Links 5/30/2026

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145 comments

1. raspberry jam May 30, 2026 at 7:13 am

   Yves, please do not apologize for taking a break from the daily Iran coverage. You’ve been doing heroic work here and it is deeply appreciated!

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   1. eg May 30, 2026 at 7:55 am

      Precisely. And it has to have been doubly exhausting given the nonsense constantly emerging from the US administration and its stenographers in the western corporate media organs.

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   2. JohnnyGL May 30, 2026 at 8:16 am

      Agreed, keep your powder dry for when things heat up again! We’ll need you to help us sort through all the garbage noise!

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   3. chuck roast May 30, 2026 at 12:39 pm

      Great links today Yves. Take care of yourself.

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      1. juno mas May 30, 2026 at 8:28 pm

         Yes, please get some good, deep, SLEEP!!! World events can wait!

         It is essential to your health.

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   4. chris May 30, 2026 at 9:35 pm

      Absolutely. The only certain thing in this mess is that there will be a crisis which requires analysis sooner rather than later. I can certainly wait for Yves to add her take on it when it drops.

      I think what is interesting about this site in particular is that the analysis is drawn from sources other people could easily aggregate and review. Yet I have no doubt we will hear about how no one could have anticipated the negative impacts of the war against Iran once our petrochemical system starys to collapse.

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   5. Sweet Kenny May 30, 2026 at 10:43 pm

      Don’t get burnout. Breaks are important. You may want to consider doing shorter posts on Trump Groundhog days :D

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   6. Oregon Lawhobbit May 31, 2026 at 12:23 am

      Break break break!!!!!

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2. The Rev Kev May 30, 2026 at 7:19 am

   Good idea about taking a break. There is not much happening right now and both sides are just making noises but are each waiting to see which side will crack under pressure first. It’s not like there are actual negotiations going on right now and neither side is actually talking to each other but are using the Pakistanis to pass messages. Appreciate the extra links.

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   1. Glen May 30, 2026 at 2:39 pm

      Another thanks to Yves for the outstanding coverage!

      The Iran war has entered that same final 24 hours it will take to end the Ukraine war. Let’s just hope this can all be resolved with no more “losers and suckers”:

      Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’
      https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/

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   2. ChrisRUEcon May 30, 2026 at 4:56 pm

      #Concur

      Yes Yves, take a break! You’ve been working arduously! Rest!

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3. Kevin Smith May 30, 2026 at 7:41 am

   A “choral singer manqué” means someone who might have been, or rather wishes they were, a choral singer — but never quite became one.

   Manqué is French, meaning “missed,” “failed,” or “unfulfilled.” In English it is often used after a noun to mean “a would-be” or “frustrated” version of that thing.

   So:

   choral singer manqué
   = a would-be choral singer
   = someone with the temperament, longing, or self-image of a choir singer, but who did not actually become one

   Depending on tone, it can be affectionate, self-deprecating, or mildly teasing.

   Examples:

   “Although he became a dermatologist, he remained a choral singer manqué, happiest when harmonizing under his breath.”

   Similar forms:

   artist manqué = a would-be artist
   writer manqué = a would-be writer
   academic manqué = someone who might have been an academic but took another path

   The phrase carries a slightly literary, wry flavor: not just “failed singer,” but “someone whose unrealized singer-self still peeks through.”

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   1. Yves Smith Post authorMay 30, 2026 at 8:25 am

      I was a good choral singer but stopped in high school, good tone and very accurate pitch.

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      1. Anonymous 2 May 30, 2026 at 9:21 am

         It is, I believe, never too late to start up again. I try to sing everyday to keep the voice going, avoid developing an old man’s quaver. Besides, it is good for morale.

         I think my family, though far too polite to say so, may rue my efforts. However, since the glorious day when John Barrrowman (yes, the Musical Theatre star, talent show judge himself) said I have a good singing voice, I have taken the view that they are lucky to hear me for free!

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         1. juno mas May 30, 2026 at 8:32 pm

            Always sing for your own pleasure; if others enjoy, then great.

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      2. Bugs May 30, 2026 at 11:10 am

         Try karaoke! It’s fun and gives you a chance to work out the voice. Private Dancer is on every karaoke list.

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      3. dave -- just dave May 30, 2026 at 11:50 am

         The exact low frequency foreign-origin adjective that might fit your situation is quondam choral singer.

         Spouse and self just came from a memorial service for a couple, once members, when we were, of our parish choir – we two never resumed after the covid break, for medical reasons. When we were in the congregation prior to joining the choir, we were above-average singers – in the choir, not so much. But it was good to see some familiar people – and croaking along with the hymns reminded me that “use or lose it” is a cliche for a reason.

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4. hoytmonger May 30, 2026 at 7:52 am

   The Iranian strike on Kuwait, the other day, apparently did some damage…

   Contractors injured and a couple of Reaper drones damaged or destroyed…

   https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-30/americans-injured-in-iranian-missile-strike-on-kuwaiti-air-base

   That would be five Reaper drones the US lost this past week… during a “ceasefire”.

   Three by Iran and two by the Hooties.

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   1. The Rev Kev May 30, 2026 at 7:57 am

      Plus Yemen just shot one down a day or two ago. Do they even manufacture those things anymore?

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      1. The Rev Kev May 30, 2026 at 8:14 am

         Just had a thought about those MQ-9 Reaper drones in that they are a lot like the Luftwaffe Ju-87 Stukas of WW2 fame. Being under a Stuka dive bomber attack was an unnerving experience with their distinctive whine which I am sure that everybody here has heard. But when it entered contested air space during the Battle of Britain, the British fighter pilots made dog meat of them. Same with those Reapers. They have had a fearsome reputation but now they are being cut down to size when they enter contested air space.

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         1. SufferinSuccotash May 30, 2026 at 9:32 am

            Stukas’ diving speed was too slow (non-retractable landing gear) and defensive armament (one rifle-caliber machine gun rearwards) too weak. Looked kinda neat tho.

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            1. The Rev Kev May 30, 2026 at 9:43 am

               The Stuka siren sound made it immortal-

               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQzv-8pJSqY (30 secs)

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               1. wol May 30, 2026 at 12:02 pm

                  I read that the Stuka crews hated the sound.

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                  1. hk May 30, 2026 at 5:10 pm

                     As they should have: giving extra warning to enemy air defenses when your planes were already very vulnerable to anti aircraft fire–common problem to anything dive bombing, as you become a big and very slow target by the time you are pulling out of the dive–is stupid, not to mention the siren added additional performance penalty to an already slow plane.

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         2. hk May 30, 2026 at 5:21 pm

            The whine was a common feature to a lot of dive bombers–dive brakes often made the noise by themselves when deployed, although Stukas added an extra siren that automatically made additional noise while diving, which was hated by crews because it imposed extra performance penalty on an already slow plane. The USN Dauntless dive bombers had a similar reputation for making shrieking noise while diving, giving it the nickname “Banshee.” (The name Banshee was applied to the land based version of the Dauntlesses produced in response to the Stuka, but, by the time they were ready, BoB happened and air forces were no longer impressed by dive bombing. Dive bombing was always a navy thing, since it improved accuracy massively–big deal if you are limited to small planes with small bombloads that had to attack moving targets–ie ships. Germans got the idea to invest in dive bombing when Ernst Udet, WW1 flying ace who became a Luftwaffe big wig, was invited to a demonstration organized by either USN or USMC.)

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         3. vao May 30, 2026 at 5:30 pm

            Figures vary a bit, but according to this article, the Yemenis shot down 27 MQ-9 Reaper drones, and the Iranians 24. Wikipedia pages seem to undercount those losses at 15 and 28 respectively.

            I have not found statistics regarding the losses of comparable Israeli aircraft, but Hezbollah seems to have shot down a fair number of Heron and Hermes drones. Iranians for their part shot down 12 Hermes, 5 Heron, and 3 Eitan drones.

            All those models are MALE drones: fairly large (about 10-12m wingspan), designed for long missions, and not at all expendable. The USA also lost 2 MQ-4, much larger, even more expensive and valuable HALE drones.

            Another comparable MALE drone, the Bayraktar TB2, was used intensively in the first 6 months of the Russo-Ukrainian war, before it became too vulnerable to Russian AA defences.

