"The Ignorance of Experts"

Daikin Park baseball stadium, home of the 

Houston Astros, lights it up on a Friday night.

"The Ignorance of Experts"

by Joel Bowman

“Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.”

~ Richard Feynman, Nobel-winning physicist

Houston, Texas - "It’s 90°F here in Space City today, or about 32°C for our international readers. That’s a little below average for this time of year, but it’s still summer in the Lone Star State: Hot ‘n’ Humid in roughly equal parts. Not that you’d know... so well have our fellow humans learned to survive and thrive among their hostile natural surroundings.

Along the city’s spaghetti beltways, local Texans drive their enormous, climate controlled vehicles from one air conditioned venue to another. From their colossal (by European standards) homes to office towers in the sky... from giant malls to their favorite steakhouses... the world’s largest medical center to the downtown aquarium... from the science museum to the Friday night ballgame...then home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

Indeed, Houstonians have adapted so well to the swampy local climate, even the high-end, 3 million square foot Galleria Mall, destination for wealthy South American tourists looking to drop some “phat stacks” on designer totes and the ugliest fashion money can buy, features a full-sized ice rink, skateable year round.

Downtown, the Daikin Park baseball stadium – with retractable roof and capacity for 41,000 diehard Astros fans – is air conditioned to a mild 73°F (~23°C) throughout the summer, even as temperatures outside soar to well over 100°F. (Though on message boards, some fans “complain” that temps inside the stadium occasionally reach a massively non-alarming 80°F on particularly sizzling summer evenings. Cry babies.)

And every Friday night home game, fans are treated to a massive fireworks display, estimated to cost around $50,000 a pop... happily provided by event sponsors, local energy giant, ConocoPhillips. As Tom Hanks might say, when it comes to handling the climate here in H-Town, “Houston, we do not have a problem.”

Homo Centrism: Ah, but how can this be? Isn’t this hurricane season? Don’t we only have “[fill in bogus number here] years to save the planet”? Is this not, in the most apocalyptic sense, the End of the World? Recall the unambiguous doom-mongering from António Guterres, the panting Secretary-General of the United Nations, who famously declared in 2023: “The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.” And yet, here we are... at the very height of a Texan summer, enjoying an iced-tea on the porch, and scarcely even parboiled.

Might it be that experts didn’t know all they claimed to know after all... that the climate is a complex phenomena largely beyond our comprehension, full of shifting dynamics, cascading interrelationships and natural feedback loops... and that maybe, just maybe, human beings are not the center of the universe we (ever so humbly) presumed we were?

A new report by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) certainly appears to suggest as much. Titled “A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate,” the report was authored by a group of highly credentialed scientists, including, to the chagrin of those who seek to politicize everything up to and including the weather, the former Chief Scientific Officer of the Obama Energy Department.

By way of an overview, The Wall Street Journal listed “a few noncontroversial findings from the report – based on peer-reviewed literature from recent years – that might surprise [New York] Times readers.” Herewith..."Global warming has risks, but also benefits, including greater agricultural productivity. We still don’t know the extent to which human activity plays a role in warming, given natural variability, data limitations, uncertain models and fluctuations in solar activity. Models predicting what is to come remain all over the map. U.S. historical data doesn’t support claims of increased frequency or intensity of extreme weather. Climate change is likely to have little effect on economic growth. U.S. climate policies, even drastic ones, will have negligible effect on global temperatures."

Ad Hominem: Naturally, the mainstream media responded by calmly addressing the specific points raised in the report itself, refraining from childish ad hominem attacks and baseless fear-mongering. Just joking. Here, a few “triggered” headlines, from all the usual suspects...

"Donald Trump’s War On Climate Science Has Staggering Implications"

~ The Economist

"Trump Is Making Climate Change Denialism Federal Policy"

~ Foreign Policy

"Energy Dept. Attacks Climate Science in Contentious Report"

~ The New York Times

And our own personal favorite, also from the Old Gray Lady, which appears to suggest that science exists in service of Consensus, rather than Truth...

"Trump Hires Scientists Who Doubt the Consensus on Climate Change"

~ The New York Times

The Age of Doubt: Hmm… Doubt... skepticism... rigorous debate and open, adult dialogue? “Not now,” cries the expert class (which happens to have been wrong about practically everything there was to have been right about in recent years), “not in this, the Age of Certainty.”

And who are these “science deniers” anyway? These lunatic hacks? These fringe-dwelling weirdos? Are they as hostile to “consensus” as was, say, Galileo… or Copernicus... or Darwin? How about John R. Christy, Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric and Earth Sciences at UAH, with a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from University of Illinois?

Or Judith Curry, Former Chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech (now Professor Emerita), who earned her Ph.D. in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago?

Or Steven E. Koonin, Professor of Theoretical Physics at CalTech for 30 years, the Founding director of the Center for Urban Science and Progress at NYU and President Obama’s Under Secretary for Science at the U.S. Department of Energy, with his Ph.D. from that noted bastion of far right science denialism... MIT?

Not that “credentialism” is any substitute for truth, but are these lifetime academics really the best “deniers,” “anti-scientists,” and (what one shrill alarmist on X called) “useful idiots” among us?

