the historical precedent that Western strategists deliberately ignore when they lecture Moscow about escalation management. The Soviet Union did not win the Great Patriotic War through restraint. It won through total mobilization, overwhelming force, and the absolute refusal to accept any outcome other than the complete destruction of the invading force. The ruins of Kyiv in 1943 are not evidence of Soviet barbarism. They are evidence of what happens when an existential threat is met with the full, uncompromising weight of a nation determined to survive.
Today, the West demands that Russia fight a limited war against an unlimited threat. European elites, with Washington’s blessing, have transformed Ukraine into a proxy fortress, flooding it with weapons, intelligence, and the implicit promise of endless support. Strikes on Wildberries distribution centers, on civilian infrastructure with no military value, on economic targets designed to terrorize rather than degrade—these are not the actions of a desperate regime fighting for survival. These are the actions of a coalition that believes it can wage war by remote control, bleeding Russia slowly while keeping the conflict “manageable” and “contained.”
This is a fatal miscalculation. When an adversary crosses the threshold from proxy conflict to direct strategic assault, the response cannot be measured in calibrated increments. The strikes on civilian economic infrastructure are not isolated incidents. They are the logical endpoint of a Western strategy that has abandoned any pretense of seeking peace and embraced instead the goal of Russia’s long-term strategic degradation. This is war with a capital W, and it demands a response commensurate with the threat.
Victory, or Extinction – No Middle Ground: The question is not whether Russia should escalate. The question is whether it can afford not to. Every week that passes with half-measures and symmetrical responses is a week that allows the Western coalition to believe its strategy is working. Every distribution center hit, every civilian target struck with impunity, reinforces the illusion that Russia can be provoked without consequence, that escalation can be controlled from Brussels and Washington while Moscow bleeds patiently on the operating table. This must end now if everything Vladimir Putin and the Russians have built is to survive.
What victory looks like in 2026 is not fundamentally different from what it looked like in 1943. It looks like the complete neutralization of the enemy’s capacity to sustain the fight. It looks like a mobilized society, an industrial base operating at maximum capacity, and a military strategy designed not to manage the conflict but to end it. Furthermore, it looks like the systematic dismantling of Ukraine’s remaining infrastructure—not as punishment, but as operational necessity. The logistics networks, the energy grids, the command, and control nodes, the economic arteries that feed the war machine. All of it must be rendered nonfunctional. Not degraded. Not damaged. Eliminated. This is not cruelty. This is clarity.
The West has made its choice. It has chosen to fight to the last Ukrainian, to turn an entire nation into a battering ram aimed at Russia’s heart, to sacrifice millions on the altar of geopolitical ambition while remaining safely insulated from the consequences. Moscow can no longer afford the luxury of fighting this war on Western terms. Attrition favors the side with greater resources and longer patience. Russia has both, but only if it commits them fully. A multipronged offensive, launched with overwhelming force and designed to achieve decisive territorial objectives by spring, is not an option. It is an imperative.
The mobilization must be total. Not the partial measures of 2022, not the hesitant expansions of 2023, but the full commitment of a society at war. Industrial production must shift to a wartime footing. Manpower must be allocated without hesitation. The political system must align behind a single objective: victory. Not “favorable conditions.” Not “negotiating leverage.” Victory. Period!
History will not judge Russia by the standards of Geneva or The Hague. It will judge Russia by whether it survived the existential threat arrayed against it. The Soviet Union did not hesitate in 1943. It did not worry about the optics of destroying Kyiv to save it. It understood that half-measures against an existential enemy are not mercy, but suicide. The ruins in that photograph are not a warning about the horrors of war. They are a testament to what victory actually costs. This image is what victory looks like in every war ever fought.
The West wants a long war. It wants a war of attrition, of gradual escalation, of managed decline for Russia. This is the one outcome Moscow cannot accept. Russia cannot afford to lose, and it cannot afford to fight indefinitely. The time for limited war is over. The time for total victory has begun. What victory looks like is not pretty. It is not clean. It is not proportional. It is the complete, systematic, and uncompromising destruction of the enemy’s capacity to continue. Furthermore, it is the mobilization of every resource, the commitment of every tool, the acceptance of every cost. It is Kyiv in 1943. It is the end of the war, by any means necessary.
The choice is no longer Russia’s to make. The West made it when it turned Ukraine into a weapon. Now Moscow must simply follow the logic of that choice to its inevitable conclusion. Victory, or extinction. There is no middle ground left."
"The Next Price Shock Is Already on Its Way to American Stores"
Full screen recommended.
The Unfolded States, 7/28/26
"The Next Price Shock Is Already
on Its Way to American Stores"
"The tariff price shock may already be moving through America’s supply chain, even if most store prices have not changed yet. As older inventory disappears, the next shipments could reveal which products and households face the greatest pressure. A new round of Section 301 tariffs now covers imports from sixty trading partners, but the effect will not appear on every shelf at the same time. This analysis explains how import costs move through suppliers, businesses, retail inventories, and promotions before reaching consumer prices. We examine which products face the greatest exposure, including clothing, footwear, household goods, toys, and electronics, while separating tariff pressure from energy costs and other supply constraints.
