"Point Of No Return..."

”There is a point of no return, unremarked at the time, in most lives.”

- Graham Greene

○

“When swimming into a dark tunnel, there arrives a point of no return when you no longer have enough breath to double back. Your only choice is to swim forward into the unknown… and pray for an exit.”

- Dan Brown

○

“And it was pointless… to think how those years could have been put to better use, for he could hardly have put them to worse. There was no recovering them now. You could grieve endlessly for the loss of time and for the damage done therein. For the dead, and for your own lost self. But what the wisdom of the ages says is that we do well not to grieve on and on. And those old ones knew a thing or two and had some truth to tell… for you can grieve your heart out and in the end you are still where you were. All your grief hasn’t changed a thing. What you have lost will not be returned to you. It will always be lost. You’re left with only your scars to mark the void. All you can choose to do is to go on or not. But if you go on, it’s knowing you carry your scars with you.”

- Charles Frazier

○

“Never be ashamed of a scar.

It simply means you were stronger than whatever tried to hurt you.”

- Unknown

"Prepare For Apocalypse; Don't Be Owned By A Bank; Hottest Housing Markets Will See Biggest Crash"

Jeremiah Babe, 6/24/23

"Prepare For Apocalypse; Don't Be Owned By A Bank; 

Hottest Housing Markets Will See Biggest Crash"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Russia Will Mobilize And Get More Aggressive; NATO Knew About 'Coup'; Hardliners Coming"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, PM 6/24/23

"Russia Will Mobilize And Get More Aggressive;

 NATO Knew About 'Coup'; Hardliners Coming"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Hindustan Times, PM 6/24/23

"Wagner Chief Prigozhin's Big Assurance 

To Putin After Russia 'Coup Bid'"

"Wagner Group Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin announced the de-escalation of his Moscow advancement after a day full of tension and drama. The Wagner warlord said, "We are returning to our camps as no more blood should be spilled." This came after Belarus claimed to have clinched a truce with Prigozhin. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenka convinced the Wagner boss to end the mutiny against Putin."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Hattiesburg, Mississippi, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Mary Oliver, "I Worried"

 

"Time To Move On..."

“How do the geese know when to fly to the sun? Who tells them the seasons? How do we, humans, know when it is time to move on? As with the migrant birds, so surely with us; there is a voice within, if only we would listen to it, that tells us so certainly when to go forth into the unknown.”

- Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

"Don't Take Anything Personally"

"Don't Take Anything Personally"

by Don Miguel Ruiz

"Whatever happens around you, don't take it personally. Using an earlier example, if I see you on the street and I say, "Hey, you are so stupid," without knowing you, it's not about you; it's about me. If you take it personally, perhaps you believe you are stupid. Maybe you think to yourself, "How does he know?  Is he clairvoyant, or can everybody see how stupid I am?"

You take it personally because you agree with whatever was said. As soon as you agree, the poison goes through you, and you are trapped in the dream of hell. What causes you to be trapped is what we call personal importance. Personal importance, or taking things personally, is the maximum expression of selfishness because we make the assumption that everything is about "me." During the period of our education, or our domestication, we learn to take everything personally. We think we are responsible for everything. Me, me, me, always me!

Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves. All people live in their own dream, in their own mind; they are in a completely different world from the one we live in. When we take something personally, we make the assumption that they know what is in our world, and we try to impose our world on their world.

Even when a situation seems so personal, even if others insult you directly, it has nothing to do with you. What they say, what they do, and the opinions they give are according to the agreements they have in their own minds. Their point of view comes from all the programming they received during domestication.

If someone gives you an opinion and says, "Hey, you look so fat," don't take it personally, because the truth is that this person is dealing with his or her own feelings, beliefs, and opinions. That person tried to send poison to you and if you take it personally, then you take that poison and it becomes yours. Taking things personally makes you easy prey for these predators, the black magicians. They can hook you easily with one little opinion and feed you whatever poison they want, and because you take it personally, you eat it up.

You eat all their emotional garbage, and now it becomes your garbage. But if you do not take it personally, you are immune in the middle of hell. Immunity to poison in the middle of hell is the gift of this agreement.

When you take things personally, then you feel offended, and your reaction is to defend your beliefs and create conflicts. You make something big out of something so little, because you have the need to be right and make everybody else wrong. You also try hard to be right by giving them your own opinions. In the same way, whatever you feel and do is just a projection of your own personal dream, a reflection of your own agreements. What you say, what you do and the opinions you have are according to the agreements you have made- and these opinions have nothing to do with me.

It is not important to me what you think about me, and I don't take what you think personally. I don't take it personally when people say, "Miguel, you are the best," and I also don't take it personally when they say, "Miguel, you are the worst." I know that when you are happy you will tell me, "Miguel, you are such an angel!" But, when you are mad at me you will say, "Oh, Miguel, you are such a devil! You are so disgusting. How can you say those things?" Either way, it does not affect me because I know what I am. I don't have the need to be accepted. I don't have the need to have someone tell me, "Miguel, you are doing so good!" or "How dare you do that!"

