Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

The Artificial Demon

“With apologies for bluntness, the mainstream press fucked around, now the mainstream press is finding out.”

– Matt Taibbi

By now, it must be kind of obvious that Mr. Putin of Russia was staged-up into a demon for the convenience of Hillary Clinton — resulting in a decade of deformed US foreign relations that has dragged us to the edge of a third world war.

Nice work, Democratic Party!

I will proffer a harsh truth to you: the best outcome in Ukraine would be for Russia to win the war as expeditiously as possible, neutralize and disarm the place, change-out its illegitimate government, and let it revert to being the frontier backwater it was for eight decades previous, when it was not a problem for the other nations of the region.

Mr. Putin has put up with our country’s psychotic nonsense with remarkable patience.

The idea that he seeks to conquer western Europe was a preposterous confection of the neocon crazies in our State Department and Intel “community.”

The long game for the neocon crazies has been to use NATO as the instrument to break up Russia and gain control of its resources. This was after Secretary of State James Baker told Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990, in discussions over German reunification, that “not an inch of NATO’s present military jurisdiction will spread in an eastern direction.” Starting in 1999 with the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland, sixteen additional nations were induced to join NATO, encroaching on Russia’s borders, with new military bases and missiles. It was a stupid game.

And it failed. Ukraine was the final gambit. The US destabilized it on purpose in 2014, installed a series of governments we could control, made it a ward of US taxpayers, sprinkled it with bio-weapons labs and money laundries, and gave Mr. Zelenskyy the go-ahead to start shelling the Donbas provinces adjacent to Russia. After years of that, Mr. Putin moved to stop it in 2022. The development of drone weapons, along with US-based satellite targeting tech, has prolonged the war. But, of course, the Russians, too, have modernized their own weapons arsenal to match that. The current state of things is a slow Russian grind to defeat a Ukraine that has run out of available fighting men and is apparently short of all weapons besides its drones.

On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump promised to end the Ukraine war in a New York minute.

That proved more difficult and complicated than he realized. He said lately in so many words that he has “lost patience” with Mr. Putin for failing to join a ceasefire as a prelude to peace talks. Accordingly, Mr. Trump set a fifty-day deadline and then shortened it to twelve-days, running out on August 8-9 (accounting for time zones). Failure to comply will cause Russia to suffer a new round of sanctions. Mr. Putin has shrugged off that threat, saying that time has proven Russia to be sanction-proofed.

Some kind of game is afoot in all this.

Neither Trump nor Putin could possibly want to turn this fiasco in Ukraine into a greater war that will destroy what’s left of Western Civilization.

You might find this startling, but for all our efforts to anathemize Russia, it is still a part of Western Civ. After its soviet experiment failed, Russia wanted above all to reintegrate economically with Europe, but the neocons here and the globalists of Europe would not allow that.

They became determined instead to wreck Russia — a vicious ethos likely to have emanated from the UK, with its lingering imperial delusions. (For Germany, it has brought only economic suicide.)

You might suspect that Mr. Trump has to pretend to be tough with Russia to counter the still-lingering suspicion — germinated by the Hillary Clinton campaign a decade ago — that he is “Putin’s puppet.” By coincidence, strange or not, that trope is now unraveling with the release of the RussiaGate intel archive that the rogue DOJ and FBI squirreled away since the Trump 1.0 term in office. Mr. Patel found a trove of documentary evidence in a burn-bag in a back room at FBI headquarters. DNI Tulsi Gabbard retrieves more previously-hidden evidence by the day from the vast NSA data base. It ought to be clear now that the initial Hillary Clinton campaign prank metastasized into the worst perversion of abusive government power in our country’s history, and is yet on-going.

The major news organs, who were accomplices in RussiaGate, won’t publish or broadcast any of the recent discoveries about exactly how the hoax evolved into a body of delusion that took over the brains of half of the country and led to a string of additional vicious hoaxes including the Covid-19 operation, the stolen election of 2020, and the J-6 prosecutions. Maybe nothing can be done about the perfidious New York Times or Washington Post because the First Amendment allows lies to be printed within the limits of the libel laws. But the TV networks have additional obligations to the public interest under the broadcast regulations and they can lose their licenses. Perhaps they should and will.

For the moment, realize that we are in the middle of a maelstrom. Arrests and prosecutions are coming, and Mr. Trump’s clock is ticking on the Ukraine war. Upping the ante on the war is the last thing our country needs. The RussiaGate disclosures afford the president an out on his strong-arm tactics with Mr. Putin and his support of the Zelenskyy regime.

