Links 5/23/2026

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1. The Rev Kev May 23, 2026 at 7:23 am

   ‘Will AI Break the University?’

   Why yes, it will. I understand that in America graduation ceremonies are a big deal. So the leadership of Glendale Community College decided to have an AI read out the names of students as they went on stage. Hilarity ensued. It mispronounced some names and skipped hundreds of name causing chaos. Those whose names were not called were initially not allowed to walk the stage again. It was a fiasco and completely unnecessary. GCC President Tiffany Hernandez was booed and when she wrote an apology letter afterwards, it seemed that it too was written by an AI-

   https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/glendale-breaking/2026/05/19/leaders-booed-after-ai-botches-glendale-community-college-graduation/90165143007/

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   1. dearieme May 23, 2026 at 8:16 am

      Oh dear, how sad, never mind.

      I’m laughing and sneering at the bozos in charge (Leadership!), while feeling a little sorry for the graduands and their parents.

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   2. New_Okie May 23, 2026 at 9:26 am

      I read this and was confused because I thought you were describing the plot of a new episode of Community.

      But upon googling I see Community took place at “Greendale” Community College, not Glendale. My bad. In my defense though this was a sitcom-worthy ridiculously terrible idea.

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   3. PockyLips May 23, 2026 at 5:33 pm

      One aspect of this story that hasn’t been discussed much is that many of these students are using AI themselves to help with assignments or just do them. I understand their trepidation when it comes to future employment. And it is possible to use AI but still be opposed to it. But I still think this somewhat contradictory stance should be part of this discussion.
      https://www.forbes.com/sites/avivalegatt/2025/09/18/90-of-college-students-use-ai-higher-ed-needs-ai-fluency-support-now/

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2. dearieme May 23, 2026 at 7:44 am

   “The Arctic’s vanishing caribou”: I suppose it’s too much to hope they’re all being eaten by the Arctic’s burgeoning population of polar bears.

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   1. vao May 23, 2026 at 8:12 am

      The more I read those alarming news about the catastrophic changes caused by a climate completely out of whack, the more I get the dispiriting feeling that we are indeed truly doomed — not “towards the end of the 21st century” as many initial prognostications of the IPCC asserted, but within the next couple of decades, one generation at most.

      The worst thing is to see every feeble attempt to slow that evolution and existing regulations to counteract the ecological breakdown being jettisoned “because of the economy”.

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   2. Henry Moon Pie May 23, 2026 at 8:59 am

      It was the caribou who led the first humans into the valley where I live, the Crooked River Valley, known in Iroquoian as “Cuyahoga.” I heard that the woolly mammoths who were here were not exactly grateful to the caribou.

      We humans are, in many ways, very unimpressive creatures: naked, weak, not so fast, fragile. Yet we are so dangerous, hunting 13,000 years ago like wolves with spears.

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   3. upstater May 23, 2026 at 10:01 am

      Caribou are generally very far inland while polar bears are feeders of sea mammals in coastal and on sea ice. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is an example of where the two species seasonally may overlap, but most populations are well separated. The population decline of caribou are something of a mystery, but industrial and military development has a documented role. Some of the Alaskan herds do not cross gravel roads or beneath elevated pipelines.

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      1. dearieme May 23, 2026 at 10:08 am

         It was a gentle ribbing directed at climate hysterics such as the good Yves.

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         1. Steve H. May 23, 2026 at 11:26 am

            Perhaps you meant ‘climate hysteresics‘.

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         2. Henry Moon Pie May 23, 2026 at 7:39 pm

            I don’t find the Sixth Mass Extinction to be that funny. Denial of the issue is even more unfunny. “Let us not speak falsely now, the hour is getting late.”

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      2. Birch May 23, 2026 at 3:01 pm

         Barren-land caribou live all across the islands of Canada’s high arctic, also inhabited by polar bear. They eat lichen that grows on the ground and sometimes roam in massive herds. Wilderness fragmentation and climate change appear to be their big challenges.

         The woodland caribou eat lichen that grows in trees. They are much smaller herds, and are being devastated by widespread clear-cut logging that takes out the old trees that grow lichen. It is effectively illegal to blame anything consequential on the logging industry, so wolves are scapegoated and (in BC) shot from helicopters at great expense.

         The 40 Mile herd on the Yukon/Alaska border, having survived the Klondike goldrush, was devastated when the Alaska Highway was built. They were shot for fun by army workers that were miffed they didn’t get any real action at the front. I’ve seen photos celebrating the slaughter.

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3. Carla May 23, 2026 at 7:53 am

   Yves, you introduced me to Csikszentmihalyi’s description of “Flow” on this very blog. As a career free-lance writer, I had experienced it a number of times but didn’t have a good description–I just thought of it as “work going really well” ! Thanks for reminding me.

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   1. eg May 23, 2026 at 8:49 am

      “A key is the activity needs to be demanding enough to require full attention, but not so hard as to be unattainable or frustrating”

      Reminds me of Vygotsky’s “zone of proximal development.” 🤔

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      1. JP May 23, 2026 at 1:12 pm

         It helps to like what you are doing. One attribute of “flow” is sense of time somewhat disappears.

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      2. Alena Shahadat May 23, 2026 at 3:28 pm

         Thank you so much,
         I was looking for Vygotsky’s name for over seven years. I remember reading a book of his for an assignment at the university. At the time, I had trouble understanding the concepts but I came to understand later. I needed to re-read it and could not remember his name. Jeez, thanks !

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   2. Henry Moon Pie May 23, 2026 at 8:51 am

      And I was going to comment that Yves’s description of Csikszentmihalyi’s “Flow” reminded me of Nate Hagens’s “Frankly” yesterday entitled, “Why Mindfulness Matters When the World Is Breaking Down.” It’s quite good, and includes Nate’s suggestions, drawn from his meditation coach, about how to stay in the present as much as possible, and more importantly, how to get back to it when you’ve drifted off into the future or past.

