On the Shattering of Shared Silence A Year of Bach
A scientist’s search for dragons and damsels Mongabay
Meteor over Massachusetts causes explosion reports, sightings from Delaware to Montreal WBUR
High Density Living, 2000 Years Ago: Inside the Roman Apartment Building Common Edge
Project Debug: Why Google wants to release 32 million lab-bred mosquitoes in California and Florida First Post
Climate/Environment
Arctic ocean passes ‘irreversible’ chemical tipping point Oceanographic
The El Niño signal from CanSIPS has intensified, with the latest run peaking at 2.6˚C above average during December — an increase of 0.6˚C compared to last month.
Some extreme scenarios reach 4.1˚C above average.
It also shows a stronger positive Indian Ocean Dipole. pic.twitter.com/8UQ1kT8Swz
— Ben Noll (@BenNollWeather) May 31, 2026
Hard to believe I’m even writing this.
Meteorological summer hasn’t even begun, yet Paris, France has already logged more days above 32°C (89.6°F) than its annual average. pic.twitter.com/bmU1sjJlF7
— Nahel Belgherze (@WxNB_) May 31, 2026
Big Five home insurers didn’t pay out on nearly half of claims last year, analysis says The Independent
Ebola
China to send emergency humanitarian aid to DR Congo amid Ebola outbreak Anadolu Agency
Pandemics
Search interest for brain fog on Google recently hit an all time high. pic.twitter.com/JkVC8vSUNI
— Data Report (@CovidDataReport) May 31, 2026
Japan
Softbank poised to overtake Toyota as Japan’s most valuable company Japan Times
Japan refutes ‘new militarism’, accuses China of rapidly arming without transparency Reuters
China?
Dirty Laundry China Articles. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issues an embarrassing update to its guidance on AI chip exports to China.
The Antipodes
US will send only used nuclear submarines to Australia under amended AUKUS defence deal France24
New Zealand Rents and the Permanent War Economy Un-Diplomatic
The Quad’s new agenda: ports, cables and minerals Asia Times
Syraqistan
US lawmakers challenge proposal to deepen military ties with ‘Israel’ Al Mayadeen
***
***
𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗢𝗙 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗤𝗨𝗘𝗦𝗧: 𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗔𝗡 𝗘𝗠𝗣𝗧𝗬 𝗖𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗟𝗘 𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗢𝗦𝗘𝗗 𝗜𝗦𝗥𝗔𝗘𝗟’𝗦 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗚𝗜𝗖 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗟𝗢𝗖𝗞
Israel is currently attempting to market its arrival at the Beaufort Castle (Qalaat al-Shaqif) as a major military triumph.… pic.twitter.com/9gYRXVU2HN
— Ibrahim Majed (@IbrahimMajed) May 31, 2026
***
IRGC retaliates with airbase strike after US attack on Sirik Island Al Mayadeen
Iran and the US Teetering on the Edge of a Renewed Hot War Larry Johnson
Dubowitz isn’t just any neocon pundit, he is the CEO of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD). FDD is very pro Israel & is closely advising the admin on Iran policy.
When Dubowitz says “for the next two & a half years” he is basically admitting that the initial… pic.twitter.com/ZDjg5bMoTm
— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) May 31, 2026
Are the US-Iran talks becoming a kabuki theatre like the US-Russia negotiations? GeoPolitiQ. Becoming?
Africa
Somali piracy making a comeback on waves of Iran war Asia Times
Old Blighty
UK: Shabana Mahmood blocks entry for podcasters Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker over Israel criticism Middle East Eye
Britain’s Nuclear Renaissance Faces Mounting Cost Pressures OilPrice
European Disunion
EU Weighs Temporary Freeze on Russia Oil Price Cap Over Iran Bloomberg. Fails to mention that Russia has refused to sell at these “capped” prices and the result has been the EU essentially paying premiums to purchase anyways, just through intermediaries.
