Jim Kunstler, "Carefully And Gracefully"

"Carefully And Gracefully"

by Jim Kunstler

“It’s funny they call [intel] a ‘community.’ That sounds so 

benign and beneficial. Everybody likes communities.” 

- Doug Casey

"And so, now, in Alaska, Mr. Trump sits down with Vlad Putin to attempt a settling of Ukraine’s hash. This war has been a three-year bloody grind, millions killed, mostly Ukrainians, provoked underhandedly by US State Dept/CIA neocons, Britain’s MI6 apparatus, and the girl-bosses of the EU, for no good reason, namely, to weaken and possibly break-up Russia so as to get at its vast mineral and energy resources. This has been tried before in history, always to the grief of the triers.

From our country’s point of view, the dynamics in play at this moment are delicate to an extreme. In the background of the Trump-Putin meet-up, amid an eerie silence in the DOJ and FBI, an epic, sweeping prosecution of the RussiaGate hoaxers creeps forward. RussiaGate, of course, was born in the false charge (by America’s highest officials, derived from nonsense cooked up by Hillary Clinton) that Donald Trump was a Russian agent. It was preposterous and continually disproven, but the many-footed creatures of America’s deep state, which controlled so many levers of power, dragged it out for years. Altogether, that endeavor amounted to a campaign of sedition and arguably treason.

The delicacy comes in as President Trump must now avoid at all costs any appearance of giving-in to Mr. Putin, of appearing to be any sort of a vassal — “Putin’s puppet,” as charged in RussiaGate. The raw truth is that Russia has likely already “won” the war in Ukraine, in the sense that it has finally gained control of the battlespace and worn out its opponent. It is fait accompli. What remains is the disposition of Ukraine’s future which, in another raw truth, is mostly Russia’s to determine.

Yet another raw truth is that this would probably be the best outcome for all concerned: a neutralized, disarmed Ukraine returned to its prior condition as a mostly agricultural sovereign backwater of Europe within Russia’s sphere-of-influence, resuming its longstanding status as not being a problem for anyone.

Still, yet another raw truth is that the USA would benefit hugely from normalized relations with Russia, no more sanctions, fair trade, a rebalance of the drift toward China, lessening the chance of nuclear war - and this would even benefit the knuckleheads of Europe whose economies are imploding due to a lack of affordable energy (and also because of, let’s face it, the EU’s terrifically stupid “green” policies).

All of which means there will necessarily be a lot of “pretend” played in Anchorage for show. Mr. Trump must pretend to be tough on Putin, and Mr. Putin must pretend, a little bit, to give-in to Mr. Trump’ proposals. That is, it will be something of a kabuki, a kafabe. Surely, many of the stickiest points have been pre-negotiated by Mr. Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, who quietly visited Moscow a week ago.

Mr. Trump must appear strong with Russia because his appointees are commencing to go medieval on the folks who called him “Putin’s Puppet” nine years ago - and subjected him to a series of epic torments including the subversion of his whole first term in office, nonstop obloquy from the media, impeachment (X 2), home invasion, and a grotesque set of malicious, nitwit prosecutions that have either failed completely (Fani Willis, Jack Smith) or will be subject to humiliating reversals in the higher courts. Not to mention two attempted assassinations.

You should assume that Mr. Putin well understands all this and intends to play along. He will appear to make some generous concessions to Ukraine, starting with the promise that it can go forward as a sovereign, self-governing nation. The big enchilada might be to grant that Ukraine can retain possession of Odessa, the port city on the Black Sea which is Ukraine’s depot for export to the world of its chief commodity, grains. In any case, both Russia and the USA intend to relieve Volodymyr Zelenskyy of his duties - notice he is conspicuously not invited to the Alaska meeting.

Mr. Trump well understands that one way or another, Russia is going to prevail in this conflict on-the-ground. He abhors all the killing. He has already expressed a disinclination to keep backing the war with money and weapons. He must be disgusted at how the Bidens (and the Deep State) used Ukraine as a money-laundry, as a site for bioweapons labs, and how it served as a nexus for human trafficking.

He also knows that Russia wants badly to be re-admitted to normal relations with the West, which is in everybody’s interest, except perhaps China’s. You should infer therefore that Russia wants the war to end in a way that does not humiliate the losers and backers - perhaps along the lines of how America managed our victory against our enemies in World War Two, carefully and gracefully."

- https://www.kunstler.com/

"Alert! NORAD Airspace Closure, National Guard is WW3 Prep, Huge Russian Nuke War Drill Planned"

Prepper News, 8/13/25

"Alert! NORAD Airspace Closure, National Guard is WW3 Prep, 

Huge Russian Nuke War Drill Planned"

Comments here:

-https://www.youtube.com/

"Alert! NATO Is Getting Ready For Something Big"

Prepper News, 8/13/25

"Alert! NATO Is Getting Ready For Something Big"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"It's Getting So Bad People Are Living In Our Backyard"

Jeremiah Babe, 8/13/25

"It's Getting So Bad People Are Living In Our Backyard"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Foxes, Morons and Oxymorons"

"Foxes, Morons and Oxymorons"

by Joel Bowman

“Government is the great fiction through which everybody 

endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.”

~ Frédéric Bastiat, from "The State" (1848)

Miami International Airport, Florida - "Clowns to the left of us... jokers to the right... and a center that cannot seem to hold. What a weird and whacky world we live in! Here’s the latest, from The Wall Street Journal: "The U.S. Marches Toward State Capitalism With American Characteristics." President Trump is imitating Chinese Communist Party by extending political control ever deeper into economy. Like our dear readers, we too suffer the popular presses with a wry smile. That is to say, we read the papers more for comedic value than for any special insights. Rarely are we disappointed.

Continues the Journal..."A generation ago conventional wisdom held that as China liberalized, its economy would come to resemble America’s. Instead, capitalism in America is starting to look like China. Recent examples include President Trump’s demand that Intel’s chief executive resign; the 15% of certain chip sales to China that Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices will share with Washington; the “golden share” Washington will get in U.S. Steel as a condition of Nippon Steel’s takeover; and the $1.5 trillion of promised investment from trading partners Trump plans to personally direct.