      Re: contentment:

      The greatest evil: wanting more.
      The worst luck: discontent.
      Greed’s the curse of life.

      To know enough’s enough is enough to know.

      Tao te Ching #46 (Le Guin rendition)

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      1. Carla May 23, 2026 at 10:23 am

         Re: “The greatest evil: wanting more.” etc… Have had it in large print on my refrigerator for awhile now. Maybe came upon it in a previous comment from you, HMP. Hope all is well with you & yours.

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      2. Christian B May 23, 2026 at 11:33 am

         Wu Wei, 100%.

         I learnt this lesson while still very young. I was very frustrated reassembling a bicycle. Being a Buddhist for a long time, I had the sudden self reflective meditative insight that it was only frustrating and hard because I wanted it to be finished. Boom, right in the Flow. This was not ‘knowing”, it was insight. It was something I knew from the teaching, but had never experienced. The experienced changed everything for me, even the burden of my mental illness was lighter.

         “To know enough’s enough is enough to know.” And what more can we know than right now. The past is gone and the future is an immense possibility.

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      3. LifelongLib May 23, 2026 at 4:47 pm

         On the other hand, there’s Blake:

         “You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.”

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         1. Henry Moon Pie May 23, 2026 at 7:43 pm

            I don’t know if Blake’s “enough” was the same as Lao-Tzu’s. ;)

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4. dearieme May 23, 2026 at 7:55 am

   “Trump’s Endgame Is Surrender” That was always the likeliest outcome because there was little chance the US could summon the patience to test the resolve of the Iranian Revolutionaries.

   But when Trump does cave how long will it be before allegations are made that if only he’d hung on for another month, or three months, or whatever, the Revolutionaries would have cracked? About a fortnight?

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   1. The Rev Kev May 23, 2026 at 8:06 am

      I have my suspicions here about what is in this article. Trump proposes a 30-day period of negotiations which can be viewed as a way to pressure Iran with a very short deadline. Trump would say ‘make a deal by day 30 or else blah, blah, blah.’ The second thing is that it would be all about Iran’s nuclear program and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and nothing else like the lifting of sanctions or reparations. But Iran has already essentially said that their nuclear program and the Strait of Hormuz are settled issues as far as they are concerned so why would they agree to reopen these issues with Trump? Even if there was this 30-day negotiation, when it failed Trump could use that as an excuse to attack Iran due to their unwillingness to negotiate their surrender. There is no upside in Iran agreeing to this.

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   2. Christopher Fay May 23, 2026 at 8:21 am

      Six years, we need to hang on for six years in time for our new drones and draft inductees to work through. Trump will join Zelensky and Netanyahu in denying the selection process for a new leader so the Axis of Corruption (AOC), Zelensky-Netanyahu-Trump or whoever happens to be the big man at the time will also be the Axis of Democracy Avoidance (AoDA or ADA, to be decided at a presidential round table). Six Years to Victory is a short wait and will necessitate abrogating these “mid-terms” or a “presidential election.”

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      1. Paradox of Unrealized Power May 23, 2026 at 1:34 pm

         “Six years, we need to hang on for six years in time for our new drones and draft inductees to work through. ”

         I know you are being sarcastic, but the Iranians are not standing still…In fact, they are moving faster than the US, I think

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   3. pjay May 23, 2026 at 9:28 am

      This is Robert Kagan, and The Atlantic; a very prominent neocon champion of Israel and enemy of Iran, writing in a very prominent neocon outlet. So what is the purpose of this article, at this time? On the surface it reiterates truths with which NC readers are familiar. But it also rubs Trump’s nose in it with words like “defeat,” “surrender,” etc. – for Israel as well as for the US. It seems clear that Kagan, long-time anti-Iran warmonger, is challenging Trump’s manhood. Kagan describes every rational option open to Trump as surrender, in comments dripping with disdain. So what is the alternative? It is unstated here, though he mentioned it in his previous article. Is Kagan accepting this “defeat” and “surrender” which, he says, will result in declining US hegemony and increasing isolation of Israel? Or is he trying to goad Trump into something much bigger?

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      1. Paradox of Unrealized Power May 23, 2026 at 1:35 pm

         “It seems clear that Kagan, long-time anti-Iran warmonger, is challenging Trump’s manhood.”

         This seems to be the prevailing thought, but I think the explanation is simpler: he is trying to maintain a bare minimum of credibility for his reputation that he can apply towards getting his next speaking gig.

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         1. Gumbo May 23, 2026 at 5:37 pm

            That’s what I got out of it.

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      2. Buzz Meeks May 23, 2026 at 6:28 pm

         Kagan is doing the same thing Jake Trapper did by writing his book on Biden- “we didn’t know he was losing it” and shape shift and slither away from that debacle.
         Kagan is now trying to disassociate himself from Cheney and the Zionist “Vulcans” who have destroyed American credibility, drained or stolen the treasury, and gotten a lot of people killed for Israel.
         Just more cover your ass as usual and the lame stream media will apply the whitewash.

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5. farmboy May 23, 2026 at 7:57 am

   antidote du jour, I live in Horse Heaven

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   1. The Rev Kev May 23, 2026 at 8:27 am

      We got five here though two of them are little fellas. Once upon a time we had about thirteen which I believe constitutes a herd.

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6. Steve H. May 23, 2026 at 8:09 am

   > “A monk said, ‘Before I was enlightened, I hauled water and cut wood. After I was enlightened, I hauled water and cut wood.’”

   See Layman Pang

   > Pursuit of pleasure or happiness are fools’ games (coming across them and enjoying them while they last is another matter).

