"86 Percent Of Americans Feel Stressed About The Cost Of Groceries, And Many People Are Starting To Really Flip Out Emotionally"

"86 Percent Of Americans Feel Stressed About The Cost Of Groceries, 

And Many People Are Starting To Really Flip Out Emotionally"

by Michael Snyder

"Why are social media platforms filled with videos of Americans complaining about grocery prices right now? Needless to say, those videos must be striking a chord, because some of them are receiving millions of views. Government bureaucrats are telling us that the cost of food is only going up a few percentage points per year, but we can all see that is a load of nonsense. A trip to the grocery store has become an enormous expense, and this is especially true if you have kids to feed. As I wrote about earlier this month, one survey found that in 25 percent of U.S. households at least one person is skipping meals so that there will be enough money to pay the bills. Sadly, we are being warned that the cost of groceries will go even higher in the months ahead.

Several years ago, I kept warning my readers over and over again that soon the cost of groceries would become very painful. Without a doubt, that time has arrived. According to a recent AP poll, the cost of groceries is a “source of stress” for 86 percent of U.S. adults…"Does your run to the supermarket cause a spike in your blood pressure? You’re in good company. The overwhelming majority of Americans – 86% – say the cost of groceries is at least a minor source of stress. The number includes 53% who say it’s a major source of anxiety in their lives right now. That’s according to a new Associated Press/NORC poll."

Those are very alarming numbers. But this is the world that we live in now. And this is why we are seeing so many videos on social media about grocery prices.

Someone put together a compilation of some of the best videos where people are really flipping out emotionally…

In my entire lifetime, I have never seen it so bad. At one grocery store in Chicago, one woman admitted that it feels like “you’re spending your soul on groceries”…"At a South Loop grocery store, customers experience sticker shock and frustration. “No matter if it’s organic or if it’s regular, it’s still going to be an arm and a leg for it. It’s like you’re spending your soul on groceries,” said shopper Tria Hutson."

This is one of the reasons why I get so frustrated with the talking heads on television that are telling us that everything is fine. Just look around you. People are hurting. Some companies are trying to hide their price hikes by keeping the prices the same but putting less stuff in each package.

This is known as “shinkflation”, and Jim Quinn recently shared a personal anecdote from his own life…"I think a personal anecdote I’ve experienced will show you the devious methods corporations will use to pass these tariffs along. I have been buying a pack of coated paper plates at Wal-Mart for years. The pack contained 70 paper plates. Within the last four months, the pack was reduced to 50 plates, for the same price. They know the average dolt, after years of government schooling, is deficient in math skills, so they would not realize they just experienced a 40% increase in price per plate. This will show up nowhere in the fake BLS numbers. Shrinkflation is just as bad as inflation, but they can hide it and pretend all is well, while maintaining their profits."

I am sure that you are running into the same thing. Unfortunately, this is just the beginning. How can I be so confident in saying that? Let me give you just one example. Approximately two-thirds of U.S. adults drink coffee, and approximately one-third of all the coffee we drink comes from Brazil. Thanks to the 50 percent tariff that was just placed on imports from Brazil, coffee is about to become a lot more expensive…

"The U.S. relies heavily on Brazil to import coffee for the 165 million people who need their daily caffeine fix, but Trump’s 50 percent tariff threatens the long-term availability and price of the drink. “When people go to their local coffee shop, whether it’s Starbucks or something else, by and large they will likely be buying some form of Brazilian coffee,” Monica de Bolle, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told NPR. “A 50 percent tariff will kill that market.” I still remember the days when you could get a cup of coffee for 10 cents. What did your latest cup of coffee cost you?

Of course everything else is becoming more expensive too, and our cost of living crisis never seems to end. As a result, 62 percent of Gen Z Americans have no emergency savings at all…62% of Gen Z have no emergency savings, nearly double the rate of baby boomers. 51% of Americans would use a credit card for a $500 emergency, with usage jumping to 70% among students. Two-thirds of consumers have six months or less in savings, with Gen X the least prepared. 76% lack a credit card set aside for emergencies, relying instead on everyday-use cards.

Most of the country is living on the edge financially. The middle class is steadily shrinking, and those that remain in the middle class have much less discretionary income than they once did. So restaurants all over the nation find themselves torn between rapidly rising costs and customers that now have a lot less money to spend…"Ike’s Chili in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has been around for 117 years, surviving a myriad of challenges like the Great Depression, the Covid-19 pandemic and a once-in-a-generation burst of inflation. But 2025 already holds an even more complicated challenge. “The cost of everything’s just going up, and we’ve got to figure out how to manage it right,” Len Wade, a managing partner at the restaurant, told CNN.

He pointed to surging beef prices as an example, specifically hamburger meat on the wholesale level. In July, those prices were up nearly 21% compared to the same month 10 years ago, federal data shows. And passing the buck to customers might not be the best solution, Wade said."

Tourist destinations from coast to coast are experiencing the same thing. Las Vegas is getting far less tourist traffic than it once did, and those that do arrive are tipping a lot less…"Las Vegas servers say they’re feeling the heat as high prices and declining tourism hammer their tip earnings across the Strip. Tipping in Sin City is reportedly down by as much as 50% among servers, as some of them blame the economy and policy while others point to high prices, a tipping backlash and poor service. On Reddit’s r/VegasLocals forum, one cocktail waitress wrote, “I used to average about 80 cents a drink. Now I’m averaging about 10 cents.”

