+ Trump has amassed staggering wealth in ‘most openly corrupt’ presidency
Dear Subscribers,
I haven’t been publishing a lot at the Important News because:
1. Half the world is on vacation – I’m in Italy currently and ½ the businesses in Padua have closed as (almost) all of Italy heads to the beach the first 2-3 weeks of August! Other folks are taking their kids to college so we have been working on the new publishing platform and getting ready…Coming soon!
2. We have been getting ready to drop some MAJOR bomb shells once everyone is back from vacay - The biggest being a new book I wrote that will be called: Organized Crime Theory (OCT) – The Surprisingly Scholarly and Well Evidenced Case that “Government” is Organized Crime.
What started out as a chapter in our upcoming book: Voluntaryism – How the Only “ISM” Fair for Everyone Leads to Harmony, Prosperity and Good Karma for All, turned into a book length treatment. Unlike “Government” – The Biggest Scam in History… Exposed!, which made the case BUT did do with speculation in a format that was easy to dismiss, Organized Crime Theory (OCT) makes the case in a scholarly way designed to give any college political science professor or high school civics teacher promoting “government” an intellectual curb stomping!
We could use some help getting the book out and I am happy to share a preview copy with any heavy hitters that could help us with the initial print run and marketing campaign. E-mail me at Etienne (at) ArtOfLiberty.org if you are interested.
I’ll also send a preview copy to anyone who joins as a Sponsor ($125), Sustaining Member ($500), Patron ($1000), Benefactor ($5000) or President’s Club ($25,000) in addition to the other amazing perks we have to say THANK YOU!
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See my article: CIA Contractor Peter Thiel’s Secret Dialog Society Exposed - Membership List with CFR, Bilderberg & WEF Members Identified to understand how Epstein was connected to CIA Contractor Peter Thiel and other top tier attendees of his Dialog Society.
Top Stories of the Week
Trump has amassed staggering wealth in ‘most openly corrupt’ presidency
Ethics experts and Democrats express alarm as Trump uses office to grow his personal fortune to ‘unprecedented’ level
By Peter Stone in Washington, The Guardian
Donald Trump’s use of his second presidency to grow his personal fortune has alarmed legal and ethics experts and congressional Democrats as he has reaped an “unprecedented” $2.2bn in 2025 revenues by amassing big cryptocurrency holdings, benefiting from wealthy foreign interests, expanding his Truth Social business and more, while federal oversight of his actions has waned.
Trump last year raked in at least $1.4bn from his crypto ventures according to financial disclosure forms he filed in June. Simultaneously, about one million investors in a Trump crypto scheme suffered almost $3.8bn in losses as their volatile crypto holdings tanked in value.
WSJ Catches Up, Discovers AI’s Off-Balance Sheet Liabilities Are $3 Trillion And Growing $1.2 Trillion Per Quarter
More than two months ago, long before most Wall Street analysts had any clue that the bulk of the AI buildout commitments were diligently hidden in various off-balance sheet SPVs and other (perfectly legal) accounting gimmicks, we wrote a lengthy article detailing just that, and explaining why far beyond the $1 trillion (and rapidly rising) in annual plain vanilla capex -- all of which now has to be funded through debt issuance since free cash flow across the hyperscaler universe is negative for the foreseeable future (if not forever) -- which most pundits obsess over daily...
... the real risk was in the “The $1.8 Trillion Off-Balance Sheet Time Bomb At The Heart Of The AI Supercycle.”
Videos of the Week
In a recent interview, food scientist Sue Becker uncovered the dark history of modern flour.
In a recent interview, food scientist Sue Becker uncovered the dark history of modern flour. She explained how industrial milling removed the bran, germ, fibre, vitamins, minerals and essential oils from wheat to create a softer, longer-lasting white flour – and how many of those valuable byproducts ended up in animal feed.
The interview explores the rise of “enriched” flour, bleaching agents, nutrient deficiencies, gluten intolerance, digestion, stomach acid, celiac disease and the difference between store-bought flour and bread made from freshly milled whole grains.
In 1992, Sue Becker started The Bread Beckers, a kitchen equipment and natural foods supplier in Cherokee County, Georgia, USA, which also offers nutritional education through classes, books and online resources.
Dr. Sam Bailey Video (12 minutes): The Predatory Logic of the State by Agustín Toptschij
The onset of the COVID-19 fraud in early 2020 created a wave of resistance against what many people claimed was “government overreach”.
