60 Replies to “July 14, 2025: Reader Tips”

      1. And enough money to buy smokes and/or booze and/or drugs, AKA priority purchases.

    1. 1. I’m rarely driving the roads at 4:45 am
      2. Here in the sanctuary State of CA, I no longer enter an intersection on a green light without looking both ways for illegal, unlicensed, uninsured, drivers blowing through red lights and stop signs. It’s not worth dying to appease the woke imbeciles who have destroyed our State. Sorry for the inconvenience.

  1. Great Success under a Great Leader: Russia on the edge of economic collapse after 40 months of war
    https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2025-07-07/russia-on-the-edge-of-economic-collapse-after-40-months-of-war.html

    “The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, once a showcase and symbol of Russia’s strength in the global market, turned a couple of weeks ago into a parade of Putinism — though not a particularly cheerful one. “We are on the brink of a recession,” admitted Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov. The reserves that had supported the country’s finances in recent years, added Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina, “are depleted.””

    ““The government and others are hiding the real inflation figures because if they reveal the truth, they would have to raise wages in the public sector, pensions, and other payments,” warned lawmaker Nikolay Arefiev a few months ago. “And they don’t want to spend the money. They don’t want to — and they can’t. Russian authorities had hoped to close out 2025 with a public deficit of just 0.5%, the lowest since 2021, back when the war was just beginning and high fossil fuel prices were filling the state’s coffers. But the extremely costly fighting in Ukraine continues, and the lower house has just revised its forecast to more than triple that figure: it now expects a deficit of 1.7%, the same as in 2024.”

    “The TsMAKP think tank is equally pessimistic about the Russian economy: “There is a trend toward an almost complete slowdown in activity: the stagnation of investment in machinery and equipment has been exacerbated by the growing problems in the construction sector,” it warns. “And, most importantly, a crisis in consumption is looming, especially in the demand for non-food goods.””

    “After a period of economic overheating, signs of crisis are mounting. Despite countless government subsidies for the defense industry, overall credit growth has risen by just 1% so far this year. Seven out of 10 companies reported a collapse in consumer demand during the first quarter, according to a survey by the Stolypin Institute. Job vacancies have fallen to their lowest point since the start of the war, according to data from human resources firm Huntflow. Wage payment delays have tripled, while more than 8.8 million Russians are unable to repay loans that are less than 90 days overdue. Car sales have plummeted by 25% in the first half of the year, and clothing chains report sales down between 30% and 35% — partly due to the rising cost of other essential household expenses.”

    “The Kremlin has a little over a year of fiscal room left to sustain its current level of military spending before it will need to make major cuts, says Vladislav Inozemtsev, co-founder of the Center for Analysis and Strategies in Europe (CASE). And looming on the horizon is a big question: what happens if peace breaks out? It’s hard to imagine that soldiers — currently earning over €2,000 ($2,350) a month, a highly respectable salary in Russia — will be willing to go back to earning just a quarter of that once the fighting ends.”

    1. I wonder if the demagogue (you know who you are) who was arguing that the Russian economy was still fine after I posted an article on how Gazprom, their biggest source of revenues, was doing can pluck to courage to comment… Not likely, I think.

      I also wonder if, after old Poo feeds another load of absurd BS to a Western journalist, there’s going to be another round of exultation here like it was with the Tucker Carlson interview… Reaction to that one reminded me of a mating frenzy of mayflies or suchlike insects that spent a few years in the mud in their nymphal stage, then emegre en masse, grow wings take flight and mate, only to die a few hours later. “Dying” here was the realisation that the interview was a total failure and even Carlson himself though that what he was told didn’t make much sense.

  2. Oh, and in case anyone needs to have the last quoted paragraph explained: in the 90s, after the Afghanistan war, there was a surge of crime in the former USSR with the ex-soldiers often joining gangs, but the Soviet army was not nearly as dehumanising as the current Russian one and they didn’t take people with criminal convictions, while Russia is more than happy to recruit actual convicts, so the post-Afghanistan crime wave will feel like a walk in the park to Russians after the Russo-Ukrainian war ends.

    1. Good Lord … where do you find this garbage?

      Forty months is a long time in a war. Even more so for an economy already burdened by dangerous dependencies on a fossil-fuel-based world that, with luck, will be consigned to the history books within a few decades.

      Judas Priest! I stopped reading after that very first paragraph … speaking of wishful global warmist thinking. These writers … uhhhh … have an agenda … doncha think?

      1. What a laugh. The Wan and Lonely gets his “info” on Russia from a Spanish rag.

        1. LMAO, look who’s talking – a creature that’s fond of referencing The Gateway Fv¢kwit now calls “El Pais” a Spanish rag.

          Can’t pass on the opportunity to give you another chance to track the ship that was, according to The Gateway Fv¢kwit, sunk in a huge explosion: https://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=9330264 (last updated 3 minutes ago).

          1. The bot R2-B2 is so dense it seems to think it can actually present an argument.

            BTW, El Pais is a propaganda organ of Spain’s Socialist government, which is anti Russia and anti Putin, and anti the US and anti Trump, and anti fossil fuels and anti nuclear energy and anti……..

