Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

Full screen recommended. 

Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

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"I cannot paint

What then I was. The sounding cataract

Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,

The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,

Their colors and their forms, were then to me

An appetite; a feeling and a love,

That had no need of a remoter charm,

By thought supplied, not any interest

Unborrowed from the eye.

That time is past,

And all its aching joys are now no more,

And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this

Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur: other gifts

Have followed; for such loss, I would believe,

Abundant recompense. 

For I have learned

To look on nature, not as in the hour

Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes

The still, sad music of humanity,

Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power

To chasten and subdue." 

- William Wordsworth,

"Lines Written A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey"

Musical Interlude: Rudi en Corlea, "Hoor Jy My Stem"

Rudi en Corlea, "Hoor Jy My Stem"

"Haunting song by South Africans Rudi Claase 

and Corlea Botha, sung in Afrikaans with English subtitles."

o

“For Those Who Have Died”

“Eleh Ezkerah” (“These We Remember”)

"Tis a fearful thing

to love

what death can touch.

To love, to hope, to dream,

and oh, to lose.

A thing for fools, this,

love,

but a holy thing,

to love what death can touch.

For your life has lived in me;

Your laugh once lifted me;

Your word was a gift to me.

To remember this brings painful joy.

‘Tis a human thing, love,

a holy thing,

to love

what death can touch."

- Rabbi Chaim Stern

Love is eternal, 

And we shall meet again...

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Far beyond the local group of galaxies lies NGC 3621, some 22 million light-years away. Found in the multi-headed southern constellation Hydra, the winding spiral arms of this gorgeous island universe are loaded with luminous young star clusters and dark dust lanes. Still, for earthbound astronomers NGC 3621 is not just another pretty face-on spiral galaxy. Some of its brighter stars have been used as standard candles to establish important estimates of extragalactic distances and the scale of the Universe.

This beautiful image of NGC 3621 traces the loose spiral arms far from the galaxy's brighter central regions that span some 100,000 light-years. Spiky foreground stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy and even more distant background galaxies are scattered across the colorful skyscape.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090919.html

"Do Your Best..."

"Do as little harm to others as you can; make any sacrifice for your true friends; be responsible for yourself and ask nothing of others; and grab all the fun you can. Don't give much thought to yesterday, don't worry about tomorrow, live in the moment, and trust that your existence has meaning even when the world seems to be all blind chance and chaos. When life lands a hammer blow in your face, do your best to respond to the hammer as if it had been a cream pie."

- Dean Koontz

The Poet: Anne Sexton, "Courage"

"Courage"

"It is in the small things we see it.

The child's first step,

as awesome as an earthquake.

The first time you rode a bike,

wallowing up the sidewalk.

The first spanking when your heart

went on a journey all alone.

When they called you crybaby

or poor or fatty or crazy

and made you into an alien,

you drank their acid

and concealed it.

Later,

if you faced the death of bombs and bullets

you did not do it with a banner,

you did it with only a hat to

cover your heart.

You did not fondle the weakness inside you

though it was there.

Your courage was a small coal

that you kept swallowing.

If your buddy saved you

and died himself in so doing,

then his courage was not courage,

it was love; love as simple as shaving soap.

Later,

if you have endured a great despair,

then you did it alone,

getting a transfusion from the fire,

picking the scabs off your heart,

then wringing it out like a sock.

Next, my kinsman, you powdered your sorrow,

you gave it a back rub

and then you covered it with a blanket

and after it had slept a while

it woke to the wings of the roses

and was transformed.

Later,

when you face old age and its natural conclusion

your courage will still be shown in the little ways,

each spring will be a sword you'll sharpen,

those you love will live in a fever of love,

and you'll bargain with the calendar

and at the last moment

when death opens the back door

you'll put on your carpet slippers

and stride out."

~ Anne Sexton

"Distractions, Pascal, And Postman"

"Distractions, Pascal, And Postman"

by John Wilder

“This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.”

– Fight Club

"Distractions. Blaise Pascal wrote about them in his book "Pensées," which is French and means “reflections” and is pronounced “Hamwich” because the French never properly figured out that sounds in words should be connected in some fashion to the letters used.

Pascal was a mathematician, a physicist, and invented the laptop computer, which was initially a plank of wood. In reality, he did some of the foundational work that showed that atmospheric pressure varied with altitude, even has a unit named after him. Pascal was also a philosopher, and thought a whole bunch about Christianity. This was back before the “let’s get a cappuccino and listen to Pastor Dave talk about why God wants lesbian ministers” type of church, and instead when there were debates on how salvation occurred and if free will was a thing.

Pascal wrote: “Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries. Yet, it is, itself, the greatest of our miseries.” And, although he’s dead, Pascal was entirely correct. We see it all around us right now.

Distraction is seductive. I remember we were on a family vacation and stopped at a Denny’s® to get breakfast. There was a line, and about 30 people (mainly families) were waiting. As I looked, every eye was focused on a phone – 30 people sitting next to each other, yet distracted by whatever it was that they were looking at. They had escaped reality, and also escaped talking to each other, almost as if they were addicted to the distractions coming to them over their iPhones®.

