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The Rarest Asset In A Fourth Turning: The Freedom To Act
Authored by Chris Macintosh via InternationalMan.com,
The Fourth Turning does not end with a return to the prior equilibrium. It ends with a new order - better or worse, depending on which forces prevail in the decisive battles of the crisis era.
Those battles are being fought now, across domains: monetary (the BRICS challenge to dollar hegemony, the rise of non-dollar settlement, the emergence of digital currencies), geopolitical (the realignment of the Middle East, the unravelling of the post-Cold War security architecture), and epistemic (the collapse of institutional trust, the fragmentation of shared information environments, the re-emergence of heterodox analysis as a credible alternative to official consensus).
What distinguishes the people who navigate Fourth Turnings successfully is not superior prediction — the future is genuinely unknowable in its specifics — but superior optionality. They hold assets in multiple forms and jurisdictions. They maintain relationships across multiple networks. They retain the cognitive independence to update their models when evidence demands it. And they have not surrendered the most fundamental asset of all: the capacity to act on their own judgement.
Agency is what the propaganda apparatus is designed to extinguish. The entire architecture of manufactured consent — from the captured universities to the curated information feeds to the credit-financed comfort — is designed to produce a population that does not exercise independent judgement because it has been conditioned not to trust its own. The Covid episode was the proof of concept: even people who did not fully believe the narrative could be induced to act as though they did.
The restoration of agency is therefore not merely a personal project; it is the foundational political act of the current historical moment. And the regulatory arbitrage it enables — moving capital, business, and oneself to jurisdictions where the apparatus has not yet fully captured the population’s trust — is not tax evasion or political cynicism.
It is the restatement, in the language of economic action, of the oldest principle of political economy: that free people, in control of their own affairs, are more productive, more innovative, and ultimately more ungovernable than any administrative apparatus can tolerate.
The Argentine farmer, the Czech entrepreneur, the Singapore manufacturer, and the Dubai trader are not united by politics or culture. They are united by a single attribute: they have not forgotten how to say no.
The Turnings theory does not predict what the new order will look like. But it does predict that the people who enter the resolution phase with real assets, genuine skills, multiple jurisdictions, and uncompromised mental models will be disproportionately represented in whatever comes next.
The compliant will have managed their risk by surrendering to the system. The independent will have managed their risk by retaining the capacity to leave it.
History will record, as it always does, that the real crisis was not the one that triggered the Fourth Turning but the one that preceded it: the slow, comfortable, credit-financed surrender of agency that made populations incapable of resisting when resistance mattered most.
* * *
Preserving your agency starts with understanding the forces working to limit it. Our free report reveals the economic, political, and cultural shifts now unfolding, what they could mean for your wealth and personal freedom, and how a contrarian investor is positioning to stay one step ahead. Get your free report.
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Trump-Backed "El Tigre" Takes Power In Colombia As Right-Wing Wave Sweeps Americas
Colombia entered a new political chapter as Trump-backed President Abelardo de la Espriella was sworn into office Friday, pledging to reverse much of former President Gustavo Petro's nation-killing socialist agenda and to restore law and order, a free market economy, and relations with the United States.
🔥 AWESOME! New Trump-endorsed Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella is GOING OFF after his inauguration into office, he's now preparing to work closely with 47 to decimate the drug traffickers
This is a HUGE shift from left-wing former President Petro
Espriella is ready… pic.twitter.com/QrdmH0IgLm
Known by his nickname, "El Tigre" (the Tiger), De la Espriella's inauguration marks one of the most significant political shifts in Latin America in recent years. After four years of former President Petro's socialist experiment, which ended in economic decline, expanded coca cultivation, and increasingly strained relations with Washington, De la Espriella has already declared war on Marxist terror groups, earning a new security pledge from the US.
He was joined at the inauguration by several conservative presidents from across the Americas, including Argentina's Javier Milei, Ecuador's Daniel Noboa, and Chile's José Antonio Kast. Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche attended as part of the U.S. delegation.
El Presidente Javier Milei junto al Presidente electo de la República de Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella. pic.twitter.com/GPjZcRZEBj
— Oficina del Presidente (@OPRArgentina) August 7, 2026"I have come to close a long chapter of national resignation and, together with the people, embark on the most profound transformation of our destiny," De la Espriella said while speaking at the Pichincha Battalion military base in Cali.
He continued, "I send a firm message to the Colombian people: The time has come to restore order, authority, and freedom."
Camilo Guzmán, executive director of Libertank, told Fox News that the new president will be focused on rebuilding strategic ties with the US, restoring close cooperation with Israel, and adopting a tougher stance toward the authoritarian governments of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua.
"President de la Espriella inherits a house with the roof leaking and the safe empty. The order matters because almost everything he promised requires money he does not have," Guzmán said, adding that Colombia's deteriorating fiscal situation is the new administration's most immediate headwind.
"Start with the fiscal picture. It is worse than his own team seems to expect. The 2026 deficit is tracking around 6.5-6.7% of GDP, the financing gap is close to $34 billion and the implicit medium-term adjustment being left on his desk is near five points of GDP. It is also a cash problem, not only an accounting one. Before he governs, he must make payroll," he said.
Shortly after de la Espriella took office on Friday, the US pledged $1 billion in security assistance, subject to congressional approval. The money will be used to "relentlessly defeat narco-terrorism" perpetrated by revolutionary Marxist groups who had already detonated car bombs ahead of yesterday's inauguration. If we've learned anything from America's far-left revolutionaries, it is that the far left uses political violence to project power.
El Tigre's rise to power comes amid a once-in-a-generation political shift from left-wing regimes controlling the Americas to a majority of right-wing governments closely aligned with the Trump administration. The State Department has pursued this strategy to secure the West, ensure countries align with the U.S. rather than China or Russia, and promote open and free markets over failed socialist ones.
