The Alan Parsons Project, "Sirius", "Eye In The Sky"
So, we rise from the rubble...
StatCounter
Friday, August 15, 2025
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Have you ever seen the Pleiades star cluster? Even if you have, you probably have never seen it as large and clear as this. Perhaps the most famous star cluster on the sky, the bright stars of the Pleiades can be seen without binoculars from even the depths of a light-polluted city. With a long exposure from a dark location, though, the dust cloud surrounding the Pleiades star cluster becomes very evident. The featured exposure, taken from Florida, USA, covers a sky area several times the size of the full moon.
Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades lies about 400 light years away toward the constellation of the Bull (Taurus). A common legend with a modern twist is that one of the brighter stars faded since the cluster was named, leaving only six of the sister stars visible to the unaided eye. The actual number of Pleiades stars visible, however, may be more or less than seven, depending on the darkness of the surrounding sky and the clarity of the observer's eyesight."
"US Household Debt Skyrockets To Dangerous Levels"
Full screen recommended.
Michael Bordenaro, 8/15/25
"US Household Debt Skyrockets To Dangerous Levels"
"The average household debt in America just exploded to $152,000 which is the highest nominal value on record. The only time it was ever worse than this was in 2008 and we all know what happened back then."
Comments here:
Dan, I Allegedly, "45% Can't Afford Their Lifestyle! Are You One of Them?"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 8/15/25
"45% Can't Afford Their Lifestyle!
Are You One of Them?"
"Nearly 45% of Americans say they can't afford their homes, and the financial strain is only getting worse! In today’s video, I’m breaking down the troubling stats about affordability, credit scores, and how inflation, job cuts, and rising living costs are leaving many strapped. From the shocking 67% drop in commercial real estate value to the growing role of AI in holiday shopping, there's so much to cover. Plus, I'll share some surprising updates about companies like Walmart, Target, and even Chili’s burger deal that’s driving insane sales growth!"
Comments here:
"The Pig Farmer"
"The Pig Farmer"
by John Robbins
"One day in Iowa I met a particular gentleman - and I use that term, gentleman, frankly, only because I am trying to be polite, for that is certainly not how I saw him at the time. He owned and ran what he called a “pork production facility.” I, on the other hand, would have called it a pig Auschwitz. The conditions were brutal. The pigs were confined in cages that were barely larger than their own bodies, with the cages stacked on top of each other in tiers, three high. The sides and the bottoms of the cages were steel slats, so that excrement from the animals in the upper and middle tiers dropped through the slats on to the animals below.
The aforementioned owner of this nightmare weighed, I am sure, at least 240 pounds, but what was even more impressive about his appearance was that he seemed to be made out of concrete. His movements had all the fluidity and grace of a brick wall. What made him even less appealing was that his language seemed to consist mainly of grunts, many of which sounded alike to me, and none of which were particularly pleasant to hear. Seeing how rigid he was and sensing the overall quality of his presence, I - rather brilliantly, I thought - concluded that his difficulties had not arisen merely because he hadn’t had time, that particular morning, to finish his entire daily yoga routine.
But I wasn’t about to divulge my opinions of him or his operation, for I was undercover, visiting slaughterhouses and feedlots to learn what I could about modern meat production. There were no bumper stickers on my car, and my clothes and hairstyle were carefully chosen to give no indication that I might have philosophical leanings other than those that were common in the area. I told the farmer matter of factly that I was a researcher writing about animal agriculture, and asked if he’d mind speaking with me for a few minutes so that I might have the benefit of his knowledge. In response, he grunted a few words that I could not decipher, but that I gathered meant I could ask him questions and he would show me around.
I was at this point not very happy about the situation, and this feeling did not improve when we entered one of the warehouses that housed his pigs. In fact, my distress increased, for I was immediately struck by what I can only call an overpowering olfactory experience. The place reeked like you would not believe of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and other noxious gases that were the products of the animals’ wastes. These, unfortunately, seemed to have been piling up inside the building for far too long a time.
As nauseating as the stench was for me, I wondered what it must be like for the animals. The cells that detect scent are known as ethmoidal cells. Pigs, like dogs, have nearly 200 times the concentration of these cells in their noses as humans do. In a natural setting, they are able, while rooting around in the dirt, to detect the scent of an edible root through the earth itself. Given any kind of a chance, they will never soil their own nests, for they are actually quite clean animals, despite the reputation we have unfairly given them. But here they had no contact with the earth, and their noses were beset by the unceasing odor of their own urine and feces multiplied a thousand times by the accumulated wastes of the other pigs unfortunate enough to be caged in that warehouse. I was in the building only for a few minutes, and the longer I remained in there, the more desperately I wanted to leave. But the pigs were prisoners there, barely able to take a single step, forced to endure this stench, and almost completely immobile, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and with no time off, I can assure you, for holidays.
The man who ran the place was - I’ll give him this - kind enough to answer my questions, which were mainly about the drugs he used to handle the problems that are fairly common in factory pigs today. But my sentiments about him and his farm were not becoming any warmer. It didn’t help when, in response to a particularly loud squealing from one of the pigs, he delivered a sudden and threatening kick to the bars of its cage, causing a loud “clang” to reverberate through the warehouse and leading to screaming from many of the pigs. Because it was becoming increasingly difficult to hide my distress, it crossed my mind that I should tell him what I thought of the conditions in which he kept his pigs, but then I thought better of it. This was a man, it was obvious, with whom there was no point in arguing.
After maybe 15 minutes, I’d had enough and was preparing to leave, and I felt sure he was glad to be about to be rid of me. But then something happened, something that changed my life, forever - and, as it turns out, his too. It began when his wife came out from the farmhouse and cordially invited me to stay for dinner. The pig farmer grimaced when his wife spoke, but he dutifully turned to me and announced, “The wife would like you to stay for dinner.” He always called her “the wife,” by the way, which led me to deduce that he was not, apparently, on the leading edge of feminist thought in the country today.
