Jeremiah Babe, 7/23/26
"I Just Spent $200 At The Grocery Store And Got Nothing.
The Entire Bubble Will Come Crashing Down"
Comments here:
o
So, we rise from the rubble...
StatCounter
Thursday, July 23, 2026
"Alert! Oil Hits $100! Russia/USA Talks Collapse! Two Straits Closed! Houthis Stock 6 Months Food!"
Canadian Prepper, 7/23/26
"Alert! Oil Hits $100! Russia/USA Talks Collapse!
Two Straits Closed! Houthis Stock 6 Months Food!"
Comments here:
"Trump Getting Taste Of His Own Medicine From An Emboldened Iran, Which Now Has Russia Feeding It Weapons And Intelligence"
CIA station in Riyadh was hit by Shahed suicide drone.
"Trump Getting Taste Of His Own Medicine From An Emboldened Iran,
Which Now Has Russia Feeding It Weapons And Intelligence"
by Leo Hohmann
"The Trump administration is getting a hard lesson on the essence of that old adage: Paybacks can be a b----! After more than four years of the U.S. funding and supplying Ukraine and using that country as a battering ram to weaken Russia, the regime in Washington has allowed itself to be weakened by Russia in the same way.
While Ukraine is serving the role of America’s proxy against Russia, Iran has emerged as Russia’s proxy against America. There is now evidence that Russia, and likely China too, are funneling weapons and intelligence to the Iranians.
Russia in particular has found the perfect opportunity to get back at Trump for double-crossing him on the Ukraine war. Trump bragged that he would end the Russia-Ukraine war with a simple phone call within “24 hours” of taking office. And he could have made good on that campaign promise simply by telling Vladamir Zelensky that the gig was up, the funds were ending, and he needs to sign on the dotted line to make peace with Putin.
Instead, Trump did a complete 180 and has continued funding Ukraine the same as Biden did, and has actually allowed the Ukrainians to routinely strike deep inside of Russian territory with U.S.-manufactured missiles, something Biden never did. They’ve knocked out key energy infrastructure, weapons depots and manufacturing facilities in Russia, a favor Putin is said to be mulling whether to return by firing missiles at NATO countries supplying drones to Ukraine. Trump even presided over a Ukrainian assassination attempt on Putin’s helicopter back in May.
Now, Trump is getting a taste of his own medicine in Iran. And it might not be long before that taste becomes a full-course meal, which he won’t be able to spit out. In a July 23 article, Defense Security Asia reports as follows: U.S. intelligence agencies have opened an urgent multi-agency investigation into whether Russia supplied Iran with targeting intelligence and combat-tested drone upgrades used in a wave of precision strikes against Central Intelligence Agency facilities across the Gulf region in March 2026.
The probe centers on two confirmed CIA sites struck during the conflict, namely the CIA station embedded inside the U.S. Embassy compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and a separate clandestine facility located in eastern Iraq, according to four U.S. intelligence officials.
Analysts examining the strikes have grown increasingly suspicious of Russian involvement because the attacks demonstrated a level of navigational precision that appears to exceed the known technical baseline of Iran’s indigenous Shahed-series loitering munitions. The article goes on to state the quiet part out loud, that U.S. embassies double as CIA intelligence-gathering operations throughout the Middle East. These diplomatic missions could become targets and knocked out, one by one, with Russian intelligence and targeting data.
One internal memo circulated within a Western intelligence agency reportedly concluded that Moscow “has likely played a role in targeting regional CIA facilities,” a judgment that, if confirmed, would mark a dangerous escalation in the Russia-Iran military-technical partnership. Two Western officials briefed on the intelligence assessments believe the Riyadh strike specifically involved a tandem pair of Russian-enhanced Shahed drones, with the first breaching the embassy’s exterior wall and the second flying through the opening to detonate inside the compound.
It’s interesting that when Russia gets caught aiding Iran it’s a “dangerous escalation,” But Washington can openly aid Ukraine’s war against Russia all day long without being seen as the aggressor in that war, the one who is fueling its continued blood letting.
When the U.S. first attacked Iran, I warned that this would likely become a long, drawn-out war and my intuition has turned out to be accurate. I have no military experience and don’t come from a military family, but I have studied history and have a good sense of just how ego-centric the U.S foreign policy has become over the last 75 years. Our foreign policy establishment believes we can hit other countries with impunity and never expect to get hit back. When countries do hit us back, we call them terrorists. Sovereignty is never respected by Washington’s warmongers.
The only countries whose sovereignty has traditionally been respected are those with nuclear arsenals, but in their arrogance even that reality is not keeping them from making war on countries like Russia, which has enough nuclear weaponry to blow up the world many times over. So if we don’t respect Russia’s sovereignty, we certainly won’t respect Iran’s.
But now we have evidence that Russia is supplying Iran with key components in what has become an existential struggle for Iran’s survival in the war with America. Iran was in many ways the perfect country for America’s enemies to use against us, delivering a long overdue humbling of the out-of-control global hegemon. We have become overly prideful in our sense of invincibility, and it’s only that overwhelming pride that could cause our leaders to attack a country like Iran and think we could win easily in a few days or weeks. Russia and China alike must have celebrated the day Donald Trump launched this ill-conceived war back on February 28.
Because the financial markets are just now starting to figure out what seemed obvious to some of us from the start - that this is guaranteed to turn into a long war that permanently disrupts the flow of energy and fertilizers to critical areas of need; crude oil has now surged to over $100 a barrel.
