Full screen recommended.
Different Russia, 7/26/25
"Moscow: Summer In The City"
Comments here:
So, we rise from the rubble...
Saturday, July 26, 2025
"A Look to the Heavens"
“In visible light the stars have been removed from this narrow-band image of NGC 281, a star forming region some 10,000 light-years away toward the constellation Cassiopeia. Stars were digitally added back to the resulting starless image though. But instead of using visible light image data, the stars were added with X-ray data (in purple) from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and infrared data (in red) from the Spitzer Space Telescope.
The merged multiwavelength view reveals a multitude of stars in the region's embedded star cluster IC 1590. The young stars are normally hidden in visible light images by the natal cloud's gas and obscuring dust. Also known to backyard astro-imagers as the Pacman Nebula for its overall appearance in visible light, NGC 281 is about 80 light-years across.”
Chet Raymo, “Moments of Being”
“Moments of Being”
by Chet Raymo
“A passage from the "Pensees" of Teilhard de Chardin: "Though the phenomena of the lower world remain the same- the material determinisms, the vicissitudes of chance, the laws of labor, the agitations of men, the footfalls of death- he who dares to believe reaches a sphere of created reality in which things, while retaining their habitual texture, seem to be made out of a different substance. Everything remains the same so far as phenomena are concerned, but at the same time everything become luminous, animated, loving..."
Whatever we think of Teilhard's Christocentric phenomenology, however much we are baffled by his vague and gushy prose, it is clear from his writing that he was a man who was in love with the world and experienced it as luminous, animated, and loving. Certainly, the experience he describes is not restricted to "he who dares to believe," by which Teilhard means a specifically Christian faith, or at least a faith which for him involved an image of the "cosmic Christ." No, I would suggest that the interior experience of the world he describes- as luminous, animated, and loving- is an predisposition of the human condition, part of our evolutionary makeup. It finds expression in religion, certainly, but also in art, music, poetry, scientific discovery, and in even in the quiet contemplation of a single flower or grain of sand.
It is an experience we all consciously or unconsciously seek, with varying degrees of success. For certain people- an artist like Kandinsky or a mystic like Teilhard- the interior rhapsodic state seems more or less permanent. For most of us, its achievement is a struggle against the humdrum and superficial, the "habitual texture" of things.
The challenge is not to abjure the world of immediate sensation, but to experience the world as fully as our present knowledge allows- not just earthworms and nematodes, wind and weather, Sun, Moon and stars, but also the ineffable flow of atoms, the ceaseless dance of the DNA, the whirling of the myriad galaxies, the infinite and the infinitesimal- to see in the mind's eye and feel in the mind's heart the fire and the flow that animates all things. We may not experience the universe as "loving," but we might certainly find it lovable.
"The whole universe is aflame," wrote Teilhard. His vision was partly informed by his science and partly by his religious faith. And partly, surely, because he was born with a particularly acute sensitivity to the ineluctable wholeness of things. Those of us of a less sensitive nature will settle for the occasional moments when the gates of our senses unaccountably fling themselves open to the unspeakable and unspoken mystery of the world."
Whatever we think of Teilhard's Christocentric phenomenology, however much we are baffled by his vague and gushy prose, it is clear from his writing that he was a man who was in love with the world and experienced it as luminous, animated, and loving. Certainly, the experience he describes is not restricted to "he who dares to believe," by which Teilhard means a specifically Christian faith, or at least a faith which for him involved an image of the "cosmic Christ." No, I would suggest that the interior experience of the world he describes- as luminous, animated, and loving- is an predisposition of the human condition, part of our evolutionary makeup. It finds expression in religion, certainly, but also in art, music, poetry, scientific discovery, and in even in the quiet contemplation of a single flower or grain of sand.
It is an experience we all consciously or unconsciously seek, with varying degrees of success. For certain people- an artist like Kandinsky or a mystic like Teilhard- the interior rhapsodic state seems more or less permanent. For most of us, its achievement is a struggle against the humdrum and superficial, the "habitual texture" of things.
The challenge is not to abjure the world of immediate sensation, but to experience the world as fully as our present knowledge allows- not just earthworms and nematodes, wind and weather, Sun, Moon and stars, but also the ineffable flow of atoms, the ceaseless dance of the DNA, the whirling of the myriad galaxies, the infinite and the infinitesimal- to see in the mind's eye and feel in the mind's heart the fire and the flow that animates all things. We may not experience the universe as "loving," but we might certainly find it lovable.
"The whole universe is aflame," wrote Teilhard. His vision was partly informed by his science and partly by his religious faith. And partly, surely, because he was born with a particularly acute sensitivity to the ineluctable wholeness of things. Those of us of a less sensitive nature will settle for the occasional moments when the gates of our senses unaccountably fling themselves open to the unspeakable and unspoken mystery of the world."
"That Day..."
"If you had one last breath - what would you say? If you had one hour to use your limbs before you would lose the use of them forever - would you sit there on the couch? If you knew that you wouldn't see tomorrow who would you make amends with? If you knew you had only an hour left on this earth - what would be so pressing that you just had to do it, say it, or see it? Well there is something that I can guarantee - that one day you will have one day, one hour and one breath left. Just make sure that before that day that you have said, done and experienced everything that you dream of doing now. Do it now - that is what today is for. So pick up the phone and call an old friend that you have fallen out of touch with. Get out and run a mile and use your body and sweat. Seek out someone in your life to say you're sorry to. Seek someone In your life that you need to thank. Seek someone in your life that you need to express your feelings of love to. Then when that day comes you will be ok with it all."
- John A. Passaro
"If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make,
who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?"
~ Stephen Levine
“Get busy living or get busy dying.”
- Stephen King, "Shawshank Redemption"
"Don't Wonder..."
