Dan, I Allegedly, "Get Ready for Black Outs!"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, AM 7/28/25

"Get Ready for Black Outs!"

"Get ready, folks - summer 2025 might just bring blackouts across 37 states! In this video, I’m breaking down why our energy grid is under massive strain, thanks to aging infrastructure, increased demand, and the push toward renewable energy. With nuclear plants retiring and extreme weather on the rise, this could lead to rolling blackouts affecting millions. From the challenges of renewable energy to outdated grids and natural disasters, this is a wake-up call for all of us. We’re also talking about how rising energy costs, Bitcoin mining, and data centers are taking a toll on the grid, and what this means for small towns, rural hospitals, and basic services. Plus, I dive into how this might impact your daily life, from air conditioning to electric vehicles, and even the cost of essentials like food and housing."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

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Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, PM 7/28/25

"You Need to Pay the National Debt - Venmo Accepted!"

"You won’t believe this - our federal government is now accepting Venmo and PayPal to pay down the national debt! Yes, you can literally swipe your card or transfer funds to help tackle the $36 trillion debt. In today’s video, I break down how this wild program works, the shocking amount donated in 29 years, and why it’s stirring up reactions everywhere. Plus, I dive into other big updates: strikes among Boeing machinists and grocery workers, Panera Bread’s controversial decision to stop baking bread in stores, and even Jeff Bezos selling billions in stock (is he buying CNBC?). Of course, there’s a bit about the rising popularity of “buy now, pay later” for groceries and why AI-driven pricing in Norway might just be our future."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Bill Bonner, "Hail Caesar"

"Hail Caesar"

by Bill Bonner

"Men in general are quick to believe 

that which they wish to be true."

- Julius Caesar

Poitou, France - "Another trade deal! Fortune: "Dow futures rise on US-EU trade pact as investors brace for fast and furious week of earnings, China talks, Fed, GDP, jobs report, tariff deadline." The headlines describe the new deal with the EU as another ‘win’ for Trump. While it may be a ‘lose’ for the American people, it is nevertheless a big part of Trump’s appeal. He’s a real leader. Where he goes, there also will the MAGA faithful go. And when he wins, even when the victory is an underhanded 15% federal sales tax, a substantial number of voters think they win too.

“Trump” must be one of the most repeated proper nouns in world history. But media coverage is shallow. The mainstream press is either pro-Trump or anti-Trump. Rarely does it bother to wonder why it is either. Trump holds the most powerful position in the world. And yet, he is no Eisenhower. He’s no economist. No statesman. No historian. No philosopher. Today, we wonder what he is.

Oswald Spengler’s prediction - made in the 1930s - was that democratic rule-based governments would peak out around the year 2000 and then give way to ‘Caesarism.’ Julius Caesar took power in Rome...essentially sidelining the more consensual, more dispersed power of the Senate. He is blamed for turning Rome from a republic into an empire...with a strongman at the top of it. Few people realized what it meant at the time. Even after Augustus proclaimed himself emperor in 27 BC the Senate still met. The ‘rules’ were still there — ‘on the books.’ And yet, the character of Rome itself had changed in a fundamental way.

The Donald did not cross the East River with his army and march on Washington. And the US was a kind of crypto-empire long before he got to the White House. Nevertheless, he is the first ‘big man’ US president who might be seen as ‘Caesarish.’ And he is not alone.

All around the world, social democrats are giving way to ‘populists.’ Or strongmen. The New York Times: "Japan’s Long-Dominant Party Suffers Election Defeat as Voters Swing Right." The loss on Sunday left the Liberal Democrats a minority party in both houses of Parliament, while two new nationalist parties surged. But a ‘swing to the right’ is not what we’re talking about. Today’s caesars are what we might call ‘non-binary.’ Like college students with blue hair and tattoos, they swing both ways. And in the most important matter, they swing to the left...towards more power for themselves and the government.

In the deal negotiated last week with Japan, the Japanese supposedly agreed to a 15% tariff on goods shipped to the US. Japan also was said to agree to invest $550 billion into the US...with the feds having a say as to who gets the money. But what kind of government wants to tell citizens how much they have to pay for Japanese imports...and how Japan should invest its money in the US? Liberal? Conservative? Or something else?

‘Liberals’ want more laws...more rules to force people to do what they want. Recycle your trash. Drive an EV. Pay a higher minimum wage. The rules can cover just about anything and everything. Conservatives believe in rules too. They just want the important ones – thou shalt not steal…thou shalt not kill, etc. They also want rules – such as the US Constitution – that make it hard for the feds to impose additional rules. “Congress shall make no law…etc.”

