Facing Reality,
From November 2022, the origin of the term, Brokenism, Alana Newhouse The real debate today isn’t between the left and right. It’s between those invested in our current institutions, and those who want to build anew. Two years ago, I wrote an essay in which I tried to explore the growing sense, made more glaring during the first year of the pandemic, that whole parts of American society were breaking down before our eyes. The central idea was that we must accept what is broken beyond repair in order to build our communities and institutions anew.
Among the many people who wrote to me in the aftermath was a man around my age named Ryan, who introduced himself as a West Point graduate and combat veteran, biracial and from a multi-generational Black military family. “I’ve lived and traveled all over the world, but I cherish my family’s deep roots in a small town in rural Ohio,” he wrote. “It seems very dark some days, but your closing nails it: ‘It can almost feel easier to believe it can’t be done. But it can.’” As I did with many others who wrote me heartfelt notes, I reached out to Ryan and asked to meet over Zoom. It turned out we had more in common than either of us had guessed, and we began a correspondence that’s endured since then.
At one point last year, Ryan said something that struck a nerve. “I don’t know what I identify as these days, because everything has gotten so scrambled,” he noted. “I’m not a Democrat or a Republican, I don’t even think I could define myself narrowly as either a liberal or a conservative anymore. The one thing I know that I fundamentally do believe is the premise of your piece, that the dominant institutions of American life—in education, in the arts, in politics—are either totally broken or so weak or corrupt that they’re becoming irrelevant. In a way, the only thing I know that I believe in is … brokenness.” https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/brokenism-alana-newhouse
A few days ago: The Brokenists Did Not Move Right Frank J. DiStefano People haven't moved politically. It’s a different fight. It’s also transitional. This isn't the final form of the Republican or Democratic Parties. Among the strangest developments of the last decade has been the migration of so many prominent people from the political left to the right.
I’m thinking about crusading lefty journalists like Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald. Former Democratic Congresswoman and DNC Vice Chair Tulsi Gabbard, who rose to fame supporting Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton. Lefty academics like Bret Weinstein, who taught at the proudly activist Evergreen State College. Entertainment industry stalwarts like Russell Brand, Joe Rogan, and Theo Von. Former environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.—an honest-to-goodness Kennedy from the Democratic Party’s royal family.
This odd coalition includes many of the people Oliver Wiseman in The Free Press recently called Brokenists (riffing on a concept first coined by Alana Newhouse). What’s important about these figures is they didn’t really “move right.” In fact, the thing we’re now calling “left” and “right” has nothing to do with liberalism or conservatism... ..The reality is these people didn’t “move” right because they haven’t moved anywhere. The labels left and right are up for grabs, and these people are the stubborn and independent-minded coal-mine canaries willing to play ball with the other coalition first. What this additionally means is these emerging coalitions are not permanent. This era of Brokenists and Denialists is a transitional phase in a larger transformation... ..It’s only during the middle of the twentieth century that our modern ideas of left and right consolidated, when Democrats coalesced around the New Deal and Great Society while Republicans coalesced around the ideas of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s Conservative Movement. We’ve all lived our entire lives inside this tiny bubble of human history, so our definitions of left and right feel permanent to us, but they were always just temporary labels in a permanently shifting politics... ..We no longer have a left-right spectrum. We have a Brokenist-Denialist spectrum. Everyone who believes the system is broken—and there are a lot of them—is getting pulled into the Republican Party and the right. Everyone who thinks things are fine has become a Democrat on the left. If you were once on the left but started questioning whether the system is broken and needs significant reform, you’ll get pushed out into the coalition of the right. None of this has anything to do with what we classically called liberalism or conservatism, or the twentieth-century right and left.
This obviously isn’t sustainable, so it will not be sustained. This won’t, and can’t, be the final form of either the Republican or Democratic Party. You can’t build a lasting politics around a Brokenist-Denialist spectrum. Eventually, Brokenists have to use their power to do something to actually fix the things they say are broken...This is beginning to happen in some ways, but it’s going to create an epic internal fight...