Nobody can deny what is happening. We really are experiencing a very serious economic crisis. Sticking our heads in the sand and pretending that everything is okay is not going to fix anything. Our standard of living really is collapsing, and a lot more pain is ahead as our economic bubbles continue to burst. We were warned that this storm was coming for a long time, and now it is here."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"The Psychology of Manipulation: 6 Lessons from the Master of Propaganda"

"The Psychology of Manipulation: 

6 Lessons from the Master of Propaganda"

by Ryan Matters

"Edward L. Bernays was an American business consultant who is widely recognized as the father of public relations. Bernays was one of the men responsible for “selling” World War 1 to the American public by branding it as a war that was necessary to “make the world safe for democracy”. During the 1920s, Bernays consulted for a number of major corporations, helping to boost their business through expertly crafted marketing campaigns aimed at influencing public opinion.

In 1928, Edward Bernays published his famous book, "Propaganda", in which he outlined the theories behind his successful “public relations” endeavours. The book provides insights into the phenomenon of crowd psychology and outlines effective methods for manipulating people’s habits and opinions. For a book that’s almost 100 years old, "Propaganda" could not be more relevant today. In fact, its relevance is a testament to the unchanging nature of human psychology.

One of the key takeaways of the book is that mind control is an important aspect of any democratic society. Indeed, Bernays maintains that without the “conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses”, democracy simply would not “work”.

We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. According to Bernays, those doing the “governing” constitute an invisible ruling class that “understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses”.

In "Propaganda", Bernays draws on the work of Gustave Le Bon, Wilfred Trotter, Walter Lippmann, and Sigmund Freud (his uncle!), outlining the power of mass psychology and how it may be used to manipulate the “group mind”. If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it?

I recently explored this topic in an essay about how occult rituals and predictive programming are used to manipulate the collective consciousness, influencing the thoughts, beliefs and actions of large groups of people, resulting in the creation of what occultists call “egregores”. Here I have extracted some key insights from Bernays in an attempt to show how his book "Propaganda" is, in many ways, the playbook used by the globalist cryptocracy to process the group mind of the masses.

1. If You Manipulate The Leader Of A Group, The People Will Follow: Bernays tells us that one of the easiest ways to influence the thoughts and actions of large numbers of people is to first influence their leader. If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway.

In fact, one of the most firmly established principles of mass psychology is that the “group mind” does not “think”, rather, it acts according to impulses, habits and emotions. And when deciding on a certain course of action, its first impulse is to follow the example of a trusted leader.

Humans are, by nature a group species. Even when we are alone, we have a deep sense of group belonging. Whether they consciously know it or not, much of what people do is an effort to conform to the ideals of their chosen group so as to feel a sense of acceptance and belonging.

This exact method of influencing the leader and watching the people follow has been used extensively throughout the last few years. One notable instance that comes to mind is the horrendously inaccurate epidemiological models created by Neil Ferguson, which formed the basis for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s lockdown policies. Once Johnson was convinced of the need to lockdown and mask up, the people gladly followed.

2. Words Are Powerful: The Key To Influencing A Group Is The Clever Use Of Language: Certain words and phrases are associated with certain emotions, symbols and reactions. Bernays tell us that through the clever and careful use of language, one can manipulate the emotions of a group and thereby influence their perceptions and actions. By playing upon an old cliché, or manipulating a new one, the propagandist can sometimes swing a whole mass of group emotions.

The clever use of language has been employed throughout the Covid-19 pandemic to great effect. An obvious example of this was when the definition of “vaccine” was changed to include injections utilizing experimental mRNA technology. You see, the word “vaccine” is associated in the public mind with a certain picture – that of a safe, proven medical intervention that is not only life-saving but absolutely necessary.

If governments had told people to go get their “gene therapies”, the vast majority of the public would likely question the motives behind such a campaign; they would feel extremely skeptical because the phrase “gene therapy” is not associated with the same images, emotions and feelings as “vaccine”.

The same goes for the word “pandemic”, the definition of which was also changed. The word “pandemic” is generally associated in the collective consciousness with fear, death, chaos and emergency (largely thanks to Hollywood and the myriad virus films it has released over the years).

3. Any Medium Of Communication Is Also A Medium For Propaganda: Any system of communication, whether phone, radio, print, or social media, is nothing more than a means of transmitting information. Bernays reminds us that any such means of communication is also a channel for propaganda. There is no means of human communication which may not also be a means of deliberate propaganda.

Bernays goes on to stress that a good propagandist must always keep abreast of new forms of communication, so that they may co-opt them as means of deliberate propaganda. Indeed, systems that most people would associate with freedom of speech and democracy are none other than means of circulating propaganda. Facebook fact-checkers, Big Tech censorship and YouTube’s Covid banners certainly fall into this category.

Other examples of this include the recent algorithm updates made by various search engines (including Google and DuckDuckGo) to penalize Russian websites, although this should come as no surprise (Google has been engaging in this type of “shadow propaganda” for many years).