The Big Man, on the other hand, doesn’t believe in rules at all. Not the liberal rules. Not in the conservative rules either. He is the law. He is the State. His will is writ. The Strongman focuses on ends, not means. He promises results - getting rid of immigrants...imposing tariffs…and so forth. And if the rules get in the way, the Strongman ignores them, or removes the judges. CBS: "3 immigration judges speak out about their firings: "Attack on the rule of law." George Pappas, Jennifer Peyton and Carla Espinoza were all federal immigration judges fired this month by email. The three ruled on thousands of immigration cases in Chicago and Boston."

Trump speaks to the soul of an angry and disappointed people. His triumphs are their triumphs. He is their champion, come what may. When Trump says he has ‘won’ a great victory in his negotiations with Japan, for example, the glow of success shines on them, however feebly and briefly, like the blue light of a wrecked police car."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Jaw-dropping Prices at Meijer"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, AM 7/28/25

"Jaw-dropping Prices at Meijer"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

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Full screen recommended.

Snyder Reports, 7/28/25

"The End Of Bananas In The United States"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jim Kunstler, "Jailhouse Blues"

"Jailhouse Blues"

by Jim Kunstler

"Tulsi Gabbard didn’t assume the role of Director of 

National Intelligence to play ceremonial dress-up." 

-Toresays.com on "X"

"You must suspect there’s some game afoot in this Epstein business. Only days ago, it was “fuggeddabowdit...nuthin’ there...get over it.” But then, only days later, the second-in-command at DOJ, Todd Blanche, formerly the president’s personal lawyer, was down in Tallahassee deposing Jeffrey Epstein’s second-in-command, Ghislaine Maxwell. (Note: a deposition is testimony outside of court, recorded under oath.) The Deputy Attorney General deposed her for two days, Friday and Saturday, a total of nine hours. You can do a lot of talking in nine hours.

And were you shocked to learn - as has been broadly reported - that through all these years of EpsteinEpsteinEpstein, Ms. Maxwell has never been interviewed by any state or federal law enforcement official or government lawyer? How was that possible? By the way, no government official has interviewed billionaire Les Wexner, Epstein’s chief benefactor, over all these years, either? How is that possible? (Follow the money, as they say.)

Meanwhile, down in Florida, as reported by Brian O’Shea of The Daily Clout, it turns out that the federal district judge, Robin Rosenberg, who just ruled against Mr. Trump’s request to unseal the 2005 - 2007 Florida Epstein grand jury transcripts, is married to one Michael McCauliffe, former Palm Beach County State’s Attorney (equivalent of district attorney, DA), who helped negotiate the special 2008 “sweetheart” plea deal that allowed Epstein significant freedoms, such as frequent travel, including to his Little St. James Island, despite being under house arrest. Are you going, “Hmmmmmm...? Any conflict of interest in that ruling? (Note: Current US AG Pam Bondi did not become Florida AG until 2011.)

So, it appears that there will now be two sets of “Epstein files” to sort out: 1) the DOJ’s file curated under AG Merrick Garland, and 2) whatever follows from never-before asked questions put to Ghislaine Maxwell in late July 2025. One thing you might infer: if the Merrick Garland files contained any defamatory “kompromat” about Donald Trump, wouldn’t it have been used during the election of 2024? Mr. Garland went along with every other ploy used to defame and convict Mr. Trump under color of law. But not that? Ergo, fuggeddabowdit.

Where the Epstein business goes now is anybody’s guess, but you have to doubt that it will go nowhere. Ms. Maxwell’s attorney, David O. Markus, stated to reporters that she “answered every single question asked of her” over the two days, emphasizing that she responded “honestly, truthfully, and to the best of her ability” without invoking any privileges or declining to answer. There is chatter on the Internet that Ms. Maxwell’s testimony affords an opportunity for the FBI/DOJ to open an entirely fresh Epstein investigation, untainted by whatever Merrick Garland was sitting on.