..The Democrats, on the other hand, have backed themselves into defending the indefensible. The current system is, in fact, broken, and everyone knows it. It’s archaic, designed for a mid-twentieth century that no longer exists. It doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do. It’s increasingly corrupted. The identitarian experiment the establishment adopted, and which professional elites seemed to love, proved deeply unpopular. Most important, Americans no longer trust the system.
Jim Kunstler, Funny Money As “Joe Biden” racked up Democratic presidential primary wins in 2024, the shadowy claque behind him allocated $27-billion to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from the huge Inflation Reduction Act, ostensibly for “climate change action.” The money was stashed at Citibank, where it became a hidden slush-fund to keep payoffs flowing to party favorites no matter who won the 2024 election. An EPA “special advisor on climate action,” one Brent Efron, told a Project Veritas investigative reporter that “President Biden” was “throwing gold bars off the Titanic”.
The key to understanding how the Democratic Party works is how it uses federal grants to redistribute taxpayer money into jobs programs for its rank-and-file. As seen in the recent USAID scandal, the action revolves around the creation of countless NGOs (non-governmental orgs). They are easily created, poorly supervised, and assembled into large networks of self-serving, inter-dependent organisms whose main mission is paying staffers — and secondarily pretending to do good works, as suggested by a given group’s name is. These staffers make up the matrix of Democratic Party activists, well-paid foot-soldiers in do-nothing jobs who can be called upon to cheer-lead for the party, organize street protests and, most critically, harvest ballots when the time comes.
Debts are also retirements. The Answer To 1913 Is 2025: 3 Charts That Show Why The Income Tax, The IRS And The Federal Reserve Should All Be Abolished The primary reason why we have had an almost unbelievably high standard of living over the past three decades is because we have piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world. Once upon a time the United States was the wealthiest country on the entire planet, but all of that prosperity was not good enough for us. So we started borrowing and borrowing and borrowing and we have now been living beyond our means for so long that we consider it to be completely normal.
When President Woodrow Wilson entered the White House in 1913, the U.S. was less than 3 billion dollars in debt.
Now we are 36 trillion dollars in debt…
This is what a central bank is designed to do.
Most people simply do not understand this. https://themostimportantnews.com/archives/the-answer-to-1913-is-2025-3-charts-that-show-why-the-income-tax-the-irs-and-the-federal-reserve-should-all-be-abolished
Celia Farber suspects there will be a discovery that vaccines cause autism: President Trump Again Stresses Catastrophic Autism Rate In American Children: My Interpretation Reading Between The Lines
Kash Patel Is Already Making Huge Changes at the FBI He wasted no time turning his bold rhetoric into action. Following his blistering speech on Friday, he ordered the transfer of 1,500 agents and staff from the bureau’s Washington, D.C., headquarters to field offices across the country.