4. Reiterating The Same Idea Over And Over Creates Habits And Convictions: Although Bernays terms this a technique used by the “old propagandists”, he, nonetheless, recognizes its usefulness. It was one of the doctrines of the reaction psychology that a certain stimulus often repeated would create a habit, or that the mere reiteration of an idea would create a conviction.

Repeating the same idea or the same “mantra” again and again is a form of neuro-linguistic programming aimed at instilling certain concepts or emotions into the subconscious mind. Indeed, people who are feeling sad or depressed are often advised to repeat to themselves an uplifting saying or affirmation.

There are many examples of this simple, yet effective, technique being used to great effect over the last few years. Think Q’s “trust the plan”, the globalist favourite, “build back better” or the incessant repetition of that twisted phrase, “trust the science”. Included in this category are the 24/7-in-your-face death statistics and case numbers, aimed at promoting the illusion of a pandemic.

There are more obvious examples of this as well, such as news anchors in different areas all reading from the exact same script.

5. Things Are Not Desired For Their Intrinsic Worth, But Rather For The Symbols That They Represent: After studying why people make certain purchasing decisions, Bernays observed that people often don’t desire something for its usefulness or value, but rather because it represents something else which they unconsciously crave. A thing may be desired not for its intrinsic worth or usefulness, but because he has unconsciously come to see in it a symbol of something else, the desire for which he is ashamed to admit to himself.

Bernays gives the example of a man buying a car. From the outside, it may appear as if the man is buying the car because he needs a means of transport, but in actuality, he is buying it because he craves the elevated social status that comes with owning a motor vehicle.

This idea, too, applies to the events over the last few years. For example, masks are a symbol of compliance. Everyone knows they don’t work but they wear them because of their desire to “fit in”, and to be seen as an upstanding citizen who follows the rules. Covid-19 injections are also a symbol and many people choose to get them because they have a desire to avoid being called an “anti-vaxxer” or a “conspiracy theorist”.

6. One Can Manipulate Individual Actions By Creating Circumstances That Modify Group Customs: Lastly, Bernays tells us that if one wishes to manipulate the actions of an individual, the most effective way to do so is to create circumstances that engender the desired behavior. What are the true reasons why the purchaser is planning to spend his money on a new car instead of on a new piano? […] He buys a car, because it is at the moment the group custom to buy cars. The modern propagandist therefore sets to work to create circumstances which will modify that custom.

For example, why all of a sudden does everyone “stand with Ukraine”? According to Bernays, it’s not because there is a war going on and innocent people need our love and support, but rather because it is the new “group custom” to do so. The process of altering group customs begins from the top down. In every nation or social clique, there are leaders, public figures and influencers. Manipulating those with the most sway eventually filters down into the public mind. That is why when a celebrity decides to wear something extravagant on the red carpet, a whole new trend can arise overnight.

Similarly, at the beginning of the Covid saga and then the Russia-Ukraine war, the media were quick to circulate stories of celebs “catching Covid” and urging people to stay home, or public figures condemning Russian actions and calling for stricter sanctions (which just so happened to hurt the West more than they hurt Russia).

The Propaganda Playbook: The world is a volatile place right now. Things seem to change quickly and no one knows what might happen next. However, amid all this chaos there is one thing that has not changed and is unlikely to change any time soon, and that is human psychology. Because of this, the tactics used to manipulate people’s thoughts, beliefs and actions have not changed either. In fact, most of them were outlined in detail 100 years ago by Edward Bernays in his 1928 book, "Propaganda."

That’s right, the Puppet Master’s playbook isn’t a secret. It’s right there, freely available to anyone who cares to understand how the powers that be seek to influence them on a daily basis."

- https://off-guardian.org/

○

Freely download "Propaganda", by Edward L. Bernays, here:

- https://www.newbraveworld.org/

"Making The Invisible Hand Visible: Psyops and the War for Our Minds"

"Making The Invisible Hand Visible:

Psyops and the War for Our Minds"

by John Wilder

"Back in 1995, I think, I saw an editorial cartoon. One was a picture of an American G.I. holding a dead child in 1945. Next to it was an American G.I. holding a dead child in 1995. The message was simple: Americans needed to go and fight in a place that Americans couldn’t find on a map. Bosnia? Why was this a picture in a newspaper, trying to get me, John Wilder, to be on board attacking Serbians? Why Serbians? I mean, it sounded like an alien race of creatures that spent their lives curb surfing.

Something felt off – I think the only thing of value in the whole country was the last thirty Yugo™ transmissions. And, I wasn’t wrong. This was propaganda. I (and the rest of America) was caught in a psychological operation, or psyops, a calculated effort to hijack my thoughts and bend my will. About... Serbia.

Psyops, per the Army’s FM 3-05.301 (LINK), are “planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of governments, organizations, groups, and individuals.” What’s that in language that is less like The Terminator® is talking? It is the art of making me think what someone else wants, without me ever spotting the strings of the puppetmaster.