Okay, I reckon that’s enough for you to chew on about EpsteinEpsteinEpstein for today. Let’s turn to the other giant stinking dead carp wafting its miasma over Washington DC: RussiaRussiaRussia. CIA chief John Ratcliffe promised on Sunday to disclose the so-called “annex” files to John Durham’s special counsel report. Mr. Ratcliffe implied that the material is rather serious. He also emphasized that the statute of limitations will not apply in any forthcoming RussiaGate cases because the matter represents an ongoing (until even now) conspiracy. Mr. Ratcliffe, you may recall, before getting elected to Congress, was a US Attorney for the eastern district of Texas (as Chief of Anti-Terrorism and National Security), so he knows quite a bit about prosecuting federal cases.

Dunno about you, but I would like to know a little bit more about Christopher Wray’s activities regarding both Epstein and RussiaGate during his long tenure, seven years and five months (2017 – 2025) as FBI Director. In previous testimony before various committees of Congress, Mr. Wray, uniformly invoked “ongoing investigations” as the reason for not answering any germane questions about, well, anything and everything. Does he not deserve a session or two of interrogation with Kash Patel’s FBI agents, or depositions under oath with lawyers from the DOJ now, without the shield of protecting investigations of an agency he no longer runs? He has a lot to answer for, including the J-6 business and associated pipe-bomb matter - both of which might be construed as part of an ongoing conspiracy against a sitting president (and three-time candidate).

Is all this some “conspiracy theory”? No, an actual conspiracy as spelled out in the federal statutes: Conspiracy under Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, Conspiracy to defraud the United States... 18 U.S. Code § 241, Conspiracy against rights... and 18 U.S. Code § 242, Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law.

Add to that: perjury under oath, obstruction of justice, lying to the FBI. It’s a pretty rich menu. Someone, maybe more than a few someones, will be going to jail."

- https://www.kunstler.com/

"Economic Market Snapshot 7/28/25"

"Economic Market Snapshot 7/28/25"

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Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...

Only the consequences are real - to you!

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"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 

You and I are not in the Big Club."

- George Carlin

o

Market Data Center, Live Updates:

- https://www.marketwatch.com/market-data 

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- https://www.asktraders.com/analysis/

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Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."

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- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

Job cuts and much more.

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- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

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- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

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- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

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- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

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Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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"The more I see of the monied classes,

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

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Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...

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And now... The End Game...

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Greg Hunter, "Going to See A Lot of Death & Democide"

"Going to See A Lot of Death & Democide"

by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Three months ago, Dr. Betsy Eads said, “Everyone Needs Treatment for CV19 Bioweapon Vax.” Anyone who thinks this story is going away is not paying attention to the vast numbers of people who were fooled and pressured into taking these destructive mRNA injections. 270 million Americans has been injected, and it does not wear off. The CV19 injections are self-replicating and self-amplifying. A recent Yaly study showed damaging spike proteins more than 700 days after the last CV19 injection. Every week there is another new study on the awful effects of the CV19 bioweapon vax. Now, we learn that there are more threats coming from the same dark and evil powers that brought us “gain of function” Covid 19 and the bioweapon injections that followed. Dr. Betsy says, “If they are planning a frequency attack, EMP attack or release of another bioweapon that Karen Kingston was talking about, whether aerosolized, transdermal or high frequency, we are going to see a lot of death and a lot of culling. This is democide by definition. The definition is your own government killing you with a bioweapon. This is democide, and it must stop now. I encourage everybody to write a letter or call your Representatives in Congress. We have bills to stop the Prep Act. And, we have bills to stop the indemnity (CV19 liability shield). I am imploring you to do something. ‘We the People’ need to stand up and take our country back. Don’t sit back and do nothing.”

Instead of getting people treatment, they are putting up posters in schools on kids and cardiac arrest. They are gaslighting people into thinking a 15-year-old having a heart attack is common and not out of the ordinary. It is totally ordinary if you have been vaxed with a CV19 bioweapon. Dr. Betsy says, “We are getting ready to send our kids back to school, and these posters are going up. It’s not just in Canada, they are going up here in the United States and our schools. Defibrillators are going up in all the schools. There are more than 2,000 athletes worldwide that have died on the field in whatever sport: football, soccer, basketball and hockey. Athletes have been dying all over the world of sudden cardiac death. 52% know somebody in their personal family or a personal friend that have been damaged by these shots. 25% of Americans know a close family member who has died. So, we still have to get to a lot of Americans that are not getting the information.”

In closing, Dr. Betsy says, “If you have been vaxed and boosted, you need to be on Ivermectin. I like The Wellness company Ivermectin Mebendazole combination. If you have been vaxed and boosted, your risk of developing a cancer is high.” Dr. Betsy goes on to point out that unvaxed people can be made sick by being shed on from CV19 vaxed people." There is much more in the 60-minute interview.