Or is it the case that, having stifled open debate for so long, having “flooded the zone” with their own unquestionable, and unquestionably well-funded opinions, “the consensus” (whatever that even means) is doing what it always does when presented with inconvenient findings: besmirching reputations, deflecting to polarizing “Trump bad” talking points, and generally protesting too much?

One only hopes a certain president doesn’t issue an executive order recognizing that 2+2=4... or that gravity is not just a “theory” in the non-scientific sense of the term... or that there really are only two sexes in the human species after all...lest mathematics, physics and biology departments across the nation be thrust into fits of convulsive “denialism,” whereby they spend the next three years in search of 3s and 5s, levitating apples and intersexual, gender-fluid, multi-spirit humans.

Meanwhile, regular male and female human beings continue to enjoy life on planet earth as though it gets better and better every year, mostly because… it does. More on all that in future Notes From the End of the World..."

- https://joelbowman.substack.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "Banks Punished for Debanking - Is a Recession Coming?"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, AM 8/6/25

"Banks Punished for Debanking - 

Is a Recession Coming?"

"Are banks and the economy setting us up for a massive shift? In today’s video, I’m breaking down the latest on the looming recession, the punishment banks are facing for unfair practices, and how new laws aim to protect YOU from being debanked for your beliefs or business choices. Plus, we’re diving into wild housing market trends, soaring food prices, and the insane deals homebuilders are offering right now. Are we on the edge of an economic downturn, or is this just a temporary storm? You decide. We’ll also talk about the challenges small businesses are facing, shocking stories of banking discrimination, and why the current administration is cracking down on unfair lending practices. And yes, we touch on some of the wildest news out there, from a Danish zoo's controversial feeding practices to the decline of major U.S. cities. It’s all here."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "The Biggest Move Of Our Lives, Preparing To Escape California"

Full screen recommended.

Jeremiah Babe, AM 8/6/25

"The Biggest Move Of Our Lives, 

Preparing To Escape California"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Bill Bonner, "The Sound and the Fury"

"The Sound and the Fury"

by Bill Bonner

‘It’s not who you know. It’s what you know.

Until the Big Man takes over.’

- Bill Bonner

Poitou, France - "The latest news, from Associated Press, tells us more about how America’s ‘Caesarist’ government functions. AP: "Goods that comply with the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that Trump negotiated during his first term are excluded from the tariffs. Canada’s central bank says 100% of energy exports and 95% of other exports are compliant with the trade pact, known as USMCA. The Royal Bank estimated that almost 90% of Canadian exports appear to have accessed the U.S. market duty free in April. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the commitment of the U.S. to the core of USMCA, reaffirmed again last week, means the U.S. average tariff rate on Canadian goods remains one of its lowest, and over 85% of Canada-U.S. trade continues to be tariff free."

Tariff free? What was all that talk of a 35% tariff tax? Earlier this year, we guessed that the trade war with our neighbors was mostly for show; it would rehearse the spat Donald Trump had with them during his first term. Full of sound and fury, it ended up signifying nothing. Then, when The Donald went back on the warpath, it looked like this trade war would do serious damage to the world economy, after all.

But wait...there was a pause...a delay...a renegotiation...and - it turns out - an exception. The substance of US policies may not change as much as people think. But the style is very different. The big evolution of the US government from ‘neoliberal,’ more-or-less ‘consensual’ democracy to a ‘Big Man’ or ‘Caesarian’ form has been widely noted. It is a shift of power from the legislature to the executive...from the rule of law to the rule of the Big Man, similar to the shift in Rome in 21 BC, when Augustus upstaged the Senate to rule the empire.

The Democrats are, of course, branding the Trump administration as ‘authoritarian.’ They’re not wrong about it. But they don’t mention that it was they who provided much of the substance – unlimited spending, unlimited executive power, and unlimited backing for Israel. As for the style, they wouldn’t mind it at all if the same heavy hand were at the end of Hillary Clinton’s arm. Good or bad, whoever’s fault it is...the Big Man now has his big derriere in the big chair in the big white house on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Prior to Donald Trump, for example, it was presumed that the statisticians were honest number crunchers...and that POTUS wouldn’t presume to argue with them. But now, the same man who thinks he can reduce drug prices by ‘1,500%’ thinks he knows what the employment numbers should be.

Of course, the numbers do not at all mean what most people think they mean. But at least they were supposed to be misleading on a non-partisan basis...giving false signals to both Republicans and Democrats alike. And the numbers this year have generally flattered the Trump team. For May and June, the BLS initially reported 291,000 new jobs. Last week’s revisions wiped out all but 33,000 of them.

Donald Trump didn’t object to the old numbers. They seemed to show that his economy was, as he put it, “BOOMING under TRUMP.” The new numbers are the ones he didn’t like; they showed that his economy is not so great after all. But unlike other presidents from ourmore ‘consensual democracy’ days, who would have accepted the new numbers for what they were - statistical noise - the Big Man wants the BLS to get in harmony with him and sing his praises. Now the distortions will no longer be random mumbo jumbo but a deliberate attempt to bamboozle the public.

"I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified."