I don’t know whether you have ever done something without having a clue why, and to this day I couldn’t tell you what prompted me to do it, but I said Yes, I’d be delighted. And stay for dinner I did, though I didn’t eat the pork they served. The excuse I gave was that my doctor was worried about my cholesterol. I didn’t say that I was a vegetarian, nor that my cholesterol was 125.
I was trying to be a polite and appropriate dinner guest. I didn’t want to say anything that might lead to any kind of disagreement. The couple (and their two sons, who were also at the table) were, I could see, being nice to me, giving me dinner and all, and it was gradually becoming clear to me that, along with all the rest of it, they could be, in their way, somewhat decent people. I asked myself, if they were in my town, traveling, and I had chanced to meet them, would I have invited them to dinner? Not likely, I knew, not likely at all. Yet here they were, being as hospitable to me as they could. Yes, I had to admit it. Much as I detested how the pigs were treated, this pig farmer wasn’t actually the reincarnation of Adolph Hitler. At least not at the moment.
Of course, I still knew that if we were to scratch the surface we’d no doubt find ourselves in great conflict, and because that was not a direction in which I wanted to go, as the meal went along I sought to keep things on an even and constant keel. Perhaps they sensed it too, for among us, we managed to see that the conversation remained, consistently and resolutely, shallow. We talked about the weather, about the Little League games in which their two sons played, and then, of course, about how the weather might affect the Little League games. We were actually doing rather well at keeping the conversation superficial and far from any topic around which conflict might occur. Or so I thought. But then suddenly, out of nowhere, the man pointed at me forcefully with his finger, and snarled in a voice that I must say truly frightened me, “Sometimes I wish you animal rights people would just drop dead.”
How on Earth he knew I had any affinity to animal rights I will never know - I had painstakingly avoided any mention of any such thing - but I do know that my stomach tightened immediately into a knot. To make matters worse, at that moment his two sons leapt from the table, tore into the den, slammed the door behind them, and turned the TV on loud, presumably preparing to drown out what was to follow. At the same instant, his wife nervously picked up some dishes and scurried into the kitchen. As I watched the door close behind her and heard the water begin running, I had a sinking sensation. They had, there was no mistaking it, left me alone with him. I was, to put it bluntly, terrified. Under the circumstances, a wrong move now could be disastrous. Trying to center myself, I tried to find some semblance of inner calm by watching my breath, but this I could not do, and for a very simple reason. There wasn’t any to watch.
“What are they saying that’s so upsetting to you?” I said finally, pronouncing the words carefully and distinctly, trying not to show my terror. I was trying very hard at that moment to disassociate myself from the animal rights movement, a force in our society of which he, evidently, was not overly fond. “They accuse me of mistreating my stock,” he growled. “Why would they say a thing like that?” I answered, knowing full well, of course, why they would, but thinking mostly about my own survival. His reply, to my surprise, while angry, was actually quite articulate. He told me precisely what animal rights groups were saying about operations like his, and exactly why they were opposed to his way of doing things. Then, without pausing, he launched into a tirade about how he didn’t like being called cruel, and they didn’t know anything about the business he was in, and why couldn’t they mind their own business.
As he spoke it, the knot in my stomach was relaxing, because it was becoming clear, and I was glad of it, that he meant me no harm, but just needed to vent. Part of his frustration, it seemed, was that even though he didn’t like doing some of the things he did to the animals -cooping them up in such small cages, using so many drugs, taking the babies away from their mothers so quickly after their births - he didn’t see that he had any choice. He would be at a disadvantage and unable to compete economically if he didn’t do things that way. This is how it’s done today, he told me, and he had to do it too. He didn’t like it, but he liked even less being blamed for doing what he had to do in order to feed his family. As it happened, I had just the week before been at a much larger hog operation, where I learned that it was part of their business strategy to try to put people like him out of business by going full-tilt into the mass production of assembly-line pigs, so that small farmers wouldn’t be able to keep up. What I had heard corroborated everything he was saying.
Almost despite myself, I began to grasp the poignancy of this man’s human predicament. I was in his home because he and his wife had invited me to be there. And looking around, it was obvious that they were having a hard time making ends meet. Things were threadbare. This family was on the edge. Raising pigs, apparently, was the only way the farmer knew how to make a living, so he did it even though, as was becoming evident the more we talked, he didn’t like one bit the direction hog farming was going. At times, as he spoke about how much he hated the modern factory methods of pork production, he reminded me of the very animal rights people who a few minutes before he said he wished would drop dead.
As the conversation progressed, I actually began to develop some sense of respect for this man whom I had earlier judged so harshly. There was decency in him. There was something within him that meant well. But as I began to sense a spirit of goodness in him, I could only wonder all the more how he could treat his pigs the way he did. Little did I know that I was about to find out. . .
We are talking along, when suddenly he looks troubled. He slumps over, his head in his hands. He looks broken, and there is a sense of something awful having happened. Has he had a heart attack? A stroke? I’m finding it hard to breathe, and hard to think clearly. “What’s happening?” I ask. It takes him awhile to answer, but finally he does. I am relieved that he is able to speak, although what he says hardly brings any clarity to the situation. “It doesn’t matter,” he says, “and I don’t want to talk about it.” As he speaks, he makes a motion with his hand, as if he were pushing something away.
For the next several minutes we continue to converse, but I’m quite uneasy. Things seem incomplete and confusing. Something dark has entered the room, and I don’t know what it is or how to deal with it. Then, as we are speaking, it happens again. Once again a look of despondency comes over him. Sitting there, I know I’m in the presence of something bleak and oppressive. I try to be present with what’s happening, but it’s not easy. Again I’m finding it hard to breathe. Finally, he looks at me, and I notice his eyes are teary. “You’re right,” he says. I, of course, always like to be told that I am right, but in this instance I don’t have the slightest idea what he’s talking about. He continues. “No animal,” he says, “should be treated like that. Especially hogs. Do you know that they’re intelligent animals? They’re even friendly, if you treat ’em right. But I don’t.”
