[John Day]

​Who gets to control the narrative machines? Trump Wants To Revoke Broadcast Licenses Of Networks That Didn’t Air His Election Meddling Speech https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/trump-wants-revoke-broadcast-licenses-networks-didnt-air-his-election-interference-speech

​ The Supreme Court’s AI Collision Course​
Imagine a tight House race in a swing state. In the final weeks of the campaign, a new super PAC begins spending heavily against the incumbent. It runs ads on local television and reaches individual voters with highly tailored texts. The messaging is hard-hitting and seems to be swaying the electorate. None of it traces back to the opposing campaign…​.
.The super PAC is funded by a single LLC whose donor cannot be identified, and its spending decisions are being made by an AI agent that has been given a budget and a political objective and is now operating without any meaningful human direction. The “consultants” placing the ads are software. The text messages were crafted by the AI.
​ This is not a hypothetical we will face in some distant future. The technology already exists. A wealthy person, foreign government, or corporation that wants to influence an election without ever exposing themselves to scrutiny could set up such a campaign operation today. And under the Supreme Court’s current campaign finance doctrine, the states and Congress may have little power to stop it…​
..The constitutional doctrine that currently protects the right of these companies to spend millions in our elections is the same doctrine that will be asked to protect something even stranger: The “speech” of artificial intelligence itself.​ https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/supreme-courts-ai-collision-course

Flock Safety Defends Cameras After AI System Triggers Wrongful Police Stops Of Two Journalists​ https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/flock-safety-defends-cameras-after-ai-system-triggers-wrongful-police-stops-two

“Just The Beginning”: Japan Buys Billions In Nvidia Rubin Chips To Power Humanoid Robots​ https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/just-beginning-japan-plays-24-billion-nvidia-rubin-chip-bet-power-humanoid-robots

Humanoid Loses Its Head In World’s First Full-Size Robot Combat Tournament… And Keeps Fighting​ https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/humanoid-robot-loses-its-head-worlds-first-full-size-robot-combat-tournament-and-keeps-fighting

[John Day]

The war must go on: NATO plans for no endgame​ – Long-term military support for Ukraine has become a routine policy, showing Brussels and Washington don’t see peace as an option​ https://web.archive.org/web/20260717165752/https://www.rt.com/news/643181-nato-ukraine-no-endgame/

​ Gilbert Doctorow on the inexorable pressure upon Russia to militarily escalate against Europe, Crimea – the new war zone
In my latest interviews and essays, I have made reference to the 3-hour international teleconference hosted by Russian staff based in Vienna who report to Sergei Lavrov at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Their conference was intended to raise international awareness of the ‘terror attacks’ that Ukraine is directing against the civilian population of the Kherson region, which is one of the 4 oblasts incorporated into the Russian Federation via referenda held in September 2022. The main speakers in this Zoom teleconference were the governor of Kherson oblast, leading doctors and victims of kamikazi drones and land mines laid by Ukrainian drones. We were told that the Ukrainian attacks have resulted in all electricity being cut off in the oblast and to generally unsupportable living conditions.
​ This conference was entirely in line with the collection of evidence by the Russian investigative authorities regarding Ukrainian war crimes, as if there will be a kind of Nuremberg trial when the conflict ends in Russian victory. It is surely also intended to show the broad Russian public that its government is DOING SOMETHINHG about the marauding Ukrainians. However, it seems not to have occurred to the organizers that what they were saying and presenting indicates clearly that Russia is losing the war notwithstanding the advance of its troops along the line of confrontation in Donetsk…
..Now I write to add to this picture what I have just learned from a 20-minute phone conversation with Petersburg friends who made it back home today after a grueling and very nervous trip that began in Feodosia, on the east coast of Crimea, where they have a tiny house on a hill overlooking the town where they have spent summers for the last 20 years.
​ This couple had planned to stay in Crimea until September, as was their custom, but the near total halt to gasolene sales due to Ukrainian destruction of refineries and storage tanks serving Crimea left them high and dry on the hill since local drivers who took them around in the past now had no fuel. So they were left without the possibility to get down to the town for provisions… Moreover, Yevpatoriya is one of the several municipalities in Crimea that has daily blackouts: the electricity has been cut by drone attacks on substations.​..
​ Under these circumstances, our friends were very lucky to procure train tickets to get out thanks to their advanced age, which gave them priority.​.. At the train station in Feodosia hundreds of Russian summer visitors were desperately trying to get out. And once our friends got their seats on the train provided to them out of solicitude for old pensioners, they were lucky that their train made it across the Kerch bridge to mainland Russia without delays. I say that because the parallel automobile bridge has in recent days seen suspension of traffic for 12 hours or more at a time…
..But once across the bridge, the challenges facing our Petersburg friends did not end. As they approached the city of Krasnodar, a major agricultural hub to the northeast, their train came under constant and insistent drone attacks. Fortunately, the train crew was prepared to counter the drones, probably with small arms. And so they escaped from this threat and moved on into central Russia and eventually to Petersburg.
​ The point of this story is that today Crimea is a war zone. What Vladimir Putin achieved with the liberation of Crimea in March 2014 is now being lost by the latest phase of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.​ https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/crimea-the-new-war-zone

​ They couldn’t re-tool old machines to make re-designed shells, nor wait for new machines: New $500M Artillery Shell Plant Failed To Produce Any 155mm Parts – A scathing new Pentagon Inspector General report found problems at the plant delayed the Army’s 100,000 round-per-month goal. https://www.twz.com/land/new-500m-artillery-shell-plant-failed-to-produce-any-155mm-parts

Alex Krainer has lived in reality. “Natural monopolies” should be public. It’s old news: Is private enterprise best?
Western free market ideology says, yes; but empirical evidence and real life experience says, no. Private enterprise often destroys value rather than create it.
​ At the very least, real-life experience suggests that not all private enterprises are superior, nor are all state-run enterprises inferior. In the past, I shared the experience with the trash collection services in Croatia. During the socialist era, trash collection was run by state companies, and our towns and cities were clean and orderly. I remember that many foreign visitors would remark how our cities were remarkably clean, and they really were.
​ But then, in the early 2000s, the service was privatized and the magic of private, free market capitalism took effect. Today, trash collection is much more expensive than before, private owners reduced the number of collection points, forcing everybody to carry their trash farther (effectively working for trash collectors for free), and the cherry on top is that our cities are no longer clean and orderly.​..
​..Earlier this week, Thames Water, Britain’s largest water utility company, disclosed that they were about to run out of money and their annual results showed that they’re £18.5 billion in debt. The independent online news publication, OffGuardian, appropriately commented:
​ “You are a monopoly. You are selling something literally everyone needs for literally everything they do literally every day and that falls from the sky for FREE. How in the hell are you not making money?”
​ To make the very long story short, Thames Water was privatized in 2006. It was acquired for about £8 billion by an investment consortium led by the Australian merchant bank Macquarie. The following year, Thames Water made £241 million in profits. So far, so good – yay, free market capitalism! But the new owners paid themselves £656 million in dividends in 2007, nearly triple the profits the company earned. Thames Water continued to pay its owners over £200 million in dividends every year for seven consecutive years.
​ When it was privatized in 2006, Thames River had zero debt, but already in the first year under its new owners, the company’s debt load went to £3.4 billion. By 2017 it soared to £10.8 billion and by 2026, as we saw, to £18.5 billion… It’s a neat business – a legalized, open-ended looting operation.​..
“..During the 11 years in which our funds were shareholders in Thames Water, we oversaw the largest investment programme in the company’s history and the highest rate of investment per customer in the industry.”
​ Whatever this ​”largest investment programme, highest per customer in the industry​” was, it was NOT done to improve the service it provides to its customers. To the contrary, in private ownership, Thames River service deteriorated spectacularly. Macquarie was perfectly aware of this, and knew to get out just in time.​..
..In the four years after Macquarie’s exit, Thames River was fined £32.4 million for 11 water pollution cases involving recurring spills of untreated sewage into streams, rivers and the sea. Thames Water wasn’t the only private utility polluting Britain either: between 2015 and the 2023, there were 59 prosecutions of water companies in England.​..
..One of the first things Thames River’s owners did after they acquired the company was to set up offshore subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands. This is not normally required to improve water treatment service for customers in England. What it does do, however, is facilitate large-scale looting of public wealth and money laundering. Even Thames River employee pension scheme wasn’t spared: in 2008, the company’s pension fund had a £26.1m surplus. By 2015, it was £260 million in deficit.​ https://alexkrainer.substack.com/p/is-private-enterprise-best

[John Day]

​ EU to strip draft age Ukrainians of refugee protection​ – Military-age newcomers must prove compliance with Kiev’s mobilization rules under the new scheme​ https://web.archive.org/web/20260716052407/https://www.rt.com/news/643091-eu-ukraine-men-protection/

Make ​Russia Nuke Germany & France? Germany To Join French Nuclear Exercise, Deepening ‘Counter-Russia’ Deterrence​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/germany-join-french-nuclear-exercise-deepening-counter-russia-deterrence

​ Zelensky ‘wants civilian deaths’ – Ukrainian spy​ – Kiev was allegedly plotting a terrorist attack that would overshadow the Moscow Crocus City Hall massacre​ https://web.archive.org/web/20260716075814/https://www.rt.com/news/643114-zelensky-wants-civilian-deaths/

[John Day]

​ Thursday 7/16/26, Simplicius, Political Crisis in Kiev as Shrinking Zelensky Ousts Popular Defense Minister
By all appearances, the winds of revolution are stirring through Ukraine.
​ Large crowds have gathered in protest of President Zelensky for his decision to remove the popular Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
Since his appointment early this year, Fedorov was said to have been instrumental in fighting corruption and transforming the AFU into even more of a technologically dominant force.
​ At only 35 years of age, Fedorov was young, dashing, intelligent, energetic, and because of these things, posed a direct threat to Zelensky who, rumor had it, feared that Fedorov was gearing up to eventually vie for the presidency himself.
​ But the main reasons Fedorov was dismissed was reportedly over a loggerheads with Syrsky, who himself told Zelensky in no uncertain terms that it was either “me or him”.
​ In short, Syrsky made Zelensky choose between the two all because Fedorov had criticized Syrsky and wanted him removed. Perhaps even more importantly, Fedorov was fighting to stop the massive grift in the Defense Ministry, which was a big no-no as the “senior officials” making a killing off of military contracts had essentially turned it into a mob and did not want anyone cutting off their tap of Western funds.​ https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/political-crisis-in-kiev-as-shrinking

​Also Thursday, July 16, Moon of Alabama, Another Anti-Western Coup In Kiev
Today, in addition to another barrage of Russia missiles, Kiev was also struck by a power struggle between the mafia like ‘family’ around acting president Vladimir Zelensky and the western financed ‘grant structures’ around the unconstitutional anti-corruption authorities.
Six month ago Zelensky installed the 35-year old Mykhailo Fedorov as Minister of Defense. Last night, under the guise of a larger cabinet reform, he fired him.
Fedorov is a tech savvy ‘silicon valley’ guy who knows how to promote himself. His job was to reform the draft system and the recruitment offices known for snatching people off the street to feed them as cannon fodder into the assault brigades of the Soviet-trained Commander in Chief General Alexander Syrsky (‘the best general the Russians have’).
Fedorov set out to modernize the Ukrainian army by hyping drone warfare and more effective procurement. This however led to resistance from two important constituencies.
The regular military despised Fedorov for his lack of knowledge about military affairs. Fedorov bought fancy ‘cyber’ weapons and long-range drones while the soldiers said their needs were elsewhere.
Those of the Zelensky ‘family’ who were making billions from military procurements were aghast when Fedorov started to cut into their business…
..Meanwhile the core job Fedorov was hired to do, the reform of the recruiting system, has made zero progress. Public attacks on recruitment officers and news of draftees dying during the drafting process appear nearly daily.
​ Fedorov had gained some prominence with western journalist and ‘grant structures’ aligned with EU and U.S. non-government organizations. As soon as it was known that he would be fired they called for demonstrations. This morning a few dozen people turned out for another ‘cardboard Maidan’.
​ Immediately recruitment officers appeared to check who of those protesters were eligible for military service.
​ Fedorov has made the big mistake to think that the war should be about winning against Russia. https://www.moonofalabama.org/2026/07/another-anti-western-coup-in-kiev.html

Friday, July 16, Zelensky’s Cabinet Reshuffle Backfiring As He Names New Defense Minister
Amid a continuing status of martial law in Ukraine, one European headline underscores that President Zelensky’s significant cabinet and defense ministry reshuffling has ‘backfired’.
​ Public outrage and rare protests have ensued in the capital and across various cities after he sacked popular Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who many Ukrainians see as having turned the tide of the war with Russia, implementing an ambitious tech-focused drone strategy.​
​ Zelensky has now confirmed the dismissal by appointing Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) chief Yevhen Khmara as acting defense minister.
..Chief Foreign-Affairs Correspondent of the WSJ, Yaroslav Trofimov, has pointed out that “Many Ukrainians (and not just Ukrainians) see this as Zelensky putting petty politics ahead of winning the war.” If the protests grow rapidly, it could cause Zelensky’s external supporters to sour on him.​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/zelenskys-cabinet-reshuffle-backfiring-he-names-new-defense-minister

Moon of Alabama, Economist: Let’s Start A War To Get Europeans Used To It
The Economist, the British media outlet of the Rothschild banker clan, has long been pushing for war against Russia.
​ It is troubled though, because the population of (west-)Europe has no interest to die for those who profit from such conflicts.
Various surveys in Europe have found that people have no interest in ‘defending their country’, when that ‘defense’ is proposed to happen on the east side of the Dnieper river.
​ The editors have thus invited a U.S.-financed scholar to provide ideas on how the Europeans can be enticed to war.
Nathalie Tocci, a James Anderson Professor of the Practice at the John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies Europe, took up the invitation (archived):
​ “EUROPEAN LEADERS understand that conflict is closer than ever—hence the sharp rise in defence budgets, as showcased at NATO’s recent summit in Ankara.​
​ Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, European leaders have often expressed awe at Ukrainian resilience. But there is something else behind Europeans’ amazement: fear that they may not show the same resolve. This is not because of some inherent courage in Ukrainians which Europeans lack. It boils down to the fundamentally different ​”
Mrs. Tocci’s answer, as we will see, is “no!”​ …
​..What, exactly, Mrs. Tocci, is the “benefit” of having ones brethren killed?
​ “Were European soldiers to be stationed in Ukraine, it would bring reality closer to home. And perhaps a fraction of Ukraine’s courage, humility and creativity could infect other European societies. European troops would not be put in harm’s way out of sheer generosity, but to help prepare for war—and prevent it from spilling into the rest of the continent.​”
​ Oh – sending German, French and Italian soldiers to Ukraine to kill Russian’s would “perhaps” bring a “reality”, which today does not exist, home? It would prevent the war “from spilling into the rest of Europe”?
​ So German, French, Italian soldiers sent to kill Russia soldiers in Ukraine would deter, not provoke, Russia from sending Oreshniks, or even larger nuclear missiles, to Berlin, Paris or Rome? (If you believe that please contact Mrs. Tocci’s sponsor.)
​ That would, obviously, not be the case.
But to prevent a larger European war is, as Mrs. Tocci writes ‘on invitation’ by The Economist, not the real aim of such an endeavor.
​ Her concern is to “encouraging citizens to develop a mindset that would better prepare them for war”. To do so, she says, we should provoke a war that is guaranteed to engulf us all.​ https://www.moonofalabama.org/2026/07/economist-lets-start-a-war-to-get-people-used-to-it.html

