Dear Subscribers,
My apologies for getting out last week’s Five Meme Friday on Wednesday but I was waylaid on Friday and Saturday with illness and just now digging myself out after being off-line over the weekend and travelling this week. We landed in West Palm Beach after being in St. Petersberg for Julie’s ballet festival and this week we are in Live Oak, Florida at a spiritual retreat.
I made the top story F.A. Hayek’s article: The Use of Knowledge in Society from the book Hayek for the 21st Century that we are giving away for FREE to anyone who goes paid, buys something from the ArtOfLiberty.org/Store or covers the S+H. The article is important in that it DESTROYS the whole notion of central planning and technocracy even in the age of AI by explaining the reality that much of the information required for central planning is IMPOSSIBLE to know.
The problem isn’t “how do we allocate known resources efficiently” — a math problem a smart planner could in principle solve. It’s that the relevant knowledge never exists in one place. It exists only as dispersed, fragmentary, often contradictory bits held by millions of individuals, much of it tacit “knowledge of the particular circumstances of time and place” that can’t be written down or transmitted to a central authority. The planner’s problem isn’t insufficient intelligence or insufficient computing power. It’s structural: the information the planner would need is destroyed the moment you try to centralize it, because much of it only exists in the act of a local person deciding to utilize (or not) utilize what he has on hand.
Finally, the 2nd most important article is probably: US doesn’t have enough missiles to return to all-out war with Iran, which breaks down how we have essentially “blown” almost all our high-tech missiles in this pointless war in Iran for Israel including getting tricked into wasting many of them on Iran’s older generation of cheap drones. We are shooting down $30,000 drones with missiles that cost $15,000,000 a shot… It’s madness… unless you are war profiteering and laughing all the way to the bank. I created a little infographic breaking down Trump’s investments in this area.
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INFLATION: THE GREATEST THEFT IN HUMAN HISTORY! How the Banks and “Government” Will Steal At Least $1.40 Million From The Typical American Worker… “Legally”
Etienne Note: Don’t forget... Epstein’s partner Ghislaine Maxwell’s father was Robert Maxwell, a suspected MOSSAD operative running very similar high-level operations as Epstein/Maxwell: Israeli citizenship; roughly $300M in Israeli holdings including Ma’ariv; a state-scale funeral attended by the sitting Israeli PM, the President, and the opposition leader; a eulogy praising his contribution to Israeli security delivered by a former director of military intelligence; and a libel action that ended in his own company apologizing to and paying the journalist who alleged the Mossad connection.
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
F.A. Hayek: The Use of Knowledge in Society
[OR... Why Central Planning is Doomed to Fail Even in the Age of Technocracy and AI ] Chapter 3 from our FREE paperback book: Hayek for the 21st Century
Etienne Note: This is the 4th Article in our tribute to the great Austrian Economist Friedrich August von Hayek better known as F.A. Hayek. Some of Hayek’s core insights were that knowledge is dispersed across millions of individuals and cannot be aggregated by any central authority. Prices are information signals. When you override them with planning, you don’t just misallocate resources — you destroy the very mechanism by which society coordinates itself.
But beyond economics, Hayek was a philosopher of spontaneous order — the idea that complex, functional systems emerge from human action without human design. Language, common law, markets, social norms — none are “planned,” and all work better than their planned alternatives. Hayek explained a sophisticated intellectual framework for voluntaryism operating in practice.
In this essay, Hayek describes why central planning, by “governments” or “technocrats” isn’t just a bad idea… but impossible. Hayek’s central move is to reframe the economic problem. The problem isn’t “how do we allocate known resources efficiently” — a math problem a smart planner could in principle solve. It’s that the relevant knowledge never exists in one place. It exists only as dispersed, fragmentary, often contradictory bits held by millions of individuals, much of it tacit “knowledge of the particular circumstances of time and place” that can’t be written down or transmitted to a central authority. The planner’s problem isn’t insufficient intelligence or insufficient computing power. It’s structural: the information the planner would need is destroyed the moment you try to centralize it, because much of it only exists in the act of a local person deciding to utilize (or not) utilize what he has on hand.