Bulgaria the latest addition to the EU’s Excessive Deficit Club Intellinews
Seems extreme even by US standards where military is a staple of sporting of events:
All-out militarisation in France: army and soldiers equipped with machine guns open the rugby match at the Mayol stadium in Toulon and place ball on the field
Thanks to our comrades at @FranceInsoumise for this. Never a more critical time for the International Anti-War… pic.twitter.com/VNQ4GHljFd
— Stop the War Coalition (@STWuk) May 31, 2026
New Not-So-Cold War
European Wargames Bolster West’s Delusions While Conveniently Stoking Fears Simplicius
World War 2030 Events in Ukraine
France and allies intercept sanctioned Russian oil tanker in Atlantic France24
The Russian government has imposed a ban on the export of jet fuel Top War
Zelensky: US Doesn’t Make Enough Anti-Ballistic Missiles Antiwar
Imperial Collapse Watch
The American Missile Crisis Contrary Research
Ancient Soviet wisdom can help you thrive during American decline Nefarious Russians
American Power Phenomenal World. A collection of essays on the subject.
South of the Border
‘Now More Than 200 Trump Summary Executions’ as US Bombs Another Boat Common Dreams
Palantir expands its influence across Latin America TeleSur
VIPS MEMO: Avoiding Catastrophic Failure in Cuba Consortium News
L’affaire Epstein
The PayPal Mafia, the architecture of power and the Rothschild connection Margherita Furlan
Trump 2.0
Trump Admin Uses Iran War Oil Shock to Push Drilling in Alaskan Wilderness Truthout
Democrats Suck
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani did not attend the city’s Israel Day parade, becoming the first mayor in its 61-year history not to take part. It was attended by NY Senator Chuck Schumer, governor Kathy Hochul, and Israel’s extremist finance minister Smotrich who calls for… https://t.co/BZY4dFWrDF
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) May 31, 2026
Come with me as I learn about each person at the official Israeli delegation at today’s Israel Day Parade in New York City.
These are the people some of my fellow Jewish and other New Yorkers demanded Mayor Mamdani stand with today.
— Rafael Shimunov 🍉 🕎 (@rafaelshimunov) June 1, 2026
AIPAC Is Funneling pro-Israel Money to Candidates and Covering Its Tracks Haaretz
Chuck Schumer lays out Democrats’ plan to fight Trump’s ‘anti-weaponization’ fund in the Senate NBC News. When has Chuck ever let you down?
The Uniparty
The Billionaires Have Two Parties: The Great Plains Has One Les Leopold
Police State Watch
Newark sets curfew around ICE jail after more clashes between cops and protesters Gothamist
The war on drugs isn’t over. It’s being privatised. Democracy for Sale
After Uvalde, Texas Stuffed Schools Full of Cops. They Brutalized Students. The Intercept
The Accelerationists
‘There is no way to stop this’: ‘Biotech Barbie’ Cathy Tie on her mission to genetically modify babies The Guardian
AI
Major Teachers Union Pleads With Elementary Schools to Stop Giving Young Kids AI Futurism
How Anthropic used AI ethics slop to play the pope and eclipse OpenAI Blood in the Machine
The Bezzle
Monopoly Round-Up: After SpaceX Goes Public, Does the Stock Market Finally Fall? Matt Stoller
Market concentration is creating ‘fragility’: Only 60% of S&P 500 stocks are above their 200-day average Yahoo! Fiannce
Agriculture
The Architect Making America’s Food System Legible Scheerpost
Class Warfare
Dislocation and Deaths of Despair in Neoliberal America Marx & friends
Parallel Universes MR Online. Marx’s Capital and Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake.
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
“US will send only used nuclear submarines to Australia under amended AUKUS defence deal”
When is a deal not a deal? When you sign one with the US. After signing the deal years ago with all the ceremonies, they are now changing the fundamental terms of the deal. Instead of new boats, we will be getting subs near their end of life service. Both sides are bleating how it is “cost effective” but it won’t be. As they are so old, they will need intense maintenance and overhauling and I am guessing that work will have to be done by US corporations – at a premium price. And at that, we will have to wait 15 years for them. This program will cost us about a third of a trillion dollars over the next 30 years – and for half of that we will still have no boats. Between the nuke boat deal and being forced to buy F-35s, Oz has essentially been demilitarized. And with all the US bases being built, we will end up being a missile sponge to boot. Worse deal ever.
Aussies had a proper falling out with French over this deal as well as the contract to supply Australia with French diesel submarines was scrapped in the process:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-23/how-can-australia-repair-its-relationship-with-france-aukus/100480270
Pray we do not alter the bargain further. {respirator noises}
I’m sure somebody’s getting a fuller rice bowl out of the deal. Even more interesting are the accruing data points that the older diesel-electric format is arguably superior to the higher tech nuke boats. I thought Australia had an indigenous submarine building capacity in WWII, but Wikipedia says I’m mistaken.