​Andrew Korybko on the next-door neighbors’ feelings, Nearly Half Of Poles Now Want To Stop Arming Ukraine https://korybko.substack.com/p/nearly-half-of-poles-now-want-to

[John Day]

Israel keeps killing in Gaza as it polishes its reputation in US – Daily Update​ https://israelpalestinenews.org/israel-keeps-killing-in-gaza-as-it-polishes-its-reputation-in-us-daily-update/

​ Israel advances crocodile plan to stop Palestinian prisoners escaping
Government removes legal protections for Nile crocodiles as Ben Gvir pushes for detention compound ringed by reptiles​ https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-advances-crocodile-prison-plan-palestinian-prisoners

​ Saudis Cleared To Buy A Whopping 20,000 Laser-Guided Rockets
The Saudis are clearly arming themselves to defend against a massive number of drones in future conflicts.​ https://www.twz.com/air/saudis-cleared-to-buy-a-whopping-20000-laser-guided-rockets

Russia Pressing Ahead On Rail Link To Iran & Azerbaijan To Ease Strain On Maritime Routes​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-pressing-ahead-rail-link-iran-azerbaijan-ease-strain-maritime-routes

Bromance Breaks Out Between “Man of Peace” Trump And Azerbaijani President​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/bromance-breaks-out-between-man-peace-trump-and-azerbaijani-president

[John Day]

​ Warnings grow over sick Palestinian women prisoners in Damon Prison
Fatima Saed Youssef, 34, is among the most serious cases in the prison. She suffers from hepatitis C, in addition to a severe infection at the site of a surgery she underwent before her arrest.
​ Youssef has also lost around 22 kilograms within a few months of her detention, raising growing fears that her health could deteriorate further due to continued medical neglect.
​ The AMO said Fatima’s suffering is not limited to her illness, noting that her six children are being deprived of their mother. Her family also lacks accurate information about the level of medical care she is receiving inside the prison because of restrictions on visits and communication.​ https://english.palinfo.com/news/2026/07/15/366715/

The West Won’t Punish The Settlements. Its Two-State Solution Was Always a Sham​ https://scheerpost.com/2026/07/15/the-west-wont-punish-the-settlements-its-two-state-solution-was-always-a-sham/

​ Jewish settler runs over six-year-old Palestinian child in al-Khalil
According to the sources, the settler fled the scene following the incident. Palestine Red Crescent Society ambulance crews transported the child to a hospital for medical treatment.​ https://english.palinfo.com/news/2026/07/16/366719/

Israel’s prevention of Palestinians from returning to Gaza entrenches forced displacement​ https://english.palinfo.com/news/2026/07/15/366690/

​ Israeli occupation forces on Wednesday uprooted nearly 40 centenary olive trees in the village of Zabuba, west of the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, according to a local source.​ Zaki Jardat, head of the Zabuba Village Council, reported that the occupation forces escorted bulldozers near the villagers’ homes, where the heavy machineries razed approximately two- dunum land plot and uprooted nearly 40 decades-old olive trees.​ https://english-wafa-ps.translate.goog/Pages/Details/172665?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

[John Day]

​ ‘Go to Hell’: JD Vance Accuses Israeli Officials of Trying to Prolong Iran War
“There are some people within their system, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt, who are manipulating and trying to change American public opinion to keep the war going on indefinitely,” Vance said.
​ He argued that those involved were not advocating continued military action in pursuit of a clearly defined objective, but were instead seeking to prolong the war without an endpoint…
​..Vance referred to reporting suggesting that some of those funds had reached online influencers who later attacked him and the ceasefire agreement.
​ “When I open up the pages of Time magazine and I see that there’s a literal foreign influence campaign being funded to tank the very deal that I was pursuing, and, oh by the way, many of the people who were receiving that money were actually attacking me in completely dishonest ways, my response to that is: ‘Well, go to hell,’” he said.
​ “I’m going to do what I have to do for the American people. I represent Americans first,” Vance added.​..​
​..Vance’s unusually sharp comments suggest that the disagreement is no longer being contained behind closed doors and has instead developed into a public struggle over US policy, Israeli influence and the future direction of the war.​ https://www.palestinechronicle.com/go-to-hell-jd-vance-accuses-israeli-officials-of-trying-to-prolong-iran-war/

​ ‘Palestine is disappearing’: Church backs genocide report despite Chief Rabbi’s bid to block debate
A detailed Palestinian Christian report documenting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and Israel’s apartheid system will be discussed across the Church of England after its General Synod overwhelmingly backed engagement with the document, despite warnings from pro-Israel groups, including Britain’s chief rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis.​ The Synod voted to stand in solidarity with Palestinian Christians and their fellow Palestinians.​ https://israelpalestinenews.org/palestine-is-disappearing-church-backs-genocide-report-despite-chief-rabbis-bid-to-block-debate/

​ ‘They want to break our will’: Gaza flotilla activist tells of rape in Israeli detention
Anna Liedtke files criminal complaint in Israel over alleged attack by female guards and says abuse was intended to silence campaigners​ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/15/gaza-flotilla-activist-rape-complaint-israel-anna-liedtke

Family Wiped Out, Police Targeted: Israel’s Genocide Claims 16 More Lives​ https://israelpalestinenews.org/family-wiped-out-police-targeted-israels-genocide-claims-16-more-lives/

​ Dead or Detained? Families in Gaza Search for Their Loved Ones
With over 9,500 missing in Gaza, Palestinians search for family members under the rubble, in the “numbered graves cemetery,” or in Israeli prisons.​ https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/missing-unidentified-gaza-dead-detained-numbers-cemetery

[John Day]

​ Gold & Geopolitics,​ Daily digest: 2026-07-17
The Iran war went vertical overnight: a sixth straight night of US strikes moved openly onto Iranian bridges, railways and a civilian airport, and Iran answered by hitting five Gulf states at once — Bahrain’s BAPCO refinery burning, the King Fahd Causeway struck, Al Udeid in Qatar targeted. The financial tell shifted from Korea to Japan, with the Nikkei entering a technical correction and the memory/AI complex leading a global risk-off. Meanwhile Kostiantynivka has fallen and Kyiv’s government is eating itself over the ​(Defense Minister) Fedorov sacking.​ https://no1sdailydigest.substack.com/p/daily-digest-2026-07-17

​ State Department Issues “Worldwide Caution” As US-Iran Tit-For-Tat Spirals Into Regional Crisis
CENTCOM says two US troops killed in Iranian attack on Jordan base.
​ Iran formally suspends MoU with the US, declaring agreement is over & commitments will no longer be fulfilled.
US strikes disrupt southern Iran’s telecom network, knocking out 116 communication towers amid new infrastructure war.
​ Iran pounds Kuwait’s energy infrastructure, damaging power & desalination facilities.​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/kuwait-pounded-iranian-barrage-oil-and-desalination-plants-come-under-attack

​ Al-Tanf moderate-terrorist training center: IRGC Targets US Command Center In Syria In Unprecedented Attack
Iran’s large-scale ‘retaliation’ on US bases and Gulf states overnight included a rare first if confirmed. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it conducted a missile or drone attack on an American special operations command center at al-Tanf in Syria on Friday.​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/irgc-targets-us-command-center-syria-unprecedented-attack

​ Israel And The United States Are Merging Their Militaries. Here’s Why.
In June 2026, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu wrote to Republican Representative Marlin Stutzman of California, saying that “the time has now arrived [for Israel] to move from aid recipient to partner” with the United States. Yesterday, on Fox News, Netanyahu again repeated the proposal to move “from aid to partnership“.
​ What Netanyahu proclaims is at the core of the proposed “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative”, which has been included in a section of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that seeks to push the Pentagon budget to $1.5 trillion in 2027. This proposal to the annual military policy bill aims to essentially merge the Israeli and the US militaries.
​ While the initial bill, the “United States-Israel FUTURES Act,” failed as a standalone bill, the core provisions have been included in the NDAA. This aims to “expand and accelerate bilateral defense technology research, development, testing, evaluation, integration, and industrial cooperation” between the US and Israel, led by an “executive agent” decided by the US Defense Secretary.
​ This merger would integrate the United States and Israeli occupation militarily, including “data fusion”, “network integration”, research and development, weapons and bio-manufacturing, and collaboration with AI, cyber, and quantum machine learning technologies. While the Israeli occupation forces and US military are already deeply connected and share many of their genocidal tactics, this represents a significant entanglement of the two most belligerent and murderous militaries in the world.​ If passed, this would be the most integrated the United States is with any country on earth.​..
..In this case, the merger will deepen ruptures across the political, social, and economic system as the United States moves closer to its proxy. The main beneficiaries of this will be the weapons companies that profited immensely from and have made Israel’s genocide in Gaza possible, as they enter into new seamless contracts.
​ Israel is increasingly viewed across the world, and within the United States, as a pariah state. In the US, 60% of adults have an unfavourable view of Israel. This push to further integrate with Israel puts the US on the line in an attempt to ensure the continuation and longevity of the settler colonial project. By entrenching the US military with Israel’s own, it provides a layer of protection that goes even further than the impunity that has given Israel full rein to commit a holocaust in Gaza and further colonisation of the occupied West Bank. This integration will mean that Israel is given unfettered support to carry out its genocidal trajectory for the total colonisation of Palestine, inhibiting any future presidents from changing this relationship​…
..This is a clear response to the massive movements that have erupted across the world for nearly three years in opposing Israel’s genocide and the role of countries in facilitating it. The US is, in a way, absorbing Israel to provide the legitimacy being chipped away at internationally and domestically, ending the narrative opposition to unlimited foreign aid to Israel, which has garnered bipartisan support…
​ This NDAA is dangerous. Through the US-Israeli integration, it would facilitate more deadly technology, more weapons for genocide, and make it nearly impossible to sever support for Israel by the US.​ https://scheerpost.com/2026/07/15/israel-and-the-united-states-are-merging-their-militaries-heres-why/

Flashback: US game plan on Iran written in Tel Aviv, claim Israeli insiders​ https://israelpalestinenews.org/flashback-us-game-plan-on-iran-written-in-tel-aviv-claim-israeli-insiders/

[John Day]

Meryl Nass MD posted this, 2 things: having and treating cyclosporiasis, and what might be the end game of the recent uptick in the Iran War
After Pepe (Escobar) spoke eruditely for 30 minutes, he finally got to the bottom line: what does this all mean?
​ He says, and this makes sense to me too, that the only plausible explanation for what Trump is doing is that those who control Trump have a potential plan to bring on the Great Reset. And since they control how it will go down, they can profit as it happens.
Pepe says (my transcription):
​ “This is not a conspiracy theory. I heard this same possibility of discussion from well placed, anonymous sources. It is a calculated implosion of the global economy. ‘Let’s blow it all up.’ As our last measure, because it [things] won’t get better. Of course we can profit. We can zero out our foreign debt. We can restart all over again.’ So this would be the new meaning of the Great Reset. This is the only plausible, logical, rational explanation….”​ https://merylnass.substack.com/p/2-things-having-and-treating-cyclosporiasis

​ Caitlin Johnstone on deep state weaponization of the New Red-Scare: They’re Launching A New COINTELPRO For The 21st Century
The Trump administration has announced a renewed crusade against “far-left terrorism,” which sounds okay if you don’t know that the word “terrorism” only ever means “behavior which goes against the agendas of the western empire.”
​ The United States has for example placed sanctions on UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese for calling attention to Israeli atrocities in Gaza, justifying the move by claiming the human rights expert has “expressed support for terrorism”. In the UK, police have been arresting people on terrorism charges just for holding signs which say “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”.
​ The designation has nothing to do with actual acts of terrorism as the average westerner conceives of that notion. In 2024 the US government removed its $10 million bounty on former Al Qaeda leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (AKA Abu Mohammad al-Jolani) because he facilitated Washington’s regime change agendas in Syria, where he is now the sitting president.​ https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/theyre-launching-a-new-cointelpro

​Simplicius on US looking for suckers to invade Iran: Speculations Over Ground Campaign into Iran Again Heat Up as US Moves to “Isolate” Coastal Zone https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/speculations-over-ground-campaign

Larry Johnson, China’s Beidou Satellite System is a Game Changer in Iran’s War with the US
Hat tip to Kevin Wamsley of Inside China Business. His recent video explaining the importance of China’s Beidou satellite navigation system provides a critical insight into the current success of Iran’s missile strikes on US and Israeli targets. It is a game changer.
​ Let me summarize it. During the 12-day war in June 2025, Iranian missiles and drones struggled against sophisticated Israeli and American electronic warfare. GPS jamming and spoofing repeatedly disrupted their guidance systems, limiting their effectiveness during the intense 12-day conflict. Fast-forward to early 2026, and the battlefield dynamics had shifted dramatically. Iran’s precision strikes began threading through advanced air defenses, hitting high-value targets across the Gulf with surprising accuracy. Intelligence analysts pointed to one key factor: Iran had ditched GPS for China’s Beidou satellite navigation system.
​ The US unwittingly provided the spark that ignited China’s quest for the Beidou. The story begins in 1993 when a single Chinese container ship, the Yinhe, sailing to Iran, the vessel was accused by the CIA of carrying chemicals for weapons production. Middle Eastern ports, under pressure from the US, refused entry and the ship was stranded in the Indian Ocean. The US not only pressured allies but reportedly disabled the ship’s GPS access, forcing it to drop anchor for weeks. Inspections in Saudi Arabia eventually cleared the vessel, but China received no apology or compensation.
​ This humiliation—losing navigation mid-ocean due to reliance on a foreign-controlled system—became a pivotal lesson for Beijing. It accelerated development of an independent satellite navigation network: Beidou (BDS).​..
​..Beidou outperforms GPS in coverage and precision across roughly 165 countries, offering a resilient alternative that cannot be unilaterally jammed or spoofed by Western powers.
​ After the 2025 conflict exposed vulnerabilities in GPS-dependent systems, Iran moved decisively. By late 2025 or early 2026, it integrated Beidou into its missile and drone arsenals.​..
​..Key advantages of Beidou for Iran include:
Resistance to jamming/spoofing — Advanced frequency-hopping and anti-interference tech.
​ Higher accuracy — Circular error probable under 5 meters in key regions, enabling precise strikes with fewer munitions.
Real-time command — Secure messaging allows mid-flight adjustments over long distances.
​ This upgrade has contributed significantly to Iran’s ability to penetrate US defenses in the Gulf countries and dramatically improved Iran’s ability to strike critical targets, which has undermined confidence in US security guarantees in the Gulf.​ https://sonar21.com/chinas-beidou-satellite-system-is-a-game-changer-in-irans-war-with-the-us/

​ Gold & Geopolitics, Daily digest: 2026-07-18
The Iran-US war jumped a rung overnight: night seven of US strikes reached Iran’s underground weapons storage for the first time, and Iran answered by hitting Prince Sultan in Saudi Arabia — its first direct strike there in nearly four months — while US officials quietly confirmed American casualties at Jordanian bases.
​ Oil ripped toward $90 with the Strait of Hormuz down to a trickle.
​ On the screens, China’s Kimi K3 dethroned Fable 5 and set off a synchronized tech flush that put the SOX in a bear market, wiped a claimed $1T off SpaceX, and — for a few hours — handed Apple the most-valuable-company crown back from Nvidia. Korea’s margin-call cascade is the structural story underneath.​ https://no1sdailydigest.substack.com/p/daily-digest-2026-07-18

[John Day]

Global Financial Reset 2026 https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/global-financial-crisis-2026

The working-hypothesis I promote is that what we see in the world “not making sense” is the transition to economic contraction after 300 years of economic growth powered by fossil fuels and advances in the technology to burn them to perform work and make useful things. The concept of “Peak Oil” was calculated by the world’s foremost petroleum-geologist, M. King Hubbert around 1957, came true for the US peak around 1971, and peak conventional-oil around 2005. The Arab Oil Embargo and Global Financial Crisis followed those inflections from increase to decline.
In late 2018 there was a peak in oil + condensates, followed by the repo-crisis the next August, Event 201 in New York to war-game a global coronavirus pandemic, the go-live in Wuhan in December 2019, and COVID-lockdowns and bank-bailouts in spring of 2020.