Gasoline prices are about to skyrocket to heights perhaps never before seen in the United States, Canada and Europe. Then will come worldwide famine and depopulation. This will all make America the most hated country in the world as other countries realize that none of this economic misery would have been foisted upon them if Trump hadn’t attacked Iran and triggered the disastrous chain of events now starting to play out.
Few Americans seem aware, or even concerned that this war has the potential to be different from all the other wars the U.S. has involved itself in since World War II. If this war continues to go south, and I believe it will, it could be the trigger for a collapse of the petro dollar, and with it the entire U.S. economic system. How are Americans going to get by when gasoline is $8 to $10 a gallon and food prices quadruple in price?
Trump is already losing support for his war of choice on Iran, and we’ve hardly seen any of the disastrous economic effects that are coming but have been forestalled by market manipulations and Trump’s drawing down of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Rerserves.
The share of self-identified MAGA Republicans who say the war has been “worth” the financial cost has fallen from about 50 percent in May to 37 percent now, with one in five saying the war should end, according to the latest poll.
Trump has allowed this war to drift into a dangerous phase of tit-for-tat escalations. This is dangerous because at some point the conventional weapons will run dry, as we run out of munitions to feed them. Iran and Russia have proven they have the industrial capacity to outproduce us on weaponry and munitions. Our military-industrial complex is not built for speed. It’s built for profit. So, we will run out of munitions before Russia, China and Iran do.
What happens then? Will Trump walk away in humiliation? I don’t think so. It’s not in Trump’s DNA to admit defeat even when he’s hit in the face with it. His instinct is to hit back harder. That’s exactly the personality type who would resort to the unthinkable.
God help us at that point. Because the U.S. is the only country to have ever used nuclear weapons against another nation. If we do it again, all bets are off, because unlike in 1945, we live in a nuclear world. Russia, China and Pakistan all have nukes. If the U.S. were to nuke Iran, I don’t believe these other nuclear countries would allow the U.S. to get away with it a second time.
Iran’s goal is to kick the U.S. out of the Middle East, and so far it’s making great progress. My sources say 16 of the 20 U.S. bases in the Gulf region have been either totally destroyed or suffered substantial damage. And if this war continues there are plenty of other bases that Russia could decide to take out.
As our munitions continue to sink to dangerously low levels in a protracted Iran war, Putin could feel emboldened to strike U.S. bases on the periphery of his country’s borders? Maybe at some point China realizes that the U.S. going after Russia and Iran is just a prelude to us going after them. If that’s the case, we’re cooked. There are about 800 U.S. bases on foreign soil that could be targeted, and China hasn’t even started dipping into its vast stockpiles of conventional missiles and drones. Once the U.S. is out of conventional stockpiles, what comes next? You can see where this is leading. Unfortunately, nobody in the Trump White House has thought this through."
Musical Interlude: 2002, "Cycle of Time"; "Challenge From Heaven"
Full screen recommended.
2002, "Cycle of Time"
Full screen recommended.
2002, "Challenge From Heaven"
"A Look to the Heavens"
"How do clusters of galaxies form and evolve? To help find out, astronomers continue to study the second closest cluster of galaxies to Earth: the Fornax cluster, named for the southern constellation toward which most of its galaxies can be found. Although almost 20 times more distant than our neighboring Andromeda galaxy, Fornax is only about 10 percent further that the better known and more populated Virgo cluster of galaxies.
Fornax has a well-defined central region that contains many galaxies, but is still evolving. It has other galaxy groupings that appear distinct and have yet to merge. Seen here, almost every yellowish splotch on the image is an elliptical galaxy in the Fornax cluster. The picturesque barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 visible on the lower right is also a prominent Fornax cluster member. "
"Home Above the Fog"
Full screen recommended.
"Home Above the Fog"
"Today, I’d love to invite you to a place where the clouds never seem to leave. High above an endless sea of fog sits a tiny village where warm lanterns glow through the mist, old stone cottages rest quietly beneath the stars, and every sunrise feels like the beginning of a beautiful memory. This is *The Village That Woke Above the Fog*. In this quiet corner of *A Very Unusual Town*, life moves slowly. An elderly shepherd gently leads his woolly sheep across cloud-covered hills. A mysterious black cat wanders through peaceful cobblestone streets as if it knows every hidden doorway. Behind glowing cottage windows, tea is brewing, bread is cooling, and neighbors still greet one another with quiet smiles.
This surreal AI film was created as a gentle storybook journey for anyone who loves cozy villages, peaceful countryside scenes, cinematic AI art, relaxing music, and the quiet beauty of growing older. Every scene is designed to feel like a handcrafted stop-motion dream brought to life in 4K - inspired by timeless European villages, foggy mountain mornings, warm lantern light, old cottages, and the simple comfort of a slower life. I made this film for those who still find beauty in small moments: a soft light in the window, a familiar path through town, a quiet animal companion, and the peaceful feeling of a place that seems to remember you. This is not a story you need to solve. It is a village you are invited to enter, breathe with, and return to whenever you need a little calm. It was created for viewers who enjoy cozy fantasy worlds, slow living, beautiful AI visuals, emotional instrumental music, and peaceful films made to comfort the heart."
"Live Your Life and Forget Your Age"
Full screen recommended.