The story doesn’t start with Edward Bernays, but he’s a pretty convenient on-ramp for discussion. Bernays gets that distinction because he, more than anyone else, is why the world feels like a scripted reality show. Born in 1891, this nephew of Sigmund Freud took his uncle’s insights into the human psyche and turned them into a weapon. In his 1928 book "Propaganda", Bernays didn’t mince words: “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.”

Translation? The GloboLeftElites think Americans are too dumb to think for ourselves, so they’ll do it for you. Bernays called this “the engineering of consent,” and he was as good at it as a tick is at finding blood or as Zuck is at mining your soul with InstaFace™. Take his 1929 “Torches of Freedom” stunt. To sell more cigarettes, Bernays paid fashionable women to light up during New York’s Easter parade, framing smoking as a feminist rebellion against stuffy norms. The result? The media ate it up, women started puffing, and tobacco companies doubled their market. Women? They traded motherhood and bras for Camels™ and lung cancer.

Bernays didn’t stop at commerce. In the 1950s, he worked with the CIA to paint Guatemala’s elected government as a communist menace (true, the president was buds with Castro later), justifying putting pressure on the president to resign. He did, and United Fruit Company (a story for another time) got Guatemala back into their orbit. Bernays proved that by tapping into the primal emotions of fear, desire, and identity, anything could be sold, be it a product, a war, or a worldview.

Bernays’ playbook became the blueprint for government and corporate psyops and I could spend a book describing them, but ain’t nobody got that kind of time this morning. But one thing is clear: psyops are cheap and effective. Thankfully, we abandoned the use of such technology.

Whoops. Guess not. Here's 2025, and psyops have gone high-tech and are used more than ever. The core, though, remains Bernays’ emotional manipulation. Here’s how they work now:

• Framing and Narrative Control: Words shape reality. Calling illegal aliens “undocumented workers” or “asylum seekers” turns lawbreakers into victims. Meanwhile, people who just want to live in their own country without unending streams of infinity third-worlders are smeared as “racists.” Whoops. Guess that word doesn’t have the power it did even two years ago. This is also why control of every platform is important to them. Just one kid saying that the emperor is nekkid is enough to bring the whole charade down.

• Social Media Amplification: Algorithms on all social media are designed to boost outrage because clicks mean cash for Zuck. Bots and influencers push phrases like Black Lives Matter, making manufactured narratives feel organic.

• Astroturfing: Fake grassroots movements, like funded protests or viral campaigns, create the illusion of public consensus. Remember the 2020 “defund the police” push? It looked spontaneous but was backed by big money, just like the “no kings” protest against Trump. There really isn’t a group supporting it, it’s a cause in search of supporters.

• Gaslighting: The ultimate mind-screw, telling us what we see isn’t real. Worried about illegal immigration’s strain on schools or hospitals? We’re “xenophobic.” Notice crime spikes in certain areas or that moslems are pretty rape-y? We’re “bigoted.” The goal? Make us doubt our own eyes, believe that no one else thinks the same way that we do.

Psyops in Action: Race and Immigration: The American public is a prime target, especially on race and illegal immigration, where psyops fuel division and push GloboLeftElite agendas. After George Floyd’s overdose in 2020, the media ran a relentless campaign framing police as systematically racist. Every white-cop-on-black-suspect incident became proof of a grand conspiracy, while DOJ reports (like the 2014 Ferguson findings clearing Officer Darren Wilson) were buried.

The result? Riots, “defund the police” mania, and corporations tripping over themselves to push DEI policies that pit races against each other. It’s Bernays 101: amplify emotion, ignore facts, and, in this case, watch society fracture because it’s always easier to destroy than to build.

Illegal immigration is another psyops goldmine. Since the 2021 border surge, outlets like CNN and MSNBC have framed illegal immigrants as “migrants” fleeing persecution, spotlighting tear-jerking stories of families while ignoring the stunningly high costs that these people bring to our country. Crime stats, like DHS reports showing 66% of released detainees reoffend, are swept under the rug. Ignore that diseases that were eradicated are again showing up in our country.

The narrative? Open borders are humane, and anyone who disagrees hates brown people. This isn’t an accident. This is a deliberate push to erode national sovereignty, weaken cultural cohesion, and make Americans feel guilty for wanting secure borders.

COVID was a masterclass in psyops too, as was the January 6 “Insurrection” and a thousand other public lies meant to manipulate you. But never forget those who are in full service of the Lie: The Court Jesters of the GloboLeftElite.

Jon Stewart and John Oliver, among many others, are the smirking faces of psyops disguised as comedy. Stewart, helming The Daily Show from 1999 to 2015, and Oliver, with Last Week Tonight since 2014, aren’t just entertainers (and it’s arguable that they’re even entertaining). Nope. They’re narrative enforcers peddling DEI with a laugh track. Their weapon? Humor that makes their audience feel smart and superior while feeding them a script of what the Narrative wants them to believe. Their techniques are pure Bernays:

• Selective Framing: Stewart’s 2010 Tea Party takedowns painted fiscal conservatives as racist rubes, ignoring their legitimate gripes about government bloat. Oliver’s 2020 border segments framed ICE as heartless, glossing over data like the millions of illegals flooding over the border.