There are tears welling up in his eyes. And he tells me that he has just had a memory come back of something that happened in his childhood, something he hasn’t thought of for many years. It’s come back in stages, he says. He grew up, he tells me, on a small farm in rural Missouri, the old-fashioned kind where animals ran around, with barnyards and pastures, and where they all had names. I learn, too, that he was an only child, the son of a powerful father who ran things with an iron fist. With no brothers or sisters, he often felt lonely, but found companionship among the animals on the farm, particularly several dogs, who were as friends to him. And, he tells me, and this I am quite surprised to hear, he had a pet pig.
As he proceeds to tell me about this pig, it is as if he is becoming a different person. Before he had spoken primarily in a monotone; but now his voice grows lively. His body language, which until this point seemed to speak primarily of long suffering, now becomes animated. There is something fresh taking place. In the summer, he tells me, he would sleep in the barn. It was cooler there than in the house, and the pig would come over and sleep alongside him, asking fondly to have her belly rubbed, which he was glad to do.
There was a pond on their property, he goes on, and he liked to swim in it when the weather was hot, but one of the dogs would get excited when he did, and would ruin things. The dog would jump into the water and swim up on top of him, scratching him with her paws and making things miserable for him. He was about to give up on swimming, but then, as fate would have it, the pig, of all people, stepped in and saved the day. Evidently the pig could swim, for she would plop herself into the water, swim out where the dog was bothering the boy, and insert herself between them. She’d stay between the dog and the boy, and keep the dog at bay. She was, as best I could make out, functioning in the situation something like a lifeguard, or in this case, perhaps more of a life-pig.
I’m listening to this hog farmer tell me these stories about his pet pig, and I’m thoroughly enjoying both myself and him, and rather astounded at how things are transpiring, when once again, it happens. Once again a look of defeat sweeps across this man’s face, and once again I sense the presence of something very sad. Something in him, I know, is struggling to make it's way toward life through anguish and pain, but I don’t know what it is or how, indeed, to help him.
“What happened to your pig?” I ask. He sighs, and it’s as though the whole world’s pain is contained in that sigh. Then, slowly, he speaks. “My father made me butcher it.” “Did you?” I ask. “I ran away, but I couldn’t hide. They found me.” “What happened? “My father gave me a choice." “What was that?” “He told me, ‘You either slaughter that animal or you’re no longer my son.’”
Some choice, I think, feeling the weight of how fathers have so often trained their sons not to care, to be what they call brave and strong, but what so often turns out to be callous and closed-hearted. “So I did it,” he says, and now his tears begin to flow, making their way down his cheeks. I am touched and humbled. This man, whom I had judged to be without human feeling, is weeping in front of me, a stranger. This man, whom I had seen as callous and even heartless, is actually someone who cares, and deeply. How wrong, how profoundly and terribly wrong I had been.
In the minutes that follow, it becomes clear to me what has been happening. The pig farmer has remembered something that was so painful, that was such a profound trauma, that he had not been able to cope with it when it had happened. Something had shut down, then. It was just too much to bear. Somewhere in his young, formative psyche he made a resolution never to be that hurt again, never to be that vulnerable again. And he built a wall around the place where the pain had occurred, which was the place where his love and attachment to that pig was located, which was his heart. And now here he was, slaughtering pigs for a living - still, I imagined, seeking his father’s approval. God, what we men will do, I thought, to get our fathers’ acceptance.
I had thought he was a cold and closed human being, but now I saw the truth. His rigidity was not a result of a lack of feeling, as I had thought it was, but quite the opposite: it was a sign of how sensitive he was underneath. For if he had not been so sensitive, he would not have been that hurt, and he would not have needed to put up so massive a wall. The tension in his body that was so apparent to me upon first meeting him, the body armor that he carried, bespoke how hurt he had been, and how much capacity for feeling he carried still, beneath it all.
I had judged him, and done so, to be honest, mercilessly. But for the rest of the evening I sat with him, humbled, and grateful for whatever it was in him that had been strong enough to force this long-buried and deeply painful memory to the surface. And glad, too, that I had not stayed stuck in my judgments of him, for if I had, I would not have provided an environment in which his remembering could have occurred.
We talked that night, for hours, about many things. I was, after all that had happened, concerned for him. The gap between his feelings and his lifestyle seemed so tragically vast. What could he do? This was all he knew. He did not have a high school diploma. He was only partially literate. Who would hire him if he tried to do something else? Who would invest in him and train him, at his age? When finally, I left that evening, these questions were very much on my mind, and I had no answers to them. Somewhat flippantly, I tried to joke about it. “Maybe,” I said, “you’ll grow broccoli or something.” He stared at me, clearly not comprehending what I might be talking about. It occurred to me, briefly, that he might possibly not know what broccoli was.
We parted that night as friends, and though we rarely see each other now, we have remained friends as the years have passed. I carry him in my heart and think of him, in fact, as a hero. Because, as you will soon see, impressed as I was by the courage it had taken for him to allow such painful memories to come to the surface, I had not yet seen the extent of his bravery.
When I wrote "Diet for a New America," I quoted him and summarized what he had told me, but I was quite brief and did not mention his name. I thought that, living as he did among other pig farmers in Iowa, it would not be to his benefit to be associated with me. When the book came out, I sent him a copy, saying I hoped he was comfortable with how I wrote of the evening we had shared, and directing him to the pages on which my discussion of our time together was to be found. Several weeks later, I received a letter from him. “Dear Mr. Robbins,” it began. “Thank you for the book. When I saw it, I got a migraine headache.”