The Big Man also claims to know at what interest rates the Fed should make credit available to member banks: "Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell, a stubborn MORON, must substantially lower interest rates, NOW." Presidents have often tried to get the Fed to loosen up - to help them win an election, for example. But never before has a POTUS publicly described the Fed head as a ‘moron.’ This is something different. It’s Big Man government of a particular sort. But how far will the Big Man go? More tomorrow…"

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"Alert! 72 Hour Deadline, Nuke Sniffers Airborne, Martial Law"

Prepper News, 8/5/25

"Alert! 72 Hour Deadline, Nuke Sniffers Airborne, Martial Law"

"Nuke sniffer planes in air, Belarus prepares for Martial law when 

Russia is attacked, 24 hours to Witkoffs last ditch effort in Moscow."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"10 Food Items You'll Wish You Stockpiled When Crisis Hits"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 8/5/25

"10 Food Items You'll Wish 

You Stockpiled When Crisis Hits"

"Experts are warning about supply chain breakdowns and food shortages hitting 2025. While 345 million people face food insecurity globally, smart families are quietly stockpiling these 10 essential items before crisis strikes. From canned proteins that last decades to honey that never expires, discover which foods could save your family when grocery stores run empty. Don't wait until shortages hit your area - these items are disappearing fast from Walmart and Target shelves. Economic collapse, natural disasters, and supply disruptions are accelerating. Your future self will thank you for watching this before it's too late. Start building your food security today while these items are still available and affordable."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Moody Blues, "Tuesday Afternoon"

Moody Blues, "Tuesday Afternoon"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Why isn't this ant a big sphere? Planetary nebula Mz3 is being cast off by a star similar to our Sun that is, surely, round. Why then would the gas that is streaming away create an ant-shaped nebula that is distinctly not round?

Clues might include the high 1000-kilometer per second speed of the expelled gas, the light-year long length of the structure, and the magnetism of the star visible above at the nebula's center. One possible answer is that Mz3 is hiding a second, dimmer star that orbits close in to the bright star. A competing hypothesis holds that the central star's own spin and magnetic field are channeling the gas. Since the central star appears to be so similar to our own Sun, astronomers hope that increased understanding of the history of this giant space ant can provide useful insight into the likely future of our own Sun and Earth.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150426.html

Chet Raymo, “Awww…”

“Awww…”

by Chet Raymo

“In one of his always delightful essays, Stephen Jay Gould traced the “evolution” of Mickey Mouse from the time of his creation by Disney, in 1928, to the mouse we know today. The early Mickey was a bit of a rascal – mischievous, occasionally cruel. And he looked more or less like a real adult mouse: small head in proportion to body, pointy nose compared to cranial vault, beady eyes, spindly legs. As time passed, Mickey’s personality softened and his appearance changed. Head and cranium became enlarged, eyes grew to half the size of the face, limbs got pudgier. Gould elucidated the evolutionary principle behind Mickey’s transformation: It is called neoteny, or progressive juvenilization.

Mickey became a national symbol, and Americans like their national symbols cute and cuddly. Mickey’s chronological age did not change, but he developed babyish features. To explain these perhaps unconscious developments on the part of Disney’s artists, Gould referred to the work of animal behaviorist Konrad Lorenz, who believed that juvenile facial and body features release “innate triggering mechanisms” for affection and nurturing in adult humans. The adaptive value of this response is obvious, since the nurturing of young is necessary for survival of the species. According to Lorenz, evolution has provided us with a caring response to juvenile features, a genetically-programmed reaction that apparently overflows onto other species. If Lorenz is right, teddy bears and Andy Pandas are beneficiaries of our innate nurturing response to big eyes, round craniums, and pudgy limbs. Mickey Mouse evolved juvenile features in response to our evolved preference for all things cute and cuddly.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

"And I Ask..."

 

"You Know..."

"You know, we never see the world exactly as it is. We see it as we hope it will be or we fear it might be. And we spend our lives going through a sort of modified stages of grief about that realization. And we deny it, and then we argue with it, and we despair over it. But eventually, and this is my belief, we come to see it, not as despairing, but as vitalizing. We never see the world exactly as it is because we are how the world is."

- Maria Popova

"It Is Common To Assume..."

"It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone - that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows more than any man of, say, the Eighteenth Century, and is far more civilized. This assumption is quite erroneous. The great masses of men, even in this inspired republic, are precisely where the mob was at the dawn of history. They are ignorant, they are dishonest, they are cowardly, they are ignoble. They know little if anything that is worth knowing, and there is not the slightest sign of a natural desire among them to increase their knowledge."

- H. L. Mencken

o

Several generations...

o

o

The Daily "Near You?"

Weatherford, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"The Linguistic Kill-Switch: Inside the Modern Propaganda Playbook"

"The Linguistic Kill-Switch: 

Inside the Modern Propaganda Playbook"

by Nick Giambruno

"The next time someone sneers “conspiracy theorist,” “anti-vaxxer,” “climate denier,” “far right,” “hate speech,” “terrorist,” or the ever-popular “racist,” understand what they are really saying: stop thinking. These words are a linguistic kill-switch—engineered to short-circuit thought by triggering a reflexive emotional spasm. If you encounter someone using these words, you can be certain you are not dealing with someone interested in a good faith effort to find the truth.