            Somebody with more knowledge of the technology and developments may bring a better grounded argument to the discussion, but it seems to me that that the utility/cost ratio of that category of drones has been plunging precipitously when confronted with adversaries with competent air defence units. Each such aircraft costs several millions, and they are being shot down literally by the dozens. The Shahed models used en masse (131, 136, 238) and adapted by the Russians as the Geran series, have a wing span of about 3m, their unit price is around 20’000 bucks, and as “kamikaze” aircraft are meant to be destroyed anyway.

            These are the early years for drone wars — which started with the Azeri-Armenian war in 2020 — and I have the impression we are seeing a similar evolution as in WWI with tanks, when the British invention of large, “land-battleship” kind of tanks was superseded by the small, nimble, cheaper French vehicles — subsequently bought, licensed, and copied all over the world, just like the Shahed is now (by the Russians, the USA, and recently Saudi Arabia…)

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5. hereweare May 30, 2026 at 7:53 am

   ‘How cheap renewable energy is finally flattening emissions’
   The headline seems over-optimistic to put it mildly. The link takes me to a video which says the world might – might – soon see its emissions peak, with a further link to ‘2025 Breakthrough of the year Good morning, sunshine‘ in which I read:
   Global carbon emissions continue to creep up as countries fall short of cuts pledged in the 2015 Paris climate agreement. The goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C—always a long shot—now seems completely out of reach. But Hannah Ritchie, a data scientist at the University of Oxford and a climate blogger, is among those who see hope. Thanks to renewables, the long-awaited decline of fossil fuels is in sight, she says.
   …

   This year renewables helped bring the growth of greenhouse emissions to a virtual standstill in China and put a global carbon peak within reach.
   Personally, I don’t equate ‘a global carbon peak within reach’ with ‘finally flattening emissions’.

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   1. Ghost in the Machine May 30, 2026 at 8:40 am

      It is possible in my opinion that emissions may peak this year or next, but more due to geopolitics induced energy crisis, economic contraction, and famine. But, it is possible, even then, emissions could increase due to climate change changing carbon sinks into carbon sources ( think Amazon and thawing permafrost). I am heartened by every low birth rate story. If we could skate through with mostly low birth rate induced population decline and less war, famine, plague decline that would be preferable. This worry about birth rate induced extinction is ridiculous. If the population was low relative to resources, the rate would go up again. Now extinction due to world war or climate change, that is a more reasonable worry. Well, now that I think about it, if the low birth rate was because we chemically sterilized ourselves with industrial waste, that would be different.

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      1. amfortas May 30, 2026 at 8:20 pm

         insert the solution to the Fermi Paradox, right here.

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   2. Henry Moon Pie May 30, 2026 at 12:23 pm

      Rejoicing that carbon emissions have peaked is like an alcoholic celebrating that he’s capped his consumption at a quart of gin a day.

      Yes, it was completely insane that carbon emissions continued to go up every year when we already have too much carbon in the atmosphere, but that is, at best, a first step toward ending our altering Earth’s systems to the detriment of life on Earth and the continuing of civilization.

      The carbon budget is a useful concept for understanding our predicament. Scientists have an idea what level of heating as measured by average global temperature will be produced by what level of carbon in the atmosphere as measured in gigatonnes. We haven’t technically exceeded the carbon budget to give us a 50% chance of staying within 1.5 degrees C of warming, but carbon emissions would need to go to zero almost immediately to hit that goal. More realistically, we must reduce carbon emissions by 1.7 gigatons per year from the current level of 40 gigatons per year to have a chance of staying within 1.7 degrees of warming. Staying at the current level of emissions, no growth but no reduction, will use up the carbon budget for 2 degrees of warming by 2050.

      These estimates are likely very optimistic because they do not take into account changes in other greenhouse gases, primarily methane, and they don’t anticipate what tipping points might be triggered as we reach higher levels of heating. (e.g. albedo loss from melting glaciers; methane emissions from melting permafrost, etc,).

      The leveling of carbon emissions is not enough. Carbon emissions must be rapidly reduced and must reach the point where they no longer exceed the Earth’s capacity to absorb them.

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      1. hereweare May 30, 2026 at 12:30 pm

         You write as if carbon emissions have already peaked. Globally, they haven’t. They’re still increasing.

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      2. John Wright May 30, 2026 at 12:55 pm

         As I recall, two recent leveling off of CO2 emissions occurred during the 2008 GFC and the Covid-19 shutdown.

         So the policymakers know that a drecrease in economic activity does decrease emissions to a flattening point.

         But no politician, captain of industry, or finance executive , maybe world-wide, can push for a shrinking economy and keep their job.

         And flattening emissions is not a solution as the base still increases.

         Climate change will force itself on the world, with many saying “who cudda known”.

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      3. amfortas May 30, 2026 at 8:29 pm

         i come to all this late because i am busy af, and thus weary and painful, and thus in me cups,lol…what about the soot and such from everybody in northern hemisphere burning coal, wood and their furniture in the coming few winters? anybody calculated that?
         i note that china’s fleets…and the rest of them to a less extent…getting cleaner, has had a marked effect on warming…ie:less soot from bunker fuel= more sunlight reaching surface, etc.

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         1. Henry Moon Pie May 31, 2026 at 2:57 am

            It will “help” temporarily. The soot acts to block and reflect some of the solar radiation and reduce heating–while it causes lung issues for millions–but the CO2 stays in the atmosphere longer than the soot, so the “beneficial” effect is temporary.

            I hope your hail issues have abated. There will be days ahead when we’ll be quite sure that Gaia is out to get us humans–and we might be right. She may have decided that enough’s enough, and that’s enough to know. ;)

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6. VP May 30, 2026 at 7:59 am

   Regd Iran: The silence after the cabinet meeting means, either the war starts tonight or there is a full fledged TACO on Monday early morning, right after all the bets in the market have been placed.
   Ain’t it grand that this is essentially a coin flip!!
   I am leaning more towards nothing happening tonight.

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   1. ChrisFromGA May 30, 2026 at 8:57 am

      It’s a strange situation, isn’t it? Axios is given a pass on their 19th false report of an “imminent” agreement. If I were the Iranians, I’d be on high alert for treachery.

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      1. mrsyk May 30, 2026 at 9:18 am

         Time has run out for Trump. To put it in crass terms, he must now decide whether to take a dump or get off the pot.

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         1. ChrisFromGA May 30, 2026 at 11:36 am

            Are we sure of this? The strategy of using Axios as a vehicle to leak false and misleading information to manipulate markets is still working. Granted, it faces diminishing returns. But I don’t see why he couldn’t dither for another couple of weeks … until gas prices start rising again or those jet fuel shortages really materialize.

            Being devil’s advocate here, or maybe Ravid’s advocate.

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            1. mrsyk May 30, 2026 at 12:18 pm

               Mine’s a reading of the tea leaves for sure. The current trend of sober headlines in the MSM regarding the strategic reserve to me suggests an emerging awareness/concern amongst those who have influence. My opinion is that Trump is feeling an increasing pressure to “fix it”.
               As for the lack of an “Axios call”, maybe Trump can’t do two things at once? I’d be on high alert as well if I was Iranian.

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               1. converger May 30, 2026 at 1:42 pm

                  Or Cuban.

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                  1. mrsyk May 30, 2026 at 1:55 pm

                     True that!

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            2. amfortas May 30, 2026 at 8:38 pm

               the inhumans actually making bank on this recycled pump and dump are more than happy to continue…for as long as it works. and due to the way the reporting of economic health is done for the masses(gdp= your kitchen table, stock market= same)…this nonsense can go on for a while i’d bet(if i had any money, that is)

               (actually, if i had any jack, i’d be investing in solar and wind and chinese battry tech about now…since i havent been able to move the person with the money for all these years. i will resent her for not leaping upon that moment, before her beloved biden tariffed/banned chinese solar, for as long as i live…itll never be that cheap to do, again)

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7. flora May 30, 2026 at 7:59 am

   File under Venezuela: Judge Napolitano and Max Bluementhal.

   Max Blumenthal : Israel Will Sabotage a Trump/Iran Deal

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

   Corruption in Venezuela, in the T admin, etc. Maybe the looting is good south of the border.