• Ridicule as Persuasion: Mockery is their hammer. Stewart’s smirks and Oliver’s exasperated sighs make conservative ideas: border walls, voter ID, traditional values seem absurd to their hand-picked audiences. Laughter shuts down critical thinking: nobody argues with a punchline.

• Moral Superiority: Both position themselves as the voice of reason. Oliver’s 2021 “critical race theory” bit dismissed critics as clueless, never engaging their actual concerns about divisive curriculums. Stewart’s post-Ferguson rants leaned on emotion over evidence, amplifying the “systemic racism” narrative while ignoring the exoneration of the cop that shot the “gentle giant” that had just roughed up a convenience store clerk.

Their impact is insidious. By blending humor with half-truths, they make progressive dogma feel like common sense. Their audiences are urban, educated, and often young, who walk away feeling informed, not manipulated. But it’s psyops all the same: control the frame, mock the dissenters, and let laughter do the rest. The GloboLeft couldn’t ask for better foot soldiers.

Seeing this is half the battle. The other half is reflection. Psyops work best when they’re fast and jump out at you unexpectedly, like that editorial cartoon did decades ago. I remember it because it was effective at emotional manipulation, but when I realized that I had no idea what a Serb ate for lunch or if Bosnians wore special hats while they ate PEZ® I came to the conclusion that my opinion on the subject was the product. I was meant to be mad at one side or the other, but, thankfully, I had no idea which side I was supposed to be mad at.

What I try to do now is to ask myself: what are they trying to make me feel? Why? Why should I care about Ukraine? I thought about it and did some research, and, made the conscious decision that I don’t care about Ukraine unless someone is asking me to pay for it or unless it’s the source of huge corruption. It is? Well let’s stop paying for it and let’s arrest and try those who were paid off. Simple.

The GloboLeftElite’s goals are at least partially clear: they want a borderless, divided America, where the people are too scared, guilty, or distracted to fight back. We don’t have to play along. Question everything. Dig for primary sources. Be careful what you feed your head. And if something connects in a particularly emotional way, ask yourself: why should I care? Then make your own choice, and if you’re lucky, you might get your hands on some cherry Yugo® transmissions. I mean, if you have goats to trade because I’m not sure they use money."

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Grocery Deals at Meijer This Week!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, AM 8/11/25

"Grocery Deals at Meijer This Week!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Bill Bonner, "A New Golden Age?"

The White House, covered in gold leaf. 

Source: Groke Image Generator

"A New Golden Age?"

by Bill Bonner

Poitou, France - "The Big Man just keeps getting bigger. America’s strongman is pushing for more power…testing the limits of his authority. Good or bad? Substance or mere style? There’s certainly a lot of bluff, bluster and blah blah involved. But there are real changes, too...ones that will affect our lives and our money.

Trade with Canada and Mexico goes on much as before. But on the whole, US consumers face tariff taxes much higher than they used to. And they were imposed by the Big Man, not by the peoples’ representatives in Congress. This is a new way to govern. And it seems to confirm Oswald Spengler’s prophecy - that around the year 2000, consensual democracy would give way to ‘Caesarism.’ Last week, Caesar flexed his muscles. Not in chronological order...

Mr. Trump took it upon himself to offer a part of one sovereign foreign nation (the Ukraine) to another sovereign nation (Russia). It was as if the French president had offered to give North Dakota to Canada to solve the tariff spat. The Jerusalem Post:

US President Donald Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end of the war in Ukraine on August 15 in Alaska, Trump said on Friday. "There'll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both," Trump said.

Zelensky apparently said ‘nyet’ or whatever the Ukrainians say when they mean ‘no deal.’ But Zelensky will be flanked by two big men – Trump and Putin.

Then, Mr. Trump threatened the cutting edge of the electronics industry with draconian new taxes. The Wall Street Journal: "Trump Announces 100% Tariff on Chips, With Exemptions for Companies Investing in U.S." How much must they invest? On what? When? The big man will decide that later.

In the meantime, the president is also setting up a new ‘terrorist’ threat...and proposing to sic the US Army on it. El Pais: "Trump orders US army to combat foreign drug cartels." US troops in Mexico? To that, Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, replied ‘no way, Jose.’

Then, POTUS accused a foreign head of state of being a ‘terrorist’ drug pusher...and put a price on his head. BBC: "The US has doubled a reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to $50m (£37.2m), accusing him of being "one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world".

And now he’s expanding his own internal paramilitary force, with a $75 billion budget increase for ICE and signing bonuses of $50,000 for the first 10,000 new recruits. Trump claims ICE has the power to arrest, imprison and/or deport people, basically on his say-so alone.

The Soviets had the Cheka. North Korea has its Ministry of State Security. Why not ICE for the US? Former US diplomat, James L. Bruno, spent many years in ‘authoritarian’ countries. He worries that...The administration is laying the groundwork for a police state with the rapid expansion of ICE.

But returning to the matter of style...that too suggests a strongman motif. Previously, the White House was a model of refined Episcopalian grace. It was ‘restrained neoclassicism,’ with the understated elegance of the British upper classes or the American elite.