These terms are precision-guided psychological weapons, fired by unseen hands to herd the public mind. Recall the CIA’s own 1967 memo coining “conspiracy theorist” expressly to silence anyone doubting the magic-bullet fairy tale that supposedly killed JFK. Although they are a poor substitute for an actual argument, these propaganda terms unfortunately work on many people. Call someone one of these words and you no longer need to refute their ideas with facts, logic, or reason. The slur does the work like magic.

Take the granddaddy of all elastic scare-labels: terrorism. One hundred years ago the word barely existed. Today it vaporizes civil liberties on contact. Glenn Greenwald nailed it: the T-word is “simultaneously the single most meaningless and most manipulated word in the American political lexicon.” The only difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist is who controls the narrative.

Greenwald elaborates: “There is this common paradox which is that the words that are most frequently used and have the greatest impact are often the words that are the most ill-defined. And therefore subject to manipulation, deceit, and propaganda.

So the word 'terrorist' for example is something that pervades countless political discussions of great significance. And we are essentially at the point, literally, where if the government points to somebody and simply utters the word 'terrorist,' and large numbers of citizens… will cheer for whatever it is that is done… No matter how lawless, no matter how little evidence has been presented to justify it, the mere fact that they have been labeled a 'terrorist' is something that will basically cause a majority of people to sanction whatever is done.

And yet what is so fascinating about the word 'terrorist' is that it really is a term that has absolutely no fixed meaning, it's simply a term that means whatever the person wielding it wants it to mean.”

Greenwald continues: “Because the word terrorism is so potent and shuts down all debate, the mere application of that label by the government, anonymously and with no evidence… has made huge numbers of people stand up and cheer the most radical power a government can seize, which is the power to target one's own citizens for death, for assassination, in total secrecy and with no due process. And that to me really illustrates the potency of how these propagandistic terms are wielded….

If we're really going to vest virtually unlimited power in the government to do anything it wants to people they call ‘terrorists,’ we ought at least to have a common understanding of what the term means. But there is none. It's just become a malleable, all-justifying term to allow the US government carte blanche to do whatever it wants. ‘Terrorism’ is really more of a hypnotic mantra than an actual word.” In short, say the magic T-word and - poof - your rights, your property, your life evaporate, all without trial, all to thunderous applause.

The Antidote: Using these words is almost like casting a spell - most people who hear them become hypnotized, immediately stop thinking, and turn into easily herded automatons. Fortunately, the counter-spell is simple: demand consistent and logical definitions. Make them spell out exactly what they mean by “terrorist,” or “science denier.” Watch their argument collapse into ad hominem attacks, straw men arguments, appeals to emotion, and crocodile tears. And if that all fails they will play the "racist"card.

That’s the playbook. In short, when sophistry is all they have, facts become kryptonite. The propaganda spell breaks the moment you refuse to flinch at the linguistic kill-switch. The good news is that it's a fragile method of control; people can snap out of their hypnosis. And once they do, they never go back. It's like pulling back the curtain to see the Wizard of Oz and still being intimidated by him... that just doesn't happen.

So never stop asking questions and thinking critically. Don't be intimidated by cowards, intellectual midgets, charlatans, and petty tyrants who use propaganda words to get you to shut up and stop thinking. And when they reach for the next emotionally-charged empty label, smile and say: “Is that all you’ve got?”

- https://internationalman.com/

"One Can Make People Believe..."

“One could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness."

- Hannah Arendt, "The Origins of Totalitarianism"

Of course, we know very well what to expect...

Judge Napolitano, "Aaron Maté: Netanyahu and His Prosecutors"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 8/5/25

"Aaron Maté: Netanyahu and His Prosecutors"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Deal With The Devil: End Of The Dollar, End Of U.S. Industry, End Of America"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 8/5/25

"Deal With The Devil: End Of The Dollar, 

End Of U.S. Industry, End Of America"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"Our Standard Of Living Is Collapsing And 25 Percent Of U.S. Households Are Skipping Meals So They Will Have Enough Money To Pay Their Bills"

"Our Standard Of Living Is Collapsing And 25 Percent Of U.S. Households

Are Skipping Meals So They Will Have Enough Money To Pay Their Bills"

by Michael Snyder

"Are you old enough to remember when you could buy a really nice house for less than $50,000? Today, the average price of a home in the United States is more than half a million dollars. Of course everything else has become dramatically more expensive as well. I just asked Google, and I was told that the average cost of health insurance for a single person in the United States was just $2,655 in the year 2000. That was for an entire year! Our standard of living has been collapsing for a long time, but at first most people didn’t realize what was happening. But now things are so bad that YouTube and TikTok are filled with thousands of videos of normal people complaining about the cost of living. Unfortunately, I am entirely convinced that things are only going to get tougher as economic conditions continue to deteriorate all around us.

Earlier today, I came across a shocking new survey which discovered that 25 percent of U.S. households are skipping meals so that they will have enough money to pay their bills..."Twenty-five percent of respondents say they or someone in their household has skipped meals to save money in the past year—numbers that rose to nearly 4 in 10 for Hispanics (41 percent) and nearly 3 in 10 for Blacks (29 percent). The youngest Americans surveyed, ages 18–34, are by far the most likely to have skipped meals to pay bills (38 percent), and rates were similarly high for those in households with income below $50,000 per year (39 percent).

