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Links 5/20/2026

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Shostakovich’s String Quartets: The Movie of a Life Simon Morrison (Micael T)

The ancient logic of “snuck” Dead Language Society (Micael T)

Hidden earthquake faults beneath Seattle may be more dangerous than expected Science Daily (Kevin W)

The Global Fertility Crisis Is Worse Than You Probably Think Derek Thompson (Micael T). Do not get me started on this topic.

Nestlé Killed Millions of Infants Betham’s Bulldogs (Micael T)

Ebola

W.H.O. Chief Is ‘Deeply Concerned’ by Speed and Scale of Ebola Outbreak New York Times. You will see how the headline was watered down later.

American tests positive for Ebola; U.S. to screen travelers at airports Washington Post

Hantavirus

Hantavirus in Africa: why climate change, rats and weak surveillance are worrying scientists The Conversation

A critical window to stop hantavirus is opening. Not all countries are managing exposed travelers the same way CNN

Douglas County adult dies from hantavirus, health officials say there’s no link to cruise ship outbreak CPR

COVID-19/Pandemics

Please click through:

Climate/Environment

Redistributing Life: How Climate Change Is Redrawing the Map of Species Migration Earth

The ‘doomsday’ glacier’s giant ice shelf is about to break away New Scientist

Latin America Faces ‘Hydrological Whiplash’ as Climate Risks Mount Inside Climate News

Water users around the west seek billions in federal drought help as Colorado River forecast worsens Aspen Public Radio

Saudi Arabia braces for extreme heat and dusty winds during Hajj Gulf News

Australia’s farmers, hit by Iran war costs and dry weather, grow less wheat Reuters

China?

The Empire of Wuxi China Talk

Japan

Why Japanese companies do so many different things David Oks (Micael T). IMHO important but I get on with the Japanese by virtue of sharing their neuroses.

Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame BBC (Paul R)

Koreas

Samsung union says strike to go ahead after mediation efforts fail Nikkei

Africa

Kenya paralyzed by deadly protests, strikes due to fuel cost DW (Ann)

South of the Border

It only took six months for the US puppet regime in Bolivia to fall apart Council Media Estate

European Disunion

Controlled chaos: how Washington is sabotaging the multipolar world and sacrificing Europe Thomas Fazi

Permission to pollute Corporate Europe (Micael T)

Germany Is Producing Heirs Faster Than Champions The Data Room (Micael T)

How the Right lies about the economic growth story of Sweden Katalys via machine translation (Micael T)

Sweden buys warships from France – for tens of billions Aftonbladet via machine translation. Micael T: “So they have not learnt anything from the drone & missile wars in Ukraine or Iran?”

Old Blighty

UK loosens Russian oil sanctions as fuel prices rise BBC. BWAHAHA

High levels of toxic ‘forever chemicals’ found off coast of southern England Guardian

Israel v. The Resistance

Tucker Carlson Takes His Message Straight to Israeli Media: Neither the U.S. nor Israel Is a Democracy Haaretz

Early goal of US-Israeli war on Iran was to install hardline former president: Report Anadolu Agency. This has to be a psyop. Israel deliberately mistranslated and flogged a statement of Ahmadinejad as “Israel must be wiped off the map.” What Ahmadinejad said was a conditional tense and was more like “It would be better if Israel had never existed.”

Inside an Iranian attack on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz Washington Post

Pakistan’s Saudi deployment reveals a new Gulf security reality Asia Times (Kevin W)

New Not-So-Cold War

Russian SVR Hints Strikes on NATO ‘Decision-Making Centers’ After Latest Drone Provocations Simplicius

How Likely Is It That Russia’s Next Special Operation Will Be Against Latvia? Andrew Korkybko

May mobilization report Events in Ukraine

Imperial Collapse Watch

One More Time: The Average American K-12 Student is Doing Fine Relative to the International Baseline Freddie deBoer

The U.S. Never Learns from Its Failed Wars Daniel Larison

Trump 2.0

Top Treasury lawyer resigns as Trump, IRS settlement announced The Hill. This was THE chief legal officer. If Trump had not so surrounded himself with toadies and Congress was capable of getting out of bed, this would be a Saturday Night Massacre level event

Trump’s Own Handpicked Lawyer Quits Treasury in Disgust at Massive $1.8B Grift Daily Beast (Ann). A more pointed telling of the same tale.

Justice Department expands Trump settlement to cover his tax audits Politico

* * *

US Rep. Thomas Massie loses Kentucky GOP primary to Ed Gallrein in another victory for Trump Associated Press. This result was the lead story even in the Bloomberg Middle East edition.

One can hope:

* * *

Trump officials plan to repeal limits on ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water Guardian

Trump Treats Legal Immigration as Intolerable W. H. Lawrence

Trumpworld’s new eyebrow-raising addiction that even health boss RFK Jr admits to using daily Daily Mail

GOP Clown Car

Democrats Suck

Why Has the Working Class Soured on the Democrats? Les Leopold

Economy

Australia’s farmers, hit by Iran war costs and dry weather, grow less wheat Reuters (Ann)

AI

8 Scary Facts About Data Centers Babylon Bee

AI Is Too Expensive Ed Zitron

Lawyer for Guy Who Sued Women Who Called Him ‘Psycho’ Caught Using AI 404 Media

The Great Zombification Owen Yingling (Anthony L)

How to spot AI-Generated “Sacred Art” Hilary White. Micael T: “FFS!!! Not here too. AI is a blasphemy.”

The philosopher who foresaw AI & inspired the Unabomber & Neil Postman Christopher Hoffman (Micael T)

Amazon Employees Forced to Hit Quotas on AI Use, Immediately Start Using it for Everything Except Work Futurism

Guillotine Watch

Elon Musk’s descent into racist absurdity Oligarch Watch

Class Warfare

The Morale of Tech Workers Is Plunging as Layoffs Mount New York Times (Kevin W)

Antidote du jour (via):

And a bonus:

A second:

A third:

And a final different sort of bonus (Chuck L):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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91 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    ‘Give A Shit About Nature
    @giveashitnature
    Farmers have figured out that the cheapest pesticide is a strip of flowers.
    When you plant wildflowers through a crop field, not just around the edge but in strips running through the middle, you get ladybugs, lacewings, hoverflies, and parasitic wasps living in the field instead of visiting it.
    They eat the aphids, the caterpillars, and the mites for free, all summer long.’