Tonight at 7:00 PM ET, ZeroHedge presents a heated debate between Dave Smith and Alex Berenson, tackling one of the most polarizing topics in global affairs: Israel and Gaza.

Their back-and-forth has gone viral on X – with Smith accusing Berenson of avoiding direct confrontation, and Berenson accusing Smith of oversimplifying a deeply complex situation. So tonight, they’re taking it to the next level. 

I’ve never made anyone spiral this bad BEFORE a debate.

No, Alex the topic is not Holocaust denial. It’s your public accusation that I am a Holocaust denier. I can’t wait to watch you squirm, as you try to defend that.

7pm ET tonight! https://t.co/MdV96gOnZG

— Dave Smith (@ComicDaveSmith) August 1, 2025

Dave Smith, host of Part of the Problem, has been an outspoken critic of Israeli policy in Gaza, calling it a humanitarian disaster and accusing Israel of unjustified aggression and collective punishment. He argues that true libertarian values require consistent opposition to state violence, no matter the flag.

Alex Berenson, former New York Times journalist turned independent commentator, has pushed back hard on this narrative – defending Israel’s right to self-defense, criticizing Hamas, and accusing some of Smith’s rhetoric of echoing antisemitic tropes. He rejects claims of genocide and sees many of the criticisms as detached from historical and military context.

This is simple: you said you would answer a question. You won’t.

You are VERY good at denying the Holocaust was what it was, and I can now see you know exactly what you’re doing.

I won’t guess at your reasons for doing so. But I’m glad I made you pick a side, as you have. https://t.co/KgXvY1ojJT

— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) July 28, 2025

**Stream it live at 7PM ET on ZeroHedge home and X.** 

The Biden Justice Department official who greenlit $2 million in taxpayer-funded payouts to disgraced FBI lovebirds Peter Strzok and Lisa Page has resurfaced at the helm of a Democrat-aligned group dedicated to suing Donald Trump into oblivion, records show.

According to documents obtained by The Federalist, Brian Netter, a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General under Merrick Garland, personally approved the eye-popping settlements. Strzok, who infamously plotted the “insurance policy” against Trump while investigating the Clinton campaign’s Russia collusion hoax, pocketed $1.2 million. His mistress, ex-FBI lawyer Page, scored $800,000 [reeee sexist bribe gap!].

The duo had sued the DOJ, whining that the release of their scandalous, government-resource–written texts violated their privacy. Instead of fighting, the Biden team cut them fat checks – at taxpayer expense.

Now, Netter has taken his talents to Democracy Forward, where he serves as legal director. The left-wing group, proudly launched in 2017 to fight Trump with endless litigation, brags about taking the 45th president to court more than 100 times. The New York Times even hailed them last fall: “Liberal Legal Group Positions Itself as a Top Trump Administration Foe.”

The group’s board reads like a Who’s Who of Democratic Party royalty: Clinton campaign manager John Podesta, Biden’s ex–chief of staff Ron Klain, Vice President Kamala Harris’ sister Maya Harris, and Democratic strategist Mindy Myers. We’re sure Podesta is dazzling them with his famous walnut sauce on pasta and whatnot.

At the top sits Marc Elias, the Democratic super-lawyer notorious for bankrolling the Clinton campaign’s Russia collusion scheme through his law firm and masterminding the chaotic 2020 mail-in ballot expansion. Clinton’s campaign was fined just $113,000 for disguising opposition research as “legal services.”

Netter’s ties to Democratic power brokers run even deeper. He’s married to Karen Dunn, a high-powered Democratic lawyer who prepped Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Kamala Harris for presidential debates. The 2009 wedding? Officiated by none other than Merrick Garland.

Dunn, a former Hillary confidante widely floated for White House Counsel if Clinton had won in 2016, co-founded a law firm with Jeannie Rhee, a Mueller probe alum who helped keep the Russia hoax alive. They later hired yet another Mueller hand, Rush Atkinson.

Both Netter and Dunn clerked for liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, while Dunn also clerked for Garland on the D.C. Circuit.

Congressional Republicans had long tried to learn who authorized the cushy settlements for Strzok and Page but were stonewalled by Biden’s DOJ, which claimed it didn’t know.

“The American people are rightly concerned about the Biden Administration’s targeting of conservatives while their political allies were given special treatment,” said James Fitzpatrick, director of the Center to Advance Security in America. “These settlements are a prime example of the outrageous abuse of power endured by the American people under Joe Biden.”