Now as an author, you do want to have an impact on your readers. This, however, was not what I had had in mind. He went on, though, to explain that the headaches had gotten so bad that, as he put it, “the wife” had suggested to him he should perhaps read the book. She thought there might be some kind of connection between the headaches and the book. He told me that this hadn’t made much sense to him, but he had done it because “the wife” was often right about these things.
“You write good,” he told me, and I can tell you that his three words of his meant more to me than when the New York Times praised the book profusely. He then went on to say that reading the book was very hard for him, because the light it shone on what he was doing made it clear to him that it was wrong to continue. The headaches, meanwhile, had been getting worse, until, he told me, that very morning, when he had finished the book, having stayed up all night reading, he went into the bathroom, and looked into the mirror. “I decided, right then,” he said, “that I would sell my herd and get out of this business. I don’t know what I will do, though. Maybe I will, like you said, grow broccoli.”
As it happened, he did sell his operation in Iowa and move back to Missouri, where he bought a small farm. And there he is today, running something of a model farm. He grows vegetables organically - including, I am sure, broccoli - that he sells at a local farmer’s market. He’s got pigs, all right, but only about 10, and he doesn’t cage them, nor does he kill them. Instead, he’s got a contract with local schools; they bring kids out in buses on field trips to his farm, for his “Pet-a-pig” program. He shows them how intelligent pigs are and how friendly they can be if you treat them right, which he now does. He’s arranged it so the kids, each one of them, gets a chance to give a pig a belly rub. He’s become nearly a vegetarian himself, has lost most of his excess weight, and his health has improved substantially. And, thank goodness, he’s actually doing better financially than he was before.
Do you see why I carry this man with me in my heart? Do you see why he is such a hero to me? He dared to leap, to risk everything, to leave what was killing his spirit even though he didn’t know what was next. He left behind a way of life that he knew was wrong, and he found one that he knows is right.
When I look at many of the things happening in our world, I sometimes fear we won’t make it. But when I remember this man and the power of his spirit, and when I remember that there are many others whose hearts beat to the same quickening pulse, I think we will. I can get tricked into thinking there aren’t enough of us to turn the tide, but then I remember how wrong I was about the pig farmer when I first met him, and I realize that there are heroes afoot everywhere. Only I can’t recognize them because I think they are supposed to look or act a certain way. How blinded I can be by my own beliefs.
The man is one of my heroes because he reminds me that we can depart from the cages we build for ourselves and for each other, and become something much better. He is one of my heroes because he reminds me of what I hope someday to become. When I first met him, I would not have thought it possible that I would ever say the things I am saying here. But this only goes to show how amazing life can be, and how you never really know what to expect. The pig farmer has become, for me, a reminder never to underestimate the power of the human heart.
I consider myself privileged to have spent that day with him, and grateful that I was allowed to be a catalyst for the unfolding of his spirit. I know my presence served him in some way, but I also know, and know full well, that I received far more than I gave. To me, this is grace - to have the veils lifted from our eyes so that we can recognize and serve the goodness in each other. Others may wish for great riches or for ecstatic journeys to mystical planes, but to me, this is the magic of human life."
- http://www.johnrobbins.info/blog/
Free Download: Viktor Frankl, "Man's Search For Meaning"
Full screen recommended.
Viktor Frankl, "Life Changing Quotes"
("Man's Search For Meaning")
"Viktor Emil Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. Frankl was the founder of the logotherapy method and is most notable for his best-selling book "Man's Search for Meaning."
“The story of the young woman whose death I witnessed in a concentration camp. It is a simple story. There is little to tell and it may sound as if I had invented it; but to me it seems like a poem. This young woman knew that she would die in the next few days. But when I talked to her she was cheerful in spite of this knowledge. "I am grateful that fate has hit me so hard," she told me. "In my former life I was spoiled and did not take spiritual accomplishments seriously." Pointing through the window of the hut, she said, "This tree here is the only friend I have in my loneliness." Through that window she could see just one branch of a chestnut tree, and on the branch were two blossoms. "I often talk to this tree," she said to me. I was startled and didn't quite know how to take her words. Was she delirious? Did she have occasional hallucinations? Anxiously I asked her if the tree replied. "Yes." What did it say to her? She answered, "It said to me, 'I am here - I am here - I am life, eternal life.”
― Viktor E. Frankl, "Man's Search for Meaning"
Freely download "Mans Search For Meaning", by Viktor Frankl, here:
○
Highest recommendation:
"Suffering Is Required"
"Suffering Is Required"
by Paul Rosenberg
"There’s no virtue in suffering itself, but suffering is required if you want to be more than mundane. If you can’t accept suffering, anyone with a pin and a threat owns you. So, let’s be clear on this: Living in any way except the one prescribed by authority requires suffering. If you hope to avoid all suffering and live a life that’s more than uninspired and compliant, you’re mistaken. And to make this point very clearly, I’ll restate it bluntly: If you can’t bear social pain, you’ll have to stay in line and do what Teacher says… for life.
If you care more about losing money than gaining liberty, you’re not going to get liberty. If truth isn’t something you’re willing to be hated for, you’re not going to get much truth. Entrenched hierarchies will always oppose progress, and they will bare their claws against new ways of doing things. So, if we can’t accept losses and rebuild… and then rebuild again… we’re not going to get past their pompous tyranny.
Please understand that I don’t expect anyone to enjoy suffering, or to suffer more than is necessary. But if a negative reaction stops you in your tracks, or if fear of some high-status poser paralyzes you, you won’t be pushing the world forward.
What Do We Value? In the end, our willingness to suffer comes back to a simple question: What do we want and how badly do we want it? We can “want liberty” or “want truth” all we like, but the systems of this world don’t agree: it undercuts their power. Within their structures, being different is routinely punished, and in ways ranging from the subtle to the gross. So the question remains: How badly do we want this?