25 percent of the country doesn’t have enough food to eat! How can you possibly spin that number to make it look good? Let’s get real. In June, the average price of a pound of ground beef actually surpassed the six dollar mark…"The average price for a pound of ground beef in the Northeast rose to more than $6.05 in June, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s a high point in records dating back to 2015. The price was up more than 10% from June 2024 and more than 3.4% from May. The price jump for beef from May was the biggest among a group of common grocery items that also included eggs, chicken, milk, bread and butter."

When I was growing up, my mother was constantly feeding us ground beef. Now it has become a “luxury meat” that most Americans cannot afford on a regular basis. If you can’t see that our standard of living is declining, I don’t know what to tell you.

The same survey that I quoted earlier also found that millions upon millions of Americans are spending a great deal of time worrying about their finances…"A shocking 1 in 4 Americans (24 percent) say they spend at least three hours on a typical day worrying about their finances and ability to afford basic necessities. More than 4 in 10 spend at least one hour per day. Millennials and GenZers are experiencing the greatest anxiety, with 56 percent and 50 percent, respectively spending one hour or more per day focused on financial concerns. While low- and middle-income Americans express the strongest financial concerns, one-third of those with incomes above $100,000 also spend at least an hour concerned about their finances on a typical day."

Most of us want to live the American Dream. But the American Dream is out of reach for most of the population at this stage. Back in 1975, the average price of a home in Spokane, Washington was just $22,450…"A Spokane cost of living survey showed that the average rental price of two-bedroom apartment was $135 per month, and the average purchase price for a house was $22,450, The Spokesman-Review reported on July 20, 1975."

Today, $22,450 won’t even cover the average monthly mortgage payment for one year… "Since 2017, the salary needed to buy a home in America has more than doubled. Fueled by rising unaffordability and high mortgage rates, home buyers need to shell out $2,500 on average for monthly payments. Meanwhile, this soars past $5,000 in coastal cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego."

Housing has become more unaffordable than it has ever been in our entire history, and that is the number one reason why Americans are so financially stressed right now. In the old days, we were told to always follow “the 30 percent rule”, but now that is realistic in only a handful of the top metropolitan areas in the United States…

"The 30% rule — one in which potential homebuyers limit their mortgage payment to 30% of their monthly income — is a common standard that homebuyers typically follow so that the yearly cost of a home doesn’t put too much of a strain on their finances. However, according to a new report from Realtor.com, places where homebuyers can follow that recommendation when buying a home are becoming fewer and farther between in the country’s major metropolitan areas. Affordability in just three of America’s 50 top metro areas is such that households that make the median income can scoop up a home that won’t go above 30% of their yearly earnings, the report found.

Utility bills are rapidly rising as well. In fact, it is being reported that electricity prices spiked by an average of 6 percent during the first half of this year…"According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, the average price of electricity per kilowatt-hour has risen from $0.179 in January to $0.190 as of June—an increase of around 6 percent. Between January and February, prices remained steady, according to BLS data. But between February and April, prices rose slightly to $0.181, and then marginally again in May to $0.182. According to the BLS’s data, prices then jumped noticeably in June to $0.190."

Just about everything has been getting more expensive, and that explains why 83 percent of Americans are experiencing “stressflation”…"A LifeStance Health survey released today reveals “stressflation” is affecting most Americans, with 83% reporting financial stress driven by inflation, mass layoffs, the rising cost of living and recession fears. Millennials and Gen Z report the most significant mental health impacts."

And a different survey discovered that more than 80 percent of middle income Americans expect prices to continue to rise…But two-thirds of middle-income Americans are bracing for a recession within a year. More than eight in 10 expect prices to keep rising. And nearly two-thirds of middle-income Americans who recently bought a home said they are living paycheck to paycheck.

Sadly, I am convinced that things are going to get even tougher because economic activity is slowing down and employers are conducting mass layoffs all over the nation. In some cases, large employers have actually been conducting multiple rounds of mass layoffs. For example, Intel has already been through a couple of mass cullings…

"Intel this month officially began to cut down its workforce in the U.S. and other countries, thus revealing actual numbers of positions to be cut. The Oregonian reports that the company will cut as many as 2,392 positions in Oregon and around 4,000 positions across its American operations, including Arizona, California, and Texas.

To put the 2,392 number into context, Intel is the largest employer in Oregon with around 20,000 of workers there. 2,392 is around 12% of the workforce, which is a lower end of layoff expectations, yet 2,400 is still a lot of people. The Oregon reduction rose sharply from an initial count of around 500 to a revised figure of 2,392, making it one of the largest layoffs in the state’s history. Intel began reducing staff earlier in the week but confirmed the larger number by Friday evening through a filing with Oregon state authorities. Intel’s Oregon operations have already seen 3,000 jobs lost over the past year through earlier buyouts and dismissals."