This isn’t socialism, in which the state owns the means of production. It is more like state capitalism, a hybrid between socialism and capitalism in which the state guides the decisions of nominally private enterprises.

TDS vs TDS: As mentioned before in these Notes, there’s TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) and then there’s TDS (Trump Devotion Syndrome). Roughly equal and opposing forces, they tear the world’s most powerful republic to the right and to the left, stretching the middle until it’s so threadbare it’s practically transparent.

One group – the “deranged” – thinks the man is a lunatic, a narcissist, the Führer of the Fourth Reich. Everywhere they look they see men in brown shirts, come to arrest their gardener... party poopers at the pride parade... and funny police here to cancel their mirthless comedians. It is these roomy craniums, premium Democrat real estate, in which Trump is said to live, “rent free.”

Meanwhile, the other cadre – the “devoted” – sees before it a different figure altogether. For these folk, Trump was spared a bullet by the very same hand that delivered the World Cup to the ‘86 Argentine soccer team: “la mano de dios.” (The “Hand of God.”) To them, The Donald is here on earth to practice the “art of the deal” on America’s enemies (and friends), to tax and tariff at will and whim, and to personally deliver America’s economy unto the land of milk and honey... forever and ever, amen.

As to which faction shall prevail, we do not pretend to know. We only observe, with unfashionable dispassion, that “State Capitalism” does not boast an enviable track record, whether the commands emanate from an alleged Democrat, a so-called Republican... or a proudly independent crackpot. Of course, that hasn’t stopped many a “chief commander” from trying...

Public Disservice: The 20th Century began with Teddy Roosevelt, who laid the “antitrust” groundwork to go after the so-called “robber barons” of the day... and William Howard Taft who used it to take down America’s richest man, JD Rockefeller (who only grew richer as a result)...

Then came Woodrow Wilson, perhaps the biggest intervener of all, who not only dragged a weary nation into “The War to End All Wars,” but also found time to establish the National War Labor Board, the Food Administration, and the Fuel Administration, as well as bringing the country’s railroads under federal control. A ceaseless, compulsive meddler, Wilson also instituted the Federal Income Tax (under The Revenue Act of 1913) and unleashed the Frankensteinian abomination, known as the Federal Reserve, the very same year.

Barely had the Founding Fathers time to roll in their graves when along came another World War... and another interventionist busybody in the portly personhood of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Emerging from the chaos of the Great Depression, like a cold sore after a spring break party, FDR offered America more of what got them into trouble in the first place; massive state intervention.

As well as heavy wartime economic controls, resource rationing, and industrial mobilization, FDR’s “New Deal” brought with it centrally planned disasters in the form of massive public works projects, banking regulations, agricultural subsidies, not to mention Social Security, now the single largest line item on the federal government’s balance sheet.

Next came President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who oversaw massive expansion of Social Security, vastly increased federal involvement in public schools (through the National Defense Education Act of 1958) and rolled out the Interstate Highway System (1956), the single largest public works program in US history to that point. (Because, without the government, we’re all on a road to nowhere... right?)

Fast-forward to Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and the whole Vietnam fiasco... then came Nixon’s shock, followed by price and wage controls and the final abandonment of gold-backed money in favor of the fiat house of cards we see today...

President Ronald Reagan promised a “Prouder, Stronger, Better” nation for all... but “Morning in America” was over before brunch, as the national debt nearly tripled under Reagan’s watch, soaring from about $998 billion to $2.85 trillion by the time he and Nancy left the White House.

Foxes, Morons and Oxymorons: So far, the Third Millennium has seen America in a constant state of warfare abroad and welfare at home. Presidents Bush and Obama oversaw the disaster that was the Global Financial Crisis, rewarding the pinstriped perps not with jail time, but with a never-ending acronym salad of handouts and corporate welfare, including Bush’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which saw hundreds of billions of dollars syphoned from Main Street and pumped directly into Wall Street.

Then came the Covid Hysteria, almost certainly the result of a lab leak from a US government-funded research facility in Wuhan, China, which gave the feds the pretext – first under Donald I, then Joseph Biden – to take control of the economy in a way that would have made the aforementioned meddlers blush. And all the while the bombs fell overseas – on Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, Libya... and most recently, on Iran.

Yes, dear reader, “State Capitalism” is nothing new; even if the concept itself is an oxymoron. Stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World..."

- https://joelbowman.substack.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "U.S. National Debt Hits $37 Trillion"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 8/13/25

"U.S. National Debt Hits $37 Trillion"

"Breaking news: the U.S. national debt has hit an eye-popping $37 trillion five years earlier than expected! In this video, I break down how we got here, why it's happening so fast, and what it means for all of us. From the impacts of the "One Big Beautiful Bill" to the skyrocketing military spending and unprecedented COVID-era programs, our financial future is at a crossroads. I’ll share why this debt spiral poses a threat to generations to come, what Elon Musk and others have said about it, and how gold and other hedges might be your best financial defense. This is a must-watch if you're concerned about the economy, your financial stability, and what’s next for the U.S. government."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Justin Hayward, "The Way of the World"

Full screen recommended.

Justin Hayward, "The Way of the World"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Is our Milky Way Galaxy this thin? Magnificent spiral galaxy NGC 4565 is viewed edge-on from planet Earth. Also known as the Needle Galaxy for its narrow profile, bright NGC 4565 is a stop on many telescopic tours of the northern sky, in the faint but well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices. This sharp, colorful image reveals the spiral galaxy's boxy, bulging central core cut by obscuring dust lanes that lace NGC 4565's thin galactic plane. 

An assortment of other background galaxies is included in the pretty field of view. Thought similar in shape to our own Milky Way Galaxy, NGC 4565 lies about 40 million light-years distant and spans some 100,000 light-years. Easily spotted with small telescopes, sky enthusiasts consider NGC 4565 to be a prominent celestial masterpiece Messier missed."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210517.html

"I Hope I End Up..."

