I. INTRODUCTION
A. Art of the Day
Icarus, who sought to escape through wings that could him fly like a bird, but came to believe he alone was the source of his greatness, and flew too close to the sun, to fall and collapse from the sky. The great warning of Hubris.
B. Wisdom of the Day
“As soon as you believe you are God is precisely when God will remind you that you are not.” Robert Barnes.
C. Cultural Recommendation
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by my old Yale freshman mentor, Paul Kennedy. A sign of great danger is when the leaders get infected with Hubris. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/840043.The_Rise_and_Fall_of_the_Great_Powers
D. Appearances
- LIVE w/ Baris: Debriefing elections 2025.
- LIVE w/ Duran: Hubris infects the west.
II. THE EVIDENCE
*Note: A reminder — links are NOT endorsements of the ideas contained therein. The Library is big, and it mostly consists of ideas I do not personally share.
A. Daily News of Interest
- Lauren Southern discloses governmental effort to entrap her.
- Ed Dowd: economic troubles & market bubbles.
- Californication collapse. https://chroniclesmagazine.org/reviews/the-nightmare-of-californication/
- Trans fad fades. https://www.skeptic.com/article/transgenderism-is-in-rapid-decline-among-young-americans/
- Big Tech manipulation of elections. https://dailycaller.com/2025/11/07/2026-midterms-robert-epstein-google-big-tech-trump-admin/
*Bonus: YouTube revenue falling for content creators.
B. Daily Deep Dive: AI –More Artificial, than Intelligence?
- The bubble to end all bubbles. https://www.wired.com/story/ai-bubble-will-burst/
- Circular self-dealing. https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/this-is-how-the-ai-bubble-bursts
- The infrastructure problem. https://www.derekthompson.org/p/this-is-how-the-ai-bubble-will-pop
- Could blow up credit & equity markets. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-10/podcast-yes-it-s-an-artificial-intelligence-bubble-here-s-why
- The hallucination problem. https://drainpipe.io/the-reality-of-ai-hallucinations-in-2025/
*Bonus: AI not creating a productivity boom. https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/23/developers_genai_little_productivity_gains/
C. Cases of Consequence
- Bear lawsuit. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/boardofgame-alaska-bear-killings-complaint.pdf
- Discovery petition over Texas flood deaths. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/naylor-v-camp-mystic-lawsuit.pdf
- State control over interest rates. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/national-association-bankers-phil-weiser-opinion.pdf
- Election Day to SCOTUS. https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24/24-1260/364840/20250710101559188_Amicus%20Brief.pdf
- As forecast, no gay marriage to Scotus. https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/11/supreme-court-declines-to-hear-case-on-constitutionality-of-same-sex-marriage/
*Bonus: Courts usurp power. https://tonyseruga.substack.com/p/when-the-courts-become-congress-the
III. Best of the Board
From the commentary on policies to improve affordable housing.
From @Ryanpd911
- 1 - no corporation or entity can own more than 3 single family residence and no corporation can own more that 2 other corporations who own more then 2 single family homes.
2 - cut regulations on the timber industry
3 - give tax breaks on concrete construction (less need to rebuild after fires or natural disasters
4 - deport all illegals make it unlawful for them to own any property in the US
5 - mandate that all public schools offer shop and each shop class must build one stick and frame house and one concrete house per year and offer trades apprenticeships senior year.
6 - ban all foreign countries and corporations and citizens from owning land or critical infrastructure or food production in the US
7 - make a law that 1st time homebuyers first loan is 1/2 the going mortgage rate.
8 - End corporate farming and put limits on how big farms can be and limits on the number of animals, get back to family farms. All family farms get mortgages at 1/2 the going rate.
From @ashman454
- evoke/cancel all the stupid green energy rules that applied to everything from appliances, hvacs, vehicles and housing.
also limitation on corps buying up huge housing section to rent...rent apartments fine, but limitations on condos and single family homes being bought up and owned. y big corporations
From ltdpilot
- allow buyers the option of continuing the interest rate of the seller
From srgravesfamily
- 1/ Make it easier to buy a "contact for deed" or "rent to own"
2. Property taxes and home insurance is a big part of the problem (not to mention HOA fees)>
3. Lower interest rates for first time home buyers or make mortgage assumptions easier again like they used to be.
4. Starter Homes!!
5. It would also help if young people didn't have to pay an arm and a leg for health insurance and high interest student loans. This eats up a big part of the income they could use for a home.