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks to 26-year veteran Dr. Elizabeth Eads, DO, exposing growing problems of the CV19 injections. Dr. Eads still advises that everyone both vaxed and unvaxed needs treatment for the deadly effects of the CV19 bioweapon vax.

- https://rumble.com/

God help you if you've taken this shot...

Jeremiah Babe, "We Are Sleep Walking Into WW3 And A Depression"

Jeremiah Babe, 7/27/25

"We Are Sleep Walking Into WW3 And A Depression, 

We're In Serious Trouble As The Economy Is Dismantled"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"15 Shocking Facts About The Messed Up State Of The U.S. Economy"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 7/27/25

"15 Shocking Facts About The 

Messed Up State Of The U.S. Economy"

"Ask 1,000 Americans about the economy and you'll get 1,000 different answers. But what's really going on? In this video, I'm going to show you facts that can't be argued with. I focus on the actual numbers, not the noise. And these numbers are telling a very disturbing story. Here are 15 facts about the messed up State of the U.S. economy that nobody can deny."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "River Timeless"

Deuter, "River Timeless"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"These three bright nebulae are often featured in telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius and the crowded starfields of the central Milky Way. In fact, 18th century cosmic tourist Charles Messier cataloged two of them; M8, the large nebula left of center, and colorful M20 on the right. The third, NGC 6559, is above M8, separated from the larger nebula by a dark dust lane. All three are stellar nurseries about five thousand light-years or so distant.

The expansive M8, over a hundred light-years across, is also known as the Lagoon Nebula. M20's popular moniker is the Trifid. Glowing hydrogen gas creates the dominant red color of the emission nebulae, with contrasting blue hues, most striking in the Trifid, due to dust reflected starlight. The colorful skyscape recorded with telescope and digital camera also includes one of Messier's open star clusters, M21, just above the Trifid."

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

"Not Sorry..."

"Who is more responsible than a gull who finds and follows meaning, a higher purpose for life? For a thousand years we have scrabbled after fish heads, but now we have a reason to live - to learn, to discover, to be free! How much more there is now to living! Instead of our drab slogging forth and back to the fishing boats, there’s reason to life! We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can be free! We can learn to fly!"

"What he had once hoped for the Flock, he now gained for himself alone;

he learned to fly, and was not sorry for the price that he had paid...”

- Richard Bach, 

“Jonathan Livingston Seagull”

Freely download “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”, by Richard Bach, here:

- https://dn721603.ca.archive.org/

"Compassion..."

"Compassion is not at all weak. It is the strength that arises out of seeing the true nature of suffering in the world. Compassion allows us to bear witness to that suffering, whether it is in ourselves or others, without fear; it allows us to name injustice without hesitation, and to act strongly, with all the skill at our disposal. To develop this mind state of compassion... is to learn to live, as the Buddha put it, with sympathy for all living beings, without exception."

- Sharon Salzberg

“Live Webcams Give Unique View Of Alaskan Bears Fishing For Salmon”

“Live Webcams Give Unique View 

Of Alaskan Bears Fishing For Salmon”

by Lee Rannals

“New webcams have been set up for the Internet public’s viewing, and this time they are capturing the iconic scene of bears snatching their lunch out of a river. Explore.org set up live HD video streams of giant brown bears in Alaska catching salmon in Katmai National Park. Anyone with an Internet connection can now watch these bears catching their dinner by typing “explore.org/bears” in their browser by clicking the links above.

The Brooks Falls cam is located on the banks of a five foot high waterfall, where as many as thirty bears have been spotted at a time catching salmon trying to make their way upstream to spawn. Another camera is located at the mouth of Brooks River and the entrance of Naknek Lake, where nearly 100 bears in the area utilize the lower river to feast on salmon and raise their young before hibernation.

Explore.org said that it will be unleashing additional cameras in the area, one of which will feature an area showing off a part of the river with safe water currents and levels where mothers and their cubs come to take advantage of the salmon-rich area. A Dumpling Mountain camera is also being set up to provide a bird’s eye view of the area, in addition to 10,000 Smokes, which is the site of the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century.

“A trip to Katmai National Park is a once in a lifetime event for most people and for nature and bear lovers and children everywhere, it is an impractical proposition,” Roy Wood, Chief of Interpretation at Katmai National Park, who spearheaded the initiative with explore.org, said in a press release. “By installing live cams we are giving people the chance to experience the bears, learn from their behaviors and develop the same strong emotional connection almost everyone who comes here has.”