By Dr Sam Bailey
The onset of the COVID-19 fraud in early 2020 created a wave of resistance against what many people claimed was “government overreach”. However, most nations declared that nothing “illegal” took place even when their actions caused devastation and deaths. Although this might seem shocking, it comes as no surprise when a stark truth is realised: the state is the judge in its own cause.
In 2023, we produced a video version of “The Mortal God Drops Its Mask” by W.D. James. The essay exposed the ideological and euphemistic notions of the ‘state’ for what it really is: a blunt instrument to crush dissent and individuals’ rights. Now in a new essay, “The Predatory Logic of the State”, Agustín Toptschij expands on the concept to explain why the state is not just dangerous but an active predator of civilisation.
Indeed, our enemy “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) It may seem to be a depressing situation but those in the Austrian tradition of Human Action will appreciate that our choices influence the outcome. As Paul Cudenec said in 2024, “The Corruption is Real and Sickening” but we can and should do something about it!
Etienne Note: Friday funny... Posting cause its funny and my son lives in West Hartford... The ridiculousness of the “government” school system... Since the woman’s background is as a school administrator, I am illustrating with some scholarship from the Cato Institute and Atlas Society that I updated and “pro-modified” for the occasion.
By Station Gossip
In footage shared by Libs of TikTok, LaToya Yagaloff, a Democrat vice chair of the board, can be heard making the case during a public meeting that black teachers deserve higher pay based on their race.
Yagaloff claims that financial incentives will attract greater diversity.
Voluntaryist Charity of the Week
Etienne Note: Art of Liberty Foundation supporter Mark Barrett is facing a trial for refusing to submit to the organized crime “governments” fees and rules about hiking on “public” lands. Mark’s harassment, fines, and upcoming court appearance lay bare the organized crime government’s lies about “public lands.” They aren’t really the public’s... The organized crime “government” seized the coolest land in the US, blocked it off, and charges fees to use it. They got a bunch of shave-headed cult members to threaten people with violence if they don’t pay. It is only because of people like Mark who understand their rights (A “Right” is anything that is not a Wrong in the natural law tradition... If you aren’t hurting anyone, then you should be left alone) that expose the scam to other. I am making his Give-Send-Go our violuntaryist charity of the week to help support him in the resistance that exposes the lies of “government” to others. Please share his case around and kick in if you can!
“Government”, Media and Academia
Criminality Exposed
Etienne Note: These articles also appears in “Government”, Media and Academia Criminality Exposed, A digest of HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of articles exposing and suggesting inter-generational organized crime’s control of the “Government,” Media and Academia by the Art of Liberty Foundation. You can view the other articles or subscribe on Telegram: https://t.me/Government_Scams
Your Tax Dollars At Work: 20 Port Authority Workers, 17 Cops, Make Over $400,000
Apparently, one of the best ways to make $400,000 a year in the New York area is to work for the Port Authority, according to the NY Post.
By Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge
Apparently, one of the best ways to make $400,000 a year in the New York area is to work for the Port Authority, according to the NY Post.
Twenty Port Authority employees, including 17 cops, cleared $400,000 in total compensation last year as the agency’s payroll sailed past $1.2 billion. And much of the magic came from everyone’s favorite government money fountain: overtime.
Whitney Webb explains how Leslie Wexner privatized Ohio’s state government, and is using his position between the markets and the state to help the Thielverse build out the ‘Silicon Heartland.’
By Chris Hedges, The Unz Review
Whitney Webb explains how Leslie Wexner privatized Ohio’s state government, and is using his position between the markets and the state to help the Thielverse build out the ‘Silicon Heartland.’
Under the radar, the billionaire class is building the infrastructure and models necessary to create a dystopian future in which cities become billionaire fiefdoms – completely privatized, governed by dictatorial CEOs and financed by subservient taxpayers. The buildout of data centers is one essential part of the effort to construct a totalitarian capitalist society, which is already advancing.
Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon picks raise questions over Trump family business ties
Two advisers have links to a venture fund co-investing in US defense companies that benefit from federal spending
Etienne Note: Both Masters and Anderssen are connected to CIA Contractor and Palantir founder Peter Thiel: Masters was COO of Thiel Capital and president of the Thiel Foundation, resigning March 2022 to run for Senate where Thiel seeded the pro-Masters Saving Arizona PAC with $10 million (April 2021), then added $3.5 million (May 2022) — $13.5M total, one of the largest single-donor bets on one Senate candidate that cycle. Masters lost to Mark Kelly. Andreessen is a Dialog Society attendee with a track record of investing in all the social media platforms that have been caught algorithmically censoring information on the DARPA Internet. See my recent article: The REAL Story Behind CIA Contractor Peter Thiel’s Dialog Society - Weaponized Inflation, Media Control & AI Kill Drone
By Jason Wilson, The Guardian
Pete Hegseth’s appointments to a key Pentagon advisory body include two men with ties to the venture capital fund where Donald Trump Jr is a partner, which has lucrative investments in military and space technology.
