"Repubs Bad, Dems Worse"

"Repubs Bad, Dems Worse"

Pols, polls and the bipartisan plot to drown America in debt...

by Joel Bowman

“I don't want to belong to any club that would accept me as a member.”
~ Groucho Marx, RIP (1890-1977)

Houston, Texas - "Fear not, gentle reader, we’re in a “safe space” today. The Black Hole coffeeshop here in Houston, whence we pen these very words, brandishes all the signals a mental defective might require in order to enjoy a soy milk latte in peace, without feeling “triggered.” There’s a “Black Lives Matter” poster on the back wall, for instance... two “all gender” restrooms at the rear... a rainbow “pride” flag by the counter... and, in case anyone was unsure as to the establishment’s position vis-à-vis the current administration, a “Pro Jobs, Anti-Trump” sign, right by the community noticeboard. Subtle.

Yes, dear reader, we sit among the fearful... the certain... the blue-haired warriors combating, as they imagine it, the rise and rise of the Fourth Reich. They are the resistance... standing firmly against hate, bigotry, fascism... and proper definitions of terms.

Ah, but we have a soft spot for soft-headed underdogs. Which is why, in honor of the cafe’s commitment to “inclusivity,” we hereby dedicate today’s Note to the weird and wild denizens of the Black Hole, diverse in every manner imaginable... except, of course, when it comes to their unshakable word view. That said, let us turn from a subject upon which nobody seems to agree, identity politics, to one on which everyone can surely disagree… actual politics.

Way Back When: The latest punchline headline, from CNBC: "Trump’s approval rating still negative while the public sours further on Democrats, CNBC survey shows. According to the flailing Comcast network (Stephen Colbert’s soon-to-be-former employer), the public disapproves of the job Trump is doing as president by a 51%-46% margin. That’s slightly better than the April CNBC All-America Economic Survey, which had the president at 51%-44%."

But wait! What’s this? The Dems are in the tank, too... even among those inclined to answer surveys conducted by the mainstream media. From the same article: "Favorability of the Democratic Party among registered voters sank to a net -32 percentage points, with 24% positive and 56% negative. The -32 rating appeared to be the lowest rating for either party going back to at least 1996."

Ah, you remember 1996 don’t you, dear reader? The Internet was just getting going... William Jefferson Clinton had just won reelection... and the O.J. Simpson trial, recently concluded, had just laid bare the “integrity” of the American criminal justice system. Simpler times, eh?

Back then, Uncle Sam had a national debt of “only” $5.2 trillion... or around 65% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Almost 30 years on, thanks to the tireless, bipartisan efforts of your elected officials, those numbers have grown to $37 trillion and 121%, respectively.

That is, while the US economy has grown by an impressive 3.8 times during the past few decades... the national debt has ballooned to more than 7.2 times its original, 1996 size. In other words, the debt has rocketed at almost twice the rate of the underlying economy... and it’s only just hitting escape velocity.

At current rates – that is, assuming no costly wars, no unforeseen interruptions to economic growth, no manufactured “emergencies” or other mass psychosis events – America’s national debt is projected to hit $49 trillion by 2029... which would be ~140% of GDP... or around $382k per taxpaying citizen. For reference, America’s record debt-to-GDP ratio during the last century – “achieved” during WWII, no less – stood at “just” 119%.

The GDP Myth: As savvy readers have recently pointed out, GDP is indeed a sub-optimal measure of the size of an economy, in part because it includes the government’s deficit spending as a net positive under the expenditure method... when really it should be seen as a net drag on the “real” (i.e. private) economy.

Murray Rothbard, a key figure in the Austrian School of Economics, sought to address this convenient “oversight” when he proposed his twin alternative measures: Gross Private Product (GPP) and Private Product Remaining (PPR). (Interested readers can learn more about those in this Note from a few months back: "Alice in Argentina.")

So far in this, the third millennium, successive administrations – and pork barreling congressmen on both sides of the aisle – have added almost $30 trillion to Uncle Sam’s credit card. That’s $6.1 trillion under George W. Bush (2001–2009); $8 trillion under Barack Obama (2009–2017); $7.9 trillion under Donald Trump I (2017–2021); and $5.7 trillion under Joe Biden (2021–2025)…and counting.

Is it any wonder private, hard-working, minding-their-own-business citizens have had enough? Or that they should be so readily “divided and conquered”? The aforementioned CNBC article concluded by stating the bleeding obvious: “Republicans remain solidly behind the president and Democrats solidly against. Half of independents disapprove of the president.”

To summarize: The right hates the left… the left hates the right… and nobody is happy with anybody. As the old saying goes, you cannot fool all of the people all of the time… which is why the world’s leading democracy has two political parties. Indeed, the slogan “Vote Nobody!” never sounded so appealing! Speaking of Argentina’s “libertarian laboratory,” your editor will (finally) be heading home next week. Look forward to our front row coverage of the Greatest Political Experiment of Our Age to resume promptly thereafter. In the meantime, thanks for your patience… and stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World..."

- https://joelbowman.substack.com/

Bill Bonner, "Stabbed in the Back"

Federal debt held by the public will increase by 9% to 11% by 2034, according to a Congressional Budget Office memo on the budget bill. Debt service costs will rise by at least $718 billion. The public currently owns $29 trillion in US government debt, about 96% of US GDP.

"Stabbed in the Back"

by Bill Bonner

"We are now in a new world. 

Even to trade nerds, the complexity of this is just bonkers."