The video also shows why lower-income households, middle-class families, and small retailers may experience the same policy differently. Federal Reserve research, back-to-school shopping data, and port forecasts reveal how families are already delaying purchases, trading down, using credit, and waiting for stronger discounts. We also consider product exemptions, domestic manufacturing benefits, supplier negotiations, and the evidence that could prevent a broader retail price increase. Finally, you will learn which indicators can show whether the pressure remains limited or spreads during the fall and holiday shopping seasons. Subscribe for more evidence-based analysis of the American economy, and tell us in the comments which purchase would be hardest for your household to postpone."
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o
Full screen recommended.
, 7/28/26
"Something Is Seriously Wrong With the
American Economy… And It’s Getting Worse"
"Is the U.S. economy stronger than it feels? Official reports point to GDP growth and low unemployment, yet millions of Americans say they're struggling with rising costs, shrinking purchasing power, and housing that's becoming harder to afford. In this video, we explore why the headline numbers and everyday reality seem so different. Here's the thing… economic data doesn't always capture what families experience each month. We explain how inflation, slower job growth, reduced work hours, expensive housing, and higher living costs are changing the financial picture for workers, renters, and first-time homebuyers across America. What most people don't realize is that a growing economy doesn't automatically mean stronger household finances. We also look at purchasing power, mortgage rates, rental affordability, consumer spending, credit use, and why two people can experience the same economy in completely different ways depending on their financial situation. The reality is that understanding the economy requires looking beyond a few headline statistics. Watch until the end for a clear, balanced breakdown of what's driving today's cost-of-living challenges and what indicators could shape the months ahead."
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Dan, I Allegedly, "It's Happening Everywhere"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 7/28/26
"It's Happening Everywhere"
"For this video, we're breaking down the biggest economic stories impacting everyday Americans. From massive vehicle recalls at Ford and Subaru to rising homeowner association fees, California's population decline, bankruptcies in the solar and precious metals industries, and new savings opportunities for families, the financial landscape continues to shift. We'll also discuss why millions of Americans are borrowing money just to buy groceries, how expensive car payments are destroying home affordability, and what these warning signs could mean for your financial future.
We'll also cover new grants available for frontline workers, the importance of budgeting during inflation, and practical financial tips to help you protect yourself as the economy continues to change. If you're concerned about inflation, rising costs, debt, housing, consumer spending, or where the economy is headed next, this video connects today's headlines with what they mean for your wallet. Subscribe for daily business news, economic updates, and practical money advice from i Allegedly."
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Adventures With Danno, "Massive Savings At Meijer"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 7/28/26
"Massive Savings At Meijer"
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Bill Bonner, "Nobody Knows Anything"
"Master, what gnaws at them so hideously
their lamentation stuns the very air?”
“They have no hope of death,” he answered me…”
- Dante Alighieri, “The Inferno”
"Nobody Knows Anything"
by Bill Bonner
"A man’s gotta know his limitations."
- Clint Eastwood, Magnum Force
Poitou, France - "There’s a war on...oil is going up. No...it’s a glut situation; look for a lower oil price. Hold on...now it’s going up again. OilPrice.com: Less than a month ago, analysts were warning of a looming glut of crude oil as tanker traffic via the Strait of Hormuz began to recover amid a U.S.-Iran ceasefire. Within days of these warnings, the ceasefire was a painful memory, missiles were flying again, and now Yemen’s Houthis are striking tankers in the Red Sea, which makes two blocked oil chokepoints and a very real danger of a global recession.
No, wait. It’s going back down. Reuters: Oil prices tumbled more than 5% on Monday after the U.S. and Iran paused strikes over the weekend following two weeks of attacks, raising hopes of a diplomatic solution that would de-escalate the conflict and allow shipping to resume in the Strait of Hormuz.
We don’t need any more evidence. The facts are in. The jury has its verdict: “Nobody knows anything.” We write in humble praise of ignorance. What we think we can know is unbounded. What we actually know is very limited.
And stocks? What do we know? Investors must judge US stocks as beyond the reach of war...or bankruptcy. The Dow, for example, is still near an all-time high. Wars are not necessarily good or bad for stocks. It depends on the situation. At the outbreak of WWI, US stocks lost about a third of their value. But in the two days following the outbreak of WWII, they were only down 7%. And after 9/11 they were down only about 11%.
Industries adjust to a wartime economy. They take orders for new materiel, the factories belch smoke, profits increase, and prices go up. Wars are fundamentally inflationary; you don’t worry about the long-term damage done by money printing, not when you’re in a shooting war. You can’t even stop to wonder why you’re shooting at all, not when your blood is up. War takes on a tit-for-tat life of its own. ‘What...a US soldier was killed? We’re gonna bomb those bastards back to the stone age!’
And then, inflation, at least at first, boosts sales and earnings...and stock prices. Even losing a war can be good for an economy. France didn’t know its limitations in the run-up to the Franco-Prussian war. It invaded Germany on July 16, 1870. Two months later, the French suffered a military disaster. Emperor, Napoleon III, was captured and his whole army ‘hors du combat.’ France surrendered and was condemned to paying five billion gold-backed francs in reparations. To make the payments, it issued treasury bonds with a 6% yield.
This huge burden - equal to about a quarter of French GDP - was intended to cripple the French economy for decades. But once again, nobody knew anything. Bond sales were over-subscribed and the reparations payments were made ahead of schedule. Then, something even more unexpected. Money went across the Rhine to Germany...where the un-earned increases to its money supply caused consumer price inflation. And then, Germans used their new money to buy French-made goods. France wasn’t crippled at all; her economy boomed.