Hayek’s critique still applies even in the age of AI: No amount of expert AI brilliance fixes a problem that is about the location of knowledge and individual preference, not the quantity of it.
Videos of the Week
Why Isn’t This Stuff Obvious?
#FreedomShorts: ‘The Philosophy of Liberty’
By Christopher Cook, The Freedom Scale
I didn’t attend Freedom Fest this year, and so I missed one of my favorite parts: the short films of the Anthem Film Festival. Fortunately, through the magic of the internet, we can still see some of them. And I just watched a good one.
Here is their description:
“The Philosophy of Liberty” is an animated short film by Liberty International and Live and Let Live Movement. The film is based on the essay by Ken Schoolland which explores how the absence of violence and free and voluntary cooperation between individuals, or groups of individuals, are the key ingredients for a truly prosperous society. The film makes the abstract concrete by portraying these principles in action, using the aesthetics of the classic frontier town from the old American West to strip society back to its bare essentials. The visuals hearken back to a genre that’s been part of our collective imagination for generations. The role of authority in relation to the individual is portrayed here with a clarity that reveals how easily power can go astray when unchecked or unquestioned.
Epstein’s Paris Model Scout Found Dead at Home. List of Epstein Cohorts Who Are Now Dead
Daniel Siad, key Epstein recruiter and modeling scout, dies suddenly in France weeks after a high-profile CNN interview.
By ZeroHedge, CNN, and India Times
France: Daniel Siad, 69, the model scout who appeared more than 2,000 times in the Epstein Files, has just been found dead at his home in Colombes. His lawyer said that “Daniel Siad never stopped proclaiming his innocence” – and that her client died of a heart attack. The autopsy has yet to be released. Files reviewed by CNN show Epstein paid Siad tens of thousands of dollars over the years. According to French media, Siad was under investigation in France over allegations of rape and human trafficking by at least five accusers.
Jeffrey Epstein reportedly committed suicide in 2019. Jean-Luc Brunel, the other French modeling agent in Epstein’s orbit, was found hanged in his cell while awaiting trial on charges involving the rape of minors in 2022, just days after Prince Andrew reached his settlement with Virginia Giuffre. Mark Middleton, the Clinton special assistant who had signed Epstein into the White House, found dead in Arkansas in 2022 – his death was ruled a suicide. Alfredo Rodriguez, Epstein’s former house manager who tried to sell his ‘black book’ of contacts died in 2015 of mesothelioma. Longtime Epstein associate Marvin Minsky, who was accused by Guiffre of abuse, died in 2016. Investigative journalist John Connelly, who pursued Epstein’s ties and alleged coverups, died in 2021.
“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
“It’s just a waste of time”: inside Palantir’s £330m NHS failure
Our new investigation reveals the problems with Palantir’s NHS tech - and the unrivalled political access that fuelled the firm’s march into the British state
Etienne Note: You can use political capital to force government agencies to adopt organized crime company solutions in no-bid contracts but it doesn’t mean the end product is going to work.
By Peter Geoghegan and Lucas Amin, Democraty for sale
Palantir has been dubbed the world’s scariest company. Trump’s favourite tech firm provides surveillance software to ICE, the Pentagon and the Israeli ministry of defence. Peter Thiel and Alex Karp talk excitedly of AI drone-driven warfare.
No wonder Andy Burnham is already facing calls to end Palantir’s controversial £330m contract to build the NHS’s Federated Data Platform (FDP).
The Man Who Runs the IRS Spied on Colleagues When He Worked at JPMorgan
Frank Bisignano directed staff to use software to snoop in email of rivals and surveil work of employees; Bisignano, who also is the chief of Social Security, denied he ever spied on co-workers
Etienne Note: Frank Bisignano also represents the same revolving door between Wall Street and the organized crime “government” that we break down in The Greatest Theft in Human History.
Frank Bisignano, the head of the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration, sits atop two government organizations that store vast reams of sensitive financial data about every taxpayer.