June 13, 2020 I posted this from Fabio Vighi:
​ The mainstream narrative should therefore be reversed: the stock market did not collapse (in March 2020) because lockdowns had to be imposed; rather, lockdowns had to be imposed because financial markets were collapsing. With lockdowns came the suspension of business transactions, which drained the demand for credit and stopped the contagion. In other words, restructuring the financial architecture through extraordinary monetary policy was contingent on the economy’s engine being turned off. Had the enormous mass of liquidity pumped into the financial sector reached transactions on the ground, a monetary tsunami with catastrophic consequences would have been unleashed.
As claimed by economist Ellen Brown, it was “another bailout”, but this time “under cover of a virus.” Similarly, John Titus and Catherine Austin Fitts noted that the Covid-19 “magic wand” allowed the Fed to execute BlackRock’s “going direct” plan, literally: it carried out an unprecedented purchase of government bonds, while, on an infinitesimally smaller scale, also issuing government backed ‘COVID loans’ to businesses. In brief, only an induced economic coma would provide the Fed with the room to defuse the time-bomb ticking away in the financial sector.

A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Systemic Collapse and Pandemic Simulation

​ November 2025 saw a year of rising US tight-oil output with a new and slightly higher peak of oil + condensates. In February the US attacked Iran for no apparent reason better than Israel told them to. That war forced the Strait of Hormuz closed, which was widely predicted, greatly reducing the flows of sour crude oil, natural gas, helium and fertilizer to the world, and impairing global financial arrangements based on those flows of core commodities.

This doesn’t make sense in the context of the last 300 years of growing global wealth based upon utilization of fossil fuels, but if that flow has finally peaked, and we face a long decline of real wealth, then we need to reconsider how it might make sense in the context of a world of less…
The world declining in real wealth does not mean the decline happens evenly, and one consortium of wealth might maintain wealth by destroying the industrial production capacity of a rival consortium, and/or choking off its supplies of critical resources, as at the Strait of Hormuz, or the Black Sea, for instance.
War of resource-denial is an attractive option, because the choking of critical supplies to a rival can be imposed at less expense than traditional kinetic war for productive territory. Imposing an early loss or a relatively more severe loss upon a rival, or even upon a neutral player, may improve the relative standing of a robust player within the game hierarchy, even if absolute wealth lessens in the process.
I propose that the initiatives we are seeing from the US, Russia and China reflect, a new form of game being played in the long decline of industrial economy, with different limitations and objectives than were assumed in the centuries of growing global industrial economy.
Since 2008 risks have all been concentrated under national public programs, while profits have been legally garrisoned to private ownership, which is largely hidden from view. What is about to take place is partly described in The Great Taking, which ellen Brown explained well here: The Great Taking, How They Can Own It All https://ellenbrown.com/2023/10/03/the-great-taking-how-they-plan-to-own-it-all/
The looming risk to our elite “owners” is revolution. To that end they are arranging vast, life threatening-wars to emergently occupy and kill-off the men who might work together to overthrow them and redistribute wealth within their countries. Those men are now to be known as “Communist Terrorists”, if you please.

The Honest Sorcerer, The Oil Price “Mystery”​ – Why high oil prices are a mythical red dragon – and what to focus on instead
The real issue is not the price of crude oil. Remember: the economy runs on refined products: gasoline, diesel, jet fuel etc. The cash (wholesale) price for ultra low sulfur diesel fuel, powering everything from goods transportation, agriculture, mining, construction and acting as a back up fuel for electricity generation, has returned to $4 per gallon, or $168 per barrel. How does that compare to a ~$80 oil price?​ …
​..It is not oil at $150 which will kill the economy—that is a mythical red dragon “economists” scare their audience with—but record high fuel prices. Citing the cost of crude oil is thus a total misdirection.
Making matters worse, much worse—and fitting neatly into this little story we are uncovering here—are the recent and highly successful Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries and shipping on the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Russian diesel exports were already down by 683,000 barrels a day but now they have completely collapsed to zero from 800,000 barrels a day before the war, forcing Russia to import fuel. Needless to say this comes on top of Persian Gulf diesel exports falling by more than 520,000 barrels compared to last year—a deficit which is also supposed to increase due to renewed Hormuz hostilities. And while usually the US Gulf is the main producer to fill such gaps, refineries there are already running at full bore, at 96% utilization. This would make India the world’s refining swing producer but New Delhi has recently doubled export duties on diesel and jet fuel as the government wants more of those barrels available at home before they leave for overseas buyers. This is how the world enters a major diesel fuel crunch—potentially leading to a historic economic downturn—even as oil prices stay comfortably below $100 a barrel. https://thehonestsorcerer.substack.com/p/the-oil-price-mystery

“We’ve Burned Through All Buffers”: Oil Traders Warn Market Running On Fumes​ https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/weve-burned-through-all-buffers-oil-traders-warn-market-running-fumes

[John Day]

extremely discomforting: A British woman out for a long countryside hike with her daughters found herself being shadowed by a creepy migrant male for miles.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/meanwhile-english-countryside

[John Day]

1978, Lene Lovitch, “Stateless” album https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stateless_(Lene_Lovich_album)
Rosie O’Donnell personifies… ;-(

[John Day]

​ Steve Kirsch, Voices for Vaccines is unable explain the huge increase in deaths in young children who were vaccinated compared to their unvaccinated peers – They tried to debunk the Hooker paper based on official Louisiana mortality data. They failed. Miserably. In fact, it showed that they are inept. (best they could do with “bad facts”) https://kirschsubstack.com/p/voices-for-vaccines-is-unable-explain

Twin babies get the same poisons injected a minute apart and die together 8 nights later; “impossible”? Steve Kirsch, Shaw twins murder case relies on medical expert testimony that it is impossible for twins to die at the same time from a vaccine
​ One problem. Twin deaths from SIDS are documented in the medical literature and in 100% of the cases, it is right after vaccination. They basically don’t have a case in my opinion. ChatGPT agreed.​ https://kirschsubstack.com/p/shaw-twins-murder-case-relies-on

​ There is no substitute for eating right, exercising outdoors, sleeping fully and avoiding alcohol, cigaretted and charred meats: Paul Marik MD,
PSA Screening: Promise, Pitfalls, and the Future of Prostate Cancer Detection​ https://paulmarik.substack.com/p/psa-screening-promise-pitfalls-and

​ Climate Physicist Anastassia Makarieva and her husband Andre are back from their Siberian summer research-retreat: Between Taiga and Civilization​ – Uncategorized Messages from the Siberian Wilderness https://bioticregulation.substack.com/p/between-taiga-and-civilization

[John Day]

​ US military to start screening for testosterone deficiency, Hegseth says
In a video posted on X, captioned “High-T Department”, Hegseth said he was authorising the screening programme for troops to ensure “you have the right testosterone levels to operate at your absolute best”.​ Troops with low testosterone levels will be offered voluntary hormone replacement therapy.​ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn0nlx18rz0o

​ Meryl Nass MD presents lots of data in this very announcement: At 11 am I will be interviewed by Gloria Guillo and Jeremy Kuzmarov on the 2 recent Tulsi Gabbard releases on biolabs and Fauci, and on the unsolved anthrax letters case
The links for YouTube and Rumble are provided below. The show can be viewed later as well.​ https://merylnass.substack.com/p/at-11-am-i-will-be-interviewed-by

[John Day]

Today people want the guy who is advancing the drone war, and reducing corruption, not the guy who will drag more “recruits” out of their cars and beds:
Ukrainians hold rare wartime protest over defence minister’s dismissal
​ For the first time since last summer’s protests in support of their country’s anti‑corruption watchdogs, Ukrainians have mobilised online over the dismissal of Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. A wave of social media posts quickly turned into calls to gather across Ukrainian cities on Thursday.
In clear evidence of Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov’s popularity in civil society, Ukrainians have organised a rare wartime protest to defend and support him.​..
..Dmytro Koziatynskyi, a war veteran who was a leading organiser of last summer’s mass protests in support of NABU and SAPO, posted on social media ”The defence minister is being removed in the middle of effective – finally effective! – reforms, replaced by someone under whom any hope of reform can be forgotten,” referring to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, who is poised to replace Fedorov.
​ “I call on all caring people to come out tomorrow at 9:01 a.m. to Franko Square and show the president that we are against constant reshuffles in the government and replacing effective ministers with convenient opportunists.”…
​..The deputy commander of Ukraine’s Air Force, Pavlo Yelizarov, announced his resignation on July 16, saying the dismissal of Fedorov – whose key priorities included reforming the air defence sector – would cause more casualties and destruction in Ukraine from Russian missile and drone attacks.
​ “I believe that the removal of M. Fedorov is a great evil for the country’s defence capability,” Yelizarov said on Facebook, attaching a copy of his resignation letter.
​ Other opinion leaders from the military and civil society joined the call.
Serhii Sternenko, a prominent Ukrainian activist and blogger who was Fedorov’s adviser on drone warfare said that “Mykhailo Fedorov is the best Minister of Defence in our entire history”, and called his firing “the greatest demoralisation since the war began”.
​ Ukraine’s ‘cardboard revolution’​ – As the social media mobilisation gained pace, Ukrainians began swapping slogan ideas for hand‑made signs sketched on pieces of cardboard.​ https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/07/16/ukrainians-hold-rare-wartime-protest-over-defence-ministers-dismissal

Trump Says FBI Wasting Time If It Probes Conspiracy Theories About Graham’s Death​ https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-says-fbi-wasting-time-if-it-probes-conspiracy-theories-about-grahams-death

​ Widow Of Butler Rally Victim: Trump Assassination Attempt Was “An Inside Job”
Two years after a gunman opened fire at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing one attendee and wounding President Donald Trump, the widow of the man who was slain has expressed deep skepticism about the circumstances of the attack. Helen Comperatore, whose husband Corey, a 50-year-old volunteer firefighter and father of two, was fatally shot while shielding his family, told NewsNation that she believes the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt was “an inside job.”​ https://www.zerohedge.com/political/widow-butler-rally-victim-trump-assassination-attempt-was-inside-job

​ The prosecution case is impossible on a timeline they just established. Critical incriminating-tweets by “Tyler Robinson” came well after he turned himself in and police had his phone. Kyle Young, The Tyler Robinson Preliminary Hearing https://secularheretic.substack.com/p/the-tyler-robinson-preliminary-hearing

Flock now wants to keep the data forever: Flock is falling out of favor with police departments – Flock Safety is hitting a rough patch with one of its biggest customers. https://dailynewsfromaolf.substack.com/p/flock-is-falling-out-of-favor-with

[John Day]

2 days ago, not better yet: Big Blew It! IBM Crashes Most Since ’60s Amid CapEx Woes; Goldman Warns Over ‘Software Bear Case’ https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/ibm-crashes-most-1987-customers-abruptly-shift-capex-spending

​ Simplicius says China has been doing this for 4 years, already: The New Third Front: China Quietly Revamps Country for War
An interesting series of reports have shone light on China’s ‘quiet’ but revolutionary preparations for conflict with the US.
​ China has mastered the art of the silent observer. Legions of commentators spent years criticizing China for not being more active and involved in the global geopolitical theaters, such as the Russia-Ukraine war, particularly when tilting those conflicts in its own favor would have greatly benefited China.
​ But now portions of China’s strategy are finally coming to light, and revealing the country’s uniquely furtive approach to maintaining a semblance of balance while in actuality making unprecedented hidden preparations for the worst case scenarios.​
​ T​hey admit that these massive measures are done under the surface, which we can only assume is a deliberate choice to conceal China’s true posture of formidable national restructuring toward hybrid-war impregnability​…
​..This refers to the recent report from Russia’s Global Affairs defense journal called, “The New Great Wall: The Logic of China’s Foreign Policy Behavior”​
​ “This article examines China’s comprehensive mobilization policies undertaken since the early 2020s. Analysis reveals that they span multiple domains. First, China is developing a protected inland reserve of critical industrial capacity. Second, it is strengthening emergency supply mechanisms and accelerating the accumulation of food and raw-material reserves. Third, it is enhancing civil defense and urban infrastructure resilience, including the expansion of the ‘people’s air defense’ system. Fourth, recently amended legislation now regulates military service and the government’s obligations towards fallen servicemen’s families. The scope and pace of these measures indicate that Beijing anticipates a severe military-political crisis in the coming decade. This partly explains Chinese foreign policy’s apparent contradictions, with stated global ambitions coexisting alongside strategic caution and risk aversion.”​ https://eng.globalaffairs.ru/articles/china-kashin-smirnova-yankova/​
​ The fact that this report is from a Russian patriotic journal, rather than a pro-Western one with an obvious anti-Chinese bias, means that the revelations herein are particularly noteworthy.​ https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/the-new-third-front-china-quietly