    It’s a fascinating idea and I bet that this was done in the past as well. It would be a study to find out how many farmers would go ahead and adopt this idea or not.

    Reply ↓
    1. Bugs

      It’s what the hedgerows used to be for before Big Ag had them all ripped out so they could use the machines more efficiently. The birds would control the pest insects but wouldn’t eat the wasps that eat the aphids.

      Reply ↓
      1. Chet G

        In the game land north of State College, PA, GMO monocrops are grown; however, there was one particular meadow that had been left fallow, in which wild flowers grew in abundance, and there was a nearby hedgerow bisecting that meadow, home to many including a mockingbird pair. My wife and I nicknamed it “Lush Meadow.” Well, the hedgerow was taken out, mockingbirds and others all gone, and a monocrop was planted. After harvesting, the end result is most noticeable during winter and spring: The ground is bare, and nothing grows there until a new monocrop is planted. Lush meadow has become a desert. Very sad.

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    2. JohnA

      And back in the day farm fields were separated by hedgerows that effectively did the same. Then hedgerows have been uprooted to create huge areas where machinery can operate with fewer impediments. And as these huge areas tend to be used for monocrops, the soil is gradually degraded as the same nutrients are removed and others not added as was the case with crop rotation.
      Sometimes, the old ways are the best. Amazing how long it takes to realise this at time.

      Reply ↓
      2. Henry Moon Pie

        As a farmboy, who remembers Earl Butz (whose great Nemesis was Wendell Berry), it was also about using every available square foot of property in service of profit. “Get big or get out,” was a formula which more or less destroyed the pretty farm country where I grew up. Remember that Butz was the SecAg for Richard Nixon, whom some try to make into some kind of liberal.

        Reply ↓
        1. Chas

          The Berry Center in New Castle, KY, headed by Wendell Berry’s daughter, Mary Berry, is putting Wendell’s words into action. Their website is quite interesting: berrycenter.org.

          Reply ↓
    4. Mel

      Could it be done now? On an episode of Clarkson’s Farm the young farm manager, teaching J. how to cultivate, taught him the vital importance of “tramways”. These were tractor-wide lanes between the planted areas. You drove down them while you were spraying crops, or watering, using huge side-to-side sprinkler booms. No harm putting wild flowers down those, right?

      Reply ↓
    6. amfortas

      aye. the way i do it…combination of french intensive, wherein everything is planted all jumbled up and will-nilly…ie: no neat rows(mom hates it,lol) plus essentially my whole side of the place being a hedegrow/meadow.
      keep habitat for various beneficial critters…dragonflies, frogs, lizards, wasps(inverted old boots and such on fenceposts as part of my treaty with the wasps…they live there unmolested, keep out of my area(ceilings painted sky blue in most places to deter them, too) birdhouses everywhere).
      looks like an overgrown mess to most folks who live in manicuredland…until i take them around and point to things.

      all this worked great until i got so behind when Tam got sick…and since circa 2018 when the local climate shifted from mostly hot and dry to essentially louisiana….modifications have ensued, but will take time.

      Reply ↓
  3. The Rev Kev

    “Australia’s farmers, hit by Iran war costs and dry weather, grow less wheat”

    So I guess that the price of bread will go up substantially. If Russia has a good crop they will do well on the international market as they are the biggest exporters of wheat in the world. China and India also grow a lot of wheat but that is mostly for internal consumption. Oz could try buying fertilizers from Russia but our addled government would never do that because all that money would be going direct to Putin or something.

    Reply ↓
    1. farmboy

      BFD for PNW wheat farmers, Australian hard white wheat is the biggest competitor for PNW grown soft white wheat. Both classes are the desired milling qualities for noodles, cakes, pastries.

      Reply ↓
    2. vao

      How are Argentina and Canada doing regarding wheat this year? Those two countries are also major exporters of that cereal (they should be in the top-10, or even the top-5).

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        That article mentioned the following-

        ‘The next major wheat exporters to sow crops are Argentina, where the Rosario Grains Exchange said farmers facing high costs would plant 7% less wheat and harvest around 37% – or ​11 million tons – less than last year, and Canada, where spring sowing is lagging its usual pace and analysts expect lower output.’

        I take it to mean that different countries plant their wheat crops at slightly different times of the year and Oz happens to be the first. From the sounds of it, we had better hope that Russia has a bumper wheat crop this year. The world will need it.

        Reply ↓
        1. farmboy

          Yes, it’s southern hemisphere upcoming planting, northern hemisphere harvest coming. Fert and fuel high prices and shortages will show up as crop affects next harvest while prices attempt to ration demand now. New crop, this coming harvest now will be fascinating to watch bookings. How much wheat will Egypt buy at harvest and how far out will they book. they are the biggest swing buyer on the planet and are market makers. Like any market the margins determine price and add the coming Super El Nino and sadly and tragically the possiblity for famine becomes very real.

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      2. Skookumchuck

        I can’t say about Argentina, but I lately picked up an interesting point about Canadian grain growing. I do a lot of sourdough baking. Primarily wheat though I also use a fair amount of rye, khorasan, oats, corn and buckwheat and a bit of the “alternative wheats” like spelt, emmer and einkorn. One of my favourite mills is Rogers, a kinda local company that mills a wide selection of excellent grains grown in Western Canada. I particularly like their dark rye.

        I was lately forced to scour the stores in Our Little Town because all had no rye flour on the shelves. Came to find out Rogers has quit milling it. I finally found some by another provincial miller (Anita’s Organic) but it is more expensive for less grain. Evidently Rogers has quit milling rye because in this current market more farmers are pivoting to wheat, for which they can get higher yields and more money.

        Which is a wonderful example of short-term thinking. Rye may yield less but it also takes fewer inputs of things like ammonia and herbicides to grow. Rye is a bit better at scavenging nitrogen from the soil, and in addition a field of rye tends to have fewer weeds than a field of wheat. Less herbicide, cleaner grain. Rye is not “gluten free” but it often does not irritate those who are sensitive.