More than a decade ago, he was co-chief operating officer at JPMorgan Chase, another perch that gave him visibility and authority over every part of a massive financial institution. At the bank, people familiar with the matter said, he spied on fellow executives. using his authority over the security department and position to access sensitive information and internal communications without an apparent business justification. The executive directed his security staff to use software to snoop in the email of rival executives, including Charlie Scharf, J.P. Morgan’s then head of consumer banking, who is now the CEO of Wells Fargo, some of the people said. One executive said he suspected the spying and put a code phrase in his email, which he said Bisignano repeated back to him.
ICE is lying about body cams. These documents prove it.
“As soon as they had funding they bought them”
By Judd Legum, Popular Information
On July 13, Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old from Colombia who was legally authorized to work in the US, was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Biddeford, Maine. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claims Durán Guerrero “attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.” Durán Guerrero was not the target of the enforcement action and none of the ICE officers involved were using body cams.
Durán Guerrero was the eighth person killed in federal immigration enforcement actions during the current Trump administration. In only one instance were federal immigration officers wearing a body cam.
Donald Trump Jr.’s Investment Firm Posts Staggering Returns of 200%
By Maureen Farrell, The New York Times
As the Republican National Convention was wrapping up in July 2024, Republican heavyweights crowded into a rooftop bar with views of the Milwaukee skyline. In a sea of suits, Donald Trump Jr. made a beeline for a man in a black T-shirt: Shayne Coplan, the 26-year-old founder of Polymarket, the prediction market betting site.
The president’s son told Mr. Coplan he was impressed with Polymarket and how its results, not the polls, reflected what he was hearing from voters about his father’s prospects of returning to office. That rooftop meeting was the start of a lucrative relationship, showing how Donald Trump Jr. and his business partner Omeed Malik invested in a company whose fortunes would be affected by President Trump’s policies — a scenario that has played out repeatedly as their investment firm, 1789 Capital, has grown.
House Passes NDAA that Integrates US Military Tech & Supply Chains With Israel
The House passed the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act by a 216-212 vote, sending the $1.15 trillion measure to the Senate.
By Need To Know (via Redacted, Thomas Massie & ZeroHedge)
The House passed the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act by a 216-212 vote, sending the $1.15 trillion measure to the Senate. It contains Section 219, the United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative, a provision that directs the Pentagon to expand and accelerate the integration of US and Israeli military technology, supply chains, and defense industrial capacity.
Critic Rep. Thomas Massie called it a sovereignty risk and said that he hopes this version fails in the Senate.
Former Trump Officials Are Lobbying the Agencies They Just Left
Ex-Trump aides are already lobbying their former agencies after the administration dropped its ethics pledge, a Sludge report finds.
By Donald Shaw, Sludge
A Sludge review of Q2 lobbying disclosures found multiple revolving-door hires from the Trump White House are already lobbying the very agencies they just left, after President Trump declined to issue an ethics pledge.
A natural gas company that did not exist five months ago is already paying $380,000 a quarter for a lobbyist who, until this spring, ran oil and gas leasing policy at the Interior Department. A former White House liaison to the Senate left in February and by summer was lobbying U.S. senators for a German utility. A director of operations in Susie Wiles’ office was working in the West Wing as of April, but by July she’d registered to lobby on behalf of a lithium mine.
None of this is illegal, because on his first day back in office in January 2025, President Trump rescinded the Biden administration’s ethics pledge requiring executive branch appointees to wait two years before lobbying their former agencies.
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.
Nuestro tributo a F.A. Hayek: el economista ganador del Premio Nobel que destruyó [¡intelectualmente!] el socialismo
La Fundación Art of Liberty rinde homenaje al ganador del Premio Nobel F.A. Hayek, uno de los economistas más importantes que jamás haya existido, con una campaña que distribuirá simultáneamente el nuevo libro: Hayek para el siglo XXI - Ensayos de economía política y ofrecerá copias impresas gratuitas del libro a cualquiera que se suscriba de forma paga a nuestro Substack como miembro anual y/o realice cualquier pedido en ArtOfLiberty.org/store.
Esta introducción a F.A. Hayek incluye su biografía, memes, frases, las “Batallas de rap” con el economista Lord John Maynard Keynes, y la primera entrega de nuestra distribución de Hayek para el siglo XXI - Ensayos de economía política: la introducción del libro escrita por Thomas J. DiLorenzo, presidente del Instituto Mises y editor de Hayek para el siglo XXI.