No, I don't take it personally. Whatever you think, whatever you feel, I know is your problem and not my problem. It is the way you see the world. It is nothing personal, because you are dealing with yourself, not with me. Others are going to have their own opinion according to their belief system, so nothing they think about me is really about me, but it is about them.

You may even tell me, "Miguel, what you are saying is hurting me." But it is not what I am saying that is hurting you; it is that you have wounds that I touch by what I have said. You are hurting yourself. There is no way that I can take this personally. Not because I don't believe in you or don't trust you, but because I know that you see the world with different eyes, with your eyes. You create an entire picture or movie in your mind, and in that picture you are the director, you are the producer, you are the main actor or actress. Everyone else is a secondary actor or actress. It is your movie.

The way that you see that movie is according to the agreements you have made with life. Your point of view is something personal to you. It is no one's truth but yours. Then, if you get mad at me, I know you are dealing with yourself. I am the excuse for you to get mad. And you get mad because you are afraid, because you are dealing with fear. If you are not afraid, there is no way you will get mad at me. If you are not afraid, there is no way you will hate me. If you are not afraid, there is no way you will be jealous or sad.

If you live without fear, if you love, there is no place for any of these emotions. If you don't feel any of those emotions, it is logical that you will feel good. When you feel good, everything around you is good. When everything around you is good, everything makes you happy. You are loving everything that is around you, because you are loving yourself. Because you like the way you are. Because you are content with you. Because you are happy with your life. You are happy with the movie you are producing, happy with your agreements with life. You are at peace, and you are happy. You live in that state of bliss where everything is so wonderful, and everything is so beautiful. In that state of bliss you are making love all the time with everything that you perceive.”

- http://www.livinglifefully.com/

"How It Really Is"

   

"This Is Where It Starts"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly 6/24/23

"This Is Where It Starts"

"The problem with commercial real estate is that there are tens of billions of dollars that are now delinquent. Developers are now turning buildings back to the banks."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Disturbing Trip To Kroger! This Is Crazy! What Now?"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 6/24/23

"Disturbing Trip To Kroger! This Is Crazy! What Now?"

"In today's video, we are at Kroger and noticing some very disturbing price increases. We are in constant search for items to help us all save money and stock up on as we find any kind of sales! It's getting rough out here as grocery stores continue to raise prices on many foods!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

The Real Economy, 6/24/23

"Americans go deeper into debt as they use buy now, pay later apps for groceries while greedy corporations make hundreds of billions, American families struggle to put food on the table, watching their grocery bills climb to sky high costs as prices rise on cereals, meat, dairy, fruits, and vegetables - virtually everything we eat to survive is gone up. Crazy! Food costs have doubled. Banks Closing. Money losing value! How can Americans afford to feed their families?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Scott Ritter: Civil War in Russia? Wagner Troops Rebellion"

Full screen recommended.

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 6/24/23

"Scott Ritter: Civil War in Russia?

 Wagner Troops Rebellion"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Apologies for the ads! I've never allowed ads or sold anything 

here, but this situation's too serious to not have Ritter's analysis.

"Red Alert! Martial Law In Moscow; Military In The Streets; DEFCON 'Fortress Plan' Activated"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 6/23/23

"Red Alert! Martial Law In Moscow; Military In The Streets; 

DEFCON 'Fortress Plan' Activated"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"The Last Laugh..."

 

"Civil War In Russia"

Full screen recommended.

CBC News, 6/23/23

"Russia Accuses Wagner Chief of Mutiny for 

Denouncing 'Evil' Perpetuated by Military Elite"

Russia accused Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner private mercenary group, of calling for an armed mutiny on Friday after he alleged, without providing evidence, that the military leadership had killed 2,000 of his fighters and vowed to stop what he called its 'evil.' Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, weighs in on the emerging crisis in Russia."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

The Pioneer, 6/23/23

"Civil War in Russia! 

Wagner's Soldiers Have Declared War on Russia!"

"In the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the worst possible scenario for Russia has come into play. With the statements made by Wagner group leader Prigozhin, one of the parties of the long-standing power struggle in Russia, Russia has literally come to the brink of civil war. The tension between Putin, Shoigu and Prigozhin has now reached an uncontrollable level. Russia's last move against Wagner was the last straw. So what is happening in Russia? Let's take a look at the hottest developments together.

With the hot development in the night hours, both the Russian media and the world media mobilized. According to the allegations, Wagner group leader Prigozhin blamed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and declared war against all of Russia. Initially characterized as mere allegations, the news became clearer as the hours passed. According to many experts, the long-awaited civil war in Russia has officially begun. So what caused it?