“I don’t want to pass through life like a smooth plane ride. All you do is get to breathe and copulate and finally die. I don’t want to go with the smooth skin and the calm brow. I hope I end up a blithering idiot cursing the sun - hallucinating, screaming, giving obscene and inane lectures on street corners and public parks. People will walk by and say, “Look at that drooling idiot. What a basket case.” I will turn and say to them, “It is you who are the basket case! For every moment you hated your job, cursed your wife and sold yourself to a dream that you didn’t even conceive. For the times your soul screamed yes and you said no. For all of that. For your self-torture, I see the glowing eyes of the sun! The air talks to me! I am at all times!” And maybe, the passersby will drop a coin into my cup.”

- Henry Rollins

"Even This Was A Lie..."

“They couldn’t have known that even this was a lie – that we never really choose, not entirely. We are always being pushed and squeezed down one road or another. We have no choice but to step forward, and then step forward again, and then step forward again; suddenly we find ourselves on a road we haven’t chosen at all. But maybe happiness isn’t in the choosing. Maybe it’s in the fiction, in the pretending: that wherever we have ended up is where we intended to be all along.”

- Lauren Oliver

o

Of course some view life in a slightly different context...

Strong language alert!

"Al Swearengen Rant 'Vile Task'"

"Swearengen has an early morning rant to his favored hooker Tricksy. Life for this saloon/brothel manager in 1870s Deadwood, Dakota Territory can just be "one vile f**king task, after another."

Free Download: Albert Camus, “The Plague”

“Everyone knows that plagues have a way of recurring throughout history, yet somehow we find it hard to believe in the ones that crash down on us out of the sky. There have always been plagues and wars, yet they always take us by surprise. When war breaks out people say it’s stupid and won’t last long. Stupidity has a knack of getting in the way, which we would see if not wrapped up in ourselves. In this our townsfolk were like everybody else – they did not believe in plagues.”

- Albert Camus, “The Plague”

Freely download “The Plague”, by Albert Camus, here:

- http://www.24grammata.com/

"I Reveal Myself..."

“At this point I reveal myself in my true colors, as a stick-in-the-mud. I hold a number of beliefs that have been repudiated by the liveliest intellects of our time. I believe order is better than chaos, creation better than destruction. I prefer gentleness to violence, forgiveness to vendetta. On the whole I think that knowledge is preferable to ignorance, and I am sure that human sympathy is more valuable than ideology. I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men haven’t changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must try to learn from history. History is ourselves.

I believe in courtesy, the ritual by which we avoid hurting other people’s feelings, by satisfying our own egos. And I think we should remember that we are all part of a great whole, which for convenience we call nature. All living things are our brothers and sisters.”

- Kenneth Clark, “Civilization”

"The Big Moment Has Arrived – Why The Meeting Between Trump And Putin Will Be One Of The Most Important Events In Modern History"

"The Big Moment Has Arrived – Why The Meeting Between Trump

 And Putin Will Be One Of The Most Important Events In Modern History"

by Michael Snyder

"Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are about to make decisions that could radically alter the trajectory of human history. When they meet in Alaska on Friday, the stakes will be incredibly high. If they are able to agree to some sort of a deal, the world will rejoice. But if the meeting goes badly, there will be immense pressure on western leaders to militarily intervene in Ukraine in order to prevent Russia from taking as much territory as it wants. At the moment, Russian forces are moving forward quite rapidly. If negotiations can stop them, western leaders will be thrilled. But if talks fail, the conflict in Ukraine will dramatically escalate, and that will put us dangerously close to nuclear war.

On Wednesday, President Trump was asked about what will happen if the Russians do not agree to end the war. President Trump responded by warning that there will be “very severe consequences”…"US President Donald Trump promised “very severe consequences” on Russia if its President Vladimir Putin doesn’t agree to end his war in Ukraine during the two leaders’ meeting on Friday. “There will be consequences,” Trump just said during an event at the Kennedy Center in Washington. Asked if that meant new sanctions or tariffs, Trump demurred. “I don’t have to say,” he said, adding only: “There will be very severe consequences.”

This was not a wise thing to say just before such an important meeting. As I have stated over and over again, threatening the Russians will not work. If Trump insists on making threats, it will backfire severely. The Russians have already said that they are willing to end the war, but they want certain things in return. Of course what the Russians have proposed is not acceptable to the Ukrainians or to our European allies at all, and that is not likely to change any time soon.

A virtual conference that included Trump and leaders from all over Europe was held on Wednesday, and President Trump felt that it went very well…"The president joined a call earlier on Aug. 13 with Zelenskyy and European leaders, two days before Trump’s one-on-one summit with Putin in Alaska. Trump is trying to push Moscow into a peace deal that Kyiv and its allies fear will include the loss of significant territory seized by Russia in its three-year war on Ukraine. “I would rate it a 10,” Trump told reporters on August 13 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. “Very friendly.”

Zelenskyy was in Berlin for the virtual conference hosted by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that included the leaders of Finland, France, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, the European Union and NATO. Vice President JD Vance was also expected to join the portion that included Trump.

Following the virtual conference, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz made it exceedingly clear where our European allies stand…The German leader said Ukraine would need a seat at the table if peace was to be reached in Ukraine, and that he told Mr. Trump he would speak to him after his Alaska meeting with Putin. “We want to make sure that the right chronology happens: that there is a ceasefire and that there is an agreement that is discussed after that,” he said. “A legal recognition of Russian ownership of this territory cannot happen. There have to be robust security guarantees. The sovereignty of Ukraine has to be respected. Negotiations have to be part of a larger transatlantic strategy, and has to be part of necessary pressure on Russia.”

Merz added, “If there is no movement on the Russian side, we and the U.S. have to put more pressure on Russia. President Trump knows this position and largely agrees with it, and we had a good conversation with each other.”

Merz obviously does not want a peace agreement to happen, because there is no way that the Russians are going to agree to any of that. The Russians are not going to give one inch of the territory that they have taken in the five provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea back to Ukraine. In fact, the Russians want Ukraine to hand over all of the territory that the Ukrainians are still holding in those five provinces. If Ukraine is not willing to hand over all of that territory, Russia will simply take it. That is the Russian position, and they see no reason to compromise because they are clearly winning the war.