"Don't wonder why people go crazy. Wonder why they don't.
In the face of what we can lose in a day, in an instant,
wonder what the hell it is that makes us hold it together."
In the face of what we can lose in a day, in an instant,
wonder what the hell it is that makes us hold it together."
- "Grey's Anatomy"
"The Economy Is Too Far Gone, People Aren't Laughing Anymore, They're Freaking Out And Scared"
Jeremiah Babe, 7/26/25
"The Economy Is Too Far Gone, People Aren't Laughing
Anymore, They're Freaking Out And Scared"
Comments here:
"18,000 Stores Closing In 2025, This Is The End Of Retail"
Full screen recommended.
Snyder Reports, 7/15/25
"18,000 Stores Closing In 2025,
This Is The End Of Retail"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Market Gains, 7/26/25
"Banks Are Firing 200,000 Workers"
"In 2025, the job market continues to be a source of frustration and anxiety for countless workers. Layoffs are still happening across a wide range of industries, and new job openings are scarce. Even those with years of experience and advanced degrees are struggling to secure steady employment. Many people have been forced to accept lower-paying, unstable jobs just to make ends meet, while full-time roles with benefits have become harder to find. The competition for available positions is intense, and rejections are common. For many, the search for stable, reliable work feels endless, with no clear signs of improvement ahead."
Comments here:
"If You Caught A Glimpse..."
"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"
The Poet: Maya Angelou, “Alone”
“Alone”
“Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home,
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone.
I came up with one thing
And I don’t believe I’m wrong,
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone,
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.
There are some millionaires
With money they can’t use,
Their wives run round like banshees,
Their children sing the blues.
They’ve got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone,
But nobody,
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone,
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Now if you listen closely
I’ll tell you what I know…
Storm clouds are gathering,
The wind is gonna blow.
The race of man is suffering,
And I can hear the moan,
‘Cause nobody,
But nobody,
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone,
Nobody, but nobody,
Can make it out here alone.”
- Maya Angelou
"Alone..."
“We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and – in spite of True Romance magazines – we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely – at least, not all the time – but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don’t see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.”
- Hunter S. Thompson,
“The Proud Highway:
Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman”
"Israel Destroying Itself Against Iran, Fatal Weakness Exposed"
Danny Haiphong, 7/26/25
"Israel Destroying Itself Against Iran,
Fatal Weakness Exposed"
"Israel's problems continue to mount as its defeat in the "12-day war" with Iran reveal the truth about its mythical invincibility. Scott Ritter, Larry Johnson and Garland Nixon break down just where the Israeli regime is headed as it begs the US for new, deadly weapons in preparation for another round of war"
Comments here:
Dan, I Allegedly, "There Are No More Bananas - What Happens Now?"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 7/26/25
"There Are No More Bananas - What Happens Now?"
"The banana industry is facing an unprecedented crisis, and prices are set to skyrocket! In this video, I break down the shocking closure of the world’s largest banana company, Chiquita Banana in Panama, and what it means for global banana prices, the local economy, and workers' livelihoods. Civil unrest, strikes, and pensions have all played a role in this collapse, leaving entire towns devastated and the future of this staple fruit uncertain. From the $75 million losses to the ripple effects on logistics, farming, and exports, this situation is a wake-up call. What happens when a multinational company shuts down operations and communities are left to pick up the pieces? We’re diving into how this impacts everything from workout snacks to international trade. Get ready for bananas to become a luxury item - this is just the beginning of a much bigger issue."
Comments here:
"Doug Casey on Global Disintegration: Currency Collapse, Controlled Chaos, and the Rise of Technocratic Tyranny" (Excerpt)
"Doug Casey on Global Disintegration: Currency Collapse,
Controlled Chaos, and the Rise of Technocratic Tyranny"
by Doug Casey's Take
Excerpt: "Matt Smith: All right, good morning, Doug. I think the biggest thing in the news is that Obama is a traitor. I mean, we know this officially now. Although a lot of this information had been uncovered in years past—about RussiaGate and all of that—the connections weren't as clear as they are now, based on Tulsi's release of information and what she's told Trump. So much so that Trump felt quite confident recently, in an open forum at a press conference, to just outright call him a traitor. He said, "I'd like to say let's give it time and just see, but we know he was a traitor."
Doug Casey: I can’t wait to find out. Although I never thought of him in such an overt role. I’d only credited the fact that he was a homosexual rental boy in Chicago’s bathhouses. Too bad that’s been pretty well swept under the rug.
Matt Smith: I was always fixated on the citizenship or birth certificate thing personally. But you know, bathhouses, birth certificate, Columbia University - no one knew him when he went there. There are a lot of weird things in his past.
Doug Casey: That’s true. There are a lot of indications that he’s a genuine Manchurian Candidate. They don’t just come out of nowhere. But anybody can be elected president - or installed as president today. We almost had Kamala Harris, a total nothing-nobody who can’t even string together words into a coherent sentence.
Matt Smith: And we had Biden, who was unfit - incapable mentally.
Doug Casey: Yes, and they almost ran him instead of Kamala. This is all crazy. I guess the question is: Are they going to be able to prove that Obama was conducting a coup in the US? I’m not surprised, because coups occur - different types - all the time in all kinds of countries around the world. So why not the US? Although the US used to be unique in that it was formed to defend the average citizen against the government, that’s ancient history. That’s what the Bill of Rights is all about, which is unique, actually. But it’s a dead letter at this point.
Another question is: Will Trump pursue this thing right to the end? Can they mount evidence? Can they find a fair venue to try Obama? And even if they find that he’s criminally liable for treason, will they prosecute him right to the end? Major scandal. Much bigger than Benedict Arnold.