        Well, that’s gonna suck as the children say. My advice: If you don’t bake, learn how. If you do bake, stock up and start making more of your bread. Goopy white fluff is going to be all you can get for love and/or money once things really get rolling.

        Reply ↓
    3. skippy

      Its more than a fuel issue with the super El Niño on the calendar, so at the end of the day all these risk factors add up mate – old saw – better to stay home …. then go broke …

      Then again heaps of farmers borrow every planting season. If all the factors point at a high risk low yield you can’t pay off the loan, add on the orthodox notion [opposite of reality] and risk of higher interest rates, wellie now the bank owns your farm …. Sorta like with the GFC where asset prices go splat, you go BK, Bank buys at distressed price, after Bank gives it a higher asset price, plonks it on its balance sheet as a asset.

      Reply ↓
  4. Colonel Smithers

    Thank you, Yves.

    I just want to congratulate my beloved Arsenal for their victory. It’s been a long wait.

    # North London Forever

    Reply ↓
    1. ddt

      Congratulations to you and the gooners! Neighbour has a puppy he named ‘Declan’ and he informed me the dog got more treats last night than ever before…

      Reply ↓
    2. paul

      Congratulations, but who could have predicted George Graham would be reincarnated as the Spanish edition of action man?

      Reply ↓
    4. QuicksilverMessenger

      With absolute scenes around the Emirates last night! One more match to go in Budapest

      Reply ↓
      1. paul

        PSG will mangle them.
        They are actually able to play football, rather than refs.
        Could be wrong, but it is a funny game.

        Reply ↓
  5. Tom Stone

    The overt racism, misogyny and corruption of the Trump regime is astounding, as is the lack of regard to the consequences of their actions.
    Unless you are wealthy living in the evil empire sucks and it’s about to suck a lot harder, soon.
    When more than half of the populace is told “Go die” with a sneer, when they realize that they have no stake in “Society”, when people have nothing to lose they act like they have nothing to lose.
    This is not good for markets…

    Reply ↓
  6. PlutoniumKun

    Why Japanese companies do so many different things David Oks (Micael T). IMHO important but I get on with the Japanese by virtue of sharing their neuroses.

    Fascinating article. One thing that occurred to me reading it is that the Japanese company model as described – lifetime job, flat hierarchies, non-specialisation, absence of individual bonuses – is quite a close description of traditional public bureaucracies such as the civil service, police, and older style banking institutions. And they share the strengths and weaknesses.

    Over much of the west and elsewhere, the infection of MBA’s and neoliberal ideas and only semi-understood management theories has eroded the advantages of that model without giving them the strengths of the modern focused top down hierarchical company.

    Reply ↓
    2. Alphonse

      I use this as an excuse to recommend a fascinating article on the benefits of smoking. Part of the argument:

      Every civilization, everywhere, is optimized around a cluster of drugs. Drugs shape religion, economy, and culture, because the drugs set the biological and neurological rhythms of life. . . .

      Tea, coffee, and tobacco smoke. The modern, liberal world was born in the coffee houses of Amsterdam, London, and New England. . . .

      How many people do you know who have anxiety problems? Notice how they’re prone to avoiding conversations? . . . Try putting a cigarette, a pipe, or a cigar in one hand and a drink—preferably a caffeinated one—in the other. You’ll find that they tend to blossom. The chemistry helps, but the real magic comes from the fact that they have a prop in one hand (their cigarette or other smoking device) with which to gesture and punctuate their conversation, and a drink in the other hand which they can hide behind when they need to regroup.

      There’s a reason that psychiatric med use exploded in the late 90s/early 2000s . . .

      American culture was built on three drugs:

      Coffee, tobacco, and beer.

      We have the software and rituals to deal with these things, and the culture to take advantage of the many considerable upsides they afford.

      We do not have the culture to deal with psych meds, smartphones, and pot.

      Cigarettes are banned – ostensibly for health. The stink of marijuana fills the air. The explanation does not hold up. The real reason, I have read, had nothing to do with health. Smoking went from being coded high status – Edward Bernays’s Torches of Freedom – to low status. Elites rotate the password, signalling first one thing, then another, to exclude the unwashed.

      The question remains. Which is more damaging to health: smoking, or lonely alienation? I have never smoked anything, not even a single puff. I dream of it. A man pulls out a cigarette, turns to a stranger – Haben Sie Feuer? With a flash, he is not a stranger.

      Reply ↓
  8. The Rev Kev

    “Sweden buys warships from France – for tens of billions”

    This one is a weird one. It says the following-

    ‘The aim is for the ships to have 32 cells for air defense missiles, according to Navy Chief Johan Norlén.’

    But if Sweden was aiming to defend their territory, you would think it best to station any air defense missiles on land. Putting them on board four new ships would suggest their use in places outside of Sweden’s territory. Sweden’s Supreme Commander says that the frigates will make it easier for Sweden to participate in NATO’s joint operations. So maybe the purpose of those ships is to be sent to places like the Middle East or the coastline of Taiwan as part of a NATO taskforce and not to protect Sweden?

    Reply ↓
    1. JohnA

      Sweden is Airstrip Two, these days. I suspect the ships will form part of the Arctic Nato operations, can’t have those pesky Russkies taking advantage of their own now thawing Arctic waters, can we?

      Reply ↓
      1. paul

        I’m certain that the Kremlin is trembling from top to bottom at this sage long term play from the Viking resurgence.

        The smo will have to be abandoned and all Russian radioactive material is in the post.

        Reply ↓
      2. Alice X

        Ha! And Sweden doesn’t even have an Arctic coastline! And come to think of it, neither does Finland, it’s all Norway and the Rooskies.

        Reply ↓
  9. Tom Stone

    I suspect that after this weekend we will have passed the “Slowly” part of “Slowly, then all at once”.
    Hoo Boy,.

    Reply ↓
  10. pjay

    – ‘Controlled chaos: how Washington is sabotaging the multipolar world and sacrificing Europe’ – Thomas Fazi

    This is an excellent overview which expresses the right amount of pessimism toward those who see the collapse of US hegemony as right around the corner. Fazi distinguishes between liberal/Atlanticist and neocon/”Nationalist” factions within the national security apparatus while noting how their goals are complimentary, if not identical. He does the same with the interests of Israel and the US with regard to the Middle East and Iran. And all agree on the continued subjugation of Europe!