In any event, as the song goes,
“Don’t give me no hand-me-down nucs…”
Like going into Harrods, paying for a new suit, then being sent home with a suit from the charity bin.
AUKUS was a US designed Trojan horse for Oz to spend to have US personnel https://greens.org.au/news/media-release/major-parties-pass-law-build-public-housing-us-troops-under-aukus and bases (preferably US and not Australian nuclear submarines) located there. Must have the vassal pay for the master to make it a target in order to ‘protect’ the vassal from the nasty China which is the vassal’s largest trading partner.
But then the US is in charge via the Force Posture Agreement https://johnmenadue.com/post/2023/05/what-is-the-us-australia-force-posture-agreement-fpa/ which is little acknowledged in Australia, even when AUKUS is discussed.
Today an independent public inquiry was launched into AUKUS https://aukuspublicinquiry.netlify.app/ as a result of the government (and opposition) being unwilling to do so.
Above my pay grade but dare one suggest that the Stoller is a must read?
So with Trump running the country’s government and Musk gaming the investor economy what can go wrong? The two even merge since Stoller says that Starlink is the only part of the Musk empire that actually makes money and at some point the Russians may lose patience and blow those Starlink satellites being used against them out of the sky.
I think it is worse even than that–see “They Sold Your Retirement. The Last Window to Object Ends Soon”. by W.A. Lawrence (Glass Empires Substack)
https://wendy664.substack.com/p/they-sold-your-retirement-the-last
Excerpt:
” Four trillion dollars of private equity has nowhere to go, and your retirement account just became its destination. The language will sound neutral. Most workers will skip the notice entirely. The Department of Labor published the proposed rule on March 30, 2026, and the public comment window closes on June 1, 2026.
The 401(k) belonging to the average American worker has been conscripted as the buyer of last resort for the four trillion dollars that nobody else will purchase at the prices the funds reported.
Private equity has spent fifteen years accumulating assets at valuations the public markets refuse to pay.
Either someone buys at the prices the funds reported, or those prices were lies. The 401(k) is the buyer the federal government has selected, and the mechanism that delivers the buyer to the seller has a name: the Default Cascade.
The order directs the Labor Department to permit private equity, private credit, real estate, and crypto within default funds, where most retirement contributions are allocated automatically when no participant action occurs. Most 401(k) participants are now held inside target date funds, the dominant default vehicle.
Just a reminder, there are ‘ex-US’ indexes, and they are doing fine. US investors can avoid throwing money at Mr. Musk, and might be spared a deflating AI bubble at the same time.
I tried to read it and then when you get through most of the article you have to sign up to finish. It was a good read up to that point but I’m not going play the sign up and scan the code game.
You must rarely click on the Stoller links which appear here all the time. Like many bloggers now he has a free section and a pay section. In this instance the pay section has nothing to do with the discussion I linked.
And fyi Stoller has been around for about as long as this blog itself.
Thanks. I have read him before. Good stuff and thanks.
I was reading about these changes this morning.Capitalism is a ponzi scheme and the 401k’s are the latest suckers propping up the Eye of Providence.
You will be left with nothing and Musk et all will still be billionaires.
Russia has no reason waste a missile on them, they can jam them or better yet find their location and send a drone/missile back at it. This was done in ukraine and the Russians past on the info to Iran.
There are thousands of tiny Starlink satellites. But I believe I read that Russians have figured out how to jam them. And they may have a way of attacking them from orbit.
Meanwhile on the ground Iran authorities were able to find users via their Starlink wifi hotspots.
Reddit was chock full of accounts denying this,or saying it’s not new.
Jeebus wept….
“After Uvalde, Texas Stuffed Schools Full of Cops. They Brutalized Students.”
That’s a great job for those Texas police. Getting kids to hate them from the Elementary school level and treating them with suspicion. It doesn’t matter how many good cops there are out there, it is those school cops that will give those young kids a heavy bias against them and policing will get harder as those kids grow up and leave school. The worse of it? This all started at Uvalde when the cops, even the SWAT cops, chickened out and did not do their duty. There is nothing to say that any of those school cops would also not chicken out during a school shooting.