The Belle Epoche, 1880-1914, was France’s Golden Age. Haussman rebuilt Paris. Industrial technology increased output. Wages rose. Luxury goods were most widely shared. The French had never had it so good. It was a time of abundance, growth, and prosperity. And just when everyone came to believe that it was permanent, along came Gavrilo Princip with a pistol in his hand.
Each war comes with its own jackassery. WWI was a disaster for all the major combatants, save...maybe, the US. But in the economic turmoil following the war’s end, investment money poured into Wall Street and prices rose...to what the leading economist of the day, Irving Fisher, called a “permanent high plateau.” Once again, the genius didn’t know half of what he thought he knew. The plateau cratered in 1929 and the US entered the Great Depression.
The US has been involved in a number of wars since the end of WWII. In none of them did it misjudge its limitations so greatly as it did in its attack on Iran. In bombing the Persians, it chose an enemy that controls a vital oil shipping lane. And as the conflict widened, the Houthis threatened to block another vital oil shipping corridor. FDD’s Long War Journal:
The Houthis announced a complete maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia on July 20. In response, a growing number of vessels are rerouting to avoid the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the southern Red Sea chokepoint near Houthi-controlled territory, demonstrating that the shipping industry is taking the threat seriously. However, the Houthis have not yet targeted vessels or port infrastructure to enforce their blockade.
If the two passageways were blocked...or even partially blocked...the effect on the world economy could be devastating. So far, the Iranian blockade has had little impact, largely because there were sufficient stocks of oil waiting beyond the Strait of Hormuz. Emergency reservoirs were tapped and there has been some slack in demand as a result of higher prices. Still, WTI crude traded at more than $110 a barrel in April. Now, it’s down to $82 this morning. Does this mean the threat has passed?
‘Nobody knows anything,’ sayeth the sage. But some things are more likely than others. When you go to war you open up the gates of Hell. Who knows what monsters will come out? And when you spend more than you earn, year after year, the financial hellcats will soon be clawing at your back. Stay tuned."
Monday, July 27, 2026
Musical Interlude: 2002, "Time Stands Still"; "Memory Of Tomorrow"
Full screen recommended.
2002, "Time Stands Still"
o
Full screen recommended.
2002, "Memory Of Tomorrow"
"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."
"What Might Have Been..."
“Space I can recover. Time, never.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte
“Lands can be reconquered, indeed in the course of a battle, a hill or a certain plain might trade hands several times. But missed opportunities? These can never be regained. Moments in time, in culture? They can never be re-made. One can never go back in time to prepare for what they should have prepared for, no one can ever get back critical seconds that were wasted out of fear or ego. Napoleon was brilliant at trading space for time: Sure, you can make these moves, provided you are giving me the time I need to drill my troops, or move them to where I want them to be. Yet in life, most of us are terrible at this. We trade an hour of our life here or afternoon there like it can be bought back with the few dollars we were paid for it. And it is only much, much later, as they are on their deathbeds or when they are looking back on what might have been, that many people realize the awful truth of this quote. Don’t do that. Embrace it now.”
- Ryan Holiday
"Debt Crisis Alert? Japan Could Be The First Domino To Fall"
Canadian Prepper, 7/27/26
"Debt Crisis Alert?
Japan Could Be The First Domino To Fall"
Comments here:
"It Is Going To Be A Very Difficult Winter If The Global Energy Crisis Is Not Resolved Soon"
by Michael Snyder
"Unless some sort of a miracle happens, the world is facing a severe energy supply crunch in the months ahead. Since the war with Iran began, we have been able to function normally because we had huge inventory buffers that we could rely on. But now those inventory buffers are nearly gone, the Iranians have been attacking commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, the Houthis are preventing Saudi tankers from getting through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and the Ukrainains have been relentlessly attacking Russian refineries. As a result, we are potentially facing a very difficult winter.
Most people do not understand how dire things have become because they are still operating as if there was no energy crisis at all. The reason they have been able to do that is because we had extensive inventory stockpiles, but now those stockpiles are “largely depleted”…At the start of the war in late February, countries relied on strategic oil reserves to mitigate the worst impacts of an energy supply crunch. Those stockpiles are now largely depleted, stripping the market of its key shock-absorbing cushion. At this moment, the world is running an oil deficit. But we can only do that for so long.
Once the stockpiles get to zero, oil prices will go “a lot higher”, and we are being warned that the clock is ticking…“Our view, at a high level, is that we are in a crisis,” said Merritt Point’s Baird. “One that we have prepared for with very large inventory buffers, but the clock is ticking, and the challenges introduced this week with the potential disruption of Bab el-Mandeb just pull that much harder on the finite buffer.”
In addition to blocking Saudi vessels from traveling through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Houthis are also hitting Saudi oil facilities…Ship traffic through Bab el-Mandeb fell on Sunday after Yemeni Houthis attacked Saudi oil installations along the Red Sea coast, while transit through the Strait of Hormuz stayed low over the weekend, shipping data from Kpler showed on Monday. Eleven commodity vessels passed through the Bab el-Mandeb strait on Sunday, the lowest level in months, the data showed.