   Can’t find the source that claimed ‘life liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ was squabbled over, from Locke’s ‘life liberty and property’, but there were concerns about citizens claiming rights to land. The claim was that the pursuit of happiness meant rights to the tools of one’s trade, one’s own personal means of production.
   “One of the greatest luxuries in life is being able to become who you were meant to be.”

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   1. Yves Smith Post authorMay 23, 2026 at 10:20 am

      Ah, your input on what the founders actually meant about “pursuit of happiness” is very informative!

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      1. Joe Renter May 23, 2026 at 1:27 pm

         I like Thanissaro Bhikku’s take on the Buddhist meta chant, “May all beings be happy” to “ May you find true Happiness “. We can find temporary happiness in the pursuit of the transitory, but true happiness is the transformation of self. I say this chant inwardly throughout my day.
         I suggest all to explore some form of meditation. It’s is essential in these times, IMO.

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   2. scott s. May 23, 2026 at 5:01 pm

      That “pursuit of happiness” concept was what I was always told, from a conservative POV. An emphasis placed on “pursuit”.

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7. Stephen V May 23, 2026 at 8:14 am

   Monk’s maxim updated for 2026:
   “After I was enlightened, I hauled wood and cut water.’”

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   1. JMH May 23, 2026 at 8:23 am

      First eat your mush, then wash your bowls.

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      1. Paradox of Unrealized Power May 23, 2026 at 1:37 pm

         Who is it that eats the mush and washes the bowls?

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8. flora May 23, 2026 at 8:20 am

   Tucker Carlson interviews Prof. Ricard Werner, author of Princes of the Yen.

   Every Major War Begins Under False Pretenses & the Central Banks Are Behind It. Economist Explains.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wi_zQX–wE

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   1. dearieme May 23, 2026 at 1:43 pm

      What about the wars that happened before central banks existed?

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      1. flora May 23, 2026 at 2:48 pm

         Judge Napolitano with Scott Ritter and Ray McGovern.

         INTEL Roundtable w/ Johnson, McGovern, & Scott Ritter – Weekly Wrap 22-May

         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h99V9iWJ0IU

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      2. flora May 23, 2026 at 2:50 pm

         Judge Napolitano with McGoven and Ritter.

         INTEL Roundtable w/ Johnson, McGovern, & Scott Ritter – Weekly Wrap 22-May

         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h99V9iWJ0IU

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9. Henry Moon Pie May 23, 2026 at 8:27 am

   Smallest wheat crop since ’72–

   In the summer of ’73, I interned in Stu Symington’s district office in Kansas City. Symington’s AA, Stan Fike, a man whose like we will never see again in DC, took me to the K. C. Board of Trade to watch the action because commodity markets were hitting records every day. Because of that memory–a bull market in farm commodities a year after the production nadir–I checked a chart of wheat prices going back to 1959. If you go to the chart and use its interactive features, you’ll find that wheat went for $1.45 a bushel in May, 1972. It goes on steep bull run until March, 1974 when it tops out at $5.10 a bushel, more than triple where it had begun less than 2 years before. The closest it ever got to its May, ’72 price was in the early 2000s when it flirted with $2. The current base is around $6.50. Extrapolate as you like.

   The point being that when production of a farm commodity drops very low, it takes years for it to recover. Farmers switch to other crops, let lands go fallow, drop out of farming entirely. Supply does not bounce back quickly.

   Useful tip: Octavia Butler’s survivors in the Parable series make flour from acorns, adopting a practice that was common among Native American peoples on the West Coast. You have to leach the tannins out of acorns by soaking before grinding them into flour. Here’s a how-to from a chef and outdoorsman.

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   1. farmboy May 23, 2026 at 8:49 am

      Great Grain Robbery!The 1973 United States–Soviet Union wheat deal was a series of large Soviet purchases of American wheat and other grains negotiated with private U.S. exporters during July and August 1972, with deliveries scheduled through August 1973.[1] The Soviets contracted for about 440 million bushels of wheat (roughly US$700 million) along with additional grain purchases, tightening world supplies and contributing to sharp rises in grain and food prices in 1972–1973.[2]

      The sales were facilitated by a July 1972 U.S. government credit agreement making up to US$750 million available over three years for Soviet purchases of U.S. grains, and by export-subsidy mechanisms that supported contracting at fixed export “target” prices despite rising domestic market prices.[1] In the United States the episode became widely known as the “Great Grain Robbery” (or “Great Russian Grain Robbery”), and Congress subsequently mandated an export sales reporting system in 1973 to improve transparency around large agricultural export transactions.[3]

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      1. farmboy May 23, 2026 at 9:00 am

         expedia quote

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      2. Henry Moon Pie May 23, 2026 at 9:08 am

         Thanks for remembering that, farmboy. So we had supply issues and increased demand from a new source. It was good for the wheat farmers for a while. Where I grew up, it was winter wheat, milo, soybeans and burley tobacco for a cash crop.

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         1. farmboy May 23, 2026 at 9:20 am

            chicken little is gonna get crushed! So the old Soviet Union has gone from a huge net importer to the world’s largest net exporter, sounds like a recovery to me. And the lasting significance of the following Congressional inventions was stocks, use, export and import reporting, WASDE. HRW will recover in the US, but all crops worldwide are going to suffer from fuel, fertilizer, and super el nino weather, sure looks like a perfect storm. Margins are negative now with worse coming. Cassandra lives.

