John Standaloft

Dedicated Entrepreneur! Guiding You To Leverage Capital & Create Passive Income To Secure Financial Freedom & Time. Love sports; football, cricket, golf.

[Sam @SamCKx]

If Keir Starmer does resign, history will look back on his reign and scratch its head as to why the hell he was so hated.

On paper, he's probably delivered more to working British people in such a short time than any PM for decades.

After inheriting an absolute mess: NHS waiting lists fallen. Worker's rights improved. Rail operators nationalised. Improved relations with EU and improved UK's global reputation. Removed non-dom tax status. Halved childcare costs. Boosted state pensions. Lowest homicide rate in 50 years. Lifted 550k children out of poverty. Immigration vastly reduced.

We are in the age of billionaire funded misinformation, whose sole purpose is to topple democratically elected leaders, and insert leadership that favours the wealthy elites over the working people. Looks like the game plan is working...

[Vfynn_🥷🏼 𐙚 @Vfynn_]

• Jurgen, what’s your take on that Mexico vs South Africa game where the referee had to hold the players during the cooling break because FOX was still airing commercials?

🚨🗣️ 𝗡𝗘𝗪: Jurgen Klopp: “This is football being held hostage by suits in air-conditioned offices. These so-called ‘cooling breaks’ were sold to us as a shield for player welfare, a noble sword against the heat. But in reality? It’s nothing but a golden cage built for the advertisers.

When I saw players standing around during a cooling break while television schedules dictated the rhythm of the match, I couldn’t help but wonder: who is the World Cup really serving? The fans? The players? Or the advertisers?

A World Cup match should flow like a river. Instead, we’re building dams in the middle of it so commercials can pass through. That’s dangerous for the spirit of the game. Football was once the main event; now it risks becoming the background music to an advertising show.

We’re told these breaks are about player welfare, and of course player health matters. But when the game starts bending its knee to television timing, people are going to ask questions. The ball is supposed to be the star. Not a commercial break.

The World Cup is football’s cathedral. Yet sometimes it feels like we’ve turned it into a shopping mall where the cash register gets more respect than the match itself.

If this is the future, then football isn’t being interrupted by advertisements anymore. Football is becoming the interruption between advertisements.”

—🎙️ ZDF

[Burak Özdemir @burakozdemr]

📌 DROGBA'DAN ABD VE FIFA'YA TEPKİ:

"Bir ülke, gezegendeki en büyük futbol turnuvasına ev sahipliği için teklif verdiğinde, bunun ne getireceğini tam olarak bilir. Oyuncular, hakemler, yetkililer ve dünyanın dört bir yanından taraftarlar bunun bir parçasıdır."

"Somali hakemi Omar Artan’ın durumu karşısında hayal kırıklığına uğradım. FIFA onu, hak ederek bu fırsatı kazandığı için seçti, ancak girişine izin verilmediği için katılamadı."

"Ardından İran futbol federasyonunun, turnuva başlamadan sadece günler önce taraftar biletlerinin iptal edildiğini iddia ettiğini duyuyorsunuz. Eğer bu doğruysa, sıradan taraftarlar futbol ile ilgisi olmayan sorunlar için bedel ödüyor."

"Acı çekenler siyasetçiler değil. Yıllarca biriktirdikleri parayı, milli takımlarını Dünya Kupası’nda takip etmek umuduyla harcayan taraftarlar."

"Futbol her zaman farklı kültürleri bir araya getirebilen nadir şeylerden biri olmuştur. Politikalar, kimin bu deneyimin bir parçası olacağını belirlemeye başladığı anda, herkes kaybeder."

"Dünya Kupaları ve uluslararası turnuvalarda oynadım. Bu etkinliklerin güzelliği, onlarca ülkeden taraftarların aynı sokakları, aynı stadyumları ve aynı tutkuyu paylaşmasını görmek."

"Hiçbir taraftar milliyeti nedeniyle yargılanmamalı ve hiçbir hakem kariyerinin en büyük anını, kontrolü dışında politik koşullar yüzünden kaçırmamalı."

"FIFA, hükümetler ve futbol otoriteleri çözüm bulmalı, çünkü şu anda manşetler vizeler, seyahat kısıtlamaları ve anlaşmazlıklarla ilgili; futbolun kendisiyle değil."