Authored by Bryan Hyde via American Greatness,

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt took members of the press corps to task over their refusal to cover newly released evidence that shows Hillary Clinton approved the Russian collusion hoax against Donald Trump.

Leavitt’s comments come on the heels of a newly declassified appendix to the Durham Report that exposes a reported Clinton campaign plan to falsely accuse President Trump of collusion with Russia.

White House Press Sec. Karoline Leavitt SLAMS the press corps for refusing to cover the newly declassified Russia Collusion Hoax bombshells:

“This should be a story every outlet in this room should be covering. This is further evidence that Hillary Clinton approved the Russia… pic.twitter.com/LzUDx9Yc4l

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) July 31, 2025

Leavitt chided members of the press, telling them, “This is a story that every outlet in this room should be covering,” and that “This is further evidence that Hillary Clinton approved the Russia Hoax against President Trump. Her campaign financed it.”

Leavitt added that “the FBI and the CIA were both weaponized to accelerate this hoax against then-candidate and former president Trump.”

The Press Secretary told reporters that, “The president wants to see justice served and he trusts the Attorney General and the Department of Justice to implement that justice and hold these people accountable.”

The so-called “Durham annex” to John Durham’s Special Counsel report was released yesterday by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and brings previously classified information to light regarding the Clinton campaign’s plans to falsely tie Trump to Russia.

In a press release, Grassley said, “History will show that the Obama and Biden administration’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies were weaponized against President Trump. This political weaponization has caused critical damage to our institutions and is one of the biggest political scandals and cover-ups in American history. The new Trump administration has a tremendous responsibility to the American people to fix the damage done and do so with maximum speed and transparency.”

At a press conference just one week ago, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard said that the Obama administration promoted a “contrived narrative” that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

Gabbard stated, “There is irrefutable evidence that details how President Obama and his national security team directed the creation of an intelligence community assessment that they knew was false. They knew it would promote this contrived narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help President Trump win, selling it to the American people as though it were true it wasn’t.”

Independent journalist Matt Taibbi has suggested that mainstream media has left itself few options because it cannot cover the most recent disclosures without making major admissions to its own part in the hoax.

There is no way for any corporate media outlet to cover this story at all. Logistically, it can’t be done without making major admissions.

It will have to be reported out entirely by independents. https://t.co/nIuk5WW0S1

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) July 31, 2025

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly called for Western-supported regime change in Russia, arguing it is the only way to ensure long-term security against “Russian aggression.”

He further claimed that if there’s not change of government in Moscow, then all of Europe is under threat. The provocative words were issued during a virtual speech marking the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, or Helsinki Accords.

“If the world doesn’t aim to change the regime in Russia, that means even after the war ends, Moscow will still try to destabilize neighboring countries,” Zelensky said, claiming that this will be the case even if Russia is compelled to end the war through a ceasefire.

He also urged the Western allies to seize and not just freeze Russian assets and use them to help defend against Russian forces, through more arms purchases and defense funding. 

This comes after one of the single deadliest Russian strikes on Kiev early Thursday morning, which demolished an apartment building, and left at least 28 dead and over 120 wounded.

In response, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov once again reiterated that Russia has not threatened the EU and instead accused the bloc of drifting toward what he called a “fourth Reich”.

The Kremlin has consistently rejected Western assumptions that its war aims in Ukraine are ‘expansionist’ in nature, or that nearby NATO states will be invaded.

On the negotiations front, there’s been no momentum whatsoever, and even behind-the-scenes efforts of the White House to engage top Russian officials have proven fruitless. President Trump has been turning back toward strongly supporting Ukraine of late.

Russia has signaled willingness to negotiate and has participated in various talks; however it refuses to recognize Zelensky as a legitimate head of state, citing the expiration of his term using the excuse of martial law.

Any future or final peace agreement must be signed by what Russia deems a legitimate Ukrainian authority, at a moment Zelensky has called for direct talks with Putin.

But until Zelensky agrees to territorial concessions, or at the very least giving of claims of sovereignty over Crimea, for example, Putin will see little incentive in any direct dialogue at the negotiating table.

The same could be true of President Trump, who is threatening more sanctions if a peace deal isn’t made by August 8. Putin has in response pointed out that Russian ground forces are advancing all across the frontlines in Ukraine.

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

Over the past year, financial headlines continue to flood investors with doomsday predictions about the U.S. dollar.