Delta King's Blues,
"Live Your Life and Forget Your Age"
"Don’t count the candles… count the sunsets, the laughter, and the miles you’ve lived. “Live Your Life and Forget Your Age” is an uplifting, feel-good Delta King’s Blues tune about embracing every season of life, finding joy in the little things, and refusing to let a number define your spirit. A warm, easy-flowing acoustic guitar carries the melody like an old friend inviting you to sit on the porch and enjoy the evening breeze. The harmonica sings with gentle optimism, weaving hopeful notes through memories, smiles, and second chances. The groove rolls slow and comforting, built for folks who know the best years aren’t always the youngest - they’re the ones fully lived. This is blues for living in the moment. For those who’ve learned that happiness has nothing to do with age and everything to do with how you spend your days. Your age is just a number… your stories are what make you timeless."
The Poet: James Baldwin, "Amen"
"Amen"
"No, I don't feel death coming.
I feel death going:
having thrown up his hands,
for the moment.
I feel like I know him
better than I did.
Those arms held me,
for a while,
and, when we meet again,
there will be that secret knowledge
between us. "
- James Baldwin
"The Projects That Could Ignite The Next War" (Excerpt)
"The Projects That Could Ignite The Next War: The Military,
Industrial and Strategic Programs Reshaping the World in 2026"
by Madge Waggy
Excerpt: "The most dangerous geopolitical developments of 2026 are not necessarily the weapons that have already been fired, but the systems being constructed in anticipation of the next crisis. Across Europe, the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East, governments are committing extraordinary resources to military production, strategic infrastructure, weapons procurement and long-term defense planning, creating a global security environment in which preparation for war has itself become one of the defining features of international politics. The official justification is almost always deterrence: stronger armies are supposed to prevent aggression, larger stockpiles are supposed to make adversaries think twice and new military infrastructure is supposed to close the gaps that might otherwise invite attack.
Yet deterrence has an inherent paradox. Every military capability built by one state is examined by another as a potential threat, and every response can then be used to justify another round of preparation. What emerges is not necessarily an organized march toward a single global conflict, but something more unstable: a collection of increasingly sophisticated military projects operating simultaneously across several regions, each designed to prevent war while potentially making the consequences of miscalculation far more severe.
The scale of this transformation is no longer a matter of speculation. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, global military expenditure reached approximately $2.887 trillion in 2025, marking the eleventh consecutive year of growth. European military spending increased by 14% to approximately $864 billion, while military expenditure in Asia and Oceania rose by 8.1% to around $681 billion. The United States remained the world's largest military spender at approximately $954 billion, followed by China at $336 billion and Russia at $190 billion. Together, those three countries accounted for roughly 51% of global military expenditure. SIPRI also reported that European NATO members increased spending sharply, while China's military expenditure continued a decades-long upward trajectory and Taiwan increased its own military spending by approximately 14% in 2025. These figures do not prove that a world war is approaching, but they reveal an international system in which the largest military powers are simultaneously expanding or restructuring their strategic capabilities.
This assessment is an analytical classification based on escalation potential, proximity of military forces, strategic importance and likelihood of involvement by major powers. It is not an official probability forecast. Data on military expenditure: SIPRI. Current developments in Taiwan Strait and the Middle East: Reuters and AP.
The most important feature of this table is not any individual number, but the simultaneous concentration of military pressure across several theaters. Europe is rebuilding defense capacity at a pace unseen in decades, China is continuing its military modernization while applying pressure around Taiwan, Russia remains heavily committed to wartime spending, and the United States is attempting to maintain strategic commitments across Europe, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific. This creates a geopolitical environment in which a crisis in one region could consume resources, attention and military capacity that are simultaneously required elsewhere. The risk is therefore not simply that one country decides to start a global war; it is that several regional crises could interact with one another at precisely the moment when governments have fewer diplomatic and military resources available to contain them."
Full, highly recommended article is here:
"World War E: Why the Energy Crisis Is an Engineered Collapse — and What It Means for Civilization"
Click Image for larger size.
"World War E: Why the Energy Crisis Is an Engineered
Collapse - and What It Means for Civilization"
by Mike Adams
"We Are Already Living Through World War E: The term “World War E” was coined by Matt Bracken to describe the global war over energy that connects Ukraine, the Middle East, and beyond (he mentioned the term in our recent interview). I believe this captures the true nature of today’s conflict. We are not witnessing random violence; we are watching a coordinated assault on the world’s energy chokepoints. The Houthi blockade of Saudi exports, the systematic targeting of oil infrastructure, and the Iranian response close the Strait of Hormuz are not accidents - they are deliberate moves in an engineered energy war.
Consider what happened in July 2026. Iran ordered the Houthis to stand ready to close the Red Sea oil route if the United States struck Iranian power infrastructure. The Houthis then declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia, effectively shutting the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Saudi vessels. As I warned in my article “The Paper Tiger Exposed,” the U.S. military’s power is a shattered mirage, and these moves expose our inability to protect global energy flows.
Energy Scarcity and Famine Are Two Sides of the Same Coin: Here’s why this matters: the engineered famine that war correspondent Michael Yon has described is inseparable from the energy war. Without affordable fuel, fertilizer production collapses, and food systems fail. In my interview with Michael Yon, he detailed how the destruction of desalination plants in the Gulf would be a death sentence for millions. That is exactly what the globalist planners appear to want.
I have run the numbers. As I wrote in “Trump’s War on Iran Is a War on Global Food Security,” closing the Strait of Hormuz for many more months will starve millions. The math is brutal: 20% of the world’s oil passes through that chokepoint, about 10% of total global fertilizer production comes out of the Persian Gulf. Dmitry Orlov’s “The Five Stages of Collapse” describes how financial collapse leads to commercial collapse, then political collapse, then social collapse, and finally cultural collapse. We are watching stages one and two unfold simultaneously. The propaganda machine will blame climate change or bad luck, but the truth is that this scarcity is engineered to accelerate the final collapse through depopulation and economic chaos.