When asked about Trump’s suggestion that there could be some “swapping of territories”, the Russians made it very clear that this is a non-starter…Russia pointed to its constitution in response to a remark by U.S. President Donald Trump that there would likely be a “swapping of territories” in a deal to end Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Trump is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday to discuss a peace deal. Territorial control is a key issue. Russia has seized about a fifth of Ukrainian land in the east. Ukraine controls no Russian territory. Asked about Trump’s suggestion that Russia and Ukraine could swap land, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexei Fadeev said at a news briefing on Wednesday that there was “no need to even invent anything territorial.” “The structure of the Russian Federation is enshrined in the Constitution of our country,” Fadeev said, originally in Russian. “That says it all.”

The Russians also want Ukraine to be permanently banned from joining NATO. This is something that the Ukrainians and our European allies are adamantly against. So I have no idea why so many pundits think that a deal is possible, because the two sides are not even in the same universe when it comes to what an acceptable deal would look like.

Ahead of the meeting on Friday, the White House has been trying to play down expectations… “This is a listening exercise for the president,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Aug. 12. “This is for the president to go and to get a more firm and better understanding of how we can hopefully bring this war to an end.”

I give Trump credit for being willing to sit down with Putin. The window of opportunity for a peaceful solution is almost closed, and so let’s hope that this last-ditch effort is successful. Because if it isn’t successful and we get to the “very severe consequences” phase, that will have massive implications for all of humanity. 20 years ago, if someone told you that a day would come when the only thing standing between us and nuclear war would be Donald Trump, would you have believed it? But here we are. The meeting in Alaska on Friday really will be one of the most important events in modern history, and the fate of our society is hanging in the balance."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

o

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 8/13/25

"Pepe Escobar: A Pre-Alaska Analysis"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Dolby Vision 12K HDR 240fps: Experience the Unbelievable Nature"

Full screen recommended.

"Dolby Vision 12K HDR 240fps: 

Experience the Unbelievable Nature"

"Experience the unbelievable beauty of high-quality HDR 12K 120fps Dolby Vision with the URSA Mini Pro 12K. This video showcases the stunning capabilities of this camera and Adobe HDR technology, delivering unparalleled visual excellence. Whether you're a filmmaker, content creator, or tech enthusiast, this video will leave you in awe of the power of 12K resolution."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Astonishing!

The Daily "Near You?"

Clonee, Meath, Ireland. Thanks for stopping by!

"The Worst Of Them All"

"Science may have found a cure for most evils,

but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all -

the apathy of human beings."

- Author Unknown

○

"I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass.  When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination - indeed, everything and anything except me."

- Ralph Ellison, "Prologue to Invisible Man"

○

○

Full screen recommended.

Phil Collins, "Another Day In Paradise"

"Debt, Junk Food & Aliens - What's Happening to Us?"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 8/13/25

"Debt, Junk Food & Aliens - 

What's Happening to Us?"

"Hey everyone! It’s Dan from I Allegedly, and today we’ve got a lot to talk about—Debt, Junk Food, and even Aliens! Did you know that past-due bills are at a near 10-year high? From rising car loans to student loan debt showing up on credit reports, we’re diving into the financial struggles so many people are facing. Plus, I’m sharing insights on how junk food is impacting health and even contributing to the rise in colon cancer. Oh, and let’s not forget the wild prediction about aliens possibly visiting Earth in just over 110 days - are you ready for that?

We’ll also discuss crazy car tech that could let hackers control vehicles, the collapse of iconic companies like Sears and Kodak, and some questionable airline practices. There’s so much happening, and I want to hear your thoughts! Are you feeling the pinch in your finances? Would you trust a robo-taxi or an electric car? Let me know in the comments."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"When We Have Time..."

“How small a portion of our life it is that we really enjoy. In youth we are looking forward to things that are to come; in old age, we are looking backwards to things that are gone past; in manhood, although we appear indeed to be more occupied in things that are present, yet even that is too often absorbed in vague determinations to be vastly happy on some future day, when we have time.”

- Charles Caleb Colton, “Lacon”

○

“The problem is, you believe you have time.”

- Buddha

Gerald Celente, "The Meek Have Not Inherited The Earth, The Geeks Have; Smart Phones? No, Slave Phones"

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, 8/12/25

"The Meek Have Not Inherited The Earth, 

The Geeks Have; Smart Phones? No, Slave Phones"

"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/

"The End Of Free Will"

"The End Of Free Will"

by The ZMan

"The late polemicist Christopher Hitchens famous quipped, “Yes, I have free will; I have no choice but to have it.” He was addressing the paradoxical nature of free will in that even if it were an illusion, and we could somehow figure that out, we would be forced to carry on as if it were real. Everything about how we understand ourselves as human beings, and how we get on with one another, depends on the assumption that we have choices and we make those choices freely.

The reason for that is our societies and even our own minds are organized around prescriptive requirements, not descriptive ones. Sure, we know not to step off a roof as the facts tell us we will accelerate toward the sidewalk below, until we reach the sidewalk and suddenly decelerate. It is that rapid deceleration that kills us and that is a fact not subject to opinion. The reason we believe it is immoral to jump off a roof or kill yourself in any other way has nothing to do with physics.

Suicide is a choice. In Western societies at this point in time, making that choice, regardless of the circumstances, is immoral. In other times and other places, suicide was an honorable option. The Japanese used to treat ritual suicide as an honorable end for a man who faced a disgraceful end. The West used to have the idea of leaving a doomed man alone with a bottle of whiskey and revolver. The former was to gain the required courage to use the latter for the honorable act.

As an aside, this is why the liberal project was doomed from the start. It assumed that there was a universally correct way for humans to organize their societies. We could use reason and observations of nature to arrive at the correct way we ought and ought not act and how we should and should not organize our societies. We can reason our way to a set of universal moral principles. Then we can reason our way to building a society around those moral principles.

The liberal project, all of the ideologies that have spring from it, assumes that human beings are programmed to work best in a specific sort of society. We naturally function at our best within a specific set of rules. If we can figure out those rules and then figure out how to impose them, man will be liberated from the oppression of having to live against his nature within a hostile set of rules. This is the goal of libertarianism, anarchism, communism, progressivism and so on.

This brings us back to the issue of free will. Ideologies fail, because they assume that once the rules are imposed, people no longer have to make choices between the things they desire. Free will is no longer be necessary. Even if free will is an illusion, however, it is one necessary for us to be human beings, rather than moist robots. There is something about the nature of man that requires the belief in free will. Without this illusion, if that is what it is, we cease to be human and cease to exist.