The cameras are the latest edition to explore.org’s Pearls of the Planet initiative, which is a portfolio of video feeds installed throughout the world to show off animals in their natural habitats. This concept is driven by the idea of trying to educate people and deepen their connection to fall in love with nature again. “To me Alaska is one of the last great natural cathedrals on the planet–and the bears and salmon are the high priests in a scared place,” Charles Annenberg, founder of explore.org and VP of the Annenberg Foundation, said in a press release. “We hope people turn to this for inspiration and when they do, they will see lessons these creatures have for us- about cohabitation, instinct hand beauty.”

- http://www.redorbit.com/

View the bears, and many other fascinating livecams  here:

- https://explore.org/livecams/

The Daily "Near You?"

Bessemer, Alabama, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Is It A Bad Sign?"

 

"Thought..."

"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth, more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man."

- Bertrand Russell

"Five percent of the people think;

ten percent of the people think they think;

and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think."

- Thomas A. Edison.

"Language and Thought"

"Language and Thought"

by Walter E. Williams

"Seventeenth-century poet and intellect John Milton predicted, “When language in common use in any country becomes irregular and depraved, it is followed by their ruin and degradation.” Gore Vidal, his 20th-century intellectual successor, elaborated saying: “As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate.” Sloppy language permits people to get away with speaking and doing all manner of destructive nonsense without being challenged.

Let’s look at the concept of “white privilege,” the notion that white people have benefited in American history relative to, and at the expense of, “people of color.” It appears to be utter nonsense to suggest that poor and destitute Appalachian whites have white privilege. How can one tell if a person has white privilege? One imagines that the academic elite, who coined the term, refer to whites of a certain socioeconomic status such as living in the suburbs with the privilege of high-income amenities.

But here is a question: Do Nigerians in the U.S. have white privilege? As reported by the New York Post this summer, 17% of all Nigerians in this country hold master’s degrees, 4% hold a doctorate and 37% hold a bachelor’s degree, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey. By contrast, 19% of whites have a bachelor’s degree, 8% have master’s degrees and 1% have doctorates.

What about slavery? Colleges teach our young people that the U.S. became rich on the backs of free black labor. That is utter nonsense. Slavery does not have a very good record of producing wealth. Think about it. Slavery was all over the South and outlawed in most of the North. I doubt that anyone would claim that the antebellum South was rich, and the slave-starved North was poor. The truth is just the opposite. In fact, the poorest states and regions of our country were places where slavery flourished: Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, while the richest states and regions were those where slavery was outlawed: Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

Speaking of holding people accountable for slavery, there is no way that Europeans could have captured millions of Africans. They had African and Arab help. There would not have been much black slavery in the U.S., and the western hemisphere in general, without Africans exchanging other Africans to European slave traders at the coast for guns, mirrors, cloths, foreign alcoholic beverages and gold dust.

Some of the greatest language mischief is related to terms such as racial “disparities,” “gaps” and “disproportionality.” These terms are taken as signs of injustice that must be corrected. The median income of women is less than that of men. Black and Hispanic students are suspended and expelled at higher rates than white students. There are other race disparities and gaps all over the place. For example, blacks are 13% of the population but 80% of professional basketball players and 66% of professional football players, and on top of that, they’re some of the most highly paid players.

To be consistent with leftist ideology, those numbers seem to suggest that there is some kind of injustice toward Asian, white and Hispanic basketball and football players. But before we run off thinking that everything is hunky-dory for black players in football, how many times have you seen a black player kick an extra point in professional football?

What should be done to address these and other gross disparities? How can we make basketball, football, dressage and ice hockey, classical music concert attendance, not to mention incarceration, look more like America? In general, we should ignore disproportionality. There is no evidence, anywhere in the world, suggesting that people sort out in any activity according to their numbers in the general population.

The best thing that we can do is clean up our language. That will have the added benefit of straightening out our thinking so that we do not permit leftists to get away with making us feel guilty and believing in utter nonsense."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University.

"Sometime In Your Life..."

"Sometime in your life, hope that you might see one starved man, the look on his face when the bread finally arrives. Hope that you might have baked it or bought or even kneaded it yourself. For that look on his face, for your meeting his eyes across a piece of bread, you might be willing to lose a lot, or suffer a lot, or die a little, even."

- Daniel Berrigan

"Anarchy on the Metro"

"Anarchy on the Metro"

by Joel Bowman

“Only by living absurdly is it possible to break out of this infinite absurdity.”