In reality, many of them probably are technically addicted to those phones. Much of the internet, even back then, was built on the premise of stimulating dopamine to create engagement with the phone, and not with the world surrounding us. Were those people worried about their bills, their jobs, or their immortal soul? Nah. They were distracted by flappy bird games or Faceborg™ or InstaChat©. They were allowing the moments of their lives to drain away into that sea of distraction rather than confront reality.

They did have bills. Their jobs sucked. Their immortal soul was in peril. But that’s difficult to think about, so it’s much easier to look at pretty colors and cat videos for ten seconds before flipping to the next infotainment bite. The distraction was total.

Is it any wonder that coping skills have been drastically impacted in the generation raised on the distraction of phones? Kids can’t cope because they’re never forced to confront themselves until the stakes are high. This creates a group of victims. I hate victims. A lot. They’re whiney and they suck every bit of energy out of the room, like psychic vampires. Oh, wait, I just described "The View."  Huh.

Absolutely, there are people who are in situations that are far beyond their control. And, absolutely there are people who don’t deserve what fate has given them. However, when I look at people who have self-control, who have looked fate in the eye and said, “Yeah, so what? I’m still standing here, chump,” I feel admiration.

Neil Postman was a professor and writer, but then he died. Perhaps his best-known work is "Amusing Ourselves to Death," written in 1985. The Mrs. introduced me to it not long after we met, and I knew she was a keeper. In it, Postman talks about the impact of amusement. Amusement is close enough to distraction for our purposes and both Postman and Pascal are dead, so they can’t put up too much of a fight.

Again, Postman wrote about this in 1985, well before the every distraction, every place, all at once monster of the smartphone appeared. In it, Postman identified television as a drug. If so, it’s a gateway drug like aspirin, and the Internet is heroin.

Part of distraction is that it discourages the formation of complete thoughts. I think at least partially that’s part of the inspiration for this place, since I want to create and bring forth ideas that people might not think about, or might have forgotten in all frenzy of flashing lights, free porn, and distractions of Instabook© and Facegram™.

It’s a world where, “Excuse me, I’m talking” becomes a replacement for actual thought and people thinking deeply about issues like old Pascal becomes rarer and rarer. A side effect is that the information we get becomes information we can’t take action on. Want to complain to your congressman? How would you even contact them? How would you get their attention? Hell, getting the attention of an HOA is nearly impossible in some subdivisions. Instead, you’ll complain to your neighbor.

Worse, though, is the impact that’s happening to our youth. The lesson that bad crap is going to happen to them so they need to learn deal with it simply isn’t taught because they just distract themselves away from the Truth they don’t want to consider. It’s not their fault – their brain is optimized to live in villages, and we distract them with the hardest hitting drug in history: the smartphone.

Failure is an option. And failure is a teacher, but when the teacher is fired and replaced with social media? The lesson is muted or ignored. How did Pascal manage to deal with being a religious philosopher, a mathematician, and a physicist? I guess Pascal was good at avoiding distraction and dealing with pressure."

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/

And so we have this...

"The Millennial Job Interview"

"We Know Now..."

"We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace - business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me - and I welcome their hatred."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"U.S.- Iran War, 7/22/26"

"U.S.- Iran War, 7/22/26"

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Full screen recommended.

Daniel Davis/Deep Dive, 7/22/26

"Prof Mohammad Marandi: America's 

Own Words Coming Back to Haunt Them"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

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Scott Ritter, 7/22/26

"Iran Wipes Out Scores of U.S. Troops - 

Trump’s Lies Fall Apart"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

OPTM, 7/22/26

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Larry Johnson & Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, 7/22/26

"Iran Razes Israeli Embassy as Trump Goes Nuclear"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Fife Lake, Michigan, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Where the Heart Finds Peace"

Full screen recommended.

Walter’s Puppet Box

"Where the Heart Finds Peace"

"There are places where happiness was never hiding. It was always there. In the sound of waves touching the shore. In warm hands wrapped around a cup of tea. In quiet mornings. In slow evenings. In someone waiting for you without looking at the clock. Somewhere along the way... we started believing that happiness was something we had to chase. A bigger dream. A better tomorrow. One more achievement. One more destination. But perhaps happiness has never been waiting at the finish line. Perhaps it has always been walking beside us asking only to be noticed. This film is a gentle reminder to slow down. To breathe. To look at the people you love. To watch the sea. To hear the wind. To remember that the smallest moments often become the biggest memories. The world still knows how to be beautiful. The question is... can we still see it?"

"Why Everything Changes When You Expect Nothing From Anyone"

Full screen recommended.

Native Elder,

"Why Everything Changes When

 You Expect Nothing From Anyone"

"Stopped Caring What They Think. Best Thing I Ever Did."

Full screen recommended.

Delta King's Blues,

"Stopped Caring What They Think. 

Best Thing I Ever Did."