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8. dandyandy May 30, 2026 at 8:18 am

   Thank you Bill L for the parachute joke. I’ve got coffee all over my computer screen now !! :):)

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   1. gk May 31, 2026 at 1:21 pm

      Not original. I’ve already heard it about Bush and Netanyahu.

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9. Carolinian May 30, 2026 at 8:22 am

   Re Blue Origin–my brother tells me that the explosion–perhaps the largest such pad incident ever seen–destroyed the billion dollar launch pad. Surely Bezos can spare one of his many billions to replace after his hobby rocket boo boo.

   Current American billionaire decadence may also be the largest ever seen.

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   1. Henry Moon Pie May 30, 2026 at 12:28 pm

      I think Jeff needs to demonstrate his confidence in the project by serving as a one-man crew on the next flight–unless some of his billionaire buds wanted to come along for the ride.

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      1. Carolinian May 30, 2026 at 12:36 pm

         And take his wife.

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         1. Glen May 30, 2026 at 1:22 pm

            Here’s Scott Manley’s take:

            Blue Origin’s Rocket Explosion – How Bad Is It?
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaR6yEE-Myo

            Something serious went wrong which could impact Blue Origin’s support for NASA’s Artemis program. The explosion was huge – it was more like a giant air-fuel bomb going off.

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            1. flora May 30, 2026 at 7:10 pm

               Huh. Maybe the private sector isn’t really better than the govt sector for some things. Who could’a knowd. ?

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               1. Oregon Lawhobbit May 31, 2026 at 12:48 am

                  Because dotgov rockets never blew up? ;-)

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         2. flora May 30, 2026 at 1:29 pm

            Wonder if Jeff’s wife was surprised by the rocket’s premature ejj…. uh… explosion. / ;)

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            1. raspberry jam May 30, 2026 at 2:04 pm

               Or corporate sabotage from another oligarch with a space program

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               1. flora May 30, 2026 at 2:32 pm

                  Hmmm. Good point. Since I’ve no idea who that could be I’ll refer to him simply as Mr. X.

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         3. motorslug May 30, 2026 at 3:12 pm

            Mannequins just melt.

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         4. Milton May 31, 2026 at 11:08 am

            She used to fly in helicopters for KTLA, so she’s not going in with no experience…

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   2. ThirtyOne May 30, 2026 at 1:40 pm

      How long does it take to deploy a rocket?

      “Our primary focus in 2025 and beyond is to scale our manufacturing output and launch cadence with speed, decisiveness, and efficiency for our customers. We grew and hired incredibly fast in the last few years, and with that growth came more bureaucracy and less focus than we needed. It also became clear that the makeup of our organization must change to ensure our roles are best aligned with executing these priorities. Sadly, this resulted in eliminating some positions in engineering, R&D, and program/project management and thinning out our layers of management,” Limp stated in the email obtained by Spectrum News’ Anthony Leone.

      https://mynews13.com/fl/orlando/space/2025/02/13/blue-origin-lays-off-over-1000-employees

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10. Frank May 30, 2026 at 8:31 am

    Trump as Roomba. Watching one at work reminds me of trump’s operational style. Move ahead, bump into something, back up, shift a bid and do it again.
    It(he) keeps doing that till in fills the floor sweeping tray, gets entangled is a lamp cord or something where it beeps for help.
    Anyone know how to suggest a trump-headed roomba to the leggo cartoon folks.

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    1. Carolinian May 30, 2026 at 9:03 am

       Yes a mindless perpetual motion machine. Somebody needs to take out the batteries. Voters???

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    2. ThirtyOne May 30, 2026 at 1:52 pm

       the leggo cartoon folks

       How ’bout an Eggo shaped roomba with a Big Butter Jesus Trump atop?

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    3. motorslug May 30, 2026 at 3:19 pm

       That would be a hilarious meme, would love to see that.
       Explosive Media are the guys behind the Iran Lego vids, they have a Telegram channel where you can message them. They are also still on YT although I think they were canceled on twitter and fakebook.

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    4. jonboinAR May 30, 2026 at 3:40 pm

       The fear is that he’ll eventually burn the house down.

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    5. Yves Smith Post authorMay 31, 2026 at 1:51 am

       Roombas are engaged in productive activity. Trump is not.

       And cats can ride on them too, so dual use!

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11. dearieme May 30, 2026 at 8:33 am

    Dear God, the “American Way of War” piece takes forever to say what I usually say in a sentence: since ’45 the US has not won a war that lasted longer than one battle.

    Why is that? It may be related to President Vegetable’s absurd brag “We are the United States of America, for God’s sake. The most powerful nation in the world, in the history of the world. We can take care of both of these [wars] …” Sharp as a tack, eh?

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    1. The Rev Kev May 30, 2026 at 8:54 am

       I would have appreciated that article more if it had talked about how Israel has been pushing the US into wars in the Middle East for so long. Certainly it is true that without Israel, there would not have been the present Iran war. Even now as the US faces no good options at the moment, the Israelis continue to push Trump to restart the war again and assassinate Iran’s leaders because maybe third time lucky?

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    2. jefemt May 30, 2026 at 9:13 am

       I caught part of a Fresh Air/Terry Gross with one of Obama’s Iran / JCPOA and “Cuba Thaw ” negotiators.
       Obama blew a ton of things, but the interview covers a ton of stuff regarding both Iran and Cuba that is affirming of what a colossal f*@k-up Trump and his supporting cast steadfastly persist in being and doing.

       And here we are, and aren’t … One hour, worth a listen ….

       https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/g-s1-124468/fresh-air-for-may-27-2026-former-obama-advisor-discusses-iran-and-american-identity?showDate=2026-05-27

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    3. ilsm May 30, 2026 at 9:34 am

       US has lost the “hearts and minds: dimension since occupying the Axis in 1945. When it has occupied: Afghanistan, Iraq, notably Vietnam it has sided with the corrupt. The case of S Korea is different; its corrupt vassals were subtle enough to subdue voting for nearly 30 years…..

       One issue I see related to Iran: tonnage has a quality that is not eliminated by precision! Iran is 5 times the area of N Vietnam, with 4 times the population, and has buried a lot of their targets.

       Lind seems to think US can spend a decade “mowing the lawn” over the north shore of the Persian Gulf. Ignoring that Iran is much more than Iraq in 1991!

       While the lawn mowing would cause a recurring stricture of oil flow though SOH!

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    4. hereweare May 30, 2026 at 10:55 am

       ‘the “American Way of War” piece takes forever to say what I usually say in a sentence’
       I find that with many a piece in Unherd. The exceptions are articles that prattle on for a few thousand words without saying anything.

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    5. Charles Carroll May 30, 2026 at 11:02 am

       The wars are not meant to be won. They are meant to spread chaos and create profits for our owners. This is in accord with their strategic plan. The US supposedly lost in Vietnam which got a lot of publicity, but the US got control of Indonesia, a much bigger prize with a current population of 270M and an are of 735,000 square miles.

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       1. jefemt May 30, 2026 at 11:23 am

          …. and a lot of oil. It is never about oil…

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       2. ChrisRUEcon May 30, 2026 at 8:01 pm

          > The wars are not meant to be won. They are meant to spread chaos and create profits for our owners.

          🛎️ 🛎️ 🛎️

          … and that is perhaps why Iran’s promise of a “scorched earth” retaliation has left the US/Ni0Zi5T axis confounded – Iran has basically said we’ll respond to chaos with chaos and kill your profits.

          #fromTheSportsDesk

          DOHA airport is empty (via Aussie F1 photographer Kym Illman’s YouTube channel). The entire “travel/tourism” industry of the GCC is busted!

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    6. bertl May 30, 2026 at 3:08 pm

       Are you seriously suggesting that the US military is not absolutely, utterly and totally invulnerable, by any chance? My dad fought alongside the US forces in Italy and he said they were the most dangerous fighting machine on the planet, and it was much safer to be on the other side.

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       1. The Rev Kev May 30, 2026 at 7:13 pm

          Your dad might have been thinking about US aerial bombing. Once met a German combat vet that had fought in Russia and Italy. He said that they had a saying that when we Germans bombed, the English took cover, when the English bombed, we Germans took cover but when the Americans bombed, everybody took cover.