Defense Policy Board appointee Marc Andreessen’s firm, Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley’s largest venture capital firms and known by the name “a16z”, co-invests alongside the Trump partnership 1789 Capital in three defense contractors. Fellow DPB appointee Blake Masters also sits on the boards of three ventures tied to 1789 Capital.
The Art of Liberty Foundation... in Spanish!
We are adding a new section to Five Meme Friday to promote our new Substack, Telegram group, Instagram, and translations of To See the Cage is to Leave It - 25 Techniques the Few Use to Control the Many in Spanish. Please tell your Spanish speaking friends! “Go Paid” on our Spanish Substack to support getting voluntaryist ideas, books, and memes translated into Spanish AND get a free paperback copy of To See the Cage is To Leave It in Latin American Spanish.
La VERDADERA historia detrás de Dialog Society, la organización de Peter Thiel (contratista de la CIA): Inflación instrumentalizada, control de medios y drones de matanza con IA
Factor común: Son las mismas personas que están robando el valor de nuestro dinero mientras censuran algorítmicamente la información en el Internet de DARPA y construyen robots y drones tipo Terminato
Antes de profundizar en los detalles sobre Dialog Society, la organización secreta de Peter Thiel (contratista de la CIA) que ha sido descubierta organizando reuniones secretas con participantes de Wall Street, la Reserva Federal, funcionarios de agencias de inteligencia del gobierno de EE. UU. y los directores de medios de comunicación y empresas de IA que censuran información algorítmicamente en el Internet de DARPA (¡y que están construyendo robots y drones tipo Terminator!), es importante que los no iniciados entiendan el fraude del “gobierno”.
Es igualmente importante entender cómo los bancos y los intereses del crimen organizado detrás del “gobierno” (y de Dialog Society de la CIA) están robando el valor del dinero de todos, obligándolos a pedir prestado (¡o a pedir aún más prestado!) a interés a esos mismos bancos, haciendo que la vivienda, la atención médica y la educación sean inaccesibles. Si ya entiendes el fraude del “gobierno”, la banca de reserva fraccionaria y cómo le están robando $1.40 millones de dólares al trabajador promedio (un salario anual de $60 mil dólares a lo largo de una carrera de 40 años + 20 años de jubilación), puedes saltar directamente a los detalles sobre Dialog Society
“Daily News of The Week”
An Essay on the Injection That Created the Epidemic
Unbekoming, Lies are Unbekoming
Peanut allergy is the clearest available case of the mechanism I have been arguing throughout this series. The condition did not exist as a category before the mid-1940s. It rose slowly for forty years as peanut oil was injected through antibiotics and vaccine adjuvants. Then it exploded following two changes that arrived together in the mid-1980s: the newborn phytomenadione injection with its castor oil base, and the expansion of the aluminum-adjuvanted pediatric vaccine schedule. In the same window, Japanese doctors documented the same mechanism with a different vaccine ingredient, named it, and fixed it. Western regulators have not. That difference is the subject of this essay.
The essay operates in two registers. When quoting or paraphrasing the establishment, I use its vocabulary: “immune system,” “antibodies,” “allergy,” “vaccine.” When speaking in my own voice, I use the terrain vocabulary: the body responding to injury, sensitization from injected foreign proteins, the cleansing and repair networks. The establishment’s language is being examined; my own is stating what the evidence shows.
Collapsing Empire: US Creates New African Psyops Unit
By Kit Klarenberg, Global Delinquents
Independent journalist David Hundeyin has exposed the Pentagon’s new psychological operations unit targeting Africa, “Drongo Company”. Tasked with “expanding the military’s ability to influence foreign audiences” across the continent, its heavily hyped launch occurs against a backdrop of dramatically and irreversibly waning Western influence and power in every sphere across the continent. As Africans steadily rid themselves of unwelcome foreign occupiers and oppressors, the US is forced to rely on strategies of manipulation to stem the tide, which have already failed spectacularly. They will surely misfire yet again.