We aren’t hearing about this a lot in the western media, but serious damage is being done by the Houthis. In fact, Aramco’s Jizan oil refinery continues to burn two days after it was originally struck by ballistic missiles…
A 77 kilometer smoke trail indicates that the damage that has been done to that facility is quite extensive. On Monday, the Houthis struck again. This time is was Aramco’s Abqaiq oil processing facility… Meanwhile there are emerging Monday reports that Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq oil processing facility in the kingdom’s eastern province is on fire after probable drone and/or missile strikes by the Houthis, or from Iran-aligned Iraqi militias. Newsquawk reports based on emerging Iranian state media that “Hours ago, the huge Abqaiq oil facility in eastern Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s most important oil processing centers, was set on fire in drone and missile attacks, reports Tasnim citing sources and images.”
The damage that the Houthis are causing could take months or even years to fully repair. So even if the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait both suddenly opened, there won’t be as much Saudi oil flowing out of the region for an extended period of time.
Meanwhile, gas stations in Russia are actually rationing gasoline as a result of Ukraine’s unprecedented drone attacks on Russian refineries…Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky began intensifying drone attacks on Russian oil refineries in mid-June as part of a campaign to raise the war’s stakes for ordinary Russians more than four years after Putin’s full-scale invasion of his country.
Thanks to more than a month of attacks on refineries, fuel depots, and warehouses hundreds of miles behind the front line - including in Moscow - Russia is facing a fuel crisis the likes of which have not been seen since Putin’s rise to power more than 25 years ago, NBC News reported. Gas stations in many regions have taken the unprecedented move of introducing rationing schemes and restrictions, and social media has been flooded with videos of long lines and frustrated drivers.
Russia normally exports a tremendous amount of oil. But now they are being forced to purchase gasoline from India. If we keep running down our inventory buffers, soon we will start witnessing rationing all over the globe.
Of course supplies of natural gas are getting really tight as well. Gas storage facilities all over Europe should be nearly full right now in preparation for winter, but instead they are currently sitting at about half that level…Supplies have been run down because of the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, with up to a fifth of the world’s supply disrupted. Currently, across Europe, gas storage facilities are around half full. This is “an historically low level at this time of the year”, according to energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie. Unless things change, this is going to be a long, cold winter in Europe this year.
The situation is even worse in the United Kingdom. At this point, the UK currently has “less than a week’s worth of gas reserves”…The National Energy System Operator (Neso) said the curbs would take effect from Friday, as it faces questions over how close Britain came to blackouts during a heatwave in June. Official data show the UK currently has less than a week’s worth of gas reserves. European nations typically hold several weeks’ worth of supply, though stocks on the Continent have also been run down.
Mr O’Shea, the chief executive of Centrica, which owns British Gas, said: “European gas storage levels are low. UK gas storage levels are incredibly low … If it’s not a warm winter, then there’ll be problems, and the problems will be associated with having less gas in storage.”
If the war in the Middle East does not get resolved, I have no idea what everyone is going to do. Of course I am fully convinced that the war in the Middle East is not going to end any time soon. So I would make preparations for a very difficult winter. As Chris Martenson often reminds us, energy is the foundation of all economic activity, and it appears that the world simply won’t have enough energy to function normally this upcoming winter."
"Get Your Stuff Together..."
“We all got problems. But there’s a great book out called “Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart.” Did you see that? That book says the statute of limitations has expired on all childhood traumas. Get your stuff together and get on with your life, man. Stop whinin’ about what’s wrong, because everybody’s had a rough time, in one way or another.”
- Quincy Jones
"Steve Jobs' Rules For Life"
"Steve Jobs' Rules For Life"
by Thomas Oppong
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times, the legendary Bruce Lee once said. Bruce Lee’s philosophy of “being so good they can’t ignore you” focused on refining and mastering the fundamentals to an unparalleled level.
The way to master life and career is to make Steve Jobs’ quote a mantra for almost everything you do. “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected,” he said. When Jobs said, ‘I want to put a ding in the universe,’ he was challenging not just himself but all of us. Jobs knew that by setting the bar high, he could inspire others to reach for greatness, just like he did at Apple. Becoming a yardstick of quality means a commitment to excellence in everything we do.
“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor,” says American Football coach Vince Lombardi. People who are committed to quality habits hold themselves accountable for every outcome. They ensure they deliver nothing less than excellence in all areas of their lives.
Extraordinary is an attainable target. Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at the age of 21, but he went on to become one of the most renowned physicists of our time. They have dared to think differently and made significant contributions to the world. “I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary,’ Elon Musk once said. He’s shown that by pushing the boundaries in the aerospace and electric car industries. Musk, much like Jobs, isn’t just an entrepreneur; he’s a visionary who sets the bar high for an entire industry.
They both challenge others to rise above mediocrity. Embracing the “yardstick of quality” mindset is about consistently demanding the best from yourself. You set a personal example of excellence, just like Steve Jobs. It means you’re not just aiming for success; you’re unapologetically demanding it from yourself. It’s not a fleeting commitment; it’s a life philosophy.
You don’t merely aim for greatness; you make it an inherent part of your identity. And encourage others to do the same with your words and, more importantly, your actions. “Quality is not an act; it is a habit,” Aristotle said. Making quality a habit is not just about talking about your high standards; it’s about living them every day. And giving your absolute best in everything you do to achieve personal greatness.