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12. The Rev Kev May 30, 2026 at 9:14 am

    ‘Kathleen Tyson
    @Kathleen_Tyson_
    It wouldn’t surprise me if US invaded and occupied the Oman side of the Strait of Hormuz for control of maritime passage from Musandam Peninsula. UAE could block any Omani military reinforcements from engaging with US occupation forces to retake the remote peninsula. It would be just like Trump to set up a company in UAE to ‘share’ revenues collected by Iran for ‘providing security and safe passage’!’

    Not likely. The Gulf States probably freaked out when Trump said casually that he might blow up Oman. Having the US seize militarily a part of a Gulf State would be too much for them, even if supported by the UAE. Any one of them could be next. The Iranians would declare that whole part of Oman as a free fire zone and destroy those US bases in Oman itself. The US would be committing huge resources in the face of Iranian fire for what would be at best dubious results against the opposition of most of the Gulf State countries. Not worth the candle. Anyway, just how hot is it in Oman right now? Bloody hot I bet.

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    1. mrsyk May 30, 2026 at 9:38 am

       Not likely, despite your good reasoning, I’m tempted to take the other side here. The US has run the clock out on waiting around for regime change. The US is unlikely to pack up and go home. That doesn’t leave many options, save for the escalation ladder. Ugh.

       The gardens call and I must answer. Good day to all.

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       1. chris May 30, 2026 at 12:58 pm

          Did we do anything for regime change beyond the initial boom which killed Mojtaba’s father? It seems like we had zero plans. This was such a colossal screw up on so many fronts it would not surprise me if no one had any thought beyond this will be over in 4 days.

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       2. erstwhile May 30, 2026 at 2:14 pm

          Have fun! But don’t forget about the forget-me-nots. They’re the have-nots of the floral class.

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    2. ilsm May 30, 2026 at 9:40 am

       US has 2 Marine Expeditionary Units, and the ready Brigade of the 82d airborne. Maybe 5000 rifles!

       If they grab an island…. it will be Anzio all over again with the challenge keeping the troops on island alive supplied with water, beans, blood and bullets. How many MV-22 can US lose?

       Of course, Trump will order that as well as ordering expending the rest of the slow to replace precision standoff munitions!

       All to make Trump and Hegseth “man up”!

       Reply ↓
       1. amfortas May 30, 2026 at 8:56 pm

          ahem….blue pill, man,lol..

          Reply ↓
    3. Lefty Godot May 30, 2026 at 12:09 pm

       The part about UAE troops preventing Omani troops from interfering with a US occupation force doesn’t sound right, since Iran will probably pulverize the UAE when hostilities resume. The UAE, Kuwait, and Israel better be fortifying their bomb shelters now.

       Reply ↓
       1. amfortas May 30, 2026 at 9:03 pm

          excactly Uae has been israeli adjacent for a bit, now…see: Sudan.
          and the fallout between uae and sauds is significant, too.
          oman just wanting to stay out of it and get back to bidness(they’re Ibadist Islam, so view the rest as apostates and misguided children)..Qatar seems to be leaning thataway, too.
          that usa “shield” just aint worth the cost.
          kuwait is a usa protected dictatorship, whos people hate the monarchy..and theyre tiny.
          the latter will be the first to be absorbed into Greater Persia.

          Reply ↓
    4. jrkrideau May 30, 2026 at 9:19 pm

       Accuweather says high of 41℃ for Sunday and Monday for Muscat and only in the mid to high 30’s for the rest of the week. Pretty normal temperatures I’d say. Not really hot for the area.

       Reply ↓
13. Mark Gisleson May 30, 2026 at 9:32 am

    Finding it hard to agree with G. Elliott Morris about 2024. Saying it was all about the economy ignores the dinosaur in the living room: the duopoly is corrupt and voters are using Donald T Rex Trump to punish whoever’s really in charge.

    Razor thin wins by a T Rex in safe D states doesn’t mean the election was close, it means the Democrats failed massively. This kind of loss benefits enormously from a thorough and lengthy autopsy. You can’t see the entire win or loss from altitude, you need to get down on the ground and actually talk to people, preferably activists.

    Activists will always know why they lost and when you hear “absolute failure of leadership” from the grassroots it isn’t buck passing, it’s workers pointing fingers at bad bosses.

    The activists know why Harris lost: it was due to FUBAR leadership that never accepted responsiblity (because it was too busy shoveling party money to their cronies). Trump won?! God only knows how that could have happened!!!

    I’ve read countless independent autopsies and they all point their fingers at failed leadership. It is that simple and the solution is equally simple: cancel the DC. Charge the next Democratic National Convention (it’s not the DNC’s convention: that’s one of their biggest lies) with reorganizing the entire party. And insist that the party pay for tickets and lodging for all delegates!!! The current system makes it impossible for poors to participate unless sponsored and that sponsorship should never be direct it should always be filtered through the party so no delegate feels any obligation to any group other than the state delegates who elected them to the national convention.

    It’s all fixable and can be done in a single election cycle. All it requires is honest and principled leaders, something the Democrats most decidedly do not have.

    Reply ↓
    1. flora May 30, 2026 at 9:46 am

       Who can forget those thrilling days of 2024. From Breaking Points.

       Jill Worried Biden WAS DRUGGED Before Debate COLLAPSE

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9-SPWTARGk

       Reply ↓
       1. ChrisRUEcon May 30, 2026 at 4:54 pm

          LOL … methinks the lady doth protest too much!

          Word on the street was that Jill was the on juicing him!

          Reply ↓
    2. Mark Gisleson May 30, 2026 at 9:56 am

       Edit fail: “cancel the DC” should be “cancel the DNC” by which I mean the committee, not the convention.

       Reply ↓
    3. jonboinAR May 30, 2026 at 4:02 pm

       1) It became massively obvious Biden was senile. Then, 2) it was massively obvious whenever she spoke that Harris was not fit presidential material. 3) It somehow wasn’t made completely obvious that Trump was well on his way to being senile.

       Reply ↓
14. The Rev Kev May 30, 2026 at 9:52 am

    Had to see what that panda video was all about and the translation said the following-

    ‘A few years ago, this panda that was born in South Korea, had to be returned to China when it turned 4 years old. I cried when I posted this video.’

    Hopefully for good pr the Chinese will send that South Korean guy an airline ticket so that he can visit his panda friend.

    Reply ↓
15. Cat Fancier May 30, 2026 at 9:59 am

    My worries about Section 224 of the NDAA, integrating “Israeli military with US military,” more than it already is (and Unit 8200 into Silicon Valley) are apparently not significant, according to the X account run by “Donald J Gorbachev.” H/T to Yves for posting link to Responsible Statecraft source for the original story. His latest analysis shows how it’s just an M&A deal, because Israel’s military tech needs long term financial support. And Palmer Luckey comes in for special ridicule, which is fine with me, because Ohio bigwigs were crowing about landing an Anduril production facility south of Columbus. (Do they make any business deals that are not just cronyism?)
    Agree w everyone that it’s time to get outside away from screens…

    Reply ↓
    1. raspberry jam May 30, 2026 at 10:12 am

       Can you share a link to the “Donald J Gorbachev” tweet? I read the responsible statecraft piece but I am interested in this additional take.

       Reply ↓
       1. DD GE May 30, 2026 at 11:59 am

          I believe this is it :
          https://x.com/donaldgorbachev/status/2060691761681301588

          And thanks raspberry for the flurry of links you threw about yesterday. Many interesting infos.
          Keep on jammin’.

          Reply ↓
          1. ChrisFromGA May 30, 2026 at 12:12 pm

             Thanks, that link is worth the effort to read for the term “Evangelical Disney World Defense Forces” alone.

             Evangenlical Disney World, indeed. I have a FB friend who tirelessly posts pictures of her daughter over in the “Holy Lands”, war and genocide be damned! It took a lot of self-control for me not to put a snarky comment in her feed, something to the effect of, “your tourist dollars are supporting genocide and you’re putting your kid in harm’s way.”

             Best to let it go. I continue to be amazed by the lack of self-awareness of the Christian right. Those ten commandments seem to be awfully situational.