"Dünya Kupası tüm dünyaya ait olmalı. Bu onu özel kılıyor. Oyun her zaman öncelikli olmalı ve politika, futbolun en büyük kutlamasının önüne geçmemeli."

[Crazy Vibes @CrazyVibes_1]

Born in 1832, Jonathan the tortoise turned 193 today. Yes… 193. This dude is literally the oldest land animal alive. He survived 2 world wars, outlived 40 U.S. presidents, 8 British monarchs, and probably watched more drama on Earth than all of us combined.

He can’t see and smell anymore, but he still recognizes his caretakers just by voice and touch like a wise old gangster. Think about this: Jonathan was alive before the lightbulb existed… and there is a high chance he might still be here AFTER some of us are gone. Happy birthday legend... keep confusing time, history, and all of us… and may you live many more years!

[The Husky @Mr_Husky1]

It was a Monday in early August 2023. The exhausted truck drivers of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour thought they were heading to a routine production meeting before the Los Angeles shows.
They had no idea what was coming.
Scott Swift walked in. Taylor's father didn't say much—he just began handing out envelopes. When the drivers finally peeked inside, some thought the check said $1,000. Others read $10,000. The third driver stared at his and said out loud: "This has to be a joke."
It wasn't.
$100,000.
Each driver. Nearly 50 of them. The industry standard bonus from the biggest stars? $5,000 to $10,000. Taylor had given them more than ten times that.
But here's what made it matter most: these drivers weren't wealthy. They lived in truck cabs. They hadn't seen their families in 24 weeks. They were people who would never own homes—until now. Until that envelope.
That moment of shock and tears? It was just the beginning.
Across the entire Eras Tour, Taylor quietly handed out $197 million in bonuses. The dancers. The band. The riggers. The lighting and sound technicians. The caterers. Every single person who built the show—they got bonuses, handwritten notes, and wax-sealed letters. When dancers opened theirs on camera in her docuseries, they broke down crying. Some couldn't believe she was real.
"If the tour grosses more, they get more," she explained simply. These people work hard. They deserve it.
But the crew bonuses weren't the only quiet revolution happening.
Starting in March 2023, in every city where the tour touched down, a call came to local food banks. Taylor wanted to donate. No press conference. No announcement. No photo op. One donation fed 75,000 meals. Another provided hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh produce. Across the tour, the total reached millions of meals—possibly more—all delivered in silence.
She never posted about a single one.
And it wasn't new for her.
In March 2020, when the pandemic locked down the world, Taylor scrolled through social media posts from fans who were breaking. A photographer about to lose everything. A person staring down eviction. She sent direct messages with rent money—$3,000 here, $13,000 there. Some fans got enough for months of bills. She read the Washington Post. She noticed the names. She helped.
She never announced it.
Years later, in October 2025, a two-year-old named Lilah—fighting a cancer so rare that only 58 families in America had ever known it—was filmed by her mother dancing to a Taylor Swift song. Lilah called Taylor her friend. A few days later, the GoFundMe received a $100,000 donation.
The note said: "Sending the biggest hug to my friend, Lilah! Love, Taylor."
Mike Scherkenbach has worked with the wealthiest people in music. He's seen the bonuses. He's seen the behavior. He's watched billionaires guard their money jealously.
What he saw with Taylor was different.
The biggest tour in history grossed $2 billion. The artist behind it became a billionaire from her own songwriting. And then she signed her name onto hundreds of envelopes by hand and sent enough money back to the people who built her dream that they cried opening their letters.
That isn't strategy. That isn't a publicity stunt.
That's what happens when someone, somewhere along the way, remembered what matters.

