There was once a very wise old man who traveled about – hills, mountains, valleys, and plains, all about – from one village to the next. He was tall and gaunt, had a patch over one eye, wore a floppy hat, and a long dark cloak that came down to his ankles. His beard was long and white. His boots were scuffed and worn from the many miles he had traversed and he carried a long hiking staff with a carved figure on the end. He had learned many things through his travels, by experience and reading, trial and error, and living long. He led a solitary life and one could say that he sacrificed himself to himself to gain wisdom.
One day as he traveled the open plain, he happened upon a sheep pen with a young boy guarding the gate. Being tired and thirsty, he asked the lad for water and permission to sit and rest a while. The boy was intrigued by the look and bearing of the old man and obliged the old man’s request. The old man took a seat on a bench near the gate and accepted a gourd of water the boy handed him.

The boy was not used to anyone being about as he tended the flock since the sheep pen was so far from his village. Travelers were rare as was the opportunity to visit and talk with anyone other than the sheep. As the man drank the cool water the boy studied him. At length the boy asked what had happened to the old man’s eye that he should wear a patch over it. The old man just smiled and said, “Sometimes one has to sacrifice something to gain wisdom. It may be time in study, danger in a pilgrimage, or discomfort in a vision quest.” At this last the old man chuckled to himself.

As the boy continued to study the old man the old man asked, “So, boy, how long have you been tending your sheep?” The boy answered, “A few years, is all.” The old man asked, “Does tending the flock bore you? With no one to talk to and nothing to do but watch the sheep, what do you think about?” The boy considered for a while and then answered, “Well … I wonder … sometimes … if what they tell me is true.” The old man responded, “Who are the they of whom you speak?” “My parents, the other villagers, the priest … everybody,” he replied. “So what is it they tell you, boy?” the old man asked. “They say that our religion is the only true one, that all the others are evil and bad,” answered the boy.

The old man considered that for a bit and then said to the boy, “I see you have a fine flock of sheep in your pen. Are the sheep in your pen different than the sheep in the pen in the next village?” “Yes,” the boy replied, “these sheep are fatter and white in color. The ones in the next village are black, and because the forage there is sparse they are leaner.” “Is that so,” said the old man. “And which sheep, then, are better?” The boy said, “I’m not sure. I’ve not actually been to the pens in the other village, so I don’t really know. I know of their color and such from what my father told me.”

The old man then said to the boy, “Imagine your village as a sheep pen … a sheep pen of your religion … and you are a lamb in it. You want to know if what the other sheep in your pen tell you is true. So tell me, what religion, then, would the sheep in an Israeli sheep pen be?” “Oh, they would be Jewish,” answered the boy. “And those in India?” asked the old man. “That’s easy,” said the boy. “They would be Hindu.” “All right. What of America and Iraq and Thailand,” asked the old man. “America is mostly Christian, Iraq is Muslim, but I don’t know about Thailand,” responded the boy. “Well, you are correct about America and Iraq. Thailand is Buddhist,” said the old man. “And each of the sheep in those separate pens believe they have the one true religion, yes?” The boy nodded his agreement.

“You asked me how you know if what you have been taught in your sheep pen is correct and true, and I’ll answer your question with another question … how do you know the sheep in those other sheep pens are not true?” asked the old man. “How do you know that they’re evil and bad?” The boy thought about this for a long time. He struggled to come up with an answer. He had expected the old man to just give him one, but now he had to ponder. At length he tentatively responded, “I guess … I guess … maybe … I need to leave my sheep pen and visit the others?” “Very well,” said the old man. “How will that help you answer your question?” Again the boy thought long and hard. These things were so difficult for him to puzzle out. Finally he said, “I think I should ask them what they believe and why. I think I should live with them for a while so I can experience their ways. I think I should try to learn everything I can about them and their faith.”