​ (non-suicidal) Bulgarian premier says country has ‘no place’ in Ukraine coalition of willing​ – ‘I don’t believe Bulgaria’s place is in the coalition of the willing,” Radev says​ https://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/bulgarian-premier-says-country-has-no-place-in-ukraine-coalition-of-willing/3997590

​yesterday: Ukraine Shake-Up: Zelensky Sacks Popular Defense Chief, & IDs CEO Of Naftogaz As Likely Next Prime Minister https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/zelensky-remove-ukraines-reforming-young-defense-minister-ongoing-shake-report

[John Day]

Turkey’s Hejaz Railway Revival and the Limits of a Hormuz Alternative​ – A Revived Line Would Connect Turkish Industry to Arab Markets, Boost North-South Trade, and Complement Other Projects
​ Turkey is working to modernize and extend the historic Hejaz Railway as it seeks to transform this neglected Ottoman-era line into a tool for infrastructure diplomacy. Built in the early 20th century to connect Damascus with Medina, the railway fell into decline after World War I due to conflict, neglect, and new borders. Now, Ankara wants to restore critical segments through Syria and Jordan, eventually aiming to extend the route through Saudi Arabia to Oman.​..
​..This goal reflects Ankara’s ambition to place Turkey at the center of regional transit between Europe, the Levant, and the Persian Gulf. The first phase would reconnect Turkey to Aleppo and utilize existing rail networks in Syria and Jordan. Turkey has offered to help complete a missing segment of about 20 miles in Syria, while Jordan is prepared to support maintenance and operations. Turkey, Syria, and Jordan advanced a memorandum of understanding in Amman in 2025, followed by additional transport agreements in 2026. Saudi Arabia has also joined discussions through feasibility studies for connections to its networks…
..Israel will monitor any new Levant-Persian Gulf corridor. Iran and its allies may interpret the project as an effort to bypass their influence…
..A route marketed as a solution to a chokepoint may simply convert maritime risks into land-based political ones. The project’s true value lies not in replacing Hormuz but in broadening options. If carried out carefully, it could enhance trade, support Syria’s rebuilding, strengthen Turkey-Jordan-Gulf ties, and provide Ankara with a platform for middle-power diplomacy.​ https://www.meforum.org/mef-observer/turkeys-hejaz-railway-revival-and-the-limits-of-a-hormuz-alternative

Great Rewiring: US Supports Iraq-Syria Oil Pipeline To Erode Tehran’s Hormuz Leverage​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/great-rewiring-us-supports-iraq-syria-oil-pipeline-erode-tehrans-hormuz-leverage

​ US, Iraq finalize major energy deal during Zaidi’s first Washington visit
Trump praised the ‘handsome’ Iraqi premier during their meeting, calling him a ‘great leader’ whose influence will extend across the region​ https://thecradle.co/articles/us-iraq-finalize-major-energy-deal-during-zaidis-first-washington-visit

​ Richard Revelstoke digs deeper into the internicine rivalries between capitalist factions: Two Wings of the Same Imperial Nationalist Bird
Even within the factions, there is profound disagreement over policy, strategy and resources.
​ Within the Imperial Nationalist faction are two broad strategic traditions that share the same objective — preserving American predominance — but differ profoundly over how that power should be exercised. The distinction is often presented as a debate over foreign policy. It is more accurately understood as a struggle between two different forms of defense capital whose business models require different military doctrines.
​ Military strategy is usually portrayed as the product of abstract strategic reasoning. Yet strategies also create demand for particular industries, procurement systems, and revenue models. Different doctrines sustain different forms of capital. The debate between the Primacy and America First wings is therefore not simply a disagreement over how the United States should use power; it is also a contest over which defense economy will dominate the twenty-first century.​..
​..Ideas do not emerge in an economic vacuum. Different doctrines sustain different procurement systems. Different procurement systems sustain different industries. Different industries generate different political coalitions.
​ The Primacy wing’s doctrine supports permanent alliances, overseas bases, long procurement cycles, and the industrial ecosystems of the legacy defense contractors.
​ The America First wing’s doctrine supports border security, domestic manufacturing, energy production, venture-backed defense technology, autonomous weapons, and rapid procurement.
​ Neither doctrine is reducible to economics alone. But neither can be fully understood without examining the structures of capital upon which it rests. Military strategy does not merely reflect geopolitical thought. It also reflects competing political economies of American power.
​ The two wings beat against one another, but they remain attached to the same imperial body. They share the same assumptions about American military superiority, the dollar-centered financial order, maritime supremacy, and denying China’s rise.
​ One wing finances the garrison.
The other finances the raid.
​ Both seek to preserve the empire.​ Only the business model differs.​ https://www.themargins.ca/p/two-wings-of-the-same-imperial-nationalist

1 In 30 Koreans Margin-Called As Kospi Crashes, Regulator Suspends New Levered ETFs, Hikes Margins​ https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/1-30-koreans-margin-called-stocks-crash-regulator-suspends-new-levered-etfs-hikes-margins

[John Day]

​ Jewish Voice For Peace: Israel is losing American Jews.
A new nationwide poll conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research has found a host of indications of the sea change in American Jewish attitudes about genocide in Gaza, and their relationship to Zionism itself.
​ The poll revealed NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani is more popular — by far — than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
​ This may be surprising. We’ve heard ad nauseum from the Anti-Defamation League and an all-too credulous media that Jews in Mamdani’s New York live in constant fear.
​ The AP-NORC poll revealed 44% of American Jews actually hold a favorable opinion of Mamdani. That’s the most of any politician polled, and it’s far more favorable than for Netanyahu, viewed favorably by only 32% of American Jews and negatively by a whopping 59%.
​ Further, researchers found only 23% of U.S. Jews said the term “Zionist” described them extremely or very well. That’s consistent with polling from earlier this year that found most U.S. Jews — 63% — do not self-identify as Zionists.
​ That’s not all: Thirty-eight percent of U.S. Jews percent believe the U.S has been too supportive of Israel, and 30% believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.​ https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2026/07/15/israel-is-losing-american-jews/

​ Netanyahu set to attend Lindsey Graham’s funeral in DC, meet with Trump
Netanyahu is expected to fly on Saturday night and stay until Tuesday to attend the memorial service for Senator Lindsey Graham and possibly meet US President Trump.​ https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-902555

​ Moon of Alabama, War On Iran: Oil Supplies Will Again Be In Trouble – This Time For Real
The world consumes about 100 million barrels of oil per day [bpd]. Before the war on Iran some 20% of that used to pass from the Persian Gulf region through the Strait of Hormuz to the world markets.​..
​..In total some 7 m bpd exited the Gulf region through new outlets. The releases from reserves and the lifting of sanctions contributed to additional supplies of some 3-5 m bpd. The reduction of Chinese import demand amounted to some 5 m bpd.
​ Due to all the above measures the global supply of about 100 m bpd only shrank to about 92-95 m bpd. Global demand, especially due to the Chinese measures, dropped to a nearly equal balance. The amount that was still missing in this rough calculation was drawn from reserves within the distribution and transport levels.
​ After all measures were in place demand and supply were balanced again and oil prices came down to a normal level of some $70+/bl.
When U.S. President Donald Trump decided to reignite the conflict he might have thought that the oil problem he had feared had gone away.​ But it hasn’t. And the conditions now will make it way more difficult to keep the markets in balance.​..
..Nearly all the favorable conditions which had allowed the world to ride out the supply slump during the last phase of the conflict are no longer available during the current one.
​ While the cash settled future markets will continue to be highly manipulated, real product prices will increase. We are likely to soon see new peaks of prices at gas stations.​ https://www.moonofalabama.org/2026/07/war-on-iran-oil-supplies-will-again-be-in-trouble-this-time-for-real.html

IRGC Vows ‘Not A Drop Of Oil & Gas Will Be Exported’ From Region Amid Sustained Cross-Gulf Fighting​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/iran-launches-brazen-attacks-more-tankers-hormuz-killing-crewmembers-after-araghchi

​ US Navy Disables Tanker Defying Blockade, As Pentagon Initiates 2nd Strike Wave Of Day After Iran Snubs Talks​
Pentagon announces second wave of strikes later Wednesday, the after initial 90-minute attack to start the day.
Trump threatens wider strikes unless Iran returns to talks – says attacks to ‘expand’ next week.
Wednesday saw 5th strait day of US bombardment on chiefly Iranian coastal sites.​
Iran hits US-Gulf bases and warns on regional oil exports, says it is in ‘control’ of Hormuz Strait.
No evidence de-escalation: Tehran rejects talks and vows more retaliation​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-iran-exchange-heavy-strikes-5th-straight-day-trump-warns-hell-take-out-power-plants

[John Day]

Official: Iran targets US 5th Fleet housing in Bahrain, air base in Jordan
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced it had carried out missile and drone strikes against U.S. military facilities in Bahrain. Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported that the operation targeted weapons support warehouses, a satellite communications center and housing used by U.S. Fifth Fleet personnel.
​ The IRGC later said it had also fired ballistic missiles at a U.S. air base in Jordan. “This base was used to attack us, and the American criminals were held accountable for their actions,” the IRGC said.
​ Jordan’s Armed Forces said they intercepted and destroyed four missiles that entered the kingdom’s airspace from Iran.​ https://www.turkiyetoday.com/region/iran-targets-us-5th-fleet-housing-in-bahrain-air-base-in-jordan-3223864

​ Gold & Geopolitics, Daily digest: 2026-07-16
The Iran war stopped being one-sided overnight: Iran ran multiple missile-and-drone waves against US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan, with reported US casualties, while Washington weighs seizing Kharg Island and bombing a fresh nuclear site. The other big delta is Ukraine — sacking defense minister Fedorov triggered nationwide protests and combat commanders resigning mid-war. Underneath, Hormuz went to effectively zero tanker traffic, Korea’s KOSPI leverage trade blew another -7%, and silver printed its first Death Cross since 2024 into peak capitulation.​
​ Iran hits US Gulf bases in coordinated waves; US casualties reported​ – IRGC and the regular Army struck Ali al-Salem and a US pier at Shuaiba in Kuwait, Isa Air Base in Bahrain, and Muwaffaq Salti in Jordan — hitting Patriots, HIMARS launchers, radars, SATCOM and MQ-9 sites, and shooting down an MQ-9 Reaper (MenchOsint).
​ Detailed target list including the KGL Logistics depot (largest US Army support hub in West Asia) in Mina Abdullah, plus a claimed Patriot PAC-3 miss on King Faisal base (AryJeayBackup).
​ Damage to an MQ-9 command-and-control centre at Ali Al Salem confirmed via satellite (AMK Mapping).
US military casualties from strikes on Iraq reported…​
..Strait of Hormuz effectively shut — zero tankers Wednesday​ – “Not a single oil or gas tanker crossed the Strait of Hormuz” (DarioCpx).​..
​..Trump weighs major escalation: Kharg Island seizure, Pickaxe Mountain strike​ – Options under review include seizing Iranian islands near Hormuz, bombing a fortified nuclear-linked tunnel complex at Pickaxe Mountain, and expanding airstrikes to energy sites, per WSJ (JenniferJJacobs).
​ A Situation Room meeting reviewed an offensive “wider in scope” than current Hormuz strikes, per Axios (BarakRavid).
Vance drew a line: “We’re not going to send ground troops for regime change” (zerohedge)…
..The Fedorov purge underneath: FT frames him as the drone-tech architect who blocked procurement graft and clashed with commander-in-chief Syrsky (RALee85); incoming government led by Naftogaz CEO Koretskyi as PM (zerohedge), with interior/police chief Klimenko tipped for defense.​ https://no1sdailydigest.substack.com/p/daily-digest-2026-07-16

Iran Warns US Of ‘Infrastructure For Infrastructure’ War, Will Control Hormuz As ‘Unbreakable Red Line’​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/iran-warns-us-infrastructure-infrastructure-war-will-control-hormuz-unbreakable-read

​ US Senate Democrats block defence bill over Iran war, Israel integration
The Senate votes 50-46 to block debate on the annual defence bill over war funding and defence cooperation with Israel.​ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/14/senate-democrats-block-defence-bill-over-iran-war-israel-provisions

House Defeats Bid To End Israel Aid While Senate Blocks US-Israel Intel Integration​ https://www.zerohedge.com/political/house-defeats-bid-end-israel-aid-while-senate-blocks-us-israel-intel-integration

[John Day]

​ As you may know, I consider high-functioning sociopaths to have long been the apex predators which cull human numbers hard when crops are bad and comple societal breakdown threatens. As kings, nobles and financiers they set us out in large groups to kill each other until resources are enough for the survivors.
W. Campbell (Camp) Douglas MD, Do We Have a Sociopathic Culture?
Primary sociopaths can still feel emotions like shallow attachment, pleasure, excitement, boredom, jealousy, contempt, anger, rage, and sometimes fear, but these components of their ‘emotional lexicons’ are self-centered and not grounded in empathy or remorse…
..Here’s an invitation: the next time you hear the words “evil” and “cruel,” think sociopathy — the absence of the seventh sense we call conscience.
Much of what we name evil is the work of the one in twenty-five born without it — and they rise, precisely because nothing inside them ever says stop…
​..If culture is the external ‘forbid’, then conscience is where that forbid is installed internally, inside most of us. Martha Stout calls it that seventh sense — not a rule we memorize but an instinctual felt obligation, rooted in the inherited capacity of most of us to love and bond, as real as pain or a smell. It turns “Can I get away with that?” back into “I shouldn’t do that.”
​ From her research, about one in twenty-five humans – 4% – are born without the seventh sense— not just a weak version.
The conscience apparatus is entirely absent. This is difficult for the majority of us to realize, but it explains a lot about what we call ‘evil’ in this world.
​ Stout gives us ways to recognize the people who lack it. The most reliable single sign, she says, is the appeal to your pity: people who consistently harm others yet, when caught, ultimately cast themselves as the victims, campaigning for your sympathy to disarm your judgment. Watch, too, for the rule of threes — one broken promise is a misunderstanding, two a mistake, three tells you the entity you are dealing with…
..Dr. Stout’s first rule: primary sociopaths look like us. But if you can recognize their patterns, she says, do not try to reform them. Separate yourself, without guilt, and walk away.​
​..Dr. Stanley Milgram, whose work was shaped by the Holocaust, showed that roughly two-thirds of ordinary people will override their conscience under direct authority — an unremarkable man in a white lab coat, no monster required; in a variation where the subject was one step removed — reading the words while someone else pushed the button to deliver what he believed were dangerous shocks to a fellow human — compliance climbed past ninety percent. This is secondary sociopathy. Conscience is not absent in them. It is suppressed, or bypassed by distance and appeal to authority.
​ “I am just following orders.”​…
..If one in twenty-five of us H. sapiens is born without conscience, and that absence is an edge in the climb, then arithmetic alone says some atop our largest institutions belong to that sociopathic four percent. Which ones? No honest observer can say, without proper psychometric testing or imaging. The point is not the name on the door. It is the door – that it is real…
..We need not necessarily reach for the diagnosis to name the mechanism: a political system with no screen for conscience will, over time, be climbed most successfully by those least burdened by it…
..The absence of shame in the face of overwhelming exposure, the doubling down when caught, the unanimous cruelty administered by committee, no confessions, no apologies — these are the gravitational signatures of consciences that are primarily or secondarily switched off…
..There is hope in the arithmetic, too. Milgram found that when a person watched even one other refuse, compliance collapsed — from two-thirds to one in ten. In other words, dissidence is contagious. Every COVID-era patient and physician, like my colleague, who is willing to speak up, is a circuit breaker for the next. Awareness is the beginning of immunity: you cannot be recruited by sociopathic mechanisms that you have learned to actively look for, recognize, and properly identify.
​ Stout ends her book with a hope I share — that people of conscience, simply by learning to see the ones who have none, can blunt their effect and protect those we love.​ https://dutytodissent.substack.com/p/do-we-have-a-sociopathic-culture