Meh. A significant number of students I get to deal with – in a modest-sized agricultural service community well outside the urban blightosphere – still prefer acting like juvenile delinquents in regard to working and playing well with others and respecting, to at least a reasonable degree, authority.
It won’t take brutalizing police officers to convince them that they’re God’s Special Chosen Ones for whom the rules do not apply. The 2Kewl4Skewl crowd is real….
Even if true, what does this character assessment say about the advisability of stuffing their school with deputized gunmen?
Re antidote, “Stand me a pint?”
Lithuania, Once Occupied by Germany, Is Glad German Troops Are Back NYT
Lithuania bordered Prussia and ethnic Prussians populated the Baltic coasts of Lithuania and Latvia. After WW1 Freikorps, transported by the UK put down revolutions and became marauding bands. During the first republic there were plenty of Nazi collaborators in the Army and Lithuanian Riflemans Union. They were rounding up and killing Jews and leftists before the Wehrmact arrived in June 1941.
Like Galicia, the mentality of many is unchanged from 90 years ago.
‘This brigade is so strong and so well equipped that it’s like we have a second army in Lithuania’
So would that imply that Lithuania can only come up with a brigade’s worth of troops too? I don’t think that two brigades worth of troops would worry the Russian army but truth be told, I would guess that the Russians would prefer having nothing to do with Lithuania.
Looking at the Wikipedia pages, the land forces of Lithuania field exactly 1 division (comprising 3 brigades) of regular troops (total 12’000 men), plus one additional brigade of “defence volunteers” (5’500 men).
Adding a navy and an air force gives a total of 23’000 soldiers/sailors/airmen, 14’150 paramilitaries, and 104’000 reserves. The grand total barely makes one army. I wonder how large that NATO brigade is, and how poorly the Lithuanians are equipped, if such a numerically paltry reinforcement boosts their strength that much.
> A scientist’s search for dragons and damsels Mongabay
That is an excellent hook of a title.
The advantages of living in a university town: a couple decades ago I visited a dragonfly specialist in his office, a smallish space crammed toe to crown with papers in different forms and orientations. A scholars habitat. He knew that it would take two years from an egg to grow something that would eat mosquitoes, the proximate cause of the visit.
Mongabay shares his passion for the creatures, which makes for a delightful read. Note that measures of diversity depend on reporting, which he is explicitly aware of, rhetorically making the article a persuasive call to action, beyond the sharing of information. Cerci and epiproct.
From Due Dissidence.
Mamdani CRACKS DOWN on NYC Slumlords – PANIC Ensues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDEOuHBJsmg
Re missile crisis article–an interesting tutorial on missile propulsion. The article says that USA has almost completely committed to solid fuel rockets for military purposes and these depend on a single oxidizer plant in Utah.
Iran, by contrast, uses both liquid and solid fuel missiles and the former can be mass produced and fueled just before launch. This works for an arsenal stored in underground tunnels whereas the american weapons on submarines or inside surface ship canisters need low maintenance solid fueling.
“The Russian government has imposed a ban on the export of jet fuel.”
It would be interesting to know where the jet fuel that Russia was selling ended up. And if any made its way to the EU. This may help put a crunch on jet fuel supplies if Russia was exporting a large enough amount. it may also be payback for the US and the EU enabling Ukrainian attacks on oil depots and the like in Russia. A pity that this article does not go into it more.
High Density Living (Roman evidence / Italian culture). Stefan Al.
The drawing up top might as well be of contemporary Torino — or the surrounding smaller cities, or of contemporary Roma, or Gubbio, or Palermo, or…
Italian culture likely flows from this concentration. Italian cities are densely populated. There are stores on the ground floor — and services like car repair sometimes in the courtyards. There is a glassblower’s studio in the courtyard in a building a few blocks from me. This concentration means: A stress on politeness. Avoidance of confrontation. And, a great benefit: Italy’s low crime rate, with a murder rate that is the lowest in Europe. Plus three fine bakeries that I frequent because they are just too darn convenient.
Meanwhile, Usonians show up and say: Why can’t we have a pastry shop and a bread bakery and a cobbler and a bookshop and a gastronomia, plus a tire shop, all on the same block? Because U.S housing patterns don’t allow it. The history of segregation doesn’t allow it. Also, too, because U.S. culture has become much too contentious.