Whether it’s social media influencers waving “dollar collapse” charts or YouTube personalities warning about debasement, the noise has become deafening. The narrative is seductive: inflation is out of control, the government is printing money, and the dollar is on its last legs. But while there are real risks to watch, most headlines sell fear, not fact.

The 90% Purchasing Power Chart: Misleading but Popular

One of the favorite charts used to make the “debasement” case is the classic graph showing that the U.S. dollar has lost 90% of its purchasing power since 1966.

It’s striking, and those selling gold, silver, or other doomsday assets often use it. But here’s the thing: that chart doesn’t show debasement. It only reflects inflation, a well-understood and largely expected outcome in a growing economy.

Prices rise over time because demand increases due to population growth, rising incomes, and growing consumption. This is especially true in a post-industrial, service-driven economy that incentivizes credit expansion and capital investment. As we often say, it’s not the dollar losing value; it’s the economy expanding.

Let’s discuss what “debasement” is and is not as it relates to the economy.

Understanding Inflation vs. Debasement

Let’s start by untangling two often-confused concepts: inflation and currency debasement. While both reduce the purchasing power of a dollar, they operate differently.

Inflation is the rise in prices due to supply and demand imbalances. Rising wages and consumer demand for products and services that grow faster than the available supply create higher prices (aka inflation). The chart below is from a previous article we wrote discussing why the economy surged following the pandemic-related economic shutdown.

“The following economic illustration is taught in every ‘Econ 101’ class. Unsurprisingly, inflation is the consequence if supply is restricted and demand increases via monetary interventions.”

Conversely, debasement implies a structural dilution of a currency’s value. This is vastly different than inflation. In a “debasement” scenario, governments take conscious actions to reduce the “structure” of the currency. In Rome, for example, the government reduced the amount of silver in minting coins to increase the number of coins produced to pay its creditors. However, debasement is not a reality in a fiat system like ours, where the linkage to gold or silver is nonexistent. In other words, when the government is “printing paper,” it is impossible to dilute the “structure.”

However, the term has become “co-opted” by the bears and fear mongers as a psychological representation of perception and confidence in the dollar. But that is what makes this discussion so interesting. While the “debasement experts” point to record stimulus, growing deficits, and expanding M2 over the last few years, confidence in the dollar remains intact—not just among U.S. consumers and investors but globally.

As shown, the U.S. dollar index remains strong. Most notably, the bigger picture reveals a more resilient and globally dominant currency than many alarmists will admit. The U.S. dollar is still at the center of 80% of global transactions, and nearly 60% of all global reserves. The “debasement” argument is at best premature, and at worst, deeply misleading.

But what about that dollar purchasing power chart above?

That chart is not about “debasement,” as shown; it is just a measure of inflation caused by a growing U.S. population and increasing economic demand over time.

What M2 Growth Tells Us

“No Lance, the dollar purchasing power is going down, because we are printing too much money.”

That would be a fair statement if the Government were increasing the money supply faster than the economic growth rate. In such a case, the surge in the money supply would cause inflation.

We did witness such an event, as the surge in M2 during the pandemic era was unprecedented. During 2020 and 2021, the Government added over $6 trillion to the money supply. But let’s not forget the context: the world was undergoing the most severe economic shock since the Great Depression. The U.S. government and Federal Reserve stepped in forcefully to stabilize the economic and financial system—and it worked. The consequence was, as would be expected, and as shown in the chart above, a shift in the “supply/demand” equation, creating higher prices. However, at the same time, that surge in demand that outstripped supply led to a massive surge in economic growth, sending unemployment to near record lows. That outcome would not have occurred without the increase in the money supply.

But therein lies the misunderstanding. It’s easy to point to M2 charts and scream “debasement. “ However, the money supply must grow as the economy grows. If it doesn’t, deflationary risks emerge. Therefore, the key is whether money creation exceeds economic growth in a sustained way. Since 1959, the money supply has grown in alignment with economic growth.

A better way to assess this is by comparing M2 to GDP. Historically, the two have tracked closely. Even during the COVID shock, M2 as a percentage of GDP remained below 100%, meaning money supply growth was broadly aligned with economic output. Today, that ratio is falling, not rising.

The reality is, as you would expect, that the growth rates of M2 and the economy are highly correlated.

If the dollar were truly being debased, you’d see a very different set of outcomes:

• Capital fleeing U.S. assets (stocks, bonds, gold, cryptocurrencies)

• A collapse in Treasury demand.

• A breakdown in global trade settled in dollars.