Based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina - home to AFRICOM - Drongo Company’s nickname is inspired by a bird native to Africa, known for precisely imitating other species’ warning calls, and using other deception tactics to drive other animals away from food. The Pentagon reportedly “selected the name to reflect the unit’s focus on influencing perceptions and behavior.” Fittingly, a May 2014 Science paper found the drongo can mimic other species’ sounds and manipulate adversaries with unparalleled, almost human sophistication.
Task & Purpose notes Drongo Company’s creation “comes amid a shift in US military strategy in Africa,” which is quite an understatement. Washington is on the run across the continent, with combat units and occupation forces being withdrawn from multiple countries over recent years. In September 2024, over 1,000 soldiers departed Niger, while a $100 million drone base was abandoned. An anti-ISIS mission in Nigeria controversially launched this March was abruptly terminated in July, due to a cataclysmic inability to achieve its objectives.
Ukraine’s Air Defense Crisis Turns Global as Russian Ferocity Puts Country on Brink
By Simplicius
The crisis in Ukraine continues to come to a desperate head. After offering various ceasefires to Russia, Zelensky is now apparently beginning to make some limited concessions:
The Russian strike campaign against Odessa and surrounding infrastructure has been sending the Ukrainian commentariat into a panic. Major Ukrainian supply chain distributors have been admitting that Russian attacks have wiped out their warehouses as stores begin to empty—a clear repercussion of Zelensky’s campaign against Russia’s Wildberries:
A Ukrainian analytical center reports that Russia’s attacks on the ports have caused Ukraine’s iron output to decline by up to 35%, and that 2026 is the most difficult year since the start of the war:
Enshittification: how the Globalists are making everything worse on purpose
This is a black pill, but to survive, we must face the facts.
By Robert Yoho (MD), Surviving Healthcare
My friend Polymath Paul sent me many of the references for this post. Writer and activist Cory Doctorow named the phenomenon in his October 2025 book, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It. Additional material comes from Ars Technica, The Tyee, the Mozilla Foundation, and the Unbekoming Substack. The verdicts are mine.
• Enshittification, Cory Doctorow’s term for the deliberate degradation of products and services, follows a predictable cycle. Attract users with quality, exploit them to satisfy business customers, then squeeze everyone until the whole thing collapses.
• Doctorow blames market structure. He is half right. Psychopaths run the consolidated corporations and the Globalist-funded institutions, and their behavior goes beyond profit. They damage families, food, and housing with apparent enthusiasm.
Eli Lilly’s multibillion-dollar acquisition of a company that makes experimental psychedelic therapies marks the largest investment yet by a drugmaker in psychedelic medicine
By Henrick Karoliszyn, The Defender
Eli Lilly’s multibillion-dollar acquisition of a company that makes experimental psychedelic therapies marks the largest investment yet by a drugmaker in psychedelic medicine as a treatment for depression. But pharma’s entry into the market raises questions about patents, profits and the future of psychedelic therapy.
Eli Lilly’s multibillion-dollar acquisition of AtaiBeckley marks the largest pharmaceutical investment yet in psychedelic medicine, signaling a new phase for an industry once relegated to the margins of scientific research.
The deal, valued at approximately $2.8 billion upfront with up to $1 billion in additional milestone payments, gives Lilly control of AtaiBeckley’s experimental psychedelic therapies, including BPL-003, a fast-acting nasal spray containing N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) being studied for treatment-resistant depression.
Private Equity Is Stuck With 33,575 Unsold Businesses
Even amid a booming deal-making environment, private equity firms are unable to exit a growing number of investments at values their investors require.
By Maureen Farrell, New York Times
The long-awaited deal-making boom has finally arrived. SpaceX set a record for the world’s largest initial public offering. David Ellison is pursuing a $110 billion deal linking Paramount with Warner Bros. The utility firm NextEra Energy has struck a deal to buy Dominion Energy that values it at more than $120 billion.
But private equity — a deal-making machine for decades — is largely sitting on the sidelines. For the third consecutive year, private equity firms are saddled with a rapidly increasing number of companies that they cannot sell or take public at the returns their investors expect.
As of June 30, private equity firms had 33,575 unsold companies in their portfolios, according to PitchBook, an industry data firm. That’s up from 32,451 companies at the end of last year and 15,923 companies a decade ago.
Yen Carry Trade Blow Up-Financial Equivalent of All-Out Nuclear War – Jim Rickards
By Greg Hunter, USAWatchdog.com
Eight-time, best-selling financial author Jim Rickards is warning of a financial calamity already underway that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is trying to contain. It is the Japanese yen carry trade where the US Treasury is propping up the yen’s value. Is the yen carry trade coming to a halt and can it blow up things? Rickards says, “The answer is yes and yes. . .. Somebody wrote me and asked if the yen carry trade is a big deal? I wrote them back and said there is nothing bigger. This is actually the biggest story in the world.”