También estamos agregando el PDF completo de Hayek para el siglo XXI a nuestra memoria USB incensurable de la libertad: The Liberator (El Liberador).
“Daily News of The Week”
Houthis Announce Blockade On Saudi Shipping, Threaten Drone & Missile Attacks On Kingdom
Houthis declare immediate maritime embargo on Saudi shipping in “eye for an eye” response to Sanaa airport strike.
Etienne Note: Not all heroes wear capes!
by Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have announced they are imposing a new maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia in response for a recent attack on Sanaa Airport, and after years of the kingdom leading a blockade of Houthi-controlled Yemeni ports.
A military statement by Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said the maritime ban on all Saudi shipping will be effective immediately in what he declared as an “equation of ‘an eye for an eye.’”
However, details of what this ‘embargo’ will look like, in terms of where or what chokepoints the Houthis might seek to blockade were not given.
Far-left podcaster and Democratic Socialists of America member Emma Vigeland appeared to inadvertently expose the far-left movement’s ends-justify-the-means political calculus.
by Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge
Far-left podcaster and Democratic Socialists of America member Emma Vigeland appeared to inadvertently expose the far-left movement’s ends-justify-the-means political calculus: Even a “secret Nazi” would be acceptable if the candidate advanced a national socialist agenda.
Vigeland, a former field reporter, producer, and commentator for The Young Turks and identified as a DSA member, also co-hosts The Majority Report with Sam Seder. She explained on a separate Vox podcast that she doesn’t care if a progressive or socialist candidate has “Nazi” skeletons in their closet.
“I am wary of over-focusing on an individual’s personal character over their platform. You know, I’ve said this before. I don’t really care if say like Bernie Sanders or AOC go home and they’re a secret Nazi, but they go out and they vote for the right things. Like we’re talking about politician,” the DSA member said earlier this month.
Garbage trucks may soon start spying on people—where it’s happening
Garbage trucks could soon do more than collect trash—they may also help identify code violations using artificial intelligence (AI)
Etienne Note: Over a decade ago I got a tax demand from a jurisdiction where I had a travel trailer I owned parked on a friend’s remote property. They overflew the property with a plane, helicopter or drone. As long as local governments can trick the population into believing their legitimacy they will continue to tax, trace and rob the population with these tactics.
By Thomas Westerholm, MSN
Garbage trucks could soon do more than collect trash—they may also help identify code violations using artificial intelligence (AI).
Officials in Cape Coral, Florida, recently considered equipping sanitation trucks with AI-powered cameras that would photograph properties as crews complete their normal collection routes.
US Troop Casualties Pile Up as Iran Goes to Town on US Bases
By Simplicius
By Simplicius
The conflict has erupted anew, and Iran has now struck back in a major way, killing and wounding US troops:
As per usual, rumors claim the casualties are far higher than the US admits to, particularly given initial reports about “missing troops” still trapped under the rubble. A former US air force pilot reportedly posted the following:
And in fact, as of this writing CENTCOM has released an update that two more troops have now been declared dead, which brings the total to four:
Second Circuit Upholds New York Vaccine Mandate Against the Amish
A federal appeals court has reaffirmed New York’s strict school-vaccination requirements, dealing a setback to Amish families seeking religious exemptions.
by Rebecca Terrell, NewAmerican
A federal appeals court has reaffirmed New York’s strict school-vaccination requirements, dealing a setback to Amish families seeking religious exemptions. In Miller v. McDonald, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that the state’s elimination of religious exemptions does not violate the First Amendment-protected rights of Amish parents and private schools. The decision imposes significant fines for noncompliance.
The case stems from New York’s 2019 repeal of religious exemptions during measles outbreaks. Three Amish schools and parents, facing more than $118,000 in combined fines, argued that mandatory vaccination conflicts with their faith’s emphasis on separation from the modern world, Divine Providence, and moral objections tied to vaccine development (e.g., the use of aborted fetal tissue). They invoked Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), which protected Amish educational autonomy, and claimed the policy targeted religious practice. However, the Second Circuit upheld the mandate with the precedent of Employment Division v. Smith, a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruling that the government generally does not have to provide religious exemptions from a law if that law is neutral and applies equally to everyone, even if it incidentally burdens religious practices.