Roughly 1,000 will be sent to high-crime cities that the Trump administration designated, where they can focus on fighting crime instead of political games. Another 500 will be reassigned to Huntsville, Ala., which is widely seen as D.C.’s version of exile. https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/02/21/boom-kash-patel-is-already-making-huge-changes-at-the-fbi-n4937220
Pentagon Purge: Trump Fires Chairman Of Joint Chiefs, Navy Chief And Other Top Brass https://www.zerohedge.com/military/pentagon-purge-trump-fires-chairman-joint-chiefs-5-more-senior-pentagon-officers
There is disagreement about what specifically is happening: US has ‘frozen’ weapons sales to Ukraine – MPs President Donald Trump earlier accused Kiev of misusing aid and demanded reimbursement https://swentr.site/russia/613103-us-froze-weapons-sales-ukraine/
US President Donald Trump called the talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin "very good." At the same time, he stressed that the talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were "not so good." https://www-kommersant-ru.translate.goog/doc/7531702?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has few supporters left in US President Donald Trump's inner circle, sources in the US leader's administration told the New York Post. According to one of them, the best option for Volodymyr Zelensky would be his "immediate departure to France." https://www-kommersant-ru.translate.goog/doc/7517577?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Why It’s Crucial To Expose US Provocations in Ukraine If you believe that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was unprovoked, you will likely compare Putin to Hitler and will likely oppose President Trump’s peace negotiations with Russia...This is why it’s so crucial that people who know the truth about U.S. provocations in Ukraine and about America’s extreme hypocrisy to be fearlessly outspoken in proclaiming:the U.S. intentionally provoked the war, to weaken Russia, to wean Europe from Russian energy, and to make Europe more dependent on the U.S. Unless the truth about U.S. provocations is exposed, there will be continued opposition to a peace deal for Ukraine, in both the U.S. and the EU. https://original.antiwar.com/donald_smith/2025/02/19/why-its-crucial-to-expose-us-provocations-in-ukraine/
Thus spake Baerbock: Germany issues warning to US Europe should make it clear to President Trump that failure to back “liberal democracies” will come at a price, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has insisted https://swentr.site/news/613126-germany-us-russia-ukraine/
Freidrich Merz is the man expected to win the most votes Sunday. Germany's likely next chancellor is a BlackRock man Under his government, US capital will have free rein to cannibalise the German economy
Moon of Alabama, Zelenski Has Yet To Eat The Shit Sandwich "It's a sh*t sandwich," a Trump administration official acknowledged.
"But Ukraine is going to have to eat it because [Trump] has made clear this is no longer our problem."
Axios
The Trump administration is increasing its pressure on Ukraine's (former) president Zelenski to swallow the shit sandwich. It offered a 'new' version of it which turned out to be the same as the old one:
The United States is doubling down on a demand that Ukraine relinquish half of its revenues from natural resources, including minerals, gas and oil, as well as earnings from ports and other infrastructure, according the document, which was reviewed by The New York Times.
The document, which was dated Feb. 21, states that the revenues will be directed to a fund in which the United States holds 100 percent financial interest, and that Ukraine should contribute to the fund until it reaches $500 billion — the amount President Trump has demanded from the war-torn country in exchange for American aid. That is more than twice Ukraine’s gross domestic product before the war.
The document does not stipulate that the United States will provide security guarantees for Ukraine in return for access to Ukrainian resources. That key demand from President Volodymyr Zelensky was absent in the first draft agreement presented to him last week, prompting him to decline to sign the deal.
There was even a threat, twice, to withdraw Starlink access from Ukraine's army should Zelenski reject the steal. https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/02/zelenski-has-yet-to-eat-the-shit-sandwich.html#more
U.S. could cut Ukraine’s access to Starlink internet services over minerals, say sources https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/21/us-could-cut-ukraines-access-to-starlink-internet-services-over-minerals-say-sources.html
Instead of rare earth metals, the US demands other valuable assets from Kyiv – MP Goncharenko https://en.topcor.ru/56931-vmesto-redkozemelnyh-metallov-ssha-trebujut-ot-kieva-drugie-cennye-aktivy-nardep-goncharenko.html
NATO leaders back Zelensky over Trump: The US president has called the Ukrainian leader a “dictator” over his refusal to hold elections https://swentr.site/news/613076-western-leaders-back-zelensky-trump-spat/
Expendable in 2 months at current attrition rates: Report: European Military Chiefs Propose Sending 30,000 Troops to Ukraine In response to the plan, Russia reiterated its opposition to the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine as part of a peace deal https://news.antiwar.com/2025/02/20/report-european-military-chiefs-propose-sending-30000-troops-to-ukraine/
Kremlin responds to reports of plans for Western troops in Ukraine
Any stationing of militaries from NATO countries would be unacceptable, spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said https://www.rt.com/russia/613064-peskov-responds-report-uk-troops-ukraine/
Rubio explains purpose of Russia-US talks The US and Russia sought to restore normal diplomatic relations during this week's talks in Saudi Arabia because global nuclear powers must communicate to resolve conflicts such as the one in Ukraine, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said. https://swentr.site/news/613109-rubio-russia-talks-purpose/
And tortured... Gaza hospital director says he doesn't know why he is being detained ‘In the end, I am delivering a humanitarian message, and those receiving treatment at our facility were ordinary civilians,' says Dr. Husam Abu Safiya Abu Safiya gained prominence for his humanitarian role during the Israeli genocide in Gaza and was one of the leading doctors who continued working under bombardment to save the wounded and injured.