- Horacio Oliveira, from Julio Cortázar’s "Hopscotch"

Paris, France - "Politics aside. Something a bit different for you this lazy Sunday, dear reader: A petite vignette from La Ville Lumière. Let’s call it, Anarchy on the Metro… Who are these people? Young. Old. Black. White. Ugly. Pretty. Prettier. And drunk too. Some of them are very drunk. Good for them…

Your editor is aboard the Metro, riding from Basilique de Saint-Denis back to the 5th, after dinner with some new friends. Paella and Beaujolais, in unequal portions. A warm night. The old carriage rattles along, screeching around corners and grinding to a halt at near-deserted platforms. We begin to drift off, lulled into reverie by the swaying of the train and the white noise around us.

Who are these people? What are their dreams, their stories? Are they celebrating…or commiserating? What do they want? Will they ever get it?

A man to the left, seated a few rows in front of us, reads from a tattered novel. Everybody reads on the metro in Paris, either from their smartphones or, like this gentleman, old school-style. Paper. Ink. Other people’s dog-ears. An unknown name scrawled on the flyleaf. More unknown names, people we’ll never meet but who the author wished to thank. Leaning over, we recognize the title: "La Peste". Camus, Albert. Probably every Frenchman has read it at least once. Must read that one again. Add it to the list. Along with Kierkegaard… and Kafka… and Musil...Every few stations the man looks up. When was the last time a dead existentialist caused him to miss his stop?

Body by body, the carriage fills up. Soon the man disappears, hidden behind the olive corduroy pants of another stranger and, occasionally, when the train veers right, by his wife’s dress. A maxi dress, they’re called. Perfect for concealing un étranger on any train. Arms shoot up to the bars as more people push inside. The distance between the stations and passengers grows smaller by the stop. Growing smaller. An oxymoron. Like being alone together, acting naturally, in deafening silence.

Several more languages board at La Fourche. Arabic, Maghrebi and Levantine, along with Turkish, Darija, and the sui generis French of les Pieds-Noirs. Our little train. Babelfish in tunnels. Must improve Spanish upon returning to Buenos Aires.

Place de Clichy. On hobbles a woman bent by years, pushing a stroller full of plastic bags and socks and tissues and newspapers (not today’s) and a shoe. A young fellow, who sat down before seeing her, yields his seat. The elderly woman, nodding gratefully, offers a newspaper in return. Not from the top of the pile, mind you, one hand selected from near the bottom. The young man smiles, then dives into events from around the world, as relayed by a journalist rushing to meet a deadline now long since expired.

Who are these people? It’s chaotic here. Voluntary exchanges, absurdist literature and editorial time travel. Anarchy…and on a public train.

Kisses. Two canoodling couples board at the same station. One couple pecking, sheepishly, hands gently touching. The other pair are old school-style. French. Passionate. Movies shot under soft lamplight on the Pont des Arts. The time-bent woman smiles at the old-schoolers, recalling the movies, silent in black and white. Chautard, Desprès and her favorite, the piquant Bordon. More people board at Saints Augustin and Philippe du Roule and at Miromesnil in between.

Where is that cafe in which Sartre wrote? And smoked. And wrote some more. Did he kiss de Beauvoir on the metro like this? Old school-style?

Mr. and Mrs. Corduroy alight at Champs Elysees Clemenceau. L’Étranger hasn’t (yet?) missed his stop. He and his dead existentialist sit in silence, positively engrossed in one and other. On hops a man with burns on his face and an accordion on his belly.

Sings Piaf: "Son homme est un artiste/C’est un drôle de petit gars/Un accordéoniste/Qui sait jouer la java…"

The passengers, tight-pressed in their hurtling carriage, listen and sway to the tunes filling the space between their tired bodies. A soundtrack for their stories, their embraces, their anachronistic opinion pages. For a sweet tune, the musician’s face appears full, healthy. Two or three give money. He thanks everyone just the same. “Merci. Merci beaucoup. Bon voyage.”

Silence falls. Two men with guns board at Invalides. Their feet clad in jackboots. Clenched jaws. Weapons belts. Instruments of torture and pain. No smiles. Just badges. Of a sudden our fellow passengers are all nerves and anxiety, finding excuses to avert their gaze written on each other’s shoes. The screeching of the train grows louder, violent. A gnashing of metal on metal. The Maghrebs are quiet. L’Étranger closes Camus and stares out the window, into the oily void. The music is gone from the space between us. The air, through which a bullet might fly, hangs heavy. Brute force, implied and real, mixed with fear.

