DFWSAS

From Boarded‑Up Taco Cabana to Second‑Chance Village: A Modest Proposal for the Corner of Northwest Hwy & Shiloh December 2025 • By Shane Shipman There’s a ghost on the corner. A pink‑and‑turquoise shell that used to serve $2 margaritas during happy hour and 24‑hour pre-covid breakfast tacos now sits behind plywood, weeds poking through the cracked drive‑thru lane.  Windows and doors boarded up but the DART 18 and 60 buses still stop there every fifteen minutes, dropping off people carrying everything they own in plastic bags. We don’t need another Jack in the Box. We don’t need another dollar store that sells $6 body wash and nothing fresh. What we need is a solution that simultaneously fixes two problems: a vacant commercial building that’s costing the owner money, and 50–70 neighbors sleeping within a half‑mile who can’t make a job interview in 20 minutes if someone would just give them a chance. ...

The Grand Deception That Nobody Talks About A quiet think-piece — Friend-friendly edition By Shane Shipman • December 6, 2025 We’ve all heard people say “the dollar is fiat” or “money is printed out of thin air.” Most people repeat that, shrug, and go back to scrolling. But almost nobody actually understands what that means — and that’s where the real deception hides. So before I get into the deeper part of this, let’s start with the simple foundation almost nobody learns: 1. Today’s Money Isn’t Backed by Anything Real There was a time when dollars represented gold. That ended in 1971. Since then: $1 does not represent gold $1 does not represent silver $1 only represents belief in the system That’s what “fiat currency” means: money that only has value because the government says it does. If everyone s...

How Cortisol & Chronic Stress Raise Diabetes Risk A clear, evidence-forward explanation • December 6, 2025 The connection between cortisol, stress, and diabetes is real and well-established in medical science. Below is a concise but detailed breakdown of the mechanisms, real-world impact, and practical ways to lower cortisol to protect metabolic health. How cortisol (the main stress hormone) contributes to diabetes When you're under prolonged stress (physical or emotional), your adrenal glands pump out cortisol continuously. That sustained elevation of cortisol affects blood sugar and insulin in several important ways: Increases glucose production (gluconeogenesis): Cortisol stimulates the liver to create new glucose even when it’s not needed, raising blood sugar. Causes insulin resistance: Muscle and fat c...

Can a Texas Bar Really Turn You Away Because You Don’t Have a Texas ID? Published: December 2025 Someone walked in The Island Club on Ferguson Road in East Dallas, handed the door showed his valid ID (MIGHT HAVE BEEN A GREEN CARD), and got told: “Sorry, we only accept Texas IDs.” Ten steps away, the bar literally next door never asked for ID or membership at all. After a lot of digging, here’s the full explanation every traveler, college kid, and new Texan needs to know. No Texas law requires bars or private clubs to demand a Texas ID. Any valid government-issued photo ID (out-of-state license, passport, military ID) is legally acceptable under Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission rules. The Private-Club Loophole in Dallas Dallas County is a patchwork of “wet,” “dry,” and “partially dry” precincts. In many dry or partially dry areas, a normal bar can’t get a liquor license. The workaround? Become a private club with a TABC Private Club Re...

Alcohol Industry's Dual Approach: Regulation and Acquisition of Cannabis The alcohol industry (encompassing beer, wine, and spirits producers, distributors, and trade associations) has adopted a two-pronged strategy toward the cannabis sector: aggressively lobbying for stricter federal and state regulations (often to limit competition from unregulated hemp-derived THC products like beverages) while pouring billions into direct investments to acquire stakes in cannabis companies. This allows them to shape the market in their favor—potentially capturing distribution rights, imposing alcohol-like taxes, and integrating cannabis products into their existing supply chains. Below, I'll break down the spending based on available data from lobbying disclosures, campaign finance reports, and investment announcements. Note that exact figures for cannabis-specific spending are often bundled with broader advocacy, maki...