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   2. Wukchumni May 23, 2026 at 11:53 am

      We had a very iffy acorn drop last fall in Tiny Town and environs, but luckily not one human bean currently counts on that nourishment…

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   3. Xihuitl May 23, 2026 at 4:23 pm

      Acorn flour is delicious. I had been buying it through some small farmers in the Southeast but now can’t find it anywhere, except maybe imported from Korea. Koreans use it a lot, including in making noodles. Another delicious, nutritious, and ancient source of flour is mesquite, from the beans, which is commercially available here in Texas.

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   4. Ben Joseph May 23, 2026 at 6:12 pm

      Maple seeds aren’t too bad. Fun to catch those ‘helicopters’ too!

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   5. LawnDart May 24, 2026 at 4:37 am

      My God!!!

      I just gained 20 lbs. simply from glancing at Mr. How-To’s website… I haven’t decided whether to gnaw my arm off or eat my father’s Chihuahua… it’s 3am and the stores are closed, I haven’t other options…

      https://tothebone.substack.com/

      Hank Shaw is an excellent food writer– writer in general– and he’s left me melting into a pool of drool.

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10. Tom Stone May 23, 2026 at 8:40 am

    Good grief, those aren’t “Mass Graves” in Gaza, those are Soil Amendments!
    All part of Israel’s Heroic efforts to “Make the desert bloom.”

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11. JMH May 23, 2026 at 8:54 am

    Russia will never use their nuclear forces say USian neocons and other weenies? You sure of that? Let us hope not. Look what happened with NATO expansion. You FA-ed and FO-ed, but learned nothing. You are blind, arrogant, stubborn and deluded. This drone campaign, the ongoing drone campaign, flying over NATO states, flying them from NATO states, goading Russia to bring on a reaction that will haul the US back into Europe. What makes you Europeans think that will happen?

    I was 9 years old in 1945. Obviously, I have lived through the entire nuclear age. Loose talk about the use of nuclear weapons scares the hell out of me. Poking and prodding Russia is like boiling the frog. But, you forget, frogs do not have the oreshnik, a panoply of other missiles and drones, frogs do not have the largest nuclear arsenal on the planet.

    From my perspective the ongoing Russophobia is incomprehensible and I am conversant with European and Russian history. Whatever I think, the animus is real. But does it make any sense to prolong the bleeding out of Ukraine? What is so terrifying by a mutually secured security architecture?

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12. JMH May 23, 2026 at 9:09 am

    Addendum to previous comment. A few “small” nuclear weapons will produce more “Chernobyl exclusion zones”, mega-death and generations of misery, but here and there things might resemble in at least superficial ways “normal.” A general nuclear exchange will at a minimum end civilization. Climate change will do the same. It will take longer. Humanity might survive what it is doing to itself. Humans might wish otherwise.

    I have seen the gradual death of the world I once knew. The dying will continue because there is no will to stop it. The earth is finite. To pretend that “economic growth” can be infinite is criminally foolish.

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    1. Joe Renter May 23, 2026 at 1:32 pm

       The scourge of Capitalism. Human greed on steroids.

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       1. LifelongLib May 23, 2026 at 5:09 pm

          “Capitalism…greed…”

          I’m more pessimistic than many here. I think the “scourge” is ~8 billion people trying to keep warm/cool/fed/clean/healthy. That’s all it takes. Nature is under no obligation to provide us with a comfortable or even livable environment. We have to do that for ourselves, if we can. If we can’t…

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13. The Rev Kev May 23, 2026 at 9:12 am

    ‘Nick Davidov
    @Nick_Davidov
    The biggest bullshit move by DHS in its history. So everyone on a O1 or H1B visa would have to stop working legally in the US, go back to their country and wait for years of backlog? This includes top scientists in our universities, founders of billion dollar companies (at least 3 just in our portfolio would be affected by the way).’

    The logical thing would be announce that this this would apply from now on and not effect those already in the country. But this is the Trump regime so they went with this self-punishing move instead. (rolls eyes)

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    1. TimH May 23, 2026 at 1:45 pm

       Next steps:
       1. remove SS etc benefits from green card holders
       2. make it impossible to go from green card to citizen.

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14. Pablonium May 23, 2026 at 9:28 am

    Regarding the French aid worker claiming a mass grave of 300 bodies, including children with hands tied behind their back, I could not find any corroborating evidence online in English or French. I think it’s imprudent to embed posts about the ongoing genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, and other human rights abuses by Israel in Gaza, the West Bank, south Lebanon, Iran, and elsewhere. It’s just too important to get wrong, especially if it only takes a few minutes to verify

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    1. TomDority May 23, 2026 at 9:58 am

       How about:
       There is “ongoing genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, and other human rights abuses by Israel in Gaza, the West Bank, south Lebanon, Iran, and elsewhere.”

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    2. albrt May 23, 2026 at 10:57 am

       I will be happy to set aside the accounts of individual witnesses that turn out not to be credible, but only after all of Isreal’s leadership has been tried and punished for the real genocide and war crimes.

       “Too important to get wrong” rings hollow when there is no mechanism for holding anybody accountable.

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    3. LawnDart May 23, 2026 at 7:29 pm

       That Israelis have been executing captives for years has been well-documented, and you’re suggesting that more evidence is needed?

       Mass graves in Gaza show victims’ hands were tied, says UN rights officers

       That was over two years ago… two years ago… And still not enough time and evidence?

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       1. Chris May 24, 2026 at 2:19 am

          Yes, he does need evidence. Propaganda exists on all sides in every conflict.

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15. Rui May 23, 2026 at 9:44 am

    It’s funny to watch anti-lockdown ghoul Jay Bhattacharya, now acting director of the CDC, handing out lock down orders to the Hantavirus cruise passengers returning to the USA. I almost wish he had stayed faithfully to his grift. Almost.