The Propaganda Machine Keeps Westerners Blind to the Coming Crash: Most people still believe the official narrative of American strength, but the reality is that U.S. bases are being pushed out of the Persian Gulf, and our military cannot protect its allies. Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has plummeted to only 10 to 30 commercial vessels per day (on a GOOD day!), a tiny fraction of normal. Yet the mainstream media yawns. The brainwashing is so thorough that even as the tsunami approaches, few will recognize the event until the shelves are empty and the cities burn.
I have documented the U.S. military’s shattered mirage of power in my article “The Paper Tiger Exposed”. Our aircraft carriers are vulnerable, our missile defenses are porous, and our strategic reserves are being drained. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve has fallen to a 43-year low as the Trump administration draws down nearly 96 million barrels since mid-March. Jim Rickards, in “Sold Out,” explains how the financial system is a house of cards, with hidden derivatives and liquidity traps waiting to snap. The loss of abundant, affordable energy could readily accelerate that trap being sprung.
Preparing for the Civilizational Reset: I argue that the only rational response is to reject the propaganda, leave the vulnerable cities, and build local food production and community resilience. The Houthi blockade of the Red Sea is not a distant problem; it is a knife aimed at the heart of the global energy system, and it will hit America hard. As Dmitry Orlov notes, the collapse stages are predictable, but you can prepare by decentralizing your life.
In my interviews with Steve Quayle, he has emphasized that procrastination will leave you reacting instead of acting. Start now: plant a garden, learn to sprout seeds for emergency nutrition, and secure your water supply. The speakers at the recent preparedness conferences have warned that the elevator of collapse will not stop at a comfortable floor - we may fall all the way to a 19th-century existence, or worse. But those who prepare can survive and even thrive. The choice is yours.
Wake Up or Perish: In conclusion, the global energy crisis is a wake-up call that demands action now - not hope that elites will relent, but real preparation for a world that is about to change radically. The Seneca Effect, described by Ugo Bardi in his book, shows that systems do not decline gradually; they collapse suddenly after a long period of growth (asymmetrical collapse). We are at the precipice of that collapse right now.
To survive, we must touch grass, learn practical skills, and reject the lies that have led us to the edge of this abyss. The U.S. oil reserve is nearly empty, the grid is failing, and the propaganda machine is still churning. But you can break free. Build community, grow food, and stack gold and silver. The future belongs to those who wake up now."
Dan, I Allegedly, "The Biggest Taxpayer Ripoff Ever?"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 7/23/26
"The Biggest Taxpayer Ripoff Ever?"
"California's High-Speed Rail was originally sold as a transformational project that would connect Los Angeles and San Francisco, but after years of delays, soaring costs, and changing timelines, the estimated price has climbed to an astonishing $231 billion. In this video, I break down where the money has gone, what taxpayers have received so far, and why so many people believe this has become one of the most expensive public works projects in American history. We also compare what $231 billion could have funded instead—from housing and education to infrastructure and childcare - and ask whether taxpayers are getting the value they were promised. This isn't just a California story. It's a conversation about government spending, accountability, public debt, inflation, taxes, infrastructure, and how waste impacts every working family. If you care about personal finance, the economy, government spending, real estate, rising costs, or protecting your financial future, this is a discussion you won't want to miss. Let me know in the comments what you would have done with $231 billion if it had been invested differently."
Comments here:
o
Trains, you say?
Incredible the things a sane, civilized society can achieve,
which we of course know nothing at all about in this
totally out of control psychopathic U.S. lunatic asylum...
Full screen recommended.
Travelling With Russell, 12/16/25
"I Travelled on Russia's Brand-New Metro Train"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Travelling with Russell, 10/5/25
"I Went On Russia's Brand-New Train: Ivolga 4.0"
"What is it really like to travel on Russia's newest train? The Ivolga 4.0 has just launched a limited edition model named "The Black Mamba" Released and put into service in 2025, the Ivolga 4.0 is the latest electric train to join the Russian Railways fleet."
Comments here:
"How It Really Is"
"At the beginning of June, 2025 our national debt was sitting at $31,467 trillion. Today, it has risen to $39.613 trillion.That means that we have added $8 TRILLION dollars to the national debt in just one year. It is the largest single debt in the entire history of our planet, and it will never be paid off." - https://coyoteprimeblog2.blogspot.com/
View it if you dare...
o
Jethro Tull, "Locomotive Breath"
"I Can See It All Very Clearly..."
"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
"War Games", 1984
Jim Quinn, "Fourth Turning Global War"
"Fourth Turning Global War"
by Jim Quinn
Excerpt: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” – Thomas Paine – "The American Crisis"
“At worst, should at least one desperate country resort to WMDs, the outcome of a great-power war could prove to be even more devastating than that of a civil war. The toll could be almost unimaginable – with multiple cities destroyed, many millions killed, and many tens of millions displaced – all perhaps triggered by some ill-fated combination of the wrong leader making the wrong choice at the wrong time.” – Neil Howe – "The Fourth Turning Is Here"
My previous two articles about this "Fourth Turning: Prophets, Nomads and a Fourth Turning Accelerating Towards a Bloody Climax" in April 2025 and "War Phase of This Fourth Turning Has Arrived" in July 2025 were progressively more pessimistic about the course of coming events, and things have proceeded along a precarious path towards our own rendezvous with destiny/tragedy. We are closing in on the 18th anniversary of the start of this Crisis epoch in September. The previous Great Depression/WWII Fourth Turning came to its climactic bloody conclusion after seventeen years, but this period of upheaval and disorder looks like it will extend into the early 2030s, just as Strauss & Howe predicted.