It is probably why we lack the language to discuss the descriptive world in purely descriptive terms. You see that in this post by W. M. Briggs. He is taking on a post by former physicist and current YouTuber Sabine Hossenfelder, who tries to argue that free will is a myth and you should stop believing in it. As Briggs notes, her language, even when discussing the laws of physics, is prescriptive. Even when we think descriptively, we end up using prescriptive language.

This crackpot notion that we would be better off if we chose to not believe in free will is not new to Sabine Hossenfelder. Like all such arguments, the first person to think about it was the first man with enough free time to waste some of it on contemplating pointless questions like do we have free will? Idle hands do the Devil’s work and the best proof of that is philosophy. Everywhere there have been idle hands we find the philosopher and Hell follows with him.

Of course, free will is a slippery concept. There is libertarian free will, which argues that for any choice we make, we could have chosen otherwise, even if all of the conditions that could impact our decision were identical. For example, you chose to arrive at work on time, but you could have arrived earlier or later, even assuming some negative or positive consequences to the choices. Like so much of libertarianism, this makes sense if you forget that humans live in societies with other humans.

The other form of free will involves morality. Often, oaths have a line where the person taking the oath testifies that he is taking the oath of his own free will. In criminal proceedings we differentiate between knowingly committing a crime and inadvertently or accidentally committing a crime. The driver who purposely runs down a pedestrian is treated differently from the person who does so while trying to avoid a group of school children because of our notion of free will.

Both conceptualizations of free will are most likely illusions, like much of what we think we understand about the natural world. What we think of as physical reality is probably a simplified illusion of reality. Our brains evolved to conceptualize the parts of reality we need to understand in order for our genes to advance to the next round. The concept of free will is just another item in the toolkit. Even our ability to question our conceptualization of reality is probably an illusion.

That is the problem with Sabine Hossenfelder’s argument. Whether or not free will, however defined, is a real thing does not matter, other than it being a useful topic around which to build a post. Whether you believe it or not does not matter, but once you decide to act as if it is not real, then you enter the world in which it is perfectly acceptable to remove the people who cannot fit your model of society. In the end, every ideologue must reject free will in order to pull the trigger.

That is the end of the free will debate. The age of ideology has taught us that in order to have societies that accommodate human nature, we must choose to organize ourselves as comes naturally to use. That means leaving others to organize themselves as comes naturally to them. Once you start down the path of rejecting free will, you end up on the road that leads to industrial slaughter and the menticide that now promises to extinguish the Western world.

We have free will and if we did not have it, we would have no choice but to invent it as it is the only way we can live as human beings. That means we have a choice as to how we organize ourselves. We must collectively choose our metaphysics and our morality and choose how we deal with those who undermine our choices. Those who choose otherwise, in effect, choose not to be us. Therefore, we have the choice to exclude them from us, even choosing to use force if necessary."

- https://thezman.com/

o

"Eckhart Tolle: Free Will"

"6,000 Years On The Wheel"

"6,000 Years On The Wheel"

by Paul Rosenberg

"We can call this one an experiment...The life that has been gifted to us is old… more than 6,000 years old. It began before recorded time, on the plains of Mesopotamia. There it was that the race of men was regimented; it was there that they learned to be ruled. For this gift we happily accepted compliance, drudgery and selflessness. We learned to take our places in large and complex hierarchies, knowing that our slots protected us from the evils that lay without.

And so we taught our children to give authority the benefit of every doubt, to do as everyone else does, and that outside was naught but shame and destruction. Regimentation, we carefully taught them, was the path to paradise.

We learned to shut our minds when we thought the shameful and forbidden thought, that our way was wrong in some fundamental way. We recognized that thought as treason itself, and we turned away from it.

Our way, we knew, was the only way, and there could be no other.

Our way is a small group of men directing the rest to the things they must do, and punishing those who do it not. Their work is therefore righteous, and only the deranged and impious could conceive otherwise.

It is the way, and there can be no other.

Our small and sanctified group collects the sacrifices of the large group, and leads us into the best of all possible worlds. Even when we suffer, we know that nothing better is possible.

It is the way, and there can be no other.

Our way is spacious. It allows us to labor, and has gifted us with ORDER, the greatest of all gifts. More than that, it has given us entire classes of overseers for our benefit, which have remained constant over six millennia.

It is the way, and there can be no other.

And so we live in hierarchical structures, each level of which confers upon its occupants a certain level of status… status they will fight for all their days. We can never rise as high as a ruler, but we can rise higher than our neighbor. And so we run on the Order’s power wheels, always striving to outpace our neighbor.

It is the way, and there can be no other.

We are proud to obey people who are no better than ourselves: it means that we value the Order above ourselves, and that makes us good people. This is our work, always running for the benefit of the Order, yet forever staying within it.

A wheel within the Order is where we run, ever-faster, to the glory of the Order.

Should we imagine that we were built for creativity and expression, we close our thoughts and run all the harder; we will not commit treason against our way.

The wheel is where we belong, and there is no other.

We question nothing within and we doubt everything without. This makes us true and approved creatures of the Order… unblameable supporters of the Order.

The wheel is where we belong, and there is no other.

Eventually we grow old and tired; we slow down and soon enough die. But we are comforted, knowing that we spent our lives… spent our all… continuing the Order.

Because there can be no other.

We ran forty or fifty or even sixty years on the wheel, passing our competitors, and so no one can criticize us. We ran well, forever sacrificing our own will and remaining faithful to the Order.