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16. mega mike May 23, 2026 at 9:47 am

    BREAKING: A source close to Iran’s Ghalibaf says Iran’s “third struggle” plan announced by the IRGC will close Bab el-Mandeb Strait “by fire” and disable the seven submarine internet cables under the Strait of Hormuz, in immediate response to upcoming US strikes that Iran has assessed as “inevitable,” for this weekend.
    The source adds that Iran will also respond with “next-generation missiles and drones” firing hundreds daily at the Gulf energy infrastructure, and that the US and Israel are playing “Russian roulette” with the outcome being the “collapse of the global economy and unprecedented gas prices.”

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    1. Yves Smith Post authorMay 23, 2026 at 10:16 am

       I appreciate your desire to contribute. But that is in our Iran war post today, with the full tweet image showing the source so readers can factor that in. We are trying to steer discussion of “war this weekend or not” there, rather than have comments on that spread across two posts.

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17. lyman alpha blob May 23, 2026 at 10:07 am

    RE: Record Heat Forces New England to Tap Oil to Power the Grid

    Record heat in May? I’ve been sitting in New England the entire month and it’s barely cracked 60 degrees. We had a couple days in the 80s, but otherwise it’s been unseasonably cool.

    I guess Bloomberg is letting the “AI” write the articles these days. Maybe the brain geniuses should throw some thermometers into their clankers.

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    1. Screwball May 23, 2026 at 10:35 am

       NW Ohio here – been the coldest, wettest, windiest, and cloudiest spring I can remember. Maybe ever, in my 70 years. My solar powered security camera quit a while back because the battery went dead. A truly terrible spring.

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    2. chuck roast May 23, 2026 at 3:37 pm

       Sameo in southern NE. Maybe it’s the AI self-licking ice cream cone sucking up all available electricity + and gaslighting us with nonsense about cooling us off from a non-existing heat wave. Or maybe it’s just Bloomberg being Bloomberg.

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18. The Rev Kev May 23, 2026 at 10:13 am

    ‘Hedgie
    @HedgieMarkets
    🦔Microsoft canceled its internal Claude Code licenses this week after token-based billing made the cost untenable, even for a company with effectively infinite cloud resources. Uber’s CTO sent an internal memo warning the company burned through its entire 2026 AI budget in just four months.’

    This seemed strange to me. Aren’t corporations pushing their employees to use AI as much as possible and punishing or even firing those that don’t? Did Microsoft succeed too well or something?

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    1. JohnnyGL May 23, 2026 at 10:57 am

       Yes, the mandate to use AI for everything is because top mgt at big tech has hyped the productivity gains incredibly hard to make their stock price go up. But, they don’t really have lots of gains to show for it, just lots of little convenience things. Since they need to justify the high expectations they’ve created, (stocks priced at 1000x earnings) they’re demanding employees figure out the use cases to deliver the productivity gains they’ve hyped and are SOOOOOOO sure are coming, just right around the corner…any day, now.

       Employees aren’t going to be able to bail out top mgt. Time is running out, hence the tone gets increasingly frenetic.

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    2. scott s. May 23, 2026 at 5:09 pm

       Some of our volunteer devs chipped in for a Claude license. I’m not one of them but follow Claude’s inputs via our stack channel. Lately I’ve noticing a lot of “you’re out of tokens, try tomorrow” responses. I can see where devs being pushed to run everything through Claude could rack up some massive bills.

       I have a “free” Copilot account tied to my Microsoft VS Code program, but haven’t used it as I haven’t had the interest yet in working through the interface.

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    3. Skip Intro May 23, 2026 at 11:46 pm

       Paging Ed Zitron! He has been citing the switch to token-based billing as a harbinger/trigger of doom for the AI bubble. It signifies the end of vast subsidies companies like Anthropic and OpenAI have been passing from VCs to their customers. When people have to pay the actual costs for their BS generators, they become less essential.

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    4. Hazelbee May 24, 2026 at 6:18 am

       We have access viawork via an enterprise pay per token deal. I.e. not the pro or max versions.

       It is very very easy to burn through 1-200 dollars a day in tokens. Similarly it is very easy to have a ten dollar day which feels about right.

       The newer models like opus 4.7 are I think chattier than the older top models. And you don’t have control of reasoning or token spend once the prompt is sent. You only have it beforehand with model selection. And… Yes guess what the default is opus 4.7. sonnet 4.6 is 60% of the cost and good enough for most things. Haiku an evening older model is also competent at much of what we need. Costing is per Mtok or million tokens. $5 and 30 from memory for output and input tokens . But… Even that hides things like the caching mechanics.

       I would not be surprised to see a 10x difference in token spend for the same.outcome in our business.

       Reply ↓
19. Carla May 23, 2026 at 10:18 am

    Re: The Oil Shock Is Coming for America –“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was an external shock, entirely outside American control.” What a hoot!

    Reply ↓
    1. Some Guy May 23, 2026 at 11:56 am

       Yeah, I stumbled over that line as well, should have been accompanied by a picture of Nuland handing out cookies

       Reply ↓
20. Carolinian May 23, 2026 at 10:33 am

    Re Colorado river–the article says 3/4 of the water is used for farms that grow cattle feed among other things and they obviously do so using irrigation so the farms are as artificial a presence as the cities full of people. Simple logic says that those farmers must face the eminent domain power of governments that are more than happy to use it when it suits them. Property rights don’t cancel reality and in this case those water rights are themselves a dubious government grant.

    Reply ↓
21. The Rev Kev May 23, 2026 at 10:47 am

    “US political operatives built a surveillance app for Alberta separatists, a coordinated attack to destabilise Canada.”