- Chad Bown, senior fellow at the

 Peterson Institute for International Economics

Poitou, France - "You’ll recall that Oswald Spengler predicted that around the year 2000 western democracy would peak and would be succeeded by a period of strongman leaders. Our question is this: To what extent does our own Donald J. Trump fulfill the prophecy? Who cares?’ is another question that might come up. But our beat is money. And since the feds directly control 20% of GDP (in round numbers) and indirectly control another 20%, it’s worth looking more closely at how the new Trump model works.

“There are three stages to a king’s life,” explained a French friend at a party last night. The moon was full. We dined outside in a magnificent garden. Red wine and philosophy overcame him: “There is love. There is war. And there is architecture. All are ruinous. But architecture is the worst. Louis 14th’s Versailles Palace practically bankrupted France.”

Authoritarians don’t have to be big spenders. But most are. The Big Man tends to buy support by recycling taxpayer money. Plus, he has big ideas. He wants conquests, ‘wins,’ parades and monuments. So far, Trump’s lust-list has been fanciful (make Canada the 51st state!) or no worse than his Obama- and Biden-era predecessors. He did push through a big, beautiful budget abomination (BBBA) that will bring total US debt to $60 trillion or so by 2035.

But this is a feature of the old world, not a new one. The path to bankruptcy and financial chaos is well signposted and well-trod. The Big Man did not discover it. He merely stayed on it. When it came to ‘trade deals,’ however, Trump seemed to channel his inner Caesar. Government-managed trade is a major departure from the policies of the last 70+ years...and from the traditional platform of the Republican party.

The world learned long ago that people are generally better off when people are allowed to decide for themselves with whom and how they trade. But the lesson was lost on the Big Man. POTUS, not Congress (as the Constitution would seem to require) has imposed tariffs. They will be paid by importers, not exporters...and ultimately will amount to the biggest tax increase in American history. They are expected to bring in over $300 billion this year and $2 trillion over the next ten years...a huge transfer of real wealth from the taxpayers (in this case, consumers) to the feds.

And here is where the difference between clumsy, consensual democracy and Big Man government becomes important.How many Americans really want a tax increase? Not many. And among MAGA fans probably even fewer. Sen. Rand Paul put the question to Larry Kudlow: "But the question I would ask you, Larry [Kudlow], is, they're bragging that they think they can bring in $2 trillion in revenue over 10 years. If someone came to you and said, 'Hey Larry, I've got this great idea for a value-added tax that'll bring in $2 trillion over the next 10 years,' you'd shake your head and say 'We don't want to be Europeans, we're not for that, and we've never been for adding a sales tax without removing some other tax.' But...we're getting $2 trillion in taxes on top of all the other taxes that we have. So ultimately conservatives have to decide, do they like taxes because they're Donald Trump's taxes, or do we still say that we don't want more revenue coming out of the productive economy and going to government, that we want to balance the budget by reducing spending, not increasing taxes?"

Tariffs are not uniquely awful. Government absorbs a large part of national output each year. Whether it gets the money from income taxes, sales (tariff) taxes, or inflation (printing money)...the gross effect is the same. But the net effect...including the collateral damage...varies.

Income taxes (in theory) discourage people from earning more money. Sales taxes (including tariffs) discourage them from spending it. And inflation discourages them from saving it. Which is worse? We don’t know. But the Big Man in the White House insists on ALL three of them. We have direct income taxes. We have inflation. And now we have a huge ‘Value Added Tax’ masquerading as tariffs.

Most Americans may oppose it, but the Big Man does what he wants. Up to a point. The press reports that some MAGA fans – Rand Paul, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson et. al. - are asking: have we been betrayed? Suckered? Stabbed in the back? How serious is the ‘right-wing’ backlash? We’ll look at it next week."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "Free Money Does Not Work! Free Money Fails"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 8/8/25

"Free Money Does Not Work! Free Money Fails"

"Hey everyone, it’s Dan from I Allegedly! Today, we’re diving into a hot topic: the hidden costs of Universal Basic Income (UBI). On the surface, “free money” sounds like a dream, but does it actually work? Spoiler alert: It doesn’t. From the 160 UBI programs running across the U.S. to the unintended consequences like demotivation and inflation, I’m breaking it all down in this video. We’ll talk about the impact these programs had during COVID, the shocking spending habits of recipients, and how this “free money” mindset could be reshaping our economy and society.

I also touch on the rising costs of child care, food, and basic living expenses, and why many families are struggling to keep up. Plus, we’ll explore how some people took advantage of government programs, like PPP fraud, and the fallout for those caught in the act. And yes, I share my thoughts on crazy business stories, including the struggles of barbecue chains like Dickies, and even a surprising update about Tesla Cybertrucks and the U.S. Air Force!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jim Kunstler, "Going, Going Gone..."

"Going, Going Gone..."

by Jim Kunstler

“Because they can no longer distinguish between fantasy and reality,

 they are too crazy to lead this country, and Americans know it.” 

- Sasha Stone on the Democratic Party

"In case you’re wondering why the Democratic Party is in a death spiral, it is the proportionate response to the damage they have done to American culture and politics. You might think that they fell haplessly into error, but their turn to Marxian idealism was a cover for a matrix of hustles and rackets to make up for a void of any sane political program.

Coming into the 21st century, our country was beset by looming decline. Our industrial base was going, going, gone, and with it millions of well-paying blue-collar jobs, the Democratic Party base. It was replaced by a so-called “financialized economy,” which was sanitized language for sets of swindles and frauds allowed to operate in the de-regulated banking system, in concert with the politicized Federal Reserve and crooked Congressional interests - you notice how many politicians paid $175-K a year somehow acquired multi-million-dollar fortunes?