Israeli forces arrested him in late December after storming Kamal Adwan Hospital, forcing him out at gunpoint after the hospital was destroyed and rendered non-operational.
As the Israeli genocide escalated, Abu Safiya paid a heavy personal price when his son, Ibrahim, was killed during an Israeli army raid on the hospital on Oct. 26.
On Nov. 24, 2024, Abu Safiya was injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting the hospital, but he refused to leave and continued treating patients and the wounded. https://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/gaza-hospital-director-says-he-doesnt-know-why-he-is-being-detained-3698711
Are they sure? Anybody could make mistakes digging up bodies from collapsed tunnels. IDF accuses Hamas of returning wrong body The militant group has released the remains of an infant and his brother, but Israel says a third body is not their mother’s https://www.rt.com/news/613098-israel-hamas-wrong-body/
Netanyahu accuses Hamas of breaching Gaza agreement over body release forgery
The Israeli Prime Minister stressed that"Hamas will pay the full price for this cruel and despicable violation of the agreement" https://tass.com/world/1916869
Caitlin Johnstone, Israel Pushes New Atrocity Narrative Just As Ceasefire Deadline Approaches
On the other hand: Gaza official reports over 350 Israeli violations of ceasefire deal https://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/gaza-official-reports-over-350-israeli-violations-of-ceasefire-deal-3698776
An honest mistake? Jerusalem: Jewish man attacks Israeli woman with axe, mistaking her for a Christian According to the media reports, police suspect that the attack, which took place in Jerusalem’s Old City, was motivated by “hatred of Christians”.
Eyewitnesses told the channel that the suspect shouted “Christian” at the victim before violently attacking her inside her home, leaving her with severe injuries.
The suspect then fled the scene.
The woman, who is around 70 years old and resides in the Old City, sustained serious injuries and remains in hospital for treatment, the reports added.
No statement has been issued by Israeli authorities regarding the incident. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250221-jerusalem-jewish-man-attacks-israeli-woman-with-axe-mistaking-her-for-a-christian/
Israeli army strikes Syria-Lebanon border, citing alleged Hezbollah arms transfers Despite the ceasefire, Israel has committed nearly 1,000 violations, killing and injuring dozens in Lebanon, including women and children.
Late Thursday, the Israeli daily Israel Hayom reported that the Israeli army also carried out airstrikes on the Syrian city of Homs.
Following the ouster of Bashar al-Assad's regime on Dec. 8, 2024 in Syria, Israel has conducted dozens of airstrikes targeting Syrian military positions.
It has also expanded its occupation of the Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarized buffer zone and Mount Hermon, violating the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria. https://www.yenisafak.com/en/world/israeli-army-strikes-syria-lebanon-border-citing-alleged-hezbollah-arms-transfers-3698767
Apple Nukes End-to-End Encryption In UK After Refusing To Give Backdoor Access Apple has elected to remove its most advanced, end-to-end encrypted security feature for cloud data in the United Kingdom after the government ordered the company to build a backdoor for accessing customer data. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/tim-cook-denies-backdoor-access-uk-government-nukes-apple-cloud-encryption-brits
Doug Casey on the Coming Monetary Reset and Trump’s Impact on Gold and the Dollar If the dollar is transformed from a fiat currency into a receipt for gold—which it should be since that’s the only way to stabilize the system for the long term— a massively higher gold price is needed.