Instead, we see the opposite. Treasury demand remains robust. The dollar is still used in 80% of global transactions and represents nearly 60% of international reserves. Central banks, sovereign wealth funds, and institutional investors continue to hold and accumulate U.S. assets.

So, while media pundits scream about a “loss of trust,” global capital continues to support the dollar.

The Dollar’s Death Is Greatly Exaggerated

Every few decades, someone proclaims the end of the dollar. In the 1980s, it was Japan. In the 2000s, it was the Euro. Today, it’s China or crypto. Yet none of these alternatives have been able to replicate what the dollar provides: deep capital markets, rule of law, and the economic and military reach of the United States.

The dollar remains the cleanest dirty shirt in the global laundry basket. That’s not to say it’s perfect, but perfection isn’t the benchmark. Trust, liquidity, and legal protections are. Furthermore, gold, often touted as the “real money” alternative, is traded and valued in dollars.

In reality, “debasement” isn’t the issue that investors should pay attention to. However, “inflation“ over time erodes the purchasing power of dollars. As such, investors must ensure their “savings” grow at the inflation rate over time. That means investing your savings in assets that grow faster than the inflation rate over the long term. We discussed this topic in “Conviction and How to Lose a Lot of Money.”

“As an example, let’s consider a high-end men’s suit. In 1900, the average price of a high-end men’s suit was around $35. Today, the average price of a high-end suit is around $2,000.

Looking at it another way, if you had stuffed $41.34 under your mattress in 1900, today you might be able to buy a couple of Polo shirts if you find a deal. But if you had bought two 1-ounce gold coins and stuffed those under your mattress in 1900, today you’d be able to buy a fancy suit and have about $1,600 left over.“ – Michael Maharrey

He is correct in his math. However, the same investment in the stock (price appreciation only since gold doesn’t pay a dividend) allowed an individual to buy 15 suits with money left over.

Yes, gold has been a good hedge against inflation over the long term. Investing in the stock market has been much better.

So why do dollar debasement stories get so much attention? Because fear sells. Human psychology is wired to respond more strongly to threats than to opportunities. This “negativity bias” helps explain why bearish content generates more clicks, listens, and views. It’s not that the content is wrong, but it’s often disproportionately amplified.

Unfortunately, many investors confuse loud narratives with likely outcomes.

For investors, the key takeaway is to separate noise from narrative. While inflation, fiscal deficits, and policy missteps are worth our concern, the U.S. dollar remains the backbone of the global financial system, not because it’s flawless, but because there is still no viable alternative.

Again, “debasement” isn’t the concern it is being made out to be.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Political Failure Kamala Harris keeps talking about ‘continuing to fight’ but at the same time is declaring that she’s not going to run for anything because “the system is broken.”

Harris appeared on Colbert’s moribund show, of course she did, and served up heaps of word salad while hawking a book she claims to have written.

She explained her decision not to run for governor of California by stating “I don’t want to go back into the system.”

In the MOST amount of words possible, Kamala Harris admits President Trump BROKE her, which is why she doesn’t want to run for Governor of California

“The system’s broken… so I don’t wanna go back into the system.”

She just GAVE UP 🤣 pic.twitter.com/AXDBG4vSMz

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 1, 2025

Wow, that’s some real fighting talk there.

“I’m hearing you don’t wanna be part of the fight anymore” 😂😂😂 DUH

— Magæn America🇺🇸🇮🇱🎗️ (@USANadav) August 1, 2025

She’s hardly treading ground in preparation for a big come back is she?

I suppose her soft launch of her presidential exploratory campaign is going in typical Kamala form – down in flames. Out the gate is impressive.

— Gabriel Garcia (@GGarcia_AZ) August 1, 2025

Harris actually managed to defeat herself before any contest for anything has actually begun.

Kamala Harris…

The first politician to lose a debate against herself…

… in real-time…

… on national TV.

— mdtlion (@mdtlion) August 1, 2025

And hang on, why is the system broken again?

Is it because you lost? Is that the sole reason?

Sorry to correct you, but it’s,”… blew FOR every opportunity in her career.”

— Random Numbers (@Random_Numbers) August 1, 2025

She (or whoever tells her what to say) also elected for an interesting turn of phrase with “on bended knee.”

Her knees must be wrecked.

— Sailor Chick ’95 (@strinam) August 1, 2025

How many shots deep do you think she was during this interview?

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 1, 2025

She sounds absolutely smashed.

No one would want to listen in to her conversations. They wouldn’t understand a single word and would have to endure hours of drunk cackling. https://t.co/WOBlIw2ieb

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) August 1, 2025

What else is in this book?