PS: One quibble. The use of the term “ex-slave” will evoke U.S. resonances. They don’t translate. A libertus in ancient Rome had a different status:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Roman_freedmen
All in all, though, I recommend the article as an enjoyable read about a culture / physical environment that is much different from the U S of A.
Agreed that it is a very interesting article about how so many people had to live in ancient Rome. The author should have mentioned a Roman insula that still mostly survives in Rome itself called the Capitoline Insula-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sJVeOqMF0k (3:16 mins)
I thought this was significant, I don’t think I’ve seen it mentioned here:
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/israel-us-military/
In the first step towards shifting aid further into the shadows, the House’s 2027 NDAA would all but fuse the two countries’ armed forces together. . .
This is how the US Congress will continue shoveling billions of dollars to Isr while claiming the US has ended direct monetary aid to Isr. It’ll be under the table aid in the form of US military spending.
(Gotta make sure AIPAC’s gravy train keeps running so it can continue to … uh … support US Congress critters. / ;)
So is that why Pentagon spending is set to go from one trillion to one point five trillion dollars?
You might think so. I could not possibly say. / ;)
From James Li breaking down the Responsible Statecraft article.
Congress Just Handed the US Military to Israel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OwL-GYnnIU
Well, given how the IDF tends to be more “internal security” than “actual military,” (as I understand it – subject to raspberry jam’s comments if necessary), that’s not ominous in the slightest, is it?
First link under Syraqistan today has to do with opposition to this
‘Ibrahim Majed
@IbrahimMajed
𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗢𝗙 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗤𝗨𝗘𝗦𝗧: 𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗔𝗡 𝗘𝗠𝗣𝗧𝗬 𝗖𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗟𝗘 𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗢𝗦𝗘𝗗 𝗜𝗦𝗥𝗔𝗘𝗟’𝗦 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗚𝗜𝗖 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗟𝗢𝗖𝗞
Israel is currently attempting to market its arrival at the Beaufort Castle (Qalaat al-Shaqif) as a major military triumph. However, the actual strategic achievement in this move is non-existent.’
They made a really big deal of this on the TV news tonight. They even gave a quick history of this Crusader castle. But if the IDF only went in, grabbed a few pictures for the media, and pulled right back out again then this is no different to what the Ukrainians do. Whole teams of Ukrainians have gotten themselves killed for these pr stunts. The author of this tweet thinks that the Israelis may end up retreating when they see the futility of it all but I doubt it. Netanyahu and his circle have got too much to lose if they have to retreat so will let IDF troops get killed to save them being embarrassed. Tough luck if you are an IDF soldier in Lebanon trying to dodge drones though.
Regarding Thiel & family decamping to Argentina…
Thiel got NZ citizenship, and NZ seems a more stable place than Argentina, so why the different down under bolthole?
In Argentina with Milei in power, Thiel would be able to do whatever he wanted to do there. In New Zealand, not so much.
Milei’s Argentina and the Isaac Accords.
https://www.dlapiper.com/en-us/insights/publications/2026/04/the-isaac-accords-argentina-and-israel
Thiel may go where he thinks he’ll be most useful. / ;)
The authoritarian surveillance state was moving too slow in the US.
File under AI: From Jimmy Dore. Garland Nixon is good.
BOMBSHELL: Using AI Costs Corporations MORE Than The Humans It Replaces! w/ Garland Nixon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ1U1lP_wgM
Garland Nixon’s phrase “the money wood chipper” is a keeper. /:)
Yeah, I’m a member of the DSA…
From Sabby Sabs. Is MTG leaving the GOP? Maybe. Unclear at this points. A generational shift is slowly underway.
BREAKING! Marjorie Taylor Greene LEAVES The Republican Party!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCPc2Oq75sg
I commented that was a possibility of a new #AmericaFirst party being forged from the fires of the Trump admin’s fiddling while Rome burned. QED.
– ‘American Power’ – Phenomenal World. A collection of essays on the subject.
Since they have not been commented on yet I just wanted to recommend these essays. I’ve read the introduction and two of them so far and they’ve each been very informative, especially in placing current global events in their larger historical and geopolitical context. Thanks for posting them.
seconded. ive read the editor’s intro, and the first 2. the second of which, empire suicide, is really good. that sort of deep complexity is for 4am coffee and grilled brie, tho.
bookmarked.
re: AIPAC Is Funneling pro-Israel Money to Candidates and Covering Its Tracks – Haaretz
James Li on a similar topic.