Matt Smith: Yeah, and it’s weird to make these declarations without - you’d assume there would be cases. Like, the declaration wouldn’t be made before there are actually cases filed.
Doug Casey: I agree. And Tulsi Gabbard impresses me as a very levelheaded person who wouldn’t just fly off the handle. Of course, she’s a hardcore leftist who believes in all kinds of standard leftist things, but they don’t have a lot to do with her current position running the so-called intelligence community. It’s funny they call it a “community.” That sounds so benign and beneficial. Everybody likes communities. Our intelligence community is full of hardcore killers and sociopaths. I can’t wait to see how this plays out. It serves as a good distraction from the Epstein mess, that’s for sure."
Full article is here:
"Recognition of The Palestinian State"
Full screen recommended.
OpenmindedThinker Show, 7/26/25
"Recognition of The Palestinian State"
"The walls are closing in on war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu and the psychopathic monstrosity Israel - and this time, it’s not just protestors, rockets, or international courts. It’s the global political stage turning against them. France and the United Kingdom - two major G7 nations, nuclear powers, and former colonial giants - are now recognizing the State of Palestine. This moment is nothing short of historic, and it’s sending absolute shockwaves through Tel Aviv and the Zionist establishment."
Comments here:
"The Gaza Riviera"
"The Gaza Riviera"
by Chris Hedges
"Israelis do not see the images of skeletal corpses of Palestinian children who they have starved to death as a curse. They do not see the slain families they gun down at food hubs - designed not to deliver aid but lure starving Palestinians into a massive concentration camp in the south of Gaza in preparation for deportation - as a war crime. Israelis do not look at the savage bombing and shelling that kill or wound dozens of Palestinian civilians, where an average of 28 children die daily, as anything extraordinary. They do not see the wasteland of Gaza, pulverized by bombs and methodically being torn down by bulldozers and excavators, leaving virtually the entire population of Gaza homeless, as barbaric. They do not see the destruction of water purification plants, decimation of hospitals and clinics, where doctors and medical staff are often unable to work because they are weak from malnutrition, as savage. They do not blink at the assassinations of doctors or journalists, 232 of whom have been murdered for trying to document the horror.
Israelis have blinded themselves morally and intellectually. They view the genocide through the lens of a bankrupt media and political class that tells them only what they want to hear and shows them only what they want to see. They are intoxicated by the power of their industrial weapons and license to kill with impunity. They are drunk on self-adulation and the fantasy that they are the vanguard of civilization. They believe that the extermination of a people, including children, condemned as human contaminants, makes the world, especially their world, a happier and safer place.
They are the heirs of Pol Pot, the killers that carried out the genocides in East Timor, Rwanda and Bosnia and, yes, the Nazis. Israel, like all genocidal states - no population since World War II has been dispossessed and starved with such speed and ruthlessness - has a final solution that would have earned the stamp of approval from Adolf Eichmann.
Starvation was always the plan, the preordained final chapter of the genocide. Israel methodically set out from the beginning of the genocide to destroy sources of food, bombing bakeries and blocking food shipments into Gaza, something it has accelerated since March, when it severed nearly all food supplies. It targeted the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) - on which most Palestinians depended on for food - for destruction, accusing its employees, without providing evidence, of being involved in the attacks of Oct. 7. This accusation was used to give funders such as the United States, which provided $422 million to the agency in 2023, the excuse to halt financial support. Israel then banned UNRWA.
Over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and U.S. mercenaries in the chaotic scramble to get one of the few food packages distributed during the brief blocks of time, usually an hour, at the four aid sites set up by by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to the U.N. Human Rights Office.
Once Gaza was turned into a moonscape after 21 months of saturation bombing, once Palestinians were forced to live in tents, under crude tarps or in the open air, once clean water, food and medical aid became nearly impossible to find, once civil society was obliterated, Israel began its grim campaign to starve the Palestinians out of Gaza.
Nearly, one in three people in Gaza are going multiple days without eating, according to the U.N. Starvation is not a pretty sight. I covered the famine in Sudan in 1988 that took an estimated 250,000 lives. There are streaks in my lungs - scars from standing amid hundreds of Sudanese who were dying of tuberculosis. I was strong and healthy and fought off the contagion. They were weak and emaciated and did not.
I watched hundreds of skeletal figures, ghosts of human beings, trudge at a glacial pace across the barren Sudanese landscape. Hyenas, accustomed to eating human flesh, routinely picked off small children. I stood over clusters of bleached human bones on the outskirts of villages where dozens of people, too weak to walk, had laid down in a group and never got up. Many were the remains of entire families.
Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, a 1.5-year-old child in Gaza City, Gaza, faces life-threatening malnutrition as the humanitarian situation worsens due to ongoing Israeli attacks and blockade, on July 21, 2025. Having dropped from 9 to 6 kilograms, he struggles to survive in a tent in Gaza City, where milk, food, and other basic necessities are lacking. (Photo by Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The starved lack enough calories to sustain themselves. They eat anything to survive - animal feed, grass, leaves, insects, rodents, even dirt. They suffer from constant diarrhea. They have trouble breathing because of respiratory infections. They rip up tiny bits of food, often spoiled, and ration it in a vain attempt to hold off the gnawing hunger pains.
Starvation reduces the iron needed to produce hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to the body, and myoglobin, a protein that provides oxygen to muscles, coupled with a lack of vitamin B1, which affects heart and brain function. Anemia sets in. The body, in essence, feeds on itself. Tissue and muscle waste away. It is impossible to regulate body temperature. Kidneys shut down. Immune systems crash. Vital organs atrophy. Blood circulation slows. The volume of blood decreases. Infectious diseases such as typhoid, tuberculosis and cholera become an epidemic, killing people by the thousands.