Will being insulted at a cocktail party turn you away? Will the threat of losing a contract turn you back? Is putting your time and effort into something that might be torn down too big a risk? Too big an embarrassment? If we want to be better and live better, accepting such risks is not optional.
How It’s Done: Improving the world requires that we hold our ideas above the ideas of the powerful and the televised. We’ll have to do what we think is right, regardless of what the world thinks. Whether we’re believers or not, there’s a great deal to learn from Christians back in the early days, when they knew how to suffer. Jesus, as it happens, went out of his way to prepare them for just that, saying things like, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’s sake,” and, “When they persecute you in this city, flee to another.”
The earliest Christians avoided suffering when they could but took it when they had to. And they did change the world for the better. Rome was built upon slavery, and the Christians of the West eradicated it, pop history be damned. Christianity, like Judaism, was never meant to be easy. A follower of Jesus was supposed to lead mankind “into the light,” thus angering those who remained in darkness.
So…For all practical purposes, and especially in any sort of pro-authority environment, independent progress is a punishable offense and anything unauthorized is suspicious at the least. Yet here we are, reasonably sane and healthy people, wanting to move forward and out of an obvious mess. But we’re stuck in a situation where forward movement is opposed, and so we have to accept pain. That stinks, but the alternative is a life-long, neutered stasis. What we’re really facing-off against is a system that enforces conformity, and the price of exit it is to suffer for your virtues.
Here’s one concluding thought: The centralized systems of this world survive by exploiting human weaknesses. Decentralized systems thrive upon human virtues. We are wise and brave to choose the latter."
"Hand In Hand..."
"Apathy and evil. The two work hand in hand. They are the same, really... Evil wills it. Apathy allows it. Evil hates the innocent and the defenseless most of all. Apathy doesn't care as long as it's not personally inconvenienced."
- Jake Thoene, "Shaiton's Fire"
•
Yeah, God forbid anyone get's inconvenienced...
- CP
"Inflation Is Out Of Control (Again), And We Are Getting Slammed By Double-Digit Price Increases In Every Direction"
"Inflation Is Out Of Control (Again), And We Are Getting
Slammed By Double-Digit Price Increases In Every Direction"
by Michael Snyder
"Well, that was quite a shock. We just got confirmation that inflation is starting to accelerate once again. That is really bad news, because the cost of living has already been stressing people out all over the country. In fact, one recent survey found that 86 percent of Americans are stressed out about grocery prices. But it isn’t just the cost of food that has been going up. We have been getting slammed by double-digit price increases in every direction, and that is having enormous consequences. Our standard of living is eroding with each passing month, and as a result the middle class is steadily shrinking.
On Thursday, we learned that the producer price index increased by 0.9 percent last month. That was the largest increase that we have seen since June 2022…"The producer price index, which measures final demand goods and services prices, jumped 0.9% on the month, compared with the Dow Jones estimate for a 0.2% gain. It was the biggest monthly increase since June 2022. Excluding food and energy prices, core PPI rose 0.9% against the forecast for 0.3%. Excluding food, energy and trade services, the index was up 0.6%, the biggest gain since March 2022."
Such a large change in one month was very unexpected. When Rick Santelli of CNBC heard the news, he totally flipped out…"Headline number is– WHOPPINGLY big! Oh my goodness! Up 9 tenths of a percent. Up 9 tenths. And if you strip out food and energy, guess what? It’s still up 9/10ths. Boy, that equals June of 22!"
You’re at the March of 22 on the headline to find a bigger number. On the core number, that would come to March of 22 since we’ve had a number of that magnitude when it was 1.2%. These are kind of COVID distorted numbers. So what would happen if the producer price index rises by 0.9 percent every month for the next 12 months? That would put us at a 10.8 percent annual rate, and we would officially be in Jimmy Carter territory.
Another point that I would like to make is that the government numbers always understate the true rate of inflation by a significant margin. And we can clearly see evidence of this all around us.
Right now, electricity prices are spiking from coast to coast. For example, New Jersey residents were just pummeled by price hikes of between 17 and 20 percent…"New Jersey residents are up in arms over huge spikes in their energy costs, leading to speculation it could prove fatal for Democrats. The New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities (BPU) approved a 17-20 percent hike in June for the majority of households in The Garden State. One local woman says that her electricity bill is now $200 more than it used to be…
“$200 more, I know my electrical bill,” one woman told Cotton in Rutherford, N.J., on Tuesday. “I was shocked. So to say the least, I’m very disappointed. This is killing us, and every time you turn around it’s something more. You only get little pleasures in life that you enjoy, and my air conditioner is one of them.” New Jersey’s electric bills currently rank 12th highest in the nation, according to the Wall Street Journal, with prices sitting roughly 15 percent higher than the national average." Air conditioning is rapidly becoming a luxury. Not everyone will be able to afford it anymore.
Beef has also become a luxury item, and it is being reported that last month the price of beef soared to yet another new all-time high…"Beef prices surged to an all-time high in July as the market grappled with consistently strong demand and long-term issues in domestic production. According to the latest consumer price index, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics published on Tuesday, the beef and veal index rose by 2.5 percent in July, compared to 0.2 percent for the broader food category. This capped an 11.3 percent increase over the past 12 months.
Meanwhile, the price of ground beef and uncooked beef steaks has risen by 11.5 and 12.4 percent, respectively, both now at record levels. I am a meat and potatoes kind of guy, and so this really upsets me. When I see the prices that supermarkets are trying to charge us now, it makes me feel sick. The other day, a Twitter user known as “Molly Ploofkins” posted a truly alarming photo that she took at her local Publix…
Speaking of going higher, millions of Americans are about to get slammed with much higher health insurance premiums…"A perfect storm of rising health care costs, expensive new drugs, and the scheduled end of enhanced federal subsidies could drive Obamacare’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace premiums to their steepest levels in years - and hit more than 24 million Americans in their wallets.