After rereading the prior two articles, I was shocked at how drastically the world has transformed in the space of one year and how the chief facilitator for driving events – Donald Trump – has hugely reversed his stated positions from the outset of his presidency. During the first 18 months of his 2nd term in office, Trump has done the exact opposite of what he promised and gone to war with the people most responsible for getting him elected: Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie, among others. The question is whether this was always his plan, or has he been coerced/bribed by Israel using Epstein file revelations.
At first, I was cautiously optimistic Trump had learned some hard lessons from his first term personnel debacles and the Deep State conspiracy to derail his presidency, along with the provable stealing of the 2020 election through mail-in ballot fraud, rigged voting machines, and judicial interference, resulting in the insertion of a dementia ridden basement dummy as a Potemkin president.
Trump staffed his new administration with what appeared to be loyalists, committed to revealing the truth about the Russiagate conspiracy, the 2020 stolen election, the Epstein files, FBI/CIA coup participants, the Soros/Biden/Clinton/Obama purposeful initiation and funding of the 3rd world invasion of our country to steal elections and initiate economic collapse, USAID as the funder of NGOs committed to destroying our society, the J6 Committee malfeasance, and the massive government fraud in all welfare programs at the Federal and State levels.
With Musk’s DOGE revelations and promises of $2 trillion in savings, the early months of Trump’s presidency seemed promising. He fulfilled his guarantee to shut the border and stopped the hordes of low IQ 3rd world dirtbags from invading our country and overwhelming our social welfare system. With much fanfare (and TV commercials), Kristi Noem began deporting thousands of illegals on a daily basis. Pam Bondi and Kash Patel declared they had all the Epstein files and would be releasing them in their criminal entirety.
But right-wing influencers were given binders with no new Epstein revelations in a February White House PR event. Something started to smell fishy. Trump acted like a Middle East peacemaker, with rhetoric about ending the Gaza genocide and turning it into resort for his wealthy cronies. He held multiple talks with Putin and Zelensky. It looked like ending the Ukraine war and delivering peace on earth might be his legacy.
By June, Trump’s presidency began to unravel, and he started reneging on his promises, having a major falling out with Musk over his Big Beautiful Bloated Bill, and began his infatuation with his Boss Bibi, who told him what to do and when to do it. Trump’s bombast about reducing the national debt and balancing the budget was put to the test with his first budget bill.
In my previous article I had stated it would require tremendous courage on the part of Trump and his congressional majority to institute the billions in DOGE cuts, as it is only government waste, Fed debt creation, and consumers spending money they don’t have on shit they don’t need at 20% interest provided by the Wall Street cabal, that keeps this U.S. Titanic of debt economy afloat. Cutting government spending would guarantee a recession. As expected, cowardly politicians, bought off by special interests, and driven by re-election desires, had no interest in cutting a dime of government spending."
Full article is here:
Bill Bonner, "Late to the Ponzi Party"
by Bill Bonner
‘What they’re doing with immigration is a disaster.’
- Donald Trump on the Old World
"What’s wrong with Europe? The Conversation: "In recent local elections in the United Kingdom and Australia, right-wing populism has appeared to be on the march. The most successful transformation of far-right populism in a large European country has been Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy. It won the most votes in the 2022 election and leads a right-wing coalition government. The success of the ‘right wing’ can be largely attributed to the failure of the ‘left wing.’ In preview, we believe both wings flap in dreadful harmony...both headed for the same municipal dump.
People look to government to give them something they couldn’t get on their own. The feds can enforce reasonable rules at home and provide a reasonable level of protection from foreigners. But despite claims to the contrary, they can’t make people wealthier. That was where the Europeans seem to have gone wrong. Military protection seemed unnecessary. It was either provided by the US...or not worth having. That left European politicians managing what was, in effect, a vast, compulsory insurance pool. People pay into the system. The government takes a cut and then returns the rest, according to its view of who should get what. Public housing, medical care, college educations - all are given, ‘free,’ to the people who pay for them.
One way to deliver what appears to be a good return to voters is to borrow it from them. Investors regard government bonds as assets, not liabilities. And taxpayers do not see government borrowing as what it really is – a delayed form of taxation. Thus can the feds afford to offer ‘benefits’ beyond what taxpayers believe they pay for.
That is why, led by the US, they switched to a fake money system in 1971; it permits them to borrow and ‘print’ more money. When the European Union was set up, member states agreed to a limit on deficits — a maximum of 3% of GDP. But the Euro area has exceeded the limit for many years. And the US too. America’s deficit is approaching 6% of GDP.
It is a swindle, pretending to be social contract. People don’t necessarily understand what is going on, but they feel it. And they don’t like it...so they look for alternatives, and for someone to blame. The ‘hard right’ and the ‘looney left’ both offer targets.
The two choices are similar, in the US as in Europe. Neither are honest. Neither are effective. Both transfer more and more power and money to the political authorities. Voters choose their poison. It’s Mamdani or Trump. Welfare or war. Or, both!