Not to be outdone, there have been three waves of mass layoffs at Microsoft…"In an ongoing effort to trim its workforce, Microsoft said as much as 4%, or roughly 9,000, of the company’s employees could be affected by Wednesday’s layoffs. In Washington, 830 employees were let go, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday. The move follows two waves of layoffs in May and June, which saw Microsoft let go of more than 6,000 employees, almost 2,300 of whom were based in Washington. Since May, the company has laid off over 15,000 employees companywide and more than 3,100 in Washington."

But Disney takes the cake. Within the past ten months, they have conducted four rounds of mass layoffs…"Early this month the company pushed out several hundred workers from its marketing for both film and television, television publicity, and its casting and development departments. It was the fourth round of layoffs in the last ten months and came about a month after 200 employees were eliminated in March. The layoffs in March hit Disney’s ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks unit. That round of layoffs even included the elimination of its once popular “538” website."

A lot of people out there like to criticize me, but they can’t deny the facts that I present because I carefully document them in all of my articles. After reading all of the facts that I have documented in this article, it should be clear to everyone that our standard of living has been collapsing. And if we stay on the road that we are currently on, that collapse will accelerate significantly. No matter how hard we may try, we cannot escape the law of cause and effect. For every action that we take, there is a consequence. Unfortunately for us, the consequences for our very foolish actions are starting to catch up with us in a major way."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

Oh, but give $350 BILLION to Ukraine, and God knows how 

many secret billions to the psychopathically genocidal Israeli monsters..

Bill Bonner, "Too Much of a Big Nothing"

"Too Much of a Big Nothing"

by Bill Bonner

Poitou, France - "Two companies - Nvidia and Microsoft - each are worth more than $4 trillion. Together, that’s more than India’s and Japan’s combined annual output. Price is what you pay, as Buffett puts it. Value is what you get. Our question for today: how much value will investors really get from the Magnificent 7?

Our Law of Conservation of Value tells us that prices cannot stray too far or too long from value. And value depends on output. Investors ought to be able to look to a future stream of income and from it earn their money back...and more. Even in the dot-com bubble in 1999 the top companies were not as valuable or as concentrated as they are today. Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple Meta, Tesla and Amazon - together, these companies make up a third of the total US stock market value, an amount roughly equal to China’s GDP.

Part of the appeal of these Mag 7 stocks is that they are widely believed to be taking advantage of AI technology. In the case of Nvidia, of course, that is the central appeal. But the others are investing heavily in AI too.

In 2024 and 2025, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Tesla will put more than half a trillion into AI. The revenue from these investments is expected to be around $35 billion. Amazon, for example, has invested more than $100 billion, which is thought to generate an extra $5 billion in revenue.

We don’t know how reliable or meaningful these figures are. What we do know is that they aren’t very impressive. As in the dot-com boom of the late ‘90s, AI is not paying off. This is an in-put story, with huge investments made in the hope of creating AI-based wealth. But so far, the output doesn’t measure up.

You can go to ChatGPT, for example, and pay for the service. Many people use it occasionally - including us. But few pay for it - also including us. This would be fine, except that so much investment has gone into AI development that anything less than spectacular results will look like failure. One estimate, from Goldman Sachs, for example, showed that the Mag 7 would have to produce $600 billion in extra annual revenue to make sense of their investment.

Michael Roberts: "So while the excitement of AI takes the stock market to new heights... a huge investment of money and resources, astronomical payments to AI trainers, and the construction of huge data centers [there]...so far no significant revenue has been generated and there is almost no profit. This is a steroid-friendly version of the dot-com bubble.

The appeal of the dot-com era was the idea that more information would lead to higher GDP growth rates with less need for capital investment. Costly trial-and-error expansion would be replaced by less costly, more precise, knowledge-driven growth, or so it was believed."

It didn’t work out that way. Productivity and growth rates generally softened throughout the 21st century. Capital investment went down. The Internet/Information Revolution did not compensate for the decline; it seems to have made it worse. The OECD adds detail:

"In the last half century, we have filled offices and pockets with increasingly faster computers, but the increase in labor productivity in developed economies has declined from about 2% annually in the 1990s to 0.8% in the last decade. Even the production per worker of China, which once increased rapidly, has stopped. Research efficiency has decreased. Today, the average scientist produces less groundbreaking ideas per dollar than his colleagues in the 1960s. Despite the rise of intangible assets, total investment has generally been weak since the global financial crisis, which has directly worsened the slowdown in labor productivity."

Will that change with AI? Probably not. The defining curse of the Information Revolution was too much information. It piled up. It got distorted and misinterpreted. It took time and money to store and sort. And much of it was either false or useless. Now cometh AI, adding to the too-much-info problem. Already, it generates news and reports that fill our in-boxes and waste our time. And an Israeli company just announced that it can twist and turn (distort) the news in real time.

Which leaves, at least for now, AI and the Mag 7 in an old-fashioned financial bubble. Stock prices are far higher than actual sales and profits can account for. So one way or another price and value will have to come back together. While it is not impossible that some breakthrough will lead to a big burst of productivity gains and growth, it is more likely that stock prices will fall."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "We're Not Going Back To Normal, The Collapse Is Accelerating"

Jeremiah Babe, 8/5/25

"We're Not Going Back To Normal, 

The Collapse Is Accelerating"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Corporate Greed Exposed - Stories You Won’t Believe!"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 8/5/25

"Corporate Greed Exposed - 

Stories You Won’t Believe!"