    ‘The Centurion Project’s voter surveillance tool was built by US political operatives with direct ties to the Trump regime’

    Why am I not surprised. When Trump talked about annexing Canada last year, perhaps what he had in mind was Alberta mostly because of their oil. And if there is one thing that Trump is obsessed with, it is taking other people’s oil (see Syria, Venezuela, Iran). The rest of the Canadian provinces would have been a bonus. But that as been scaled back now. Looks like the Trump regime is using its operatives to try to cut out and annex Alberta instead. And there will be no law that they will leave unbroken nor any dirty trick that they will not play to get it. So will we one day hear of the Popular people’s Front of Alberta asking the US to bring democracy to them? /sarc

    Reply ↓
22. MT_Wild May 23, 2026 at 10:50 am

    “Throw me your kid”

    American law-enforcement rightfully takes a ton of crap for the actions of a small minority and the general participation in the surveillance/police state.

    But It’s nice to have Chad McStrongjaw fresh off his CrossFit and Red Bull morning routine standing in the yard to field a punt return when your house is on fire.

    He didn’t even seem that phased about it just another day in Kalamazoo. Assuming that was an infidel tattoo on his left arm, so maybe he’s been through worse.

    Reply ↓
    1. Henry Moon Pie May 23, 2026 at 11:50 am

       That’s what I was thinking. Give the guy an NFL contract. I’m sure the 49ers would like to have a sure handed punt returner come playoff time:

       1) In overtime of 2011 NFC championship against Giants, Kyle Williams fumbles a punt to lose the game;

       2) Late in 3rd quarter of the 49ers second Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs, with the Chiefs trailing 10-6, a Chiefs punt hit a 49ers blocker in the foot and skittered away before the Chiefs recovered. The Chiefs converted and took the lead. (It was really Shanahan’s stupid choice to receive the OT kickoff that lost the game.)

       Don’t tell my son about this post. These are things he’s trying to forget.

       Reply ↓
23. Christian B May 23, 2026 at 11:45 am

    Regarding X vs. Bluesky: Being dopamine resistant I find the different experience on the two very interesting and I see why now X is still dominant even though I have to constantly block the sxy bots. The algo for X is much better tuned to give you the dopamine hit. The Algo trained the humans and the humans train the algo and now everything else seems boring.

    But on Bluesky I get many people following me , and I follow many people back, when I post my photography, and I love it. It really is old school Twitter, and I think people forget how mild Twitter used to be.

    Reply ↓
    1. Some Guy May 23, 2026 at 12:00 pm

       Yes, I have had a similar experience, you explained it well

       Reply ↓
24. Mikel May 23, 2026 at 11:47 am

    Walmart warns of petrol rationing as Iran war hits customers’ wallets – Financial Times. “Self rationing!”

    Self-rationing is much better than running out and panic buying all at once.
    That makes a bad situation worse and faster.

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni May 23, 2026 at 11:58 am

       The thing is, we are already rationing ourselves in that the most you can buy and deposit into your fuel tank is around 15-30 gallons.

       A run on toilet paper is possible, but not on petrol.

       Reply ↓
       1. ambrit May 23, 2026 at 6:24 pm

          This being the NC commentariat, a run on sentences seems more likely even though the most enormously egregious examples extant encumber everyone’s enviable existences eventually ensuring ennui, etc. etc.

          Reply ↓
25. Adam May 23, 2026 at 11:50 am

    Speaking of Calpers, I’m glad to see Margaret Brown is still fighting the good fight and getting an external audit. I doubt the results will surprise anyone who have read all of Yves’ great work on the issue.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nations-largest-public-pension-fund-plagued-secrecy-underperformance-p-rcna346330

    Reply ↓
26. Jason Boxman May 23, 2026 at 12:15 pm

    A key is the activity needs to be demanding enough to require full attention, but not so hard as to be unattainable or frustrating.

    Seems like attaining that animal like state where you toss off the shackles of consciousness and just are. Having consciousness is such a drag.

    Reply ↓
27. amfortas May 23, 2026 at 12:29 pm

    re: patrick wood thing:
    i admit i am bewildered by most of this…i already have for a long time believed that most financial “products” are just casino scams…but crypto?
    lol. i wouldnt buy that if you paid for it.
    so reading through,i was waiting to see how any of all that could possibly effect me.
    and down at the very bottom of his timeline was real property titles…being somehow tokenised.
    and owners like me not even being informed, let alone asked for permission.
    thats scary, and all…but i also do not think i am alone…like at all…when i say, over my dead body.
    want to unite the american people over something? thats how you do it. just take the title to their land.
    i cant think of a single person i know out here who wouldnt immediately start burning shit down. wont lift a finger to protest anything else, but that? lol

    and yes…nation of renters and all.
    but still. owning property, even with the less than perfect fee simple, is far too embedded in the american psyche for these tech bros to so sanguinely abrogate.

    Reply ↓
    1. Alphonse May 23, 2026 at 10:29 pm

       Here in BC courts ruled that aboriginal title exists on fee simple properties in greater Vancouver. Most mainstream media say there’s nothing to worry about. On the other hand I see real estate experts who say the uncertainty about title is devastating investment.

       I am no expert on this. Regardless of how this actually shakes out in the end, the lack of significant protest makes it clear that it is possible to weaken title without triggering large scale protests. Use plausible justifications, do it piecemeal, take your time. If you can’t get a mortgage renewal, whom do you sell to and how much do you get – considering that your neighbours face the same problem? If the entity you sell to is in a position to repair the title they could get a lot of land at fire sale prices. Isn’t that more or less how the Russian oligarchs took control of the economy when the Chicago Boys chopped ownership into pieces so small that they were individually useless and handed it out to the citizenry?

       For a perhaps comparable case of creeping extinguishment of what people once thought of as fundamental rights look at restrictions on growing or selling your own food, collecting rainwater, or doing other things that compete with monopoly capital.