The emergence of the civil war claim started with images shared on Telegram channels close to the Wagner group. In the footage, Wagner personnel filming the Wagner headquarters make the following statements about the situation in the region: "Our headquarters was blown up by a missile attack from behind us. All of our personnel who were in the headquarters during the attack were killed. The Ukrainian army could not have launched this attack on us. Because they are in front of us. These missiles were fired by the Russian Federation!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Kanal 23, 6/23/23

Latest images from Moscow: City preparing for uprising - 

Large numbers of equipment moving on streets

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

"Civl War Started In Russia; 

Putin's Military Attacked Wagner Mercenaries"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com

"15 Big Restaurant Chains That Filed For Bankruptcy"

Full screen recommended.

"15 Big Restaurant Chains That Filed For Bankruptcy"

by Epic Economist

"Our favorite restaurants are vanishing from sight as worsening economic conditions continue to squeeze U.S. businesses. With shoppers eating out less and tightening their budgets, even big names in the industry are seeing their operations rot from within. Over the past three years, over 160,000 restaurants have been permanently closed around the country, and unfortunately, that trend is still picking up force in 2023.

It’s hard to believe but even the biggest and most successful fast food chains in the world aren’t immune to bankruptcies among franchisees. Just a couple of months ago, Rice Enterprices LLC declared bankruptcy and shuttered all of the McDonald’s restaurants it operated. Serious labor issues involving minors led the franchisee to face a millionaire lawsuit that affected the brand as a whole. Last month, the company announced hundreds of store closings, not only in America, but all across the globe. Some of its formats have become outdated, executives say. The decision was made after a team of board members discussed the growth potential of certain locations and decided to focus on the ones with higher financial returns, excluding struggling stores from its portfolio.

Owned by the same parent company as Burger King, the popular chicken chain Popeyes also dealt with the bankruptcy of one of its biggest franchisees this year. Premier Cajun Kings was founded by Manraj "Patrick" Sidhu in 2018, and by the next year, he had tripled the number of stores he operated, and they generated over $30 million in annual sales. Tragically, Mr. Sidhu passed away in May 2022, and his business was never able to fully recover from the loss of its sole manager. Declining sales, soaring costs, and operating losses forced the franchisee to close a large number of restaurants in Alabama and Tennessee. Some stores were evicted by a landlord, leaving the company with only half of its locations. In March 2023, PCK finally filed for bankruptcy. "This tragic loss, coupled with various macroeconomic factors, has caused tremendous uncertainty and disruption within the business," court documents from the bankruptcy filing read.

Similarly, Chuck E. Cheese has marked generations and gained huge popularity over the decades. Founded in San Jose, California, the pizza chain is a hit amongst kids, but that doesn’t mean things have always been easy for the company. The chain isn’t new in bankruptcy court, with its first filing recorded in 1984 when it was carrying a debt of $50 million in defaulted bonds. Its parent company, Pizza Time Theater decided to seek court protection to avoid corporate destitution. Even though that helped the chain to stay in business, it didn't ensure the chain's long-term survival, especially in the middle of a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic. Only this time around, the company held a $705 million debt. Up until this day, the future of Chuck E. Cheese remains uncertain. But given the size of its debt load, only a miracle can save the chain from filing for bankruptcy again in the near future. When a company files for bankruptcy, it doesn't immediately free itself of all prior financial obligations. A series of financial arrangements need to be agreed upon, and, as a result, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy generally takes between six months and two years to resolve. This means many of these businesses are now sitting in limbo, waiting to be rescued or about to die out. With a recession at our door, it is difficult to see which ones will be the survivors.

That's why today, we decided to list some of Americans' beloved food joints that are reducing operations or going out of business this year."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "Moment of Grace Part 1"

Full screen recommended.

Liquid Mind, "Moment of Grace Part 1"

"A Look to the Heavens With Chet Raymo"

“Like Rubies Ringed With Gold”

by Chet Raymo

“Here’s a Hubble Space Telescope composite photograph of two colliding galaxies in the constellation Corvus.

Each of the three books of Dante’s “Divine Comedy” ends with the same words: “the stars.” The Inferno concludes with distant stars glimpsed through the narrow exit of hell. “We emerged,” says the poet, “and saw the stars.” The poet’s journey through Purgatory ends on Earth’s highest mountain, with the heavens seemingly not so far away. He is “ready to ascend to the stars.” Finally, Dante looks down upon the stars from above, from the luminous realm of Paradise. He has experienced “the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.” The beauty of that final destination, the Empyrean Sphere that encloses the created universe in divine brilliance, taxes the poet’s powers of description:

“I saw light in the shape of a river

Flashing golden between two banks

Tinted in colors of marvelous spring.

Out of the stream came living sparks

Which settled on the flowers on every side

Like rubies ringed with gold…”

Nothing in Dante’s experience could have prepared him for the splendors of the heavens as revealed by the Hubble. The photograph of colliding galaxies in Corvus is a work of genius in the tradition of the “Divine Comedy” – imagination in service to humankind’s loftiest aspirations and longings.

In Dante’s time, astronomy was one of the seven liberal arts – with grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, and music – required of every student who aspired to a university degree. Of all the secular sciences, astronomy was deemed most likely to lead one to the contemplation of things divine. Yesterday’s Hubble pic made the hair stand up on the back of my neck, which is about as close to the divine as I ever get. Dante’s “Divine Comedy” is based on the medieval astronomical conception of the world – a system of concentric spheres centered on the Earth and bounded just up there by the Empyrean.