In aesthetics, however, the Trump Administration echoes its ham-handed approach to statecraft. It tends toward a gaudier, Mar-a-Lago look. Melania doesn’t look like Mamie Eisenhower. And now the White House is getting a trophy look, too. It has been tarted up in gold - just as though it were Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. The rose garden has been covered in concrete. And Trump is planning a new 90,000 square foot ballroom. Big Men think Big. And as with Louis 14th’s Versailles, or Mussolini’s Coloseo Quadrato, their projects signal the majesty of their creators...but not necessarily their good taste."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Jim Kunstler, "Under Color of Law"

"Under Color of Law"

by Jim Kunstler

"The second-order and third-order damages of RussiaGate are 

incalculable. A murder of American democracy was committed." 

- Mike Benz on "X"

"Surely you’ve noticed the ominous cone of silence around the DOJ and the FBI as rumors of “accountability” mount against well-known figures who used government to make war against its own citizens. That is exactly what happened, by the way, in case you’re baffled by the news. The agencies aren’t leaking this time, especially not to the mendacious scribes that infest The New York Times and The WashPo, who function as vanguard to the corps of traitors in the rogue fourth branch of government called the Blob. So, the silence begs you to ask: Are they doing anything in there?

Yes, they are making cases. And they are not yapping idly about it in the news, legacy or alt. They are preparing evidence for grand juries that will decide if probable cause exists to indict those well-known figures - several of whom have become cable news performers, foolishly, if obliquely, advertising their own culpability for years now. You’ll just have to wait, though perhaps not for long. It is August, after all, the horse latitudes of the year when things go still.

You are lectured incessantly and sanctimoniously by these same suspects about the rule of law (in “our democracy”). Many of these characters are maestros in the dark arts of lawfare, which, paradoxically, is the practice of using law to pervert and dishonor the rule of law. Lately, you are introduced to a similar sounding phrase, under color of law, with a related meaning. Understand it and you will see what has been behind virtually all the mischief in our public affairs this past, vicious decade.

Under color of law has deep roots in Anglo-American jurisprudence because law, by its nature, lends itself to abuse and nefarious misuse. The law’s “nature” is that it is a set of rules to decide matters of consequence, both personal and public, where much is at stake: ownership of property, liberty, life itself. At times, actions are taken in the name of the law to unjustly deprive persons of life, liberty, and property, usually for the benefit of other persons.

The phrase, life, liberty, and property, derives from John Locke’s "Two Treatises on Government" (1689), which argued that these are natural rights, God-given, and that it is government’s duty to protect these rights, government being the practical application of law. The phrase life, liberty, and property deeply influenced America’s founders. Thomas Jefferson changed it up a bit in the Declaration of Independence as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” with a eudaimonian twist to inspire America to flourish on its own, off England’s leash. It was also Jefferson’s way of detaching the Declaration from the issue of slavery, where “property” could refer to human beings.

But the Lockean original, life, liberty and property, reappears in the Bill of Rights to the Constitution. It is in the Fifth Amendment, protecting persons from the arbitrary deprivation of these rights without due process by the federal government, and in the Fourteenth Amendment applying the same principle of law to state governments. Where lawfare comes in is under due process. Lawfare’s aim is to pervert due process, to use officers of the courts to act unfairly and unjustly in the name of the law, and thus, under color of law.

This is exactly what you saw in the several cases brought against Mr. Trump in New York State in 2024, a three-ring circus of process-abuse engineered by the “Joe Biden” White House, coordinated with Merrick Garland’s DOJ (through Deputy AG Lisa Monaco), with assists from NY AG Letitia James and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. Ditto the RICO case attempted in Atlanta under Fulton County DA Fani Wiillis, a spectacular botch. And ditto, the cases brought under Special Counsel Jack Smith in Florida and DC, also badly botched.

The slovenly ineptitude of these cases was really something to behold, including the sordid romantic complications around Fani Willis and her chosen chief prosecutor, “boyfriend” Nathan Wade, a divorce lawyer with no experience in criminal law. Throw in the disgraceful, self-conflicted antics of the Judges Kaplan, Engoron, and Merchand in the New York cases, and the oafish conduct of Jack Smith and his assistants in Florida and DC - and what you get is a demonstration of how crude an instrument sheer lying actually is in the practice of law, and how easily it breaks against the people using it.

Some of these characters are just now coming to grief: Letitia James faces a DOJ action on depriving Mr. Trump’s rights, and SC Jack Smith is under active FBI investigation for evidence tampering and other crimes of process abuse. It would be fitting for all the prosecutors and the three judges in the New York cases to face similar inquiries.

The phrase under color of law establishes liability for abuse of power for officials vested with the terrible authority for upending people’s lives. The phrase “deprivation of rights” appears explicitly in federal statutes with the primarily focus on holding government officials and others acting with apparent legal authority accountable for willfully violating an individual’s constitutional or legal rights. The most relevant statute is 18 U.S.C. § 242, which directly criminalizes such conduct. Additional statutes, such as 18 U.S.C. § 241, 18 U.S.C. § 250, 18 U.S.C. § 2243, and 18 U.S.C. § 2244. That’s where all this is going, even if all that’s coming out of the DOJ and FBI for the moment is that ominous silence."