"There was a day - I don't remember exactly when - when I stopped caring what they thought. Not in a bitter way. Not in a dramatic way. It just... wore out. Like an old engine that ran too long on somebody else's fuel. For years I arranged my whole life around other people's opinions. Dressed a certain way. Said certain things. Avoided certain truths. Kept a careful account of what everybody thought of every choice I made. Then one morning I woke up and the account was empty. And I felt fine. "I Stopped Caring What They Think. Best Thing I Ever Did." is a Delta blues meditation on the quiet liberation of finally running out of concern for the wrong people's approval - and finding out that nothing much changed except how light you feel. The resonator guitar moves with the easy pace of a person who stopped running other people's race. The harmonica carries the exhale of someone who just set down something heavy - and isn't going back for it. The groove stays loose and almost satisfied - the blues of a burden finally dropped. This is the blues of the give-a-damn that finally gave out. Not anger. Not bitterness. Just done. And better for it."

"How It Really Is"

 

"The Gates Of Vienna"

Click image for larger size.

"The Gates Of Vienna"

by Dan Denning

"The painting above is Polish King Jan Sobieski outside the gates of Vienna on September 12th, 1683. Sobieski and his three thousand winged hussars broke the lines of the Ottoman Turks in a victory which European historians consider the beginning of the end of the Ottoman Empire (Vienna was as far as the Turks ever got into Europe). The battle began the day before, on September 11th, and there’s some speculation that Al Qaeda picked 9/11 for its attack on the World Trade Center because of this historical setback for the Ottomans (one it hoped to avenge and reverse by attacking iconic symbols of American power).

What the picture above doesn’t show you is how many people pushed and jostled me while I was trying to take it. Hardly anyone stopped to look because hardly anyone knows what it commemorates. I only knew it was there because my faculty advisor in college was Professor Francis Zapatka, a Jesuit-trained literature Professor with Polish roots who told the story more than once.

It’s hard to miss though. The painting is actually the largest painting on canvas in the entire Vatican Museum. I’d seen it once before, in college, when I spent a semester studying in Rome. I came back in the spring of 2018 for a vacation, where I had more time (and money) to enjoy everything Rome has to offer lovers of history, art, and architecture.

Even for the Eternal City, a lot has changed since the mid 1990s in Rome. Like all the beautiful places in the world, the Vatican Museum is crowded these days. Most people rush by the Sobieski painting on their way to the Raphael Rooms with no idea that an important turn in the historical tide of history is depicted right in front of them, larger than life. But I stopped to take a picture to remind myself that there are some periods in history - even particular days - where everything changes.

PS The Latin inscription at the top of the Sobieski painting is ‘Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam.’ It’s from Psalm 115:1, ‘Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name give the glory.’ This was later adopted as the motto of the Knights Templar."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"The United States Was Never The Empire"

"The United States Was Never The Empire"

by Kit Knightly

"The Rocky Mountains were never the Empire. Niagara Falls was never the Empire. The Everglades were never the Empire. The winding rivers of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio were never the Empire. The Great Lakes were never the Empire. The Empire was never Los Angeles or New York. Alaska, Texas, or Hawaii.

The Empire was never the Declaration of Independence, the Stars and Stripes, or the Constitution. None of the roughly 340 million people – who live normal lives and just want to get on and be happy, like everyone else – were ever the Empire. America was never the problem. And the problem was never America.

Raytheon was never America. Neither was Pfizer, or Boeing, or Lockheed Martin, or Halliburton. The Pentagon was never America. Neither were the three-letter monsters of the CIA, NSA, or DHS. The politicians – who broke their oaths to the constitution almost as soon they swore them – were never America. The lobbyists and profiteers who paid them were never America.

The Federal Reserve was never America, Wall Street was never America. The vast corporate megaliths that own half the world and tie economies in knots with made-up money were never America.

And none of them will pay the price for what they have done in that name. America was never the Empire, it was just where the Empire lived for a while. It had other homes before, it will have others in the future. A hermit crab shedding shells as it swells.

The Nation of the United States – however you define the idea of nationhood – was as much a victim as any of us. If a “nation” is a matter of geography, then the United States had its resources plundered, its water poisoned, its skies polluted as much as anywhere else in the world. If a “nation” is a library of laws, then the United States had its constitution torn down, chewed up and shat out.

If a “nation” is a collection of shared traditions, then the United States not only saw its triplet traditions of opportunity, freedom, and democracy butchered, but witnessed their mutilated corpses strung along in a macabre puppet show for decade after decade.

And, finally, if a nation is defined by its people, well then the people of the United States were massacred in corporate wars, sickened by toxic food, poisoned with dangerous medicines, impoverished by mountains of debt, locked away in private prisons, indoctrinated by state education and brainwashed by a complicit media. Crime and violence, drugs and depression, ignorance and hopelessness.

America may be the name they used, America may be the flag they waved, but none of the Imperial Conquerors really care for name or flag, and none of their spoils ever trickled down far enough to make America rich in gold or spirit or security.