In the Hubble photograph of colliding galaxies we see something akin to Dante’s paradisal vision, but it is not a cosmos centered on the Earth. Here are other Suns and other Earths being born, in prodigious numbers, massive stars destined to die soon as supernovas, and other less massive stars that will live long lives, perhaps evolving life or consciousness on their planets. We see in the Hubble photograph a universe of a fullness and dimension that makes Dante’s human-centered cosmos of concentric spheres seem like a dust mote in an immense cathedral.

Astronomy is no longer a required course of study in our universities, and it’s something of a shame. Who can look at the photograph of colliding galaxies and not be moved to rapture? An understanding of the size, age, and prodigality of the universe should be part of every liberal arts graduate’s intellectual furniture.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

Chet Raymo, “When The Morning Stars Sing Together”

“When The Morning Stars Sing Together”

by Chet Raymo

“A Chinese proverb: A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song. Which might be an acceptable epigraph for this blog. I can’t imagine anyone coming here looking for answers. Certainly, providing answers is the last thing on my mind. I would like to think you come for song.

We are, I think, by and large, a community who distrusts answers, at least answers that are vehemently held. We are made uncomfortable by stridency. By dogma. By the desire to proselytize. We wear our truths lightly, gaily, as a song bird wears its feathers. We are grateful to those who push back the clouds of ignorance and hold the reins of passion. With Blake, we sing their praises, a song we have spent a lifetime learning. We sing to celebrate. We sing because we have a song.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

The Poet: Wendell Berry, “Leavings”

“Leavings”

“In time a man disappears

from his lifelong fields, from

the streams he has walked beside,

from the woods where he sat and waited.

Thinking of this, he seems to

miss himself in those places

as if always he has been there.

But first he must disappear,

and this he foresees with hope,

with thanks. Let others come.”

- Wendell Berry

○

“Perhaps as he was lying awake then, his life may have passed before him - his early hopeful struggles, his manly successes and prosperity, his downfall in his declining years, and his present helpless condition – no chance of revenge against Fortune, which had had the better of him - neither name nor money to bequeath - a spent-out, bootless life of defeat and disappointment, and the end here! Which, I wonder, brother reader, is the better lot, to die prosperous and famous, or poor and disappointed? To have, and to be forced to yield; or to sink out of life, having played and lost the game? That must be a strange feeling, when a day of our life comes and we say, “Tomorrow, success or failure won’t matter much, and the sun will rise, and all the myriads of mankind go to their work or their pleasure as usual, but I shall be out of the turmoil.”

- William Makepeace Thackeray, “Vanity Fair”

"And There Comes A Time..."

“Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right.”

- Martin Luther King Jr.

The Daily "Near You?"

Stockholm, Sweden. Thanks for stopping by!

"As Americans..."

''As Americans, we must ask ourselves: Are we really so different? Must we stereotype those who disagree with us? Do we truly believe that ALL red-state residents are ignorant racist fascist knuckle-dragging NASCAR-obsessed cousin-marrying roadkill-eating tobacco juice-dribbling gun-fondling religious fanatic rednecks; or that ALL blue-state residents are godless unpatriotic pierced-nose Volvo-driving France-loving left-wing communist latte-sucking tofu-chomping holistic-wacko neurotic vegan weenie perverts?''

- Dave Barry

Bill Bonner, "The Conceit of the Living"

"The Conceit of the Living"

What one generation learns, another is quick to forget...

by Bill Bonner

"We do not merely study the past: we inherit it, and inheritance brings with it not only the rights of ownership, but the duties of trusteeship. Things fought for & died for should not be idly squandered. For they are the property of others, who are not yet born." ~ Roger Scruton

Poitou, France - "This week, we are working our way through the good news. Yes, we are in high clover. And like a cow that jumped the fence, now gorging itself on the rich grass, it is fun…until the ‘bloat’ kills us. This morning, on a news program, we saw our old friend Nassim Nicolas Taleb. He warned that there was going to be hell to pay from “fifteen years of zero interest rates. Almost a whole generation forgot that credit has a price. Now, they’re finding out again. It’s going to be painful.”

“As much money as we want”: In the US, the pain has scarcely begun. But as Tom told us yesterday, we can get a preview of it by looking at what is happening in England. Here’s the latest from Bloomberg: "Britain’s mortgage market has become a horror show for borrowers and the government as soaring interest rates threaten to leave households destitute and the economy on the rocks. … Inflation is cooling only slowly, forcing the central bank to go hard on Thursday with a bigger-than-expected hike that took the key rate to 5%.

…The squeeze is eating into incomes, taking away money that might otherwise be spent in stores, bars and restaurants, creating a drag on an economy forecast to grow just 0.2% this year. Only Germany is expected to have a weaker performance among major developed economies."