- https://www.kunstler.com/

"Economic Market Snapshot 8/11/25"

"Economic Market Snapshot 8/11/25"

○

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

Only the consequences are real - to you!

○

"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 

○

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

○

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."

○

- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

Job cuts and much more.

○

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

○

- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

○

- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

○

- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

○

- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

○

Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

○

"The more I see of the monied classes,

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

○

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

○

And now... The End Game...

o

Musical Interlude: 2002, “Cycle Of Time”

Full screen recommended.

2002, “Cycle Of Time”

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Braided, serpentine filaments of glowing gas suggest this nebula's popular name, The Medusa Nebula. Also known as Abell 21, this Medusa is an old planetary nebula some 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Gemini. Like its mythological namesake, the nebula is associated with a dramatic transformation.

The planetary nebula phase represents a final stage in the evolution of low mass stars like the sun, as they transform themselves from red giants to hot white dwarf stars and in the process shrug off their outer layers. Ultraviolet radiation from the hot star powers the nebular glow. The Medusa's transforming star is near the center of the overall bright crescent shape. In this deep telescopic view, fainter filaments clearly extend below and to the left of the bright crescent region. The Medusa Nebula is estimated to be over 4 light-years across.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121025.html

Chet Raymo, "Seeing"

"Seeing"

by Chet Raymo

"There was a moment yesterday evening when the elements conspired to evoke these few lines, spoken by Macbeth:

"Light thickens,

And the crow makes wing to the rooky woods,

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse."

The fading light. The crows gliding down the fields to the trees in Ballybeg:

"Light thickens,

And the crow makes wing to the rooky woods,

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse."

It's all there, in those few lines - the mysterious power of poetry to infuse the world with meaning, to anoint the world with a transforming grace. One could spend an hour picking those lines apart, syntax and sound, sense and alliteration. The t's of light thickening, tongue against the teeth. The alar w's making wing. The owl eyes of the double o's. The d's nodding into slumber - day, droop, drowse.

The poet Howard Nemerov says of poetry that it "works on the very surface of the eye, that thin, unyielding wall of liquid between mind and world, where somehow, mysteriously, the patterns formed by electrical storms assaulting the retina become things and the thought of things and the names of things and the relations supposed between thing." It works too in the mouth, in the physical act of speech - tongue, teeth, those d's gliding deeper into the darkness of the throat.

I stand in the gloaming garden and the black birds glide, down, down to Ballybeg, and I marvel that with so few syllables Shakespeare can - across the centuries - teach me how to see."

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

Dan I Allegedly, "The Worst Financial Mistake of My Life"

Full screen recommended.

Dan I Allegedly, 8/10/25

"The Worst Financial Mistake of My Life"

"Join me as I share the story of the worst financial mistake of my life and the valuable lessons that came with it! In this video, I explore the risks of investing in franchises and why many people, like Scott Rafer, discover that financial projections and reality don’t always match up. From unexpected costs to ongoing royalties, the franchise world can be a tricky business. We’ll also talk about the Subway franchise boom, the challenges of running a restaurant in today’s economy, and even touch on some wild stories like MC Hammer's financial woes and UPS buyouts. This is a must-watch if you're thinking about starting a business, investing in a franchise, or just curious about how to avoid financial pitfalls. Let’s discuss market research, labor costs, and the fine print that could turn your dream into a nightmare. Plus, hear about the evolving economy, AI replacing jobs, and how companies like Amazon and Walmart are making headlines".

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Goodbye Tech Jobs, Coders Now Seek Work At Chipotle; AI Will Destroy The Job Market"

Jeremiah Babe, 8/10/25

"Goodbye Tech Jobs, Coders Now Seek Work At Chipotle; 

AI Will Destroy The Job Market"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Brainerd, Minnesota, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Sometimes..."

"Sometimes even to live is an act of courage."

- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

"Life is an end in itself, and the only question as to whether 

it is worth living is whether you have had enough of it."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

That ultimately is the question...

Adrian Lester as Hamlet: "To be or not to be..."

William Shakespeare, "Hamlet", Act III, Scene I

"The Truth Virus: The Most Dangerous Virus in the World"

"The Truth Virus:

The Most Dangerous Virus in the World"

by Dog Poet

"I’ve got a virus. It doesn’t have a common name because it isn’t a common virus. It’s difficult to catch this virus because there are only so many ways for it to enter your system. You can catch it as a result of extreme trauma which results in all of your defenses being shut down. This includes all subconscious resistance and all systemic defenses. You can catch it as a result of long term abuse. This includes abuse visited upon you or abuse you visit on yourself. Often this abuse comes about because the virus is already looking for a foothold and it will attract one of these two kinds of abuse. You can catch it through diligent and repeated efforts to catch it, in an environment of quietude, created by a relentless persistence of the mind to cease from the production of thought. There are a few other ways.

Once you’ve got this virus there’s no cure for it. Every cell in your body is going to be replaced and the world will gradually - and sometimes not so gradually - take on the appearance of an insane asylum, while also becoming remarkably predictable. People think insanity is unpredictable but that’s just one of the illusions that are part of the ordinary mindset of the collectively insane.

