"Masked, Homeless, and Desolate"

"Masked, Homeless, and Desolate"

By Edward Curtin

“Personality is persona, a mask…The mask is magic…Larva means mask; or ghost…it also means mad, a case of demoniacal possession.” – Norman O. Brown, "Love’s Body"

"In 2021 you could walk the streets in the United States and many countries and would see streaming crowds of people possessed by demons, masked and anonymous, whose eyes look like vacuums, staring into space or out of empty sockets like the dead, afraid of their own ghosts. Fear and obedience oozed from them. Death walked the streets with people on leashes in lockstep.

That they had been the victims of a long-planned propaganda campaign to use an invisible virus to frighten them into submission and shut down the world’s economy for the global elites was beyond their ken. This is so even when the facts are there to prove otherwise. It is a clear case, as Peter Koenig tells Michel Chossudovsky in this must-see interview, that is not a conspiracy theory but a blatant factual plan spelled out in the 2010 Rockefeller Report, the October 18, 2019 Event 201, and Agenda 21, among other places.

Who can wake the sleepwalkers up in this cowardly new world where culture and politics collude to create and exploit ignorance?

Fifty-six years ago Bob Dylan released his song “Like a Rolling Stone.” It arrived like a rocking jolt into the placid pop musical culture of the day. It was not about wanting to hold someone’s hand or cry in the chapel. It wasn’t mumbo-jumbo like “Wooly Bully,” the number one hit. It wasn’t like the pop pap that dominates today’s music scene. It wasn’t Woody Guthrie in slow time.

It beat you up. It attacked. It confronted you. Maybe, if you were alive then, you thought Dylan was kidding you. You thought wrong. Bitching about his going electric was a dodge. He was addressing all of us, including himself.

Still is. But who wants to hear his recent “Murder Most Foul” and read Dylan’s scathing lyrics about the assassination of JFK, the killing that started the slow decay that has resulted in such masked madness. “And please, Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” he tells us in capital letters for emphasis. Exactly what all the mainstream media have done, of course, and not by accident.

There are no alibis. “How does it feel/To be on your own/with no direction home/A complete unknown/Like a rolling stone?”

It was in the mid-1960s when confidence in knowing where home was and how to get there disappeared into thin air.  If you left mommy and daddy, could you ever get back from where you were going? Who had the directions? Absolutes were melting and relativity was widespread. Life was wild and the CIA was planning to make it wilder and more confusing with the introduction of LSD on a vast scale. MKUltra was expanding its scope.Operation Mockingbird was singing so many tunes that heads were spinning, as planned. The national security state killers were in the saddle, having already murdered President Kennedy and Malcolm X as they sharpened their knives for many more to come. The peace candidate, Lyndon Baines Johnson, had been elected nine months earlier with 61.1% of the popular vote and went immediately to work secretly expanding the war against Vietnam. War as an invisible virus. Who knew? Who, but a small anti-war contingent, wanted to know? War takes different forms, and the will to ignorance and historical amnesia endure. War is a disease. Disease is weaponized for war. In 1968 Richard Nixon was elected on a “secret plan” to end the Vietnam War and then ramped it up to monstrous proportions, only to be reelected in 1972 by carrying 49 out of 50 states.

Who wants to know now? The historian Howard Zinn once said correctly that this country’s greatest problem wasn’t disobedience but obedience. What’s behind the masks? The lockstep?

On the same day that Dylan released “Like a Rolling Stone,” Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, just back from a “fact-finding” trip to Vietnam, recommended to LBJ that U.S. troop levels in Vietnam be increased to 175,000 and that the U.S. should increase its bombing of North Vietnam dramatically. This was the same McNamara who, in October 1963, had agreed with JFK when he signed NSAM 263 calling for the withdrawal of 1,000 military personnel from Vietnam by the end of 1963 and the remainder by the end of 1965. One of the moves that got Kennedy’s head blown open.

Poor McNamara, the fog of war must have clouded his conscience, confused the poor boy, just like Secretary of State Colin Powell holding up that vile vial of “anthrax” at the United Nations on February 5, 2003 and lying to the world about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Powell recently said, “I knew I didn’t have any choice. He’s the President.” How “painful,” to use his word, it must have been for the poor guy, lying so that so many Iraqis could be slaughtered. Of course, he had no choice. These war criminals all wear masks. And have no choice.

Masks, or demonic possession, or both. You?

Also in that fateful year 1965, far out of sight and out of mind for most Americans, the CIA planned and assisted in the slaughter of more than a million Indonesians, led by their man, General Suharto. This led to the coup against President Sukarno, who two years earlier had been on good terms with JFK as they worked to solve the interrelated issues of Indonesia and Vietnam. Their meeting planned for early 1964 was cancelled in Dallas on November 22, 1963. And the politicians and media luminaries came out in their masks and told the public that communists everywhere were out to get them.

It’s tough being on your own. It hurts to think too much. Or think for yourself, at least. To obey an authority higher than your bosses.  “I was tricked” is some sort of mantra, is it not?

"You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns

When they all did tricks for you..."

Dylan was lost and disgusted when he wrote the song. His own music sickened him, which, for an artist, means he sickened himself. He had just returned from a tour of England and was sick of people telling him how much they loved his music when he didn’t. He needed to change. What else is the point of art but change? If you’re dead, or afraid of getting dead, you aren’t going to change. You’re stuck. Stuck is dead. Why wear a mask if you know who you are?

Knowledge, or more accurately, pseudo-knowledge or mainstream media lies, is a tomb “the mystery tramp” sold to us, a place to hide to avoid pain and guilt.

I have read more books than anyone I know.  It sickens me.

I know too much.  That sickens me.

I sicken myself. All the news sickens me.

I know so much no one believes me.

As Francesco Serpico once told me: “It’s all lies.”

Of course. Dylan and Serpico are blood brothers.