What mainly grew in this period was government and things that fed off of it, such as the war industries, computer tech allied with the Intel gang, and especially the burgeoning universe of government-sponsored non-profit advocacy orgs, which became the jobs program for otherwise unemployables churned out of higher education, a racket that fed on federal loan guarantees. It was in the racketeering ecosystem that billionaires such as George Soros and Bill Gates could use their fortunes to advance their own personal obsessions through webs of non-governmental orgs (NGOs) to influence public affairs.

By 2016, that was really all that the Democratic Party had left. It was the source of their money and their power. They also had the accumulated political capital of race advocacy, starting with the civil rights crusades of the 1960s. After our victory over manifest evil in World War Two, the Jim Crow system had to go, or else America could not pretend to lead the so-called “free world.”

By some paradoxical alchemy of government policy and human nature, the civil rights campaign eventually produced a larger and more intractable “underclass” than existed before. This baffled liberal idealists who had expected a new era of brotherhood and equality. They could only account for it by “structural racism,” and the Marxian trope of “oppressors-and-victims” fit into that scaffold perfectly. It lured them into Marxian “praxis” generally, which by then was already failing everywhere else in the world it had been tried as “communism.”

One way to counter “structural racism” was to declare a new ethos of “multiculturalism,” meaning each ethnic or racial group could behave according to its own particular standards and values. It was like waving a magic wand to make failure disappear and it worked through the 1990s, (which happened to be the fattest years of cheap oil production in America). The trouble with multiculturalism was that it negated the thing that had held America together through vicissitudes such as the Great Depression and World War Two: The American common culture, the thing that belonged to everyone.

The MAGA movement has largely been an effort to reconstruct an American common culture, a consensus of values and behaviors we can all agree on. The Democratic Party opted to oppose that - a poor choice. In fact, they apparently viewed that effort as an existential threat to the hustles and rackets that were sustaining the party. For instance, the jobs program for otherwise unemployable college grads who styled themselves as “activists” working for NGOs under the umbrella of USAID.

This was the party’s army of influencers, organizers, ward-heelers, and ballot-harvesters, laboring on behalf of the “victims of oppression.” Quite a few of them resided in Academia, where they cultivated a whole lexicon of arcane, gnostic, crypto-Marxian ideology aimed not just at opposing the recovery of a common culture, but destroying whatever remnants of it remained.

The catch was: they didn’t believe in “social justice” or “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” That was just a smokescreen of verbiage over their race hustle, which means extorting money, unearned advantages, and status dishonestly. Thus was DEI birthed. And, with it, colossal frauds of “victimhood” such as the beatification of George Floyd and a long line of similar “justice-involved” cases that generated an impressive revenue flow for the Democrats.

That revenue flow and its utility for holding power was all they had left in 2024. It explains the empty symbolism of running Kamala Harris for president. Now, the money flow is gone and so is the party’s power and perhaps its last remaining reason for existence: the maintenance of its own power. Notice that the Democrats can’t even advocate for the return of USAID, now that it has been unmasked as rife with financial fraud and crime.

There is surely a need for an opposition party to any in-party, which happens to be Mr. Trump’s Republicans at the moment, if only because power corrupts. You can see the outline of what that new opposition party might be: a party of re-localization, of small business and small farmers, of traditional towns as opposed to still-rampant and malignant suburban sprawl. Some related issues already belong to MAGA, such as smaller government, the protection of privacy, respect for the Bill of Rights - but these would be implicit in the restoration of an American common culture, a set of values and standards of behavior that both parties in a two-party system can subscribe to."

- https://www.kunstler.com/

"Millions Will Soon Be Unemployed!"

Full screen recommended.

Steven Van Metre, 8/7/25

"Millions Will Soon Be Unemployed!"

The shocking proof that we're on the brink of a crisis, 

one that will impact every American family.

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Rental Market Apocalypse Begins As Americans Can’t Afford Insane Prices"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 8/7/25

"Rental Market Apocalypse Begins

 As Americans Can’t Afford Insane Prices"

"Landlords are panicking. Rent prices just dropped 10% in 12 months but nobody can still afford them. Rental vacancy rates tripled. Properties sit empty for months. I just talked to a property manager who has to cut his rental price by 100 dollars every week until someone takes it. That's how desperate this rental market crisis has gotten. But here's where the housing affordability crisis gets worse. Jacksonville has 18,000 new apartments flooding the market right now. Developers are offering 3 months free rent, no deposits, even throwing in TVs just to get people in the door. This is creating even more competition for regular landlords dealing with rising mortgage rates.

At the same time, all those people who bought houses in 2020-2022 thinking they'd work from home forever? They're getting called back to the office but can't sell their properties due to the housing bubble. So now they're accidentally becoming landlords and losing 800+ dollars per month, adding even more rental inventory to an already oversaturated market.

And it's not just regular rentals. Phoenix went from 5,000 Airbnbs to over 21,000. Most are sitting empty. Insurance costs exploded 300%. Some owners are getting hit with 30,000 dollar fines from cities. Many are now dumping their Airbnb properties into the long-term rental market, making this rent affordability problem even worse. The result? 70% of Americans are financially stressed in this cost of living crisis and nobody wins in this rental market collapse."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Store Closures Hit Record High; Crypto In Your 401K; Panera Bread Employees Could Go Homeless"

Jeremiah Babe, 8/7/25

"Store Closures Hit Record High; Crypto In Your 401K; 

Panera Bread Employees Could Go Homeless"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gerald Celente, "Presstitute Media And Immoral Humans: 'We Hate Celente, He's For Peace'"

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, 8/7/25

"Presstitute Media And Immoral Humans:

 'We Hate Celente, He's For Peace'"

The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present facts and truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for what’s next in these increasingly turbulent times.