Taleb: “My advice to investors is to get out of the big AI Tech stocks…and stay away from real estate. “ “But we’ve got the world’s reserve currency,” protested the interviewer. “We can print as much money as we want.” Taleb laughed.

Bordeaux, Burgundy and Bubbles: We’re in France, at a ramshackle chateau we bought nearly 30 years ago. (You may be surprised...) We lived here for more than a decade. Now, we come back to paint the shutters and reassemble the family. The house is big. So, there is plenty of room for our six children and their growing families.

So far, we have only one grandson with us. At 15, he is the oldest of the grandchildren. He’s learning to speak French from a neighbor, learning rough carpentry from his grandfather…and how to ‘faire la bise’ (greeting people in France by kissing them on both cheeks) from his grandmother. Most importantly, we are teaching him vital life skills, such as how to tell a bottle of Bordeaux from a bottle of Burgundy...and how to spot a bubble market when he sees one.

But the Fed has paused. We will take a ‘pause’ of our own. It is a bright, summer day in rural France. Not too hot. Not too cold. There are birds in the trees and lovers, we suppose, in each other’s arms. So, we will sit, like a retired writer in the sun, and take stock.

Our goal here at Bonner Private Research is to ‘connect the dots.’ But there are millions of them…as many as the stars in the night sky. How to make sense of them? We end up looking at clusters…and constellations…groups of them that seem to have a pattern or shape. And hanging over the whole firmament is an insight…a bright light that guides us through the news like a prisoner of war through a minefield.

We are, after all, our fathers’ sons and daughters. And they were the sons of their own fathers and mothers. Each generation had its ideas…its goals…its sense of right and wrong. What makes us think that we are so much smarter than all of them?

They put up monuments. We tear them down.

They believed in free speech. We believe in censorship.

They believed in free markets. We believe the government should control the economy.

They believed boys will be boys and girls will be girls. Now, we think they can be anything they want.

Righteous Racists: For 150 generations, they regulated and protected capital with interest rates; but for the last 15 years our geniuses pretended that they didn’t matter.

In 1990, US Secretary of State James Baker assured Mikhail Gorbachev that Western powers would advance ‘not one inch’ towards Russia. But a generation later, US tanks, drones, and spy satellites are all helping to kill Russian soldiers.

One generation was racist. Another thought racism was bad. Now we are self-righteous racists again, ready to give special privileges to special groups.

One generation believed that deficit spending was practically a sin. Later generations piled up $32 trillion in debt.

One generation believed the ‘Nifty Fifty’ stocks were “one decision” investments. You buy. You hold. You get rich. The next generation thought the dot.coms would make them rich. And now, it is the AI-powered super-Techs.

Each generation is delusional in its own way, ready to pay absurd prices for its favorite assets…and commit murder for its favorite cause. It is what we call the Conceit of the Living, the belief that our ancestors were all imbeciles…and our descendants will thank us every day for leaving them with the Final Truth.

But ‘pride goeth before the fall.’ Fads and fashions change. Which will fade? Which will endure? What will the Big Techs be worth 5 years from now? And how about America’s $100 trillion of real estate. It is priced for a world of 4% mortgages. What will it be worth when investors realize we are in a 7% world? Let’s return to connecting those dots on Monday."

- https://bonnerprivateresearch.substack.com/

Jim Kunstler, "Teachable Moment"

“I’m proud of my son” - Joe Biden

"Teachable Moment"

By Jim Kunstler

“In the wake of the Hunter Biden sweetheart plea deal, calling D.C. a swamp is an insult to swamps and frankly to all wetlands in general. We need to redefine the Clean Water Act to include all Biden adjacent areas.” - Margot Cleveland, Lawyer and legal analyst

"I hope you agree this has been an instructive week for our republic, sinking to the bottom as fast as the Titan submersible on its way to consort with its grandmama, the HMS Titanic. Here’s what I learned, for instance, from Special Counsel John Durham’s visit to the House Judiciary Committee: When asked why he did not seek grand jury testimony from the primary culprits in the Russia Collusion hoax - Comey, McCabe, and Strzok - he told the room it would have been “unproductive” because they habitually claimed to “not recall” anything when testifying in Congress.

That’s an interesting legal theory. If it is so, we must suppose that any witness in a criminal inquiry may decline testifying on the grounds of claiming a defective memory. I’m not a lawyer, of course, but is it not the case that witnesses can be prompted to recall events when presented with evidence? E.g., “…here is your smartphone text of July 29 saying, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll stop him [Trump].’ What means did you have in mind to accomplish that, Mr. Strzok?”

In the four-year lead-up to his personal appearance in the House, many of us were fooled into thinking Mr. Durham was a serious dude. (I sure was.) Turns out the ferocious facial hair masked a rather timorous persona. Mr. Durham apparently did not dare test the boundaries of the narrow lane laid out in the scoping directives set forth by then Attorney General Barr. Mr. D. did find a line of criminal conduct between Lawfare artist Michal Sussmann, the Fusion GPS disinfo company, the DC law firm Perkins Coie, and candidate Hillary MyTurn in the creation and marketing of the Steele Dossier - yet he never called Hillary to do any ‘splainin about it (or anything else she did in 2016). Weird, a little bit.