    Finally, though Fazi does not use these words, he makes it clear that those nations that want to resist US hegemony need to find a way to hang together, or they will continue to hang separately. We can agree that the US Empire is in decline and still recognize its tremendous reach and continued destructive power. “Controlled chaos” only benefits one party.

    Reply ↓
    1. t

      Excellent summary.

      The collapse of US hegemony won’t be like a building implosion.

      And it’s worth keeping in mind how stateless global oligarchy and US hegemony are emeshed and entangled like mutated conjoined fungus.

      Reply ↓
    2. joey_n

      Fazi’s column also mentions Nord Stream, which is germane (pun intended) in light of Putin’s visit to China and the accompanying discussion of the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline. Early last September I was disturbed with not so much the agreements surrounding new pipeline itself (I mean, fair play to Russia and China otherwise) as all the gloating and Schadenfreude accompanying it, as if Russia would stop selling gas to Europe permanently even if more sensible governments came into power and the jackboot of Anglo-Zionist hegemony (especially US/NATO) were kicked out of the peninsula.

      The train of thought then, and still today, is that the USA has wished to enslave the Europeans with expensive, unreliable fuels, and that cutting the Europeans off would entail giving the USA its victory. Russia may not lose out on gas sales thanks to its Eastern clients, but the loss for Europe is much more striking, and one can’t help but notice the US fingerprints in the present conflict between Russia and the rest of Europe. If Russia agrees to sell the Nord Stream pipeline to the USA and allows it to profit off of gas sales to Europe, then I will lose all sympathy for the brown-nosing Russkoes.

      Anyone see this? Old now, so some things may have changed since:
      https://sputnikglobe.com/20230925/power-of-siberia-sino-russian-natural-gas-deal-of-the-century-1113611023.html

      Reply ↓
  11. Screwball

    I think the Massie loss was a sad day for America. It should show everyone what what a foreign influence and money can do to a “democracy.” This is so in our face obvious. The Epstein class wins again, and we know why.

    I also think the reason is lost on most Americans. We are so screwed.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      Apparently it was older voters that voted him out. On the news here in Oz they interviewed two elderly voters. One woman said that she voted for Massie’s opponent as he was a veteran while this old boy ranted how Massie was doing all sorts of crazy stuff to the State. And now Kentucky is going to be represented by a guy who seems to be best buds with Hegseth. That’s not good that.

      Reply ↓
      1. ChrisFromGA

        I am reminded of a ShoeOnHead video where she pleaded for young folks to take away their parents Fox News channel. Just smash their TVs and devices, have an intervention! There is some serious brainwashing going on.

        Reply ↓
        1. The Rev Kev

          Years ago there were articles coming out how people’s parents would watch Fox news religiously and their whole personality changed with them becoming more hostile, more xenophobic, less tolerant, etc. Those people were saying that that had lost their parents as the people they knew growing up. So yeah, ShoeOnHead may be right.

          Reply ↓
          1. Spastica Rex

            My elderly parents watch MSNBC instead of Fox. They have become more hostile, more xenophobic, less tolerant, etc.

            Two old Beatniks have become market watchers and supporters of never-ending humanitarian war.

            Reply ↓
            1. Screwball

              Yea, I’m not sue the blue echo chamber is any better. The ones I know who watch it still think Putin is controlling Trump, Ukraine is winning the war, they won’t get COVID because they got the shot, Kamala Harris is a brilliant political tactician, Hunter Biden didn’t do anything wrong, Joe Biden was sharp as a tack, and the democrats are the only party that can fix things because they are the only ones who care about us. The list goes on.

              Maybe they should all turn off the “news.”

              Reply ↓
      2. erstwhile

        What if massie runs as an independent, to spite trump and aipac, and splits the nominal republican vote, and the dem gets in by the hair of his chinny chin-chin?

        Reply ↓
        2. Des Hanrahan

          He cannot . Kentucky has a ‘Sore Loser Law ‘ which prohibits him from doing so . Pity .

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      3. Matthew

        It’s terrible. But while I have little or no faith in the Democrats, I am taking solace in the fact that by this time in most lame duck administrations, strong rising pols from the president’s party are normally beginning to assert themselves–and establish positions independent of outgoing presidents. There is a pretty good possibility that Trump is an absolute anchor/anvil tied to all of them as his admin sinks over the next two years.

        Now would be the time for the Ds to be bold–to work to reunite the New Deal working class(es) with promises of a massive nat’l program of affordable housing, M4A, etc.–hell, pick any three (college debt relief as a third?) and CREATE a national consensus around those issues. Instead, they seem bent on squeaking by, if they can, a Rubio or whomever, and–quite honestly–not even doing much so differently on the international front. If we take into account the fact that while Trump was stupid AF on Iran, he was carrying out something much of Washington/the neocons had long dreamt about. . . what will we have to look forward to? Going back to a quieter, less heinous approach to the immigrant community? Less open antagonism toward people of color? Those would be the obvious twin nontrivial benefits.

        Reply ↓
    2. Karen

      If you use a bell curve to illustrate IQ, Kentucky shows that the curve has shifted to the right. No pun intended.

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    3. pjay

      Yes, a very sad day. To use Gallrein’s own terminology, Republican voters in Massie’s district proved themselves sheep by voting for the sheepdog so the wolves can continue to feast. This is a “deeply red” district, so this toady to The Leader will likely be their representative. I’m sure Gallrein’s supporters think this is a Great Patriotic Victory.

      I have often criticized condescending demonization of MAGA voters by liberal Democrats. I spent eight years blasting their clueless Trump derangement and blindness as to why their own party was shriveling away. But here Republican voters had a clear choice between a candidate willing to sacrifice his career for his libertarian principles, and a man whose stated philosophy is blind obedience to Power and who was supported massively by outside interests. Hmm. I also criticized liberals for their excessive use of the ‘F-word.’ But given this guy’s Hegsethian worldview, sometimes you have to call a sheep a sheep – or worse.