6. The builder who said that the supply problems need fixed it absolutely right. My brother-in-law is a builder as was my father. This is a big part of the problem.
From @EdBiagini
- Robert I have many ideas on this because I am a small home builder in Orange County NY, I’d be willing to send you something via email if you would prefer. First, my biggest obstacle is zoning regulations. NY is a home rule state, so I have to deal with a zoning board, planning board, and town board in each individual town. The average lot size around here is 1-2 acres, some towns it is as high as 5 acres. My father was a builder and in the 70s lot sizes were significantly smaller. So if I subdivide a property I am getting much less bang for my buck because I get less lots per subdivision. Second, the building materials market is highly consolidated. There are a small number of manufacturers for drywall, shingles, lumber, insulation, siding, etc. Even the building supply houses have consolidated with Builders First Source being the dominant player. There is almost no competition and, in my opinion, there is price collusion. The administration needs to investigate this (they just did this for meat packers) and bust up these huge players. If home prices decline much further I won’t be able to build because my margins are already tight, I need input costs to come down. Third, mass migration, both legal and illegal has increased housing demand. H1-B visa holders are allowed to get FHA loans, which is insane to me. The administration has to get serious about mass deportations. Fourth, large investment firms own a significant share of single family homes. A young family can’t compete with Black Rock when they buy up entire subdivisions. Fifth, homeowners insurance has gone through the roof. I don’t have a solution for this aside from getting input costs down to lower repair costs. 50 year mortgages would for me because it will keep prices elevated, so long as it increases demand. But I’m skeptical, gen z already feels screwed and telling them they need 50 year mortgages is just kicking them while they’re down. I would prefer prices and inputs come down so gen z and millenials can own homes and start families.
IV. Closing Argument: The Hades of Hubris
- The Greeks warned of it. History repeats with lessons of its own. Scholars and literary authors list it like the heel of Achilles and the wings of Icarus – how the great and mighty fall. The Bible identifies it as the great calamitous sin – from Lucifer’s fall to the Tower of Babel’s collapse, from Goliath’s loss to Nebuchadnezzar’s judgment. Hubris, the “haughty spirit” that beckons a deep fall, now infects the leaders of the west, even the President himself, and now its consequences threaten us all.
- The clinical definition of hubris typically develops in individuals who hold significant power. Its characteristics encompass: a magnified, embellished view of one's own capabilities; obsession with personal image; contempt for criticism; loss of contact with reality; a reckless, uncalculated disregard of risk; a denial of dissent. An infection of the soul, an illness of the mind, rather than a permanent trait of a stable personality.
- The tell-tale signs of Hubris include – recent overwhelming success or power; dis-sociality disregarding others from one’s own traditional community; disinhibition into impulsiveness without calculated regard for risk; condescension, and even contempt, for others and any form of criticism; a belief in oneself above others beyond reason or wisdom.
- The decaying, declining empires frequently feature hubris, as Professor Paul Kennedy first penned in his Rise and Fall of Great Powers. The empire’s hubris -- overconfidence in their “specialness” tends to overextend themselves in risky expressions – manifest in multiple manners, such as imperial overreach; mismatch between resources & risks; overestimation of their own capabilities; military operations globally as a nation’s global military deployment exceeds its resource capacity; persistent debt and deficits, in public and private sectors, including in balance-of-trade and budgets, as dependency on foreign adversaries rise; diverting resources to overseas adventurism diminishes the public infrastructure, human and physical; a declining industrial sector, replaced with financialization and services, often shifting its dependence on real goods and labor, it’s true capital, to foreign nations; deepening internal divisiveness, as competing interests vie for diminishing resources; bureaucratic infighting as the parasitic state replaces the functioning private economy for material wealth and moral purpose; a moral decay in the institutions of society, religious, social and communal, as the material foundation for that moral prosperity fades and fractures.
- What happens when you survive two impeachments, four indictments, and near assassination? Could the seductress of Hubris distract your soul and deceive your mind? Does this not well capture much of the modern west, and even Trump’s six-month flirtation with Hubris as his north star?
- The cure remains the same as the Scripture teaches and the Greek myths proclaim – a needed nemesis to teach us humility as the answer to hubris. Avoid the fall; abandon the arrogance, and listen again, to the people who truly were his wall against wrongdoers.