It is impossible to concentrate. Emaciated victims succumb to mental and emotional withdrawal and apathy. They do not want to be touched or moved. The heart muscle is weakened. Victims, even at rest, are in a state of virtual heart failure. Wounds do not heal. Vision is impaired with cataracts, even among the young. Finally, wracked by convulsions and hallucinations, the heart stops. This process can last up to 40 days for an adult. Children, the elderly and the sick expire at faster rates.This is the future Israel has preordained for the two million people in Gaza.
But it is not the future Israelis see. They see paradise. They see an ethno-nationalist Jewish state where Palestinians, whose land they stole and occupied and whose people they have subjugated and forced into an apartheid existence, do not exist. They see cafes and hotels rising up where thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of bodies lie buried under the rubble. They see tourists frolicking on the Gaza beachfront, a vision enhanced by an Artificial Intelligence-generated video uploaded to social media by Israeli Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Gila Gamliel. It is what a Gaza devoid of Palestinians would look like, echoing the absurdist AI video posted by Donald Trump.
In the new video, carefree Israelis eat at seaside restaurants. Anchored in the sparkling Mediterranean are luxury yachts. Gleaming hotels and office high rises, including a Trump Tower, dot the beachfront. Attractive residential neighborhoods stand where now there are broken, jagged mounds of concrete. The video shows Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, as well as Trump and Melania, strolling along the seaside.
Gamliel, like other Israeli leaders and Trump, cynically uses the term “voluntary emigration” to describe the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. This omits the stark choice Israel actually offers the Palestinians - leave or die.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for a “security annexation” of the northern Gaza Strip and vowed that Gaza will become an “inseparable part of the State of Israel.” He made the remarks at a Knesset conference called “The Gaza Riviera - from vision to reality,” which presented proposals for the building of Jewish colonies in Gaza. Smotrich said Israel would “relocate Gazans to other countries,” and that Trump endorsed the plan.
Israeli Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu, who once proposed dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza, declared that “All Gaza will be Jewish.” The Israeli government “is racing ahead for Gaza to be wiped out,” Eliyahu said. He described Palestinians as Nazis. “Thank God, we are wiping out this evil. We are pushing this population that has been educated on ‘Mein Kampf.’”
Genocidal killers embrace fantasies of eradicating a native population and expanding their ethnonationalist state. The Nazis carried out their genocidal assault, which included mass starvation, on Slavs, Eastern European Jews and other indigenous people, dismissed as Untermenschen, or subhumans. Colonists were then to be shipped to Central and Eastern Europe to Germanize the occupied territory.
These killers do not reckon with the darkness they unleash. The upscale beachfront properties dreamt of by Israel will never appear, just as the modern, exclusively Serb capital, with its golden domed cathedral, imposing presidency building, 15-story clock tower, state-of-the-art medical center and national theater with a 72-foot revolving stage was never built on the ruins of Bosnia.
Rather, there will be ugly apartment blocks, populated by the usual miscreants, proto-fascists, racists and mediocrities who live in the Jewish colonies in the West Bank. These ultranationalists, who have formed rogue militias to seize Palestinian land and joined the Israeli army in murdering over 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank since Oct. 7, will define Israel. They are the Israeli version of the 3-million-strong Pancasila Youth - Indonesia’s equivalent of the Brown Shirts or the Hitler Youth - that in 1965 helped carry out the genocidal mayhem that left half a million to one million dead.
These rouge militias, equipped with automatic weapons provided by the Israeli government, lynched Saifullah Musallet, a 20-year-old Palestinian-American, who was attempting to protect his family’s land two weeks ago. He is the fifth U.S. citizen killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7.
Once these Israeli goons and thugs are done with the Palestinians, they will turn on each other. The genocide in Gaza signals the abolition, for Israelis as well as Palestinians, of the rule of law. It marks the obliteration of even the pretense of an ethical code. Israelis are the barbarians they condemn. If there is any warped justice in this genocide it is that Israelis, once they finish with the Palestinians, will be forced to live together in moral squalor."
"Stipendium peccati mors est," Israel
See that hand and flag, America? That's YOU, and all of us. WE have allowed and supported this horror totally, WE paid for every single bomb and bullet, every tank, every jet bomber, everything, all of it. If there was a conscience left in the American spirit it would hang it's head in eternal shame and disgrace... - CP
Friday, July 25, 2025
"A Look to the Heavens"
"In the heart of the Rosette Nebula lies a bright open cluster of stars that lights up the nebula. The stars of NGC 2244 formed from the surrounding gas only a few million years ago. The featured image taken in January using multiple exposures and very specific colors of Sulfur (shaded red), Hydrogen (green), and Oxygen (blue), captures the central region in tremendous detail.
A hot wind of particles streams away from the cluster stars and contributes to an already complex menagerie of gas and dust filaments while slowly evacuating the cluster center. The Rosette Nebula's center measures about 50 light-years across, lies about 5,200 light-years away, and is visible with binoculars towards the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros)."
"The Consequences Of Our Choices..."
“Life does not require us to be consistent, cruel, patient, helpful, angry, rational, thoughtless, loving, rash, open-minded, neurotic, careful, rigid, tolerant, wasteful, rich, downtrodden, gentle, sick, considerate, funny, stupid, healthy, greedy, beautiful, lazy, responsive, foolish, sharing, pressured, intimate, hedonistic, industrious, manipulative, insightful, capricious, wise, selfish, kind or sacrificed. Life does, however, require us to live with the consequences of our choices.”