In simple terms, the problem is people have been borrowing at 0% in yen to do deals around the world. Everything was fine until interest rates in Japan started going up after more than two decades. Rickards says, “This is the engine of global economic growth. It has been powering the US economy and the global economy for over 30 years. What could go wrong? The thing that could go wrong the fastest is if Japanese interest rates went up. . .. The bank of Japan says it is going to keep raising interest rates. It’s not going to the moon, but 3% for yen (and Japanese) interest rates is like going to the moon when it’s been 0% for 20 years. So, now, the yen carry trade is unwinding. . .. The original borrower borrows dollars to pay back the yen loan, swaps the yen and pays back the yen loan. What if you can’t borrow? What if the bank says sorry, no soup for you. . .. Now, what do you do if you want to get out of the yen carry trade? You have to sell assets.
A mapping tool to help you map hazards around where you live or where you want to relocate to
Today I’m announcing that lookoutmap.com is live! It’s a detailed U.S. map of every hazard you could think of, with 70 layers and counting. It answers questions like:
- “Is there an EPA Superfund site near me?”
- “Are there Flock cameras on the way to work?”
- “How much glyphosate is being sprayed near that property I want to make an offer on?”
- And many more.
The World’s Vegetables Are Vanishing, And It’s Quietly Wrecking Our Diets
By Jess Cockerill, Science Alert
Most of us aren’t eating anywhere near enough vegetables, and we’re suffering the health consequences.
Meanwhile, we’re also growing fewer and fewer varieties of vegetables, adding to the declining diversity in our diets.
A new report published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by an international team of nutrition, agriculture, and botany experts suggests embracing vegetable biodiversity could be key to improving our own health, and that of our planet.
A senior Iranian official said Tehran privately told Vance the pair were exploiting the negotiations for financial gain. The Trump administration says it never happened.
By Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim, Drop Site
During the U.S.-Iran talks in Lake Lucerne, Switzerland in late June, Iranian negotiators sent a private message to Vice President JD Vance through an intermediary. The Iranians warned Vance that the continued presence of President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner would undermine the chance of turning the June 17 framework into an enduring deal, a senior Iranian official told Drop Site.
The Iranian official spoke to Drop Site on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly. In the message, according to the official, Iran conveyed to Vance that the pair were more interested in exploiting insider knowledge of the negotiations to profit in financial markets than they were in reaching a deal. Iranian negotiators also expressed concern about repeated leaks from Kushner to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (A U.S. official told Axios that since the negotiations began, Witkoff and Kushner “talk almost every day to Netanyahu” and the head of Mossad.)
In the weeks leading up to the signing of the memorandum of understanding, the official said, Iran presented written documentation to mediators of what it characterized as evidence that “individuals close to President Trump” were abusing the Iran war and diplomatic developments to manipulate financial markets. “Even before the Islamabad talks kicked off [in April], we had already sent multiple messages to Trump through the Pakistanis, warning them about [Witkoff’s] overall destructive role in the previous negotiation,” the Iranian official said.
At a recent speech Ukraine’s former Commander-in-Chief Valeri Zaluzhny made a stunning admission.
By Simplicius
At a recent speech Ukraine’s former Commander-in-Chief Valeri Zaluzhny made a stunning admission.
He stated that over the course of the Ukrainain conflict, Russia has managed to turn every single Western wunderwaffen or “superweapon” into useless junk:
His actual words in detail:
NVDA confirmed the earlier reporting (that it has signed agreements with six of the largest finance houses on Wall Street to mobilize a $500 billion package to fund the artificial iintelligence
By Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge
Update (1630ET): After the bell, NVDA confirmed the earlier reporting (that it has signed agreements with six of the largest finance houses on Wall Street to mobilize a $500 billion package to fund the artificial intelligence infrastructure build-out), with a press release quoting each of the BSDs involved in depth.
“NVIDIA has reached an important milestone. We began by building chips; today, we are helping create a new class of productive, investable infrastructure: AI factories,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “In AI, compute is revenue. NVIDIA compute is uniquely suited for this role. It is broadly adopted, flexible across models and workloads, fungible and transferable across customers and operators, and continuously improved through CUDA software — extending its useful life and improving its economics over time. It is supported by a deep global ecosystem of developers, customers and offtakers. That is why we are bringing the world’s leading long-term capital providers together to independently underwrite AI infrastructure. These financing platforms will help customers access scarce compute at scale and build the AI factories that will power every industry and country in the age of AI.”