- https://trendsjournal.com/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Il Divo, "Wicked Game" ("Melanconia")

Full screen recommended.

Il Divo, "Wicked Game" ("Melanconia")

(Live In London 2011)

English lyrics here:

- https://genius.com/Il-divo-wicked-game-melanconia-lyrics

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Sprawling emission nebulae IC 1396 and Sh2-129 mix glowing interstellar gas and dark dust clouds in this 10 degree wide field of view toward the northern constellation Cepheus the King. Energized by its bluish central star IC 1396 (left) is hundreds of light-years across and some 3,000 light-years distant. 

The nebula's intriguing dark shapes include a winding dark cloud popularly known as the Elephant's Trunk below and right of center. Tens of light-years long, it holds the raw raw material for star formation and is known to hide protostars within. Located a similar distance from planet Earth, the bright knots and swept back ridges of emission of Sh2-129 on the right suggest its popular name, the Flying Bat Nebula. Within the Flying Bat, the most recently recognized addition to this royal cosmic zoo is the faint bluish emission from Ou4, the Giant Squid nebula."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210723.html

"A Kind Of Stubborn, Unrecognized Courage..."

"For many great deeds are accomplished in times of squalid struggle. There is a kind of stubborn, unrecognized courage which in the lowest depths tenaciously resists the pressures of necessity and ill-doing; there are noble and obscure triumphs observed by no one, unacclaimed by any fanfare. Hardship, loneliness, and penury are a battlefield which has its own heroes, sometimes greater than those lauded in history. Strong and rare characters are thus created; poverty nearly always a foster-mother, may become a true mother, distress may be the nursemaid of pride, and misfortune the milk that nourishes great spirits."

- Victor Hugo

“Neuroscience Says Listening to This Song Reduces Anxiety by Up to 65 Percent”

Full screen highly recommended.

“Neuroscience Says Listening to This Song

Reduces Anxiety by Up to 65 Percent”

By Melanie Curtin

“Everyone knows they need to manage their stress. When things get difficult at work, school, or in your personal life, you can use as many tips, tricks, and techniques as you can get to calm your nerves. So here’s a science-backed one: make a playlist of the 10 songs found to be the most relaxing on earth. Sound therapies have long been popular as a way of relaxing and restoring one’s health. For centuries, indigenous cultures have used music to enhance well-being and improve health conditions.

Now, neuroscientists out of the UK have specified which tunes give you the most bang for your musical buck. The study was conducted on participants who attempted to solve difficult puzzles as quickly as possible while connected to sensors. The puzzles induced a certain level of stress, and participants listened to different songs while researchers measured brain activity as well as physiological states that included heart rate, blood pressure, and rate of breathing.

According to Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson of Mindlab International, which conducted the research, the top song produced a greater state of relaxation than any other music tested to date. In fact, listening to that one song- “Weightless”- resulted in a striking 65 percent reduction in participants’ overall anxiety, and a 35 percent reduction in their usual physiological resting rates. That is remarkable.

Equally remarkable is the fact the song was actually constructed to do so. The group that created “Weightless”, Marconi Union, did so in collaboration with sound therapists. Its carefully arranged harmonies, rhythms, and bass lines help slow a listener’s heart rate, reduce blood pressure and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

When it comes to lowering anxiety, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Stress either exacerbates or increases the risk of health issues like heart disease, obesity, depression, gastrointestinal problems, asthma, and more. More troubling still, a recent paper out of Harvard and Stanford found health issues from job stress alone cause more deaths than diabetes, Alzheimer’s, or influenza.

In this age of constant bombardment, the science is clear: if you want your mind and body to last, you’ve got to prioritize giving them a rest. Music is an easy way to take some of the pressure off of all the pings, dings, apps, tags, texts, emails, appointments, meetings, and deadlines that can easily spike your stress level and leave you feeling drained and anxious.

Of the top track, Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson said, “‘Weightless’ was so effective, many women became drowsy and I would advise against driving while listening to the song because it could be dangerous.” So don’t drive while listening to these, but do take advantage of them:

10. “We Can Fly,” by Rue du Soleil (Café Del Mar)

9. “Canzonetta Sull’aria,” by Mozart

8. “Someone Like You,” by Adele

7. “Pure Shores,” by All Saints

6. “Please Don’t Go,” by Barcelona

5. “Strawberry Swing,” by Coldplay

4. “Watermark,” by Enya

3. “Mellomaniac (Chill Out Mix),” by DJ Shah

2. “Electra,” by Airstream

1. “Weightless,” by Marconi Union

I made a public playlist of all of them on Spotify that runs about 50 minutes (it’s also downloadable).”

- http://www.stumbleupon.com/

"How To Recover When The World Breaks You"

"How To Recover When The World Breaks You"

by Ryan Holiday

"There is a line attributed to Ernest Hemingway - that the first draft of everything is sh*t - which, of all the beautiful things Hemingway has written, applies most powerfully to the ending of "A Farewell to Arms." There are no fewer than 47 alternate endings to the book. Each one is a window into how much he struggled to get it right. The pages, which now sit in the Hemingway Collection at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, show Hemingway writing the same passages over and over. Sometimes the wording was nearly identical, sometimes whole sections were cut out. He would, at one moment of desperation, even send pages to his rival, F. Scott Fitzgerald, for notes.