While his omissions and missteps were spotlighted by the Republican members, Mr. Durham was mugged, kicked to the curb, stomped, and peed-on by the committee Democrats, who still labor to prop-up the dead-letter Russia Collusion fraud against all evidence and reason. As usual, the lead attack dog on that was Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA). He was rewarded the next day with a censure vote for seven years of shameless lying about said fraud, and stripped of his seat on the House Intel Committee, which he used, as then-chairman, to launch Trump Impeachment #1 in 2019 with fake “whistleblower” (and CIA goblin) Eric Ciaramella, whom Mr. Schiff naturally lied about never meeting prior to the proceeding.

We are treated in these twilight months of the “Joe Biden” regime to a cavalcade of revelations laying out the degeneracy of a federal justice system at war with the American people and its shady machinations in service to the Biden family global bribery operation. Late Thursday, the House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), released the affidavit of IRS supervisory special agent Gary Shapley from testimony given in closed session May 26. It disclosed a concerted program by the DOJ to impede, obstruct, delay, divert, and bury a massive tax evasion and fraud case against Hunter Biden, involving millions of dollars garnered from foreign persons and entities for no discernible services performed in return.

I am alleging, with evidence…” Mr. Shapley testified under oath, “…whatever the motivations, at every stage decisions were made that had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation. These decisions included slow-walking investigative steps, not allowing enforcement actions to be executed, limiting investigators’ line of questioning for witnesses, misleading investigators on charging authority, delaying any and all actions months before [the 2020] elections to ensure the investigation did not go overt well before policy memorandum mandated the pause.”

Hunter Biden was code-named “Sportsman” as the case opened in 2018. Red flags in bank transfer records of Hunter B and associates involving millions of dollars triggered the IRS inquiry. It wasn’t until a year later that Hunter’s laptop turned up, crammed with deal memos of bribes paid along with vivid documentary evidence of sex and drug crimes. The FBI verified its authenticity in November of 2019 by matching the device number against Hunter Biden’s Apple iCloud ID.

By the way, note that this was the exact same time that the House Intel Committee under chairman Adam Schiff commenced its impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. AG William Barr and FBI Director Chris Wray therefore knew then that Hunter’s laptop existed and that it contained evidence of suspicious money transactions with Russia, China, and most particularly Ukraine - since Mr. Trump’s impeachment case was based on a telephone query he made to Ukrainian President, Zelensky, regarding the Biden family’s operations there. Neither Mr. Barr nor Mr. Wray alerted Mr. Trump’s lawyers about the evidence contained in the laptop - which would have provided exculpatory proof of a reasonable motive for Mr. Trump’s phone call. How was that not an obstruction of justice?

Mr. Shapley’s testimony is just one thread in the much larger tapestry of Biden family corruption now achieving clarity. Rep. James Comer’s Oversight Committee continues on its deep dive into the Biden family bank transfer records - with its evidence of money laundering through Biden shell company cut-outs - and the direct voice recording evidence of “Joe Biden” discussing his family’s financial arrangements with Petro Poroshenko, then-president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019, plus other damning evidence connected to a “trusted” (and well-paid) FBI human confidential source in the much fought over FD-1023 document recently surrended to the Oversight Committee.

In short, the tide is going out even as the sun sets on “Joe Biden” as President. He and his handlers may believe they enjoy the protection of a compliant news media, but even that has its limits. Impeachment is coming, even if not as fast as Rep. Lauren Boebert wants it to, and if and when it does, there will be no ignoring the stark presentation of hard evidence - no matter how much MSNBC’s Joy-Ann Reid snorts and cackles.

Meanwhile, please understand that “Joe Biden” is only pretending to run for reelection and his party is pretending along with him just for the present desperate moment. Before long, their whole reeking, creaking edifice of lies and bad faith will come crashing down. Joe Biden will have to resign or the nation will be treated to the spectacle, this time, of a trial in the senate for real cause, bribery and treason, not just fake animus. And then, not even Gavin Newsom will be able to save the Democratic Party in its present alignment and foul habits. If it survives at all, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will have to rebuild it from the ground up and expel the demons infesting it."

- https://kunstler.com/

- https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/

"How It Really Is"

 

"Nuclear War Emergency Update: Drastic Escalation Imminent?"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 6/23/23

"Nuclear War Emergency Update: 

Drastic Escalation Imminent?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

These psychopaths are absolutely determined to get us all killed...

o

“When the pain of leaving behind what we know outweighs the pain of embracing it, or when the power we face is overwhelming and neither flight nor fight will save us, there may be salvation in sitting still. And if salvation is impossible, then at least before perishing we may gain a clearer vision of where we are. By sitting still I do not mean the paralysis of dread, like that of a rabbit frozen beneath the dive of a hawk. I mean something like reverence, a respectful waiting, a deep attentiveness to forces much greater than our own.”