If, as seems inevitable, the coming years see the United States collapse into a quasi-failed state, with hatred and division boiling over into secession and civil war, there will be many around the world who set off fireworks and declare a victory. It will feel to some like a global Fourth of July, a worldwide independence day. Some will see karmic balance, others share bitter laughs with wounded victims turned monstrous in their need for vengeance.

Many will clap. Many will cheer. I will not be one of them. Instead, I will mourn a country founded by brilliant men with beautiful ideas. A nation that could have been great, but was not. We will be told the villain is defeated, the enemy no more. Perhaps history will end for the second time. The champagne corks will pop and a “new age of globalist enlightenment” will dawn, consigning the ”dangerous ideas” of freedom, individualism and opportunity to the ash heap of history.

The parties will last long into the night. And, as the sun rises on the broken remains of America, lashing at itself in its death throes, nothing will have changed except the mask the real rulers of the world choose to wear."

- https://off-guardian.org/

o

Reader Comment By Robert Merrill: "I think this is a stimulating and perceptive reading of “America.” It is in an identity crisis right now, but it has always been for its entire existence. Kit’s comment, “If a “nation” is a collection of shared traditions, then the United States not only saw its triplet traditions of opportunity, freedom, and democracy butchered, but witnessed their mutilated corpses strung along in a macabre puppet show for decade after decade” This was never true for America, except in the minds of the Anglo-American who considered themselves the “true” Americans. There were always too many different kinds of immigrants with their own shared traditions and most often they were shunned by the “true” Americans.

African-Americans have occupied the land area for as long as any Anglo-Americans. The first slave ship arrived in 1619, while the first Anglo settlers arrived in 1607. But it took a long time for immigrants from Africa to be accepted as Americans.

The United States was the first of all nations to impose compulsory education for children between the ages of 8 to 14. The main intention was to make sure everyone learned to speak English and learned the “shared traditions” of America. In short public schooling was first and foremost a factory for producing “Americans.” Now pubic schools teach everything but Americanism.

As Kit accurately sees, America as a unified nation will collapse in the coming years, “If, as seems inevitable, the coming years see the United States collapse into a quasi-failed state, with hatred and division boiling over into secession and civil war, there will be many around the world who set off fireworks and declare a victory.”

My prediction is that it will break into a dozen or twenty new and independent nation, somewhat similar to what happened to the USSR. Some states may adopt Spanish as their official language. Or it may be that these states return to something like the original government of the Articles of Confederation, again like the way the USSR evolved into the Commonwealth of Independent States.

In my view the worst thing to happen to the US was the rise of Abe Lincoln and the assumption of total power by the regime in Washington. The US is the most diverse nation on earth on all levels — race, religion, ethnicity, cultural traditions, economic activity, and so on. It cannot exist under the tyranny of a single regime. I was born and grew up in California. We hated Washington and always wanted to be independent. I lived in Texas for a while and people there felt just the same. Now I live in Washington DC and most people want independence, too. The Washington Regime is the government of a global empire of banks, corporations, oligarchs, and militaries. It does not represent any “people”; it has no shared traditions. It is a money and war machine."

"Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 7/22/26"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 7/22/26

"Mearsheimer Warns: 

Trump's Iran Mistake Will Cost America"

Comments here:

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o

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 7/22/26

"Their Blood, Our Bullets: 

What the Government Won't Tell You About Ukraine"

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- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 7/22/26

"Pepe Escobar: All Bets Are Off!"

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"They Are Coming to Take Us Away"

"They Are Coming to Take Us Away"

by Philip Giraldi

"In Donald Trump’s America it is always possible to wake up in the morning and peruse online the overnight headlines to discover something new and exciting. Over the past week it has been a medley of going to war (again) with Iran coupled with a complicated performance on other issues as President Trump apparently takes aim at his enemies in the US and elsewhere. America’s Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is fully on board with a surge in worldwide mayhem. He is looking forward to an increase in US initiated violence, ordering that male soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines be tested for their testosterone levels. “Hegseth argues the effort, to become part of the military’s periodic health assessment for troops over 30, will ensure the optimal performance and long-term health of warfighters... the move plays into Hegseth’s focus on appearances and masculinity, which one Democrat said this week borders on ‘homoeroticism’.” Those who fail to have sufficient of the “male characteristics” hormone in their systems will be determined to be not fit for combat, where lethal instincts as encouraged under Hegseth require a satisfactory level of anger. Some soldiers might be offered therapy to increase their hormone levels.

And perhaps not so strangely, it often seems that much of the daily news relates to America’s “best friend and closest ally” Israel. One of the great ironies of the Israel against the rest of the world competition is how the “Torah” Old Testament is regularly being cited by Washington and the national media to justify anything the Jewish state does. That occurs in spite of the fact that Biblical Judea has little in common with the real Israel of today apart from providing an enduring mythology interwoven with the “holocaust” fantasy to sustain the myth of “chosen-ness.” 