One passage clearly challenged Hemingway more than the others. It comes at the end of the book when Catherine has died after delivering their stillborn son and Frederic is struggling to make sense of the tragedy that has just befallen him. “The world breaks everyone,” he wrote, “and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills.”

In different drafts, he would experiment with shorter and longer versions. In the handwritten draft he worked on with F. Scott Fitzgerald, for instance, Hemingway begins instead with “You learn a few things as you go along…” before beginning with his observation about how the world breaks us. In two typed manuscript pages, Hemingway moved the part about what you learn elsewhere and instead added something that would make the final book - “If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them.”

My point in showing this part of Hemingway’s process isn’t just to definitively disprove the myth - partly of Hemingway’s own making - that great writing is something that flows intuitively from the brain of a genius (no, great writing is a slow, painstaking process, even for geniuses). My point is to give some perspective on one of Hemingway’s most profound insights, one that he, considering his tragic suicide some 32 years later, struggled to fully integrate into his life.

The world is a cruel and harsh place. One that, for at least 4.5 billion years, is undefeated. From entire species of apex predators to Hercules to Hemingway himself, it has been home to incredibly strong and powerful creatures. And where are they now? Gone. Dust. As the Bible verse, which Hemingway opens another one of his books with (and which inspired its title) goes: “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth forever…The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place where he arose…”

The world is undefeated. So really then, for all of us, life is not a matter of “winning” but of surviving as best we can - of breaking and enduring rather than bending the world to our will the way we sometimes suspect we can when we are young and arrogant.

I write about Stoicism, a philosophy of self-discipline and strength. Stoicism promises to help you build an “inner citadel,” a fortress of power and resilience that prepares you for the difficulties of the world. But many people misread this, and assume that Stoicism is a philosophy designed to make you superhuman - to help you eliminate pesky emotions and attachments, and become invincible.

This is wrong. Yes, Stoicism is partly about making it so you don’t break as easily - so you are not so fragile that the slightest change in fortune wrecks you. At the same time, it’s not about filling you with so much courage and hubris that you think you are unbreakable. Only the proud and the stupid think that is even possible. Instead, the Stoic seeks to develop the skills - the true strength - required to deal with a cruel world.

So much of what happens is out of our control: We lose people we love. We are financially ruined by someone we trusted. We put ourselves out there, put every bit of our effort into something, and are crushed when it fails. We are drafted to fight in wars, to bear huge taxes or familial burdens. We are passed over for the thing we wanted so badly. This can knock us down and hurt us. Yes.

Stoicism is there to help you recover when the world breaks you and, in the recovering, to make you stronger at a much, much deeper level. The Stoic heals themselves by focusing on what they can control: Their response. The repairing. The learning of the lessons. Preparing for the future.

This is not an idea exclusive to the West. There is a form of Japanese art called Kintsugi, which dates back to the 15th century. In it, masters repair broken plates and cups and bowls, but instead of simply fixing them back to their original state, they make them better. The broken pieces are not glued together, but instead fused with a special lacquer mixed with gold or silver. The legend is that the art form was created after a broken tea bowl was sent to China for repairs. But the returned bowl was ugly - the same bowl as before, but cracked. Kintsugi was invented as a way to turn the scars of a break into something beautiful.

You can see in this tea bowl, which dates to the Edo period and is now in the Freer Gallery, how the gold seams take an ordinary bowl and add to it what look like roots, or even blood vessels. This plate, also from the Edo period, was clearly a work of art in its original form. Now it has subtle gold filling on the edges where it was clearly chipped and broken by use. This dark tea bowl, now in the Smithsonian, is accented with what look like intensely real lightning bolts of gold. The bowl below it shows that more than just precious metals can improve a broken dish, as the artist clearly inserted shards of an entirely different bowl to replace the original’s missing pieces.

In Zen culture, impermanence is a constant theme. They would have agreed with Hemingway that the world tries to break the rigid and the strong. We are like cups - the second we are made we are simply waiting to be shattered - by accident, by malice, by stupidity or bad luck. The Zen solution to this perilous situation is to embrace it, to be okay with the shattering, perhaps even to seek it out. The idea of wabi-sabi is precisely that. Coming to terms with our imperfections and weaknesses and finding beauty in that.

So both East and West - Stoicism and Buddhism - arrive at similar insights. We’re fragile, they both realize. But out of this fragility, one of the philosophies realizes there is the opportunity for beauty. Hemingway’s prose rediscovers these insights and fuses them into something both tragic and breathtaking, empowering and humbling. The world will break us. It breaks everyone. It always has and always will.

Yet…The author will struggle with the ending of their book and want to quit. The recognition we sought will not come. The insurance settlement we so desperately needed will be rejected. The presentation we practiced for will begin poorly and be beset by technical difficulties. The friend we cherished will betray us. The haunting scene in "A Farewell to Arms" can happen, a child stillborn and a wife lost in labor - and still tragically happens far too often, even in the developed world.

The question is, as always, what will we do with this? How will we respond? Because that’s all there is. The response. his is not to dismiss the immense difficulty of any of these ordeals. It is rather, to first, be prepared for them - humble and aware that they can happen. Next, it is the question: Will we resist breaking? Or will we accept the will of the universe and seek instead to become stronger where we were broken?