- Scott Russell Sanders

Folks, I fear our time for such reverence is here.

God help us, God help us all...

"The Boom Is Over, The Bust Is Underway; Collapse Of The Midwest; RV Sales Crushed"

Jeremiah Babe, 6/23/23

"The Boom Is Over, The Bust Is Underway; 

Collapse Of The Midwest; RV Sales Crushed"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"I Hope This Is True"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 6/23/23

"I Hope This Is True"

"The fight of the century could take place soon. Elon Musk

 and Mark Zuckerberg want to fight each other. Will it happen?"

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Massive Price Increases At Aldi! This Is Ridiculous! Not Good!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 6/23/23

"Massive Price Increases At Aldi! This Is Ridiculous! Not Good!"

"In today's vlog we are at Aldi and are noticing massive price increases! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices and shelf stable grocery items we can add to our preps! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with keeping prices down due to inflation and many other reasons!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 6/23/23"

"Weekly News Wrap-Up 6/23/23"

by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Many House GOP members want to impeach President Biden for taking bribes from foreign countries. The U.S. Constitution clearly states this is a reason to kick a President out of the White House. The FBI and DOJ have not been slow walking their investigations into the Biden grifting family, they have been moon walking them backwards. Speaker Kevin McCarthy is blocking the impeachment of President Biden, but he is in for a fight from his own party on what many say is obvious bribe taking in the millions of dollars for Biden and his clan.

The American public is totally in the dark about how bad the increasing war is in Ukraine. We are told one lie after another about what is going on, as Washington shovels cash into the black hole called Ukraine. Putin is warning of a coming nuclear conflict, but his warnings are falling on deaf ears. Why is the drive for war so great in Washington? Is it because the dollar system is about to crash with the introduction of the new “BRICS+” currency? Fed Head Jay Powell is fighting inflation, but is he really raising interest rates to protect the dollar from a massive devaluation after it is no longer the world’s reserve currency? If the dollar falls, how high will inflation rise?

There is new data out that says 600,000 Americans a year are dying from the CV19bioweapon/vax. It just keeps killing people. The CV19 injections are also disabling people at a much higher pace than its kill rate. People are waking up to this nightmare, and it won’t be long before enough people wake to totally put a stop to the carnage, and jail the evil people who pushed this genocide on America and the world. There is a lot more in the 52-minute newscast."

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these

 stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 6/23/23.

- https://rumble.com/

"Alert! Ukraine Military Draft Begins; NATO Blows Up Bridge In Crimea; Russian Bombers Airborne"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 6/22/23

"Alert! Ukraine Military Draft Begins; 

NATO Blows Up Bridge In Crimea; Russian Bombers Airborne"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

"There are a multitude of fuses affixed to dozens of powder-kegs and little kids with matches are on the loose. I don’t know which of the fuses will be lit and which powder-keg will blow, but someone is bound to do something stupid, and then all hell will break loose. It could happen at any time. One military miscue. One assassination. One violent act that stirs the world. And the dominoes will topple, setting off fireworks not seen on this planet since 1939 – 1945. I can see it all very clearly."

- Jim Quinn

- https://austincountynewsonline.com/

"The Great American Purge Is Approaching, Plan For Emergency Now"

Jeremiah Babe, 6/22/23

"The Great American Purge Is Approaching, 

Plan For Emergency Now"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Subway Reports Biggest Store Shutdowns In Two Decades As Fast Food Chains Collapse All Around Us"

Full screen recommended.

"Subway Reports Biggest Store Shutdowns In 

Two Decades As Fast Food Chains Collapse All Around Us"

By Epic Economist

Subway is now shuttering a huge number of stores, and new reports reveal that the mass closures have just brought the chain to its smallest size in almost two decades. The company has been struggling financially for years, and right now executives are trying to sell the decaying franchise to the highest bidder. The retail apocalypse, recent controversies, and higher competition are just some of the issues that are devastating the largest sandwich shop chain in the world, and in today’s video, we decided to expose what is truly behind Subway’s downfall.

The chain’s financial problems are well documented. The company overexpanded, often forcing franchisees to build stores near existing locations. The sheer number of restaurants meant that each individual store generated less revenue per unit. And that started to erode Subway’s operations from within.

After years of facing increasing operational costs, falling sales, and declining profitability, many franchisees had no other choice but to start eliminating the stores that were reporting disappointing financial results. According to data released by Reuters, over the past 12 months alone almost 600 Subway restaurants closed doors in the US. But these closures are added on top of the thousands of stores the franchise shuttered in recent years.

Citing over-expansion, outdated operations and decor, stale menus, and $5-footlong deals that hurt profits, the chain closed over 1,000 in 2021 and 1,609 in 2020, according to an April 25 disclosure document obtained by Reuters that Subway provides to franchisees interested in purchasing locations. Since 2016, more than 6,500 Subway restaurants, or one in every four locations, have disappeared from the US market, as reported by Restaurant Business.