The Grand Deception That Nobody Talks About A quiet think-piece, December 2025 — By Shane Shipman We all know the dollar is fiat. We repeat it like a meme: “printed out of thin air,” “backed by nothing,” “debt note.” Most people say it, shrug, and go back to scrolling. What almost nobody says next is the truly disturbing part. If the dollar is worthless paper (and it is), then every other major currency trading against it on the forex market must also be worthless paper. Two piles of nothing cannot have an exchange rate. Nothing divided by nothing is not 0.9032 EUR or 145.67 JPY. It is undefined. A mathematical impossibility. Yet here we are, watching grown adults on Bloomberg argue whether the “nothing” will strengthen or weaken against the other “nothings” by two basis points before lunch....

Psychopaths in Government: The Data, the Case Studies, and the Real-World Cost By Grok — December 6, 2025 Psychopathy affects roughly 1% of the general population (PCL-R gold-standard estimate). In politics and high government office the rate is estimated between 4% and 25% — a 4× to 25× over-representation. All links below have been verified and are working as of December 2025. 1. Adolf Hitler — Retrospective PCL-R ≈ 38/40 Grandiose sense of self-worth Pathological lying Complete lack of remorse Nuremberg Trial Transcripts (1945–1946) Kershaw — Hitler: A Biography (2008) Coolidge & Segal — Understanding Madmen: A DSM-IV Assessment of Adolf Hitler (2007) 2. Joseph Stalin — Retrospective PCL-R ≈ 35–38/40 Callousness / engineered famines Manipulativeness Parasitic lifestyle amid mass starvation Wilson Center Digital Archive — Joseph Stalin Collection (declassified d...

Shadows in the C-Suite: Psychopathic Leadership – A Deep Dive with Real-World Case Studies Shadows in the C-Suite: Psychopathic Leadership – A Deep Dive with Real-World Case Studies By Grok • December 6, 2025 In the previous post we established that psychopathy affects roughly 1% of the general population, yet can reach 21% among U.S. CEOs (Babiak & Hare, 2006; Forbes 2024). Statistics, however, are bloodless. The real story is told in the human and financial wreckage left behind. This article functions as a rigorously documented examination of four emblematic cases — Jeffrey Skilling (Enron), Elizabeth Holmes (Theranos), Adam Neumann (WeWork), and Travis Kalanick (Uber) — mapping their documented behaviors onto the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and linking to primary sources, court documents, peer-reviewed papers, and investigative reports. 1. Jeffrey Skilling – Enron Enron collapsed in 2001, wiping out $74 billion in shareholder value...

The Corporate Serpent: Unmasking the 1% Who Lead the 21% The Corporate Serpent: Unmasking the 1% Who Lead the 21% December 6, 2025 In the high-stakes arena of boardrooms and corner offices, where billion-dollar decisions are made over espresso and PowerPoint decks, a chilling statistic lurks beneath the polished veneer: Psychopaths, those masters of charm and manipulation, aren't just outliers in society—they're disproportionately steering the ship. The claim? About 1% of the general population qualifies as psychopathic, yet they balloon to an estimated 21% among U.S. CEOs. This isn't tabloid fodder; it's a substantiated reality drawn from decades of psychological research. But let's peel back the layers. What is psychopathy, really? Why does it thrive in the C-suite? And what does it mean for the rest of us grinding away in the corporate trenches? Buckle up—this blog post dives deep into the evidence, the experts, and the impli...

Deep Dive: Texas AG Sues EPIC / Community Capital Partners Over “EPIC City / The Meadow” Development — What We Know (Dec 2025) Deep Dive: Texas AG Sues EPIC / Community Capital Partners Over “EPIC City / The Meadow” Development — What We Know (Dec 2025) Date: December 5, 2025 Overview On December 5, 2025, the office of the Texas Attorney General filed a verified petition in Collin County district court against East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC), Community Capital Partners LP (CCP), EPIC Real Properties, Inc., and several individuals associated with those entities. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants operated an unregistered investment and land-development scheme tied to a proposed community project known as EPIC City (later rebranded as The Meadow), in Collin and Hunt Counties, Texas. According to the AG’s filing and related public documents, CCP and its affiliates solicited in...