People who have this virus can understand one another without having to say anything at all and if they should speak they are also understood by people who are vulnerable to this virus. This is one of the ways that the virus spreads. The impact of the virus speaking induces trauma that naturally moves toward the extreme. People who do not have the virus- and who are not susceptible to catching it- will not understand a single word being said. It will make them uncomfortable and sometimes it will make them angry but at no time will it be understood.

For health care it doesn’t really matter whether you can see a doctor of your choice or not and have some amount of it paid for. It isn’t going to have any positive effect on your health. Health is the result of a few basic things and one of them is youth. The other things are diet and ones mental and emotional state. An awareness of ones relationship to all of these leads to making the right decisions about how one lives their life. A conscious awareness of diet has a profound effect on one’s well being. One’s mental and emotional states also play significant roles. One needs only to study how many stress-related diseases there are to understand this. If you factor bad diet into unbalanced mental and emotional states you’ve got a problem no doctor can deal with, especially if your medical system is of the allopathic variety.

The people who decide what doctors can and cannot do and what doctors can and cannot tell you are permanent bed-partners with various corporations for whom good health is a bad thing. These are the pharmaceutical concerns; the AMA, the hospital equipment industry and related suppliers of related products. These corporations have another relationship with the various food industries in the sense that they will not write or permit policy that impinges on major enterprises that bring you processed foods, fast foods, mystery meats, candy and soft drinks and whatever else hides under that umbrella. What this means is that, according to the capitalist mentality that rules this society, it is possible; it has to be possible and it damn well will be possible to eat anything you want, avoid exercise and generally break any and every rule of intelligent behavior and if there’s a problem they will either cut it out of you or suppress the symptoms until they have to cut it out of you.

Because the will of corporations is the rule of the land, there will be no change in the profit line for participating corporations. What will change will be the language that the non-change is presented in. To see into the black heart of the system in charge of American life you have only to look into the prison industry where 5% of the American public and 25% of the world’s prison population are incarcerated in American prisons. Why is this? It’s a business. Is it coincidence that America uses 60% of the world’s resources as well?

The unstated objective of American society is that a small percentage of its members shall possess the greatest amount of wealth at the expense of everyone else and will then be lauded for their efforts to assist the less fortunate where no such efforts exist. Such a system cannot survive and will not survive and is presently at the state where a number of shell games are being used to give the impression that the system is doing fine (nicely recovering from a bad scare) and going to get better as it approaches the lip of a high cliff. As things begin to fall from the cliff, you will see charts and graphs appear that indicate the true state and direction of the culture and economy but they will probably be holding these charts and graphs upside down.

I see these things and many other things because I have this virus. Others have this virus too and many more are on the verge of infection. The biggest concern of the TPTB is the proliferation of this virus. Their concern about all other viruses, which they manufactured to begin with, is just Slim Shady dining at the Red Herring Restaurant.

With this virus I can see that the appetites and desires being milked by corporations in order to promote and sell their products leads directly to aberrant behavior which leads to the prison industry for those who are not making the laws that route the unfortunate toward the prison or the grave with that long interlude of enslavement at the looping track of life where they chase the uncatchable dream rabbit that is already steaming in the pot of their betters.

With this virus I can look directly at the lies of politicians and religious leaders and hear the truth that spotlights the pies around the corner and their relationship to the pies in the sky which are moving on conveyor belts behind unbreakable Plexiglas. I can see that there are no pies because the pies are only video projections of pies bounced off of a series of mirrors. I can see the people who do no have the virus and I can see the world they are looking at and it turns out that this world is also just a projection bouncing off of mirrors and one of those mirrors is their minds. These projections then activate the furnace in the visceral brain which causes those without the virus to dance like millions of chickens on a hot griddle that somehow got the impression that they are auditioning for American Idol.

It is not possible to create a society, based on the principles that some of us have read and most of us have heard about, when corporations are the ruling authority of the land, because the intent of a corporation is diametrically opposed to the principles that some of us have read and most of us have heard about. You can’t make Beef Stroganoff out of pork rinds and Velveeta but you can convince people that that is what they are eating and that is the point.

There’s a debate that has been going around since Cain brained Abel and that debate centers on whether it is better to have this virus or some form of all the other viruses. The awareness that comes with having this virus can lead to the rack, the auto da fe and other less pleasant locations. Having the other viruses can lead to being a hamster or some part of a compost pile and a fire burns there as well. They can lead to being cannon fodder and the merciless hands of those who practice a form of medicine that has little to do with the stated intentions of the art. The hands of these practitioners are often more dangerous than the problem that brought you there.

Most people spend more than ninety percent of everything they have saved in their lives in the last year of their life on an industry whose purpose is exactly for that reason.

This virus of mine - and perhaps you have it too - is not an easy burden to bear. You can never pull the covers over your head again. You know there’s no monster in the closet but you also know where the real monsters dwell. You are doomed to an unending quarantine even as you move among your fellows. One thing you do acquire as a result of this virus is compassion and, as Lao Tzu said long ago, “Compassion is a weapon from the sky against being dead.” Realization may not be all the things we imagine it to be, but it is preferable to the restless sleep of nightmares wielded by the whip hand of psychopaths."

- http://rockthetruth.blogspot.com/