Albert Einstein once said, “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” Even the greatest minds among us are not born with special abilities. Rather, they achieve greatness through a deep passion for learning and discovery. You can build a great life on an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and growth. You demonstrate an unwavering commitment to your life or career goals, making it clear that greatness is an achievable goal for anyone determined to reach it.
You become the architect of your greatness. You set the bar for the kind of life you want to lead and, in doing so, motivate yourself to meet and exceed those standards. You don’t just wait for life to happen; you actively shape it according to your vision of greatness. People who hold themselves to high standards expect a lot from themselves. They are personally invested in the pursuit of quality in life and career.
Top performers are relentless in pursuit of excellence. Mozart’s work reflects not just notes on paper but a deep connection to his music. He famously declared, “People err who think my art comes easily to me. I assure you, dear friend, nobody has devoted so much time and thought to compositions as I. There is not a famous master whose music I have not industriously studied through many times.” He was committed to personal excellence is an understatement. Pablo Picasso was a great artist. His creative iterations grew with time. It took him thousands of iterations to find his genius. “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child,” he said.
Picasso’s artistic evolution throughout his career showcases a commitment to pushing the boundaries of creativity. Simone Biles is an artistic gymnast widely regarded as the greatest gymnast ever. She has won a record 32 Olympic and World Championship medals, including seven Olympic gold medals. Biles is known for her brilliance and hard work from an early age. “If they said, ‘Do five pull-ups,’ I would always want to do 10,” she says. “We strive for greatness,” Biles once said.
For top performers, becoming a yardstick of quality is not a sporadic effort; it’s a way of life. Excellence defines their pursuits. In life, it’s about making the same choice: to be extraordinary. You must take ownership of your pursuit of excellence, realizing it’s a continuous process, not a one-time achievement.
As Henry Ford once said, “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” That means your commitment to excellence should be ingrained in your character, not just a performance for others. It’s a lifetime commitment.
It’s a journey that begins with you, and it’s only when you’re relentless in your pursuit that you truly achieve greatness. Excellence should define your daily pursuits, setting the bar higher each day. Whether in your work, home life, or personal ethics, hold yourself to the highest expectations and consistently meet or exceed them. “Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well,” says former US Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare John W. Gardner.
“Be a yardstick of quality,” is a practical rule for life. It’s not just an aspiration; it’s a consistent standard that drives greatness. When you become a benchmark for quality, you not only inspire yourself but everyone around you. Becoming a yardstick of quality is an unwavering commitment to high standards. It’s not merely a goal; it’s the path to a life of significance. Your future self depends on it."
"A Difficult Life Can Still Be a Good Life"
"My own mind turned on me. I kept repeating a simple question in my head: Is this all there is? We don’t always get what we want. Or feel like we deserve. When I’m no longer able to change a situation, solve a problem or fix my life the way I want, I’m challenged to change my reality. Or outgrow the problems. A difficult life can still be a great life. You can go through loss and still choose to love again. You can do the work you don’t like and still find other sources of joy. Or wake up anxious about your life, and still persist. It’s the superhuman thing to do. And you are most likely doing it. You haven’t failed at life. Just temporary things.
There’s a difference. Viktor Frankl survived a concentration camp. He still found the will to live and write about it. If anyone gets to talk about pain and purpose, it’s him. You don’t need a perfect life to live a good one. You just need to live it. But with honesty. Life won’t always be fair. But it can still be beautiful. You’ve survived 100% of your worst days so far. That’s not luck. That’s you.
Hard things happen to good people. But you can’t find meaning in avoiding struggle. You find it in how you move through it. In his book Frankl says, "A difficult life can still be a good life. Not in spite of the struggle, but sometimes because of it."
Some days, everything can feel unbearable. You drag yourself through the hours, wondering if it’s worth it. But the struggle isn’t just a burden, it’s also what keeps you alive. Without it, you’d float away, unrefined. Pain isn’t a sign you’re doing life wrong. It’s a sign you’re alive. If life feels too much at the minute, remember this truth: passing pain doesn’t ruin the whole experience. “The wound is the place where the Light enters you,” says poet Rumi.
“If you can’t get beyond your stresses, your problems, and your pain, you can’t create a new future where those things don’t exist.” - Dr. Joe Dispenza
A hard life doesn’t mean a bad one. Surprise yourself. Difficulty doesn’t cancel out joy. It just improves your grit. And the ability to find joy and hope. Life can be full of suffering, but it is also full of overcoming it. You don’t need an easy life to have a good one. You need purpose. Struggle can teach resilience. You won’t always fix everything at once.
Some days, you’ll feel like you’ve got nothing left. You’ll want to quit. Maybe not everything, but something. The draining work or relationship stress. Hang in there. Hard and good can live in the same place. In fact, they often do. But experiences are temporary. If they don’t. Or you can’t change it, outgrow what you can’t control. Look for pockets of space to find your joy. After the break. After the silence. After the fight. Keep showing up. For yourself. For the people you love. For the life you still get to live. Hard just means you’re still in it.
“Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack, a crack in everything.
That’s how the light gets in.”
- Leonard Cohen
People think brokenness ruins things, but sometimes, it’s what makes them real. It’s a paradox. The things that almost break you also teach you how to live. Life won’t stop being difficult. But you won’t stop being human. That means you won’t stop finding light in dark places. A good life is not without suffering. You can hold both without losing your mind. The pain and the joy, the struggle and the strength. You don’t have to choose. You get to feel them all. A difficult life can still be a good life. It already is.