​ Thanks Eleni, Anti-corruption probe links Kushner luxury resort to international drug trafficking network
Since breaking ground on a multi-billion dollar luxury resort in Albania, the Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump-led project has done more to reveal a corrupt Zionist pay-for-play scheme than it has to shed light on one of the jewels of the Earth that had gone unnoticed until it fell into the hands of the pair of real estate scions…
​..Albania’s anti-corruption investigators have turned their attention to Miami-based businessman Artur Shehu as their probe has gone underway. Investigators have zeroed in on Shehu, who sold property that he owned on Albania’s Adriatic coast to the Kushner-led company Atlantic Incubation Partners LLC, and his associates due to links they allege exist between them and an international drug trafficking ring and suspicions that the real estate empire Shehu amassed that he was able to profit from through his sale to Kushner was built through forged property records. Although Shehu’s lawyer, Kujtim Cakrani, issued a statement on behalf of his client denying all of the accusations made against him by Albania’s Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime (“SPAK”), Cakrani also acknowledged that the country’s anti-corruption agency has issued a warrant for Shehu’s arrest on charges that he has laundered money for drug gangs.​ https://www.sott.net/article/507412-Anti-corruption-probe-links-Kushner-luxury-resort-to-international-drug-trafficking-network

Bribe of “Trump resort island” ​still too small? Senior Defense Officials Review Potential 101st Airborne Helicopter Assault On Cuba​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/senior-defense-officials-review-potential-101st-airborne-helicopter-assault-cuba

​ Alastair Crooke, MoU Stacked in Holding Pattern as U.S. Pivots to Plan ‘B’
Plan ‘A’ was to topple the Islamic Republic which was seen as nothing more than a fragile house of cards. That collapse – it was expected – would ripple through, and take down several connected Axis of Resistance fronts, according to the analysis of Mossad and interlinked Israeli power centres in the U.S. (Certain U.S. officials did, however, entertain doubts).
​ The prediction of a popular uprising in Iran has proved to have been a strategic mistake of such bearing that per contra, it catalysed a stronger, more defiant and assertive Republic. Even Israeli experts admit that the false premise underlying the war has generated a new balance of power in the Middle East. Until then, a top Israeli military commentator (Alon Ben David) could say, Israel was the ‘go-to’ address in the Middle East for the world’s interests; but that from now on, the ‘go-to’ state is, and will be, Iran. That comment exemplified the extent to which a Rubicon had been crossed.
​ So the collective pro-Zionist bloc has shifted to plan ‘B’ – a ‘deceit’ based on the MoU, which were Trump’s interpretations to be accepted by Iran (unlikely), would effectively lead to the disarming of Iran through a nuclear agreement that would strip the state naked by virtue of its ‘verification’ requirements: Intrusive, ‘go-anywhere’ surprise IAEA inspections of ‘secret underground sites’ and interrogations of scientists and research academies. All would (again) be exposed.
​ Taken in tandem with Plan ‘B’s wider Israeli hegemonic aspiration, the aim would be to concurrently lobotomise Hizbullah through a separate disarmament agreement effected through compliant Lebanese government factions pressing down on the movement from the north, whilst Israel pursued ‘desertification’ in the south.​..
​..Likely, the regional pacification scheme will be viewed as a clever move by Trump to mitigate the pressure exerted on him by the neo-con’s anger at his MoU ‘concessions’ to Iran.
​ But is it so clever? Marco Rubio was instructed to oversee the Beirut establishment making pretty with Israel in their shared antagonism towards Hizbullah. But the resulting ‘bout de papier’ for the disarming of Hizbullah enjoys no legitimacy; it contradicts the Lebanese Constitution and would require cabinet endorsement and parliamentary approval to have any validity or meaning.
​ What the Israel-Lebanon agreement does do, however, is to stick a dagger in Vance’s separately agreed Qatari-chaired U.S. and Iran co-ordination structure for overseeing MoU compliance in Lebanon. Rubio’s initiative to cut Iran out from the Lebanese co-ordination framework cuts across the MoU and Vance’s mediation efforts. Rubio’s tripartite ‘paper’ will solve nothing, but will leave the ‘Lebanon issue’ to continue as an open sore.
​ Yet a “ceasefire in Lebanon and Israeli withdrawal” is pivotal to the functioning of the MoU. It appears that Netanyahu tee’d up Ron Dermer to get Rubio to sabotage the MoU.
​ So, now we have civil war inside the White House over Iran – Vance vs Rubio – whilst the MoU slides into abeyance…
​..Two of the five very large crude carriers ⁠that have left the Strait are heading to Japan, while another two are making their way to China. Which means – as Larry Johnson has outlined – that even were tankers to head to the U.S. now, the U.S. would still face a serious deficit of sour crude until 23 August at the earliest, given the 42 days voyage time to the U.S. (Sour crude is crucial feedstock for complex U.S. refineries to produce diesel and jet fuel).
​ The post-mortem on the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran must be suspended as both Trump and Netanyahu enter a holding pattern ahead of elections. Trump might threaten to ‘obliterate’ Iran if it does not capitulate and bend the knee before him, but it is doubtful that the U.S. can long maintain its military presence in the region with munitions in short supply. Nonetheless, a further round of intense kinetic war is highly probable – and widely expected in Iran.​ A short ‘performative’ U.S. military strike on Iran is possible, but would achieve little – and nothing strategic.
​ So who is losing in this ‘war’? Israel – and Netanyahu. Netanyahu is in deep distress electorally too.​ The expected triumph of Israel over the Middle East has failed.​ https://www.unz.com/acrooke/mou-stacked-in-holding-pattern-as-u-s-pivots-to-plan-b/

​ Rumored: Last night at a U.S. Airbase in Jordan: 4 Iranian missiles at 1000km+ range ($ 400k-600k) vs. 8 or more U.S. Patriot PAC-3 ($ 32 million)
Result 4 impacts (flawless victory?)​ https://x.com/Pataramesh/status/2077041025457991775

[John Day]

Uncreditworthy https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/uncreditworthy

It is not difficult to see that the credit-rating of the Post-Bretton-Woods-Financial-Expediency is degrading, which raises its interest rates, which reduce its ability to service debt, and the central banks of the world have been quietly offloading that debt in favor of increasing gold in their reserves.
I live within the nation which is the current imperial seat, something we citizens never wanted and were never sold, but it was swapped-in for promises of freedom and prosperity, now long expired. The imperial seat used to be in London, but it can be more distributed these days with the internet and Starlink. The imperial seat supplies manpower, production, military force projection and a certain facade, but it can be replaced, and it can change its style, as long as the financial extraction machine remains operational in the style described by Michael Hudson’s book Super Imperialism (1972) https://michael-hudson.com/books/super-imperialism-the-economic-strategy-of-american-empire/
As long as the $US is necessary to buy oil and other global necessities, it remains the reserve-currency, and countries need $US to do business, so they trade their real products and services for $US, which the US creates as debt instruments for those real goods and services, payable in more of those debt instruments with a bit of interest, as long as the debt instruments are agreed to have market value for real things. It is all about faith, agreement, and financial infrastructure in place to make it convenient. If that breaks, something new (or old) will need to replace it. Faith will be gone, so gold is the rumored successor. Everybody but Venezuela has gold, after-all…
The imperial military has imposed horrific costs upon countries like Iraq and Libya that threatened the $US system by selling oil in other currencies. The military threat is being challenged by Iran now. Exclusion of Iran from the $US trading system did not succeed in destroying that country, but did weaken faith in the $US, since it could be weaponized at will against those who held it at the pleasure of the US Treasury Dept.
The $US weaponization against Russia was meant to be a death blow. It failed. It is a quagmire now with a weakened $US and gold-in-hand being the no-faith-needed alternative, as it always was before. A gold-based international trade system enforces balances of trade, to avoid a country running out of gold and being unable to get necessary supplies.
From my perspective the question is how the $US default will be managed, since the debt vastly exceeds the ability to service it without borrowing to do so already, and that condition is exacerbated as debt is compounded exponentially. Wars are usually the management strategy when debts can’t be serviced going forward. Wars bring emergency powers and compelling excuses. Debts are cancelled in various ways, and the new debts of the winners become fair risks.
This is not only true for $US debt, but for all debt based upon the promise to repay with interest, because global real economy now looks like it is entering an extended or permanent depression as oil, coal, copper and other extracted resources decline in quality and availablity, as extraction expenses rise.

Fabio Vighi, There is No America​ – A Short Primer on Collaps​e
The financialisation of everything
​ Financialisation is the extension of the asset form into every corner of existence. What matters is not whether something fulfils a social need, but whether it can be converted into a stream of income capable of supporting a financial valuation. Wherever predictable revenues can be extracted, an asset can be created. Wherever an asset can be created, debt can be issued against it. Wherever debt exists, new instruments can be constructed, traded, and leveraged. The result is a self-expanding architecture of fictitious capital whose growth depends upon the continuous colonisation of everyday life.
​ Housing offers the clearest example. A home was once primarily a place to live, a social institution embedded within communities and family life. Today it functions increasingly as an investment vehicle. As we learned in 2008, mortgages are bundled into securities, sold across global markets, and used as collateral within far larger circuits of speculation. Housing itself becomes secondary to the asset it generates. The persistent tension between the social function of shelter and the financial imperative of appreciation is not an unfortunate side effect of neoliberalism. It is the organising principle of hyper-financialised, debt-based capitalism.
​ The same logic has transformed healthcare. What was once conceived, however imperfectly, as a public good has become a field of financial extraction. Hospitals are acquired by investment funds, pharmaceutical companies are valued by shareholder expectations, insurance systems become opaque, and the language of care gives way to the language of return on investment. As we should have learned in 2020, patients become revenue streams, and illness becomes an asset class.
​ Education follows the same trajectory. Universities no longer primarily reproduce knowledge or cultivate citizenship. They manufacture indebted subjects. Student loans become financial products, securitised and sold, while education itself is evaluated less by what it teaches than by the future income streams it promises to generate. Thus, the student enters society as a bearer of debt whose future labour has already been partially appropriated. The same holds at the other end of the life cycle, as pensions are bundled into financial instruments.
​ Even the ordinary routines of consumption are absorbed into this logic. Credit-card balances, automobile loans, consumer finance and payday lending all become raw material for securitisation. Everyday indebtedness is transformed into tradable securities circulating through financial markets, which means that those markets profit from social insecurity.
​ Financialisation thus assetises social relations themselves. The home, the body, education, old age, attention, data, anticipated future behaviour – all become collateral against which financial wealth, amassed at the top, can be conjured as if from a magician’s hat. Every sphere of life is justified in its real existence only insofar as it can be transformed into an abstract monetary claim upon tomorrow.
​ War represents the culmination of this logic. If housing, healthcare, and education are now financial assets, war is their most spectacular expression. While rearmament is sold to the masses as the political response to an unstable geopolitical landscape, it is, above all, an enormous liquidity event for global finance. The European Union’s SAFE programme (Security Action for Europe) alone envisages up to €150 billion in common borrowing to support defence procurement; and defence exchange-traded funds are among the fastest-growing investment vehicles in European markets. What this means is that military expenditure no longer generates profits mainly through weapons manufacturers or government contracts. Instead, it generates investable financial products. Destruction itself becomes an opportunity for portfolio diversification.
​ The merchant of death has migrated from the factory floor to the trading desk. Bombed cities, displaced populations, shattered infrastructures, and even a 1,000-day long genocide disappear behind ticker symbols, derivatives, exchange-traded funds, and quarterly earnings reports – because the balance sheet is all that matters to the dehumanised subject of finance. Violence undergoes the same abstraction that finance imposes upon every other dimension of social life. War is financialised: its anticipated revenues are capitalised in advance, its future contracts discounted into present asset prices, its destruction transformed into collateral supporting fresh rounds of speculation.
​ This is the endpoint towards which fictitious capital necessarily moves. Having exhausted the productive sphere, it feeds directly upon the conditions of social reproduction itself. Nothing remains external to accumulation. Home, health, education, security, information, the natural environment and organised violence become interchangeable moments within the same cannibalising logic.
​ The catastrophic administration of systemic insolvency
The Federal Reserve – and, more generally, the institutions responsible for managing contemporary flows of capital – are caught in a contradiction from which there is no technical escape. They confront a choice between two poisons: 1. Tight monetary policy (higher interest rates), which threatens recession, financial instability, and an increasingly unserviceable mountain of public and private debt. 2. Loose monetary policy (lower interest rates), which inflates asset prices, fuels speculation, erodes purchasing power and deepens social inequality. Neither path resolves the underlying contradiction because neither addresses its cause.
​ And this framing obscures as much as it reveals. When central bankers speak of inflation, they mean the rate at which prices are rising – a statistical abstraction. What ordinary people experience, however, is not merely inflation but affordability: the actual level of prices compared to their income. The two are not the same. Inflation can be modest while affordability collapses, because wages stagnate while the cost of housing, healthcare, education and energy continues its relentless ascent. The financialisation of everyday life has ensured that the essentials of survival now appreciate faster than the wages required to purchase them. The technocratic obsession with taming inflation thus misses the point entirely (and on purpose): the problem is not that prices are rising too fast, but that living has become unaffordable for the many while remaining spectacularly profitable for the few.
​ This is why the system has now entered its terminal historical phase. It no longer governs growth; it governs the impossibility of growth on capitalism’s own terms. Every intervention is a kick of the can – it postpones rather than addresses or resolves the crisis. Each rescue operation merely transfers the contradiction to a higher level of indebtedness and financial dependence. What is presented as prudent economic management is, in reality, the continuous administration of systemic insolvency.
​ Here we can see how acceleration turns into the governing principle. Debt expands faster than production; liquidity expands faster than value; technological innovation expands faster than employment. Every apparent solution intensifies the contradiction it claims to overcome. The next interest-rate cut, when it arrives, will almost certainly be celebrated as another successful “soft landing.” Markets will rally, commentators will praise the wisdom of central bankers, and another layer of fictitious capital will be piled upon an already impossible balance sheet.
​ War, in this expanded sense, increasingly encompasses inflation, austerity, indebtedness, permanent surveillance, technological mobilisation and the financialisation of destruction itself. The algorithmic choreography of strikes on Iran and the carefully manufactured narratives around Hormuz are not exceptions – they are the template. Military expenditure, digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence, emergency governance, and financial manipulation now form a single apparatus whose function is less to resolve crises than to administer them.
​ War, in this expanded sense, is the battlefield of social reproduction. Every emergency legitimises new mechanisms of extraction; every technological innovation extends the infrastructures of surveillance and control; every financial rescue creates new opportunities for accumulation. The battlefield is no longer only a distant theatre of operations. It is also the everyday terrain on which the conditions of life itself are colonised, monetised and put to work.
​ This also exposes the central ideological illusion of our moment. We are increasingly encouraged to believe that salvation lies in a different geopolitical configuration: a multipolar order, digital currencies, artificial intelligence, or a new balance between East and West. These transformations are real, but in their current form they do not transcend the horizon we have been tracing. A multipolar capitalism remains capitalist. Digital money remains the monetary expression of value. Artificial intelligence cannot replace the living labour upon which value ultimately depends – it destroys it even further.
​ Capitalism cannot survive its present terminal crisis. The only hope we have is that the system’s catastrophic irrationality, now laid bare for all to see, might yet generate an escape route – an exit strategy from the very logic that is devouring us. The final barrier to that exit is our own delusional attachment to a collapsing constellation.​ https://fabiovighi.substack.com/p/there-is-no-america