In reality, Judea ceased to exist as an actual nation in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed to include the Second Temple in Jerusalem, of which absolutely nothing physical remains, and forced the Jews to depart. After that, what is now described as Palestine was ruled in various fashions by Rome, Byzantium, Muslim Arabs, Christian Europeans, Mamelukes, Turks, and the British until the politically driven re-creation of a Jewish state in 1948. That means for nearly 1900 straight years there was no such thing as an “Israel” or a Jewish nation and any Jewish presence was marginal in the region where the religion was born. Clearly there was no historical mandate to move a group of foreigners, whose only tie was to a religion that many of them did not actually practice, into a land that those foreigners then began to depopulate of its indigenous inhabitants who had lived in that place under both Christian and Muslim foreign rule for two millennia.

Recent American presidents have certainly tried to make the brutal Israeli suppression and occupation of what was supposed to be a neighbor state called Palestine somehow seem to be something quite acceptable. This is particularly due to the nonsense regurgitated by a group of American fundamentalists that many refer to as Christian Zionists (CZ), best exemplified by the delusional US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. These are folks that revere the Jewish Bible, as one might described it, as “explained” by the nineteenth century Scofield Bible. Huckabee insanely even claims that “Without Israel, without the Jewish foundation, there would not be America.”

Unfortunately for the rest of us, the CZ exist in large numbers in southern and some midwestern so-called Bible Belt states and they vote reliably for congressmen and even presidents who are Israel Firsters. So we get monsters like Texan Ted Cruz, Arkansan Tom Cotton and the recently deceased South Carolinian Lindsey Graham calling the shots on foreign policy. And we get presidents like Joe Biden and Donald Trump, both of whose exceptional loyalty to Israel should have been challenged when they ran for office!

The latest bid by Congress to allow Israel to be even more intolerant of the Christians and Muslims that it is supposed to share the former Palestine with is a recently passed amendment calling for equal Jewish prayer rights on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. The Mount currently houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of three most holy religious sites for Muslim believers, reputedly the location where Mohammed himself was spirited up to heaven by Allah. When Israel was created in 1948 Jerusalem was categorized by the UN as an international city inclusive of all faiths. The Mount was regarded as special for Muslims and believers in other faiths had only limited access to it. More recently, there has been constant agitation from extremist Jewish politicians in Israel to open up the site and there have even been calls to build a Jewish Third Temple on it as well even more radical demands to demolish al-Aqsa completely as part of the process. This has been accompanied by increased persecution and even closure of churches and mosques located elsewhere in the city with the clear intention of making Jerusalem more exclusively Jewish. Trump and company have, of course, not raised any objections to the Jewish activism even when Christians are being actively persecuted and denied access to their churches and holy sites.

Israel aside, the views of Americans who value the First Amendment Freedom of Speech right should be particularly concerned by the authoritarian direction the federal government is moving in. One must pay attention to last week’s denunciations by Trump and National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio of “communists” and “terrorists” among the predominantly progressives who apparently are in the forefront of those who are opposing the enlightened policies being promoted by the White House. It is apparently the belief that labeling opponents in that fashion will guarantee victory in the upcoming November midterm elections where Democrats will inter alia be labeled as anti-Israel and it will also make it easier to root some such folks out for deportation or imprisonment to silence them as has already been happening with foreign students at American universities.

Regarding what is developing, Trump’s activation of the little known “alien terrorist” deportation court presumably will conveniently provide the president and his fanatics with a new tool to cleanse the country of anyone who might object to killing people without any constitutional or legal process as has been taking place in the Caribbean, Iran and Sudan. Not that Trump needed a new court since he is no friend of “rule of law” and has been repeatedly acting in one of his rages whenever he sees fit to punish both American citizens and foreigners. One might cite the recent arrest of an American citizen who was traveling in Spain. As reported by The Guardian, “Spanish authorities, operating on a US extradition request, arrested the 41-year-old James Chambers, a US citizen and wealthy donor to leftwing and humanitarian projects worldwide, last Friday in Ibiza. He has been transferred to a prison in Madrid. The Trump administration’s Department of Justice is seeking his extradition for alleged financial support of Hamas, according to a spokesperson for the Spanish high court. This is the first known case of the US seeking extradition of a citizen over alleged support for Hamas… It is unfolding as Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, convened 66 countries this week – including Spain – as part of a broader effort to discredit leftwing activity as terrorism…”

In reality, of course, Hamas is a legitimate resistance movement and the ones who should be arrested on terrorism charges are Israelis, starting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he dares to visit the UN in New York in August, but that fine point is not about to bother Donald Trump and Marco Rubio. One can only assume that the Trump Administration will be moving sharply to the right over the next three months, labeling all critics as threats to the security of the United States of America. The initial focus will be on foreigners living in the United States, but the mechanism will easily be expanded to include all critics or supporters of resistance groups, like is happening to American citizen James Chambers in Spain. It is easy to go to Congress or have the White House declare some entity “terrorist” and people who support them in their resistance to US policy will begin to be on the receiving end of punishment. That is what is coming unless we the people unite to put an end to it right now!"