In 2023, Subway’s store Count hit the lowest total since 2005, and franchisees continue to report growing problems inside the company, with some of them exposing that the fast food giant charges operators markups of up to 700 percent on products.

The worsening problems between corporate executives and franchisees, mass closings, financial difficulties, and a dozen lawsuits have greatly accelerated the demise of the fast food titan. Now Subway is trying to sell its business to the highest bidder.

In May, dozens of multi-unit operators - the more sophisticated, financially sound franchisees that Subway desires - examined the possibility of entering the chain's system by buying swaths of restaurants but walked away after seeing how little money they made, according to two of their advisers.

Although Subway has not revealed the average annual sales volume for its U.S. restaurants, industry experts and insiders estimate the figure is less than $500,000, which would make it one of the lowest in the entire industry. Rival sandwich shops Jersey Mike's and Firehouse Subs generate more than $1.1 million and $900,000 respectively, according to QSR Magazine.

For now, no one has shown interest in saving the struggling chain. It will be hard to find a buyer that would want to get involved with the company’s mess. It is looking like Subway’s empire is crashing down right before us, and what we’ve seen so far is surely just the beginning of its collapse."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Scott Ritter, "Ukraine Update 6/22/23"

Scott Ritter, 

"The Devastating Battle For Bakhmut"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Scott Ritter, 

"The Counter-Offensive is Over"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

“They Burn Quite Well”

“They Burn Quite Well”

By Tass

"Ukraine’s troops understand that they don’t stand a chance against heroic and courageous fighters of the Russian Armed Forces, President Vladimir Putin emphasized on Wednesday. “Thanks to the courage and heroism of our fighters, thanks to the commanders’ readiness to repel any aggressive actions against Russia, I believe, the enemy doesn’t stand a chance. They understand that and this is why they have stalled now,” Putin said at the meeting with military college graduates, answering a question from reporter Pavel Zarubin.

“Ukrainian forces began [the counteroffensive] on June 4, engaging strategic reserves. Curiously, we currently observe a certain lull at this moment,” the president said, adding that “this is due to the enemy suffering serious casualties in personnel and in vehicles.” According to the president, “there are individual elements of hostilities going on: shelling, reconnaissance-in-force.” “But, I repeat, there is currently no active offensive,” Putin added. Meanwhile, he noted: “As of today, we see that the enemy’s offensive potential has not been depleted yet; the enemy has reserves and it thinks where and how to use them.”

Speaking about the destroyed Western vehicles, Putin underscored that these numbers keep growing. “How much – that would require a look at the numbers. The total as of last night was 245 tanks and 678 armored vehicles of various types. Of course, that includes Leopards, French wheeled vehicles, US-made armored vehicles – everything,” the president said. “They burn quite well.”

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

"Cannot Get Any More Blunt..."

"Cannot get any more blunt than this from Lavrov. "If NATO, through the mouth of Stoltenberg, once again declares that they are against freezing, as they say, the conflict in Ukraine, then they want to fight,” Lavrov told a press conference. “Well, let them fight, we are ready for this, we have long understood the goals of NATO in the situation around Ukraine, which have been formed for many years.”

Blunt and almost nonchalant. All this while Putin speaking to graduates of military academies described the future: "Strengthening the armed forces is one of Russia’s top priorities, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with graduates of military academies in Moscow on Wednesday. The nation’s military will evolve on the basis of the “priceless experience” provided by the ongoing military operation in Ukraine, as well as the modern challenges Russia is facing, he added. Russia’s nuclear triad will remain a focus of the military development efforts," Putin said, adding that it remains “a key guarantee of Russia’s military security and global stability.” Around half of Russia’s strategic land-based missile units have already been equipped with state-of-the-art Yars missiles – some of Russia’s most modern nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles, Putin revealed.

Putin also stressed hypersonic weapons and Russia's Navy Commander Admiral Evmenov stated that newest weapons will begin to be deployed not "soon, but immediately". Pretty self-evident, really. Naturally VSU complaint about German tanks, Germans told them to shove it (in Russian). Things are getting curioser and curioser."

- https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/

Musical Interlude: Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Footprints On The Sea"

Gnomusy (David Caballero),

 "Footprints On The Sea"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Fans of our fair planet might recognize the outlines of these cosmic clouds. On the left, bright emission outlined by dark, obscuring dust lanes seems to trace a continental shape, lending the popular name North America Nebula to the emission region cataloged as NGC 7000. To the right, just off the North America Nebula's east coast, is IC 5070, whose avian profile suggests the Pelican Nebula. The two bright nebulae are about 1,500 light-years away, part of the same large and complex star forming region, almost as nearby as the better-known Orion Nebula. At that distance, the 3 degree wide field of view would span 80 light-years.

This careful cosmic portrait uses narrow band images combined to highlight the bright ionization fronts and the characteristic glow from atomic hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen gas. These nebulae can be seen with binoculars from a dark location. Look northeast of bright star Deneb in the constellation Cygnus the Swan."

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