Only art tells the truth. Real art. Not bullshit pop art. Some say “Like a Rolling Stone” is about Edie Sedgwick, “the girl of the year” in 1965 and one of Andy Warhol’s superstars. Perhaps to a degree it is, but it’s far more than that.  It’s about us.

Poor Edie was poisoned by her wealthy family at a young age and barely had a chance. She was an extreme example of a rather common American story. People poisoned in the cradle. Thinking of her got me thinking of Andy Warhol, the death obsessed hoarder, the guy who called his studio “The Factory” in a conscious or unconscious revelation of his art and persona, his wigs and masks and the hold he has had on American culture all these years. Isn’t he the ultimate celebrity?

Warhol once took my photo on a deserted street. His and my secret but this is the truth. West 47thStreet on an early Sunday morning, 1980. I guess he thought he was doing art or collecting images for his museum of dead heads. When I asked him why, he said I had an interesting face. I told him he did too, rather transparent and creepy, but I didn’t want to capture him. He was a ghost with a camera, a face like a death mask, trying to capture a bit of life. I told him I didn’t give him permission to shoot me, but he turned and walked away into the morning mist. The shooters always just walk away in pseudo-innocence.

I then went down the street to the Gotham Book Mart that was my destination and asked James Joyce why he had written “The Dead,” and Joyce, secretive as ever, quoted himself, “Ed,” he said, “Think you’re escaping and run into yourself.  Longest way round is the shortest way home.”  Now that was direction.

Only those who know how to play and be guided by intuition are able to escape the living tomb of so-called knowledge; what Dylan called, lifelessness. But that was from “Desolation Row,” released as the closing track of Highway 61 Revisited on August 30, 1965.  The only acoustic song on the album. Slow it down to make the point another way. “Like a Rolling Stone” was the opening track.

Do you feel all alone or part of a masked gang roaming the streets incognito? Miss and Mr. Lonely, does that mask help?  How do you feel? Desolation means very lonely. From Latin, de, completely, solare, lonely. Did that mask help?  Do you feel alone together now, one of the crowd? Do you really want to know about desolation row? It’s here. It was here in 1965, too. Only the true lonely know how it feels to really be all alone.

The Umbrella People, those who some called the deep state or secret government under whose protection all the politicians work, said they wanted to protect us all from death and disease. They were lying bastards who’d gotten so many to imitate their masked ways. They could only sing a mockingbird’s song.

Listen to real singers. Dylan has arched the years, as true artists do. Who has paid close attention to what he said this year about the assassination of President Kennedy in his song, “Murder Most Foul”? Or were many caught up in the propaganda surrounding corona virus, and rather than contemplating his indictment of the U.S. government and its media accomplices, were they contemplating their navels to see if a virus had secreted itself in there. Viruses lurk everywhere, they say, and the corporate media made certain to circulate a vaccine about the truth in Dylan’s song. This is normal operating procedure.

We are still on Desolation Row.

“Take Off the Masks.” That was the title of a book by Rev. Malcolm Boyd that I reviewed long ago. He was a gay priest who decided that his mask was a lie. He came out into the light of truth. He had guts. It is time for everyone to take off the masks. Escape from Desolation Row by seeing what’s going on behind our backs. Listen to Dylan, long ago – today:

"At midnight all the agents

And the superhuman crew

Come out and round up everyone

That knows more than they do

And they bring them to the factory

Where their heart attack machine

Is strapped across their shoulders

And then the kerosene

Is brought down from the castles

By insurance men who go

Check to see that nobody is escaping

To Desolation Row

Praise be to Nero’s Neptune

The Titanic sails at dawn

Everybody’s shouting

'Which side are you on?'”

- https://www.globalresearch.ca/

o

Bob Dylan, "Desolation Row"

Dan, I Allegedly, "This Is A Bank Killer"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 7/7/26

"This Is A Bank Killer"

"What if your checking account paid 6% interest, reimbursed ATM fees, offered millions of dollars in FDIC protection through partner banks, and even paid you cash back every time you used your debit card? In today's video, I break down X Money and explain why many people are calling it a potential "bank killer." We'll look at the features, who benefits the most, and why this could put real pressure on traditional banks to improve the way they treat customers. We'll also discuss how higher interest rates, instant peer-to-peer payments, early direct deposit, business-friendly banking features, and lower fees could reshape the financial industry. Is this truly the future of banking, or is it simply an aggressive strategy to attract new customers? Watch the entire video and let me know in the comments: Would you move your money to X Money, or are you sticking with your current bank? Your opinion matters, and I'd love to hear what you think."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"College Students Are Testing at the Level of 10-Year-Olds"

"College Students Are Testing at 

the Level of 10-Year-Olds"

by Joe Wilkins

"Gone are the days of university freshmen reading classical philosophers like Plato or contemporary pedagogues like Ta-Nehisi Coates. These days, incoming college students are lucky if they can get through Judy Blume’s “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.”

According to a new “Survey of Adult Skills” conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development - a forum for 38 high-income, predominantly Western countries - a not insignificant number of adult students enrolled in higher education are now reading and doing math at a level which, in a more functional society, would be alarming for a middle schooler.

The survey, first spotted by the Economist, tested around 160,000 people of all ages, across all 38 member states. It found that across all OECD member countries, a full 8 percent of college students are reading at the level of a ten-year-old, if not worse. While countries like Germany and France rang in at under 5 percent, countries like Poland, Israel, and the United States blew the curve at 21, 20, and 14 percent, respectively.

The numbers aren’t much better when it comes to math. Across OECD countries, 9 percent of college students do math at or below a ten-year-old level. In Italy, the US, and Slovakia, that figure jumps to over 15 percent - only outdone by Israel, where roughly 21 percent of college students were underachieving at the same low benchmark.

It seems there are numerous compounding explanations for these test results: pandemic-era learning gaps leading to lower levels of preparation, declining college enrollment forcing schools to lower admissions standards, and lower levels of public funding for education, to name a few.