The old man took another sip of the water, stood up and stretched. “So now, he said, “you have your answer. You must be open to everything. You must question everything. You must put your biases and prejudices away and consider the facts as you find them. You must form your judgment by way of rational, skeptical, and unbiased analysis and evaluation. In the end you may find that your villagers are correct, or you may find them in error, but you must do the work to find the answer. The boy thought about this and quickly saw the wisdom in it. As the old man picked up his staff and turned to leave the boy asked him one final question. “Sir, what sheep pen did you decide was the correct one. Which one did you choose?” The wise old man smiled and said, “None of them. I found one that’s just right for me and few others.” “How can that be,” asked the boy. “Aren’t you afraid people will think you daft, perhaps even shun you?” The old man’s smile grew even wider as he answered, “What little courage must a man have to allow others to tell him what to believe and what is true. How sad to allow oneself to be a slave to the masses. A man must do his best to learn the truth of things in a world filled with falsehood and illusions. No one else can do that for him.” And with that, the wise old man thanked the boy for the water, turned, adjusted his cloak, and continued his travels across the plain.

That night, after the sheep were secured in their pen, the boy left his village.

From Wikipedia: Truth is conformity to reality or fact. It contrasts with falsity or misrepresentation that fails to align with the world. Truth is typically treated as a property of truthbearers, such as sentences, propositions, or beliefs that describe things as they are.

It’s been said that we each have our own truth. However, that conflicts with the definition of truth. It would be better said that we each have our own opinions or beliefs of what the truth is, and how do we arrive at that? It would seem that one’s place of birth (environment), one’s experiences, the degree of study or lack of study, influence of one’s peers and family, prejudices and biases, and other trusted sources of information all converge to produce those opinions and beliefs. One could say we’re born into many of our beliefs.

The problem arises when one refuses to acknowledge that their opinions and beliefs might be erroneous. When one refuses to consider conflicting information and evidence with an open mind, such a one will inevitably respond to such conflicting evidence and information, the challenge to their opinions and beliefs, in anger and with ad hominem attacks on the messenger rather than offering evidence and data to the contrary; reasonable and amicable debate. Such a one would be demonstrating their ignorance. Anyone who doubts this need only read the comments section of any social media platform, substack, or podcast.

From Merriam Webster: Ignorance is the state or fact of being ignorant : lack of knowledge, education, or awareness.

I will freely admit to being ignorant. I know little of advanced physics, brain surgery, complicated math, so when I declare someone to be ignorant, it’s not a pejorative. It’s simply recognizing that they lack knowledge, education, or awareness of the matter in question. On the other hand, I know a great deal about geo-politics, history, and religion. I’ve gained knowledge and education and I am continuously aware of developments of additional evidence, data, and information in those fields. While imperfect, my beliefs and understandings are based on extensive study. I’m a skeptic. I question truth claims and don’t allow my pride or prejudice to keep me from changing my mind based on additional data, evidence, and verifiable information.

From Wikipedia: Critical thinking is the process of analyzing available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments to reach sound conclusions or informed choices. It involves recognizing underlying assumptions, providing justifications for ideas and actions, evaluating these justifications through comparisons with varying perspectives, and assessing their rationality and potential consequences. The goal of critical thinking is to form a judgment through the application of rational, skeptical, and unbiased analyses and evaluations.

People who fail to think critically are typically locked into beliefs and opinions that are untrue or only partially true. Never-the-less, they will adamantly defend those opinions and beliefs with angry attacks against anyone who doubts them rather than consider that it’s possible they could be in error.

I’ll raise my hand and admit I’ve been guilty of this in the past. We all have. But show me new evidence, new data, a better argument … I’ll change my mind. Will you?

Most of you reading this have been here long enough to know that my focus is largely preparedness, with the understanding that the other authors on this site are all talking about what is coming, not just myself.

Consider the price of food. If you want to control a population, you control the food. Are you growing your own? Even a little?

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO GROW FOOD?

It’s not as easy as you think. The challenges of gardening include everything from seasonal conditions, ups and downs of the weather, and other growing challenges including everything from soil-borne organisms to predatory pests. Gardening is so much more than putting seeds in the soil and adding water.

If you’re not doing this already, why not? Watch this video. Watch (or at least listen to) the entire thing. The globalists want 15 minute cities. If you cannot sustain yourself, you will end up in one. Perhaps you’re okay with that. If so, just skip the video and forget about creating a future for yourself and your family.

I’ll say it this way. Unless you can feed yourself, and be substantially self-supporting, you will have to rely on government to sustain you. Let me be more clear. You will have to rely on communism to sustain you.