Death or Kintsugi? Fragile or, to use that wonderful phrase from Nassim Taleb, 'Antifragile?' Not unbreakable. Not resistant. Because those that cannot break, cannot learn, and cannot be made stronger for what happened. Those that will not break are the ones who the world kills. Not unbreakable. Instead, unruinable."

- https://ryanholiday.net/when-the-world-breaks-you/

○

Freely download "A Farewell To Arms", by Ernest Hemingway, here:

- https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.209262

"Israeli Soldier Reveals 'Strange Order' To Cancel Gaza Border Patrols On 7 Oct"

"Israeli Soldier Reveals 'Strange Order'

 To Cancel Gaza Border Patrols On 7 Oct"

The revelation adds to evidence suggesting Israel

 knew of the Hamas attack in advance, yet allowed it to occur.

by News Desk

"An Israeli soldier stated that he and his fellow soldiers stationed at a military outpost near Gaza received orders not to carry out their usual early morning patrol on the border fence on 7 October 2023, Israeli media reported on 17 July. During the time the border patrol would have normally been carried out, members of Hamas's armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, crossed the fence to attack Israeli army bases and settlements (kibbutzim).

Shalom Sheetrit, a soldier in the Golani Brigade, revealed the directive while giving testimony at a meeting of the lobby for reserve personnel in the Israeli Knesset. I managed to grab the translated version. pic.twitter.com/bBjrTHb47h -  News Fist / Habbening TV (@malinformedtv) July 30, 2025

He stated that on the night before the 7 October attack, he and two other soldiers, Yotam Sror and Itamar Ben Yehuda, sat by the battalion radio at the Pega military outpost near Kibbutz Be'eri. “We were playing on the phone [at 5:20 am] and suddenly a strange message comes from my battalion commander,” the soldier explained, “and what he says on the call is something like this: ‘I don't know why, but an order was issued that there are no patrols at the fence until nine in the morning.’” Sheetrit said soldiers from the outpost carried out patrols on the border fence every morning “because you are in an operational battalion and that is part of the matter.” Hamas fighters attacked the Pega outpost and killed 14 Israeli soldiers there during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

When asked if this was why many soldiers at the outpost were still sleeping when the Hamas attack began, Sheetrit stated, “I don't know how to answer it that way. In our mortar department, there was an alert at dawn, and we woke up. It's possible that in the patrol departments, they were told not to wake up. I don't know. I don't want to just say that.”

Sheetrit stated that the military units based in the Pega outpost were responsible for protecting Kibbutz Be'eri, which was also attacked by Hamas. “Unfortunately, we were not up to the task. There were dozens against hundreds of terrorists, 25 against 150, and so we couldn't arrive, unfortunately. I'm far from being a military man who can give answers to questions, the situation hurts me just as it hurts everyone,” the soldier explained.

A major battle took place at Be'eri in which over 100 Israelis were killed. After the attack began, the Israeli air force deployed Apache Helicopters, tanks, and drones to bomb the kibbutz and the Gaza border nearby to prevent Hamas from taking captives with them back to Gaza.

As a result, Israeli forces burned to death hundreds of Israeli civilians and Hamas fighters in airstrikes in Be'eri and other kibbutzim near the border, as well as at the Nova Music Festival, per a secretive policy known as the Hannibal Directive. The deaths were all quickly blamed on Hamas. Speaking with Haaretz, Israeli reserve pilot Col. Nof Erez describes Israeli army's response to Oct. 7 as "MASS HANNIBAL." The Hannibal Directive orders the army to kill their own to prevent them being taken captive. pic.twitter.com/5IrERAAtVl - The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) November 20, 2023

“I tried to ask military personnel why and what happened there. The blood of my friends and the blood of many people in the country was spilled in a huge tragedy, and I tried to understand why it happened and how,” Sheetrit added.

The strange order to cancel routine patrols along the Gaza border adds to evidence that Israeli political and military leaders knew in advance about Hamas's plan to attack on 7 October – and allowed it to happen to justify the conquest and ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the building of Jewish settlements on top of the ruins of the strip's soon-to-be-destroyed cities.

Israeli military and intelligence officials ignored many signals on the night before the attack, and in the previous weeks and months, indicating that Hamas was planning a large attack to take captives to exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Female Israeli soldiers tasked to observe activity on the Gaza border issued multiple warnings to their superiors that an attack was imminent, but they were ignored.

“In hindsight, we could have done a lot of things, we could have listened to the observers, we could have brought up the air force, and these things didn't happen,” Sheetrit concluded. “That's the failure. It's not a failure of the fighters on the ground, but of the higher levels in the army, of people who went down to Eilat even though we informed them a week in advance that there was intelligence information.”

- https://thecradle.co/

o

Full screen recommended.

The CJ Werleman Show, 8/7/25

"Israel Hides Massive IDF Casualties and 

Losses in Gaza," Say Former IDF Generals"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Thanks for stopping by!

"I Don't Believe..."

"I don’t believe in ‘original sin.’ I don’t believe in ‘guilt.’ I don’t believe in villains or heroes – only right or wrong ways that individuals have taken, not by choice but by necessity or by certain still-uncomprehended influences in themselves, their circumstances, and their antecedents. This is so simple I’m ashamed to say it, but I’m sure it’s true. In fact, I would bet my life on it! And that’s why I don’t understand why our propaganda machines are always trying to teach us, to persuade us, to hate and fear other people on the same little world that we live in.”