[The Husky @Mr_Husky1]

He Had $20 to His Name. He Gave Every Dollar of It to a Stranger.
It was 11:47 PM on a Tuesday when Kate McClure's car sputtered and died on the I-95 exit ramp in Philadelphia.
No gas. No cash. No one stopping.
She sat in the dark, hazards blinking, trying not to panic — a young woman alone on the side of a highway in the middle of the night. She called her boyfriend. He was 45 minutes away. She waited, doors locked, watching headlights blur past.
Then there was a knock on her window.
A man — worn coat, weathered face, a bedroll under his arm — stood in the cold. Johnny Bobbitt had been living under that overpass for three months. He'd spent the day collecting enough change for something to eat.
"I used to be a paramedic," he told her through the glass. "You shouldn't be out here alone."
Before Kate could protest, Johnny walked to the nearest gas station — 20 minutes on foot — and came back carrying a red plastic can full of fuel. He spent his last $20. His only $20. He didn't ask for anything back.
"I figured she needed it more than I did tonight," he'd later say, with a shrug like it was nothing. Like giving away everything you own to a stranger is just what you do.
Kate made it home safely.
But she couldn't stop thinking about that shrug.
She went back to find him. Then she started a GoFundMe — just to return the $20, maybe do a little more. She wrote a few sentences about what he'd done and hit share.
By morning, her phone wouldn't stop buzzing.
By the end of the week, strangers from 49 states had donated.
The total raised: $400,000.
For a man who gave his last $20 so a woman he'd never met could get home safe.
When reporters asked Johnny how it felt to have hundreds of thousands of people moved by his simple act of kindness, he got quiet for a moment.
"I didn't do it for attention," he said softly. "I just didn't want her to be scared."
That's it. That's the whole reason.
Not for cameras. Not for a reward. Just because a young woman was alone and frightened, and he remembered what it felt like to be able to help someone.
In a world that can feel so divided, so loud, so exhausting — a homeless man in a worn coat walked 20 minutes in the cold and reminded us what we're actually capable of.
Share this if you believe one small act of kindness can still change everything. 💙

[Mykhailo Rohoza @MykhailoRohoza]

Donald Trump attacks Giorgia Meloni — and she delivers a fiery speech he’ll never forget.
Donald Trump thought he could easily score political points by calling Giorgia Meloni “an insult to Jesus,” accusing her of “not being woke,” and claiming that God does not discriminate. Unfortunately for “Don Dementia,” this time he picked the wrong target.
Standing at a historic location, Giorgia Meloni didn’t just respond — she delivered a full moral reckoning.
“The President of the United States just said that I insult Jesus,” Giorgia Meloni declared. “Do you want to know what really insults Jesus? Taking healthcare away from the sick while cutting taxes for billionaires.”
And that was only the beginning.
“Do you want to know what else insults Jesus?” she continued. “Deporting foreigners and separating children from their mothers.”
Then she went even further, touching on war, corruption, and hypocrisy.
“Do you want to know what insults Jesus? Bombing innocent schools in Iran and sending our brave men and women to die in yet another endless war… hiding the Epstein files and then refusing to prosecute anyone involved.”
This wasn’t politics as usual. It was a full moral indictment.
Giorgia Meloni, targeted by Trump for supporting transgender people and for saying that “trans children are children of God,” completely turned the tables. Instead of backing down, she grounded her message in the very teachings Trump tried to weaponize.
“I am not a perfect Christian,” she said. “There was only one perfect man, and two thousand years ago he was crucified.”
Then came the line that hit the hardest:
“Jesus told us to love our neighbor as ourselves… Can we imagine war in heaven? Can we imagine hatred in heaven? Can we imagine poverty in heaven? Then why do we tolerate these things on Earth?”
This is how you respond. Not with insults. Not with fear. But with clarity and conviction.
Trump tried to discredit her. Instead, Giorgia Meloni delivered a sermon that now echoes far beyond that hall.
Please share Giorgia Meloni’s inspiring words.

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

An unarmed Iranian ship was invited, along with the U.S., to be part of an Indian Naval exercise, and its sailors paraded on land before the president.

The U.S. at the last minute pulled out of the exercise and instead attacked the Iranian ship with a torpedo.

Breaking with all norms of civilization and warfare, we then refused to rescue the drowning survivors. The Sri Lanka Navy was left to pull the dead bodies from the water.

I am hard pressed to think of any other nation throughout history that would do something so cowardly and despicable. We are genuinely in a league of our own, and American media — mostly shrugging off the bombing of a girls school and acting as if carpet bombing Tehran is a normal military tactic — is deeply complicit.