We aren’t due to change (to the 10) until Duroc. Three stops. What if…? But at the very last moment, Saint Francis Xavier performs a miracle. Between stops Varenne and Duroc, his station platform shoulders our burden, delivering the gendarmes into the dark and bleary night..."

- https://joelbowman.substack.com/

"How It Really Is"

With U.S. debt now at $36.7 trillion, the cost of the interest bill

alone on all that borrowing is about $3 billion a day. A quick calculation:

the USA is paying out over a trillion in interest this year. This is  was our money folks.

"Why Americans Favorite Fast Food Restaurants Are Shutting Down"

Full screen recommended.

Snyder Reports, 7/27/25

"Why Americans Favorite Fast 

Food Restaurants Are Shutting Down"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Are We Heading for Another Great Depression?"

Full screen recommended.

The Invisible Hand, 7/27/25

"Are We Heading for Another Great Depression?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

WT Finance, 7/27/25

1929 Repeat As Credit Bubble 

Collapses with Alasdair Macleod"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Complexity Theory: The Avalanche and the Snowflake"

"Complexity Theory: 

The Avalanche and the Snowflake"

by James Rickards

"One of my favorites is what I call ‘the avalanche and the snowflake’. It’s a metaphor for the way the science actually works, but I should be clear: it’s not just a metaphor. The science, the mathematics and the dynamics are actually the same as those that exist in financial markets.

Imagine you’re on a mountainside. You can see a snowpack building up on the ridgeline while it continues snowing. You can tell just by looking at the scene that there’s danger of an avalanche. It’s windswept… it’s unstable… and if you’re an expert, you know it’s going to collapse and kill skiers and wipe out the village below. You see a snowflake fall from the sky onto the snowpack. It disturbs a few other snowflakes that lie there. Then, the snow starts to spread… then it starts to slide… then it gains momentum until, finally, it comes loose and the whole mountain comes down and buries the village.

Question: What do you blame? Do you blame the snowflake, or do you blame the unstable pack of snow? I say the snowflake’s irrelevant. If it wasn’t the one snowflake that caused the avalanche, it could have been the one before, or the one after, or the one tomorrow. The instability of the system as a whole was the problem. So when I think about the risks in the financial system, I don’t focus on the ‘snowflake’ that will cause problems. The trigger doesn’t matter.

A snowflake that falls harmlessly – the vast majority of all snowflakes - technically fails to start a chain reaction. Once a chain reaction begins, it expands exponentially, can ‘go critical’ (as in an atomic bomb) and release enough energy to destroy a city. However, most neutrons do not start nuclear chain reactions, just as most snowflakes do not start avalanches.

In the end, it’s not about the snowflakes or neutrons. It’s about the initial critical state conditions that allow the possibiity of a chain reaction or an avalanche. These can be hypothesized and observed at large scale, but the exact moment the chain reaction begins cannot be observed. That’s because it happens on a minute scale relative to the system. This is why some people refer to these snowflakes as ‘black swans’, because they are unexpected and come by surprise. But they’re actually not a surprise if you understand the system’s dynamics and can estimate the system scale.

It’s a metaphor, but really the mathematics behind it are the same. Financial markets today are huge, unstable mountains of snow waiting to collapse. You see it in the gross notional value of derivatives. There is $700 trillion worth of swaps. ($2.5 Quadrillion by other reputable estimates. - CP) These are derivatives off balance sheet, hidden liabilities in the banking system of the world. These numbers are not made up. Just go to the IS annual report and it’s right there in the footnote.

Well, how do you put $700 trillion into perspective? It’s ten times global GDP. Take all the goods and services in the entire world for an entire year. That’s about $88 trillion when you add it all up. Well, take ten times that, and that’s how big the snow pile is. And that’s the avalanche that’s waiting to come down."

- https://caperebel.com/blogs/

o

"$2.5 Quadrillion Disaster Waiting to Happen – 

Egon von Greyerz"

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"There is sufficiency in the world 

for Man's need but not for his greed." 

- Mahatma Gandhi

"Egon von Greyerz (EvG) stores gold for clients at the biggest private gold vault in the world buried deep in the Swiss Alps. EvG is a financial and precious metals expert. EvG is a former Swiss banker and an expert in risk. He says the risk in the global markets has never been this high.