Wow, what a teaser… must get our hands on a copy immediately to find out what “Dougie” did wrong. https://t.co/kFJ8axG7NF

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) August 1, 2025

So to sum up…

pic.twitter.com/HkU4gR9eMw

— Jamie G. (@Jamielane6987) August 1, 2025

As we highlighted yesterday, Kamala’s book announcement was met with about the same enthusiasm shown by vampires hearing about a garlic festival.

After verbalising that splurge of mins garble, Harris followed up with this bizarre cringe.

Kamala Harris just posted this on TikTok pic.twitter.com/no9Rae2OYj

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 31, 2025

Good God.

Watching grown adults who aim to be our leaders copy trends popular with middle school girls is extremely cringe. What happened to the days when they were the ones setting the example? How do they expect to lead when all they do is follow?

— The Hypocrisy Corner (@HypocrisyBureau) July 31, 2025

How many takes for this, if you had to guess? Setting the over/under at 20

— Jon Niconchuk (@JonNiconchuk) July 31, 2025

No one thinks she’s drinking margaritas. We know it’s wine by the box.

— Ben Dempsey (@BenDempsey18) July 31, 2025

Speaking of Trump, he commented on Harris ruling herself out of any political race in 2026, noting how unsurprised he is.

 “She can’t speak, she can’t talk, she can’t do an interview,” he remarked, adding “I thought she was a terrible candidate… She didn’t really get the nomination. That whole nomination was strange.”

Trump quipped that he might read Harris’ book for a laugh, but quickly adding “no,” and noting “She didn’t do any interviews or anything, which was strange, not even friendly interviews with friendly reporters like her, right there, really friendly reporter,” pointing to Rachel Scott of ABC News.

“She didn’t run a great campaign, but we beat Biden, and then we had to beat– nobody’s beaten two. I had to beat two,” Trump added.

President Trump clowns Kamala Harris after she ruled out a California governor run and announced her new book 🤣

“Well, she can’t speak. She can’t talk. She can’t do an interview. She was a terrible candidate. I wouldn’t call her a skilled politician.”

“Yeah, I think I’m going… pic.twitter.com/Bp7RXPhE8W

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 31, 2025

No one wants the salad. We’re all unburdened by the salad that has been.

I hope this is last word salad we have to endure for a very very very long time

— Tim talks stocks and corruption (@TimApeishforAmc) August 1, 2025

*  *  *

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

U.S. foreign policy is obstructing nuclear energy progress: “U.S. foreign policy adventures and various conflicts with perceived enemies is standing in the way of the nuclear renaissance.” Those were the words of energy and financial analyst Doomberg (who writes pseudonymously on Substack) from last evening’s ZeroHedge Debate with Mark Nelson of Radiant Energy Group, hosted by Erik Townsend of Macro Voices.

In a rational world, the U.S. would “put out to bid building parts or all of a fleet of envisioned reactors,” accepting proposals from countries like “Russia, China, and South Korea, Canada, and Westinghouse,” and selecting “the best of what’s available in the world.” While Trump may try to change course, beltway interests are not always aligned with what is rational. 

Other nations have already shown what’s possible, Doomberg argued. “The United Arab Emirates bought Korean technology and just implemented it very well,” with a “national project management type campaign,” including “multi-generational training” and “a holistic approach.” The result: “four now and counting immortal nuclear reactors” producing “steady 95% capacity factor, carbon-free, clean, marginally cheap electricity for generations.”

Meanwhile, Russia’s Rosatom—despite geopolitical tensions—has become “a technical powerhouse” with “35 or 40 reactors, either under construction or contracted all around the world.” From Turkey to Egypt to Bangladesh and even China and India, Rosatom’s record demonstrates that “you don’t have to be an extremely wealthy country for nuclear to make sense. You just need to execute your nuclear projects in a way that is far better than what the U.S. has done.”

pic.twitter.com/42HriK8ge7

— ZeroHedge Debates (@zerohedgeDebate) August 1, 2025

Doomberg argued that the United States must treat nuclear energy as a public good, not merely a market commodity: “Once you build a nuclear reactor, properly maintained it is effectively immortal.” 

Just as the interstate system delivers near-free access to transportation, a fully developed nuclear grid could provide durable, low-cost power. But such infrastructure doesn’t arise from market forces alone. “There comes a point where market forces fail and government needs to get involved and government needs to subsidize,” Doomberg said.