The results also coincide with the explosion of large language models like ChatGPT, which by many accounts have carved out a new floor for academic failure in both K-12 and college-level education.

While there’s no denying how complicated the issue is, there is evidence that removing technology from classrooms altogether could offer an immediate boost. In one classroom in Minneapolis, for example, a literature and English teacher banned phones and laptops, requiring all coursework to be done on pencil and paper. As the school-year started in September, just 46 percent of the students involved said they felt confident about their reading skills. A few months later in February, that number stood at 95 percent.

Though it’s just one classroom, something is clearly off the rails in the education systems of the richest countries of the world - and the longer it goes unaddressed, the more students will be pushed into the world with the reading skills of 4th graders."

- https://futurism.com/future-society/

o

"It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone - that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows more than any man of, say, the Eighteenth Century, and is far more civilized. This assumption is quite erroneous. The great masses of men, even in this inspired republic, are precisely where the mob was at the dawn of history. They are ignorant, they are dishonest, they are cowardly, they are ignoble. They know little if anything that is worth knowing, and there is not the slightest sign of a natural desire among them to increase their knowledge." - H. L. Mencken, 1929

"The problem isn't that Johnny can't read. The problem isn't even that Johnny can't think. 

The problem is that Johnny doesn't know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling."

- Thomas Sowell

"Sowell argues that modern education and culture have conditioned people to substitute emotional reactions for rigorous, logic-based reasoning. Instead of using evidence, deliberation, and problem-solving, people mistake their feelings for factual or moral arguments." - AI Overview

Bill Bonner, "Veni, Vidi, and Then What?"

Statue of George Washington in Common Park, Boston.

"Veni, Vidi, and Then What?"

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "Yesterday we sat scratching our heads over a riddle that ought to trouble every citizen: how is it that the most colossal war-machine ever assembled - fueled on more treasure than the next ten nations heaped together - could go swaggering into two wars nobody obliged it to fight, against two flyblown and impecunious little countries, and come limping home, twice, licked?

These were not wars of necessity. They were wars of appetite, indulged like a fat man’s second dessert; they could give him a brief sugar high...or a diabetic coma. They cost trillions the Republic did not have. Worse than the money, they laid bare, for all the world to snicker at, the sheer, absurd incompetence of the whole apparatus.

Reaching for an insight: people get good at what they do; the US got to be very good at pumping up its economy on fake money…and then borrowing it back from foreigners. By contrast, its post-WWII wars were embarrassing.

Robert McNamara, who presided over the abattoir of Vietnam, lived long enough to fess up in his dotage that the war had been a blunder - we should have talked with the Vietnamese instead of trying to ‘bomb them back to the Stone Age.’ He actually shed a tear for the hundreds of thousands of innocent people his war had killed. It was a rare and useful sort of penitence. We should not hold our breath waiting for its like from Pete Hegseth, a much less thoughtful person. But let us ask the only question that finally matters: will the hanging judge of History render a kinder verdict on the attack on Iran? We doubt it. Herewith, in the spirit of impertinent curiosity, a brief meditation on the American record since WWII.

In the good old, brutal days, an empire faced a clean, honest choice: it devoured its rivals, or its rivals devoured it. Victory paid dividends you could weigh and count - booty, tribute, and slaves. Consider Rome, where the ambitious young man got his character, his cash, and his consulship the manly way, at the point of a sword. Veni, vidi, vici, scribbled Caesar - he came, saw, and helped himself to the whole of Gaul. He came home with plunder, human chattel, and, most importantly, an army that loved him and cared less for Rome.

After centuries of murder conducted on a heroic scale, Rome reached its zenith around 100 A.D. Thereafter the triumphs grew scarce and, most often, defensive. Having conquered so much territory, the Empire spent its next three hundred years clutching at it - by treachery and butchery - and eventually losing the whole shebang.

The English contrived something cleverer. Theirs was the first empire of the Machine Age. They hauled raw stuff into British mills, transmuted it into finished goods, and peddled those goods to every bazaar and shopping street on the planet. The manufacturers made money. Wages climbed. The old island grew rich. Trade rode the sea, and Britannia, as the anthem boasted, ruled the waves.

Into these outsized boots America stepped - the left foot in 1919, the right in 1945 - and commenced to strut. With the most productive and efficient factories ever built, she was the source of nearly half the market output of the entire human species. The American president, JFK, was the best-loved (and perhaps the most frequently, if you believe the gossip) man alive. And almost everyone was California Dreamin’.

Then, in 1971, came the counterfeit dollar, and the noble Republic quietly rotted into a shady empire of finance. Today she claims less than a quarter of world output - by some reckonings as little as a twelfth. Her rulers are likelier to be cursed upon than saluted. They still manage the veni and the vidi well enough; it is the vici that eludes them. She is good at finance, not war.

We put the case plainly in our 2006 volume "The Empire of Debt": here was the first superpower ever to fund itself on debt. It did not conquer its rivals - it borrowed from them. Its dollars were snapped up eagerly the world over. But it was a pernicious swindle: to print a dollar cost virtually nothing. Yet each one was a solemn IOU redeemable against the very goods and comforts Americans themselves depended on.

All living things breathe in and breathe out. They enjoy their hour in the sun and then endure their long, sweating night of terror and dissolution. Decay, death, the final curtain - these are as certain as the birth that preceded them. Empires, the historians tell us, run about 250 years - that grim little milestone the United States has just this year trundled past.

By our accounting the empire tilted towards decline some quarter-century ago, when George W. Bush proclaimed his “War on Terror” - a milestone of its own, being the Republic’s first war against nobody in particular. And here is the maddening part: it would have been child’s play to keep the old ship off the rocks a while longer.