“Fatal Cancer On Civilization”: Trump’s War On Marxism Enters Action Phase As Rubio, Miller And Bessent Address 65 Nations​ https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-live-rubio-bessent-convene-65-nations-global-crackdown-far-left-political-terrorism

US Slaps Brazil With 25% Tariffs After Rubio Says Socialist Leader “Failed To Negotiate In Good Faith”​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-slap-brazil-25-tariffs-after-rubio-says-socialist-leader-failed-negotiate-good

[John Day]

“3D Swing Rebellion”?

[John Day]

A new nationwide poll conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research has found a host of indications of the sea change in American Jewish attitudes about genocide in Gaza, and their relationship to Zionism itself.

The poll revealed NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani is more popular — by far — than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

This may be surprising. We’ve heard ad nauseum from the Anti-Defamation League and an all-too credulous media that Jews in Mamdani’s New York live in constant fear.

The AP-NORC poll revealed 44% of American Jews actually hold a favorable opinion of Mamdani. That’s the most of any politician polled, and it’s far more favorable than for Netanyahu, viewed favorably by only 32% of American Jews and negatively by a whopping 59%.

Further, researchers found only 23% of U.S. Jews said the term “Zionist” described them extremely or very well. That’s consistent with polling from earlier this year that found most U.S. Jews — 63% — do not self-identify as Zionists. https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2026/07/15/israel-is-losing-american-jews/

[John Day]

Thank You, Michael Reid, for the Alastair Crooke (even though Dr.D disparages him and his mom).

[John Day]

There is another timeline problem with the duration of chest-pain (very brief) as Graham reportedly called Trump, full of vime & vigor, then quickly dissected his aorta and died.

Has he had recent chest imaging of any kind? It would seem likely that he did.

A split in the layers of the wall of the aorta that works its way up through those layers is typically VERY PAINFUL and fairly slow, not quick like aheart attack until the very end, when it may burst open.

LG should have been hurting for at least hours or days, and would likely have hurt in chest & back intermittently for months. It is typically a sharp, searing pain that can’t be ignored.

[John Day]

Paul Marik MD with another Part-1, Preventing Breast Cancer https://paulmarik.substack.com/p/preventing-breast-cancer

[Medroxyprogesterone/Provera is horrible.] Dr. Marik with Part-2, Hormone Replacement Therapy: A Reevaluation and the Role of Bioidentical Hormones
In yesterday’s post, “Preventing Breast Cancer,” I listed hormone replacement therapy (HRT) as a risk factor for breast cancer. Many subscribers immediately asked whether that statement also applies to bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT).
​ The short answer is: not necessarily.
​ On reflection, my original statements were too broad. The relationship between hormone therapy and breast cancer is one of the most misunderstood and controversial topics in modern medicine. The landmark Women’s Health Initiative dramatically changed clinical practice, but subsequent research has shown that its findings cannot simply be applied to every form of hormone therapy. Today, we recognize that the type of estrogen, the type of progesterone, the route of administration, the timing of treatment, and the characteristics of the individual woman all influence risk.
​ This article reviews the current evidence on bioidentical hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer.​..
..The 2002 WHI dramatically changed clinical practice, but it studied specific regimens rather than all forms of HRT. In women with an intact uterus, the trial evaluated conjugated equine estrogen (CEE) plus the synthetic progestin medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA). After about five years, this regimen was associated with an approximately 24% relative increase in invasive breast cancer, along with increased breast density, more abnormal mammograms, and a small increase in breast cancer mortality on long-term follow-up. The absolute increase was modest, about 8 additional breast cancers per 10,000 women per year.
​ By contrast, women who had undergone hysterectomy received CEE alone. Long-term follow-up showed no increase in breast cancer in that group and suggested a statistically significant reduction in breast cancer incidence and mortality.​ https://paulmarik.substack.com/p/hormone-replacement-therapy-a-reevaluation

The Honest ​Sorcerer points ​out reality: We Are Not Mining with Renewable Energy​ …and when we do, shit’s going to get real​ https://thehonestsorcerer.substack.com/p/we-are-not-mining-with-renewable-104

​ Escape Key, Settled Science
We’re routinely told that the science behind climate change is settled, that the models are reliable, and that the institutions behind it would catch and correct any errors.​ Each of these claims deserves scrutiny, because none of them withstands it particularly well.​ https://escapekey.substack.com/p/settled-science

[John Day]

​ Don’t ​look: CDC Study Confirms Short-Term COVID Vaccine Reactions — But Fails to Capture Serious Delayed or Long-Term Injuries
A new CDC study presents the most comprehensive summary yet of the CDC’s V-safe active surveillance program. However, the study couldn’t establish either the absence or presence of rare or long-term vaccine-related adverse effects — questions that require different epidemiologic designs and complementary surveillance systems.​ https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/cdc-study-short-term-covid-vaccine-reactions-fails-capture-serious-delayed-long-term-injuries/

​ BREAKING: Peer-Reviewed Study Finds mRNA, SV40, and Spike Protein Can Persist in Humans for At Least 3.5 Years After COVID-19 “Vaccination”
We report the longest documented persistence of COVID-19 vaccine-derived material to date following YEARS of investigation spanning 200+ specialist evaluations and 200+ advanced lab/imaging tests.​ https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/breaking-peer-reviewed-study-finds-51c

​ Paul Marik MD, What the Public Is Not Told About Cancer Prevention
The Hidden Role of Metabolism, Lifestyle, Inflammation, and Environmental Exposure in Modern Cancer​ https://paulmarik.substack.com/p/what-the-public-is-not-told-about

​Paul Marik MD, Part-2 of story above: COVID-19 mRNA-Induced “Turbo Cancers” https://paulmarik.substack.com/p/covid-19-mrna-induced-turbo-cancers

Eat fresh veggies, avoid BBQ & beer, exercise outside, sleep… Paul Marik MD, Preventing Colo-rectal Cancer – Keeping your POOP Healthy https://paulmarik.substack.com/p/preventing-colo-rectal-cancer

[John Day]

​ From the UK, David Hughes, Why Try to Inject Everyone?
Promises that only the most vulnerable groups would be vaccinated were quickly reneged on. Within a matter of weeks, the rhetoric shifted to vaccinating everyone…​ https://dhughes.substack.com/p/why-try-to-inject-everyone

​ Pierre Kory MD, Medical Record Review Of the Twins Who Died After Vaccination And A Review Of The Literature Proving SIDS Is Caused By Vaccines
I was asked by Children’s Health Defense and the parents to review the medical records of twins found dead in their bed eight days after multiple vaccinations. Related? Yes, says the hidden science.​ https://pierrekorymedicalmusings.com/p/medical-record-review-of-the-twins

​ Study of 208 Infant Deaths Highlights ‘Unsafe’ Sleep — But Omits Key Data on Vaccination Status
Cook County, Illinois, recorded 208 sudden unexpected infant deaths from 2019 to 2023. A new analysis of the deaths focused heavily on sleep environments, concluding that “unsafe” sleeping was largely to blame. But what other conditions could account for the alarming rate? And what data did the researchers ignore or exclude?​ https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/infant-deaths-study-unsafe-sleep-omits-vaccination-status/

​ Half of SIDS Cases Occurred Within 48 Hours of Vaccination, Former Police Detective Says
In a video interview today with The Defender, a former police detective involved in the investigations of roughly 250 sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, cases said coroners didn’t include vaccination history in their reports, even when police reports included the information. “Jennifer” and her husband were detectives in the police department of a major U.S. city with a population of over 300,000 from roughly 2003 to 2010.​ https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/half-sids-cases-occurred-within-48-hours-vaccination-former-police-detective/

​Pub-Peer is an industry-weapon: Decade-Old Studies Linking Aluminum and Vaccines Come Under Fire After Anonymous PubPeer Complaints
After U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized a Danish study widely cited as proof of no association between aluminum-adjuvanted vaccines and chronic childhood disorders, two journals launched investigations into decade-old peer-reviewed papers suggesting a link. Both journals cited anonymous PubPeer comments as the basis for their investigations.​ https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/old-studies-linking-aluminum-vaccines-under-fire-pubpeer-anonymous-complaints/

[John Day]

OPENAI ALLEGEDLY STOLE APPLE’S ENTIRE PLAYBOOK​ – “Hundreds of billions of dollars, decades of work”​ https://x.com/ns123abc/status/2075739020789760078

Apple sues Open AI, accusing it of stealing trade secrets​ https://www.semafor.com/article/07/10/2026/apple-sues-open-ai-accusing-it-of-stealing-trade-secrets

​ What a Nazi! Scores Fell 50% When College Professor Made Students Take In-Person Final: Artificial Intelligence Trends
When a college professor suspected students were using AI, he made them take an in-person final. Scores fell 50% – for those who took it.​ https://ediscoverytoday.com/2026/07/10/scores-fell-50-when-college-professor-made-students-take-in-person-final-artificial-intelligence-trends/

​ A Midwestern Doctor, How Medicine Became “Too Big to Fail”
Dissecting the Anatomy of Corruption that Took Over the Federal Health Agencies and Our Economy
​ Large randomized controlled trials cost tens of millions of dollars, which turns drug approval into a pay-to-play process only industry can afford and creates enormous pressure to manipulate the results (a playbook I detailed last month).
​ The agencies meant to catch this are financially and professionally captured: industry user fees now fund roughly half the FDA’s budget, nearly every recent FDA commissioner has left for a pharmaceutical company, and scientists who push back are marginalized, surveilled, or driven out.
​ At the NIH, compliance is enforced through control of research grants (which Fauci was notorious for weaponizing) and through massive royalties from partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry.
​ Because the agencies cannot legally take corporate money directly, industry routes it through nominally independent “foundations” that act as legal bribery channels, shielded from FOIA and staffed by future pharmaceutical executives.
​ Leaked NIH emails show Bill Gates used this foundation structure to effectively merge his private foundation with the NIH (much like he did with the WHO)​. ​ https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/how-medicine-became-too-big-to-fail

​ Bill Rice Jr. seems to have it about right:​ Here’s what I think really happened with Covid
This is speculation and, while based on actual events, I used dramatic license to punch up a few scenes.​ https://billricejr.substack.com/p/heres-what-i-think-really-happened

[John Day]

Paul Craig Roberts, Latest US Supreme Court Decision Places the US in the Hands of the Monied Interests
“Whether the Democratic Party, the Republican Party or other parties, all political parties and candidates going forward can compete equally under the same rules regarding coordinated expenditures and can structure their fund-raising, spending and political speech on a level playing field as they see fit within the law.”
​ This is ignorant nonsense. The Supreme Court is saying that the monied interests it has empowered can compete on equal terms. This competition excludes the American electorate. What the Supreme Court has done is to remove any influence of voters on government policy. The government’s policy is determined by the money of the interest groups that elects presidents, federal and state representatives and senators, governors, mayors and county commissions. All American voters are permitted to do is to vote for the candidates financed by vested interests. Every American vote is pointless.
​ We, in our stupidity, call this “democracy,” and we recently celebrated our “independence” instead of acknowledging our captivity.​ https://paulcraigroberts.org/latest-us-supreme-court-decision-places-the-us-in-the-hands-of-the-monied-interests/

​ Caitlin Johnstone thinks face-recognition “robot-dogs” might be programmed to kill citizens: It’s A Race Between Revolutionary Consciousness And The Implementation Of Police Robots https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/its-a-race-between-revolutionary

Communist-Terrorists are worse than armed robots with face recognition! Rubio Convenes 60-Nation Summit To Confront Transnational Far-Left Terrorism https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/rubio-convenes-60-nation-summit-confront-transnational-far-left-terrorism

LAPD ending deal with company operating license plate-reading cameras​ https://abc7.com/post/lapd-ending-agreement-surveillance-company-flock-safety/19483200/

[John Day]

​ ‘We are not at war’ – NATO state questions bloc’s Ukraine strategy
Escalation against Russia does not guarantee a peaceful resolution, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has warned​ https://web.archive.org/web/20260710070041/https://www.rt.com/news/642800-babis-nato-ukraine-strategy/