I spelled that out in my 1993 book, Crisis Investing for the Rest of the ’90s. I came up with numbers. Depending on which parts of the money supply you wanted to use, gold would have to be many thousands, perhaps $40,000 per ounce.
My podcast partner, Matt Smith, has done a great analysis, which has gone viral, discussing this. He found, whether in US dollar terms, Euros, Chinese Yuan, or other currencies, that the likely price for revalued gold is someplace between $20,000 and $30,000 per ounce. https://internationalman.com/articles/doug-casey-on-the-coming-monetary-reset-and-trumps-impact-on-gold-and-the-dollar/
Yale Researchers Find COVID Spike Protein in Blood 709 Days After Vaccination, Positing Millions of Long COVID Patients May Actually Be Vaccine Injured
NIH has poured $1.6 billion into Long COVID research, but little or nothing to study vaccine harms, causing patient advocates to hide vaccine injury.
Post-Vaccine Brain Fog, Immune Dysfunction Linked to Spike Protein That Can Persist in Body for Years Yale University researchers detected the spike protein from the COVID-19 vaccine in the blood of at least one person 709 days after vaccination — a significantly longer time than previously measured.
The research team also found that many people thought to be experiencing long COVID may instead be suffering from post-vaccination syndrome (PVS) caused by the spike protein from the COVID-19 vaccines.
PVS symptoms, similar to those of long COVID, commonly include brain fog, dizziness and tinnitus.
Study participants who were never infected with the virus but who had PVS had “significantly higher” levels of spike protein circulating in their blood — with the protein detected between 26-709 days after they received a COVID-19 vaccine. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/post-vaccine-brain-fog-spike-protein-persist-body-years/
Pierre Kory MD on that: New Study Provides Legal Support For The Vaccine Injured Corporate lawyers beware: "Post Covid Vaccination Syndrome" is now a "real disease." A new Yale study will hopefully help me and my patients' lawyers win them compensation in disability hearings.
HHS Tells CDC to Yank ‘Wild to Mild’ Flu Vaccine Ad Campaign, Shift Focus to ‘Informed Consent’
CDC officials announced the end of the campaign, designed to appeal to pregnant women and children, during a staff meeting, according to NPR. HHS called on the CDC to instead develop “advertisements that promote the idea of ‘informed consent’ in vaccine decision-making,” STAT News reported. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/hhs-tells-cdc-remove-wild-to-mild-flu-vaccine-ad-campaign-informed-consent-focus/
Keep your vitamin-D level in the upper normal range. Make it a habit. China Reports New Coronavirus 'With Pandemic Potential' Discovered https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/stocks-puke-after-china-reports-new-coronavirus-pandemic-potential-discovered
NEW STUDY - Vitamin D Protects Against COVID-19 mRNA Injection-Induced Myocarditis
73.3% of myocarditis cases had low vitamin D—linked to higher inflammation, heart damage, and ICU admissions—while sufficient levels were associated with reduced severity.
Not Broken Yet (pictured with grandson in winter garden)
"What we have is a Brokenist-Denialist spectrum."
LOL. What we actually have is a manufactured Denialist-Denialist non-spectral mainstream culture.
Peak Oil breaks shit and the Hidden Hand manufactures everyone's denial of Peak Oil by harnessing their capture bondage. The so-called Brokenists are bargaining with reality even more than the so-called Denialists, which is why they've now been put in power.
It's not a political problem folks! Lol. You said it this morning, John - tower of babble.
At first run-through - bravo! Pulls together all the random little wads of facts floating around, gives perspective. Now to peruse.
I did spend the first two years of jab-less Covid existence taking C and D and zinc. Now a daily habit. I have no idea if I have ever had Covid. I don't really care at this point. And I am in one of the target groups. Not protected groups. Target.