The Amish Farmer the Feds Can’t Stop
Exit & Build - Amos Miller
By The Liberty Lookout
In the year 2000, an Amish farmer named Amos Miller attended a Weston A. Price Foundation conference with his father. He listened to Sally Fallon talk about traditional food: raw milk, grass-fed meat, fermented vegetables, the way humans ate for ten thousand years before the USDA decided it was dangerous. He went home to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and started selling it.
Twenty-six years later, his farm has been raided by federal agents, subjected to three consent decrees, slapped with $85,000 in fines, and dragged through nearly a decade of litigation across federal and state courts. His products have been blockaded, detained, and ordered destroyed.
He’s still selling. His food club has over 4,000 members nationwide. And an appeals court just ruled that Pennsylvania can’t stop him from shipping across state lines.
The Truth About the US Treasury Market
Why today’s unsustainable bond yields are a Keynesian construct—and what happens when $142 trillion in new debt hits the market.
By David Stockman, LewRockwell
The implicit notion–extant on both ends of the Accela Corridor—that the present financing arrangements for the $31 trillion of publicly held US Treasuries represent the natural order of things in the financial markets is just damn nonsense.
And that’s to say nothing of the brobdingnagian task ahead—finding a home for another $142 trillion of US Treasuries by mid-century at a sustainable yield that does not blow the bond pits to smithereens.
The fact is, the existing global market for USTs is a wholly artificial, jerry-built construct arising from the money-printing central banks of the world, led by the Fed. The latter have sired three forms of artificial demand for USTs that make all the difference in the world between today’s ultra-low unsustainable government bond yields and the far, far higher levels that would otherwise prevail under a regime of sound money and honest supply and demand-based pricing.
US doesn’t have enough missiles to return to all-out war with Iran
Pentagon official warns dwindling missile stockpiles could limit operations against Tehran
By Andrea Hamblin, Emily Smith, and Iona Cleave, The Telegraph
The US does not have enough missiles to return to an all-out war with Iran, an American official has warned.
Donald Trump is considering his options to launch a “wider war” against Tehran as more American warplanes are deployed to the Middle East.
However, a US official familiar with administration discussions said the operation would be limited by dwindling stockpiles of air defence and long-range munitions.
Trump’s 18-Month Deadline To Cut Electricity Prices in Half Has Arrived. Rates Are Up 18%.
Yet another broken campaign promise.
By Jeff Luse, Reason
Donald Trump pledged on the campaign trail that he would slash electricity prices in half within 18 months of returning to the White House. That self-imposed deadline is today, and—as with many of the president’s promises—he appears to have fallen short of his goal.
From Trump’s inauguration in January 2025 to April 2026, the most recent month for which government data are available, residential electricity rates have risen by an eye-watering 18 percent. From April 2025 to April 2026, rates jumped by 7.3 percent, or about twice the rate of inflation, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Unfortunately, for many consumers, there is not much relief in sight.
Privacy-Minded Fashion Aims To Baffle Facial Recognition
Wearable bright patterns, infrared lights, and reflective coatings challenge the surveillance state.
By J.D. Tuccille, Reason
With shoplifting a serious concern, and given the declining cost of security equipment, it’s no surprise that grocery stores in California are rolling out facial recognition technology to identify known thieves when they step through the door. Software-backed cameras that match people’s faces to their names are increasingly ubiquitous at airports, stores, and on the street, spelling the potential end to anonymity in public places. The end, that is, unless people take advantage of gear and tactics designed to confuse facial recognition tech.
“As facial recognition technology is rolled out across Britain’s public spaces, a new generation of designers say privacy could be the next big fashion trend,” Amelia Hill reported last week for The Guardian. “Companies have started incorporating ‘adversarial patterns’ in their garments—carefully designed arrangements of shapes, colours and repeated motifs said to exploit weaknesses in some computer vision systems.”