- Richard Bach, “Running From Safety”
"The System Is Unraveling, The Debt Spiral Everyone Is Ignoring Isn't Going Away"
Jeremiah Babe, 7/25/25
"The System Is Unraveling,
The Debt Spiral Everyone Is Ignoring Isn't Going Away"
Comments here:
"Cycles, Systems and Seats in the Coliseum"
"Cycles, Systems and Seats in the Coliseum"
by Charles Hugh Smith
"Contrary to first impressions, I am not a doom-and-gloomer; I'm a systems-cycles-er, meaning I'm interested in where systems and cycles are heading. Cycles work because we're still running Wetware 1.0 which entered beta testing around 200,000 years ago and was released, bugs and all, around 50,000 years ago. Since the processes and inputs haven't changed, neither do the outputs.
Nature is a mix of dynamic, semi-chaotic systems (fractals, etc.) and cyclical patterns which tend to operate within predictable parameters. Why should human nature and human constructs (societies, economies and political realms) be any different?
So longterm success breeds complacency, hubris, economic and intellectual sclerosis, draining political infighting and the overproduction of parasitic elites, to use Peter Turchin's apt description. Consumption of resources expands to soak up every last bit of what's available and then the supply of goodies plummets for a multitude of completely natural and predictable reasons (sunspot/solar activity, El Nino, etc.) and a host of unpredictable but equally natural semi-chaotic extremes (100-year droughts, floods, etc.).
Wetware 1.0's go-to solutions to all such difficulties are rather limited:
1. Ramp up magical thinking. If a couple of human sacrifices ensured good harvests in the good old days, let's slaughter a couple hundred now - and if that doesn't work, then...
2. Do more of what's failed spectacularly and slaughter a couple thousand fellow humans, because darn it, maybe everything will turn around if we just kill another couple dozen. This requires ignoring the novelty of the current challenges and clinging to what worked so well in the past even as whatever worked in the past can't possibly work now because circumstances are fundamentally different.
3. Seek scapegoats. It's those darn witches. Burn a bunch of them and our troubles will magically disappear.
4. Go take what we need from some other tribe. What's our oil doing under their sand?
5. Consolidate power and wealth in the hands of elites whose failures exacerbated the crisis. Because the obvious solution (to the elites with cushy offices around the palaces and temples) to repeated failures of a leadership that only excels in one thing, squandering rapidly depleting resources on infighting and self-aggrandizement, is to give us all the remaining wealth and power. Hey, this makes perfect sense once you understand #2 above.
6. Demand sacrifices of the many to protect the privileges of the few. The Empire needs some warm bodies to fend off the Barbarians, because it would be a real shame if the Barbarians reached our palatial estates and disrupted the flow of wine and festivities. No worries when you come back on your shield; the bureaucracy will give you a decent burial and your spouse and kids can join the multitude of half-starved beggars waiting for the dwindling distributions of bread and circuses. But never mind that, did you hear about the upcoming games in the Coliseum? Good seats are going fast.
7. Eat your seed corn to keep the party going awhile longer. Not every human group had the luxury of borrowing "money" to keep the fast-unraveling party going awhile longer, so they consumed their seed corn and drained the last of their reserves--which is the same thing as borrowing "money" from a future with diminishing resources and productivity.
8. Maintain supreme confidence that "it will all work out fine because it's always worked out fine" without any sacrifice required of "those who count." What's forgotten is that the luxe greatness that is now teetering on the precipice of ruin was won by the sacrifices of the elites far exceeding the sacrifices of the many.
Back in the day, joining the elite and maintaining one's position required constant sacrifices on behalf of the common good, and strict adherence to public virtue. Now that's all forgotten, and all that remains are elites possessed by the demons of shameless greed and self-interest. The idea that debt, leverage, speculation, greed, exploitation and parasitic elites can expand exponentially forever is magical thinking. Yet that is precisely what America and the rest of the global economic order insists is true and will always be true, forever and ever.
By all means, reject those horrid, awful doom-and-gloomers who look at systems and cycles. Everything will be fine as long as you secure seats for the next games at the Coliseum - they should be spectacular - but not in the way you expect."
Travelling With Russia, "Visiting the World-Famous Gorky Park in 2025"
Full screen recommended.
Travelling With Russia, 7/25/25
"Visiting the World-Famous Gorky Park in 2025"
"Gorky Park is by far the most famous park in all of Russia. Walking in Gorky Park really is something everyone must experience once in their life. The words "Going down to Gorky Park" really do give you goose bumps are you walk in the main entrance."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Lisa With Love, 7/25/25
"Midnight At The Russian Metro"
Comments here:
"People Are Living In Run Down RV's All Over The Desert; People At The Food Bank Have Disappeared"
Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 7/25/25
"People Are Living In Run Down RV's All Over The Desert;
People At The Food Bank Have Disappeared"
Comments here:
Dan, I Allegedly, "It’s a Great Day to be a Criminal - Is Justice Broken?"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 7/25/25
"It’s a Great Day to be a Criminal -
Is Justice Broken?"
"120 criminals freed in Boston - what's really going on with our justice system? In today’s video, I dive into the shocking situation unfolding in Boston, Massachusetts, where district attorneys are refusing to take on more cases until they receive a pay raise. This has resulted in 120 criminals walking free, with the potential for 1,000 more cases to be dismissed soon. From felonies to severe crimes, victims are left without justice, and the system seems to be failing. I break it all down for you, comparing attorney wages across states and exploring how this could set a dangerous precedent for other areas."
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"From Epstein to Exponential Debt: Signs of a System Unraveling"
"From Epstein to Exponential Debt:
Signs of a System Unraveling"
by Chris MacIntosh
"So much to talk about and so little time. I will make this statement because it is relevant to the situation we all find ourselves in today: “Lord Anton says that ‘power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. But reflecting, it is key to understand that power does not transform, it amplifies. He who leads, shows what he really is… with more impact. Power doesn’t change people, it just takes away the need to pretend. The righteous protects, the ambitious abuses, the insecure becomes a tyrant. It is not power that corrupts, it is the true face of each that emerges when there is no longer fear of consequences.”