[Mr PitBull Stories @MrPitbull07]

In 2009, George W. Bush invited President-elect Obama and all former living presidents for lunch...
This was two weeks before the country’s transfer of power from Bush to Obama.
Bush, a Republican, and Obama, a Democrat, met privately for about 30 minutes ahead of the wider gathering.
Then former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, both Democrats, and Republican George H.W. Bush, the current president’s father, met Bush and Obama in the Oval Office for a photo session with journalists.
It was the first such gathering of former U.S. heads of state at the White House in 27 years.
“I want to thank the president-elect for joining the ex-presidents for lunch,” the younger Bush told Obama, who stood next to him, nodding.
“One message that I have and I think we all share is that we want you to succeed. Whether we’re Democrat or Republican, we care deeply about this country,” Bush said.

[GoldenAge @GoldenAgeUnfold]

Repost if you stand with the Obamas against any racist attacks!

[Acyn @Acyn]

Obama: I am worried about how willing Republicans in congress have been to surrender their role as members of a coequal branch of government, refusing to block the president, even when they know he is out of line. Even when a lot of them will privately admit that power is being abused in ways that will hurt their constituents and hurt the country.

I worry about a supreme court that so far has shown no willingness to check the administration's excesses, even when those actions break legal precedent and seem to defy the bedrock principle that no one is above the law.

[Stan Collymore @StanCollymore]

Suicide.

I'm choosing to be deliberately blunt and provocative in this post because it's necessary. Government, charities, football clubs are all pushing water up a hill in highlighting what is undoubtedly a major health crisis.

You take a rope.
You put it up in a garage or a tree nearby or far away.
You're thinking about every loved one you'll leave behind as you put that rope around your neck.
Then you drop.

Some are decapitated.
Some aren't.
All are found by someone who has a lifetime of trauma that will never leave them.
A son.
A daughter.
A brother.
A sister.
A mother.
A father.

I know 2 men who hung themselves.

One was found by his Mom.
One was found by his brother.
Neither have recovered fully. 20 and 30 years on.

A life sentence for people who were already worrying, terrified their loved one may do something.

So just visualise the above and ask, "is there another way"?

A segway for a moment.

I do a few Q&A's every year. Tales of yesterday with a 99% male audience of my age group.

After the stories and fun, my last question back to the audience is..

"Hands up if you struggle with a mental health issue".

Nobody ever puts a hand up. Despite 1 in every 3 of 500 attendees statistically struggling.

"Ah, nobody, that's fucking brilliant! Well I do! ". I then graphically tell people, stunned into silence about how a rope around my neck in the middle of nowhere jolted me to go home and cry like a baby to my Mom.

After the Q&A has finished, something always happens. I'll be chatting to a few guys, saying bye and one by one, men will come over and whisper " I struggle".

Or my mailbox the next day will have 30 emails from guys, their partners or kids saying " Dad/Uncle /Brother was there last night and what you said hit them hard".

And that's how some people realise that it's time to speak to a pal or family member or even rant to me in an email. It works, I often get a follow up email a year or 6 later saying that they took responsibility for their suicidal feelings and are now flying.

Humans are programmed to want to live, to have families and to keep the species growing and thriving. So for a human to want to short circuit that desire isn't normal, and it should never be spoken of as normal. It's the ultimate red flag.

If you suspect your mate, Dad, Brother, Uncle is struggling mentally, they deserve your intervention.

They deserve a " are you OK, please tell me what's up".

They deserve an opportunity to get past wanting to hang a rope over a tree or in a garage and slowly struggle until they die and you find them.

If you've been there and trust me I have plenty, then you'll know that text out of the blue, or a footie mate or one of your kids asking jow you are can open the curtains to some sunshine.

Because when suicide is your only answer, the room is already dark, and you can't see a way out.

So please, fucking pretty please, ask that husband, Dad, Uncle, Cousin, footie pal TODAY how they are.

You may be shocked what comes back but extremely glad that you asked.