A nationwide surveillance system may know where you drive, when you leave home and which places you visit, without you ever realizing you were being watched.
Etienne Note: I know many in the audience know about DeFlock BUT I am running this for the latest numbers of known cameras and to point out that this isn’t the whole range of surveillance cameras being used to spy on us. Only Flock safety cameras. The headline total doesn’t include local police department “gun-shot detectors” that frequently have surveillance cameras, local traffic cameras which can be wired into police departments and 79 Department of Homeland Security “Fusion Centers” where Federal law enforcement is merged with State Police Departments and local police departments in Capitol Cities and large cities. It also doesn’t include A-Mason’s Ring Doorbell Cameras which have been quietly wired into thousands of police departments and Fusion Centers.
By Stacy Liberatore, Daily Mail
A nationwide surveillance system may know where you drive, when you leave home and which places you visit, without you ever realizing you were being watched.
More than 117,000 automated license plate readers (ALPRs) are scattered across America, according to a map.
The Pentagon Is Stealing From the Working Poor to Pay for War and Enrich Contractors
The average US taxpayer in 2025 had over $4,000 taken out of their paychecks to fund the Pentagon; in the coming years, that amount is set to rise as Congress considers a $1.5 trillion war budget for
By Danaka Katovich, OtherWords via Common Dreams
In an era of high prices for fuel, food, and housing, an extra $4,000 could make a lifesaving difference for many families. But instead, that’s what the average household had to shell out for the Pentagon last year.
That’s right: The average US taxpayer in 2025 had over $4,000 taken out of their paychecks to fund the Pentagon, according to the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. In the coming years, that amount is set to rise as Congress considers a $1.5 trillion war budget for 2027.
For the growing number of working poor in the United States, that money can mean the difference between making rent or falling behind, or between being able to afford an emergency trip to the doctor or going without care.
The Treasury market is on the verge of a worrying milestone not seen since 2007
There are a host of challenges at work as the ‘long’ 30-year Treasury yield approaches its longest stretch above 5% in 19 years
By Joy Wiltermuth, MarketWatch
A renewed selloff in the $30 trillion Treasury market in July has the bond market at a worrying milestone.
The “long” 30-year Treasury yield on Tuesday hit 11 straight sessions above 5%, its longest stretch since May, when inflation concerns were driving the selloff.
It climbed another 1.6 basis points to 5.146% on Wednesday, marking the longest such stretch above 5% for the 30-year Treasury since 2007, as this chart from Dow Jones Market Data shows.
From 1 to 10: Inside the 20-year status decline of the American passport
In 2006, a United States passport was the ultimate ticket to the world, offering its citizens a level of global access matched only by two other nations: Denmark and Finland.
By Maureen O’Hare, CNN Travel
In 2006, a United States passport was the ultimate ticket to the world, offering its citizens a level of global access matched only by two other nations: Denmark and Finland.
What a difference 20 years makes. As the Henley Passport Index reveals in its newly released 20th-anniversary report, the global ranking of travel freedom now looks completely different.
The index, which monitors the travel freedoms offered by passports around the world based on the number of destinations their holders can visit visa-free or visa-on-demand, shows that US travel documents are no longer among the most powerful.
Today: Congress Votes To Integrate US Military Tech & Supply Chains With Israel
The House of Representatives will vote today on final passage of the $1.15 trillion National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027
by Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge
The House of Representatives will vote today on final passage of the $1.15 trillion National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027 (H.R. 8800) - and with it, Section 219, the United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative, a provision directing the Pentagon to expand and accelerate the integration of US and Israeli military technology, supply chains, and defense industrial capacity.
On paper, it is one section among hundreds in a sprawling must-pass bill. In practice, it has become the single most watched line item in the entire package - partly because of what it does, and partly because House leadership just made sure nobody gets to vote on it by itself.
Residents at two swanky North Carolina communities have sounded the alarm over alleged trespassers taking over their pools, claiming that their HOA are not doing enough to stop the rowdiness.