The challenge, he insists, is not technical but political: “The cost to build nuclear in the US, in Western Europe, is a political choice.”

pic.twitter.com/dMTRK157zM

— ZeroHedge Debates (@zerohedgeDebate) August 1, 2025

Watch the full debate via the link below — and if you are considering investing in the coming nuclear energy renaissance, take a look at the holdings in VanEck’s NLR ETF as the folks over at VanEck were kind enough to sponsor this discussion. Their ETF has exposure to uranium miners as well as utility providers.

Presenting the Nuclear Energy debate: Marc Nelson vs Doomberg
Watch live at 7pm ET https://t.co/loNIjQNlUc

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 31, 2025

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Given that AI is fundamentally incapable of performing the tasks required for authentic innovation, we’re de-learning how to innovate.

That AI is turning those who use it into dummies is not only self-evident, it’s irrefutable. ChatGPT May Be Eroding Critical Thinking Skills, According to a New MIT Study

“Of the three groups, ChatGPT users had the lowest brain engagement and ‘consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.’ Over the course of several months, ChatGPT users got lazier with each subsequent essay, often resorting to copy-and-paste by the end of the study.

“The task was executed, and you could say that it was efficient and convenient,” Kosmyna says. “But as we show in the paper, you basically didn’t integrate any of it into your memory networks.”

AI breaks the connection between learning and completing an academic task. With AI, students can check the box–task completed, paper written and submitted–without learning anything.

And by learning we don’t mean remember a factoid, we mean learning how to learn and learning how to think. As Substack writer maalvika explains in her viral essay compression culture is making you stupid and uninteresting, digital technologies have compressed our attention spans via what I would term “rewarding distraction” so we can no longer read anything longer than a few sentences without wanting a summary, highlights video or sound-bite.

In other words, very few people will actually read the MIT paper: TL/DR. Here’s the precis: Your Brain on ChatGPT (mit.edu).

Here’s the full paper.

Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task.

To understand the context–and indeed, the ultimate point of the research–we must start by understanding the structure of learning and thinking which is a complex set of processes. Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) is a framework that parses out some of these processes.

Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), developed by John Sweller, provides a framework for understanding the mental effort required during learning and problem-solving. It identifies three categories of cognitive load: intrinsic cognitive load (ICL), which is tied to the complexity of the material being learned and the learner’s prior knowledge; extraneous cognitive load (ECL), which refers to the mental effort imposed by presentation of information; and germane cognitive load (GCL), which is the mental effort dedicated to constructing and automating schemas that support learning.

Checking the box “task completed” teaches us nothing. Actual learning and thinking require doing all the cognitive work that AI claims to do for us: reading the source materials, following the links between these sources, finding wormholes between various universes of knowledge, and thinking through claims and assumptions as an independent critical thinker.

When AI slaps together a bunch of claims and assumptions as authoritative, we don’t gain a superficial knowledge–we learn nothing. AI summarizes but without any ability to weed out questionable claims and assumptions because it has no tacit knowledge of contexts.

So AI spews out material without any actual cognitive value and the student slaps this into a paper without learning any actual cognitive skills. This cognitive debt can never be “paid back,” for the cognitive deficit lasts a lifetime.

Even AI’s vaunted ability to summarize robs us of the need to develop core cognitive abilities. As this researcher explains, “drudgery” is how we learn and learn to think deeply as opposed to a superficial grasp of material to pass an exam.

In Defense of Drudgery: AI is making good on its promise to liberate people from drudgery. But sometimes, exorcising drudgery can stifle innovation.

“Unfortunately, this innovation stifles innovation. When humans do the drudgery of literature search, citation validation, and due research diligence — the things OpenAI claims for Deep Research — they serendipitously see things they weren’t looking for. They build on the ideas of others that they hadn’t considered before and are inspired to form altogether new ideas. They also learn cognitive skills including the ability to filter information efficiently and recognize discrepancies in meaning.

I have seen in my field of systems analysis where decades of researchers have cited information that was incorrect — and expanded it into its own self-perpetuating world view. Critical thinking leads the researcher to not accept the work that others took as foundational and to spot the error. Tools such as Deep Research are incapable of spotting the core truth and so will perpetuate misdirection in research. That’s the opposite of good innovation.”

In summary: given that AI is fundamentally incapable of performing the tasks required for authentic innovation, we’re de-learning how to innovate. What we’re “learning” is to substitute a superficially clever simulation of innovation for authentic innovation, and in doing so, we’re losing the core cognitive skills needed to innovate.