​ Mark Carney and Volodymyr Zelenskyy Announce Creation of New Canadian Bank for NATO/Climate Money Laundering, with $900 Million Seed Money from Canadian Taxpayers
​ To establish part of the background, remind yourself that former Canadian Minister Chrystia Freeland was appointed by Zelenskyy to lead a Ukraine redevelopment operation. Today, speaking from Ankara, Turkey, Carney and Zelenskyy announced a $900 million fund for short, mid-term and long-term investment in Ukraine.​..
​..A few hours later Prime Minister Carney and Volodymr Zelenskyy announced a new Canada-based financial institution called the Defense, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB). {citation}
​ CANADA – […] “Mark Carney, welcomed the support for the Canada-led DSRB by: Albania, Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg, Romania, Türkiye, and Ukraine. These countries will be entrusted with defining the initial policies and directives of the Bank, shaping its operations and ensuring benefits flow to members’ economies.”​ […] Leveraging a strong credit rating, the Bank will provide long-term, low-cost financing for defence, security, and resilience initiatives across supply chains.” (more)
​ When you see the term “resilience initiatives” think climate change. Specifically, think carbon capture and carbon trading mechanisms. The DSRB banking approach, in combination with Chrystia Freeland heading the Ukraine Economic Development operation, then takes us to the carbon capture deal with Alberta [carbon capture and storage (CCS) project] and then, wait for it,…. The TKMS (Thyssen Krupp Marine Systems) submarine purchase contract with Germany.
​ You see, unbeknownst to most people, TKMS has a subsidiary that was just founded, literally just founded weeks before Carney announced the $20 to $30 billion submarine contract.
​ In announcing the TKMS contract, CBC noted: “The German government also proposed establishing a carbon capture facility deploying TKMS technology in partnership with Alberta.” That would be TKMS Calvion GmbH (TKMS-CG) which was a company formed within TKMS on May 16, 2026.
​ So, think about this. Mark Carney tells Alberta Premier Danielle Smith that a condition for the Alberta pipeline is authorization of a carbon capture scheme that will be contracted to the recently created subsidiary of TKMS, TKMS-CG. who Carney knows is about to get the submarine contract.​ https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/07/07/mark-carney-and-volodymyr-zelenskyy-announce-creation-of-new-canadian-bank-for-nato-climate-money-laundering-with-900-million-seed-money-from-canadian-taxpayers/

​ Ceasefire is ‘worst-case scenario’ for Ukraine – head of Zelensky’s favorite arms maker
Reaching a truce with Russia will prompt “all” Ukrainian men to flee the country, while the West will forget Kiev, the head of corruption scandal-plagued firm Fire Point has claimed​ https://web.archive.org/web/20260710052755/https://www.rt.com/russia/642818-ukraine-ceasefire-worst-scenario/

[John Day]

​ Politician says Kiev behind Monaco attack over tycoon’s plan to expose Ukraine corruption
Viktor Medvedchuk says the uncovering of the schemes “would have spelt a disaster for the Kiev regime ahead of the NATO summit”​ https://tass.com/world/2158413

​ Polish MEP tears up Ukrainian Nazi collaborator flag at EU parliament (VIDEO)
Ewa Zajaczkowska-Hernik lashed out at Kiev, insisting that “there is no moral difference between honoring the SS and honoring the UPA”​ https://web.archive.org/web/20260708132857/https://www.rt.com/news/642715-polish-mep-tears-ukrainian-nazi-flag/

​ Andrew Korybko, The European Parliament’s Condemnation of Zelensky’s Nazi Glorification
The European Parliament overwhelmingly voted to approve an amendment to last year’s Commission report on Ukraine to include language criticizing Zelensky’s recent glorification of the OUN-UPA…
..Former conservative Prime Minister Beata Szydło shared some critiques of the amendment, which are worth paying attention to. In the words of this sitting MEP, “the UPA’s murders of Poles were not defined as genocide, and there is no condemnation of the currently widespread promotion of Banderism in Ukraine. In contrast, there are many provisions (in the overall document) facilitating Ukraine’s access to the EU market—which will harm the Polish economy.”
Despite the symbolism of this move, including that it happened just before Poland commemorates the “National Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide of the Citizens of the Polish Republic Committed by Ukrainian Nationalists” on 11 July, Zelensky and company weren’t fazed. Nawrocki candidly disclosed that his meeting with Zelensky on the sidelines of last week’s NATO Summit in Ankara didn’t resolve this issue, nor did he expect it to, and he reaffirmed that it’s “non-negotiable” for him.
Lvov (known to Poles as Lwów and Ukrainians as Lviv), which is the cradle of Ukrainian nationalism, also isn’t backing away from its Regional Council’s plans to honor the UPA, its genocidal commander Roman Shukhevich, and ideologue Oleg Olzhich across the coming year. The chairman also “propose[d] to ask the regional military administration to develop a set of actions aimed at counteracting disinformation, perhaps to establish an appropriate center staffed by specialists in Polish-Ukrainian relations.”
Nowhere near as provocative but still extremely disrespectful was the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry urging Poland not to revive Nawrocki’s bill from last year banning Banderism, which was rejected by the ruling liberal coalition but might now be approved by them given their policy reversal. This echoes Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Kirill Budanov’s false warning about allegedly “immature escalatory steps” by Poland ahead of 11 July in which he also falsely compared Poland with Russia in an attempt to maximally enrage Poles.
Reflecting on the context in which the European Parliament just criticized Zelensky’s glorification of the OUN-UPA, it was a positive step but also an incomplete one since their WWII-era crimes weren’t described as genocide and the overall document backs Ukraine’s access to the EU market at Poland’s expense. Zelensky and company also weren’t fazed by this development either. Therefore, the Polish-Ukrainian dispute is far from over. https://www.globalresearch.ca/european-parliament-criticism-zelensky-oun-upa-glorification/5933047

[John Day]

Gilbert Doctorow, Russia is losing the war!
Those who listen to Scott Ritter, to Colonel Macgregor, to Larry Johnson on their nearly daily podcast appearances and believe that the inexorable progress of Russian forces on the line of contact in Donbas, moving towards the Dnieper and conquest of the entire Donbas mean RUSSIAN VICTORY are being deceived. ​ As I have been saying for some time, loss of the Donbas, even loss of Odessa will not force Ukraine to capitulate and will not put an end to the ever more damaging Ukrainian attacks on Russian critical infrastructure in the energy sector.
​ Moreover, those attacks deep inside Russia directed against infrastructure could just as easily be directed against President Putin, against his family, against the State Duma. In a word, the Russian Federation is now as vulnerable to “Ukrainian” attacks as is Kiev to Russian attacks. In that sense, the war is now at a stalemate and is going against Russia, because Kiev is waging all-out war while Russia is still holding one arm behind its back while seeking the approval of progressive humanity for its forbearance and humane behavior.
​ Why do I come to this conclusion? I was prodded to it by the latest news that the broadcaster wanted me to comment upon, namely a successful drone attack on a major refinery near Samara. Look at the map: Samara is more than 1,000 km southeast of Moscow in the heartland of European Russia. It must be close to 2,000 km from wherever in Ukraine these drones were launched. This strike was most likely using highly advanced drones supplied from Europe which are guided by military intelligence provided to Ukraine by the USA. In short, Russia is under attack from NATO, for which the Ukraine is only a dummy warrior.
​ Today’s New York Times has an article on a secret factory in Germany now providing AI controlled drones to Ukraine. This is a state-of-the-art attack system and it makes Germany a co-belligerent just as the formerly proposed delivery of its Taurus missiles would have been.
​ The consequences of these infrastructure attacks, on attacks on Russian oil tankers inside Russia as well as on the open seas, is that Russia has severe fuel shortages in many regions. It has now banned export of diesel fuel so as to compensate for shortages at home. Vice Prime Minister Novak has just announced that Russia is importing refined petroleum.
​ This situation is no longer just an inconvenience for car owners in one or another locale. It is going to cripple Russian industry, including military industry if it continues and escalates, which now seems likely.
​ Note that until recently Russia accounted for 12% of global diesel exports. That loss now is driving up fuel costs globally.
​ But for Russia, there has to be a response appropriate to the now developing existential threat: the factories producing these drones, wherever they are, in Germany or elsewhere, must be destroyed. Now! If Russia fails to act, it is going to lose the war and to lose its sovereignty, regardless of how many speeches President Putin makes calling his citizens to sit tight and ignore what is happening to them.​ https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/russia-is-losing-the-war

​ 7/8/26 John Helmer, The Ankara Summit Declaration is vague enough and precise enough to mean everything and nothing to President Donald Trump and those he regards as his subordinates, clients, and marks in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
In White House politics, it balances between the party for escalation of the war against Russia and the party for de-escalation and peace; that’s to say, pause in the war against Russia…
​..As for the Ukraine, whose drone warfighting against Russia is now being integrated within NATO strategy, plans, and staffs, Trump has extracted the new promise for this year and next of €140 billion of British, European and Canadian state budget spending in the US: “€70 billion in military equipment, assistance and training for Ukraine and…sustaining at least equivalent levels in 2027”. This is the NATO strategy of two more years of war to bring down Putin and Trump profiteering from the first war on Russian territory fought by the allies since their seven-year regime change operations between 1918 and 1925.
​ In exchange, Trump has promised to curb his tongue and tweet: “Allies underscore that this support must be equitable, predictable, and sustainable in the long-term.”
​ To exemplify what Trump thinks this means for himself, he told Vladimir Zelensky on the summit sidelines: “with respect to Ukraine. Well, we’re going to talk about that [Patriot missile systems]. Look, it’s a defensive weapon, which I like better than an offensive weapon. It’s the best… those companies that make the Patriot and make all of the great stuff, the Tomahawks, all of the great stuff. We have the best stuff, many things… one of the things I think we’re going to be talking about today, just a little birdie told me this, about the fact that we’ll give them [Ukraine] the right to make Patriots. We’ll show them how to do it. It’s very complex, actually. But you’ll figure out the complexity quickly. And we’re talking about that and we’ll — the company that makes them, which is building now four plants. You know, all of our companies will be able to do this in two to three months.​..” https://johnhelmer.net/the-nuclear-option/#more-94604

​ Trump’s ‘cruel gift’: Why Patriot license will be useless for Ukraine
The production rollout will likely face nearly impossible technological and security challenges, multiple experts argue​ https://web.archive.org/web/20260711022421/https://www.rt.com/news/642844-trumps-cruel-gift-patriot-ukraine-useless/

​ Ukrainian Expert Dismisses Trump Pledge On Patriot Missile License As Empty PR
Anatolii Khrapchynskyi, development director of the Fly Group Ukraine defense company, said Trump’s wording was ambiguous because he referred broadly to producing “Patriots,” without specifying whether he meant missiles, launchers, radar systems, command centers or components.
​ Missile production alone involves a vast supply chain, Khrapchynskyi said, with hundreds of companies making parts such as control surfaces, engines, guidance systems and communications equipment.
​ Following this, on Saturday Ukrainian economist and financial analyst Alexey Kushch – considered an expert of Ukraine’s defense production – was cited in regional media as dismissing Trump’s promise as mere empty PR.​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukrainian-expert-dismisses-trump-pledge-patriot-missile-license-empty-pr

[John Day]

​ Turkey Seeks Moscow Permission To Offload S-400s, Paving Way For US F-35 Deal​
In a move that could break a years-long defense procurement deadlock with Washington, Turkey is finalizing the sale of its Russian S-400 air defense systems to Gulf states, potentially clearing the way for Ankara to buy US F-35 fighter jets, Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reports Friday.
​ For Ankara, offloading the Russian hardware resolves a years-long costly diplomatic and military bottleneck and controversy – a situation which dramatically improved after President Trump gave a clear greenlight during the annual NATO summit in Ankara this week.​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/turkey-seeks-moscow-permission-offload-s-400s-paving-way-us-f-35-deal

​ This corridor would not use the Israeli Port of Haifa: France eyes Syria as ‘vital energy corridor’ amid Hormuz crisis
Macron visited Syria this week along with the head of TotalEnergies
​ The announcement follows French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Damascus on Tuesday, where he met with former Al-Qaeda chief and self-appointed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa to discuss regional stability.
​ Joining Macron on his visit, TotalEnergies head Patrick Pouyanne described the nation as being “at the crossroads of the Middle East,” positioning it as a vital transit link between Iraq and the Mediterranean Sea.
​ Since April, Iraq has been transporting oil through Syria by truck for re-export, exporting over 600,000 tons of fuel oil between April and June to bypass the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Last month, officials from both countries discussed rehabilitating the shared Kirkuk–Baniyas oil pipeline and establishing energy transit mechanisms. https://thecradle.co/articles/france-eyes-syria-as-vital-energy-corridor-amid-hormuz-crisis

​ The Kirkuk–Baniyas pipeline is a currently defunct crude oil pipeline built by the Iraq Petroleum Company from the Kirkuk oil field in Iraq to the Syrian port of Baniyas. The pipeline went into operation in April 1952.​.. It was the second “Big-Inch” oil pipeline in the Middle East after the 1,080-mile Trans-Arabian Pipeline in 1950.​ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkuk%E2%80%93Baniyas_pipeline

​Simplicius 7/8/26, Trump and Rubio Hopeful Ukrainian Deep Strikes Bring Russia to Negotiating Table​ https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/trump-and-rubio-hopeful-ukrainian

​ Simplicius reports Russian oligarchs are getting patriotic since sanctioned: Russian Oligarch’s True Warning Hidden in Plain Sight
The Economist published two important pieces centered on Russian “oligarch” Andrey Melnichenko, who is labeled one of Russia’s most ‘enigmatic’ wealth titans despite at times occupying first place amongst Russia’s richest men as, what Economist calls, the world’s “fertilizer king” and Russia’s “biggest industrialist”. He’s presented as particularly unique due to his more “centrist” position as someone who’s both inhabited Putin’s inner circle, yet also spent years living the Westernized liberal and Europhile lifestyle typical to Russian billionaires.​..
..The journal admits that Western sanctions actually did the opposite of their intent, and pushed Russian elite back into the state’s bosom, with Melnichenko—who chose to live in Switzerland for a long portion of his life—himself admitting that for the first time he felt Russia was his only home…
..Melnichenko was amongst the first and most astute to recognize what must be done. He decided to get back in good favor with his motherland, which he had begun to use merely as a source of extraction and profits while he enjoyed life abroad. He returned and began to ingratiate himself with Russian elites, re-learning the system and re-absorbing the true national ‘pulse on the ground’…
​..He then notes that Russia is seen as standing at a crossroads between four different potentialities, all of which sound grim, and which the Economist uses as the chief centerpiece to hook the series’ narrative on.
​ But it is a deliberately misleading hook, because they disingenuously present it as Melnichenko’s visions of a collapsing Russia with no options. In reality, Melnichenko presented the four “doom” scenarios in order to really pose his fifth redemptive one.​..
​..Critically, the theme of his entire piece can be condensed into one word: Sovereignty.
He accuses the West of trying to undermine and sabotage Russian sovereignty, and carefully implies that the broader conflict between Russia and the West revolves around the West’s disintegrating security architectures viewing Russian sovereignty as a threat to them—which is precisely accurate and true​…​ ..He goes on to pose the four scenarios, though it must be said, he specifically notes these are scenarios being discussed in the West…
​..The four scenarios Melnichenko gives are:
​ “A humiliated Russia lingering on the periphery of the West.”
Russia becomes a vassal of China, ending its relationship with the West.
​ Russia becomes fragmented and falls apart like the USSR.
Russia becomes a “fortress: closed, mobilized, in permanent siege”, and a state of “perpetual emergency.”
​ As stated, these are Western fantasies, and the ‘Overton window’ of Russia’s future that Western politicians and pundits alike would like us to believe is the only trajectory of Russia’s fate. Melnichenko tacitly disagrees, but cleverly makes sure not to make this too obvious as he’s writing for a Western audience for the purpose of reconciliation.
​ Melnichenko finally reaches the inescapable conclusion, which is that the very heart of the conflict revolves around the issue of Russian sovereignty, and by ignoring this, the Europeans doom the conflict toward existential escalation:
​ “How Russia conducts its own political process and towards what ends it directs its sovereignty is a question that can be resolved only inside Russia itself, without deference to external preferences. Any attempt to manage this process from outside is not only doomed but counterproductive: it destroys the very condition—sovereignty—without which sustainable peace is impossible in principle. This must be accepted, not out of sympathy for Russia but from the understanding that no alternative to this recognition exists.​” …
..In reality, what he’s laying out is his accurate portent for Russia’s future, one where businesses, oligarchs and citizens alike, all work toward a common sovereign revolution. This is sold as being beneficial to the West because, as he foresees things, it creates “predictable” stability—but the real threat is hidden in the message that the West is pushing Russia to become more unified and powerful than ever before.​ https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/russian-oligarchs-true-warning-hidden

