Links 6/2/2026

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105 comments

1. The Rev Kev June 2, 2026 at 7:16 am

   ‘B.M.
   @ireallyhateyou
   Dead Chabad Rebbe M. Schneerson: “The Jewish body looks…similar to bodies of non-Jews but…the difference…is so great that the bodies should be considered as completely different species…A non-Jewish soul comes from 3 satanic spheres while the Jewish soul stems from holiness”‘

   For Christians, would those 3 satanic spheres be the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost?

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   1. Ken Murphy June 2, 2026 at 7:44 am

      I want to know where I can get a 3 satanic spheres t-shirt.

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev June 2, 2026 at 7:56 am

         The Satanic Spheres would be a great name for a rock band. But would they be allowed to play in Tel Aviv? :)

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         1. vao June 2, 2026 at 1:25 pm

            Satanic spheres => Anarchists seep.

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      2. DD GE June 2, 2026 at 9:15 am

         I’ll get right on it! Soon as I’m done with the PGSA t-shirts.
         Yes, that would be the Persian Gulf Strait Authority. When they set up the org and got cute with a logo, I immediately thought it’d look nice on a piece of clothing.

         All profits going towards reconstruction, of course.

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   2. Robert Browning June 2, 2026 at 11:09 am

      Understand what the man is saying, the jews are the descendants of Neanderthals and Schneerson is admitting to it.

      Reply ↓
2. Robert Gray June 2, 2026 at 7:19 am

   À propos of nothing, I have a question for those here who live in a college town. It’s nearly 50 years since I was an undergrad and the world has changed, shall we say, just a bit since then. But I am wondering if some eternal truths might remain. Is the campus area still full of pizza joints?

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   1. Laughingsong June 2, 2026 at 11:04 am

      Here in Eugene Oregon, home of the University of Oregon, Track Town Pizza is still king of the campus (although my household’s favorite was Pizza Research Institute, which unfortunately closed down after the maln chef was terribly injured in a car accident).

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   2. albrt June 2, 2026 at 11:06 am

      Yes, but it’s not a very profitable business anymore because new franchises keep spamming themselves into existence everywhere. For every one that goes bankrupt two more pop up.

      If you lose your job in your 50s, don’t buy the smooth talk about being your own boss and investing your modest retirement savings in a great new franchise unless you really know what you’re getting into. Most franchise operations are built around harvesting 401Ks. Especially restaurants, but there are many other types of franchises.

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   3. ambrit June 2, 2026 at 12:52 pm

      Here in the Education Station of the Rancid Underbelly of the North American Deep South, “specialty” pizza joints are thin on the ground. This town is overrun by franchise purveyors of “cardboard food like items.” The few ‘real’ pizza joints, some of which were high end franchises, do not last long. I gather from conversations with members of the younger cohorts that disposable income is shrinking even among the college crowd. Price is most certainly an object today.
      An appropriate anecdote from the local population.
      A “young couple” lives on our block. They have been cohabiting for nigh on a decade. The pair seem well matched and do not display obvious signs of domestic strife. In talking to the female member of this dyad, the subject of marriage came up. Her response was that the couple were delaying the formalization of their status due to the tax implications such a legal change would have on their student loan repayments. Both it seems have “significant’ levels of student loans and find repayment, even under the best of situations, challenging. She spontaneously mentioned that she felt cheated that the “job opportunities” promised to her and to the fellow members of her cohort never materialized. She works in her field ‘part time’ at best. She took a degree in a field that would not be obviously at the mercy of such villains as AI or corporate head choppers. Her best guess as to the reason for the shortfall in work, which she says is general and pretty much evenly spread around the field of available qualified personnel, is the shrinking of the economic levels of the 99%.
      Welcome to life in the Brave New Neoliberal World Order.
      Stay safe.

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      1. MT_Wild June 2, 2026 at 1:32 pm

         No mellow mushroom? I thought they were in all the SEC towns.