For those who struggle, you're not alone.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

Last night, President Trump posted more than two dozen times on his social media platform, Truth Social.
He posted phony mugshots of Barack Obama and an AI-generated video of the former president being arrested in the Oval Office.
He posted about the NFL’s Washington Commanders, demanding they change their name back to the Redskins.
He posted a video of a bikini-clad woman picking up and tossing a snake
A man somersaulting down a stairway
A red Lamborghini careening beneath a truck
A man jumping a fence and coming face to face with a speeding train
A woman break dancing
A billiards trick
A man hacking away at a rock formation
A dirt biker doing stunts
A jet ski
A man ascending an obstacle course with a ladder
A man jump-roping.
Aman pulling a block from a still-standing massive Jenga tower
A man tossing rubbish into a dumpster from his balcony
A man doing a flip
Somebody carrying a heavy object on their shoulders
A man juggling a dropped package of paper towels
Someone doing a skateboard trick

What on earth does all this mean? Is it not rather disconcerting?

[John Standaloft @JohnStandaloft]

@jeffsheehan Thank you Jeff, my pleasure. I actually live in Guyana.

[Robert Peston @Peston]

We just learned that the world’s most powerful person, Donald Trump, has a boss: the bond market.

He may not have acknowledged this to himself, yet, but the global financial tumult he caused - and has temporarily eased - has locked him in a fiscal prison.

Because, as I have been saying for 24 hours, he came perilously close yesterday to having caused such an extreme fall in the price of US government debt that it would have become prohibitively expensive for his administration to fund a large deficit - more than 6% of GDP - and also to refinance the almost $8 trillion of government debt that matures in the coming year (almost a third of America’s sovereign debt).

The point is he is totally in hock to the good will of bonds investors.

And when he announced his reckless roster of massive tariffs eight days ago he alienated them, because they feared he would tank the economy such that tax revenues would plummet and the deficit would balloon.

So they sold US government bonds, Treasuries, and the yield on the bonds - the de facto interest rate - soared.

Which is why Trump blinked, and put on hold the more extreme tariffs, except for the 140% on China, for 90 days.

You might think the worst part of this is the uncertainty he has created for businesses and investors for the next 90 days. Since no one in their right minds would make a major US investment till the final tariff determinations are made.

But the cancerous uncertainty is not the worst of it.

The worst of it is he has shredded any respect that overseas governments and investors might have had for America’s economic and fiscal competence.

Shades - you might say - of how Truss and Kwarteng’s unwise unfunded tax cuts undermined the perceived fiscal competence of the UK.

But unlike Truss and Kwarteng, there is pretty much no mechanism for removing Trump.

All of which means that bond and stock markets will remain fragile and volatile - fearful that Trump will regain his mojo and engage in some other fiscal extravagance.

He has also handed a loaded gun to his perceived enemy, China, and his supposed ally Japan.

This matters in both cases, because he is engaged in the mother of all trade wars with China - and Japan wants a trade deal with him that would see it escape mega tariffs.

The loaded guns they have are their massive loans to the US government. Japan owns more than a trillion dollars of US Treasuries and China not much less.

If they were to sell those bonds, or even if they chose not to refinance maturing bonds, that could be a disaster for Trump. Because it could cause another potentially crippling spike in bond yields.

Here is the measure of Trump’s debacle.

He may well have trashed America’s single most important financial competitive advantage, namely that investors have traditionally bought the dollar and US Treasuries at a time of economic and political uncertainty.

No more - because he personally has become the world’s source of economic uncertainty snd anxiety.

So, as I say he, is now in a fiscal prison. And if bond investors, including Japan and China, see him imposing tariffs or cutting taxes in ways they don’t like, they learned yesterday they have the means and power to stop him.

[MeidasTouch @MeidasTouch]

BREAKING via WaPo:

Mike Waltz and other members of Trump's National Security Council conducted government business over personal Gmail accounts, where they held conversations about highly sensitive information, including about military positions, powerful weapons systems, and more

Link: https://t.co/4DQhsMPYUi

[John Standaloft @JohnStandaloft]

@DeborahMeaden Indeed.....

[JimmyTheGiant @jimthegiant]

Before we deport all the migrants…

can we just give a little try at reducing wealth inequality first, see if that helps things

[John Standaloft @JohnStandaloft]

@DeborahMeaden This is a man who has been spoiled since he was a child and always expects to get his own way. When he doesn't, he reacts in this way, nasty, spiteful and vengeful. That has been clear for many years, but sadly not to too many of the American electorate...and we all suffer