Thomas Massie Just EXPOSED TPUSA’s Biggest Secret
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SFXghIc36I
re: The Billionaires Have Two Parties: The Great Plains Has One – Les Leopold
Great article. My state is named in the Great Plains list. My state used to regularly send one Dem senator to Congress and usually one Rep. Starting shortly after the 3rd Way takeover of the Dem estab, I saw the Dem estab come into the state and actively undermine excellent Dem candidates who were still New Deal type Dems. The 3rd Way would rather a good Dem candidate lose – it was so obvious – than see another New Deal type Dem in Congress. The Dem estab is still doing that. See what’s happening to Graham Platner in Maine, e.g. The current Dem estab is terrified of losing their positions of influence within the party and would rather lose elections than risk being dethroned within their system because that system changes. That’s all they appear to care about, imo.
It’s not lost on any of them that the great populist party groundswell of the late 19th and early 20th centuries came out of the great plains, where farmers were being gouged at every turn by Wall St. commodities speculators, banks, and railroads. That’s when the phrase “getting railroaded” first appeared.
adding: I have a quibble with this para.
“Of course, defeating the MAGA Republicans is crucial. And the fortunes of the Democrats are a real concern in blue and marginal districts where new seats can be won and old seats can be held. Third-party candidates in those competitive districts would only serve as spoilers likely to help elect MAGA Republicans.”
The DLC and 3rd Way gained traction in the Dem party by claiming the old guard kept losing elections. Start electing the DLC new guard and Dems will win, win, win, they said. (They never said exactly what we would win.
I say let the current Dem machine’s bad candidate lose and lose and lose. (And go to the primary vote and vote for any good, populist, not Wall St or AIPAC leaning Dem candidate.) Then people will be more ready to embrace change, imo. MAGA is already tearing itself apart over what seems like T’s betrayal.
And, and this crucial, in states where both parties have closed primaries, meaning one has to be a registered D or R to vote in that party’s primary, I think it’s important to get good candidates on both primary tickets if possible, then get people registered to vote in their preferred primary and upset both estabs’ plans.
After the populist Peoples Party wins at the state level in the Great Plains, the states’ D and R estabs came together to pass laws at the state level making it almost impossible for a 3rd party to get on the ballot or to get financing, or to get media interest, etc. Even now, look at the shenanigans in California’s Dem primary for gov. Some very heavy thumbs were put on the scales about who could participate in the debates, who could be on the stage.
From Jimmy Dore, California governor candidates’ debate.
Establishment CAUGHT RIGGING California Governor’s Race! w/ Elaine Culotti
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVahcx83URo
I agree– good article, and I especially appreciate that the author touched upon some of the history that witnessed the democrat party being sold-off to our oligarchs (I was having a conversation with a friend only a week ago with regards to when the party went off the rails and turned against its traditional base):
During the Reagan era (from his election in 1980 and up through the early 1990s) Great Plains Democrats resurrected the populist traditions of the late 19th-century People’s Party, the progressives of the early 20th century, and the Nonpartisan league a few years later. The core ideology of this tradition focused on protecting family farmers and workers from the rapaciousness of big corporations and banks. The political opponents of the Reagan Revolution followed in their path and enough of them were in Congress in 1983 to form the Congressional Populist Caucus.
These 14 congresspersons adopted the populist moniker and fought against corporatized free trade deals, the high Federal Reserve interest rates, plant closings, anti-union legislation, and farm foreclosures. And they did so in alliance with, and in support of, dozens of community groups including abortion and gay rights organizations.
But in 1990, a powerful segment of the Democratic establishment created the centrist Democratic Leadership Council and made a firm decision to embrace corporations, agribusiness, free trade, and Wall Street deregulation, while moving away from labor unions and family farmers…
What “liberal dems” don’t seem to understand is how many farmers and workers saw this as an act of betrayal by the democrat party, and that betrayal is something especially difficult to forgive. And we saw these initial betrayals compounded by further betrayals, the smug and arrogant dismissiveness of their concerns by democrat leadership, and the snarky and snide derision directed at them openly in comments by these misLeaders. These “liberal dems,” these tribalists who vote “blue no matter who” and who circle-jerk at “No Kings” rallies just don’t get why so many people passionately hate todays democrats and the democrat party… you tell them it ain’t 1980 any more, that todays democrats aren’t the democrats they once knew, and they simply refuse to believe it– they’ll go to their graves before ever admitting that their loyalties and faith in the good of the party are mistaken.