According to a new analysis of insurers’ 2026 filings by Peterson-KFF’s Health System Tracker, the median proposed premium hike across 312 marketplace insurers is 18%. Most increases range from 12% to 27%, with more than 125 insurers seeking hikes of 20% or more- the sharpest climb since 2018. Final rates will be locked in by late summer 2025. Health insurance premiums are already wildly out of control. And now they want to hit us with double-digit increases again? This is the reality of the economy that we live in now.
In this environment, even sending your kids to summer camp can put you deep into debt: "Two-thirds of parents who need summer child care say they struggle to afford it, and 62% of parents go into debt to cover summer child care, camps and activities, according to a recent survey of more than 600 parents conducted by LendingTree, an online lending marketplace. Parents in the survey said they spend almost $900 per child on summer care, and nearly half said they cut back on other expenses like dining out and entertainment to offset the cost.
Today, most of the country is living on the edge financially. And now that economic conditions are slowing down, we are seeing foreclosures start to spike just like we did in 2008 and 2009. For example, in Clark County, Nevada there was a 32 percent increase in foreclosure notices in just 12 months…
Growing numbers of Las Vegas homeowners are falling into foreclosure as soaring prices and Trump boycotts decimate the city, a new report found. In Clark County, 200 default notices were filed in June, an increase of 32 percent from the same month last year, a research report from the University of Nevada’s Lied Center for Real Estate found. Default notices are filed after a property owner falls behind on their mortgage payments and indicates the start of the foreclosure process.
This is why it is so important to have an emergency fund. If you lose your job, you have got to have something to fall back on. Sadly, mass layoffs are now happening all over the nation and the competition for any good jobs that are available has become fierce. Some people that are unemployed have been applying for hundreds and hundreds of jobs without any success. I shared an example of this the other day, and here is another example…
"Emanuel Barcenas feels like he’s falling behind. At 25, he’d like to be living in his own place, saving money for the future and making enough money to take a date out to dinner. Instead, two years after he graduated with a computer science bachelor’s degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology, he’s unemployed and living with his parents in the suburbs of Chicago. Despite having applied to more than 900 jobs - from secretary positions to a role at a prison - he has gotten only a handful of interviews. “I want to be an adult,” he said. “I need to lock in, I need to move forward, but right now, I’m just stunted. I’m trying my best, but I guess my best isn’t good enough.”
Sometimes I feel like we are all playing a very twisted game of musical chairs. Every time the music stops, more seats are being removed and more people fall out of the middle class. If you still have your seat in the middle class, hold on to it tightly, because even rougher times are ahead.I warned for years and years about the damage that was being done to the middle class. But we just kept going down the same path, and now look at what has happened."
Bill Bonner, "Cooked Like a Burger"
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
church of Ara Coeli, Rome, Italy
"Cooked Like a Burger"
by Bill Bonner
Poitou, France - "It’s Assumption Day. And it’s hot. Every group is entitled to its own fantasies...its vanities and its lunacies. They are condensed in slogan form, easy for the masses to remember. "Free the Holy Land’ was popular for generations. ‘Make the World Safe for Democracy’ fizzled out fast. As did the ‘Thousand Year Reich.’
Europe has now settled on ‘global climate change’ as its cause celebre. Its number one public goal is to keep the thermostat set where it is. But this summer, it has not been easy. “Europe is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet,” said a report on France24 yesterday. On our laptop computer is a warning of ‘intense heat.’ Today is a ‘red alert day,’ said the message. We were advised to drink plenty of water, drive more slowly, close our doors and windows and stay inside during midday hours.
AP International: "A heat wave gripped parts of Europe...sending temperatures up to 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 Fahrenheit) in southern France and increasing risks of wildfires in wine country, while Bulgaria suffered blazes along its southern borders and Hungary saw record-breaking weekend temperatures." Scientists say Europe is becoming the world’s fastest-warming continent. The temperature yesterday here in central France was 100 degrees - 21 degrees above normal.
Businesses are closing. Employees are going home. Outdoor fires are prohibited. So is watering the lawn, in many areas. The Independent: "Europe is burning...Spain broke its hottest temperature record on 28 June, and on Wednesday, the country was battling its 10th consecutive day of extreme heat. With the heatwave expected to last until Monday, it is set to become one of the longest the country has ever experienced."
Meanwhile...in the financial news are three big headlines. Yesterday morning, the inflation that tariffs weren’t going to cause showed up. Fox: "Producer prices surged more than expected in July, spurring inflation concerns. Producer prices rose 0.9% last month. If that were to continue, it would mean price increases of around 10% over the next twelve months. (Nobody expects it to be that high.)"
The 2025 report on Social Security’s actuarial status shows that the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance trust fund will be fully depleted by 2034.
Also in the news was this from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The committee has been waiting for a responsible budget for a long time. But on this 90th anniversary of Social Security, it looks as though it will wait longer: "Social Security turns 90 today – but its retirement program is on course to be insolvent by age 97 – according to new estimates from the program’s Chief Actuary. Even if combined with the disability trust fund, Social Security will deplete its reserves before it turns 100." The Social Security trust fund was already headed for insolvency; the BBBA made it worse. Come 2032, a typical couple will suffer a $18,400 cut in benefits.
And here’s another ominous trend. In a free enterprise economy, companies are supposed to make their own decisions. They’ve got ‘skin in the game.’ They know what they are doing. And they make profits. Political control of business, on the other hand, doesn’t work so well. Bureaucrats don’t know what they are doing...and don’t have much incentive to do the right thing anyway. That’s why AMTRAK loses money - even with a monopoly on train service in the busiest corridor in the US.