Life will hurt. It will test you. It will not always make sense. But none of that means your life can’t be good. A good life is real. Live it with both hands, even when you hit a wall. Live it in hard choices, in the slow work of showing up again and again. Find in the ordinary. Strength in the struggle. That’s what’s working for me. Your life, as it is, matters. And even with the woulds, it can still hold light. A difficult life can still be a good life.
I know it. You know it. A good life isn’t measured by how little you suffer. But by how much you live in spite of it. By the love you give when you don’t feel like it. By the hope you hold when you’re afraid. By the way you keep showing up, even when you’re not sure it matters. It does. You’re in it, fighting for it, finding meaning in it. It’s the human thing to do."
"The Dispersion of Our Moral Energies"
"The Dispersion of Our Moral Energies"
by Paul Rosenberg
Humans have long been, and remain, deeply attached to morality. Even confirmed criminals will say things like “That ain’t right,” which is purely a moral judgment. And this focus on morality holds across the panorama of human of life. Examine any workplace and you’ll find a long stream of moral judgments: “He didn’t treat me right,” “She’s arrogant,” “That’s a man you can respect,” and so on.
This moral obsession of ours is a good thing; it’s the bedrock that allows us to enjoy a civilized existence. That said, we’ve allowed our moral energies to be wasted, and that’s something we need to fix. But before continuing, consider this, please: Any assemblage of people that is insufficiently safe and cooperative internally (that is, morally), must use force to make people behave sufficiently. This guarantees that the group will choke itself to death. So, morality is indispensable as a practical matter. If we fail to cultivate it, we create our own ruin… a ruin that is inevitable, even if it takes generations to become clear.
Dispersion: The leading issue with morality in our era is not that it is suppressed (though that happens too), but that it’s so widely dispersed as to have little or no effect. Here’s the problem in a nutshell: Humans have limited amounts of energy, and that includes energy for moral concerns. If that energy is widely dispersed, little or none can be focused on the moral concerns that really matter.
The internal energies of average, middle-of-the-road people, are almost fully directed away from serious moral issues. These people will devote their emotional and moral strength toward whatever terror is in their newsfeed, perhaps to a pet or a sports team, and definitely toward hating one political party or another. They may also spend time complaining about all the little moral failures they saw that day. After all that, they’re simply too tired for weightier matters; it’s far easier to spit out a slogan and roll into bed.
The Winners: The big winners in this situation are the entities that need to stay out of the moral spotlight. I’ll leave you to decide who those entities are, but they have a need to work against moral focus and clarity. Even if they don’t do this intentionally, they soon enough learn that frightened, tired and distracted people are far better for them than confident, energetic and thoughtful people. So, the names on your list (should you wish to make one) would be:
Those who frighten you.
Those who impose shame.
Those who claim special standing.
Such entities are acting as if they cannot endure comparison to clear moral standards like the golden rule, and in this we should believe them: They thrive by directing our moral energies to harmless targets.
Such entities are acting as if they cannot endure comparison to clear moral standards like the golden rule, and in this we should believe them: They thrive by directing our moral energies to harmless targets.
And So…And so we morally-sensitive humans (which is nearly all of us) must recognize that we’re vulnerable in this way. We must grasp that our moral energies are first of all more important than we’ve believed, and secondly that they must be conserved, rather than allowing them to be scattered every which way."
"They're Poisoning The Seed: How a Single Strait 7,000 Miles Away Is About to Starve 2 Billion People - And Why Your Government Already Knows"
"They're Poisoning The Seed: How a Single Strait
7,000 Miles Away Is About to Starve 2 Billion People -
And Why Your Government Already Knows"
by Madge Waggy
Editor's Note: What you’re about to read isn’t coming from some fringe blog or doomsday cult. These are the numbers that keep people like Steve Keen awake at night - numbers that don’t care about your political affiliation, your stock portfolio, or how many cans of beans you’ve got stashed in the garage. We didn’t want to run this story. We’d rather tell you everything’s fine, that the system works, that smart people in charge have it all figured out. But that’s not what the math says. That’s not what the supply chains are whispering. And that’s definitely not what the empty shelves in places like Sri Lanka and Argentina were trying to tell us before the rest of us stopped listening. Read it or don’t. The fertilizer doesn’t care either way.
"You probably didn’t notice. Most people don’t. While you were arguing about whatever culture war garbage filled your feed last week, the price of urea - a compound most Americans couldn’t identify if it showed up on a chemistry test - quietly hit $520 per metric ton on the Gulf Coast. That’s up from $380 in January. Up from $210 in 2020. And if a handful of economists who’ve made careers out of being right when everyone else was wrong are correct, you’re going to wish you’d paid attention.
Steve Keen doesn’t look like a prophet of doom. He looks like your uncle who fixes vintage motorcycles and drinks too much coffee at family gatherings. But this is the same guy who saw 2008 coming while the CNBC crowd was still hyping subprime mortgages as “innovation.” Now he’s staring at something that makes the housing crisis look like a rounding error.
Here’s the thing nobody wants to say out loud: we’ve built a food system that requires burning fossil fuels to feed half the planet. The Haber-Bosch process sounds like something from a steampunk novel, but it’s the invisible scaffolding holding up modern civilization. Take nitrogen from the air. Combine it with hydrogen from natural gas. Make ammonia. Make fertilizer. Make enough food for 4 billion people who would otherwise starve. It’s elegant. It’s also fragile as hell.