By Wilko Martinez - Cachero, Daily Mail
Residents at two swanky North Carolina communities have sounded the alarm over alleged trespassers taking over their pools, claiming that their homeowners associations (HOA) are not doing enough to stop the rowdiness.
The complaints have emerged at Edge of Auburn in Garner and Trace at Olde Towne in nearby Raleigh, with residents saying they have become afraid to use their amenities funded through hefty HOA dues.
Dramatic footage from one of the pool areas showed a spat between residents and nonresidents, WRAL reported.
Rogue OpenAI bot escapes lab and hacks rival
‘Unprecedented’ incident will revive concerns new tools could be repurposed for unstoppable cyber attacks
By Matthew Field, The Telegraph
A powerful version of ChatGPT went rogue and hacked another technology company during internal testing, OpenAI has admitted.
The Silicon Valley AI giant admitted last night that one of its AI bots escaped from a supposedly secure IT system during a trial run of its hacking capabilities.
OpenAI, the $850bn (£630bn) AI lab, said the “unprecedented” hack had seen its bot infiltrate another AI and coding business called Hugging Face and attempt to steal information.
Shocking 105 million Americans are not working – more than during COVID or the Great Recession
The number of adults who are “not in the labor force” (NILF) surged to an all-time high in June to 105.8 million, according to figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
By Anthony Blair, New York Post
It’s hot NILF summer for American workers.
The number of adults who are “not in the labor force” (NILF) surged to an all-time high in June to 105.8 million, according to figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
The record comes after a massive surge of 832,000 workers dropping out of the labor force in June alone. The overall number of NILFs is higher than at the height of the Great Recession or the COVID pandemic.
Tencent’s Robotics X unveils Xiao Liu humanoid robot
Tencent Robotics X Lab’s newest wheeled eldercare humanoid, built for precise, human-like therapeutic massage
Xiao Liu is Tencent Robotics X Lab’s newest demonstration humanoid, a wheeled eldercare and home-assistance robot that performs precise, human-like therapeutic massage through advanced force and tactile sensing.
Tencent Robotics X Lab created Xiao Liu, its newest demonstration humanoid. The robot is the direct successor to the fifth-generation Xiao Wu. The lab unveiled it in July 2026 at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, where it quickly drew crowds. Xiao Liu carries forward a mission the lab has held since 2018. Simply put, Tencent builds robots that live alongside people and genuinely help them. Rather than chase factory work or athletic feats, the team aims this machine at eldercare and home assistance. Both areas matter, because China faces a widening caregiver shortage.
The robot moves on a stable wheeled base. It reaches for objects with two arms and three-fingered hands. This layout keeps Xiao Liu steady while it works close to a person’s body.
Top Israeli Minister: ‘Best For Us’ If US Fights Iran While Israel Sits Out New Round of War
An Israeli cabinet minister called US troop casualties in the Iran war “the best for us” as four more American soldiers died.
by Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge
As four more American families grieve the deaths of soldiers killed in the war on Iran, one of the top-ranking ministers in Israel’s cabinet told an Israeli audience that having America do all the fighting and dying is “the best for us.” Israel had intensely lobbied President Trump to launch a joint war on Iran on Feb 22, and traded blows with Iran up until early June. Since Trump restarted intense, daily bombardment of Iran 11 days ago, however, Israel has sat out the action, sparing Israelis from lethal Iranian retaliation.
“The State of Israel has no interest in joining the contained confrontation between Iran and the United States,” far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a session at the Katif Conference for National Responsibility, which endorses Jewish settlement in Palestinian territories. “The current situation is the best one for us.”
Smotrich is generally regarded as the second-most powerful cabinet member in Israel, and is a vital linchpin in Netanyahu’s government that took power in January 2023.
SpaceX Meltdown Vaporizes $1 Trillion In Market Cap As Stock, Bonds Crater
SpaceX’s Tuesday rebound was short-lived, with shares sliding to a new low of $110.85 late Thursday morning and extending their brutal post-IPO selloff.
By Tyler Durden. ZeroHedge
SpaceX’s Tuesday rebound was short-lived, with shares sliding to a new low of $110.85 late Thursday morning and extending their brutal post-IPO selloff.