- https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/

U.S. Military Flag Officer Reveals Highly Classified Iran War Secrets"

"U.S. Military Flag Officer Reveals 

Highly Classified Iran War Secrets"

by State of The Nation

“Whenever treason is perpetrated at the highest levels of government in the conduct of war, senior military officers have been known to leak extremely sensitive information via various back channels in order to terminate those egregious crimes against the Republic.”

The following information is as radioactive as it gets because of the ultimate source of this extremely sensitive military intelligence. Each of the main data points has been put into a lengthy bullet point format, which will then be further elaborated as our ex-military intelligence network receives more details.

• Virtually all of the U.S. military installations throughout the Middle East have been destroyed beyond the point of practical repair by Iran missile attacks and drone weaponry since day one of Operation Epic Fury

• Billions upon billions of dollars weapon systems and armaments, both offensive and defensive, as well as aircraft, hangars, radar systems, vehicles, barracks, etc. have been irreparably damaged by Iran.

• Even if the Department of War wanted to repair or replace what has been destroyed it could not do so because Iran would launch more attacks against the same bases as they are doing right now today.

• As for the actual American casualties since February 28, 2026, it is known only by the top echelons of the military leadership, and only then in a highly compartmentalized fashion, that hundreds upon hundreds of US service members have been killed.

• The number of Americans injured is much higher and those injuries are much worse than most recent theaters of war because the service members were left as sitting ducks and the Iranian weapons were designed to be much more deadly and destructive.

• In other words, the American people have been deliberately lied to about the death tolls and injuries because, if they knew the facts, the public pressure to stop this war would come down like a ton of brick on every single member of Congress (many in the Senate and House are well aware of these outright lies and therefore complicit in this criminal casualty cover-up).

Trump Regime Covering Up The Many

Hundreds Of Iran War Casualties

• The top miltary brass is especially incensed at the way that the Zionist state of Israel has embedded senior IDF and Mossad officers within the US military command structure throughout the Middle East which reports to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).

• The most disturbing stark reality is how Israeli “Men in Black” seem to run this entire military operation both stateside, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, as well as at its forward operational headquarters located at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

• Similarly, the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) headquartered in Bahrain, the U.S. Air Forces Central (AFCENT) operating out of hubs like Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, and U.S. Army Central (ARCENT) are all taking orders from a shadow command directly associated with Israeli government (some of those major headquarters have been blown to bits by Iran and yet none of that information has been made public for fear of extreme backlash from the U.S citizenry)

• Because of this patently treasonous state of affairs, no flag officer or general officer within the U.S. Armed Forces is permitted to disclose any accurate info/data regarding the true number of U.S casualties; nor are they allowed discuss the degree of destruction of the US military bases in the Mideast.

• Similarly there has been an enforced black-out of news and intelligence regarding the Iranian military campaign to wipe out every single Big Tech operation in the Middle East if there’s even the slightest suspicion of their support of the US Armed Forces, IDF, Saudi military or any other GCC member’s participation in this conflict. See: July 21, 2026: Iran’s IRGC says it has completely destroyed Amazon’s central data hub in Bahrain with several cruise missiles and warns more are coming

• All nations in the Middle East hosting the U.S. Armed Forces, especially the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), are spitting mad because the US military is virtually defenseless against Iran’s hypersonic ballistic missiles and other highly advanced drone weaponry. Many of the leaders have privately expressed their utter disdain for the Trump administration having been misled about the promised quick success of Operation Epic Fury.

• The GCC countries are especially infuriated that Israel was always the top priority for the US military to protect. They have now witnessed that even Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ was a complete fiction and saw that a large number of U.S. defensive weapons were wasted to safeguard Israel at the expense of their nations.

• The same GCC nations are particularly livid because this was always a war of choice for the Trump administration which chose to fight it on behalf of the Zionist state of Israel. They all know that Netanyahu had Trump sufficiently Epsteined so that the POTUS could not resist the power of the Epstein blackmail operation by which the POTUS was completely captured.

• Every U.S. flag officer and general officer within the CENTCOM hierarchy is fully aware that President Trump has been both blackmailed and bribed to launch the Iran War, as well as to continue to prosecute it on behalf of Israel.

• These same officers know that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was specifically selected by the Netanyahu junta because his loyalties are, first and foremost, to the Zionist state of Israel. The same is true of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, FBI Director Kash Patel as well as other key Christian and Jewish Zionists in Trump’s cabinet.

• These same officers know that SecWar Hegseth has not fired many other flag and general officers for only one reason - they were not willing to pledge their absolute and undying fealty to the state of Israel.

• Hence, the remaining senior officers are there because they have been promoted through the ranks over the course of their military careers because of their demonstrated and/or expressed loyalties to Israel. There may be some other officers who are not beholden to Israel who possess a very unique skill set, knowledge base, experience set, etc. who have been retained in the command structure until they prove their outright disloyalty to Israel.

• Similar to the source of this sensitive intel and privileged info, there are also some truly “white hat” officers who have played the “Israel First” game so well that they are much more actor than they are general or flag officer. They will remain only as long as they don’t expose themselves as true American Patriots.