       The situation with stocks has been called the Great Taking. Again, I haven’t delved into it and may not remember correctly, but: At one time the investor held the stock certificate. Now you invest through a broker and the broker holds the certificate. You no longer own the stock: you have a claim on the stock. The broker owes you the value of that stock. Regulatory changes over the past couple of decades interlock so that other debt is senior to yours. In a crisis your asset could be used in a bailout.

       One specific scenario I heard was you would not lose your money outright in a bailout. Instead you would be offered equivalent value in tokens or CDBCs. Now the asset is programmable so that you can’t withdraw it, giving the system time to stabilize. There is moral hazard: crisis is now in the banks’ interests.

       The basic principle seems to be to methodically intermediate ownership until effective control resides elsewhere. Isn’t this what happened to capitalism, with many capitalists effectively handing control to banks and to managers?

       I try not to read too much on the subject. I find it too plausible and too depressing.

       Reply ↓
28. Charles Carroll May 23, 2026 at 12:31 pm

    The Vichy government of Japan will not struggle to end its feud with China just like it will never end its standoff with Russia over the Kuril Islands.

    Reply ↓
29. Jason Boxman May 23, 2026 at 12:34 pm

    Trump’s Endgame Is Surrender (The Atlantic via archive.is)

    The outlines of President Trump’s endgame in the Iran war are now emerging. In a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday, Trump reportedly explained that the United States was negotiating a “letter of intent” with Iran that would “formally end the war and launch a 30-day period of negotiations” on Iran’s nuclear program and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The purpose and effect of such an agreement should be clear: The United States is walking away from the crisis. Trump may launch another limited strike to look tough and satisfy the demands of the war’s supporters, but it would be a performative gesture. Endgame in this case is a euphemism for “surrender.”

    Reply ↓
30. Jason Boxman May 23, 2026 at 12:49 pm

    From Yes, there is a diaper crisis. This is how to solve it.

    The editorial argued that diaper insecurity is a problem for philanthropists to solve, not government. But nonprofit diaper banks cannot solve this alone. A public health issue of this scale requires public investment because diaper insecurity costs the United States $4.5 billion annually in treatment for diaper rash and in lost wages for parents. The California legislature recognized this issue in 2018 and has invested annually in the state’s network of regional diaper banks, whose leaders know that babies require diapers well beyond their first months. For eight years, these nonprofits have distributed more than 204 million diapers, far below retail costs, to 1.7 million California families in need.

    Looks like a job for nationalization; this is a public health good, and the profit motive ought to be eliminated entirely.

    Also, “diaper insecurity” is a stupid term. Call it what it is. It’s capitalist exploitation of the working class. But

    The writer is the CEO of the National Diaper Bank Network.

    So of course it’s a specific framing for this, likely highly compensated NGO “CEO”, to stay within their silo.

    NGOs everywhere, but no public goods from our capitalist infested and controlled governments.

    Reply ↓
    1. Clwydshire May 23, 2026 at 2:09 pm

       So how is all this diaper stuff going to work when polyester and polypropylene production breaks down because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz? That real absorbant stuff is plastic, and the substrate that gives it shape is a mixture of paper and plastic threads. Parents won’t be happy when this goes away. Some geezers wear diapers or pads too, wonder how that will work out? I read the Craig Tindale posts linked on NC, but don’t really have any idea of what the timeline really is.

       Reply ↓
       1. amfortas May 23, 2026 at 6:04 pm

          cloth diapers are a PITA, of course…but theyre 100% cotton, which is produced in great abundance starting 50 miles to my west, and going on as far as ive ever been, from there.
          its all been for export, of course…and luxury items(try finding an 100% cotton shirt in less than high end retail,lol)…and it consumes gobs and gobs of fertilizer, chem herbicides, chem pesticides and diesel to run all that big ass equipment…but still, its there,lol.
          cloth diapers also make the absolute best kitchen towels/rags.
          (pro-tip: use the fresh ones for this purpose)

          Reply ↓
    2. lyman alpha blob May 23, 2026 at 3:37 pm

       RE: The writer is the CEO of the National Diaper Bank Network.

       So using cloth diapers isn’t suggested as an option, I’m guessing. They’re really not that difficult to use, and you can always use disposable ones when away from home unless you want to be really hard core about it.

       Reply ↓
31. Jason Boxman May 23, 2026 at 12:50 pm

    COVID, is that you?

    Kyle Busch died after complications from sepsis, severe pneumonia, family says (NY Times)

    Kyle Busch suffered from severe pneumonia that progressed into sepsis, “resulting in rapid and overwhelming associated complications,” the NASCAR driver’s family said in a statement Saturday.

    The statement was based on a medical evaluation provided to the family, it said.

    Busch died Thursday at age 41 after being hospitalized on Wednesday night, and the motorsports world has mourned the racing legend’s shocking loss in the days since.

    Given how many people died directly from COVID, I don’t think there’s a level of social murder high enough where anyone is gonna find a clue.

    Reply ↓
    1. Steve H. May 24, 2026 at 7:44 am

       Bush radio’d “I’m going to need a shot” to his crew during the race on May 10, when he was suffering severe sinus problems. The next week at Dover he subjected his body to up to 3.5 G’s nearly 400 times in one afternoon. That would’ve driven infection into the deepest parts of his lungs.

       Left behind two kids. Hyper-competitiveness has its downsides.

       Reply ↓
32. Jason Boxman May 23, 2026 at 1:02 pm

    It’s okay. We’re capitalists and we’re here to help. Trust us.

    Short Naps, Long Hours: How Autism Clinics Squeeze Medicaid Dollars Out of Preschoolers (NY Times; archive.ph blocked)

    The clinics are enticing to health care investors: Demand is high and payment rates far exceed labor costs.