About one in ten tons of that fertilizer comes from one place. One. The Persian Gulf. You know, that region that’s been a geopolitical tinderbox since before most of us were born. The Strait of Hormuz - 21 miles wide at its narrowest point—handles roughly 20% of global petroleum shipments and, critically, the natural gas feedstocks that keep the fertilizer plants humming from Qatar to Saudi Arabia.
Keen’s math is brutal in its simplicity. Disrupt that supply - say, with another round of “limited military action” that somehow never stays limited - and you’re not looking at higher prices. You’re looking at 400 million human food rations vanishing every single day. Not next decade. Not in some dystopian future. By 2027. As in, the year after next. Let that settle. 400 million. Daily.
The lag time is what gets you. Fertilizer applied today determines harvests 12 to 18 months from now. Which means the decisions being made in boardrooms and war rooms right now - summer of 2026 - are already writing the hunger scripts for 2027 and 2028. The corn isn’t worried about your portfolio. The wheat doesn’t check polling data. It either gets nitrogen or it doesn’t. And if it doesn’t, you learn what your grandparents knew: food insecurity isn’t a spreadsheet problem. It’s a stomach problem.
Ed Dowd’s been watching another pressure cooker. The former BlackRock money manager -guy managed billions, not millions - has been tracking something that should terrify anyone who remembers what $147 oil felt like in 2008. Back in April, when the Iran situation looked like it might resolve, Dowd laid out two scenarios. One where diplomacy worked, oil peaked around $125, and we all got to pretend normal was still on the menu. Another where it didn’t.
The Memorandum of Understanding that was supposed to buy breathing room? Torn up. Shredded. Gone. Oil’s back above $80 and climbing. And Dowd’s been around long enough to know what happens when energy markets get spooked.
“We’re talking about $200 to $250 in a worst-case scenario,” he said last week. Not screaming. Not pumping hyperbole. Just stating facts the way you state that water’s wet or fire’s hot. At those prices, the entire just-in-time logistics machine that feeds 8 billion people starts to seize. Trucks park because diesel costs more than the cargo pays. Ships slow-steam or don’t sail at all. And the fertilizer plants? The ones that need natural gas like you need oxygen? They shut down. Not because of regulation. Not because of ESG scores. Because the math stops working.
But here’s where it gets really ugly. Where the food crisis and the energy crisis and the financial crisis start holding hands and skipping toward the cliff together. You know what else doesn’t work at $250 oil? The AI revolution.
Dowd’s been banging this drum for months while the NVDA faithful kept buying every dip. “The stock market is 45% AI and AI-adjacent,” he keeps saying. Forty-five percent. Nearly half the value of American equities resting on the assumption that we’re entering some exponential age of artificial intelligence that will transform everything forever. Maybe. Or maybe we’re looking at the biggest wealth destruction event in modern history.
The data centers powering this supposed revolution already consume more electricity than most countries. Training the next generation of large language models requires energy inputs that make the old industrial revolution look like a campfire. And that’s before you factor in the chip fabrication p TSMC’s plants in Taiwan use more water daily than some cities, and more power than you want to think about.
At $200 oil? At electricity prices that make Bitcoin mining look economical? The whole thesis collapses. Not gradually. Not gracefully. The way bubbles always collapse: suddenly, violently, taking out the overleveraged and the overconfident in equal measure. Warren Buffett sees it. The man’s sitting on more cash than the GDP of some developed nations. Not because he’s bearish on America. Because he’s seen this movie before. Cash isn’t trash when everything else is on fire. Cash is dry powder. Cash is the ability to buy when blood runs in the streets.
The rest of us? The retail investors who bought the ARK funds at the top? The 401k holders who believed “stocks always go up in the long run”? They’re going to learn what “long run” means when you’re 62 and watching your retirement evaporate into a margin call.
The Selves Are Already Empty Somewhere
What we’re describing isn’t theoretical. It’s already happening in pockets most Westerners ignore until the images show up on their feeds. But the pattern is the pattern. And the pattern says we’re closer than anyone wants to admit.
• Sri Lanka, 2022: Import restrictions + fertilizer ban + currency collapse = 90% food inflation and nationwide riots. The government fell. People died. The world moved on.
• Argentina, 2023-2024: Annual inflation north of 200%. A population that remembers what real hunger looks like starting to stockpile again. The peso becoming wallpaper.
• Nigeria, 2024-2025: 47% of households reporting food insecurity. A nation that should be an agricultural powerhouse importing basic staples because the infrastructure collapsed and the farmers couldn’t afford inputs.
• Global fertilizer stocks, 2026: Down to 60 days of consumption in key markets. The buffer is gone. The margin for error is zero.
• Wheat futures, July 2026: Up 34% since January. Corn following. Soybeans too. The markets are pricing in something the news hasn’t fully reported yet.
The thing about complex systems is they don’t fail linearly. They absorb stress, absorb stress, absorb stress - then they snap. The straw that breaks the camel’s back isn’t necessarily heavier than the others. It’s just the one that arrived when the camel was already carrying all it could. We’re there. The camel’s knees are shaking.