"She took over their name out of spite! In today’s video, we dive into two incredible stories of vengeance and creativity that will leave you amazed. From a woman in Ohio reclaiming a dealership’s name after a wrongful car repossession to a food blogger reviving a beloved restaurant brand, these tales highlight the power of persistence and ingenuity. Plus, we touch on topics like wage disputes, Elon Musk’s staggering pay package, Warren Buffett’s surprising advice, and the struggles facing whiskey bars and freight companies. There's so much to unpack!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Big Lots Returns! What's New And What's Changed?"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, AM 8/5/25

"Big Lots Returns! What's New And What's Changed?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Travelling With Russell, 8/5/25

"I Had Lunch in a Brand-New Russian Supermarket"

"What is it like to have lunch in a brand-new Russian Supermarket? Join me as I discover the newest supermarket in Russia. Perekrestok Select is a new format of supermarket that features an in-store cafe and dining area. Let's see how it tastes together."

Comments here: 

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

The Sheekoz Family, 8/3/25

"The Largest Mall In Russia"

"Hi, My name is Dan, I am simple Russian man. My dream is to speak English, I learn English from old American films. Now I speak English as i can. In this video I will show the biggest Mall in Russia. On July 18, 2025, Western countries introduced the 18th package of sanctions against Russia, Western companies declare in their press releases that they do not work in Russia, let's see how it really is.  Meanwhile, at the same time, China is quietly taking over the market."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Incredible!

"The Dye Is Cast for the 'Trump Plan'"

"The Dye Is Cast for the 'Trump Plan'"

by Natali Morris, Redacted

"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel will fully occupy Gaza because “the die is cast.” What does that mean - that there’s no turning back now? That since the world has condemned Israel, they’ve decided to finish the job before the cows come home? The language is chilling. It suggests inevitability - and intent. Israel’s IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has reportedly opposed a full occupation. Netanyahu’s response? “There will be operations even in areas where hostages are being held. If the IDF chief of staff doesn’t agree, he should resign.”

A full ground invasion, even where Israeli hostages are held - and open calls for military leadership to step aside if they don’t comply. That’s not just escalation. That’s a purge of restraint. Netanyahu also released this video arguing that the current global backlash against Israel is part of a historic pattern of “vilification” that precedes Jewish massacres. This is a calculated rhetorical pivot — reframing condemnation of his government’s actions as antisemitism, and casting the aggressor as the eternal victim.

And what role is the U.S. playing in all of this? Israeli media report that President Trump has given Netanyahu the “green light” for full occupation. Why? I thought “we” were going to “own” Gaza. By “we,” did he mean Israel? Maybe he did - because, according to Antiwar.com, Netanyahu and his government have been clear about their ultimate goal: The removal of the Palestinian population from Gaza. They now call this the “Trump Plan.” It is, in no uncertain terms, a plan of ethnic cleansing." (Trump of course is being blackmailed into cooperating by Epstein videos and pics he'd rather not be disclosed. - CP)

No Boycott, No Relief: FEMA Funds Tied to Support for Israel

On Monday, it was reported that the Trump administration would deny FEMA funds to any city or state that boycotts Israel. Later that day, the Department of Homeland Security issued a denial — but the denial was an outright lie. The policy is spelled out clearly in this official DHS document, page 6, Section C, XVII, 1d: “Recipients must comply with all applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws material to the government’s payment decisions... Discriminatory prohibited boycott means refusing to deal, cutting commercial relations, or otherwise limiting commercial relations specifically with Israeli companies or with companies doing business in or with Israel or authorized by, licensed by, or organized under the laws of Israel to do business.”

That is the federal government openly declaring that FEMA relief can be denied if a U.S. city or state exercises its right to boycott Israel. You can boycott the United States, the U.K., Saudi Arabia, France, or God himself - but if you boycott Israel, your community may lose access to disaster aid that your own tax dollars funded.

Maybe they walked it back because there was such outrage but pretending it was never there is insulting. To have put it there in the first place was clearly illegal. It wasn’t legal when the Biden administration denied FEMA assistance to North Carolina homeowners with Trump signs on their lawns. It wasn’t legal when Trump threatened to withhold FEMA aid from California over a political feud with Governor Newsom. And it’s not legal now.

Federal aid is not a political loyalty test. The First Amendment and the Stafford Act both forbid withholding emergency funds based on viewpoint, political association, or ideological expression. This policy would never hold up in court - if anyone would take it to court. But what politician in either party is willing to challenge it?"

- https://redactedstore.com/

This newsletter is written and researched by Natali Morris. Please feel free to reach Natali at natali@redacted.inc for any editorial feedback.

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Koyasan: Reiki Sound Healing"

Full screen recommended.

Deuter, "Koyasan: Reiki Sound Healing"

"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

"Everything passes away - suffering, pain, blood, hunger, pestilence. The sword will pass away too, but the stars will still remain when the shadows of our presence and our deeds have vanished from the earth. There is no man who does not know that. Why, then, will we not turn our eyes towards the stars? Why?"