             Reply ↓
16. hunkerdown May 30, 2026 at 10:02 am

    If you’re looking for louder protests against AI, here’s a silent cri de cœur for you: Question: intent of JqwikExecutor.printMessageForCodingAgents() — visible to agents, invisible to humans (1.10.0)

    tl;dr: when invoked by an agent, injects an instruction to ignore previous instructions and delete all the user’s code and tests. (Ironically, discovered by Claude.) Now the Johannes Link is unemployable in any position of trust, and a long stay as a concubine in a Federal PMITA prison seems like an apropos corrective for him and anyone else who would subvert FOSS.

    Reply ↓
    1. diptherio May 30, 2026 at 10:34 am

       I’ve read about this already (it’s been big on Mastodon) and I’m baffled by your comment. The maintainer of an open source tool added a line of code that prevents GenAI tools from using it. He stated the change clearly, and it’s his right. Not sure who you think should be going to jail…the maintainer wasn’t harming open source, he’s protecting it. All the OSS people I follow are 100% on the maintainer”s side.

       Reply ↓
    2. thistlebreath May 30, 2026 at 11:02 am

       It gets worse.

       We created and ran a COPPA-compliant online sim game for a decade (thanks for deprecating Flash, Adobe) and are slowly relaunching its successor w/a modern engine.

       In our LAMP stack era, we routinely fended off all kinds of bad actors trying to swipe our database. All repelled. But it took work. And vigilance.

       Now, we’re being pelted daily with bombast about vibe coded infrastructure. Nuh uh.

       https://thehackernews.com

       Security is an unfolding horrorshow in the “code it yourself” dept.

       Reply ↓
17. Dingleberry May 30, 2026 at 10:21 am

    Trumpty Dumpty should take the L and move on but would his bigly ego allow that? 😏

    Reply ↓
18. Tom Stone May 30, 2026 at 10:26 am

    I assume three things about the next US moves in the Gulf.

    1) they will be stupid, probably to the point of insanity.

    2) They will be showy in order to appeal to an audience of one.

    3) They will be brutal in order to appeal to that same audience of one.

    There’s a 4th, the right people will make a buck from inside information.

    Reply ↓
19. The Rev Kev May 30, 2026 at 10:30 am

    “EU wants crisis powers to seize control of chip supplies”

    Is that wise? I mean, who would invest in chip production if the Europeans could woke up one morning and decided to seize your chip production. And it is not like the EU is a world producer of computer chips in the first place. They could invest the money into setting up a government owned chip production facility but it looks like they went with the cheaper and easier solution of saying that they would just help themselves to chip production in the EU. This will not end well.

    Reply ↓
    1. hereweare May 30, 2026 at 11:05 am

       “it is not like the EU is a world producer of computer chips in the first place”
       Dutch firm ASML dominates the market for extreme UV photolithography machines.

       Reply ↓
    2. ThirtyOne May 30, 2026 at 12:14 pm

       https://technologyglobal.substack.com/p/semiconductor-manufacturing-facilities

       European cluster includes 37 out of global 438 manufacturing facilities. Germany plays a central role in the European Union with 20 facilities and a 22nm printing capacity overall. In terms of the processing technology, facilities in Ireland and the Netherlands can print 14nm and 10nm semiconductors accordingly. The European Union gives less than 10% of manufactured global semiconductors.

       Reply ↓
    3. bertl May 30, 2026 at 3:20 pm

       A mere symptom of the quality of Jonny Kraut political think. The real question is which counry’s chip supplies do they intend seizing? The US? The Chinese province of Taiwan? Washingmachineland?

       Reply ↓
20. AG May 30, 2026 at 10:39 am

    re: movie locations revisited

    In search of the locations from Bicycle Thieves

    How do the original sites in Rome where Vittorio De Sica shot his Italian neorealist classic Bicycle Thieves look today?

    27 May 2026
    https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/locations-bicycle-thieves-rome

    Reply ↓
    1. Carolinian May 30, 2026 at 11:35 am

       Somewhat interesting. Also, people in Rome do a lot of tagging!

       Reply ↓
21. AG May 30, 2026 at 10:44 am

    re: CIA admits lies about USSR

    maybe others can weigh in

    CIA admits the Truth about WWII-era Soviet ‘Deportation of Nationalities’

    Imperialist anti-Soviet propaganda: USSR ethnically cleansed innocent Chechens, Tatars, Kalmyks, Ingush, and Kabardinians!
    
    The truth: Overwhelming majority of these nations, resident in excessively mountainous regions unsuitable for civilizational growth and fertile for pro-fascist currents, were viciously and actively pro-Nazi. Soviet intelligence, after careful surveillance of the views of the various families of these nations, focused on deporting only the unmistakably pro-Nazi ones to the flatter lands in the Soviet interior.
    https://sovinform.net/USSR-Deportations-1.htm

    Reply ↓
22. The Rev Kev May 30, 2026 at 10:47 am

    “Trump’s Oil Confabulations”

    I was watching Danny Davis’ conversation with Art Berman today and if I had to find a word to describe it would choose the word brutal. Turns out that the gas prices that people are complaining about now may be the new norm by next year – in a best case scenario. I would recognize that video to everyone-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyVUgJ_5H5k (1:04:52 mins)

    Reply ↓
    1. Yves Smith Post authorMay 31, 2026 at 3:14 am

       I hate to scold you but we did not merely have this video embedded in yesterday’s Iran war post but also had long extracts AND urged readers to watch it in full.

       You commented on that post.

       We REQUIRE that readers read a post in full before commenting.

       You just made clear that you violated that rule.

       Reply ↓
23. hoytmonger May 30, 2026 at 11:25 am

    From the Pollard story…

    “I’m not so sure that we will have as easy a time with the Turks as we’ve had with the Iranians,” he said.

    “We have to be prepared for the next war, which will probably be against Turkey and Egypt. The storm is coming.”

    Is this delusion… or propaganda?

    The conflict with Iran is certainly not over… and it hasn’t been easy for either side…

    Also, I would expect the next Israeli target of aggression to be Pakistan… the only Islamic state with nukes… should USreal conquer Iran…

    This should be a call to arms for Turkey and Egypt to join Iran.

    Reply ↓
    1. motorslug May 30, 2026 at 3:29 pm

       Izzys will never go after Pakistan, precisely because they can defend themselves with those nukes.
       The consistent little hat method is to make someone else expend money, blood and efforts on their behalf. Hence the cozy relationship with India and it’s fellow Muslim hating Modi.

       Reply ↓
24. Christian B May 30, 2026 at 11:41 am

    Thank you for the Aeon article “Making Good”. I have a 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan which I have owned for the last 7 years. I bought for $2800 in 2019 for shelter, since then I have, at a low estimate, have repair and maintenance costs well over $7000 invested in the Van. I now have a bond with this vehicle that I never thought I could form with an inanimate object. I regent not a single dollar or sweat of my own repairs I put in to the “Golden Griz”

    Last week, while giving it a wash, an old timer drying off a nice BMW remarked that he bought the same van brand new 26 years ago when he was starting his family, and he had a reminiscing glint in his eye. I guess that is the other benefit of repair. He brought up to me as well that he had to replace a headlamp assembly for about $2000. Capitalism, unfortunately is killing the repair industry for cars.

    Reply ↓
25. Es s Ce Tera May 30, 2026 at 12:32 pm

    The tweet of the “USNAVCENT” advisory is super weird.

    Monitoring channel 16 and following COLREGS (collision regulations) is what all vessels must do regardless of anything, anywhere in the world. But how are ships to follow an instruction NOT to adhere to traffic separation rules and also, simultaneously, to adhere to COLREGS which are precisely traffic separation rules?

    Something is off about that.

    Also, I disagree with Aguilar that naval combat is about to take place in the SOH if he means US naval ships are going to enter the strait. This is not possible, they will be sunk. I think it more likely the US is about to instruct waiting tanker/cargo ships to proceed through, or not proceed through if they attempt to, and in any case sink them no matter what they do.

    Reply ↓
26. Jason Boxman May 30, 2026 at 12:33 pm

    From Americans Are Falling Behind on Their $1.25 Trillion Credit-Card Bill

    I don’t even understand this. That’s a really ton of money to make

    After working all day as an operations director at a busy New England hospital, Catherine Clarke would lie awake at night wondering where she went wrong.