The wheel was the place we belonged, and there could be no other."

https://freemansperspective.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

"Yikes: DEI D.C. Police Chief Doesn't Know 

What The Term "Chain Of Command" Means"

Adventures With Danno, "What's New at Sam's Club?"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, AM 8/13/25

"What's New at Sam's Club?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Prepper Alert, 8/12/25

"10 Surprising Grocery Items That 

Will Disappear Before Start of September"

"Discover the top 10 surprising grocery items that are expected to disappear from shelves before September 2025. This video highlights essential food products, favorite snacks, and pantry staples facing shortages or discontinuation."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

1. Premium Vanilla Extract 

2. Some types of rice (jasmine and basmati) 

3. Cooking oils, Sunflower oil, Vegetable oil, Soybean, Canola, Olive oils 

4. Specialty Coffee Beans 

5. Tea - more severe crisis than coffee 

6. Bread Flour- All purpose flour plentiful, but price increases. 

7. Black Pepper

 8. Laundry Detergent

 9. Nuts and nut products 

10. Aluminum Foil

"Debt Research Note"

"Debt Research Note"

 by Dan Denning

"Bad news, everyone. The national debt went over $37 trillion for the first time ever, according to the ‘Debt to the Penny’ tracker provided by the US Treasury Department. The second line on the chart above is ‘debt held by the public.’ That’s increased 85% in the last six years, from $16.25 trillion in 2019 to $29.6 trillion today (in that same time, China’s holdings of US government bonds and notes has decreased by 31.4%, from over $1.1 trillion in 2019 to $756.5 billion today, a reduction of almost $350 billion).

Yesterday’s Monthly Statement of the Treasury showed a 20% year-over-year increase in the size of the government’s annual deficit. July’s $291 billion deficit was offset by $28 billion in ‘customs duties’ (tariff revenue). But with two months left in the government’s fiscal year, the $1.63 trillion year-to-date deficit should eclipse 2024’s figure of $1.83 trillion.

The government’s second biggest expense in July was the $831 billion in spent on ‘Net Interest,’ or interest payments on the national debt (this was larger than Medicare, Medicaid, and Defense spending, and smaller only than Social Security). This money is paid to bond holders (banks, insurance companies, pension funds, investors, foreign bond holders and central banks). But while it’s income for some, it otherwise creates nothing productive.

As bond yields move up, bond prices move down. In order to cap the interest expense on government debt…we believe there’s a ‘ceiling’ to 10-year bond yields around 5%…and thus a floor to bond prices, creating the opportunity to generate income selling puts."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Bill Bonner, "Day of Reckoning"

"Day of Reckoning"

by Bill Bonner

Poitou, France - "The Big Man keeps getting bigger. And the old conservatives...or what’s left of them...must be trying to remember... Why was it that the founders wrote a constitution? What was the purpose of imposing rules...limits...restraints? How did they know what challenges a future POTUS would face? Reuters: "Trump takes over DC police in extraordinary move, deploys National Guard in capital."

They must have had a reason...the founders, that is. They wrote up a constitution that would function like a junkyard dog’s electronic collar. The feds could go only so far...and no further. But today, we have a Big Man who can spend as much money as he wants...round up people and put them in jail — without charges or trial...threaten foreign governments and foreign heads of state...bomb foreign capitals…sponsor two murderous wars at once (one in which women and children are the main victims)...and enact the biggest tax increase in world history with no debate and no vote.

He growls and snarls...and bites the hands that feed us all. But where does it lead? The Wall Street Journal: "President Trump is imitating [the] Chinese Communist Party by extending political control ever deeper into the economy."

Fortune: "President Trump has seized control of private enterprise’s strategic decision-making and investment policies while invading corporate board rooms so that he may dictate leadership staffing, punish corporate critics, and demand public compliance with his political agenda."

MAGA has gone Marxist and even, increasingly, Maoist. Pence, Bannon, Carlson, Owens, Rogan, Paul...and many others — they must wonder, ‘Is this really what we signed up for?’

Even in a consensual democracy, the yoke of a police state never entirely disappears, but it is light...and controlled by accepted rules. We all drive on the right...and get where we are going. The feds are supposed to stay in their lane too - as spelled out in the US Constitution. It tells our rule-makers how far they can go. But come the election of 2024 and the Big Man seems to have slipped his collar.

We are looking at what may or may not be an important fissure in Magaland. Traditional Republican conservatives still believe in the Constitution. They also believe in free trade, not trade managed by federal bureaucrats. They thought the Constitution backed them up: "No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports..."

No serious economist favors tariffs. And thoughtful people can’t help but notice that the tariff edifice is built on false premises. Kenya Times: "Trump’s Tariffs Mean ‘Massive New Taxes’ on Americans, Chamber of Commerce Says." Americans pay for them, not foreigners - as Mike Pence pointed out yesterday. They are a tax on US consumers, not a gift from overseas. And they will raise prices as well as deepen the swamp. Lobbyists seek delays, exceptions, and adjustments - and get them. That is another feature of shape shifting Big Man government. There are no rules that can be applied evenly and fairly. There is just deal making, Deep State lobbying...and what you can get away with.

Also in the news was this from the Independent: "President Donald Trump extended a trade truce with China for another 90 days Monday, delaying once again a showdown between the world’s two biggest economies."

China’s position as the world’s leading purveyor of strategic metals forced the Big Man back down. Asia Times: "Lithium price jump exposes China’s chokehold on supply. CATL battery maker’s Yichun mine shut down spikes global prices as Beijing clamps down on competitive markets."

Weaker nations were not so lucky. Poor little Switzerland faces a 39% rate. What did it do wrong? And India is up against a 50% tariff. AOL: "Higher Tariffs On India May Be Driving Crucial US Ally Closer To Russia, China." Indian Prime Minister Modi hastened to Beijing the day after Trump announced his tariff hit.

And now...Carlson, Owens et al must be wondering, as we are...is there any more effective way to drive the world’s most populous country to make common cause with China... Or to prepare a late, degenerate empire for its day of reckoning?"

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"She Thought That Her Computer Science Degree Would Get Her A Six Figure Job – Instead It Got Her An Interview With Chipotle"

"She Thought That Her Computer Science Degree Would Get

 Her A Six Figure Job – Instead It Got Her An Interview With Chipotle"

by Michael Snyder

"If you recently graduated from college, good luck trying to find a decent job. What we are experiencing right now reminds me so much of the early 1990s. If you were a new college graduate in those days, it was extremely difficult to even get an interview for a good job. Sadly, we are now entering a very similar environment. There is enormous competition for any good job that is available, and mass layoffs are occurring all over the nation. In fact, through the first 7 months of this year the number of job cut announcements in the U.S. was 75 percent higher than it was during the first 7 months of 2024. I am not here to give people the Pollyanna version of what is going on. I am here to give people the truth.