For decades, liberals have tried to get a grip on corporate boards - insisting that they go DEI...with more women, more Blacks, and more ‘community’ representation. Republicans resisted; the feds shouldn’t be meddling in private businesses, they said.
But now it is the Republicans, led by their Big Man, who are undermining free enterprise. CNN last week: "President Donald Trump on Thursday demanded the resignation of Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan following reports and allegations that he has ties to China." And here’s the latest. CNN this week: "The White House reportedly discussing taking a stake in Intel, sending shares climbing." How will that work out? Badly. Once on the board, the feds will vote for whatever is politically attractive, not what makes business sense. Intel will end up as a weaker company and America will be a poorer country.
But Americans’ great vanity is that they believe they are good people. And nothing awful ever happens to good people. It doesn't occur to them that even Christ was crucified and St. Laurence was cooked like a burger. “At least, it was over quickly for him,” says our indefatigable ‘homme a tout faire’ - our handyman, Damien – turning out thoughts back to the weather. More like a member of the family than an employee, Damien has been roasting all week, mowing the fields, watering the garden, fixing fences.
Damien charged up to the house yesterday morning; something was wrong. “Who lit that fire?” he yelled at us as we were having breakfast. Red faced...he was almost beside himself.. “Don’t you know it is illegal to have a fire? A little further south, they are fighting a fire along an 80-kilometer front. And the wind is blowing, so it is very dangerous...burning houses and cars.”
In vineyards and Mediterranean scrubland, hundreds of firefighters remained in the rolling wine country guarding the edges of a massive, deadly blaze that scorched 16,000 hectares last week." “Do you want to cause that kind of thing here?”
The anger was aimed at our son, who had lit a campfire down by the pond. He had come from New York and was pleased to spend time with his childhood friend, who was visiting his own family across the street. “Damien....I’m sorry...I didn’t know,” came the rebuttal. “And we were watching it. We were right there. There was no chance that it would get away from us.” Damien was unsatisfied...but after further remonstrance gave up and smiled. He had done his civic duty, protecting France from irresponsible foreigners.
Yesterday, driving through a neighboring town, we saw no sign of life. Shutters were closed. No one was on the street. It was like a zombie movie. We expected to see a mob of lurching dead people around every corner. Only one bar was open. We ducked under an umbrella and asked for a cool drink. “It’s a disaster for our business,” said the jolly Englishman who ran the place. “Nobody wants to go out.”
And pity the poor tourists! Their vacations ruined by ‘global climate change.’ Why the heat? Why Europe? Why now? France24: "Scientists say climate change, primarily triggered by greenhouse gas emissions mainly from burning fossil fuels, will result in more frequent, severe and dangerous heatwaves."
Of course, leading thinkers once insisted that the world was flat...and that human life was dominated by ‘four humours’ - blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile. More recently, they told us that if we didn’t get vaccinated against Covid we were practically dead already...and would kill everyone around us. Scientists, like everyone else, ‘talk their book.’ Heavily bought into the ‘global climate change’ hypothesis, they treat it as fact...and tell us that we will all roast in Hell unless we do as we are told.
But what can we do? Give up eating meat? Turn off the A/C (we have none here, anyway)? Cook with electricity? Stay home...sweat...dig roots for food...and wear rags? The woman next door has a withered arm. But she is an excellent seamstress. She sews patches on our old blue jeans. We’ll save the planet that way, one patch at a time."
Adventures with Danno, "Shocking Prices at Dollar General"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, AM 8/15/25
"Shocking Prices at Dollar General"
Comments here:
"Yaseen-105 Destroys Merkavas; Indonesian Forces To Gaza"
Full screen recommended.
Mahmood OD, AM 8/15/25
"Yaseen-105 Destroys Merkavas;
Indonesian Forces To Gaza"
Comments here:
Judge Napolitano, "INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern - Trump/Putin Summit"
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, AM 8/15/25
"INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern -
Trump/Putin Summit"
Comments here:
o
Times Now World, 8/15/25
"Putin-Trump Meeting: 'No Inch To Ukraine',
Russia Rejects Trump’s Land Swap Deal"
"Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Crimea is “a done deal” and will not be part of any peace negotiations with Ukraine, declaring that “Russia does not negotiate its own territory.” Speaking in an interview with CBS, Lavrov rejected the idea of any territorial concessions in a potential U.S.-brokered ceasefire, hinting instead at freezing current front lines if Western arms supplies to Kyiv stop. His remarks come as preparations advance for an August 15 meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, where Washington hopes to secure a framework agreement to end the war."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Dialogue Works, 8/15/25
"Larry C. Johnson & Col. Larry Wilkerson:
Trump & Putin in Alaska: Deals, Drama, and Dangerous Moves"
Comments here:
"Putin's Presidential Jet Even Shocked Donald Trump"
Full screen recommended.
King Luxury, 8/2/25
"Putin's Presidential Jet Even Shocked Donald Trump"
Comments here:
Thursday, August 14, 2025
Musical Interlude: Spirit Tribe Awakening, "Raise Positive Vibrations"
Full screen recommended.
Spirit Tribe Awakening, "Raise Positive Vibrations"
"528Hz Positive Energy, Self Healing with 417Hz Solfeggio frequency. Peaceful, empowering and soothing music and nature to nurture your mind, body, and soul. Supporting and empowering you on your life journey." I can't praise this visually beautiful, and very effective, video enough. In these incredibly highly stressful times, please be kind to yourself and take the time to savor this exquisite work in full screen mode. Headphones suggested but not necessary. It works, as simple as that...
- CP
"A Look to the Heavens"
“The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae in the sky. Its more familiar outlines are seen in the brighter central region of the nebula in this impressive wide-angle view. But the composite image combines many short and long exposures to also reveal an extremely faint outer halo. At an estimated distance of 3,000 light-years, the faint outer halo is over 5 light-years across.