Americas Political Map: Presidential Shift From Left To Right
Country-by-country presidential shift tracker
"For the first time in 15–20 years, the overwhelming majority of the countries in the Western Hemisphere are now led by pro-American leaders and governments since @POTUS was elected president," Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated last week with President Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
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WNBA To Hold 'Listening Sessions' After Second Former NBA Star Says He's A Woman, Declares For Draft
Update (1800ET): WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert sent a memo to teams that addresses ongoing discussions around transgender athletes in women's basketball.
"I know many of you have received questions in recent weeks regarding transgender athlete participation in women's basketball, and I expect this topic will continue to receive significant attention," Engelbert wrote in the memo, which was sent Friday afternoon and obtained by The Associated Press and ESPN.
"I wanted to reach out to share how we are approaching these conversations at the league office and to thank those of you who have responded to questions from the media with thoughtfulness and professionalism."
The memo said the topic will be discussed further by a task force of team presidents and general managers at a previously scheduled meeting next week.
The league's collective bargaining agreement states that "only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA," but it does not include any more specific language about gender identity or sex assigned at birth.
"We recognize that this is a complex and nuanced topic, and we will continue to have important conversations with all of you and the Players Association in the weeks and months ahead," Engelbert said in the memo.
"We also plan to convene additional discussions and offer listening sessions for any team leaders who would like to participate. Your perspectives and feedback are invaluable, and I appreciate those who have already reached out to share their thoughts."
The Women's National Basketball Players Association released a statement on social media Friday that emphasized diversity and inclusion while saying the group "will not be used as political pawns."
"We embrace justice equity, diversity, and inclusion," the players' union said.
Inclusion?
Perhaps the WNBA will finally be the first group to actually define "what is a woman?"
* * *
As Robert Spencer reported earlier for PJMedia.com, every person who is tired of the left forcing its delusions and fantasies on the rest of us, and shaming, deplatforming, and silencing us if we refuse to go along, ought to be applauding Royce White and Enes Kanter Freedom for standing up to the madness, and showing the world just how absurd it really is.
White and Freedom have declared that they’re women, at least for the purposes of professional basketball, and so they’re declaring for the 2027 WNBA draft. This is hilarious, but it’s no joke. It’s an unanswerable response to the left’s fashionable gender delusions, which have recently become a source of controversy within the WNBA, which ought to be called the WWNBA, the Woke Women’s National Basketball Association.
It all started when WNBA star Sophie Cunningham stated that she was not in favor of men pretending to be women playing women’s sports.
This sparked the usual spittle-flecked fury from the left. The WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, among others, came out in favor of delusional men competing against women.
The WNBA players’ union issued a weaselly statement denouncing “Hate, abuse, and demonization of any person or group of people, including transgender people.”
Nobody had engaged in any of that, but that’s how leftists always characterize disagreement with the views they want everyone to hold.
Meanwhile, there has been talk of a WNBA team signing French basketball player Julie Tétart, who is a dude.
And so if Julie Tétart can do it, why can’t Royce White and Enes Kanter Freedom? They are just as female as Tétart is. Fox News reported Friday that White said: "I'm transgender. I'm a woman. I identify as sometimes identifying as a woman for purpose of basketball, professional basketball, so I'll be declaring for the WNBA draft in 2027 as well," that is, in addition to Enes Kanter Freedom.
White added a correct assessment of how well a male professional would do in the WNBA: "I think I’d be unstoppable. But I’m a team-first guy. I’m a pass-first kind of player. I do the little things. I led my team in all five major stat categories at Iowa State University, so I do a little bit of everything. I’ll do whatever the coach needs me to do. I’ll do whatever the girls need me to do... I think it’s only fair."
White noted that the WNBA, for all its declarations of how much it rejects “hatred” of men who claim to be women, hasn’t said explicitly that men could play in the WNBA. Maybe WNBA top dogs hope that the whole thing will just go away, but it won’t.
"I think the WNBA could come out,” White said, “and make a definitive statement about guys with a pair of balls playing in the Women’s Association."
Asked if he would declare for the WNBA draft unless the league said that men could not play in the league, White responded: "Oh, no, I’m declaring. And I don’t want to be discriminated against. I want fair treatment. I’m a young, black, hopefully United States Senator that would like a fair chance to participate as a sometimes-identifying-as-a-transgender-woman athlete." White is on the ballot for the senate in Minnesota in the Republican primary; the election is coming up next Tuesday.
What if the WNBA calls White’s bluff and no team opts to sign him?
"I have to file a discrimination lawsuit, right?,” White said.
“I mean, that's, that's ridiculous. We're gonna have to have a huge legal battle about discrimination if I can't play." White says he would like to play for Cheryl Reeve: "It’s got to be the Minnesota Lynx, and I hear the coach loves a good transgender, so we’ll all be in perfect harmony.”
White expressed confidence that he would be drafted:
“How you gonna pass up on a 6-foot-8, 270-pound point forward? That’s ridiculous. I’m 260 pounds, 265 pounds, 6-foot-8, can palm a basketball — can palm a men’s basketball probably as easily as any player in history. I think I had the third-biggest hands in the modern NBA Draft Combine. So, yeah, I’m sure the women’s basketball is going to fare even easier to palm, which is a huge advantage. They’re going to have nightmares, and they should. I really feel like I’m going to be dominant."
He’s right.
If a WNBA team signs Julie Tétart or any other delusional man, the Minnesota Lynx or any other WNBA team would be foolish to pass on Royce White.
And then other teams will follow suit, until there are no women players left at all, and the WNBA is entirely filled with men and becomes a junior NBA. That will be true gender justice, won’t it, Ms. Reeve?
Tyler Durden Sat, 08/08/2026 - 21:00