On the money question, the whole trick was to keep faith with honest coin. That alone would have forestalled the Himalaya of debt now towering over the country like a landslide waiting to happen. And it should have been simple, for the Constitution forbade “bills of credit.” Dean Clancy: "Read in conjunction with the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, and the obligation-of-contracts clause (Art. I, sec. 10, cl. 1), we can identify five monetary policies that are constitutionally requisite in the United States:

ͦ  The basic unit is the dollar, a silver coin containing 371.25 grains of pure silver.

ͦ  Only gold or silver coins and currency (banknotes fully backed by and readily redeemable in specie) may serve as legal tender.

ͦ  No state may issue coins or currency.

ͦ  No one may counterfeit U.S. Government-issued coins or currency.

ͦ  Neither the states nor Congress may issue fiat money notes (’bills of credit...’).

Instead, in 1971, the Republic swapped its gold-backed dollars for IOUs backed by thin air, and reaped the aforementioned Empire of Debt.

As for the foreign adventures, old George Washington had left, in his Farewell Address of 1796, a set of plain instructions. Stephen Kinzer: "It is poignant to read today what he warned us against two centuries ago: “permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world”; “frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests”; “overgrown military establishments, which under any form of government are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty”; “the mischiefs of foreign intrigue”; “love of power and proneness to abuse it”; “excessive partiality for one nation and excessive dislike of another”; “the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists”; “projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives.”

Poor Washington knew what he was up against - not foreign devils but domestic fools. He had no illusions that his warning would take. Set beside the patriotic flapdoodle bellowed at us on the 250th anniversary, his own last words ring like a man talking, wearily and without hope, to a brick wall: “I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I would wish,” he wound up. He need not have worried on that score. They didn’t."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"I'm On Your Side"

Full screen recommended.

Michael Franti and Spearhead, "I'm On Your Side"

"Alert! Multiple Ships Hit In Gulf! Kyiv In Flames! WW3 Preparations Intensify!"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 7/6/26

"Alert! Multiple Ships Hit In Gulf! Kyiv In Flames! 

WW3 Preparations Intensify!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Grocery Prices Just Hit a Terrifying New High, And It’s Getting Worse"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist,7/6/26

"Grocery Prices Just Hit a Terrifying New High, 

And It’s Getting Worse"

"Grocery prices are climbing faster than wages, and this video shows what that looks like at the register for real American households. You'll see one shopper hit $114 for a single dinner, another stretch $15 to feed a whole family, and a working parent with multiple jobs still coming up short. These are the receipts, the food bank runs, and the freezer stockpiling that define America's grocery crisis right now.What this video covers:

• A shopper trying to feed a family on just $15 at Walmart.

• One dinner ringing up at over $114 at checkout.

• A working parent with several incomes still unable to fill lunch bags.

• A family relying on a church food drive after rent takes everything.

• How egg prices climbed beyond what the shortage alone explained.

• People buying second freezers and stockpiling ahead of rising costs.

If these grocery store moments match what you're seeing at your own register, subscribe to follow more coverage of food prices and the cost of living. Drop a comment with what you paid on your last trip, and share this video with someone who's been feeling the same squeeze at the checkout line.This video looks at rising food prices, grocery store sticker shock, the egg price surge, food bank reliance, stagnant wages, and the cost of living crisis pushing American households to budget, stockpile, and rethink how they feed their families every week."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Two Steps From Hell, "Evergreen"

Full screen recommended.

Two Steps From Hell, "Evergreen"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“What makes this spiral galaxy so long? Measuring over 700,000 light years across from top to bottom, NGC 6872, also known as the Condor galaxy, is one of the most elongated barred spiral galaxies known.

The galaxy’s protracted shape likely results from its continuing collision with the smaller galaxy IC 4970, visible just above center. Of particular interest is NGC 6872′s spiral arm on the upper left, as pictured here, which exhibits an unusually high amount of blue star forming regions. The light we see today left these colliding giants before the days of the dinosaurs, about 300 million years ago. NGC 6872 is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Peacock (Pavo).”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160426.html

Chet Raymo, "Lessons"

"Lessons"

by Chet Raymo

"There is a four-line poem by Yeats, called "Gratitude to the Unknown Instructors":

"What they undertook to do

They brought to pass;

All things hang like a drop of dew

Upon a blade of grass."

Like so many of the short poems of Yeats, it is hard to know what the poet had in mind, who exactly were the unknown instructors, and if unknown how could they instruct. But as I opened my volume of The Poems this morning, at random, as in the old days people opened the Bible and pointed a finger at a random passage seeking advice or instruction, this is the poem that presented itself. Unsuperstitious person that I am, it seemed somehow apropos, since outside the window, in a thick Irish mist, every blade of grass has its hanging drop.

Those pendant drops, the bejeweled porches of the spider webs, the rose petals cupping their glistening dew - all of that seems terribly important here, now, in the silent mist. There is not much good to say about getting old, but certainly one advantage of the gathering years is the falling away of ego and ambition, the felt need to be always busy, the exhausting practice of accumulation. Who were the instructors who tried to teach me the practice of simplicity when I was young - the poets and the saints, the buddhas who were content to sit beneath the bo tree while the rest of us scurried here and there? I scurried, and I'm not sorry I did, but I must have tucked their lessons into the back of my mind, a cache of wisdom to be opened at my leisure.

Whatever it was they sought to teach has come to pass. All things hang like a drop of dew upon a blade of grass."

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

"Be The Person..."

"We are fast moving into something, we are fast flung into something like asteroids cast into space by the death of a planet, we the people of earth are cast into space like burning asteroids and if we wish not to disintegrate into nothingness we must begin to now hold onto only the things that matter while letting go of all that doesn't. For when all of our dust and ice deteriorates into the cosmos we will be left only with ourselves and nothing else. So if you want to be there in the end, today is the day to start holding onto your children, holding onto your loved ones; onto those who share your soul. Harbor and anchor into your heart justice, truth, courage, bravery, belief, a firm vision, a steadfast and sound mind. Be the person of meaningful and valuable thoughts. Don't look to the left, don't look to the right; we simply don't have the time. Never be afraid of fear."