21-year-old Manasi Mishra believed that if she worked really hard and got a computer science degree she would be able to get a six figure job at a big tech company. Instead, the only thing her computer science degree has gotten her is an interview with Chipotle…"Aspiring computer scientists are sinking in a job market overtaken by AI, as a recent graduate who expected to make six figures could only land an interview at Chipotle. Manasi Mishra, 21, was under the impression that if she worked hard in school and mastered coding, she’d have a prestigious tech job with a cushy salary lined up straight from college."

‘The rhetoric was, if you just learned to code, work hard and get a computer science degree, you can get six figures for your starting salary,’ the San Roman, California native told The New York Times. In case you are wondering, she did not actually get the job with Chipotle…"To her dismay, she did not secure the job. ‘Of course, the year I graduate is the year the tech industry goes downhill,’ she elaborated in the ‘get ready with me’ video."

If even the tech industry is going “downhill”, what does that say about the state of the overall economy? At one time, it was fairly easy to get hired by Microsoft if you had certain skills. But this year Microsoft has conducted multiple rounds of layoffs. At this stage, the total number of workers that have been laid off has surpassed the 15,000 mark…"Microsoft has laid off over 15,000 people so far in 2025. The stress of the belt-tightening has gotten to CEO Satya Nadella. “Before anything else, I want to speak to what’s been weighing heavily on me, and what I know many of you are thinking about: the recent job eliminations,” Nadella wrote in a memo to employees Thursday."

It would be difficult to overstate just how dramatically the environment has shifted. Young people that are searching for jobs are running into closed door after closed door, and as a result many of them are experiencing financial difficulties. According to Fox Business, “nearly 10% of credit card balances held by Americans aged 18-29 became 90 or more days overdue in the second quarter”…Young Americans continued to make up the largest share of those transitioning into credit card delinquency in the second quarter, according to a report released by the New York Federal Reserve. Despite ticking down slightly from the previous quarter, the report showed that nearly 10% of credit card balances held by Americans aged 18-29 became 90 or more days overdue in the second quarter. New York Fed researchers said credit card delinquency rates for Americans under 40 have been “unusually elevated,” adding they are keeping a “close eye” on the trend.

Credit card companies are going to become much more stingy in extending credit to young adults. As you can imagine, that will not be good for our economy at all. But this is the environment that we live in now.

One recent survey discovered that 62 percent of Gen Z adults “have no emergency savings at all”…"Your car breaks down on a Tuesday morning, and the repair bill comes to $500. If you’re part of Generation Z, there’s a good chance you have nothing set aside to cover it. A new survey from Credit One Bank reveals that 62% of Gen Z have no emergency savings at all, nearly double the rate of baby boomers. There’s a very clear widening gap in financial preparedness happening between generations."

Let that sink in. Nearly two-thirds of an entire generation of Americans is living on the edge. There will be some that will argue that they should just toughen up and take whatever they can get. In the old days, if times were tough you could at least get a job as a delivery driver. But now UPS is trying to rapidly shed existing workers by offering them buyouts…"The undertaking, called the Driver Voluntary Separation Program, is the first in UPS’ history for delivery drivers. The financial incentive available through the program is in addition to earned retirement benefits like pension and healthcare, per UPS. Word of the program spread on July 3, when the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union said UPS’ buyout plan was in motion. The Teamsters represent more than 300,000 UPS employees under a five-year contract reached in 2023."

Drivers that have literally been with UPS for decades are being encouraged to leave so that the company can cut labor costs…"About 85% of UPS drivers are at the top end of the pay scale. Those who have 25 to 40 years of service would be the most likely candidates to accept the buyout package, Nando Cesarone, president of the U.S. region and UPS Airlines, told analysts on the call. UPS is offering $1,800 per year of service, with a minimum payout of $10,000. A driver with 27 years of experience would receive a $48,600 buyout, according to the offer sheet."

I wouldn’t want to be a new college graduate today. If you get stuck in a bad job that is not in your field, it can permanently wreck your career. I have seen it happen way too many times. But getting hired for a good job has become an extremely challenging task.

In fact, one recent survey found that more than 60 percent of all Americans believe that it has “become more difficult to find a good paying job”…"According to the poll, more than six out of 10 Americans said it had become more difficult to find a good paying job, buy a home and afford childcare."

More than four out of five Americans, 83%, said they were concerned about the cost of groceries, with 46% saying they were very concerned. Some 47% said they were worried about being able to pay their rent or mortgage, 64% said they were worried about affording an unexpected medical expense.

It is time to face the truth. We really are in the midst of a substantial economic downturn that has been going on for quite some time. Needless to say, I believe that the difficult times that we are experiencing now are not even worth comparing to what is eventually coming. So we are all going to have to adjust our plans and our expectations. The system that we have all depended upon for so long is failing, and we all need to start becoming a lot more self-sufficient."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

John Wilder, "The Lighter Side Of Dating, Mating, And Civilizational Collapse'

"The Lighter Side Of Dating,

Mating, And Civilizational Collapse'

by John Wilder

"Even thirty years ago, finding a spouse was as easy as grabbing a beer at a kegger. You met. Maybe at school, maybe at church, maybe at work, maybe some friends introduced you. Hell, maybe at the kegger. It was a straightforward and reliable process, and it was also often sweaty and fun.

Even before my time, though, it was even easier. Take it back to the 1800s, and men brought home the bacon, women kept the hearth warm, and together they built a life, maybe a farm, maybe a picket fence. Often, people would meet and spend their whole lives in the same location. The process wasn’t perfect, but it worked for thousands of years.

Fast-forward to 2025, and the mating market is a dumpster fire. A constant source of conversation is the baby bust, describing how women aren’t reproducing enough children to keep society going. Part of the reason for that is that cultural shifts and technological disruptions have turned love from carnal creativity in the backseat of a Camaro™ to the swipe of a finger on the smooth glass of a screen protector. The result? A generation of lonely hearts, spinsters, and guys who’ve decided sweatpants and beer are a better deal than chasing women who don’t even see them as people. Culture and tech crashed the human mating economy, and why it’s tearing the family, the atom of society, to shreds.