Yeah, great article. I’m from Kansas and worked in the state AG’s office there before decamping to DC in 1979. A Democratic AG then, before he lost after a poorly played Clintonesque scandal, and often a Democratic governor. A Democratic governor presently.
When I was growing up, many of the Republican governors and legislators, state and federal, were relatively liberal Republicans. Recall that “Bleeding Kansas” essentially fought the Civil War starting in 1854, (John Brown, Quantrill’s raiders from Missouri burning Lawrence, etc…), over whether Kansas would be slavery free.
In the late 1800’s, Kansas was a Populist stronghold. Thomas Frank, another Kansas refugee, famed for “What’s the Matter with Kansas?”, has done a great book on the early Populist movement that reached its zenith with FDR, The People, No!, from which Frank formed a terrific article in Harper’s, The Pessimistic Style in American Politics, And its eternal war on reform, https://harpers.org/2020/05/the-pessimistic-style-in-american-politics/
Alas, the Wichita-based Koch crowd has largely purged liberal to moderate Republicans from the state legislature’s Republican Senate and House supermajorities, and put mostly far-right candidates in state-wide offices other than the governorship.
There is only one Democratic US Representative. Four term Sharice Davids, in the eastern Kansas City metropolitan area’s 3rd Congressional District. She’s run unopposed in three of her past primaries.
I have to be careful here, as Davids is a former mixed martial artist. But she’s accepted a great deal of AIPAC money, and though she’s been loosey-goosey on the ICE issue she is a strong backer. So I’m rooting for her 2026 August primary challenger, Sarah Preu, who criticizes Davids on those grounds. Preu backs single-payer Medicare, stopping foreign aid to governments committing war crimes, abolishing ICE and achieving a $17 minimum wage.
Plenty of Israel backers in affluent Johnson County, part of the 3rd District, and they’ll come out strong for Davids with money and votes, making it a tough bet for Preu in a primary. Kansas is quirky, if Preu at least makes a good showing, that’ll be significant. It might be a good bellwether in states that are less Koched-up.
You probably remember Martha Keyes, a Democrat elected to the House from Kansas in the ’74 Watergate class and a sister-in-law of Gary Hart. Keyes was part of a group I hosted for a luncheon, along with Norman Mineta, Les AuCoin and about a dozen others, including the irritating Larry Pressler. After lunch, Keyes received word she had been appointed to Ways and Means, a cause for great celebration at the time, but she lasted only two terms.
As for the Civil War, I grew up next door to the county where the James brothers grew up. My great grandpappy and namesake was Quantrill’s cook. ;)
Henry, you fired some synapses from the wayback.
Keep an eye on great grandpappy if he decides to rise again.
Oops?
A University System Went All In on A.I. Now It’s Tearing Itself Apart. (NY Times Mag)
No archive, it isn’t loading for me.
So relatedly
Anthropic Files to Go Public, Setting Stage for Huge I.P.O. (NY Times)
We’re witnessing the largest pump and dump in the history of the entire world. Thanks Obama, for refusing to go after any corporate criminals! That’s for not pursing any relevant antitrust work!
We’re truly in a nightmare timeline
And this is the moron administrator class that runs our universities now, which is why adjuncts are waiting tables while having full course loads
These people are trash.
That’s a shame, San Jose State was considered excellent back in the day.
File this also under AI: From Malwarebytes.
Fake ChatGPT download site infects Windows and Mac users with malware
https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/threat-intel/2026/05/fake-chatgpt-download-site-infects-windows-and-mac-users-with-malware
“A convincing fake website is impersonating OpenAI’s ChatGPT download page and infecting visitors with malware designed to steal passwords, browser data, cryptocurrency wallets, and other sensitive information.”
Latest development in the ISDS case filed by Russia as reported here last December in Russian Central Bank Sues Euroclear Over Frozen Assets; Will the EU Be Hoist on the Investor-State Settlement Disputes (ISDS) Petard? regarding the funds seized by the EU:
Euroclear appeals immediate enforcement of ruling in CBR lawsuit