Planetary nebulae have long been appreciated as a final phase in the life of a sun-like star. More recently, some planetary nebulae are found to have halos like this one, likely formed of material shrugged off during earlier episodes in the star's evolution. While the planetary nebula phase is thought to last for around 10,000 years, astronomers estimate the age of the outer filamentary portions of this halo to be 50,000 to 90,000 years. Visible on the left, some 50 million light-years beyond the watchful planetary nebula, lies spiral galaxy NGC 6552.”
Chet Raymo, “Asperges Me, Domine” *
“Asperges Me, Domine” *
by Chet Raymo
“Greystone Books publishes a series of "Literary Companions" to natural environments- mountains, rivers and lakes, deserts, gardens, and the sea, so far. Now they come to my environment- night- and have been kind enough to include a chapter from “The Soul of the Night”, the chapter called "The Shape of Night." I am in lovely company, admired companions of several generations- Diane Ackerman, Timothy Ferris, Annie Dillard, Henry Beston, Loren Eiseley, Louise Erdrich, Pico Iyer, and Gretel Ehrlich, to name but a few - all connoisseurs of darkness.
Our earliest mammalian ancestors were presumably nocturnal- to escape the predations of dinosaurs- but for most of human history we have been afraid of the dark, huddling in caves around stuttering fires, curled together in darkness like mice in a burrow. Night belonged to animals with big, dark-adapted eyes and sharp teeth, to footpads and graverobbers, to werewolves and vampires. Ironically, it was with the coming of electric illumination that it became reasonably safe to go out and about at night, even as the illumination erased the best reason to do so.
William Blake called day Earth's "blue mundane shell... a hard coating of matter that separates us from Eternity." At night we peer into infinity, awash in a myriad of stars. We creep to the door of the cave and look up into the Milky Way and catch a glimpse of divinity- everlasting, all-embracing, utterly unknowable. Night- that cone of shadow, that wizard's cap of spells and omens- is the chink in Earth's shell through which we court Ultimate Mystery the way Pyramus courted Thisbe.
Which is why, I suppose, that whenever I think of "the porch" of people who visit here, I imagine Carolina rockers on a southern summer verandah, far from city lights, Vega, Deneb and Altair swimming in the Milky Way, fireflies flickering on the lawn. At some point the conversation ceases and we simply sit, rock, and listen to the sounds of the night- the whippoorwill, the bullfrog, the cricket and the owl- and let starlight fall upon our heads like a sprinkling of holy water.”
•
* “Wash me, Lord. Sprinkle me with hyssop and I shall be clean.”
- The Catholic Mass
"The Rise And Fall of Quizno's Subs - 5,000 Stores To Bankruptcy?"
Full screen recommended.
Michael Girdley, 8/14/25
"The Rise And Fall of Quizno's Subs -
5,000 Stores To Bankruptcy?"
"In the early 2000s, Quiznos was on top of the world - over 5,000 stores, toasted subs loved by millions, and a brand that rivaled Subway in the fast food industry. But just a decade later, Quiznos was a shadow of its former self, filing for bankruptcy and closing thousands of locations."
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Michael Girdley, 8/14/25
"The Rise And Fall of Pizza Hut:
A $5.7 Billion Collapse"
"In the 1990s, Pizza Hut dominated the U.S. pizza scene - over 7,500 locations and nearly 25% of the market. But today? It's a fading franchise. Stores are shutting down, delivery is lagging, and Domino’s has taken the lead."
Comments here:
"35 Retailers Collapsing Right In Front Of Our Eyes"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 8/14/25
"35 Retailers Collapsing Right In Front Of Our Eyes"
"Your local Walmart could be gone tomorrow. That Walgreens down the street? Shuttered. The grocery store where you've shopped for years? Permanently closed. This isn't some doomsday prediction. It's happening right now across America. Over 3,000 major retail stores are shutting down permanently in 2025. Pharmacies, grocery chains, department stores, fast food giants - they're all collapsing. These aren't pandemic casualties. This is a complete systemic failure of the retail model. Crushing rent costs, online competition, organized theft, and consumers who've fundamentally changed how they shop. When these stores disappear, they're taking essential services with them. Access to food, medicine, jobs - all gone. Small towns and vulnerable neighborhoods are feeling the worst impact. We're counting down the 35 biggest retail chains collapsing in 2025 and what their shutdowns mean for everyday Americans like you. Will your town be next?"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Michael Girdley, 8/14/25
"The Rise And Fall of Walgreens:
From $100B to Bankruptcy Watch"
"Walgreens used to be unstoppable. Once a $100 billion drugstore empire, they dominated street corners across America with drive-thrus, clever retail strategy, and a booming pharmacy business model. For decades, they rode the rise of post-war healthcare spending, and Walgreens stock looked like a can’t-miss investment.."
Comments here:
"Not Knowing..."
“Not knowing you can’t do something
is sometimes all it takes to do it.”
- Ally Carter
The Poet: Linda Pastan, “What We Want”
“What We Want”
“What we want
is never simple.
We move among the things
we thought we wanted:
a face, a room, an open book
and these things bear our names-
now they want us.
But what we want appears
in dreams, wearing disguises.
We fall past,
holding out our arms
and in the morning
our arms ache.
We don’t remember the dream,
but the dream remembers us.
It is there all day
as an animal is there
under the table,
as the stars are there
even in full sun.”
- Linda Pastan
"Your Only Choice..."
”There is a point of no return, unremarked at the time, in most lives.”
- Graham Greene
○
“When swimming into a dark tunnel, there arrives a point of no
return when you no longer have enough breath to double back.
Your only choice is to swim forward into the unknown… and pray for an exit.”
- Dan Brown
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)