I believe that the reason we are seeing outright abuses is that the abusers used to operate in the shadows (covert). But now, as the cloak is forcibly removed, these actors move out of the shadows, becoming overt. The problem with being overt is that the strategies that are used under covert (Epstein blackmail operations) are very different from overt ones. Once the actions become overt, the cloak is removed and trust evaporates. The ability to control the peasants when trust is no longer there also evaporates. This is why we’re about to enter a time where authoritarian overt actions come to the table - where the pointy shoes drop the pretenses and show the peasants who they really are.
B.S. Fatigue: “President Trump’s Justice Department and FBI have concluded they have no evidence that convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein blackmailed powerful figures, kept a ‘client list’ or was murdered, according to a memo detailing the findings obtained by Axios.” Of course, this brings up the problematic question of Ghislaine, who was jailed for trafficking kids… to nobody. If there’s no list, then you can be darn sure her lawyers will be looking to spring her because… well, you can’t be convicted of a victimless crime, can you?
It’s all a bit absurd. Anyone asking obvious questions is called crazy. Shut up, you peasants, with your conspiracy theories. Wear your mask. It’s for your protection. Trust the news, they’re there for you. This reminds me of how the documents relating to the moon landing held by NASA went missing. The most important and groundbreaking event in the history of NASA, and whoops, lost it. Weird! And it all kicked off around 2021. It’s all so puzzling. I wish someone could figure it out.
Why point this all out? Easy. It is what happens at the end of empires. The peasants lose faith in their masters. I mean, who but the retarded believes the guvmint, media, big pharma, big banking, big AG or any of the pointy shoes at this point? And you know where trust in the pointy shoes is expressed in financial markets? Yup, the sovereign bond markets.
Let’s revisit the numbers…Just before the plandemic, federal debt was $20 trillion and GDP was $21 trillion. Ever since then, the path of travel has been accelerating in one direction. Consider that now we’ve $37 trillion of federal debt, while GDP is $29.1 trillion, putting US government debt to GDP at 127%. So the parasitic guvmint sector has climbed by 85% while GDP grew only about 20%. Why am I not surprised? To keep it going, the pointy shoes are now running a 7% annual deficit. Keep in mind the average for the last few decades was around 3.8%. This all matters because debt always matters, even if only eventually.
Recall in some issues back we listed out the four elements which exist for a massive change in the geopolitical order of the world and consequent repricing of assets which takes place. To refresh your memory, they are:
• The monetary and credit cycle where nations get into a sovereign debt problem, which needs to be dealt with.
• Domestic conflict, typically beginning as political disagreement, but where disagreement isn’t resolved by discourse.
• A rising power challenging the existing power and causing international conflict.
• Technological changes that assist in disrupting the status quo.
This brings up the question of, “Oh well, how can they deal with the debt problem?” History provides a solid list of actions. There are four options:
• Taxation.
• Confiscation or seizure of assets.
• Confiscation or seizure of assets.
• Austerity (the pointy shoes looking around and saying, “By golly, we’re a bunch of parasitic muppets, destroying things, best we rein ourselves in.” This, of course, rarely, if ever happens.
• Debt restructuring, which is what Orange Man was attempting to do with tariffs, which amounted to a negotiation with creditors and which has, for the most part, failed.
As of right now, the federal debt is skyrocketing, and traditional policy levers are no longer working effectively. Raising interest rates simply inflates debt service costs, causing losses for bond holders while presenting a real risk of not only maturing debts NOT being rolled over but holders of these debt instruments selling them.
My colleague Lyn Alden makes a point regarding the total debt vs base money. She argues that total credit is expanding with base money lagging and that past shocks such as the global financial crisis of 2008 and CONVID didn’t reverse this. Her argument - one I agree with - is that this trend ain’t going backwards… ever."
"Fire the Fed, Raise Tariffs, and Hope for the Best"
"Fire the Fed, Raise Tariffs, and Hope for the Best"
by MN Gordon
“Protectionism is a policy of wasting a
country’s resources to support inefficiency.”
- Ludwig von Mises, "Planning for Freedom "(1952)
- Ludwig von Mises, "Planning for Freedom "(1952)
Paris, France - "Uh, oh… here comes the counter-punch. French newspaper, Le Monde, has the latest…"EU approves €93 billion in counter-tariffs on US goods. Brussels prepares to strike back with up to 30% levies on US goods and services starting August 7 if no deal is reached, responding to US President Donald Trump's tariff threats.
EU states on Thursday, July 24, approved a €93 billion ($109 billion) package of counter-tariffs on US goods that would kick in from August 7 if talks with the United States fail, European diplomats said. US President Donald Trump blindsided the European Union this month when he threatened a 30% levy on EU goods unless the two sides reach a trade deal by August 1."
Brussels and Washington appear to be inching toward a deal with a baseline 15% levy on EU goods, but the bloc is still forging ahead with detailed retaliatory plans in the event of no accord. Trade wars might be a useful tool to rouse the rabble, but they rarely work out well for the people themselves. More taxes… more friction… more state intervention in what ought to be win-win deals; the history of tariffs does not argue in their favor.
Ah, but perhaps this time is different. President Trump is a genius, his supporters argue. He understands the “Art of the Deal.” Maybe. Maybe not... All we know is we never met a government program – be it tax, subsidy or market intervention by any another name – that didn’t inspire a furrowed brow and a heavy heart. Recall Ludwig von Mises’s warning, from Human Action (1949): “The worst thing that can happen to a nation is not to be conquered by a foreign power but to be subjected to domestic policy of protectionism.”