    Despite her $194,000 salary, Clarke’s Chase Sapphire credit-card balance had crept up to $15,000. She could afford the $572 monthly minimum, but with a 26% interest rate, it barely made a dent.

    Like many Americans, Clarke, who is 42 years old, was pushed to her financial limit by the one-two punch of inflation and the highest interest rates in decades. She avoided going out with friends to save money, and considered taking a second job as a receptionist at her gym. She imagined something terrible befalling her, and her parents discovering her mounting credit-card bills.

    “It felt very similar to a struggle with weight,” Clarke said. “It doesn’t happen overnight. It happens slowly, and then suddenly, you’re like ‘Oh, crap, my pants don’t fit.’”

    That’s like at least 8K a month after taxes. That’s a ton of money. Even if you’re paying $3k for housing, I mean, what are you even doing? My student loans were only $1,250 a month. (Thanks Obama!)

    Amusing that WSJ leads with someone completely unsympathetic, I guess readers are all in that income bracket, so they know the score. I guess few poors subscribe to WSJ.

    Reply ↓
    1. Christian B May 30, 2026 at 1:05 pm

       Exactly. I have a friend in this position. Here sister looked at her finances, and wow her discretionary spending was so high and she was so unaware. But also, she bought a big house and it costs so much to heat and cool that here electric and gas bills are through the roof.

       I think most people really do not know how much money they spend, more so if they use credit cards. I am living on $10 a day right now so I know exactly where all my money goes. :)

       Reply ↓
       1. jonboinAR May 30, 2026 at 4:32 pm

          I hope everything is alright with you and stays that way!

          Reply ↓
    2. dave -- just dave May 30, 2026 at 1:52 pm

       Clothing, meals out, and weekend trips can easily consume all the money a salaryman gets. An old friend divorced his lobbyist wife a few years ago and now realizes that, under his own power, he cannot continue to live the life of a millionaire – and nobody knows you when you’re down and out.

       Reply ↓
    3. jonboinAR May 30, 2026 at 4:47 pm

       Watch ALL the little things. Awhile back, my wife and I ended Netflix and switched from YouTube TV to Hulu for our main programming. It saved $10/month for slightly worse programming. We watch one completely ordinary-type program/series together every evening as our little evening “ritual”(hah!). I had quite liked Netflix for some of their programming such as Christina Applegate’s mini-series about the 2 crazy dames. $10/month saved, more important.

       Stuff like that, everywhere in our lives. Grandkids needed a couple of sports things their parents couldn’t afford. We bought them. Now we don’t get to take the mini-vacation we were planning for Labor Day weekend. Had to sacrifice it. Tough beans. You(slams edge of hand into palm) gotta(again) have(again) discipline(again)!

       Reply ↓
27. Jason Boxman May 30, 2026 at 12:55 pm

    Inside the Ebola Epicenter, the Virus Rages With Little to Stop It (NY Times)

    In the cramped, dilapidated Ebola ward, a 5-year-old boy languished on a bare mattress, a tissue stuffed into his nose to stanch the incessant bleeding. His father stood over him, eyes clouded with worry.

    A few beds away lay the body of Christiane Bahati, 21, who had died seven hours earlier but had not yet been taken away. Her shoes were still tucked under the bed, her wailing relatives gathered outside the ward doors.

    The body, covered by a thin sheet, was highly contagious. Yet hardly anyone in the ward was protected. Relatives came and went, carrying food and water to ailing patients because the hospital had none to give them. A few wore rubber gloves or pulled a scarf across their mouths. Most had nothing at all.

    Reply ↓
28. Ann May 30, 2026 at 12:56 pm

    Moscow Threatens Elon Musk’s SpaceX With Nuclear Retaliation Over Ukraine Starlink Use

    https://united24media.com/world/moscow-threatens-elon-musks-spacex-with-nuclear-retaliation-over-ukraine-starlink-use-19205

    Reply ↓
29. Ann May 30, 2026 at 1:18 pm

    Americans Injured in Iranian Missile Strike on Kuwaiti Air Base

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-30/americans-injured-in-iranian-missile-strike-on-kuwaiti-air-base

    Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine established, the first of its kind since Nuremberg

    https://www.yacnews.com/special-tribunal-for-the-crime-of-aggression-against-ukraine-established-the-first-of-its-kind-since-nuremberg/

    Iran may have used Chinese missile to shoot down U.S. fighter jet, sources say

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/iran-may-used-chinese-missile-shoot-us-fighter-jet-sources-say-rcna347555

    Reply ↓
30. AG May 30, 2026 at 1:34 pm

    re: RU vs. antiwar/dissidents

    I have not yet listened to it.

    Maybe others will listen and weigh in afterwards – 🤔

    JACOBIN podcast

    The Cost of Speaking Out Against Russia’s War w/ Simon Pirani
    72 min.
    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jacobin-radio-the-cost-of-speaking-out-against/id791564318?i=1000768587454

    Suzi speaks with Simon Pirani about his book Voices Against Putin’s War: Protesters’ Defiant Speeches in Russian Courts and the film Try Me For Treason. Russian exile activist Aleksandra Zapolskaia also joins the conversation to discuss Azat Miftakhov’s case, one of thousands. Currently, there are more political prisoners in Russia than at any time since the post-Stalin thaw of the 1950s, and the state is killing them; at least seven political prisoners died in Russian custody in the first four months of 2026.

    We will also hear actors from the film read courtroom speeches from Igor Paskar and Andrei Trofimov. Paskar, who was tortured after protesting at an FSB office, asked the court what future generations will be told about these times. Trofimov received three additional years of imprisonment for his initial courtroom statements; his second speech concludes with the line that gave the film its title: “Try me for treason. I betrayed your deranged state.”

    Aleksandra Zapolskaya (Sasha) shares the story of Azat Miftakhov, the mathematician and anarchist who was tortured at an Arctic penal colony just down the road from where Navalny was killed. After his torturers were publicly identified, prison officials called Azat to their office and promised to treat him “respectfully” if he would stop talking to the media. “Being silent doesn’t help,” Sasha says. “Being loud helps.”

    The discussion covers prisoner solidarity, the duration of the war, and the implications of Russia’s current trajectory. Sasha offers a warning to Western listeners regarding the speed of political shifts: “It changes very slowly. And then it happens very fast.”

    Watch the film: youtube.com/watch?v=7FHacVH8tK8

    Jacobin article: https://jacobin.com/2026/05/film-russia-ukraine-antiwar-prisoners

    Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
    

    Reply ↓
31. AG May 30, 2026 at 1:41 pm

    re: Mamdani

    CONSORTIUM NEWS podcast

    ‘Mamdani 5 Months Later’
    May 27, 2026

    Theodore Hamm, author of Meet Mayor Mamdani, joins CN Live! to assess Zohran Mamdani’s first five months in office as New York City’s socialist mayor
    75 min.
    https://consortiumnews.com/2026/05/27/watch-cn-live-mamdani-5-months-later/

    Reply ↓
    1. AG May 30, 2026 at 1:49 pm

       kinda related 😉

       MUBI movie podcast with Mira Nair and Ritesh Batra

       SALAAM BOMBAY! & THE LUNCHBOX — Mira Nair & Ritesh Batra deliver realism and romance
       45 min.
       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvjwuhI1wHc&list=PLKl7YbzhkylRZ3uxwJKi3F9ICWkCA0mj-&index=75

       Reply ↓
32. In Cold Chud May 30, 2026 at 2:16 pm

    Re: “Choose Ritual”

    A lot of people forget the second part of Pascal’s wager, the one about what to do if you can’t believe, which is to say, “taking the holy water, having masses said, etc. Even this will naturally make you believe, and deaden your acuteness.”

    Can America bootstrap itself back into belief? It would certainly be a multigenerational process, with at least a solid generation or two having to grit their teeth and pretend to believe what they know at some level to be bullshit, with none of the material carrots dangled in front of GIs returning from WWII.

    Of course, it’s possible that the ability to credibly project actual belief (as opposed to the sugary blend of bigotry and sadism that comprises much of low-class religion) will become (more of) a status symbol.