EvG explains, “Credit has increased dramatically through derivatives. All instruments being issued now by banks, pension funds, stock funds, it’s all synthetic. There is no real underlying payments in anything almost. Therefore, my estimate for derivatives would be at least $2 quadrillion, and I think that is probably conservative. Then, we have debt on top of that of $300 trillion, and we also have a couple hundred trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities. So, we are talking about $2.5 QUADRILLION, and that’s with a global GDP of $88 trillion. So, there is a disaster waiting to happen, and especially because all this created money has created no value whatsoever. I always knew this would collapse, and it’s taken longer than I expected, but I think we are at the end of a major era. 

These derivatives, at some point soon, will actually turn into debt. Central banks will have to cover all the outstanding liabilities of the commercial banks as we are seeing now with Credit Suisse, Bank of England and etc. This is going to happen across the board. Whether it’s called derivatives or called debt, as far as I am concerned, it’s the same thing. It will have the same effect on the world financial system, which will be disastrous, of course.”

EvG says the derivative markets were simply a way for financial institutions to carry debt and not show it on their balance sheets. In the end, everything will balance out. EvG goes on to say, “Nobody can repay the debt, and they can’t even pay interest. So, therefore, when the debt implodes, so will the assets that were financed by this debt. So, both sides of the balance sheet have to come down. Whether it comes down by 50%, 75% or 90%, I don’t know. All I think about is risk, and the financial system will not survive in its present form. Central banks only use one kind of medicine, and that is more printed money. Now, you are getting negative returns on printed money. So, that is not going to save anything. 

Sadly we are looking at a situation when this system will start to implode. The rich are still rich, but the poor are really poor. Overall in the UK, Germany and most European countries, people don’t have enough money to live. This is a human disaster already. With food costs going up 25% and energy going up the same and gasoline, interest rates and rents, people don’t have enough money, and that is happening now. It’s a human disaster of mega proportions. It’s so sad, and governments will have no chance of doing anything about it. The risk is increasing exponentially,  and it is going to get worse.” There is much more in the 43-minute interview.

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with Egon von Greyerz of Matterhorn Asset Management, which can be found on GoldSwitzerland.com. From 2023 and it's only gotten much worse since then.

- https://rumble.com/

o

"Five Wall Street Banks Hold $223 Trillion in Derivatives - 

83 Percent of All Derivatives at 4,600 Banks"

Dan, I Allegedly, "10 Shocking Economic Facts You’re Not Hearing About"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 7/27/25

"10 Shocking Economic Facts You’re Not Hearing About"

"Get ready for an eye-opening look at "10 Shocking Economic Facts You’re Not Hearing About." From skyrocketing food prices to rising bankruptcies, inflation, and scams targeting everyday Americans, today's video dives into the financial struggles impacting millions. Did you know that consumer food prices are up 12.5% this year or that 23% of Americans over 50 are delaying retirement because they can’t afford it? These shocking stats are just the tip of the iceberg, and I’m breaking it all down for you.

We’ll also talk about the increasing use of buy-now-pay-later loans for groceries, record-breaking corporate bankruptcies, and how private equity is driving major business failures. Plus, I’ll touch on the rise in insurance premiums, the anxiety caused by financial stress, and how scams like fake Amazon refund texts are preying on people. Whether it’s food insecurity affecting 17% of Americans or the freight industry layoffs impacting thousands, this episode is packed with serious topics you need to know about."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Market Gains, 7/27/25

"170,000 Tech Workers Lost Their Jobs,

 IBM Starts Mass Layoffs"

"In 2025, the job market continues to be a major source of stress and frustration for workers. Companies across multiple industries are still cutting jobs, downsizing teams, and freezing new hires to manage costs. Even well-qualified candidates with years of experience are struggling to secure interviews, let alone stable positions. Many workers are settling for lower-paying roles or piecing together income through part-time or contract work just to make ends meet. Opportunities for growth and advancement have all but disappeared, leaving people feeling stuck. For countless job seekers, the search for steady, reliable employment has become a draining, uphill battle with no clear path forward."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Russian Typical Business Class Apartment Tour"

Full screen recommended.

Travelling With Russell, 7/27/25

"Russian Typical Business Class Apartment Tour"

"What does a brand-new business-class apartment look like inside? This brand-new unfinished apartment is currently listed for sale in Moscow, Russia. Join me as I tour the apartment to see what makes this a rather unique apartment in the heart of Moscow."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/