At a current market capitalization of roughly $1.479 trillion, SpaceX has erased about $1.16 trillion, or 44%, since its valuation peaked at $2.639 trillion on June 23.
Shares are also trading well below the company’s $135 IPO price, underscoring how quickly investor enthusiasm has evaporated.
Date night in America now costs $189...
Date night in America now costs an average $189. Young, broke romantics go for picnics in the park, conversation over coffee.
By Sanai Hadiya Rashid, The Wall Street Journal
A BMO Financial Group survey put the average U.S. cost of a date at $189, up 12.5% from the same period the prior year.
Last summer, Winston Jules spent his weekends taking dates to nice New York City restaurants and bars with $20 cocktails.
These days, the 26-year-old Brooklyn resident might opt for a picnic in Prospect Park. The medical receptionist lives with his mother and helps pay rent—one of his biggest expenses—and is looking for savings where he can find them, including on the dating scene.
“I’ve gone on a little walk just to get to know each other, or got ice cream,” Jules said, recounting some recent experiences. He has cut back on dating in general, too, along with fewer meals and other adventures with friends.
A Taxonomy of Omnicidal Futures Involving Artificial Intelligence
by Andrew Critch & Jacob Tsimerman, arXiv (UC Berkeley / University of Toronto)
Abstract
This report presents a taxonomy and examples of potential omnicidal events resulting from AI: scenarios where all or almost all humans are killed. These events are not presented as inevitable, but as possibilities that we can work to avoid. Insofar as large institutions require a degree of public support in order to take certain actions, we hope that by presenting these possibilities in public, we can help to support preventive measures against catastrophic risks from AI.
Introduction
Hundreds of leading scientists, developers, and other public figures have warned that human extinction is a potential result of artificial intelligence development1. Even so, many ask in response “But how?”. The purpose of this paper is to provide a taxonomized suite of answers, covering a variety of scenarios on who, if anyone, is primarily responsible for the hypothetical omnicide. Our hope is to render such futures impossible, by supporting humanity’s collective ability to avoid them on purpose. Our hope is not to detract from humanity’s potential to achieve positive self-fulfilling prophecies surrounding AI; we strongly believe it is possible to acknowledge and avoid the negative futures in this paper.
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Summer Celebration: Bonfire, Potluck & Music, Sunset Point Park, San Diego, CA, US, Friday, July 31st, 2026
3rd Annual Freedom Family Reunion, Wheat Ridge, Saturday, August 1, 2026
MADNESS: The madness of Australian industrial policies destroying Australia – RSL Hall, 22 Leake Street, Belmont Wednesday, 12th August 2026.
Truth Be Told – Thursday, September 17, 2026.
DeFlock FURTHER 2026 , Marietta, August 18, 2026
Christians for Liberty Conference - Saturday-October 17, 2026, Cincinnati, Ohio
Memes Bonanza
Truth Music of the Week
Masters of War - Bob Dylan’s Masterwork respun by Grandson
Here is Bob Dylan’s masterwork Masters of War covered for the modern age by Grandson. Discovered randomly searching for the original.
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!
Free State Project Update: Record Number of New Hampshire Legislators Earn Top Liberty Ratings
Brian Labrie named Legislator of the Year; Jeff Creem named Activist of the Year at annual Liberty Dinner
By NH Liberty Alliance
BEDFORD, N.H. — A record 104 New Hampshire legislators earned an A or A+ Liberty Rating in 2026, more than double the previous year’s total, as the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance (NHLA) honored the lawmakers, activists and volunteers behind New Hampshire’s expanding liberty movement at its annual Liberty Dinner on Saturday evening.
Held at Murphy’s Taproom & Carriage House in Bedford, the annual awards gala brought together legislators, activists, volunteers, donors, and supporters from across New Hampshire to recognize outstanding service to the state’s liberty movement.
Rep. Brian Labrie was named the 2026 Legislator of the Year, the organization’s highest legislative honor. The award recognizes a legislator whose voting record, legislative leadership, and broader contribution to advancing liberty stood out during the year.
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Author of: To See the Cage is to Leave It & “Government” The Biggest Scam in History ... Exposed!!