Good luck with that.

Trump has finally realized that the art of the deal does not apply to nuclear world wars. His success in Venezuela gave him ambitious objectives in Iran with the “help” of Israel to bolster his ego. His plans for Lebanon, Cuba, Greenland and Ukraine have not come to fruition. Russia and China have been very patience with him because they continue to prosper as the New World Order collapses.

So where are we? We are still divided and distracted. Congress has completely abandoned the nation and is 98% controlled by Israel. Voter fraud is still rampant as the Senate blocks the SAVE act, the economy is collapsing and consumer sentiment has hit another low. As has Trump’s approval rating. NGOs funded by our tax dollars are still causing riots against ICE and civil unrest by black teenagers continue unabated.

What should we be focusing on? Trump.

Trump’s bombastic approach to international negotiations has led us to a nuclear world war. Assassinating foreign leaders and their negotiators coupled with lies concerning the terms of a treaty have left our credibility in the trash bin. It does not matter what the pundits say, Trump’s “red lines” have been completely ignored by Iran and have shown the world that the United States is a paper tiger. China’s new GPS coupled with Iran’s drones and missiles have devastated US and Israeli strategy. Reaper drones are destroyed quickly and our aerial surveillance in the area has been eliminated as our bases were bombed.

Our military has used up our materiel and supplies so that we cannot effectively conduct even a short term war in Iran, let alone other hot spots or targets. And the worst part: Trump cannot negotiate even if he has good faith because Israel will sabotage any peace. In short: Trump’s only options are to withdraw (surrender) or launch tactical nuclear warheads since we have drained our conventional weapons.

And there is the inconvenient truth that the rest of the world will not support Israel in the Middle East. NATO and the EU will dissolve as the efforts to assimilate third world morons (literally) into their populations will devolve into more civil chaos and then civil wars. Russian and China will pick up the pieces as a new multipolar world emerges.

Again, what to focus on? The US has been exposed as a paper tiger as I doubt even Trump’s ego will launch a nuclear strike. Even if he did, I doubt the military would follow his orders. So that leaves a withdrawal which would still leave the world in an energy and economic crisis due to the Strait of Hormuz closure. US companies will expedite their transfer to AI and crush the labor market. Economic collapse and civil unrest will quickly follow.

It does not matter if Trump, Congress or Israel are to blame for this situation, the bottom line is that Trump is trapped and the rest of the world is circling our bones.

Pepe Escobar and I received the following intelligence report last Thursday, which was produced by a knowledgeable source with access. I am not reproducing the entire report, but want to highlight the issue of whether or not Iran now has, or soon will have a nuke. Let me emphasize that I firmly support past US intel community assessments that Iran, until now, had no interest in obtaining a nuke.

However, it appears that the surprise attack on 28 February, which followed the aborted color revolution attempted in late December 2025, played a decisive role in changing Iran’s view on this matter. Here is a portion of what Pepe and I received last Thursday:

Continue reading Sonar21 …

It would seem that everything the United States government does results in the opposite of what it declares it wants. It seems to always make things worse than when it interfered. Before the U.S. unprovoked attack on a nation that posed no threat to it, the Straights that were open are now closed and the nation that declared it would not build a nuclear weapon and which our intelligence concluded that they weren’t, apparently has decided to build one after all. Thank you President Trump. More from Sonar21:

The secondary effects of this standoff are rewiring the global strategic and financial architecture in real time:

• The Collapse of the Abraham Accords: The political infrastructure sustaining Israeli-Arab normalization is functionally dead. Pakistan has publicly rejected it, Saudi Arabia has frozen all back-channel discussions, and Qatar and Oman are actively preparing a six-to-nine-month timeline for U.S. forces to vacate their military installations.

• The Emerging Security Axis: A new Saudi-Pakistan-Turkey-Egypt security architecture is being constructed, completely detached from U.S. backing. Pakistan has elevated itself from a peripheral player to the indispensable operational pivot, leveraging an Islamic cultural proximity that neither Washington nor Beijing can replicate.

• Systemic Risk to the Global Order: An Iranian nuclear demonstration would obliterate the global non-proliferation framework and hand Beijing an unearned, definitive proof-of-concept regarding the limits of American hegemony.