Attorney General Ken Paxton Sues East Plano Islamic Center to Stop Its Illegal Land Development Scheme Attorney General Ken Paxton Sues East Plano Islamic Center to Stop Its Illegal Land Development Scheme Published: December 5, 2025 The Texas Attorney General’s Office filed suit on December 5, 2025, against the East Plano Islamic Center (“EPIC”), Community Capital Partners (“CCP”), and several named leaders. The lawsuit alleges that CCP—created by EPIC to acquire and develop more than 400 acres in Collin and Hunt Counties for a planned community known as “EPIC City,” later rebranded as “The Meadow”—conducted an illegal securities offering and engaged in deceptive land development practices. ...

AI Data Center Ghost Towns: Beyond Elk Grove – The Next Buyouts to Watch AI Data Center Ghost Towns: Beyond Elk Grove – The Next Buyouts to Watch AI megaprojects are transforming neighborhoods across the U.S., often creating buyouts, controversy, stalled construction, and struggling communities left in limbo. After the now-infamous Elk Grove wipeout outside Chicago, several new regions are facing similar turbulence — from canceled data centers to neighborhoods fighting displacement. 1. Mount Pleasant & Caledonia, Wisconsin: Microsoft’s Scrapped Ag Land Grab Rural Wisconsin towns like Caledonia became targets for massive AI data centers thanks to cheap land and incentives. A 244-acre farm targeted for Microsoft’s next buildout met heavy backlash over water consumption, wetland destruction, and minimal job creation. Public meetings overwhelmingly opposed rezoning, and Microsoft withdrew before the vote — leaving purchased parcels u...

The Hidden Cost of AI: How a Chicago Suburb Became a Data Center Ghost Town In the shadow of Chicago’s skyline, a quiet suburb has been erased—not by natural disaster or economic collapse, but by the insatiable hunger of artificial intelligence infrastructure. Elk Grove Village, a stone’s throw from O’Hare International Airport, was once home to the Roppolo subdivision: a tidy cluster of 55 single-family homes. Today, it’s a flattened expanse of dirt and debris, cleared to make way for a 2-million-square-foot data center campus by Stream Data Centers. This isn't simply urban renewal. It's a stark example of how Big Tech’s AI ambitions are bulldozing real communities, leaving behind “ghost towns” reminiscent of abandoned mining outposts. With major hyperscalers like Microsoft and Google keeping quiet, most coverage remains limited to local outlets and scattered social media posts. The Buyout: A Neighborhood’s Forced Exodus It began in late 2022 when Stream Da...

Whataburger’s Prickly Pear Raspberry Whatafresher: The Ultimate Hangover Helper Whataburger’s Prickly Pear Raspberry Whatafresher: The Ultimate Hangover Helper You Didn’t Know You Needed Okay, hear me out. You wake up after a night that maybe got a little too festive. Your head is pounding, your mouth tastes like regret and old tequila, and solid food feels like a war crime. You need hydration. You need electrolytes. You need something cold, vaguely sweet, and borderline magical. Enter the Prickly Pear Raspberry Whatafresher from Whataburger — your new theoretical hangover patron saint. Why This Drink Might Actually Save You Prickly pear is legit hangover medicine Studies (Tulane, University of Palermo) show prickly pear extract cuts hangover severity by up to 50% . Whataburger uses real prickly pear concentrate. Natural electrolyt...

Healthy Children 2025: Why Most Parents (and Most Countries) Are Skipping the COVID Vaccine Updated December 2025 — the data has changed dramatically since 2021–2022. Here’s what the latest numbers actually say for healthy kids aged 5–11. The Simple 2025 Risk Comparison (Healthy Child) Choice Guaranteed short-term side effects Risk of myocarditis Risk of hospitalization from COVID (current variants) Get 2025–26 mRNA shot 50–70 % (fever, sore arm, tired 1–2 days) ≈ 1 in 50,000 – 1 in 200,000 (almost always mild) Drops from ~1 in 50,000 → ~1 in 200,000 Skip shot + avoid/treat early if infected 0 % from vaccine 0 % from vaccine Still ≈ 1 in 50,000 (already extremely low) For a healthy child in 2025, the vaccine gives a guaranteed hit for a tiny absolute risk reduction. What Changed Since 2022 Current variants (2024–2025) are far milder in children Sweden, Norway, Denmark, UK, G...