• There is now a growing sentiment among junior officers, because they know the Trump administration has NEVER negotiated in good faith, that the unaware Non-Commissioned Officers and their subordinate enlisted personnel are being stealthily set up for a slaughter should Trump go to a full-bore war mode.

• The junior officers are watching Commander-in-Chief Trump lie and mislead the American people at every turn for Israel and they are becoming disillusioned to varying degrees. The Navy NCOs and enlisted are particularly angry and frustrated because of their exceptionally long deployments at sea which are unprecedented; and the fact that their warships will be sitting ducks should Iran unleash their most powerful long-range ballistic missiles, some of which could qualify as ICBMs.

• All of the senior officers are cognizant of the reality that the U.S. military arsenals supplying the Middle East theater of war have been severely depleted. Much more significantly, they also know that Iran goaded the U.S. into expending their most effective defensive weapons to neutralize Iran’s older generations of ballistic missiles and drone weaponry.

• The seniors officers are also aware that, were Iran to launch a full-blown offensive campaign to completely eliminate the U.S. Navy from the Mideast waters, they could do so in a day and a night. Same goes for any stationary U.S. military assets anywhere within the same theater of war.

• The officers are cognizant of the fact that China has increasingly provided Tehran with military, technological, and dual-use support. For instance, China has transferred YLC-8B anti-stealth radar systems to Iran following the outbreak of the US–Israel–Iran conflict in March 2026 among several other highly advance technologies and equipment being saved for full-blown hostilities.

• The officers are also cognizant of the fact that Russia has been expanding its intelligence sharing and military cooperation with Iran, providing satellite imagery and improved drone technology among many other significant transfers of advanced weaponry which Tehran is saving for an all-out war.

• The junior officers who are much more difficult for Israel to control, so their seniors are well aware, are really in the hot seat the closer they get to a full-scale war. The first phase of the war exposed the Trump admin’s complete lack of respect for the rank and file which made an indelible impression on them. Minor mutinies have already occurred on the largest aircraft carriers which will only exacerbate the longer the service men and women are out at sea.

• The senior officers are more aware than ever that Trump is now prosecuting an illicit war. The US-Israeli attacks first attack were launched on February 2026 which means that the so-called sacred 60-day window of the War Powers Act has been profoundly and repeatedly violated. Even the Zionist officers are not happy with this corrupt state of affairs since they, themselves, are now following what are essentially illegal orders. See: Mike Johnson Breaks With Trump On Iran War: ‘We’ve Got To Wrap It Up’

• Even more concerning for the most mercenary officers is that they know the money has run out to fund this unlawful unprovoked war of naked aggression against Iran. See: The Pentagon, sinking billions into Iran war, is quickly running short on cash

• The most senior officers in command are also watching the congressional overseers of this disastrous Mideast misadventure, and especially the quickly changing sentiments of both the House and Senate leadership as midterm elections collide with the mood of the electorate about the Iran war and the price of gas and diesel.

• The greatest fear that both flag and general officers have quietly conveyed to each other is the potential prosecution for war crimes. They all know that both Trump and Hegseth are technically war criminals of the highest order, although not yet adjudicated. And even the most committed Zionists know they can be prosecuted just as Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are now indicted war criminals who can no longer travel in many countries because of arrest warrants.

It’s urgent at this late date, as the Trump regime ramps up the illicit Iran War, to disseminate this post far and wide especially within military circles. Please do not underestimate the efficacy of the Internet to quickly put info/intel like this on the smartphone or computer of those military folks who need to read it and react appropriately. To be continued as more intel is disclosed..."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

"Goldman Sachs Warns That Oil Could Soon Hit $120 As The “Crack Spread” Soars To New All-Time Highs"

by Michael Snyder

"Unless we witness some sort of a crazy diplomatic miracle, the price of gasoline will soon rise into unprecedented territory. The Iranians have closed the Strait of Hormuz, the Houthis are blocking Saudi tankers from getting through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and with a big helping hand from the United States the Ukrainians are relentlessly attacking Russian oil refineries. Meanwhile, the oil inventory buffers that existed before the war with Iran are rapidly being depleted. Nations around the world are doing whatever they can to adjust to this crisis, but time is running out.

According to analysts at Goldman Sachs, the price of oil could soon hit $120 a barrel if a diplomatic solution to the conflict in the Middle East is not found…Oil prices could reach upward of $120 a barrel if tensions between the U.S. and Iran don’t start to ease soon. Analysts at Goldman Sachs, led by Daan Struyven, wrote in a note published on Monday night that Brent crude may surpass $120 a barrel by next quarter and average $100 a barrel the following year if the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted throughout 2027. In this scenario, output from the Persian Gulf doesn’t recover until December next year, with the support of oil-pipeline extensions.