One of the most combustible elements of this ‘conversation’ is immigration. It condenses the fumes of material failure into a heady brew of distilled resentment. The ‘left,’ generally, wants more newcomers. They believe the new arrivals will vote for their giveaways and help keep their Ponzi health and pension programs in business. The ‘right’ wants to get rid of immigrants, believing that they steal our jobs, drain our tax revenues, and degrade our quality of life.
We thought the ‘right’ may be onto something on Sunday when three ‘immigrants’ approached as we made our way through Evreux. One folded his hand into a pistol and pretended to shoot us. It was not a serious threat, but it was unsettling. ‘Who are these people,’ we wondered; ‘What are they doing here?’
Pete Hegseth spoke to the questions when he attended this year’s 82nd anniversary of D-Day in Normandy. The iPINIONS: On Saturday, at the ceremony marking the 82nd anniversary of D-Day, Hegseth warned that European beaches are being “stormed by different dangerous ideologies.” He conjured images of men arriving by boat on the shores of Spain, Italy, Greece, and Bulgaria, then challenged Europeans to do something about that “invasion.”
Recent events have too – where immigrants have committed crimes, often on video – have gotten native mobs, in Belfast and Dublin, riled up to the point of attacking anyone who looked like he didn’t belong there. And many people think there is something at stake that goes far beyond crime or money. They believe their culture...or ‘western civilization’ itself...teeters on the edge.
This is, of course, familiar ground to US audiences. Team Trump referred to immigrants as ‘rapists and murderers.’ Politicians and influencers paint an ancient, but still lurid, picture...the dark beast, blood dripping from his teeth, the poor white maiden swooning in his arms as he intends to ravish her. They are the ‘worst of the worst,’ says Trump. Statistically, there is little proof of it. But statistics don’t stop a mob when its blood is up. More to come...including, yes, the ‘r’ word. Stay tuned."
Joel Bowman, "Old Fools, New Fools"
"Old Fools, New Fools"
by Joel Bowman
“To argue with a person who has renounced reason
is like administering medicine to the dead.”
~ Thomas Paine, "The American Crisis" (1778)
Buenos Aires, Argentina - "Every age has its dimwits, its knuckleheads and its jobbernowls. What makes our time so special? Is it simply that, thanks to the population having doubled over the past half century, more fools rolled out of bed this morning than ever did before? Is it that, through the dubious miracles of reality TV and anti-social media, the mentally impaired are able to make their nonsense heard far and wide?
Or is it more the scale and severity of the ideas themselves that take one’s breath away? To be sure, the new stupid ideas sound suspiciously like the old stupid ideas... but now they are nuclear-armed and college-miseducated, too! Take the latest trend toward so-called “democratic socialism” in the United States of America...
This is the idea, as far as we can tell, that seeks to launder the astonishing conceit of collectivist wisdom through the echoing braincases of the unwashed mobjority... so not only are voters saddled with a system that has never worked in all of human history, but they get to thank their neighbors for having forcibly imposed it upon them, too!
Piffle and Prattle: The recently published Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) party platform, printed under the snappy headline “Workers Deserve More,” reads exactly as you’d expect: like a wishlist for entitled “studies” undergrads who mostly wish to work less and receive more. Here’s a whiff of the pile, from the DSA’s super edgy, raised-fist website:
“Imagine taking a day off from work in a future without capitalism,” the dreamy fiction begins, like a marketing brochure for an eternal vacation to a marshmallow-padded utopia.
“You work as much as you are able and no more than needed, and you would control your own labor and see it going to good use. It’s not just a job to pay the bills...”
“Speaking of bills: you don’t really have them anymore.”
“You have no debt. You don’t need health insurance. You don’t pay a mortgage or have a landlord, because comfortable housing is a human right. Your retirement is publicly funded. Food, education, energy, medicine, and transportation aren’t for-profit businesses; they are common goods and utilities.”
But wait! Why stop there? While we’re typing our thought bubbles in large-font crayon and doing away with life’s less desirable aspects, let’s get rid of long lines, bad breath, poor manners and rap music, too. As for free stuff, how about unlimited concert tickets, seaside vacations and Sunday brunches? Food and energy having finally been liberated from the constraints of the physical universe, why not make everything free all the time?
Never mind that existing debts still need to be settled (an uncomfortably grown-up responsibility)... or that blithely labeling goods and services a “human right” or a “common good” does not magically conjure them into existence... or that “publicly funded” cannot mean drawing from a limitless supply of capital which, apparently, nobody actually earns anyway... because profit = bad, duh!
Why let the pesky laws of, say, supply and demand, scarcity, comparative advantage, opportunity cost, time preference, diminishing returns, marginal utility, demand elasticity, subjective value, et al. derail our blissful daydream?
Eat the Rich, Redux: To the shock of none, the DSA movement has garnered the slack-jawed, empty-headed support from all the usual suspects in the popular press...
Nordic Mythology: Naturally, the DSA comrades support all the usual “eat the rich” slogans... higher taxes for the enviably wealthy and “greedy” capitalists alike, “free” rides on already dilapidated public transport, collectively owned grocery stores and more governmental intervention in the highly dysfunctional rental markets.
This is, of course, the exact same playbook that ended in poverty, immiseration and shallow graves throughout the 20th Century, from Soviet Union and China... to the Warsaw Pact nations across Eastern Europe... along with Southeast Asian states like Vietnam, Laos, North Korea... not to mention Cuba, and the allied nations across sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. Blondes and brunettes... old and young... saints and sinners... blacks, whites and Asians too... the hammer and sickle came for them all.