[John Day]

​ Israel launches fresh airstrikes in southern Lebanon, injuring 7 despite US-brokered deal
Israeli forces hit several towns in south as framework agreement calls for phased withdrawal from Lebanese territory​ https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israel-launches-fresh-airstrikes-in-southern-lebanon-injuring-7-despite-us-brokered-deal/3995104

​ Power cuts plunge Gaza hospitals into darkness as Israeli attacks persist
Gaza is suffering from an energy crisis that is affecting hospitals struggling to treat patients amid Israeli bombing. Medical staff describe working under increasingly dire conditions as fuel and power run short.​ https://www.vespernews.com/en/news/63a3470f-6122-4b88-a4c4-138602e0a565

​ Detained Palestinian woman documents the escalation of violations inside Israeli prisons
​Shahd Muhammad Adi, 23, revealed her testimony regarding the escalation of assaults and violations that Palestinian women prisoners are subjected to inside Israeli occupation prisons.
​ The prisoner, Adi, who is a nursing graduate from the town of Beit Ummar and detained since last March 25, reported that she has been subjected to harsh mistreatment since the moment of her arrest, as she was forced under threat to take off her jilbab in very cold weather.
​ She explained in her testimony that the jailers recently stormed the women prisoners’ rooms numbers 6, 7, and 8 while they were performing the Qiyam al-Layl prayer, where they blindfolded them, and forced them to lie down on the ground, before they confiscated their copies of the Quran.
​ She described the raid of last May 13 as the “most violent”, clarifying that the prison forces used stun grenades and police dogs during it, and carried out physical assaults while voicing verbal insults and brandishing weapons.​ https://english.palinfo.com/news/2026/07/11/366494/

Report documents 1,183 Israeli violations in West Bank in one week​ https://english.palinfo.com/news/2026/07/11/366491/

​ Ro Khanna gets street-cred: US lawmaker harassed, held at gunpoint by Israeli settlers in occupied West Bank
The Jewish settlers reportedly wielded US-made rifles to intimidate the US lawmaker and his delegation​
​ Rep. Ro Khanna says that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) arrived on the scene and continued his detention, which is unsurprising considering their documented cooperation with settlers.​ https://thecradle.co/articles/us-lawmaker-harassed-held-at-gunpoint-by-israeli-settlers-in-occupied-west-bank

[John Day]

​Bait for an Israeli false-flag? Trump Left Orders To Obliterate Iran If Assassinated: ‘Bomb Them At Levels Never Seen Before’ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-left-orders-obliterate-iran-if-hes-assassinated-bomb-them-levels-never-seen

Gold & Geopolitics, Daily digest: 2026-07-12
Iran struck the GFS Galaxy, closed Hormuz, and drew a third US strike round. Iran hit the Cyprus-flagged container ship M/V GFS Galaxy in the strait; one crew member missing, engine-room fire (CENTCOM, KobeissiLetter). IRGC then declared the Strait of Hormuz closed “until further notice” (KobeissiLetter, Barchart). US launched a third round, ~140 targets that night, 300+ across three nights​…
​..Iran retaliated against US bases in six Gulf states – including its own mediator, Oman. Ballistic missiles and drones hit sites in Bahrain (5th Fleet HQ, Manama), Qatar (Al Udeid), Kuwait, Jordan (Prince Hassan / Muwaffaq Salti), UAE (first strike in two months), and Oman’s port of Duqm, a US Navy refueling hub​…
..The structural problem: after 2008, IRGC split into 31 provincial commands with pre-delegated authority to keep firing after the leadership is killed – which it was, in February. New Supreme Leader Mojtaba has shown no face, voice or video in four months, reportedly disfigured in the strike, yet is the man expected to sign a promise (shanaka86). His only message so far is a call for vengeance…
..Sen. Lindsey Graham dead at 71. His office cited “a brief and sudden illness” Saturday evening (MyLordBebo); confirmed by Barchart. He had returned from Kyiv on Friday after meeting Zelensky…
​..The prevailing read: China demand destruction is swamping the Hormuz risk. Flat-to-contango futures curves, an ~8-cent prompt spread, and China auto sales crashing point to a deflationary recession, not a shortage premium (Jeff Snider via Mark4XX).
​ The UAE is uniquely equipped to bypass the strait and hit record production, but global supply still sits 9.4 mb/d below prewar (aeberman12).
Tanker traffic through the strait had all but halted before the closure; the few inbound VLCCs are “completely insufficient” to end the shut-in​…
​..Russia-Ukraine: Bachivsk falls in Sumy; Kyiv’s air defense uncontested for 9 days; Odesa ports pounded
Russia’s MoD claims liberation of Bachivsk in Sumy (MilitarySummary, GudadzeLevan); geolocation shows Russian control of northern Konstantinovka (MilitarySummary).
​ Ukraine’s air defense is described as collapsed – roughly nine days without interceptions, Kyiv hit by Iskanders and jet-powered Geran drones that now make up 25-30% of Russian UAVs (MilitarySummary, MilitarySummary).
​ Russia ramped strikes on Odesa/Chornomorsk port infrastructure and cargo ships (AMK_Mapping, MilitarySummary); Ukraine hit back at the Syzran oil refinery (MilitarySummary) and closed the Azov Sea after destroying 28 vessels​…
..AI bubble: capex tops $1tn, now a quarter of US GDP growth​ https://no1sdailydigest.substack.com/p/daily-digest-2026-07-12

Iran crowned champion at 2026 International Mathematics Olympiad in China​ https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/07/10/771981/Iran-crowned-champion-2026-China-International-Mathematics-Competition

​ The Manufacture of Impunity. How a Political Apparatus Secures Its Crimes and Captures American Power
Gaza, Lebanon, and the Architecture of a State’s Violen​ce
​ A thousand days.​ – Say it slowly, because Gaza no longer can.
A thousand dawns over a strip of land smaller than a city, each one breaking not upon rooftops but upon their absence.
​ A thousand nights beneath the same drone that does not sleep, does not blink, does not forgive. There, time is no longer counted in seasons, or harvests, or the growth of children — it is counted in funerals, and in the funerals that could not be held, for want of hands to dig.
​ A thousand days, and the arithmetic is unbearable: more than 73,000 dead, over 173,000 wounded, 9,500 more still folded into the concrete, waiting for hands that will not come.
​ More than half of them women, the old, the very small. Twenty-one thousand of them children — a generation entered into a ledger before it could learn to read one. And twelve thousand pregnancies lost — miscarried or ended under starvation and the ruin of the hospitals: a people struck at the root, before breath.
​ They killed the ones who film it — 262 journalists. They killed the ones who dig for the living — 145 rescuers, 1,700 healers. They did not merely wage a war. They made a method of it — and the world, for a thousand days, agreed to call the method by another name.
​ This is not about a people, a religion, or a supposed nature. It is about a state, a specific government, and the machinery that has kept its crimes running in broad daylight for a thousand days. Name it precisely — and the thousand days become an indictment that no delay at The Hague, no veto in New York, no bomb out of Washington can any longer disguise.
​ In 2026 the question is no longer whether crimes are being committed. An unprecedented convergence of independent bodies has settled that. The question is by what mechanism a state commits them in full view, theorizes them, replicates them from one theater to the next, and secures the guarantee of the world’s foremost power. That is the machinery to dismantle.​ https://www.globalresearch.ca/manufacture-impunity/5932595

[John Day]

​ LINDSEY GRAHAM’S TIMELINE Last 48 hours:
1) Visits Ukrainian drone factories 2) Russia strikes drone factories 3) Graham “dies suddenly”
It could, of course, be a sudden heart attack right after returning home, but it could also be that he was struck in a drone factory by Russia.​ https://x.com/MyLordBebo/status/2076215636435288462

​ Larry Johnson, The Lindsey Graham Timeline Does Not Work… He Died in Kyiv
Let’s follow the timeline. According to the official story: 911 call from his DC residence at 8:30pm ET on July 11 for suspected cardiac arrest. He “died at home.”​ This is total bullshit!
​ So let’s go thru the timeline. Senator Graham arrived in Kyiv between 09:45–10:45 local on July 10th. The train he took from Poland departed Warsaw at 18:15 hours local on July 9th. It was an overnight train. To arrive in Poland in time to take the 18:15 train, Lindsey would have departed Dulles International Airport at around 0700 local on July 9 — the flight from Dulles to Warsaw is 9 hours.
​ So Lindsey Graham arrives in Kyiv by 11 am Friday morning. He meets with Zelensky and tours a drone factory. Then we are asked to believe that he returns to Washington, DC after spending less than 24 hours on the ground. Again, I call bullshit!!
​ The earliest train back to Warsaw departs Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi at 07:40–08:00 on the 11th and arrives Przemyśl Główny in the afternoon (~17:00–18:00). That is at least nine hours. That would make it roughly 1100 hours in Washington, DC. Let’s assume he has an hour to get to the airport and the plane takes off at 1900 hours local from Poland. The flight going west takes 10 hours… This means the earliest the plane could have landed at Dulles is midnight on the 11th. That is 3 ½ hours after Graham reportedly died at home.​ https://sonar21.com/the-lindsey-graham-timeline-does-not-work-he-died-in-kyiv/

​ “What Makes It Even Stranger…”: Trump Describes Saturday Night Phone Call With Lindsey Graham Hours Before Senator’s Death
“What makes it even stranger is that I got a call last night sometimes in, you know, the early evening, maybe in the 7:00’s. And he called and he said, “We’re all set for the Save America Act,”” Trump told host Kristen Walker. “He was pushing the Save America Act like crazy. He got back, said he just landed from Ukraine. I said, “That’s a long trip to make.””​ https://www.zerohedge.com/political/sen-lindsey-graham-dead-71-following-brief-and-sudden-illness

​July 10: Israel Hands US Curiously-Timed Intelligence Saying Iran Plotting To Assassinate Trump https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/return-war-iran-sends-ballistic-missiles-kuwait-bahrain-qatar-jordan-after-us-struck

​ Trump Took Old Air Force One To Leave Turkey As Security Measure: White House
The White House said Thursday that President Donald Trump’s departure from the NATO summit in Turkey aboard the old Air Force One was a “distraction and misdirection” intended to address threats against him.​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-took-old-air-force-one-leave-turkey-security-measure-white-house

[John Day]

Counting The Hours https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/counting-the-hours

Third Round of US Strikes Hits 140 Targets After Hormuz Ship Attack; Iran Retaliates On Kuwait, Jordan Bases
The IRGC declared the Strait of Hormuz closed “until further notice” and until the end of “American interventions.” Tehran framed its actions as defensive and retaliatory, launching ballistic missiles and drones at US-linked targets in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan (including Muwaffaq Salti Airbase), and Oman…
​..Earlier on Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi traveled to Oman on Saturday for talks on the future of Hormuz, but there was no sign of involvement by senior US envoys. Also Earlier, Iran demanded that the US implement key commitments under a recent deal before more talks take place, rejecting Trump’s contention that negotiations could continue without a ceasefire. Tehran said Washington must meet Iran’s conditions for resolving transit issues through the Strait of Hormuz ​and normalizing its oil exports.
On Friday Trump threatened to shower Iran with “1000 Missiles” if it acted on a threat to kill the US leader, “in this case, ME!”
The US had also demanded that Iran publicly declare all channels of the Hormuz open to shipping and pledge not to attack civilian vessels transiting the waterway…
..Iran has thrown Trump’s ultimatum and Saturday deadline right back at Washington, saying that instead it is the United States that must first meet the agreed-upon conditions in order to normalize shipping and energy transit in the Strait of Hormuz.
Fars news agency reports Saturday that Iranian leadership is demanding that the US implement “agreed-upon understandings” before any talks take place. While the White House has declared the ceasefire to be ‘over’ – it has also indicated ongoing contacts and talks with Iran via mediators. But this appears to have been reduced to simple ultimatums being shuttled between capitals by Qatari mediators. There are no actual sit-down talks on the horizon.​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/iran-rejects-us-talks-mojtaba-calls-vengeance-trump-warns-1000-missiles-are-locked

​ Reports vary: Tehran Declares Hormuz Closed, But Ships Are Still Transiting
“Commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz continued at reduced levels, with vessels transiting via both the southern Omani corridor and the northern Iranian-controlled route,” the Joint Maritime Information Center wrote in a note early Sunday.​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/tehran-declares-hormuz-closed-ships-are-still-transiting

​ Lindsey Graham died due to a heart attack? Lindsey Graham suffered chest pain at his D.C. home after returning from Ukraine and then went into cardiac arrest before dying. Emergency services were called to his DC home, according to police scanner audio.​..
​..GRAHAM WAS JUST VISITING DRONE FACTORIES IN UKRAINE! Russia attacked drone factories in Ukraine! Lindsey Graham “dies suddenly” I have to ask, did Russia kill Graham in Ukraine and they cover it up?​ https://x.com/MyLordBebo/status/2076209769639973327

​ The Russian Ministry of Defense reported the conduct of high-precision strikes at night weapons long-range and strike dronesThe main targets of the attack were military-industrial complex enterprises in Kyiv, which specialize in the production of medium- and long-range unmanned aerial vehicles for the Ukrainian military…​
..According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Kyiv-71 and Burevestnik facilities, as well as military airfield infrastructure in the Kyiv region, were damaged. Large fires and plumes of smoke from secondary detonations of the munitions were observed at the impact sites.​ https://en.topwar.ru/286076-rossijskie-sily-nanesli-udary-po-obektam-vpk-ukrainy-po-vypusku-dronov-v-kieve.html

[John Day]

Thank You for the timeline, Michael Reid.

[John Day]

Chinese e-commerce platforms are selling miniature heads that, according to Fred Lambert at the EV blog Electrek, are being used to “trick Tesla’s cabin camera into thinking a driver is paying attention.” https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/doll-heads-apparently-fooling-tesla-fsd-facial-recognition-update-next

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