      Reply ↓
    4. Henry Moon Pie

      I left a comment on Dr. Hudson’s piece about Evangelicalism, maturity of worldview and authoritarian personality that’s my explanation of how a 7-term Congressman, who grew up in the district, can be brought down by Zionist billionaires and the Murdochs, who’ve probably never been to Kentucky beyond Churchill Downs. A whole cohort of people have been stunted in their moral development and formed into compliant, obedient fools.

      A hopeful note: given the decline of “Christianity” among the young, this particular problem may be going away, but I’m sure there are people working on how to produce the same effects with social media and AI without having to work through the middleman of the Evangelical church.

      Reply ↓
      1. Alphonse

        First, let me say that with Massie’s loss I lose another chunk of hope. Unlike some I do not hate or despise humanity, but it seems I must accept that this is what people are. We accept Gaza, we accept Epstein. We know, and we accept. It is very sad.

        I do not entirely agree with your analysis. I have led a secular life in a secular culture. I don’t believe I have ever encountered a Christian authoritarian. Of authoritarians we have plenty. Most are liberals and progressive zealots, not Christian.

        “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” That apocryphal line is widely misunderstood, interpreted in line with Fowler’s mythic-literal stage that you cite. Flag and cross are just stand-ins. They could be motherhood and apple pie. There could be nationalist fascism or globalist fascism, religious fascism or secular fascism, pagan fascism or scientific fascism – or a contradictory mix of all. The point is that the group unites around one or more abstractions that seem to all like the essence of goodness.

        Are people stunted in their moral development? I grew seeing in the idealism of by boomer elders the seeds of authoritarianism. A culture of self expression was in fact slave to fashion. He who did not join his fellows in self-expression and self-exposure was the outcast. The spirit of freedom became a demand for freedom; woe to he who did not walk that path with the mass. I saw atheists who as intolerant of religion as the faithful were of atheists. I saw intolerance, exclusion and hate in the name of peace and love. I believe the exclusion was invisible to those who experienced it. It felt together, it felt good. But every inside has an outside; to those on the inside the outside (most who came before or after was on the outside) was invisible. They thought they were the world.

        Hitler was seen as Jung’s archetype of the tyrannical father: such was the lesson taken from the catastrophe of the 20th century. The West had become too masculine, too hierarchical, too confrontational. We had the bodies to show for it. The remedy was feminine: equality rather than hierarchy, consensus instead of confrontation. And fair enough: the aggression that led to the World War I was masculinity gone mad. But a thing taken to extremes becomes its opposite. The feminist Jo Freeman diagnosed The Tyranny of Structurelessness. If you kick formal hierarchy out the front door, informal hierarchy creeps in the back – only now, being informal, it cannot be named or challenged.

        Hierarchy and formality are defences against power. This is the principle of subsidiarity: problems should be addressed at the lowest level possible. Harold Innis pointed out that hierarchy and centralization are opposites. As you remove layers of structure control flows to the centre. Technology has been celebrated for flattening hierarchies: so it does, and this often reduces freedom.

        (As an aside: John Michael Greer contrasts masculine formal power with feminine informal power. The suburbs, he says, stripped women of the communities in which they exercised informal power. So they sought and attained formal power in institutions. But informal feminine modes are a poor match for formal institutions, just as formal masculine modes fail in community environments. Note that I say masculine and feminine, not men and women: individuals vary.)

        People want to live in a predictable world. Each of us creates a model of reality in our heads. When a flawed model collides with reality individuals and society are thrown into turmoil. Will Storr identifies this as a core dynamic of story in The Science of Storytelling. A story begins with the failure of the protagonist’s model. The story continually asks the question: who will he be? Will he change his model and grow, or will he stubbornly refuse and end in tragedy?

        Where does the model come from? Growing up in the wake of the 60s, offered little in the way of a model, I figured it was the duty of every individual to construct his own moral code from scratch. I realize now that this is an unrealistic expectation. A recent post from a rather odd blog argues that the situation is worse than this. Each of us is confronted with the “permanent, unbearable tension of inhabiting a reality constituted by irreconcilable poles” – good and evil, matter and spirit, etc. There are but three strategies for dealing with this:

        1. Institutional offloading. Allow an authority (e.g. religion) to take care of the contradiction, and be free to  lead your life.

        2. Antinomian acting-out. Collapse to one pole, often becoming a predator.

        3. Individuation. Work it out internally. This is not morally preferable to institutional offloading, the psychological cost is high, and not everyone is capable of it.

        For most people institutional offloading is the only good option. In order for society to function it must serve that need by providing the authority necessary for psychological stability. This need amounts to something like a law of conservation of authority. Tear down one authority and we erect another. There is no guarantee that the new authority will be better than the old. Like rewriting software it may cast off rigidity, but also lose accumulated knowledge, and is likely to be less stable. Rousseau (from what I understand) was wrong: man in a state of nature is not peaceful and good. Tearing down society does is not a remedy for cruelty and suffering.

        While I agree with you that generations of people (all living save perhaps the Silents) have been stunted in their moral development, I don’t think the solution is to abandon structure and hierarchy, any more than it is to turn back the clock. Despite what I say I personally have a radical temperament. But it is harder to build than to destroy. The hard thing is what we must do.

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        1. Henry Moon Pie

          I followed the trail of breadcrumbs to the “rather odd blog,” and found what may be the source of our problem if you cited that for its similarity to your thinking. The essay’s radical dualism, and its citation to Jung, led us down the old Gnostic trail to the view that this reality, this world is an inferior one that can be transcended with the right gnosis. And the essay seems to understand Abraxas in a very different way than Jung’s Sermo II (I’m attributing to Jung.) The Sermo describes Abraxas as Effectiveness, not Unity. And the Sermo begins with unity (called pleroma) and creates opposites:

          Everything that discrimination taketh out of the pleroma is a pair of opposites.

          while the essay takes the opposites and builds the Unity it calls Abraxas, which appears in Sermo II, but with a very different definition.

          This Gnostic view is the opposite of the Second Chapter of the Tao te Ching:

          Everybody on Earth knowing
          that goodness is good
          makes wickedness.

          Le Guin rendition

          Jung went hiding in his mind for weeks “exploring the Psyche,” the kind of exercise Iain McGilchrist might call “left brain immersion” with predictably bad results. Humans didn’t evolve to live in their minds. Their mind, really the left-brain, was a tool useful for picking berries but potentially fatally flawed if a tiger showed up and your right-brain was turned off. The Tao te Ching reminds us frequently of the left-brain’s limitations.