- C. JoyBell C.

"Coup In Israel? Netanyahu Gov't Coalition Collapses as Judicial Crisis Escalates"

Full screen recommended.

OPTM, 7/6/26

"Coup In Israel?  Netanyahu Gov't Coalition 

Collapses as Judicial Crisis Escalates"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Cold, hard truth about this abominable monstrosity...

"If You Thought Pre-war Iran Was A Threat, You Haven’t Seen Anything Yet"

"If You Thought Pre-war Iran Was A Threat, 

You Haven’t Seen Anything Yet"

by Leo Hohmann

"While Americans were busy celebrating their nation’s 250th anniversary on July 4th, something important was happening 6,000 miles away that went largely unnoticed and lightly reported in the U.S. media. It’s something every American should be aware of. An estimated 10 to 15 million Iranians turned out over the weekend to mourn at the funeral for the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a revered figure throughout Shia Islam who was killed along with his wife, granddaughter and other family members by a U.S./Israeli missile on Feb. 28.

Here’s one video showing Tehran over the weekend:

Full screen recommended.

Here’s another:

Full screen recommended.

Iranians are in no mood to be gracious or polite, says Dr. Robert Pape, an expert on mass psychology in the geo-political realm, especially as it relates to war. They want revenge. Pape, a professor at the University of Chicago and one of the leading scholars on coercion, military airpower, and political violence, says the Ayatollah’s funeral has shifted the balance of political will in Iran’s favor, four-and-a-half months into the war.

In a podcast interview with At the Water’s Edge, Pape breaks down why wars cannot be won with air power alone and explains how this strategy can actually backfire and stir up anger in a society, while at the same time unifying its will to carry out revenge.

Even President Trump acted surprised by the turnout for the Ayatollah’s funeral. Trump expressing that he expected the late leader to be widely unpopular. Trump remarked, “I was shocked. I thought people hated him,” after witnessing the emotional response from mourners. This shows how detached from reality Trump is due to his propensity to listen to all the wrong people in the realm of foreign policy.

While you will find plenty of Americans who look at the above videos and say it’s all propaganda and Iranians were either coerced or paid to come out and publicly appear mournful, I find that to be a hard sell. As Pape points out, the crowds were so large that they could have steered their anger at the regime. There’s no way 100,000 IRGC troops, if they even had that many nearby, could have killed 10 million people if they decided to unleash their fury against the Iranian government. The crowds of people in Tehran made China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square protests look paltry by comparison.

What the U.S. did was use military air power to inflict misery on the Iranian population. In such a scenario, even those Iranians who hated their government began to hate the U.S. and Israel even more. This is common sense among those who study mass psychology and how it is influenced by war-time scenarios. Apparently, no one with any access to this knowledge was allowed to speak with President Trump before he decided to launch his war on Iran.

“Punishment doesn’t work,” Pape said, explaining what’s really happening inside Trump’s inner circle, and why he thinks Iran is trying to wreck the Trump presidency rather than cut a peace deal with Washington. In essence, Trump has kicked a hornet’s nest and opened Pandora’s box. And the ramifications going forward will play out for years to come in ways Americans will not be able to imagine right now.

In the video interview below, Professor Pape delves into what the funeral turnout really signals about Iranian public opinion. He says Iranian society has been traumatized, similar to the way the U.S. was traumatized after the 9/11 attacks, only times that by a factor of at least four. This is a must-watch interview for those wanting to grasp the full consequences of Washington’s foolhardy move of attacking Iran, a move that I believe will ultimately prove to be detrimental to both the United States and Israel.

Professor Pape discusses how a traumatized nation is likely to respond going forward. One thing to watch for is how Iran, having survived the initial traumatic scenario, is now collectively emboldened to seek retribution, not just militarily but economically.

Full screen recommended.

Pape’s believes the will of the Iranian people just shifted. He explains why Iran is rejecting the financial sweeteners offered by Trump’s New York real estate investors posing as diplomats, that being Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. Pape believes airpower and blockades rarely break a nation’s will, and explains why he expects Trump to face pressure to escalate the war as soon as August. You can also read Pape’s latest Substack article, “The Escalation Trap.”

- https://leohohmann.substack.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Lubbock, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: David Romano, "If Tomorrow Starts Without Me"

Full screen recommended.

"If Tomorrow Starts Without Me"

“We Can’t Keep Time… But Love Remains"

Full screen recommended.

Luna AI Art Studio,

“We Can’t Keep Time… But Love Remains"

"A cinematic journey through memory, love, and the quiet disappearance of time. In a world where moments slip away like fading light, two souls reflect on everything they once believed would last forever - love unspoken, dreams unfinished, and the fragile beauty of being alive. As seasons change and years dissolve into silence, they begin to understand a simple truth: it is not us who run out of time… it is time that slowly runs out of us. This surreal AI film blends poetic storytelling, emotional imagery, and a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack to explore nostalgia, loss, gratitude, and the meaning of human connection. Some moments are never lost. They only live somewhere beyond time."

Native Elder, "What Native People Believe About the Purpose of Old Age"

Full screen recommended.

Native Elder,

"What Native People Believe 

About the Purpose of Old Age"

"Getting Old Ain’t a Gentle Ride"

Full screen recommended.

Delta King's Blues,

"Getting Old Ain’t a Gentle Ride"

"Time don’t roll smooth… it rattles every bone on the way. “Getting Old Ain’t a Gentle Ride” is a rugged, truth-soaked Delta King’s Blues tune about rough mornings, hard miles, and hanging on with humor while the years keep moving. A gravelly acoustic guitar drives a slow, bumpy groove like an old truck on a back road. The harmonica bends raw and weathered, sounding like springs that seen too many miles. The rhythm stays steady but worn, built for folks who know life ain’t padded. This is blues for the rough road of aging. For people who creak, ache, and still keep riding anyway. Getting old ain’t gentle… but neither are the ones who survive it."