“Modern compute has emerged as a scarce, mission-critical asset class with compelling investment characteristics that is positioned to drive significant long-term economic growth and productivity gains,” said Apollo President Jim Zelter.
When Society Breaks: The Human Threats You’ll Face in a Real SHTF Collapse
By OFFGRID Survival
Everybody who preps spends their first dollars in the wrong place. Water filters, food buckets, a generator, maybe a gun and a few boxes of ammo. All good. All necessary. But almost nobody preps for the thing that’s actually going to try to hurt them, and it isn’t the hurricane, the blackout, the earthquake, or the empty grocery store. It’s people. People who didn’t prep, people who prepped for all the wrong things, and people who were always a little rotten and just needed the lights to go out to finally show you who they really were.
The disaster itself is the easy part. A disaster is weather and physics, and you can plan for weather. What you can’t plan for so easy, and what nobody wants to think about, is what your fellow human beings turn into about seventy-two hours after the trucks stop rolling and the faucet runs dry.
I want to walk through this the honest way, using stuff that actually happened, not Hollywood and not doom-for-clicks. Because the real story is bad enough on its own, and the guys who lived through it will tell you the same.
Study Finds 93% Of Avocado Oil Chips Contain Other Oils. There Is A Solution ...
By Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge
A new University of California, Davis, study found that a shocking number of avocado oil-labeled chips at the supermarket, marketed as a healthier alternative to toxic seed-oil chips, might not be made with pure avocado oil and, in fact, contain other oils.
UC Davis researchers tested 54 avocado oil-labeled products purchased from California supermarkets and online retailers in 2025 and 2026 and found that 48, or 89%, contained cheaper oils despite being labeled as containing premium avocado oil. The failure rate included 93% of chips, and beyond the snack aisle, 71% of mayonnaise products and 100% of salad dressings tested also failed.
“Consumers are increasingly paying a premium for products made with avocado oil or olive oil,” lead author Selina Wang, Professor of Cooperative Extension in the UC Davis Department of Food Science and Technology, stated in a press release. “They deserve to get what they pay for and food manufacturers deserve confidence that the ingredients they purchase from suppliers are authentic.”
Wrappers & Repacks – How Wall Street is turning private credit into investment grade bonds
Oh My Fucking God, They’re Doing It Again
By Quoth the Raven, QTR’s Fringe Finance
Assholes who wear Vineyard Vines all summer on Wall Street have once again put those Wharton PhD’s to good use by again “discovering” that assets so toxic and illiquid they make drinking cement taste like Fiji water apparently become safe when you rearrange them, rename them, and place an insurance company between the losses and the people buying them. Sound familiar?
According to Bloomberg, UBS and other firms have been exploring structures that package stakes in private-credit funds into bonds. Because perpetual private-credit vehicles do not fit neatly into conventional ratings models, bankers are looking to add insurance “wrappers” that allow portions of the deals to inherit the insurer’s stronger credit profile. The resulting paper can then be marketed as investment grade, even though the assets underneath remain opaque, illiquid private-market investments.
On These Motorcycles, the Thrill Is Truly Electric
With gas prices high, people in developing countries are lining up to buy battery-powered bikes. The Iran war has made Trump “salesman of the year,” one executive in Pakistan said.
By Chico Harlan and Zia ur-Rehman, The New York Times
Photographs and Video by Asim Hafeez
Reporting from Lahore, Pakistan
The frenzy started on a single street in Lahore, Pakistan, where a half-dozen showrooms sprang up selling the same thing — electric motorcycles — and still couldn’t keep up with demand. As gasoline prices soared this year a seventh store opened, followed by an eighth. Another two are doing business just around the corner.
Vaccine Cartel Desperately Clings to New MMR Vaccine–Autism “No Link” Study Riddled With Major Flaws
No truly unvaccinated control group, no clinical autism adjudication, no parent interviews, no independent vaccine-record verification, and a narrow ICD-coded autism definition.
By Nicolas Hulscher, MPH
A new Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal study is being promoted by the pharma-captured mass media apparatus as a massive 2.56-million-child analysis disproving an MMR–autism association, but major methodological problems undermine the entire paper.
They did not use a truly unvaccinated control group, did not clinically adjudicate autism, did not interview parents, did not independently verify vaccine histories, and used a narrow ICD-coded autism definition.