    Medicaid often pays about $70 per hour ($83 in North Carolina) for therapy largely provided by workers with high school diplomas who earn around $20.

    Private equity firms have acquired at least 500 clinics over the past decade. “There’s just huge opportunities to grow these businesses and help increase access to care,” said Jon Krieger, a managing partner at Calex, a financial firm that assists with autism clinic mergers and acquisitions. He estimates the market could grow to $90 billion.

    The facilities have a double appeal for many parents: Along with promising better behavior, they can amount to free child care because Medicaid pays all the costs.

    Adi Khindaria, the chief executive of Compleat Kidz, said scale is crucial to making the clinics successful and able to help more children.

    “I personally believe in the fact that, you know, profit is like oxygen,” he said. “Without oxygen, you can’t live. But the purpose of living is not breathing oxygen, right? The purpose of living is to do something useful.”

    and

    Advising families not to send their children to school is one common practice that current and former workers at clinics across the country described as increasing profits at children’s expense.

    Another is telling families they will not enroll their children unless they agree to 25, 30 or sometimes 40 hours of therapy a week.

    Reply ↓
    1. Henry Moon Pie May 23, 2026 at 5:56 pm

       Capitalist Eichmanns following the orders of what Hagens calls “The Superorganism.”

       Here’s a few chasers. Humans are actually kinda charmin’ when they’re singin’ and dancin’ and playin’ and paintin’ and writin’ and gardenin’. Maybe we were meant to be Gaia’s artists. reflecting the beauty of this world like Thomas Berry said, instead of building ABM systems and data centers.

       Chaser 1: Big Brother and the Holding Company with (Ha, ha) Janis Joplin doing “Ball and Chain” at the ’67 Monterey Pop Festival with Cass Elliot in the audience, her jaw on her chest.

       Chaser 2: John Harford introduces a trio of ladies that includes Emmylou Harris and Alison Krauss singing “Didn’t Leave Nobody but the Baby/”

       Chaser 3: Performers at the 1965(?) Newport Folk Festiva, led by Odetta,l join as a choir to sing “We Shall Overcome“

       Reply ↓
33. AG May 23, 2026 at 2:02 pm

    re: China

    So Kallas compared China to “cancer”?
    Wonder how far the fallout to that public comment will go.

    https://www.intellinews.com/eu-s-foreign-policy-boss-kallas-is-undermining-europe-s-credibility-444178/?source=china

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev May 23, 2026 at 7:22 pm

       She’s a human wrecking ball and it looks like her Russia phobia was not enough for her. With her as the EU’s chief diplomat, the EU is screwed as negotiations with he are no longer possible.Eevn Rubio doesn’t want to talk to her.

       Reply ↓
34. Ann May 23, 2026 at 6:18 pm

    Ordinary WiFi can now identify people with near perfect accuracy

    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260522023127.htm

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/us-iran-officials-signal-progress-negotiations-fragile-ceasefire-war-rcna346636

    Judges in Maine and Wisconsin dismiss Justice Department’s attempts to force turnover of voter rolls

    https://apnews.com/article/trump-doj-lawsuit-voter-data-maine-wisconsin-a967b300265be5ff54119858113be4a0

    Reply ↓
35. Glen May 23, 2026 at 6:50 pm

    Here’s Scott Manley going over yesterday’s Starship launch:

    Starship Flight 12 – V3 Debuts with Max Power, Fatal Flips, Fast Landings and Exploding Raptors
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kxanBYTAaY

    So Starship/SpaceX is going to get interesting in the next couple of years. First, so that Elon can further fill whatever is missing in his self worth with becoming a trillionaire, and second, the flailing American MIC is going to latch onto Starship’s military potential. There have been discussions about potential use, but honestly, using it to deliver a C-17 load of people anywhere in the world is not going to be very high on that list:

    Pentagon eyes Starship, designed for Mars, for military missions somewhat closer to home
    https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2024/03/pentagon-eyes-starship-designed-mars-military-missions-somewhat-closer-home/394998/

    You’ll know when this is getting serious when access to Boca Chica gets much more restricted.

    Reply ↓
36. amfortas May 23, 2026 at 7:23 pm

    i just watched this, and sent it to my economics major younger son, marked as important and shit we should talk about: hudson and tyson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps6iOpG1Xek

    Reply ↓
    1. Ann May 23, 2026 at 10:14 pm

       Amfortas, this video is brilliant. Kathleen Tyson has some optimistic points to consider and I’d like to hear what Yves has to say about her views. Michael Hudson seems to be impressed.

       Reply ↓
37. hamstak May 23, 2026 at 7:59 pm

    [RT] Suspected Oreshnik strike reported near Kiev

    Multiple videos circulating on social media purport to show a Russian Oreshnik missile strike on targets in Belaya Tserkov…Ukrainian media and Telegram channels have circulated videos showing bright objects descending almost vertically, followed by powerful flashes. They claimed the footage captured the use of Russia’s intermediate-range hypersonic Oreshnik system, although Moscow has not officially confirmed the launch.

    Reply ↓
    1. hamstak May 23, 2026 at 8:07 pm

       “During the Cold War, a major Soviet Air Force base was located near the city.” Apple Maps shows an airstrip to the west of Belaya Tserkov (itself maybe 20 m. SW of Kiev) — oddly it can only be seen in satellite view, which shows a number of assuredly military aircraft (though the date of the map image is not provided). Perhaps that was the (or a) target, if the videos are indeed what they are purported to be.

       Reply ↓
       1. skippy May 24, 2026 at 1:41 am

          Some chatter about serious VIP’s on site. Makes sense as Oreshnik is a deep penetration system, not to mention out of the six strings of six, 5 were all in a row hitting the same location and the last strung out off to the right. Then again it could have been a similar system.

          Reply ↓