"How It Really Is"

MORALS? This is 'Murica, fool! "Morals? We ain't got no morals. 

We don't need no morals. I don't have to show you any stinking morals!"

Concept gleefully stolen from here:

"A Great Madness Sweeps The Land"

"A Great Madness Sweeps The Land"

by Charles Hugh Smith

‘In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, 

parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.’

- Friedrich Nietzsche 

"A great madness sweeps the land. There are no limits on extremes in greed, credulity, convictions, inequality, bombast, recklessness, fraud, corruption, arrogance, hubris, pride, over-reach, self-righteousness and confidence in the rightness of one's opinions. Extremes only become more extreme even as the folly of previous extremes wearies rationality.

Imaginary sins are conjured out of thin air to convict the innocent while those guilty of the most egregious fraud and corruption are lauded as saviors.

The national mood is aggrieved and bitter. The luxuries of self-righteousness, indignation, entitlement and resentment have impoverished the national spirit. Bankrupted by these excesses, what little treasure remains is squandered on plots of petty revenge.

Blindness to the late hour is cheered as optimism, confidence in the false gods of technology is sanctified while doubters of the technocratic theocracy are crucified as irredeemable infidels.

Witch-hunts and show trials are the order of the day as those who cannot stomach the party line are obsessively purged, as healthy skepticism is condemned as a mortal sin by brittle true believers who secretly fear the failure of their cult.

Mired in a putrid sewer of suspected subversion and disloyalty to The One True Cause, heretics are everywhere to those caught up in the mass hysteria. In this choking atmosphere of toxic hubris, self-righteousness, indignation, entitlement and resentment, humility is for losers, prudence is for losers, caution is for losers, skeptical inquiry is for losers.

Completely untethered from cause and effect, those confident in the inevitability of a glorious future of unlimited expansion cling to past glory as proof of future glory, even as their hubris leads only to a treacherous path of decay and decline. As they stumble into the abyss, their final cries are of surprise that confidence alone is not enough.

Those who see the madness for what it is have only one escape: go to ground, fade from public view, become self-reliant and weather the coming storm in the nooks and crannies where cause and effect, skeptical inquiry, humility, prudence and thrift can still be nurtured."

- http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/

o

"The Three SHTF Scenarios That Could Change the World Faster Than Anyone Expects!"

"The Three SHTF Scenarios That Could Change 

the World Faster Than Anyone Expects!"

by Madge Waggy

"For decades, the greatest threats to global stability were often imagined as distant possibilities - events reserved for history books, military simulations or the darkest years of the Cold War. Today, that assumption is becoming increasingly difficult to defend. International defense spending has reached levels not seen in decades, armed conflicts continue to reshape regional security architectures, and governments across Europe, North America and Asia are investing heavily in civil defense, cybersecurity and the protection of critical infrastructure. These are not preparations made in anticipation of ordinary times, but responses to a world that has become measurably more volatile than it was only a few years ago.

History offers a sobering reminder that societies are rarely transformed by a single catastrophic event. More often, they are changed by a sequence of crises that appear unrelated until they begin reinforcing one another - geopolitical confrontation, economic instability, infrastructure failures and the gradual erosion of public confidence. Whether viewed through the lens of preparedness, national security or historical precedent, one conclusion remains remarkably consistent: the most consequential moments are often recognized only after they have already begun."

Full, most highly recommended article is here:

"Top Three Unstoppable SHTF Scenarios"

- https://madgewaggy.blogspot.com/

"The Mainstream Media Freaks Out As This “Super El Niño” Causes Unprecedented Heat, Monster Storms And Catastrophic Damage All Over The Globe"

by Michael Snyder

"Global weather patterns have begun to resemble a Hollywood disaster movie, and the mainstream media is starting to admit what many of us have known all along. Thanks to the “Super El Niño” that is now upon us, the second half of this year is going to be really crazy. Europe was just hit by the worst heatwave that it has ever experienced. Throughout all of last week, I was writing about the “mega heat dome” that brought unprecedented temperatures to many areas of the east coast. As I write this article, an absolutely colossal storm is causing apocalyptic damage in the Pacific Ocean, and a severe lack of rainfall threatens to cause a horrifying shortage of rice in India. It is often the case that the mainstream media needlessly freaks out about things, but in this case they are right on target.

I wish that I was exaggerating about the power of this Super El Niño, but I am not. Every El Niño brings higher temperatures, but this one is really baking us… We’re officially in an El Niño year, and as predicted, it’s a scorcher.

Record temperatures are already being recorded around the world, from the streets of New York to the icy shelves of the Antarctic. Even the surface waters of the world’s waterways are under unprecedented stress from the heat, with the average global ocean temperature breaking the all-time record high for the month of June. We are less than a month into this El Niño. How bad will conditions be once we get a few months down the road?

Even CNN is calling it “a Super El Niño”, and they are openly warning that “computer models are predicting this El Niño could be stronger than any other event”…El Niño is poised to rapidly strengthen in the tropical Pacific Ocean during the next few months and is forecast to reach the upper echelon of intensity by the time it peaks in late fall to early winter, forecasters warn.

It’s already being referred to colloquially as a Super El Niño. Only a handful of events have reached that level of intensity in the last few decades, with the most recent one occurring in 2015 to 2016. But now some computer models are predicting this El Niño could be stronger than any other event, back to at least 1950. “I think it’s fair to say that, depending on [the] model, the forecasts are close to unprecedented,” said Michael Tippett, an atmospheric scientist at Columbia University, in an email.