“But, but, but...” comes the hoary rejoinder, “Mamdani and his fellow DemSoc travelers are not talking about Havana/Caracas/Soviet-style socialism... rather, they’re aiming more at Denmark-style socialism.” Which would be fine enough, were it not for the inconvenient fact that Denmark is not a socialist nation, as Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen was at great pains to note in a direct response to Bernie Sanders continued mischaracterization of his country and its people during the 2020 election.
“I would like to make one thing clear,” Prime Minister Rasmussen said in a speech at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. “Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy. “[Denmark] is a successful market economy with much freedom to pursue your dreams and live your life as you wish.”
Old Fools, New Fools: Like its Nordic neighbors, Denmark is able to sustain generous welfare programs – universal healthcare, public education, etc. – because of its dynamic, competitive, highly functional capitalist economy. It is not the way it spends its money that makes it rich, in other words, but the way it generates it in the first place.
Denmark also happens to be a high trust society, something that cannot exactly be said of the mean streets of many a Democrat-run city in the US, where crime is rampant, baby formula lives behind plexiglass and stealing up to $950 of goods is considered by a growing demographic to be just a new and fashionable way of shopping, because private property is oppression (except for the person stealing it, obvs.)
Central planning, price controls, and collective ownership at home. Capital controls, currency manipulation and inglorious wars of pomp and vanity abroad. Many of the prescriptions of yesterday’s ruling class were pure, unadulterated nincompoopery from the outset. But they had yet to be dragged through the chambers of Congress... made to fail spectacularly in the real economy... and definitively routed on the field of battle. At least the old fools had an excuse, albeit a flimsy one. Many of their dumb ideas were, in part, new dumb ideas. What have the new fools to say for themselves?" Stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World...
"People Are Quietly Giving Up on America - And It’s Getting Hard to Ignore"
Full screen recommended.
Across the States, 7/23/26
"People Are Quietly Giving Up on America -
And It’s Getting Hard to Ignore"
"Why are record numbers of Americans considering leaving the United States? Rising healthcare costs, expensive housing, inflation, job insecurity, and quality-of-life concerns are changing how many people think about their future. In this video, we break down the latest trends, key data, and the reasons why more U.S. professionals and families are exploring life abroad. Here’s the thing… this conversation goes far beyond politics. We examine how increasing living expenses, medical bills, housing affordability, employment challenges, public safety concerns, and migration trends are influencing long-term decisions. You'll also learn why some skilled workers are relocating to countries that offer different healthcare, education, and social systems. What most people don't realize is that these choices are often driven by a combination of financial pressure and lifestyle priorities. We look at recent surveys, economic indicators, and real-world examples to understand why this topic has gained so much attention. The reality is that every family weighs these decisions differently. Watch the full video for a balanced look at the data, the debate, and what these changing trends could mean for the future of America."
Comments here:
Adventures With Danno, "'One Dollar' Items Are Back At Meijer"
Adventures With Danno, 7/23/26
"'One Dollar' Items Are Back At Meijer"
Comments here:
Wednesday, July 22, 2026
Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Endless Horizon"
Full screen recommended.
Deuter, "Endless Horizon"
○
"I cannot paint
What then I was. The sounding cataract
Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,
The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colors and their forms, were then to me
An appetite; a feeling and a love,
That had no need of a remoter charm,
By thought supplied, not any interest
Unborrowed from the eye.
That time is past,
And all its aching joys are now no more,
And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this
Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur: other gifts
Have followed; for such loss, I would believe,
Abundant recompense.
For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue."
- William Wordsworth,
"Lines Written A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey"
Musical Interlude: Rudi en Corlea, "Hoor Jy My Stem"
Rudi en Corlea, "Hoor Jy My Stem"
"Haunting song by South Africans Rudi Claase
and Corlea Botha, sung in Afrikaans with English subtitles."
o
“For Those Who Have Died”
“Eleh Ezkerah” (“These We Remember”)
"Tis a fearful thing
to love
what death can touch.
To love, to hope, to dream,
and oh, to lose.
A thing for fools, this,
love,
but a holy thing,
to love what death can touch.
For your life has lived in me;
Your laugh once lifted me;
Your word was a gift to me.
To remember this brings painful joy.
‘Tis a human thing, love,
a holy thing,
to love
what death can touch."
- Rabbi Chaim Stern
Love is eternal,
And we shall meet again...
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Far beyond the local group of galaxies lies NGC 3621, some 22 million light-years away. Found in the multi-headed southern constellation Hydra, the winding spiral arms of this gorgeous island universe are loaded with luminous young star clusters and dark dust lanes. Still, for earthbound astronomers NGC 3621 is not just another pretty face-on spiral galaxy. Some of its brighter stars have been used as standard candles to establish important estimates of extragalactic distances and the scale of the Universe.
This beautiful image of NGC 3621 traces the loose spiral arms far from the galaxy's brighter central regions that span some 100,000 light-years. Spiky foreground stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy and even more distant background galaxies are scattered across the colorful skyscape.”
"Do Your Best..."
"Do as little harm to others as you can; make any sacrifice for your true friends; be responsible for yourself and ask nothing of others; and grab all the fun you can. Don't give much thought to yesterday, don't worry about tomorrow, live in the moment, and trust that your existence has meaning even when the world seems to be all blind chance and chaos. When life lands a hammer blow in your face, do your best to respond to the hammer as if it had been a cream pie."
- Dean Koontz
The Poet: Anne Sexton, "Courage"
"Courage"
"It is in the small things we see it.
The child's first step,
as awesome as an earthquake.
The first time you rode a bike,
wallowing up the sidewalk.