In today’s guest essay, MN Gordon takes a closer look at this topic du jour. As mentioned before in these Notes, we have no financial arrangement with Mr. Gordon and do not profit from publishing his work… we simply enjoy his thought-provoking articles and reckon you might, too.
Whether you agree or disagree with Mr. Trump’s tariffs, it’s worth taking a step back and considering them from the macro perspective. Check out Gordon’s latest musing, in today’s guest column, below. And if you like it, be sure to comment and share. Cheers ~ JB
"Fire the Fed, Raise Tariffs, and Hope for the Best"
by MN Gordon
"President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent want lower interest rates so they can lower the financing costs of America’s massive debt. The net interest on the debt for fiscal year 2025 is on track to hit $1 trillion.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has resisted daily lambasting from Trump to cut rates. Powell wants to first wait and see how Trump’s tariff policies impact consumer price inflation. Moreover, with unemployment moderately low, the CPI rising at an annual rate of 2.7 percent, and the stock market at all-time highs there is no compelling reason to cut rates.
Nonetheless, Trump’s had enough of Powell’s disobedience. This week Bessent revealed that active steps are being taken to fire Powell before his term runs out next year. He will be replaced with someone who will comply with Trump’s rate cut demands.
Of course, a sensible way to lower interest rates would be to eliminate deficit spending. With a balanced budget, the Treasury would no longer have to issue new debt. It could merely finance the existing debt. Under this scenario the pool of Treasuries would no longer be expanding. As the supply of Treasuries is reduced the continued demand would likely drive interest rates down. This would help Trump and Bessent achieve their desire for lower interest rates.
But instead of forcing Congress to balance the budget, Trump pushed his One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The combination of tax cuts and spending increases will add over $3 trillion in additional debt – over and above the already projected debt – over the next decade. This will blow the national debt out to over $60 trillion by 2040.
Can Tariffs Reduce the Deficit? The addition of all this new debt makes the prospect of lower interest rates highly unlikely. Still, Trump thinks he can influence the budget through other means. His big idea is to generate revenue from tariffs. He believes this will reduce the budget deficit.
Until the monthly Treasury Statement for June was reported, it appeared the U.S. government was on track to run a budget deficit of $2 trillion for fiscal year 2025. But something remarkable happened in June. The U.S. government ran a surplus of $27 billion. This is on the heels of a $315 billion deficit in May. Of note, the $27 billion surplus was the first time there has been a budget surplus in June since 2017. In June 2024, there was a $71 billion budget deficit. Tariffs do appear to have had a positive effect on the budget.
The monthly Treasury Statement shows that custom duties for June were $27 billion. This is up from $22 billion in May. What’s more, since October, total tariff revenues are $108 billion, which is the highest they’ve ever been for the first nine months of a fiscal year. At this point in the 2024 fiscal year, only $56 billion in custom duties had been collected. And for the full 2024 fiscal year custom duties totaled just $77 billion.
At a recent White House cabinet meeting Bessent noted that the U.S. could grow its tariff revenue to $300 billion by the end of the 2025 calendar year. Trump said he believes “the big money will start coming in on August 1.” Trump, however, didn’t elaborate on where the big money will come from…
Tariffs are Taxes: The status of Trump’s “on-again, off again” tariffs is hard to keep up with. As we understand it, the average U.S. tariff rate increased from 2.5 percent to an estimated 27 percent by April 2025, the highest in over a century. Trump’s apparent strategy has involved announcing tariffs, then pausing them for negotiation periods, only to re-impose or adjust them. If you recall, after announcing reciprocal tariffs on Liberation Day, April 2, 2025, a universal 10 percent tariff took effect, with additional tariffs for 57 trading partners initially planned but then paused for 90 days when Wall Street panicked.
The pause on reciprocal tariffs has now been pushed out to August 1, with Trump sending letters to countries detailing new tariff rates. These new tariffs are why Trump expects the “big money” to start coming in on August 1. Certainly, reducing the budget deficit via increased tariff revenue sounds like a positive outcome. But what are the consequences?
Trump’s trade tariff policies are designed to protect domestic production, bring manufacturing jobs home, and reduce America’s massive trade deficit. However, there are two sides to every coin. The flipside to Trump’s trade policies is higher prices. Very simply, tariffs are taxes. They are not paid by foreign producers out of some generous desire to subsidize American consumers. They are duties levied on imported goods. And like all taxes, they are ultimately paid by the end-user. In this case, American consumers.
For example, when Trump slaps a 10 percent, 25 percent, or even a 60 percent tariff on goods from China, Europe, Mexico, or anywhere else, that cost is absorbed into the price of those goods. Importers pay more, distributors pay more, retailers pay more, and eventually, you pay more.
Fire the Fed, Raise Tariffs, and Hope for the Best: Tariffs, and their associated effects, will touch just about every consumer good that people regularly buy and use. The clothes people wear, electronic gadgets they use, the car components they rely on, and raw materials for manufacturing. As you know, a significant share of these originate from beyond America’s borders.
When tariffs are imposed, the cost of bringing these goods to market escalates. Businesses, operating on razor-thin margins, have two choices. Absorb the cost and potentially go bankrupt or pass the cost along to the consumer. Most retailers will choose the latter, as this is the inevitable path of survival.
But the inflationary impacts don’t stop there. Tariffs, by their very design, are meant to make foreign goods less competitive. The objective is to give domestic producers an advantage. These protectionist policies result in higher consumer prices. They also reduce the competitive pressure that keeps prices in check. With less competition from abroad, domestic industries face reduced incentives to keep their prices low. Why innovate? Why cut costs? Why offer discounts?