CNN is not supposed to run articles like this. But they just did. One expert that CNN interviewed explained that the projections for the intensity of this El Niño have been getting higher each month… “The consensus is definitely shifting towards an even stronger event,” said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist who is closely following El Niño model projections. “The model runs have been consistently showing higher probabilities for a very strong event compared to a few months ago, and every month sees higher estimates,” he said. “Currently, the odds of seeing a record-strong El Niño event this year are quite large.”

It has become clear that this El Niño is going to dwarf any El Niño that has come before. It is even going to surpass the Super El Niño of 1877-1878 that resulted in 50 million people starving to death. India always receives less rain during an El Niño, and rainfall in many key rice producing areas is already way below normal…"The warning comes during India’s kharif planting season, when crops such as rice and maize depend heavily on the southwest monsoon. El Niño can weaken the summer monsoon across much of India, putting rainfed crops under stress during a critical growing period, the FAO said.

Between June 1 and 22, half of India had received deficient rainfall (-20% to -59% below the expected normal), while nearly a quarter had recorded large deficient rainfall (-60% to -99% less than the expected normal), according to the categories used by the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The FAO analysis, based on 41 years of satellite data from its Agricultural Stress Index System, identifies a broad belt of elevated drought risk across Asia - from Pakistan and India through Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, and further east to the Philippines, Indonesia and Timor-Leste."

The world is not going to grow enough rice this year. In fact, the amount of rice grown won’t even be close to enough to feed everyone. That is very troubling news, because more than half of the population of the world is heavily dependent on rice…"Over half the world’s population relies on rice. India and China grow more than half of the world’s supply, and rice supplies more than half of all daily calories in countries such as Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Poorer households spend the largest share of income on food, so price spikes hit them first and hardest. In 2007-08, rice prices roughly tripled, food riots broke out in dozens of countries, and in Haiti, the unrest helped bring down the prime minister. Securing rice is about more than food – it underpins public order. During this “Super El Niño”, some parts of the planet will experience drought, while others will get hammered by absolutely gigantic storms.

Just hours ago, a monstrous “super typhoon” with frighteningly high winds absolutely pummeled the island of Rota…A “super typhoon” with equivalent force to a category-5 hurricane made landfall on the U.S. island of Rota in the Pacific on Monday, the National Weather Service said, warning of “catastrophic damage and (a) life threatening situation.”

“The western eyewall of Super Typhoon Bavi is currently moving over the island of Rota. The latest forecast intensity is at 180 mph (290 kph) as it passes over Rota,” the NWS said. “Catastrophic winds exceeding 150 mph will continue across Rota during eyewall passage.” The weather system also brought extremely strong winds and lashing rain to other parts of the Northern Marianas and the nearby separate U.S. territory of Guam, collectively home to around 210,000 people."

Nearly every structure on Rota has been flattened. According to the National Weather service, the island will be “uninhabitable for weeks”… Before the NWS had said that a direct hit on Rota would make most of the island “uninhabitable for weeks, perhaps longer. Many non-concrete, non-reinforced homes will be destroyed, with total roof failure and wall collapse.” “Nearly all trees will be snapped or uprooted and power poles downed. Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. Power outages will last for weeks to possibly months,” it said. How would you like to be without power for months?

Now Super Typhoon Bavi is headed for Taiwan and China…"Bavi is expected to produce destructive wind gusts around Taiwan and across eastern China from Friday into Monday. Wind gusts up to 160 mph (260 km/h), with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 200 mph (320 km/h), are anticipated and will result in power outages, structural damage and logistical delays. The super typhoon is expected to maintain its intensity or strengthen slightly as it tracks west-northwest through at least Thursday, July 9, local time. Bavi is expected to impact Taiwan and eastern China from Friday into Monday.

More giant storms are coming as 2026 rolls along. You can count on that. Meanwhile, the weather has been so hot and so dry in Europe, and this has produced ideal conditions for huge wildfires to erupt…"Thousands of people were evacuated in southern France on Monday as ‘catastrophic’ wildfires ravaged the region, while poisonous clouds swept through Greece and Costa Brava in Spain was put on alert. It comes as temperatures across Europe are on the rise again, predicted to reach 40C in parts still suffering the aftermath of a recent record-breaking heatwave.

Hundreds of firefighters are battling blazes that have devastated more than 19,000 hectares (42,000 acres) of land – an area more than twice the size of Manhattan – across Portugal, Spain, France and Greece."

This is no ordinary heatwave. Week after week, Europe is getting absolutely cooked, and a lot of people are dying. For example, just check out what has been happening in the Netherlands… "More than 3,500 people died in the Netherlands during last week’s extreme heat, according to provisional mortality figures from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). The number is about 16 percent higher than what was expected, based on seasonal trends.

RIVM said there were around 480 excess deaths compared with expected levels, with most fatalities among people aged 80 and older. Proportionally, the highest impact was seen in the east and south of the Netherlands, where temperatures were highest during the heat period. The RIVM noted that the figures are not yet complete, as it can take several weeks for deaths to be officially registered.

Of course people have been dying from the heat in the U.S. as well. At this point, we are being told that at least 25 residents of New Jersey have died as a result of heat exposure just since Thursday…"At least 25 people died in New Jersey since Thursday amid a sweltering heat wave. Temperatures soared into the triple digits over the Fourth of July holiday weekend in New Jersey, New York, DC and other East Coast states. Power outages in New Jersey and New York reportedly affected 1 million customers. According to officials, many of the deceased were found in their homes with no air conditioning.

After experiencing an extremely hot weekend, now the east coast is facing the threat of severe flash flooding…A life-threatening flash flood threat is increasing for nearly 60 million people across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and southern New England, with more rounds of heavy rain expected to soak the region through Monday night. Heavy rain and thunderstorms from this weekend saturated the soil across the region, creating prime conditions for flash flooding Monday, particularly in the New York City metro area.