          At the same time, I commented today in response to another’s comment with some Edward Goldsmith’s The Way: An Ecological Perspective. Goldsmith believed, as you and I do, that “it is harder to build than to destroy.” In fact, as the ecologist he was, he argued that the goal of all life is stability. The cell has its mechanisms. The creature has its. Each ecosystem has its as well. Humans, Goldsmith says, need a system the preserves humans’ social stability and keeps humans in harmony with the biosphere. Now he didn’t look deeply into his own mind for that. He observed it in his role as an ecologist. He didn’t find humans unalterably opposed to the Earth and their fellow creatures. He said we needed a cybernetic system that could help us keep ourselves in line.

          Didn’t mean to jump on the essayist. Gnosticism just strikes me as the opposite of what we need now. We’re way too far into our left-brains already.

          Reply ↓
    5. SteveD

      In the last midterms (2022) for KY district 4:
      Total republican votes cast 66,874
      Massie votes cast: 50,301

      In 2026 KY district 4:
      Total Republican votes cast (count so far): 105,361
      Massie votes: 47,539

      For me, “excessive spending” on ads and social media Influence campaigns is unlikely to fully explain the difference. But need to see more data.

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    6. Lefty Godot

      We’re basically a state governed by the media at this point. The Empire of Lies totally depends upon the Lie Factories to direct the population in selecting the designated implementers of ruling class policies. What is bizarre in this case is that the Republican Party has devolved so totally into a cult of personality for one person. If the Dear Leader had said, “Vote for Massie”, he would have been reelected. But of course that was never going to happen. The financial puppet strings for both the media and the Dear Leader trail back to Tel Aviv.

      Reply ↓
    7. In Cold Chud

      Does anyone else have the feeling that the Massie loss will embolden Trump vis a vis Iran? This aspect of human behavior is rather pronounced in Daddie Dearest (recall Venezuela).

      I don’t want to be overly optimistic, but a possible silver lining is that this is yet another reminder, to what remains of the independent world, of what happens when a country allows foreign interference in its political processes. Some Israelis seem to think that, once America makes a certain rattling sound one hears in buildings with older plumbing, they will be able to find a new benefactor. I don’t know how likely that is, but events like this make it ever so slightly less so.

      Reply ↓
    8. scott s.

      So Massie’s loss couldn’t be due to the MAGA base turning out? Has to be “foreign influence”?

      Reply ↓
      1. Tom See

        Good point. Considering that AIPAC and other Israel lobbies are uniquely excluded from FARA type laws and rules.

        Reply ↓
  12. karma fubar

    I have been talking over the last few years with my brother, who lives in the Bend, Oregon area, about the future of the borders there. There is talk in Idaho about redrawing the state borders and absorbing eastern Oregon, which is geographically and politically (except Bend) much more similar to Idaho. I started calling it Greater Idahostan. He said that there was in fact a mechanism for states to renegotiate borders, and that some minor changes in other states had been made in the past. It had been discussed in the Oregon press. The requirements were legislation from both parties, and compensation. He had joked about the ridiculousness of Idaho being able to put up the estimated 20 to 30 billion payment to a now smaller Oregon, and said basically it was an impossible fever dream for Idaho. I pointed out to him, and nothing makes this more apparent than the Kentucky primary yesterday, that for all practical purposes money = politicians. So the only barrier for the dreams of Greater Idahostan is money. Lots and lots of money. But if some tech hyper-billionaire wants to make it happen, the only question is “how much?”.

    Reply ↓
    1. Oregon Lawhobbit

      Not sure about any payment obligation, but there’s also, last I looked, a requirement for Congressional approval.

      Oregon could solve a lot of its issues if it had a republican government – i.e. each county represented in Salem by one or two Senators, rather than the current “districts” that ensure that Portland/Salem/Eugene essentially run the rest of the state.

      OTOH, there are a lot of Greater Idaho fans who’d be dismayed to find out that Idaho’s minimum wage is about half of Oregon’s.

      On the third tentacle, I’m not completely clear on why Blue Oregon is so keen to hold onto Red Oregon, other than that instinct that a lot of statists have to put the boot in to the “other.”

      ETA: I don’t think that ripping West Virginia out of Virginia would be called “minor.”

      Reply ↓
  13. The Rev Kev

    Just watched a video where Putin gives a master class in diplomacy when he was with President Xi. Before reviewing the lined up soldiers, Putin bowed in respect to China’s Guard of Honour. Trump would never bother doing such a thing but you can bet that the Chinese sure as hell noticed. Unlike Trump, the Russians have spent months doing all sorts of meetings and negotiations with their counterparts. And whereas Trump got nada out of his visit, I read that Putin and Xi will be signing about forty agreements while Putin is there. Yet on the TV news tonight, they were boasting how Putin had the same level of greetings that Trump did. Idjuts!

    Reply ↓
    1. AG

      Thanks for that detail.
      Apparently this all is of formative nature, meaning China has agreed to finally dedicate itself to one side in this global struggle, and that´s not the US. At least for the coming years.
      On the other hand you have the huge airfleet deal for 737s. Wonder if the 40 contracts contain counter-deals for aerospace industries.

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        They had different people on the news last night saying that because of Trump’s visit, that Xi will lean on Putin to end the war in the Ukraine so that China can align more smoothly with the US. And you know that I am not making this up.

        Reply ↓
    2. Pat

      Just saw photos of Trump sneaking a peek at the binder placed for the party seated next to him. It was captioned that he and his team didn’t have a clue of how disastrous this was. Lack of respect and far too much emphasis of ceremonial pomp but missing how much of it is ceremonial with nothing behind it.

      Reply ↓
    3. ThirtyOne

      I watched both Trump’s and Xi’s reception ceremonies on NHK. Identical as far as was shown.
      I did note Trump, speaking with reporters shortly after the ceremony said he was really impressed by the school children.

      Reply ↓
      1. Matthew

        He was impressed by their apparent excitement over him. As SNL joked, they were really excited to see the guy who made their parents so much money with his hat orders up close.