Most importantly, there was no true unvaccinated control group. The comparison children were only those without a recorded MMR vaccination during the relevant analysis. They were not required to be vaccine-naive and could have received other routine childhood vaccines. The study itself reports that 62.1% of the overall cohort received a PCV booster.
No, Trump’s Vaccine Executive Order is NOT “Good News”
Still recommends deadly vaccines and benefits vaccine manufacturers
By Peggy Hall, The Healthy American
Picture it: A person in a white coat, holding down a terrified, panicked, hysterical screaming infant flailing to break free, not understanding why mommy is just standing there while the abuse is happening (or maybe even mommy is restraining the child while the abuse is taking place and the poison is being injected into the tiny body.
Even if the syringes were filled with nothing but saline, the NEEDLES themselves are traumatizing to the child. The poking and prodding, the VIOLENT ASSAULT to the tiny body occurring all in the name of “science.”
And Trump wants it to continue.
What Happens To Your DNA After Just One Month Of Eating Vegan
By StudyFinds Analysis
A one-month vegan diet was linked to a statistically significant 1.7-year drop on one biological aging clock, though the direct comparison to the meat-rich group didn’t reach significance.
Genome-wide DNA changes tied to cancer-related pathways and inflammation looked promising but didn’t survive statistical correction, so they remain preliminary.
Predicted immune cell shifts, including lower neutrophils and higher CD4+ T cells in the vegan group, closely tracked real blood test results and were statistically significant.
US Immigration agents to use electric shock gloves
‘Humane’ devices that deliver jolt of pain will be used by ICE agents
By Chanel Zagon, The Telegraph
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will be given gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks.
Officers and agents could be fitted with the “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices” by March, according to a notice published on Monday by the Department of Homeland Security.
The devices, called Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter (G.L.O.V.E.), have been used in recent years by some jails and police departments in the US.
Diesel desperation is mounting globally
By Ben Geman
The state of the global diesel market is getting even more precarious as the Russia-Ukraine war and the Iran crisis squeeze supply from multiple angles.
Why it matters: Diesel prices ripple through economies here and abroad, affecting shipping costs, construction and plenty in between.
The average U.S. price is up 44 cents over the last month to $5.32 per gallon, compared to $3.71 a year ago, per AAA.
Social Media Ruthlessly Mocks Everyone Involved
Etienne Note: I am illustrating our version with some images from social media mocking the smiling and clapping crowd celebrating something that really wasn’t anything to be celebrating at all. Statism and “government” legalizing the killing of babies is truly creepy...
By R. Cort Kirkwood, The New American
Pro-abortion Democratic Governor Maura Healey of Massachusetts, a renegade Catholic who once had an audience with Pope Francis, signed into law a bill that essentially legalizes infanticide.
The Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act removes all gestational limits on murdering the unborn. Bay State women can now murder their child up to the moment of birth.
By Victor Tangermann, Futurism
In light of plummeting public support for its widespread automatic license plate readers, surveillance company Flock has lost dozens of contracts with cities across the US.
The company even drew up plans to use the dashcams installed in Uber and Lyft drivers’ cars to spy on other vehicles, as 404 Media reported this week.
Citizens are increasingly disgusted by the company’s presence on public streets, opting to hack down the cameras, blind them, or sabotage them in other creative ways.
Grok went from meme chatbot to legitimate top-tier contender, and a 60% discount is how you start a price war nobody’s margins are ready for. Musk says Grok 4.7 lands “in weeks.”
By xAI
Today we are releasing Grok 4.6. Grok 4.6 builds on Grok 4.5 with a particular focus on long-running agents and more ambitious interactive and visual work. It stays with complex tasks across many steps, whether researching a topic, analyzing information, working across a codebase, or turning an idea into a polished application or work artifact.
Grok 4.6 achieves frontier intelligence across several agentic coding and knowledge work benchmarks. It matches GPT-5.6 Sol on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, which is a composite score of nine benchmarks.
Grok 4.6 is available today in Cursor and Grok Build. We’re offering 2x included usage inside Grok Build and Cursor for the first week so you can start trying 4.6 immediately.
Simplicius: Encore at the Cirque Du Hormuz - The Greatest Show on Earth!
The unhinged nature of Trump’s Iranian debacle continues to descend into something truly bathetic.
By Simplicius
The unhinged nature of Trump’s Iranian debacle continues to descend into something truly bathetic.
It calls to mind the popular description of the fall of Rome, one variation of which reads something like: “The average Roman citizen hadn’t noticed their empire had collapsed until one day the roads and bridges simply stopped being repaired.”