All over the world, this “Super El Niño” is going to produce monster storms, extreme heat and severe drought in 2026. We were already experiencing a worldwide food crisis before this “Super El Niño” came along, and so there is no way that we are going to avoid very serious global food shortages. In fact, the number of people on our planet that are experiencing acute hunger was already at an all-time record high before the war with Iran started. What we are facing is not a theoretical disaster that may or may not happen someday. It is happening right now. We are in far more trouble than most people realize, and we are going to witness so much chaos in the months ahead."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Ultimate Dollar Tree Shopping!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 7/6/26

"Ultimate Dollar Tree Shopping!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Meanwhile, elsewhere...

Full screen recommended.

Travelling With Russell, 7/6/26

"Shopping in Russia's Newest Supermarket"

"What does Russia's newest Supermarket look like in 2026? Join my wife and I as we discover what it's like to shop in a Brand-New Russian supermarket 40km from the center of Moscow. What are they able to sell in such difficult times in Russia?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "No More Breakfast"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 7/6/26

"No More Breakfast"

"I take a close look at one of the biggest warning signs facing the U.S. economy: Americans are giving up breakfast. With Denny's announcing another 150 restaurant closures, breakfast prices reaching record highs, and families cutting back on even the smallest luxuries, this video explores what these changes reveal about consumer spending, inflation, restaurant bankruptcies, and the financial pressure facing the middle class. From fast food to family restaurants, the cost of eating out has reached levels many people simply can't justify. This video also examines why restaurants are struggling, why layoffs are expected to accelerate during the third quarter of 2026, how rising energy costs and declining discretionary spending are reshaping the economy, and what these trends could mean for businesses, workers, and consumers. If you follow business news, personal finance, inflation, recession warnings, restaurant closures, or the U.S. economy, this is a story you won't want to miss. Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments and subscribe for daily business and economic news from i Allegedly."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Bill Bonner, "Greatest Show on Earth"

"Greatest Show on Earth"

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "Even the planet seems to have turned against the US empire. On the occasion of 250th anniversary, temperatures soared. Crowds disappeared. And the AC stopped working. The Independent: "In a segment from the fair, CNN’s Tom Foreman reported Wednesday that the event had suffered “intermittent power problems” and air conditioning units at some exhibits had failed. The fair suffered a similar power outage the day after its official opening last Thursday, causing frozen desserts to melt.

“You can’t expose yourself to this for very long,” Foreman warned viewers amid the searing heat. “They’ve lost AC today, so much that the workers there simply left their stations and said, ‘Fend for yourself,’” Foreman claimed."

And then came the storms. The Daily Beast: "An immediate evacuation order was issued Saturday night for Salute to America, President Donald Trump’s much-hyped July 4th bash on the National Mall, due to severe weather. “The safety of our guests, performers, and staff is our top priority,” Freedom 250 Spokesperson Danielle Alvarez shared in a social media post. “Due to approaching severe storms, Freedom 250, United States Secret Service, United States Park Police, National Park Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and all public safety partners are asking all guests to evacuate event grounds and seek temporary shelter in a nearby building.”

Followed by the nutty explanations. The Independent: "A MAGA faithful and prominent 2020 election denier claimed the intense heat oppressing the nation’s capital and disrupting America’s 250th celebrations was “geoengineered” by a person with Trump Derangement Syndrome. “Same way they geoengineered Trump’s inauguration to be one of the coldest in U.S. history. People with [Trump Derangement Syndrome] hate Trump more than they love America,” Kremer wrote on X.

All part of the Greatest Show on Earth!

This comes after brouhahas about the Reflecting Pool, the Triumphal Arch, the Trump-Kennedy Center, and the West Wing ballroom. But none of these is very important. Nor are they necessarily reflections on the incompetence of the Trump Team. When you try to do things, there are bound to be problems...and the naysayers will say their nays.

But the important issues, too, seem to be plagued by a kind of klutzy dysfunction. Inflation doesn’t go down. DOGE disappears. Deficits increase. The economy stalls. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday: "US snaps hiring hot streak with only 57,000 jobs added in June. The share of the working-age population that is either working or looking for work - known as the labor-force participation rate - edged down to 61.5% in June, the lowest since March 2021."

David Stockman adds perspective: "During the first 18 months of the Donald’s alleged “red hot” US economy, there has actually been a 337,000 job loss outside of the government-funded health care and social services sector. During the four years of the Biden administration, by comparison, in the same sectors, the economy racked up 267,000 new jobs per month. And those who have jobs have suffered negative wage growth for the last two months; consumer prices rose faster than their paychecks.

But it’s the war on Iran that draws the fiercest criticism. The US attacked. Then, the Trump administration seemed unprepared for what came next - a closure of the Hormuz Strait. This sent oil prices skyward...and cut off critical the imports of fertilizers and industrial chemicals needed by US factories and farms.

Team Trump tried to salve the wounds it had inflicted with more taxpayer money to the farmers. It also withdrew some of its own sanctions and tariffs, including those on the object of its aggression. The Week: "US lifts oil sanctions on Iran amid chaotic talks." Fox News: "Donald Trump on Monday declared an emergency aimed at protecting the U.S. food supply and temporarily suspended import duties on certain Moroccan fertilizer products."

Analysts wondered what it was all about. Foreign Policy: "Iran Is a Bigger Defeat Than Vietnam." A war of choice has turned into a strategic disaster for Washington. This prompted a grim thought. What would future historians make of it? What was the point, they will ask? What was accomplished? And how was it possible that the most powerful empire in the history of the world went to war twice against much smaller, s***hole countries...and was humiliated both times? Does the US have the most inept empire ever? Let’s look at it tomorrow."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

o

Well, I for one had never heard of this "show", 

and don't even want to imagine watching it! LOL

"Independence Day Drag"

"I spent the Fourth of July with some of the few sane 

people left in the United States: Drag queens."

by Chris Hedges