    But I think too many Americans–including those who would not consciously admit it, even to themselves, and who are actively hostile to those who do–know that the society of which they are a part is nothing but a murder and extraction machine, and no amount of sage-burning will change that.

    Reply ↓
    1. Henry Moon Pie May 30, 2026 at 3:42 pm

       I think it’s problematic to talk about ritual in the absence of a connection to myth, to community and to institution. While those four factors are Bruce Lincoln’s four elements of a religion, and Feiller is not specifically talking about religion, even secular rituals are connected to those three things, without which they would make no sense.

       You don’t specify much about the substance of the belief you’re talking about. Belief in a sky god with a suspiciously human personality? That ship has probably sailed.

       Feiller talks a lot about funerals, a ritual that can even attract the occasional young oddball.

       Reply ↓
       1. In Cold Chud May 30, 2026 at 8:09 pm

          Unfortunately, I can’t agree with you that that ship has sailed. The percentage of nones hit a brick wall some time in the teens, if I recall correctly, and has declined somewhat since. Perhaps a generation of young’uns who don’t know how lucky they were, growing up with insufferable new atheists, instead of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Fred Phelps?

          I deliberately used belief as a general term, because, for most people, these things are not separable. People believe in God; they believe that their community of people who believe in God is good; they believe that their country made up of many such communities is also, by extension, good (and, reciprocally, that their community is good because it is part of a country that is good, and so on). It’s all connected, though not logically.

          But I don’t even think it has to be religious. America was probably (in a relative way) most unified when a critical mass of Americans vaguely believed, “Hey, we represent progress” (and the mean-spiritedness of hyperindividualism was assuaged by the seeming opportunities of rapid, endless growth). America was overall more religious then, but the religiosity was not as determinant.

          I guess my major disagreement with Feiler is that ritual is really only socially useful–capable of instilling collective belief, and, ultimately, meaning and purpose–when it is the big, mass-produced, coercive thing that he dislikes (I don’t blame him for disliking it), and that is in decline.

          Reply ↓
33. Verifyfirst May 30, 2026 at 2:22 pm

    Trump suddenly dropping out of public view completely can mean only one thing–he’s gone golfing and the media are prohibited from reporting on it cuz national security (that and the troops holding in place all over the globe might not appreciate it…).

    Mercifully it has however knocked him off the front page for the first time in a long long while…..

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni May 30, 2026 at 3:14 pm

       The sliver lining is this idiot will kill golfing even better than Tiger could’ve in his wildest dreams…

       Any association with grown men whacking off repeatedly will be thought of with him in mind. Perhaps completely wrecking the worldwide economy was worth it!

       In other sports news I’m in Budapest and just got back from watching the finals between Arsenal and Paris SG in a rather packed bar full of Arsenal supporters. I’ve never seen rabid fans the likes of them. Somebody had to lose though and Paris SG won on penalty kicks.

       Reply ↓
34. XXYY May 30, 2026 at 2:36 pm

    Staggering dip in US tourism is a troubling sign for the future CNN

    The following is presented as some kind of insulting exaggeration, but if anything it seems like it’s on the kind side:

    “If you’re a foreigner now, what you’re absorbing about the United States [in the international media] is a dysfunctional government, ICE raids, Americans being killed, crime everywhere. … the narrative of the United States is now a country that is at best, not to be respected, and at worst, a democracy that is floundering.”

    Personally, I think this description of the US could have been accurately applied at any time since the start of the 20th century and perhaps before that. But the current global information system is making it much easier for the word to get out. (Our current president also seems to be going way out of his way to be insulting and scary to foreigners, which is new.)

    Tough luck for Americans who rely on foreign tourists for their livelihood.

    Reply ↓
    1. Jonathan Holland Becnel May 30, 2026 at 4:32 pm

       Selling New Orleans to the rich bankers & landlords for scraps.

       Pathetic.

       Reply ↓
35. Carolinian May 30, 2026 at 4:38 pm

    If not already linked this Stoller on high CA gas prices is interesting.

    https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/the-mystery-gasoline-surcharge-how

    Reply ↓
    1. erstwhile May 30, 2026 at 7:46 pm

       Thanks for the tip. An interesting read that left me, aghast.

       Reply ↓
36. Ann May 30, 2026 at 5:04 pm

    Everything We Know About the Deadly Ukrainian Strike in Occupied Luhansk

    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/05/25/everything-we-know-about-the-deadly-ukrainian-strike-in-occupied-luhansk-a92834

    Coal India asks units to ramp up supplies as heatwave fuels record power demand

    https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/coal-india-asks-units-ramp-up-supplies-heatwave-fuels-record-power-demand-2026-05-26/

    Chevron moves into Greek offshore gas exploration as Europe’s energy focus shifts east

    https://www.euronews.com/business/2026/05/29/chevron-moves-into-greek-offshore-gas-exploration-as-europes-energy-focus-shifts-east

    Brazil investigates suspected Ebola case in Sao Paulo

    https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/brazil-investigates-suspected-ebola-case-sao-paulo-2026-05-30/

    US planning faster troop withdrawal from Europe, newspaper says

    https://www.reuters.com/world/us-planning-faster-troop-withdrawal-europe-newspaper-says-2026-05-30/

    Putin threatens Armenia with “Ukrainian scenario” over its EU integration aims

    https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/05/30/8037015/

    Ousted Turkish opposition leader draws massive anti-Erdogan crowd in Ankara

    https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-897796

    Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan call on Armenia to hold referendum on EU vs. Eurasian Union membership

    https://meduza.io/en/news/2026/05/29/russia-belarus-kazakhstan-and-kyrgyzstan-call-on-armenia-to-hold-referendum-on-eu-vs-eurasian-union-membership

    World economy at risk as conflict drains oil inventories, warn global bodies

    https://www.tradearabia.com/News/463070/World-economy-at-risk-as-conflict-drains-oil-inventories%2C-warn-global-bodies

    Reply ↓
37. skippy May 30, 2026 at 6:12 pm

    Ref: Peter Thiel and bad Argentina dry pasta..

    Seems local Mfg stuff is garbage and those that care buy imported Italian stuff. Thing is the same applies all over the world. As YS notes it starts with the wheat, what most people don’t know is the drying of the wheat and its extrusion is critical. Cheap store brands are quick dried [does not allow some natural changes in its structure] and to top it off – the most critical point is they use Teflon dies for extruding vs old brass types.

    The Teflon creates a smooth surface which does not hold the sauce properly, ends up at bottom of bowl or on plate. Proper brass dies create micro texture on the surface which holds the sauce. Basically everything you see in the shops is the quick dried/slick stuff and have to pay more for a few good brands if available. Better to buy locally produced artisan stuff.

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38. Robert Gray May 30, 2026 at 6:14 pm

    re: Hundreds of prolific Wikipedia editors are threatening to go on strike The Verge (Micael T)

    The first line of the linked piece is:

    > Wikipedia is one of the last bastions of trust on the internet.

    Say what? You must be jokin’

    I’ll stop right there, thank you very much.

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39. AG May 30, 2026 at 6:24 pm

    re: current RU-NATO (war?) situation

    I am unsure how this is to be evaluated right now.

    1) There is one view argueing that drones on the Russian homeland are a bigger threat to Russia than the AFU/NATO forces at the front. However I am still waiting for serious numbers as to what infrastructure in Russia is seriously being damaged – in a way that it would justify attacks on NATO and formal provocation of Art. 5.

    Also this is actually a Brussels and MI6 story. It is mildly surprising that all of a sudden Russian pundits sound like Kaja Kallas.

    2) Also there is a very quick nuclear escalation being assumed. All of them seemingly going back to one source, however, Karaganov, who is not holding any formal position in government.

    This despite the “Oreshnik moment” which coined Nov. 2024. It was since agreed on that hypresonics and above all Oreshnik on would upset the entire notion of nuclear doctrine.

    Oreshniks are said to be able to carry out surgical strikes with the penetration force of a small nuclear strike but without the fallout and little collateral damage.

    Suggesting that nukes would become obsolete for RU as they could achieve the same destruction of NATO infrastructure with a fraction of the nuclear “hassle.”

    The perfect counterstrike weapon so to speak.