If the price of oil reaches that level and stays there for an extended period of time, a major global economic downturn is essentially guaranteed. The good news is that the price of oil is not anywhere near that level yet. But on Tuesday the price of Brent crude did exceed the $90 barrier for the first time since June 11th… After 10 consecutive days of U.S. strikes on Iran, Brent crude oil futures settled above the key threshold of $90 a barrel Tuesday.

Brent futures ended the day at $91.01, up 2.1%. The last time they settled above $90 a barrel was on June 11, less than a week before the U.S. and Iran signed a memo of understanding aimed at ending hostilities in the Strait of Hormuz while a longer-term peace deal was negotiated. But that 60-day truce ended less than a month after it was signed.

The trend is not our friend at this stage. Of course the price of crude oil is not the only number that we need to be watching. The “crack spread” has been soaring, and that should deeply alarm all of us. If you are not familiar with the “crack spread”, the following is a pretty good explanation… The process works like this: Refiners take in raw crude oil (the price mostly referred to in headlines) and “crack” it into usable petroleum products. But just like crude is its own commodity, gasoline and diesel have their own trading prices as well. The profit that oil refineries make from converting crude into usable fuels is the “crack spread.” Prior to the war, the “crack spread” was usually about 10 to 15 dollars a barrel. This week, it reached a whopping 70 dollars a barrel…

But while everyone has been watching crude oil, a different oil measure - the one that arguably matters more for the price at the gas pump - has never stopped climbing. That measure, called the “crack spread,” is at all-time highs. The crack spread is the gap between what a refinery pays for crude and what it earns selling the gasoline and diesel it makes from it. For most of the past decade that gap fluctuated between $10 and $15 a barrel. This week it hit $70, the widest spread ever recorded.

The margin for refining a barrel of oil is now more than what an entire barrel of crude cost the day this war began. And here is the tell: It kept climbing while crude collapsed, and it is still climbing now that crude is rising. It does not care which way the headline price moves. The crack spread is the market telling you, in dollars, that the right crude is not reaching the right refineries. The price of oil can do whatever it likes. The machines that turn it into fuel are screaming either way.

The conflicts in the Middle East and in Ukraine are the primary reason why the “crack spread” has been steadily widening. Many refineries in the Persian Gulf region are currently not operating due to the war with Iran, and we keep helping Ukraine damage refineries all over Russia…The current conflict between Russia and Ukraine that started in February 2022 has significantly damaged global refining capacity, with Russian crude runs falling to a 22-year low of 3.8 million barrels per day in June, according to a Truist report. It also resulted in a Russian ban on diesel exports, limiting how much crude oil can actually be turned into fuel and reach the global market. “When 1 in 9 barrels of diesel is produced in Russia, and suddenly they’re banning exports, it’s problematic,” De Haan said.

The U.S.-Iran war has made matters even worse. Despite previous talks to de-escalate the conflict, the International Energy Agency said in its July oil-market report that Middle East export refineries have yet to restart. We desperately need peace.But there isn’t going to be peace. Instead, there were some dramatic escalations last week, and there have been more dramatic escalations this week.

On Monday, the Houthis announced that Saudi commercial vessels would no longer be allowed to travel through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait… A successful effort by Yemen’s Houthis to shut the Bab el-Mandeb Strait would strike at one of the world’s most important oil shipping routes, potentially triggering a fresh surge in crude prices, disrupting fuel supplies and adding to strains on the global economy.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis on Monday declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, its military spokesperson said. A closure of the Red Sea’s southern gateway would remove a critical alternative route for the kingdom to the Strait of Hormuz and intensify fears of shortages. This blockade seems to be working, because at least 8 oil tankers have already been forced to turn around…

One analyst is warning that the impact that this move will have on global markets will be “massive”…A full closure would have the biggest immediate impact on Saudi crude exports from the Red Sea port of Yanbu. Matt Smith, commodity research director at Kpler, said Asian refiners receiving those barrels could face delays of around a month as tankers are forced to sail around the Cape of Good Hope. “The impact is going to be massive in the first month,” Smith said. “The biggest impact is going to be on Saudi flows.”

The bottom line is that everyone in the world will soon be paying much more for gasoline unless a miracle happens. And once all of our buffers are totally gone, shortages and rationing will begin to manifest in various parts of the globe. I expect Asia to feel the pain first, and Europe will quickly follow.

There is still time for peace to prevail, but that window is getting narrower each day. For a long time I have been warning my readers that crazier times were on the way, and what we are experiencing now is just the beginning."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

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Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 7/22/26

"A Warning That Affects Us All"

"Goldman Sachs has issued a serious warning that could impact every American. In this video, I break down why experts believe oil prices could surge to $120 per barrel, what that means for gasoline, groceries, shipping, inflation, and the cost of everyday essentials. If this forecast becomes reality, families and businesses could face another wave of higher prices heading into the fourth quarter. I also discuss the growing energy crisis, variable electricity rates, Texas power concerns, rising living costs, and why consumers need to prepare now. We'll look at how these economic trends could affect your budget, travel, holiday shopping, restaurants, and the overall U.S. economy. Don't miss this important update, and be sure to subscribe for daily business and economic news from iAllegedly."

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