In this case, American society lives in a state of Normalcy Bias, as spray-tanned politicians bleat about some kind of ‘Golden Age’, while virtually everything associated with the American empire slowly goes to hell in a hand basket.
Private texts reveal they knew. Public statements show they lied. Thousands of mothers and babies paid the price.
By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
Recent developments orchestrated in the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs chairman Ron Johnson have been effective in changing public opinion, not only about Dr Anthony Fauci, but the entire pandemic response and in particular, the COVID-19 vaccines. I sat down with Dallas podcaster Grant Stinchfield to answer questions. As usual Grant was prepared.
Grant Stinchfield hosted Dr. Peter McCullough for a blistering examination of newly revealed text messages between Dr. Anthony Fauci and then-CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, exposing that top public health officials privately acknowledged the COVID vaccines’ potential to cause miscarriages — while publicly insisting they were safe for pregnant women.
The centerpiece of the episode is a Fauci-to-Walensky text message where he warned:
Dark Chocolate May Come with a Heavy Metal Catch
An eight-year analysis of 72 cocoa products found that 43% exceeded California limits for lead and 35% exceeded limits for cadmium
By Dr. Joseph Mercola
An eight-year analysis of 72 cocoa products found that 43% exceeded California limits for lead and 35% exceeded limits for cadmium, showing that heavy metal contamination remains common in dark chocolate
The chocolate bar you choose matters because contamination levels varied dramatically between products, meaning two similar-looking bars could expose you to very different amounts of heavy metals
Organic, fair trade, and non-GMO certifications did not reliably identify products with lower contamination levels, and some organic chocolates contained higher cadmium concentrations
Upcoming Liberty Events
Northeast Unschooling Conference, Pittsfield, MA, US, August 15th – 18th, 2026
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Summer Hoot Olivebridge, NY, August 28-30
Free Cities Conference, Roatan, Honduras, September 3rd – 6th, 2026
Turning the Tide: 9/11 – 25 Years Later — El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY September 10–13, 2026
Truth Be Told - The Mega Event (Six-Hour Livestream), Online, September 17th, 2026
VonuFest, Illinois, US, September 21st – 28th, 2026
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The Natural Freedom Summit – Reclaim Your Health. Reignite Your Purpose. Reconnect with Nature, Online Event, Dates TBA, 2026
Granite Freedom Trek, New Hampshire, October 17, 2026.
The 2026 Christians for Liberty Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio, Saturday, October 17th, 2026
Summer Hoot Olivebridge, NY, August 28-30
Turning the Tide: 9/11 – 25 Years Later — El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY September 10–13, 2026
Truth Be Told – Thursday, September 17, 2026.
DeFlock FURTHER 2026 , Marietta, August 18, 2026
Granite Freedom Trek takes place on October 17, 2026, in New Hampshire.
Christians for Liberty Conference - Saturday-October 17, 2026, Cincinnati, Ohio
Memes Bonanza
Truth Music of the Week
Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Fortunate Son - Apocalypse Now Version
Revisting the anti-war classics.
Libertarian Intentional Community Roundup
Libertarian Intentional Community Roundup is where we cover libertarian and voluntaryist intentional communities and free private cities including Prospera (Honduras), The Free State Project (New Hampshire), Liberstad (Norway), Montelibero (Montenegro), Los Propietarios, (Argentina), Liberland (Croatia/Serbia border), Network States in general and Sea Steading (The Oceans). I am also covering secession movements including Greater Idaho, Please send details of any new happenings, projects or projects I am missing!
To that end I have put together a new slide deck to make educating you and your legislators a breeze, I hope
Etienne Note: I usually don’t cover politics except in New Hampshire where the concentration of liberty movement activists through the free state project is starting to override Governor-level vetoes! Nothing wrong with voting defensively!
By Meryl Nass, Meryl’s CHAOS letter
The first set of slides are specific to HB-396. Other slides provide references and additional information on the crisis farmers are facing, and how HB-396 is the first step in turning the crisis around (and getting the federal government off the backs of small farmers by excessively regulating them and allowing food industry cartels to form, so that farming has become uneconomic). Becoming a farmer today is like taking a vow of poverty. And with the US currently failing to produce enough food for its population, the farming crisis is an impending food security crisis.
Ten of the slides are new; 14 are old. Let me know if you need more information. Below the slides is the bill language.
AN ACT relative to the processing of cattle, swine, sheep, and goats at facilities not certified by the United States Department of Agriculture.
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The Art of Liberty Foundation
Author of: To See the Cage is to Leave It & “Government” The Biggest Scam in History ... Exposed!!