- Tennessee Williams

"The Earth"

"The Earth"

by Sheila Black

"What can I tell her over breakfast when she says

her son suffers from madness, and because there

is no mental health, he has ended up in jail,

and she is relieved, because at least he might

be safe there or he might get to see the doctor.

We are eating egg-white omelets; we are counting

carbs. We are buttoning ourselves in our clean dresses

and high-heeled shoes in order to bring home the bacon,

doing what we need to do and “It is what it is.”

Her granddaughter and daughter are living with her

in the one bedroom. Nights, the daughter lounges by

the pool, looking at her phone, while she teaches the child

to plant seeds in a flower bed she feels bad she does not own.

She tells she cried in the car coming here; she did not know

me then. She thought we would be talking to each other

the whole time about what we are selling, what

the other might buy, but somehow we left that behind

over the toast with the tiny pots of strawberry jam.

Who can explain all this luxury, all this despair?

Or how we all hold our secret shames so close

and gloss our lips with “Cinnamon Fire” as if that were

some legitimate form of protection. Cinnamon Fire!

She just turned fifty. I tell her wait ten years - you

won’t know more, but you will get closer to forgiving,

because it is all happening on a wheel that spin

so fast. Why not stop to look at the pink flowers

you’ve planted with your granddaughter? Why not feel

your bare toes in the good wet earth? We play with the crusts

on our plates. The waitress takes the coffee away. We

are strangers again, each carrying our lonely fear

our children won’t find their way, wishing for them

some inner logic - sacred trust of earth and self, that exists

for each of us so far within, so far under the skin, we

can’t even begin to say what it is made of; it merely is,

poised between love and grief: the blue space we call wonder,

which is merely the dew on the grass, the shadow the sun

makes as it rolls over the vast skin of the Earth."

- https://poets.org/

"What Is The Joy About?"

“There are meaningful warnings which history gives a threatened or perishing society. Such are, for instance, the decadence of art, or a lack of great statesmen. There are open and evident warnings, too. The center of your democracy and of your culture is left without electric power for a few hours only, and all of a sudden crowds of American citizens start looting and creating havoc. The smooth surface film must be very thin, then, the social system quite unstable and unhealthy. But the fight for our planet, physical and spiritual, a fight of cosmic proportions, is not a vague matter of the future; it has already started. The forces of Evil have begun their offensive; you can feel their pressure, and yet your screens and publications are full of prescribed smiles and raised glasses. What is the joy about?”

- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Dan, I Allegedly, "How Thieves Game the System - The Alarming Truth!"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, AM 8/7/25

"How Thieves Game the System - The Alarming Truth!"

"Credit frozen scams are wreaking havoc, and today I’m breaking down how thieves are gaming the system to manipulate credit, commit identity theft, and outwit banks. From credit bust-outs to fake identities, I’ll expose the shocking strategies scammers use to make big purchases and leave others holding the bag. Plus, I’ll cover wild stories like dealerships uncovering car VIN fraud, roofers buying thousands in stolen tires, and how AI is changing banking forever. Banks, credit agencies, and even consumers are facing major risks - don’t get caught unaware!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

Greg Hunter, "Man has No Control Over Black Star Black Swan"

"Man Has No Control Over Black Star Black Swan"

by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Scientist and inventor Weston Warren is back with an update about the so-called Black Star or electromagnetic anomaly that has entered our solar system. It’s slow moving, and it’s an event that only happens about every 4,000 years. Warren says it will get close to earth but will not hit Earth. Still, this Black Star will cause Earth changing damage. The Black Star throws off electromagnetic power that can affect the iron and nickel molten core of the planet. You can see the effects most recently with the big volcanic eruption in Hawaii in July. There was a volcanic eruption in Russia last week that has not happened there in 600 years. This was called an “historic eruption.” In the same area of Russia last week, there was an 8.8 earthquake. It’s the sixth worst ever recorded. People were bracing for tsunamis around the world, but it was not as bad as it could have been - this time. 

Warren says, “A real ‘Black Swan’ event is not from an alphabet agency or orchestrated behind the scenes by the bad guys. We know that can happen and has happened. This particular Black Swan event is not going to be controlled by man, science or technology. This is not a DARPA type event or a HAARP event. This is way beyond man’s ability. We are going to have situations where infrastructure is affected, such as ports, sea lanes and aircraft not being able to travel. What happens when you don’t have just six or seven active volcanos, but when you have 60 active volcanos? You might have 30 or 40 active volcanos under the ocean floor. These are dynamics that modern man has not had to deal with. This will crush any government or the world’s economy. There is no fixing this. This will affect industry, supply chains, food, animal and plant behavior. It will affect human behavior psychologically with the electromagnetic signature that our DNA is tuned to. So, we have multiple vectors where humanity will be under great stress. Human consciousness will be affected, and it’s being affected now. It is going to get worse, unfortunately.”

Warren goes on to say, “What is coming to the Earth is not survivable by having Bitcoin, gold, silver, a bunker, storable food, water filtration or air filtration. No, this is way beyond that. A physical remedy is not going to do it. Weston says, “This is not normal, especially in the next six years. We are going to see things we have never seen before. This is a doozy, and it doesn’t look like many are going to survive.”

Warren says extreme Earth problems will “intensify and wane,” but the time to really watch for severe problems is around Winter/Spring of 2026 and the same time frame in 2028." There is much more in the 69-minute interview.

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with Weston Warren, scientist and inventor of the bipolar ionization technology. He will update us on the Black Star, the damage of Biblical proportions it will cause. 