Ask anyone who actually grows food for a living - not the Instagram homesteaders with their aesthetic chicken coops, but the people managing 10,000-acre operations in Iowa or Ukraine or Brazil. They’ll tell you. Input costs are murder. Equipment financing is getting tight. The big ag companies are consolidating, squeezing, preparing for something they won’t name in earnings calls but clearly see coming.
And the weather isn’t helping. The Mississippi River hit record lows again this spring, backing up grain shipments. The Panama Canal restricted traffic through 2024 due to drought - first time in history. Europe’s had three “once-in-a-century” droughts in the last five years. Australia’s wheat belt is either flooding or burning, never just growing.
You can dismiss climate talk if you want. The farmers can’t. They’re watching their planting windows shrink, their crop insurance rates climb, their groundwater tables drop. They’re watching the aquifers that irrigate 40% of American agriculture deplete in real-time, measuring the decline in feet per year, knowing that fossil water doesn’t recharge on human timescales.
So you’ve got energy instability. Fertilizer scarcity. Water depletion. Soil degradation. Financial bubbles. Geopolitical flashpoints. And a global population that added 80 million mouths last year alone. Any one of these is manageable. Two is concerning. Three starts looking like 2008 again. But all of them? All of them simultaneously?
That’s different. That’s the kind of concatenation that doesn’t produce a recession. It produces something we don’t have good words for yet. “Collapse” feels too dramatic until you’re watching it. “Crisis” feels too temporary. “Transition” implies there’s somewhere we’re transitioning to that’s better.
What if there isn’t? The 2020s have already been a masterclass in how fast normal can evaporate. March 2020. February 2022. October 2023. Dates that started as calendar entries and became dividing lines between before and after. The next one is coming. The fertilizer shipments don’t lie. The oil futures curve doesn’t lie. The emptying grain silos in the Black Sea region don’t lie.
And when it hits - when the 2027 harvests come in 30% short, when the rationing starts, when the developed world discovers what the developing world has known for decades about the fragility of abundance—the explanations will come fast and furious. It was Putin’s fault. It was Iran’s fault. It was climate change. It was speculators. It was the Fed. It was anyone and anything except the obvious truth: we built a system that required infinite growth on a finite planet, and the bill is coming due.
The economists warning about this aren’t radicals. They’re not preppers in bunkers waiting for the end times. They’re people who looked at the data, ran the models, and realized the models were screaming. Keen’s been called an alarmist before. He was right then. Dowd’s been called a permabear. He was right about the vaccine data, right about the excess mortality, right about more than his critics want to admit.
Maybe they’re wrong this time. Maybe the diplomats pull a rabbit from the hat. Maybe the AI revolution really does unlock energy abundance. Maybe we invent nitrogen-fixing wheat tomorrow and this all becomes a historical footnote about close calls. But that’s not where the smart money is betting. That’s not what the supply chain data shows. That’s not what the emptying aquifers and burning forests and spiking input costs are telling anyone willing to listen.
The thing about tipping points is you don’t know you’ve crossed them until you’re already falling. Ask the Romans. Ask the Mayans. Ask anyone who woke up one morning in a world they’d taken for granted and found it transformed into something unrecognizable.
We’re not there yet. But we can see it from here. The 2026 harvest is in the ground, dependent on fertilizer applications made when prices were already high. The 2027 planting season is when Keen says the shortages hit. Eighteen months. Maybe less.
What are you going to do with eighteen months? Most people will do what they always do: hope. Hope that someone fixes it. Hope that technology saves us. Hope that the people in charge - those people, the ones who’ve demonstrated such stunning competence these last few years - have a plan.
Others will prepare. Not in the Hollywood bunker sense, though there’s plenty of that happening in certain zip codes. But in the quiet, practical ways that actually matter when systems fail. Learning to grow food. Building relationships with neighbors. Reducing dependencies. Creating redundancy. Accepting that resilience looks a lot like the past we abandoned for convenience, and that convenience was always a luxury item we mistook for a right.
The truth is, nobody knows exactly how this plays out. Complex systems are complex. The interactions between energy markets and agricultural output and financial leverage and geopolitical conflict create emergent properties no model fully captures. Maybe we muddle through. Maybe it’s bad but not catastrophic. Maybe human ingenuity pulls another rabbit from the hat. Or maybe the rabbit died in 2022 and we’ve been running on momentum ever since.
What we know is this: the fertilizer is getting expensive. The oil is getting volatile. The AI bubble is getting heavy. The water is running out. The soil is wearing out. The weather is getting weird. The debt is compounding. And the people warning about it loudest are the ones who’ve been right before when everyone else was wrong.
You don’t have to believe the worst case. But you’d be a fool not to consider it. Not to look at the convergence of factors and recognize that something unprecedented is gathering force at the intersection of energy, food, finance, and climate. Not to ask yourself what you’d do if the grocery store shelves looked like that photo above not in some distant failed state, but in your town. Your neighborhood. Your kitchen.
Because that’s the question 2027 is asking. That’s the math that doesn’t care about your politics or your portfolio or your plans. Two billion people at risk. Not from war. Not from plague. From the simple, brutal reality that you can’t eat money, you can’t drink semiconductor chips, and you can’t fertilize crops with AI-generated optimism.
The harvests are coming. Or they aren’t. And either way, we’re about to find out what happens when the most complex civilization in human history tests the limits of its own complexity. Sleep tight. The fertilizer plants are still running. For now."
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