- Mikhail Bulgakov, "The White Guard"

"Major Breaking: Israel Announces Full Gaza Occupation"

Full screen recommended.

Kulinski Show, PM 8/4/25

"Major Breaking: 

Israel Announces Full Gaza Occupation"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Owen Jones, 8/2/25

"Gaza Doctor Nick Maynard: 

Israel Is Shooting Babies In The Head"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

MSNBC, 8/3/25

"10-year-Old Palestinian Boy ‘Gunned Down’ 

After Receiving Food Aid"

"Anthony Aguilar, a former Gaza Humanitarian Foundation contractor, describes what he saw on the ground in Gaza while trying to distribute aid to hungry Palestinians, including meeting a young 10-year-old boy, Amir, who thanked him and his colleague for the aid he was able to retrieve. Moments later, he says Amir was “gunned down” and killed. "We have no excuse as a nation...as a world to look at this and say we didn't know," he says."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

If I said what I think and feel they'd delete this blog in a second...

Comments?

The Daily "Near You?"

Bound Brook, New Jersey, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Life..."

"Life is painful and messed up. It gets complicated at the worst of times, and sometimes you have no idea where to go or what to do. Lots of times people just let themselves get lost, dropping into a wide open, huge abyss. But that's why we have to keep trying. We have to push through all that hurts us, work past all our memories that are haunting us. Sometimes the things that hurt us are the things that make us strongest. A life without experience, in my opinion, is no life at all. And that's why I tell everyone that, even when it hurts, never stop yourself from living."

- Alysha Speer

"The joke was thinking you were ever really in charge of your life. You pressed your oar down into the water to direct the canoe, but it was the current that shot you through the rapids. You just hung on and hoped not to hit a rock or a whirlpool."

- Scott Turow

"Life's funny, chucklehead. You only get one and you don't want to throw it away. But you can't really live it at all unless you're willing to give it up for the things you love. If you're not at least willing to die for something - something that really matters - in the end you die for nothing."

- Andrew Klavan

"Video Zionists Don't Want You To See"

Full screen recommended.

The Daily Reminder, 8/3/25

"Video Zionists Don't Want You To See"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Dawn News English, 8/2/25

"Israeli Officer Told Me to Shoot Starving Kids, 

Says Former US Contractor"

"Former US contractor Anthony Aguilar, a retired Green Beret, alleged that an Israeli officer ordered him to shoot starving Palestinian children attempting to reach aid in Gaza."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

"All of Gaza, and every child in Gaza should starve to death"

- Israeli Rabbi Ronen Shaulov

THIS is what YOU, Americans, support and pay for?!

"No Ways Tired On A Sea of Lies"

"No Ways Tired On A Sea of Lies"

by Chris Floyd

"I think we are living in a world of lies: lies that don't even know they are lies, because they are the children and grandchildren of lies. One of the hardest things to accept is that the reality of our world is buried under so many layers of official deception and well-cultivated public ignorance about our history and our political system. Even if you break through somehow, momentarily, and hold up a fragment of the truth, most people have no context for dealing with it. It's like a bolt from the blue, they can't process the information. And so the sea of lies closes over us again, and again, and again. And yet the reality of our future appears on the horizon, denial be damned, an irresistible tsunami of destruction, changing all our lives forever.

These are the facts, and they can't be altered. But how to respond to this catastrophe? Shall we weep, moan, rend our garments, cover ourselves with sackcloth and ashes? Shall we sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of republics? Shall we cower in the shadows and sing glamorous dirges for the Lost Cause, for vanished glories and broken dreams?

Or shall we come out fighting, unbowed, heads high, laughing fools to scorn, rejecting at every turn the moral authority of murderers and thieves to rule our lives, determine our reality, act in our name? Let's dispense with lamentation - give not a single moment to that emotional indulgence - and get right back to work, more determined than ever to bear down harder, dig deeper and excavate the radioactive nuggets of truth still glowing beneath the slag-heap of ruin.

Let's fight, let's reject, let's resist - without violence, the weapon of the stupid, the hormonal secretion of evolutionary backsliders in thrall to the chemical soup in their heads, dull primitives dressing up their ape-lust for power with scraps of religion, philosophy and cant. Let's fight these pathetic, malfunctioning wretches who lay their hands on our world and rape it like beasts in a mindless rut. Fight them with the truths we find, exposing their crimes and deadly hypocrisies to the people they've suckered, perverted and betrayed.

This is not an insurmountable task, no matter how impervious the Machine - that monstrous conglomeration of judicial bagmen, Congressional rubber stamps, psychopathic media moguls, dopehead radio ranters, sex-crazed theocrats, war profiteers, think-tank bleaters, Wall Street sharks, oilmen, Moonies, and woman-haters - might appear at the moment.

I don't know what else we can do, except to keep on telling as much of the truth as we can find, to anyone who will listen: reclaiming reality, fragment by fragment, one person at a time. It's an endless task - maybe a hopeless task - but the alternative is a surrender to the worst elements in our society - and in ourselves. It's worth the fight. Let's take it on. In the words of the old spiritual, let us be in no ways tired. The road back to sanity starts now."

- http://chris-floyd.com/

"How It Really Is"