- https://rumble.com/

“'The Year Of The Flood' Gets Even Worse: Monster Storms Cause Catastrophic Flooding in Hong Kong, India, South Korea, Taiwan And China"

“'The Year Of The Flood' Gets Even Worse: Monster Storms Cause 

Catastrophic Flooding in Hong Kong, India, South Korea, Taiwan And China"

by Michael Snyder

"We have never seen a year quite like this. I wrote about “the year of the flood” on July 15th and July 27th, and now I am writing about it again. If I haven’t convinced you by now that something really weird is going on, I don’t know what to tell you. Record-breaking storms and record-breaking floods just keep hitting us again and again all over the world. During this past week, it is Asia that has been really taking a beating. Sometimes when I write articles about what is taking place on the other side of the world, a certain percentage of my readers tune out, but please don’t do that because what I have to share today is very important.

Let me begin with what is happening in Hong Kong. According to the New York Times, torrential rain that has been going on for days is turning roads into rivers and is picking up cars and sweeping them away…Days of relentless rain in Hong Kong set off major floods on Tuesday that swept cars away, inundated a hospital emergency ward and left buses stranded. Roads winding down the city’s steep hills turned into rivers.

Even for Hong Kong, a city accustomed to seasonal typhoons, the record-breaking deluge has pushed it to its limits, straining city services and testing the patience and wits of its residents. Hong Kong has never experienced anything like this before. In fact, Hong Kong just had “its highest daily rainfall in August since records began in 1884”… Parts of Hong Kong were brought to a standstill by flooding caused by heavy rains on Tuesday, after the highest-tier rainstorm warning was issued for the fourth time in eight days. The city logged its highest daily rainfall in August since records began in 1884, at just over 355 millimetres recorded at the Hong Kong weather observatory’s headquarters at 2:00 pm (0600 GMT).

In India, flash flooding just sent a “wall of water, mud and debris” slamming into the Himalayan village of Dharali…A surge of flood water tore through a mountainous village in northern India Tuesday, leaving at least four people dead and dozens missing, officials said. Dramatic video from the Himalayan village of Dharali, Uttarakhand state, shows the wall of water, mud and debris tearing down the mountainside and through the village, destroying the homes and businesses in its path. The flooding occurred around 1:45 p.m. local time, according to District Magistrate Prashant Arya in the city of Uttarkashi.

At least four people were confirmed killed, Arya said. “There are a lot of guest houses, restaurants and hotels there, because of which we immediately requested the army to aid rescue operations,” he said. Apparently dozens of local residents had just gathered at a temple for some sort of a religious festival when the wall of water struck. It is being reported that about 100 people have been reported missing and “scores remained unaccounted for”…

Dozens in the village had been gathered in a temple for a festival as the wave of dark water and debris struck at high velocity.

The Indian defence minister, Sanjay Seth, confirmed that four people had been killed in the disaster but officials feared the number could rise. Approximately 100 people were reported missing on Tuesday and scores remained unaccounted for and feared trapped in the mud, including about eight soldiers who were reported missing from a camp in the area.

In South Korea, 11 inches of rain in a 24 hour period caused “severe flooding across the southern regions of the country”… An extreme rainfall event struck South Korea between August 3 and 4, 2025, triggering severe flooding across the southern regions of the country. Over 280 mm (11 inches) of rainfall was recorded in Muan in just 24 hours, with the hourly rainfall rates reaching over extreme 140 mm (6 inches) on August 4.

But that is nothing compared to what just happened in Taiwan. In one district in southern Taiwan, more than nine feet of rain has fallen since July 28th… Storms dumped more than two metres of rain in parts of Taiwan over the past week, killing five people and triggering floods and landslides in central and southern areas, authorities said Monday. Torrential rain has lashed swathes of the island since July 28, forcing several thousand people to seek shelter, damaging roads, and shuttering offices. Maolin, a mountainous district in southern Taiwan, recorded more than 2.8 metres (nine feet) of rain since July 28, the Central Weather Administration (CWA).

That’s more than Taiwan’s annual rainfall of 2.1 metres last year, according to the agency’s data. I can’t even imagine that much rain. Needless to say, all of that water caused horrific flooding and severe landslides over a very wide area. Of course I don’t want to leave the recent flooding in China out of this article.

Last week, Beijing was getting absolutely pummeled by torrential rain, and at least 30 people died as a result…Days of torrential rain have killed at least 30 people in the northern outskirts of Beijing, state media reported Tuesday, as China grapples with yet another deadly rainy season marked by extreme downpours, devastating floods and landslides. In recent days, intense rainstorms have battered much of northern China – a densely populated part of the country home to massive metropolises as well as agricultural heartlands.

As vast quantities of water rapidly rushed through the Miyun District in northern Beijing, it took vehicles and electricity poles with it…Footage circulating on social media shows brown floodwater sweeping through residential communities, washing away cars, knocking down electricity poles and turning streets into rivers in Miyun. Dozens of roads have been damaged, potentially complicating rescue efforts, and in more than 100 smaller, more rural villages, the downpours have also cut off electricity.

Can anyone point to a time when we have seen so much catastrophic flooding all over the world in a single year? As I keep reminding my readers, we really are living in apocalyptic times. I wish that I could tell you that all of this is temporary and that conditions will soon return to normal. But I can’t. I fully expect “the year of the flood” to continue, and I also expect quite a few other “surprises” in the months ahead as well."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

o

"Was The Earth Really Hit By 396 Earthquakes Of Magnitude

 5.0 Or Greater In 30 Days, Or Is The True Number Even Higher?"