          2. Loopy, you’re clearly anti-maths, anti-logic, anti-reason and anti-comprehension.

          3. That’s it; that’s your argument. Your circuits are obviously badly damaged.

      2. Agenda? Do you deny that Gazprom is now pumping out more gas than they can sell (because you can’t just shut a well)? Do you deny that Russian officials are now speaking of an upcoming recession? Do you deny that the Russian economy is slowing down?

        If not, what’s your point, may I ask?

          1. The Reuters story and the El Pais story don’t match. Nice try though bot.

          2. They don’t have to match because they write about different things, duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh. The “Gazprom is now pumping out more gas than they can sell” was one of my points, which is why I gave you the link. Oh, and nothing in the Reuters story contradicts the E Pais article. Anyway, it’s pretty clear that you’ve got nothing of substance to say.

      1. “B-2
        Hahahahahahaha!”

        She’s just lashing out now because we all refused to respond to her last trolling attempt, poor little thing.

        1. Flinny the Fv¢kwit from 20000 BC acts in his typical fashion when he’s got nothing to say on topic.

  3. And we moviegoers were somewhat disappointed by the Producers of Flashdance who decided NOT to put the name ‘Marine Jahan’, a French dancer who was the dancing body double for actress Jennifer Beals in the blockbuster film Flashdance.

    https://youtu.be/cjZL5av-9yI?si=VuU7sNiriMOfVUyB

    Being led to believe the dancing (and the body) of the film was performed by Beals was something of a rather annoying LIE. However … by the time of the 1987 Super Bowl … at the always spectacular Rose Bowl in Pasadena … Marine Jahan finally received the credit she deserved for being such a primary reason for the Films (and songs) popularity. But … oops … the Super Bowl misspelled her name. Poor girl.

    https://youtu.be/a3-BRMEiFQ4?si=we6taI4vr8JmHIz-&t=360

  4. Re: The Epstein “client list”

    So … is it even “legal” to release a “client list” of Epstein’s? If the government released a “client list” … ostensibly naming people who fkcued 14 yo girls and boys at his island hideaway or New Mexico Compound … and MY name was on it? I’d sue the Federal Govt. and DOJ for $500 B!!

    They can’t slander me like that. If they release a “list” with all its implications … but didn’t charge me with an actual CRIME … with EVIDENCE and whatnot … as is my Constitutional Right … you know … “due process” … then I’d sue their asses off for slandering my good name. So the Federal Prosecutors better prepare hundreds of criminal cases … or they better STFU about “client lists” and whatnot.

    And just remember … the Federal Govt. has LOCKED UP P. Diddy and put on a show trial with cases and cases of baby oil as “evidence” of … something? And couldn’t get a conviction of ANYTHING other than he DID PAY $$$$ a shitload of money to certain men and women to come have a giant freak-off orgy. You know the kind of infamous sex orgies that take place in Silicon Valley every weekend.

    Damn! I only WISH P.Diddy paid me a boatload of cash to come get my rocks off. It’s great work, if you can get it. And no … I won’t turn “States evidence” against him in hope of becoming an internet star or something.

    This “client list” business is all innuendo … all gossip … and nothing more. Either charge people with CRIMES against minor children… with actual EVIDENCE … or STFU. And PS, Pam Bondi … yes, bring the “child porn” films of Epstein “clients” to court. You cannot claim they exist and then not prove it by showing them to a jury. Getting the Epstein “client list” is just a giant pile of distracting garbage. This too shall pass … as fast as the “Signalgate scandal” that was going to destroy Trump’s Cabinet appointees … passed.

    1. ” This too shall pass … as fast as the “Signalgate scandal” that was going to destroy Trump’s Cabinet appointees … passed.”

      I’m not hopeful. The base is badly divided on this one, social media is blowing up with die-hard Trump supporters threatening to abandon him and the administration *needs* to do something about it ASAP.

      Yes, there are a couple of different ways they can go with this…pick one, and be done with this. Please. “Move along, nothing to see here” just won’t cut it this time.

  5. Vis a vis the Russian economy…as the price of oil continues to fall, Russia’s ability to finance the Ukrainian conflict will disappear.
    The tactical moron Joe Biden effectively financed Russia’s actions in Ukraine by doing everything possible to constrain oil production, thereby increasing it’s price as well as Russia’s income.

  6. “They brush their teeth where they poop” & have no privacy… Too bad so sad that this is happening to illegal aliens incarcerated for breaking our laws

    Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz “Alligator Alcatraz” Inspection: Detainees in “Cages” With Gross Toilets, No Privacy, Bad Food | Video | RealClearPolitics
    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/07/13/rep_debbie_wasserman_schultz_alligator_alcatraz_inspection_detainees_in_cages_with_gross_toilets_no_privacy_bad_food.html

    1. Such outrage on behalf of criminals yet DWS says nothing about military barracks, a summer camp on Lake Minnihaha or a drawing room on AMTRAK

    1. Those losers need to lose a few teeth on the way to their commie paradise.

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