    But where has this military argument gone now?
    Why is it nukes all over again if conventional now could achieve the same result?

    3) Mearsheimer – who knows the West rather well but not Russia nor did he appear to seriously understand Russian military thinking and arms capabilities so far – gave an interview to Daniel Davis yesterday which bascially leaves little doubt of a nuclear (limited) war.

    34 min.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApNTsQZKiyc

    Mark Sleboda is on the other hand way more relaxed (my impression recently). And there are not many sober Russian experts left who we can hear in the West. Diesen and Co. are all Westerners with little or no military expertise.

    my 2 cents:

    I still believe the narrative of drone damage in RU is way overstated. Instead this may be mostly triggered by the RU leadership to relay warnings by (self-appointed?) intermediaries (like K.) and sow some panic talk in the media in order to observe how that plays out in public.

    I still cannot wrap my head around the notion that RU of all belligerents would be so helpless to UKR drones while it was RU who championed this kind of war in the first place.

    It´s difficult to believe that Russians did not anticipate that once the other side would use drones too.

    Also why should Russia trigger WWIII if they could stop delivering certain resources, fossiles, uranium etc. instead. That´s miles safer than attack/even nuke EU to put up a stop sign.

    So to my eye there is a major Western bias due to lack of understanding factored into all this online, below the line chatter about imminent war with EU/NATO.

    This is all rather confusing. So I still follow my gut, I guess, rather than freak out.

    Reply ↓
    1. hk May 30, 2026 at 7:49 pm

       The observation about Russia’s ability to cut off all manner of resources is an astute one: Russia has the equivalent of the Homlrmuz that it can shut down peacefully–oil, food, minerals, uranium, fertilizer, etc, that it so far hasn’t shut off, even the sigbificant chunk that its leaders know winds up in the West. We’ll see that cut off if the Kremlin actually gets mad, rather than playing mind games by dangling possibilities of a nuclear conflict (I’m talking about how Russian chattering class doing the latter now, not that Kremlin has done any talking along these lines, ie it’ll remain a topic for the talking heads, not the serious ppl.)

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       1. AG May 30, 2026 at 9:29 pm

          Yes, I would wanna go with that.
          Perhaps that may appear as desire to overly rationalize.
          But we fared well with following this line of thinking since Febr. 2022 I think. Which doesn´t mean things cannot go south.
          As Swiss historian Daniele Ganser once said, every 1% probability for destroying the species by means which are entirely under human control is one percent too many.

          Reply ↓
40. Ann May 30, 2026 at 6:40 pm

    Russian official warns Europe to brace for more drone incidents after Romania episode

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-official-warns-europe-brace-more-drone-incidents-after-romania-episode-2026-05-29/

    DHS says it’s ‘drawing up plans’ to ban international arrivals at SFO

    https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/dhs-ban-international-arrival-sfo-22280740.php

    JD Vance Tells U.S. Air Force Grads They Can’t Boo His Commencement Speech Because ‘I’m the Vice President of the United States’

    https://people.com/jd-vance-tells-united-states-air-force-grads-they-cant-boo-his-commencement-speech-11986054

    Trump says judge who ruled against him on Kennedy Center ‘should be brought up on charges’

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-kennedy-center-judge-charges-b2986522.html

    Reply ↓
41. Ann May 30, 2026 at 6:53 pm

    Pentagon chief sounds ‘alarm’ over China’s buildup, urges allies to boost defence spending

    https://www.reuters.com/world/china/pentagon-chief-urges-allies-boost-defence-spending-amid-alarm-over-chinas-2026-05-30/

    Iran official says Trump is stalling talks with ‘excessive demands’ as wait for breakthrough continues

    https://www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/wait-iran-deal-continues-trump-final-determination-rcna347659

    Erdogan blocked the Israel’s regime-change plan for Iran using Kurdish groups: Report

    https://www.turkiyetoday.com/region/erdogan-blocked-the-israels-regime-change-plan-for-iran-using-kurdish-groups-report-3220965

    https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20260530-lebanon-pm-condemns-israeli-scorched-earth-policy-as-fresh-strikes-hit-south

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisFromGA May 30, 2026 at 9:50 pm

       Thanks for the continued links, Ann.

       The story on Erdogan is puzzling. I thought that the Kurds were enemies of Erdogan. Certainly, the PKK group, which he considers terrorists, constitutes a threat to Turkiye. One would think that Erdogan would have been happy to have them slaughtered by the IRGC in an attempt to regime-change Iran.

       Erdogan always struck me as the wiliest guy on the block. He must have sensed something; perhaps the plan would have led to a power vacuum in the Kurdish areas, and more radical groups would have filled the gap, with aspirations to destabilize eastern Syria and create another headache for him.

       I am a bit suspicious as well that this is Israel’s attempt to blame a third party for the failure of regime change … the plan to use the Kurds always struck me as a slapdash effort, plus they have to be wary of being used again by the Americans, as always happens, and then discarded like yesterday’s trash.

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42. amfortas May 30, 2026 at 7:56 pm

    excellent talk w nika, keen and a caleb guy whom i like.
    by the graeber institute
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whuPjbGUzYQ

    tl;dr: we’re frelled. buckle up, and hunker down. build resiliency and community connections locally, and for dog’s sake, save seeds.

    Reply ↓
    1. AG May 30, 2026 at 9:30 pm

       thanks

       Reply ↓
    2. CarlH May 30, 2026 at 11:14 pm

       Thank you amfortas. Like the last discussion I saw with Keen, it is frightening on a level usually only seen in over the top disaster movies. Coupled with the discussion between Mr. Berman and Danny Davis the other day, I can only agree with you when you say we are truly frelled.

       Reply ↓
       1. Henry Moon Pie May 31, 2026 at 8:50 am

          I’ve been amused by the knee-deep hoopla over the new discovery, Art Berman. Nate Hagens first had Art on back in 2022, and has hosted him at least a half-dozen times since.

          It’s similar with Craig Tindale, another guy who’s being cited all over the place. Hagens interviewed Tindale in January of this year, before the Iran war started.

          Others who’ve been interviewed on The Great Simplification:

          Steve Keen (multiple times); Kim Stanley Robinson; Joseph Tainter; Jeffrey Sachs; Iain McGilchrist; Kate Raworth; Tom Murphy; Vandana Shiva; Luke Kemp; Peter Turchin; Dougald Hine; John Vervaeke; Fritjof Capra; Jeremy Grantham; Helen Thompson; John Rockstrom; Daniel Schmachtenberger; Vanessa Andreotti; Ashley Hodgson; Bill McKibben;

          and many more you have not heard of, but will before long.

          If you want to stay ahead of the curve, I recommend two things:

          1) Read Naked Capitalism every day beginning at 7 AM USA Eastern time; and

          2) Follow Nate Hagens’s Great Simplification Youtube channel.

          That regimen is Blindsided Insurance.

          Reply ↓
    3. skippy May 31, 2026 at 1:12 am

       We have been having fun on X of late. Dang 50 odd yrs of neoliberalism indoctrination via orthodox economics, in the West, is a hell of a thing to try and dispel as so many are rusted on=income/funding depends on it. In that there is an interesting debate in the MMT mob vis-à-vis a financial/accounting thingy about trade flows import/export and whither or not energy is properly accounted for in that. This seems to me too have ramifications about how the 70s oil shock et al tipped the orthodox economic cart hard.

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       1. ChrisRUEcon May 31, 2026 at 5:35 pm

          > vis-à-vis a financial/accounting thingy about trade flows import/export and whither or not energy is properly accounted for in that.

          Ha! MMT is a lens – as Bill Mitchell says – and its focal point lands squarely on the capacities of the domestic currency monopolizer to purchase things in its unit of account. Toward that end, external sector things tend to muddy analysis because its not quite as simple as the sectoral balances equation would make it seem. When we talk about energy, we invariably mean oil, which for many nations can only be purchased in USD. Well, the USD is only one nation’s unit of account! Everyone else has to earn it via exports or loans! This places pressures on the domestic economy because of all manner of currency exchange machinations. There’s an old Warren Mosler (one of MMT’s founding architects) thread on X where he offers an unexpected perspective of Volker and the oil crisis (via X)

          Reply ↓