        Reply ↓
  15. Mikel

    Early goal of US-Israeli war on Iran was to install hardline former president: Report – Anadolu Agency. “This has to be a psyop…”

    The news about that particular former president has been weird since the beginning of the 2026 war.
    Remember, MSM reports on March 1 said he was dead. I don’t think it was until April that it became clear that he was still alive.

    A sampling:

    https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-888386/
    Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad killed in Israeli-US strikes – report

    https://nypost.com/2026/03/01/world-news/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-irans-ex-president-killed-in-israeli-airstrikes/
    Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s ex-president who said ‘Israel must be wiped off the map,’ killed in Israeli airstrikes

    Reply ↓
  16. Mikel

    Excuse me if this has already been covered…but…
    https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20260520145/is-gambling-culture-is-taking-over-shopping-new-crypto-debit-card-lets-you-buy-now-pay-maybe/

    Highlights:

    “The new crypto card Tuyo functions like a prepaid debit card, but it reimburses users’ payments at random…”

    “It introduces the casino to the checkout line,” said Adam Rust, the Consumer Federation of America’s director of financial services. “Gamifying spending is just one more place where fintech innovation is adding risk rather than helping people towards financial health.”
    Tuyo did not respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment. The company’s CEO and co-founder, Jorge Izquierdo, has responded to critics on X by saying “this is not gambling” and “there’s no debt. You can only spend what you have.”

    “It may feel like the house always wins when you’re gambling in Las Vegas, but slot machines are at least required by law to pay out a portion of all money wagered over time. With Tuyo, no payouts are guaranteed. Its terms of service say the “conditions under which BNPM may apply are determined by Tuyo in its sole and absolute discretion and may vary from user to user, transaction to transaction, and over time.”

    The terms also note that users should not make a transaction relying on the buy-now-pay-maybe feature, but critics aren’t convinced everyone will follow the fine print. Dan Sudit, a Salt Lake City-based wealth adviser and partner of Crewe Advisors, said he’s already seen users discuss how they’ve changed their spending habits because of Tuyo. He pointed to a since-deleted Reddit (RDDT) user, who said their boyfriend is “buying the same product 10 times on Amazon (AMZN) hoping one of them is free, so nine of them, he returns, and one of them, he gets for free.”

    Reply ↓
  17. Alice X

    Thank you for the Shostakovich. His quartets have been overlooked by me, but I will have to remedy that. I listened to No. 8 and I liked it. Alas his scores are not yet in the public domain, it seems.

    Reply ↓
    1. debug

      You might be able to find them here:

      imslp.org/wiki/String_Quartet_No.1,_Op.49_(Shostakovich,_Dmitry)

      and scroll down to the list of the rest

      Reply ↓
  18. Jason Boxman

    From A critical window to stop hantavirus is opening. Not all countries are managing exposed travelers the same way

    The response is a joke. Only Singapore is kind of doing it correctly with a mandatory 30 day quarantine. The US is only testing for antibodies, not PCR. They’re really trying to kill us all.

    And Jennifer is a moron, who is in public health, obviously.

    The CDC’s guidelines specify that people with high-risk exposures get twice daily in-person visits from state or local public health departments.

    That seems like a bad idea, said Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, who directs the Pandemic Center at Brown University.

    “It seems like a lot of resources, and I’m not sure that that’s necessary,” Nuzzo said. Local health departments saw steep cuts last year when HHS rescinded $11 billion in unspent Covid-era funding that paid for things like contact tracing during outbreaks. They’re already stretched trying to manage a record surge in measles cases.

    (bold mine)

    Can I smoke some of that when you’ve finished?

    French passengers on the Hondius and others exposed on planes will have to stay in the hospital for at least 15 days.

    Similarly, Spain is requiring people exposed to the Andes virus to quarantine for at least seven days. After that, health authorities are taking a stepwise approach to contact: If blood tests taken on day seven remain negative, those in quarantine can have visitors, as long as everyone wears personal protective equipment.

    Mandatory, but only for 15 days. We’re splitting the difference here? Does the virus give you half credit for that?

    Two passengers from Singapore will remain isolated in the hospital for 30 days and then, following testing, must stay in phone contact with public health authorities for an additional 15 days.

    The only real response, albeit 15 days too short. But then, if they aren’t in an airborne containment facility, with staff properly using N95s or better, is it just theater? Still only partially sufficient.

    Reply ↓
  19. Jeff W

    The ancient logic of “snuck” Dead Language Society (Micael T)

    I really appreciated this link as I’ve long wondered (really) how snuck came about. After all, leak, freak, and peak are all weak verbs so why not sneak?

    The post also triggered my odd aversion to strong verbs—they’re so “Germanic” with their ablaut changes? Why can’t we just have nice, clean -ed endings instead? (Well, then portraits and stockings by the fireplace would be “hanged,” which does sound a bit weird.) But that’s just my own personal preference, which, perhaps thankfully, affects nothing and influences no one.

    Reply ↓
  20. j

    Thanks for the link to the story about Jaques Ellul, and his relationship to Neal Postman and the Unabomber.

    I had read all three of them, but spread out in time. So the story is a useful review of a topic that has long since be ruined by pop-philosophy nonsense like the AI-doomers (Yudkowski) and the accelerationists/post-humanists(The Technological Republic (police state) ).

    Too bad that neoliberalism has not merely devalued non-STEM scholarship, it is actively destroying the university system (thanks also for the article from the U Chi student). Ellul laid it all out 70 years ago.

    The links section is a great resource.

    Reply ↓
  21. Glen

    Between things like this:

    New settlement term bars IRS from investigating Trump, his family for past tax issues
    https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/19/politics/irs-barred-investigating-trump-new-settlement-term

    And this:

    Trump discloses thousands of stock trades, some in companies directly influenced by his policies
    https://apnews.com/article/stock-trading-trump-nvidia-apple-defense-1bd6e661929430892ae8f1eced3e0df8

    Are we somehow close to Grover Norquist’s dream of drowning government in a bath tub? Because I’m not even sure anymore that “banana republic” does this level of corruption from the very top enough justice. Trump apparently did more stock trades than all of Congress combined. Nancy Pelosi should be proud.