In following the easy, convenient path of AI’s simulations of innovation, we are indeed “carefully falling into the cliff.” But since this is all TL/DR, and there’s no summary, highlights video or sound-bite, we don’t even see it.

So here’s the TL/DR “dummies” summary of AI: AI is turning us into dummies.

*  *  *

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In Thursday comments President Trump condemned what he called Russia’s “disgusting” strikes on the Ukrainian capital from the night prior, which left 28 dead according to the continually rising death toll, after emergency crews have been picking through rubble of a collapsed apartment building.

The Trump administration has also informed the UN Security Council that a deal needs to be reached by August 8, or else new tariffs and sanctions targeting Russia and its trading partners will be unleashed.

“Both Russia and Ukraine must negotiate a ceasefire and durable peace. It is time to make a deal. President Trump has made clear this must be done by August 8. The United States is prepared to implement additional measures to secure peace,” US diplomat John Kelley told the UN Security Council, according to Reuters.

Trump is still seeking to distance himself from the conflict, given he’s calling it “Biden’s war”.

There’s apparently been a big push behind the scenes, focused on secret talks, to make something happen with Russia on the peace front, as the NY Times writes:

Mr. Trump’s comments came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged in an interview with Fox News Radio that the administration held secret talks with Russia this week — “not with Putin but with some of Putin’s top people” — and made no progress on a cease-fire. Mr. Trump said he was dispatching his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to Russia again, but the last visit that Mr. Witkoff, a fellow real estate investor, paid to Mr. Putin proved fruitless.

Administration officials gave no reasons to believe the latest engagement with Russia would be any more useful. And Mr. Trump himself, usually a true believer in the power of economic sanctions to alter the decisions of foreign leaders, admitted for the second time this week that Mr. Putin appears to be immune.

But then Trump has also conceded that “I don’t know that sanctions bother him” – in reference to Putin and the fact that the Russian economy has been doing relatively well considering the Western-imposed isolation.

It was merely months ago that Trump’s top officials, such as Pete Hegseth, were in Europe declaring that Ukraine would never be in NATO and even suggesting that ultimately the war is not Moscow’s fault, breaking sharply with the Western defense establishment. There was also the Oval Office shouting match with Zelensky, where Vice President JD Vance called out the Ukrainian leader.

NY Times’ commentary continues by pointing out a complete 180 in Trump’s thinking on Ukraine, further pointing to the fresh Rubio interview:

That has been followed by a series of apparent reversals, with no public acknowledgment from Mr. Trump that he is changing strategy. He no longer relies on what he has framed as a deep past relationship with Mr. Putin in an effort to win him over. In fact, he has been quite open about his frustration that conversations about cease-fires are usually followed by Russian escalation, often in the pace of drone and missile attacks.

“I think what bothers the president the most is he has these great phone calls where everyone sort of claims yeah, we’d like to see this end, if we could find a way forward,” Mr. Rubio said in his Fox interview, “and then he turns on the news and another city has been bombed, including those far from the front lines.”

“So at some point,” Mr. Rubio told his interviewer, Brian Kilmeade of Fox News Radio, “he’s got to make a decision here about what — how much to continue to engage in an effort to do cease-fires if one of the two sides is not interested.”

As if demonstrating his lack of concern over Trump’s ultimatum, President Putin has on Friday declared that his troops are advancing along the “entirety of the frontlines”.

Putin does not look too worried on Friday…

Putin and Lukashenko met on Valaam. The President of Belarus arrived in Russia on a working visit.

The leaders of the two countries greeted each other warmly and later took part in a prayer service at the Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. pic.twitter.com/1QG8PoAuHg

— Russian Market (@runews) August 1, 2025

According to a summary of his fresh remarks:

Russian president Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow’s goals in Ukraine remained unchanged and claimed that Russian troops are advancing “along entire frontline” in Ukraine.

In comments reported by Reuters, Putin also said that the new deadly Oreshnik missile system is now being mass produced, with first deliveries already made to the army. At the same time, he said he hoped peace talks between Russia and Ukraine would continue, but warned against inflated expectations as to what can be realistically achieved.

He also insisted that the issue of the war would need to be addressed “in the context of European security as a whole,” which in the past was linked to his expansive security demands relating to large parts of central and eastern Europe.

Trump’s position, based on his latest remarks, is that the war “should be stopped, It’s a disgrace.” And yet the US still appears unwilling to strongly pressure Zelensky to make territorial concessions and to declare Ukraine will never join NATO. Washington also still continues arming Kiev. These things remain red lines for Russia.