If the playing field is artificially tilted in the favor of American producers, they can simply raise their prices to match the now-inflated cost of imports. This is the downside of protectionism. It breeds complacency and, ultimately, higher prices for everyone. It also reduces the choices consumers have and generally leads to lower quality goods. Trade tariffs also mess with the broad and complex economic supply chain. A tariff on steel, for example, doesn’t just make imported steel more expensive, it makes everything that uses steel – from cars to refrigerators to construction materials – more expensive.
The cumulative effect of these actions is a direct assault on the purchasing power of the average American. Your hard-earned dollars buy less. Real wages decline. The cost of living goes up.
Tariff induced higher prices act as a stealth tax on every household. This erodes savings and makes it harder for families to make ends meet. Gambling to close the budget deficit through massive trade tariffs and artificial rate cuts is madness. The consumer – that’s you – will be the one who pays the “big money” Trump’s counting on. The real solution is to cut spending. Yet politics won’t allow it. Thus, the folly continues."
Bill Bonner, "Ghost Wealth"
"Ghost Wealth"
by Bill Bonner
Poitou, France - "Today, we wonder about money itself. We come to no conclusion...for now, we just wallow in it, like a pig rolling in mud. In the Capital city, the money pours in...and the swamp waters rise. Politico: "The first six months of President Donald Trump’s term have produced a cash cow of historic magnitude for the lobbying industry, with record-breaking demand for help navigating the administration’s constant stream of policy pronouncements - or trying to avoid becoming a pay-for in the GOP’s megabill.
The result is a new set of power brokers in Trump’s swamp. Firms with strong ties to the White House have skyrocketed to the top of the pecking order of lobbying outfits in town, according to a POLITICO analysis of the latest quarterly lobbying disclosures filed this week.
No firm has benefitted more than Ballard Partners, which is led by Trump fundraiser Brian Ballard. The firm previously employed White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Attorney General Pam Bondi. Ballard brought in $20.6 million in lobbying revenues during the second quarter of the year from clients including Palantir, American Express, TikTok, Ripple Labs and UnitedHealth. Its haul is more than four times what the firm brought in during the second quarter of 2024."
Public Citizen elaborates: "According to Bondi’s financial disclosure report filed in January, she received over $1 million in income from January 2023 to January 2025 as a lobbyist, partner, and chair of the Corporate Regulatory Compliance practice at Ballard."
The real genius of ‘Big Man’ leaders is being able to convince the masses that they are working for them, while the money still flows to the insiders. Another way to look at it: as the empire of laws declines, the degenerate rule of men takes over. They make money by offering to fix the problems their own policies cause. But let’s keep our eyes on the money. It gushes into financial assets too.
Stocks are at or near all-time highs. The S&P 500 is over 6,300. The Nasdaq is over 21,000. The Dow is over 45,000. And the total value of all US publicly traded stocks is over $50 trillion. ‘Anti-stocks’ - gold and crypto - are also getting more money. Gold is over $3,400. And it was just last week that USA Today reported a new breakthrough for bitcoin: "Bitcoin leapt past $120,000 for the first time on Monday, marking another milestone for the world's largest cryptocurrency as investors bet on long-sought policy wins for the industry this week, which has been dubbed "crypto week" by U.S. Republicans." Bitcoin BTC scaled a record high of $123,153.22 before pulling back. The increase brings the year-to-date gains for digital currency to 30%.
Everything seems to be getting more grease…except the real economy. So far this year, GDP went down in the first quarter. The second quarter shows some growth...leaving the first half of the year with about 1% net increase in output.
That puts the gain from bitcoin at about 30 times as much. Bitcoin has no material existence...no connection to any durable or tangible asset...no team of economists to manage and guide it...and no backing from anyone. It has nevertheless gained a full third in value this year against the dollar, while the dollar lost about 10% against other currencies and 20% against gold.
And here is where this ghost currency gets interesting. The total market cap of bitcoin is around $2.3 trillion. All the cryptos put together are worth over $4 trillion. Is this a $4 trillion increase to the world’s money supply? If so, where did it come from? What wealth does it represent? Or is it...like the new money itself...a kind of ghost wealth, ready to disappear in the light of day?
The ‘wealth’ implied by stock prices has gone way up too...about ten times as much as GDP. Corporate earnings don’t explain it. Instead, price/earnings leverage has increased to the second highest level on record. Even as late as 1980, stocks were selling for only 6- or 7-times annual earnings. But that was the end of an era. Since then, stocks have gone up...and up...and up...never again selling for as little as 10 times earnings.
And today, on the S&P, a dollar’s worth of corporate earnings is enough to justify $30 worth of stock price - a number greatly inflated by the fake dollar that appeared in 1971 and has been with us ever since. This suggests that as much as two-thirds of the stock market’s value – about $33 trillion - is also ‘ghost wealth.’
No hunter-gatherer tribe ever happened upon a Tesla pick-up truck. Not a single one of the Maya aristocracy...even in the hot jungle of Mesoamerica... turned on the air-conditioning...or opened a can of cold Coca Cola while watching the Super Bowl on his big screen TV. Nope, wealth is not discovered. It is created. So, there must be a connection between the makers and the made...between producers and their products...and between the income and the capital accounts.
A stock gets its value from its company output (real or imagined). We’ve seen that stock prices have risen far more than corporate profits. But where does bitcoin get its value; it produces no profits at all? No one working for bitcoin makes sales, let alone profits. No employees produce anything - no income...no output...no product...no nothing. Owners get no W-2 forms. No dividends. No tchotchkes. So where’s the ‘wealth’ implied by a $2.3 trillion capitalization? Tune in next week...we’ll look more closely at this ‘ghost wealth’…where does it come from; where does it go? And when does it go bye-bye?"
Since you asked...
The Rolling Stones, "Money (That's What I Want)"