For thousands of years, societies kept a lid on female promiscuity, not because of some patriarchal conspiracy (okay maybe it was, we’re still meeting Thursday night, right guys?), but because it worked.

People who tear down traditions often don’t realize exactly what they’re destroying until it’s gone, and then it’s too late because the fragile fabric that it was supporting has collapsed. It’s sort of like playing Jenga™ with retarded monkeys on crack, but I won’t speak any more about how I know that.

Tradition knew what science later confirmed: high rates of female promiscuity correlate with lower marriage rates and higher divorce rates. Skanky women are horrible for society. A 2020 study from the Institute for Family Studies found that women with more sexual partners before marriage are less likely to stay married. They graph waivers after the big increase in marrying a woman who has had more than one sex partner to a big drop at around four sex partners (for some reason). If you can’t get a virgin, four seems to be the lucky number. But if you’re the 167th guy to tap into that action?

The chances of you being “the one” are nearly zero, yet in 2025 she still wants a ring worth six months of blood, sweat and tears and a house and she brings...you being number 167. Back when shame was a thing, women faced social pressure to be selective, and men had a reason to step up for a low-mileage woman. Now? Shame is as outdated as a Marvel™ movie. Women are free to “explore” and “find themselves” and “live their best life” all while banging a neverending stream of potential Prince Charmings.

Then there’s money. Historically, men were the breadwinners, or at least the leaders in the grind in the family business or farm, with Ma raising the kids and churning the butter while Pa tamed the back 40. Women relied on men for financial stability, and men relied on women to keep the home and raise the children.

Enter the modern workforce: women now make up nearly half of U.S. workers and 90% of the human resources department everywhere. That leads to the dilemma of the Stunning and Brave woman: she wants a man who makes more than her, yet demands equal pay. A 2023 Pew Research study found 55% of women prefer a partner with higher income (and 45% of women are liars). That’s fine, but men’s wages have stagnated since the 1970s while women’s have risen. The math doesn’t add up.

Worse, the government has stepped in as Husband 2.0. Welfare programs, from food stamps to housing subsidies, act like a sugar daddy for single women, especially mothers. In 2022, over 40% of single-mother households received some form of public assistance. Why marry a man when Uncle Sugar’s got your back and they can still bang all the men they want and don’t have to listen to any man?

Women on welfare aren’t wives anymore; they’re concubines of the state, trading solemn vows for EBT and government cheese. The family, once the bedrock of civilization, is now a casualty of games and prizes fueled by promiscuity and feminism. But I repeat myself.

And that’s not even factoring in divorce-rape where unhaaaaapppy or bored women can hit the eject button and blow up the marriage with no real consequences except getting to keep the house, kids, cash and getting a free ticket to ride on the Chad carousel.

That’s bad enough. It’s actually worse than Madonna’s herpes. If culture cracked the mating market, technology crushed it like a python on a peanut. Enter Tinder®, Bumble®, and the swipe-right revolution. Women, all women, are hypergamous. They want the very best mate they can find. Society used to keep them in check through societal pressure. Oh, and soon enough they would have run out of random men to pleasure. Now the apps give them a digital buffet of Chads, Brads, and Thads. Is anyone named Thaddeus nowadays? I digress.

A 2021 study showed women on dating apps rate 80% of men as “below average” in attractiveness, while men rate women more realistically on a bell curve. The result? A 5 or 6 woman swipes right on a 10. Call him Prince Charming the Senator’s son, complete with abs and a hedge fund, who might bang her once but won’t stick around for breakfast or be seen in public with her, let alone hang a ring on her.

She walks away thinking, “He was the one, I could get him to marry me,” and now every guy who doesn’t match up to Prince Charming is... settling. Yes. Settling, even though Prince Charming doesn’t remember her and only picked her up because it was a Tuesday, and was just taking his father’s deathbed advice: “go ugly, early” and picked her up just for amusement. Spinsterhood beckons, with a side of cat and wine memes.

Men aren’t entirely innocent bystanders here, either. Faced with an endless parade of women chasing the top 10% of guys, many men have thrown in the towel. Why grind for a better job, hit the gym, or learn to dress like you didn’t just roll out of a laundry basket?

A 2024 survey found 30% of men aged 18-29 have given up on dating entirely, opting for porn, video games, or “monk mode.” They’re not wrong to notice the game is rigged against traditional one-for-one sorting. Now, Chad gets his choice, and, if they’re lucky, the might get the attention of a slagged-out woman who is still pining for Chad – a widow for a man that was only in her life for a night.

This isn’t just about lonely Friday nights. This is about the death of the family. Men want decent looks, monogamy, and a partner who’s kind - basic stuff. “She can’t read but she’s faithful and hasn’t had sex with Baltimore” has become a passing grade for many. Women want the whole package: money, status, looks, protection, and a guy who’s basically a football start with a corner office. Wait. Tom Brady didn’t work out for his wife. Neil Armstrong’s wife became unhaaaapppy. What chance does the average guy have?

Marriage rates are at historic lows, being down 60% since 1960. Divorce rates hover around 40%. Kids grow up in fractured homes or none at all, with single-parent households now at 30% nationwide and rising. The family, the core unit, the atom that glues society together, is being eroded by individualism on steroids. I could write a book about this topic, but you get the idea.

So how do we dig out of this mess? Start with culture. Bring back shame. The scarlet-letter kind. Encourage women to value loyalty over chasing Chad, and men to step up instead of checking out. That starts with incentives, because I don’t think anyone has any shame left.

Let’s rethink current incentives. Have a kid and no husband? Tough luck. No child support, no state support. Same thing with divorce. No fun and prizes for that, and if you’re at-fault, you lose the kids. Sure, tax breaks for married couples or policies that don’t make Uncle Sugar a better bet than a husband are nice, but we don’t need a nudge, we need a nuke.

Will the norm come back? It has to. Two more generations of this, and civilization will cease to exist. Perhaps G. Michael Hopf (LINK) got the old quote wrong and it should go more like this:

Bad times create strong men,

Strong men create good times,

Good times make women skanky,

Skanky women create bad times.

Don’t worry, nothing’s depending on this. I mean, nothing other than the fate of civilization."

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/