    Reply ↓
    1. ThirtyOne

      I am Donald, hear me roar
      My face too orange to ignore
      And I know so much I don’t have to comprehend
      ‘Cause I’ve done it all before
      Never been down on the floor
      There will never be a man like me again

      Whoa, yes, I am wise
      But it’s wisdom born of gain
      Yes, I’ve rigged the price
      Just look how much I gained

      If I want to I can do anything
      I am strong (strong)
      I am invincible (invincible)
      I am Donald

      You can’t bend or ever break me
      ‘Cause it only serves to make me
      More determined to achieve my final goal
      And I’ve come back even stronger
      Not a novice any longer
      ‘Cause you’ve deepened the resentment in my soul

      Whoa, yes, I am wise
      But it’s wisdom born of gain
      Yes, I’ve rigged the price
      Just look how much I gained

      If I want to I can do anything
      I am strong (strong)
      I am invincible (invincible)
      I am Donald

      I am Donald, watch me grope
      Hear me go from trope-to-trope
      As I reach my greedy hands into your pants
      But I’m wanting more than dough
      I’ve a long, long way to go
      Until I make you f*ckrs understand

      Whoa, yes, I am wise
      But it’s wisdom born of gain
      Yes, I’ve rigged the price
      Just look how much I gained

      If I want to I can take anything
      I am strong (strong)
      I am invincible (invincible)
      I am Donald

      Oh, I am Donald
      I am invincible
      I am strong
      I am Donald
      I am invincible
      I am strong
      I am Donald

      “I Am Woman”
      Helen Reddy

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr1ObOl7DVw

      Reply ↓
  22. Tom Stone

    Trump is going to be a shoo in for the Nobel Peace prize this year, he has already ended the Ramadan War 11 times and it’s not even June yet…
    So much winning it’s unbelievable.

    Reply ↓
    1. Michael Fiorillo

      Yes, but he predicted in 2016 that we’d tire of all the winning, and I think he was right about that…

      Reply ↓
  23. In Cold Chud

    Education Double Feature

    1. The Great Zombification

    So the best universities are not teaching students to be wise, to be a banker or consultant, to be an “indoctrinated” leftist academic, or to be a rich elitist prick. The best universities preach the efficiency, convenience, and countless other benefits of chaining one’s intellect to a very charming machine.

    Is Yingling really arguing that universities are not elite reproduction machines (“rich elitist prick”), and especially aren’t now, because they cultivate a tendency to let someone or something else do students’ thinking for them?

    I’m sorry, but elites don’t have to be intellectually nimble, or even narrowly literate. It’s a nice thing to have, if you want a society with a future, but when ideological reliability and rather shallow cultural markers of class are the only criteria, it’s irrelevant, at best.

    2. One More Time: The Average American K-12 Student is Doing Fine Relative to the International Baseline

    The substantive basis of this article is the 2022 PISA test. (Regarding the various academic “Olympiads” cited, I’m not sure what the fact that the best half-dozen students in a nation of 340 million people are as good as the best students anywhere else is meant to prove.)

    Here is the link to the results of that test:

    https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/pisa-2022-results-volume-i_53f23881-en/full-report/the-pisa-target-population-the-pisa-samples-and-the-definition-of-schools_35666ed9.html

    I would draw your attention to the part about sampling (“How were students chosen?”), near the top. There is a smorgasbord of opportunities for bias that selects for better schools and better students. In fact, the report notes that, of the countries that failed to meet the preset 65% participation rate for schools in the original sample, the United States was the worst, with 51% (which, even after replacement with alternates, rose only to 63%, still the lowest of all the countries surveyed).

    Reply ↓
  24. Jason Boxman

    After a decade, the BCBS settlement finally came through. I’d wasted hours submitting extensive documentation of historical paystubs I had to track down, so that I could receive the settlement that many of us justly deserve. My final payout

    “Your Settlement Payment
    $19.94”

    This country is run by criminal capitalists and gangsters.

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisFromGA

      -I got $8 and change from the Apple settlement … hardly enough to buy a value meal from a fast food joint.

      But I can download a couple of tunes from the iTunes store. And the artists who created the music might see a penny or two. Everything is one big fat grift.

      Reply ↓
  25. Matthew

    I only see one rationale in Israel’s behavior over time, one through-line–to degrade its neighbors as much as possible to take advantage of them. Sowing chaos is often also our rationale, or secondary rationale in adventures around the region and elsewhere–to prevent other countries from advancing, or exercising control over their resources. That ruthlessness, and willingness to defy int’l accords in harming their neighbors and their people, is a very cruel fact of life among the Israeli leadership, going back to the beginning; every confrontation is characterized as existential. (We take cover behind their ruthlessness, but bankroll.) So while their intentions may have been to a) first stimulate an uprising and conditions for overthrow of the clerics, b) install some leader more open to their manipulations, and c) wipe out or severely undermine their ability to create a nuclear weapon, I don’t think it was hard for them to imagine that they would set back wider Iranian development decades considerably no matter what; they have failed, even with those obvious-seeming secondary/fallback goals. Part of their failure lay in severely underestimating their enemies. I think it’s possible that Iran’s neighbors may be starting to see that weakening Israel (prospect it was very hard to imagine before the war) may be more important than weakening Iran. Entente between the gulf states could yet really isolate Israel.

    Reply ↓
  26. AG

    re: NYT on domestic violence

    podcast which made me freak out…

    This is a stellar example for the embarrassing provincialism and intellectual mediocrity of wealthy “liberal America” 2026 and the NYT as its flagship.

    35 min. + transcript

    Masha Gessen in conversation with Rachel Louise Snyder

    There’s a Pattern of Abuse in America

    M. Gessen and Rachel Louise Snyder on the parallels between authoritarianism and domestic violence.
    May 14, 2026
    https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/opinion/trump-domestic-violence-authoritarian.html

    Dumb question: did either Snyder or Gessen go to Minneapolis and meet ICE face to face in the street?
    Or did they rather sit in their fancy lofts in downtown writing next weeks spectacular essay about actually nothing.

    p.s. Gessen doesn´t miss this great great opportunity to speak about her favourite subject: “USSR bad.”

    And for those who didn´t know: Russia is now a totalitarian state.
    Shocking, right.

    Reply ↓

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