The first spanking when your heart
went on a journey all alone.
When they called you crybaby
or poor or fatty or crazy
and made you into an alien,
you drank their acid
and concealed it.
Later,
if you faced the death of bombs and bullets
you did not do it with a banner,
you did it with only a hat to
cover your heart.
You did not fondle the weakness inside you
though it was there.
Your courage was a small coal
that you kept swallowing.
If your buddy saved you
and died himself in so doing,
then his courage was not courage,
it was love; love as simple as shaving soap.
Later,
if you have endured a great despair,
then you did it alone,
getting a transfusion from the fire,
picking the scabs off your heart,
then wringing it out like a sock.
Next, my kinsman, you powdered your sorrow,
you gave it a back rub
and then you covered it with a blanket
and after it had slept a while
it woke to the wings of the roses
and was transformed.
Later,
when you face old age and its natural conclusion
your courage will still be shown in the little ways,
each spring will be a sword you'll sharpen,
those you love will live in a fever of love,
and you'll bargain with the calendar
and at the last moment
when death opens the back door
you'll put on your carpet slippers
and stride out."
~ Anne Sexton
"Distractions, Pascal, And Postman"
"Distractions, Pascal, And Postman"
by John Wilder
“This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.”
– Fight Club
"Distractions. Blaise Pascal wrote about them in his book "Pensées," which is French and means “reflections” and is pronounced “Hamwich” because the French never properly figured out that sounds in words should be connected in some fashion to the letters used.
Pascal was a mathematician, a physicist, and invented the laptop computer, which was initially a plank of wood. In reality, he did some of the foundational work that showed that atmospheric pressure varied with altitude, even has a unit named after him. Pascal was also a philosopher, and thought a whole bunch about Christianity. This was back before the “let’s get a cappuccino and listen to Pastor Dave talk about why God wants lesbian ministers” type of church, and instead when there were debates on how salvation occurred and if free will was a thing.
Pascal wrote: “Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries. Yet, it is, itself, the greatest of our miseries.” And, although he’s dead, Pascal was entirely correct. We see it all around us right now.
Distraction is seductive. I remember we were on a family vacation and stopped at a Denny’s® to get breakfast. There was a line, and about 30 people (mainly families) were waiting. As I looked, every eye was focused on a phone – 30 people sitting next to each other, yet distracted by whatever it was that they were looking at. They had escaped reality, and also escaped talking to each other, almost as if they were addicted to the distractions coming to them over their iPhones®.
In reality, many of them probably are technically addicted to those phones. Much of the internet, even back then, was built on the premise of stimulating dopamine to create engagement with the phone, and not with the world surrounding us. Were those people worried about their bills, their jobs, or their immortal soul? Nah. They were distracted by flappy bird games or Faceborg™ or InstaChat©. They were allowing the moments of their lives to drain away into that sea of distraction rather than confront reality.
They did have bills. Their jobs sucked. Their immortal soul was in peril. But that’s difficult to think about, so it’s much easier to look at pretty colors and cat videos for ten seconds before flipping to the next infotainment bite. The distraction was total.
Is it any wonder that coping skills have been drastically impacted in the generation raised on the distraction of phones? Kids can’t cope because they’re never forced to confront themselves until the stakes are high. This creates a group of victims. I hate victims. A lot. They’re whiney and they suck every bit of energy out of the room, like psychic vampires. Oh, wait, I just described "The View." Huh.
Absolutely, there are people who are in situations that are far beyond their control. And, absolutely there are people who don’t deserve what fate has given them. However, when I look at people who have self-control, who have looked fate in the eye and said, “Yeah, so what? I’m still standing here, chump,” I feel admiration.
Neil Postman was a professor and writer, but then he died. Perhaps his best-known work is "Amusing Ourselves to Death," written in 1985. The Mrs. introduced me to it not long after we met, and I knew she was a keeper. In it, Postman talks about the impact of amusement. Amusement is close enough to distraction for our purposes and both Postman and Pascal are dead, so they can’t put up too much of a fight.
Again, Postman wrote about this in 1985, well before the every distraction, every place, all at once monster of the smartphone appeared. In it, Postman identified television as a drug. If so, it’s a gateway drug like aspirin, and the Internet is heroin.
Part of distraction is that it discourages the formation of complete thoughts. I think at least partially that’s part of the inspiration for this place, since I want to create and bring forth ideas that people might not think about, or might have forgotten in all frenzy of flashing lights, free porn, and distractions of Instabook© and Facegram™.
It’s a world where, “Excuse me, I’m talking” becomes a replacement for actual thought and people thinking deeply about issues like old Pascal becomes rarer and rarer. A side effect is that the information we get becomes information we can’t take action on. Want to complain to your congressman? How would you even contact them? How would you get their attention? Hell, getting the attention of an HOA is nearly impossible in some subdivisions. Instead, you’ll complain to your neighbor.
Worse, though, is the impact that’s happening to our youth. The lesson that bad crap is going to happen to them so they need to learn deal with it simply isn’t taught because they just distract themselves away from the Truth they don’t want to consider. It’s not their fault – their brain is optimized to live in villages, and we distract them with the hardest hitting drug in history: the smartphone.
Failure is an option. And failure is a teacher, but when the teacher is fired and replaced with social media? The lesson is muted or ignored. How did Pascal manage to deal with being a religious philosopher, a mathematician, and a physicist? I guess Pascal was good at avoiding distraction and dealing with pressure."
And so we have this...
"The Millennial Job Interview"
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