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         1. ambrit June 2, 2026 at 7:24 pm

            Mellow Mushroom tried setting up in a “cursed” stand alone venue in the high-end strip mall ‘colony’ to the west of this town. That area borders both the University Zone and the Upper Income Gated Communities Zone. It held out for two years before closing shop. There have been at least five eateries in that exact same building. All have failed.
            I don’t call it the Rancid Underbelly, (tip of the hat to ‘Doonesbury’) for nothing.
            Stay safe!

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            1. Late Introvert June 2, 2026 at 11:19 pm

               I think we ate at the original place in Asheville way back in the Noughties, it was so good.

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   4. Late Introvert June 2, 2026 at 5:43 pm

      Midwestern state university town, there are two excellent pizza places owned by locals (Wig & Pen East and The Wedge). 3 restaurant style places that are overpriced and mediocre, a wood-fired place we have yet to try, several other non-chain places geard towards students, and then Pizza Huts and Pizza Ranches. The Mellow Mushroom closed because they went in the mall a town over.

      So yes, lots of pizza. Trying to search for Pizza Ranch I came across Trump Pizza, and this link from politico.

      The Iowa Pizza Chain That Explains How Our Politics Became So Dysfunctional

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      1. kriptid June 2, 2026 at 6:18 pm

         Not to dox myself too much, but I used to deliver for the Wedge at the old Riverside location (now bulldozed to the ground per my last sojourn back) back in my undergraduate years before moving myself to the Big Apple for graduate school and professional life.

         Still remember some of the specialty pizzas fondly, like the Dagobah, Riverside Pesto, and the town’s favorite, the Buddha. Glad to hear Steve is still in business.

         My best friend’s ex used to be a server at Wig and Pen in Coralville.

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         1. Late Introvert June 2, 2026 at 8:03 pm

            Steve sold it right around the Covid years but it’s still the same.

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      2. Steven A June 2, 2026 at 9:10 pm

         I will try The Wedge on my next visit to my alma mater. During my undergrad days we headed to The Sanctuary for good pizza. So sorry to hear that they closed their doors last year.

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   5. jrkrideau June 2, 2026 at 9:58 pm

      I live in a “college town” with a lot of extras like the army, etc. in Canada. We have some pizza joints mixed in with the Vietnamese, Chinese, Nepali, Japanese, Korean, French, Indian, German, and occasionally old English-Canadian restaurants. Oh, and a couple halal shawarma places and a Tex-Mex place.

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3. John E Hacker June 2, 2026 at 7:25 am

   Dear Yves,
   Thanks for your service. Please never apologize for “…for major Links overload. ” Combo things; item need exposure, and a full moon. You had no other choice.
   Best Regards, John

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4. AG June 2, 2026 at 7:28 am

   re: history & mass politics

   THE NATION interview with ANTON JÄGER
   
   Do We Live in the Age of “Hyperpolitics”?
   A conversation with the historian Anton Jäger about political polarization, the stagnation of the West, and the collapse of mass politics in the 20th century.
   June 1st, 2026
   https://archive.is/KZl6I

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5. The Rev Kev June 2, 2026 at 7:39 am

   Working link for “How Israeli classrooms indoctrinate Jewish supremacy” article at-

   https://www.972mag.com/podcast-israeli-education-jewish-supremacy/

   Episode transcript at-

   https://www.972mag.com/podcast-transcript-how-israeli-classrooms-indoctrinate-jewish-supremacy/

   Who is going to tell members of the KKK and white supremacists that Israelis regard them as inferiors as well?

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   1. Henry Moon Pie June 2, 2026 at 9:08 am

      At the root of Jewish supremacy is the idea that the Jews are “God’s chosen people.” This idea is expressed clearly in Deuteronomy 7, a passage that set out how Israel was to conquer the lands given to them by YHWH:

      When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy and he clears away many nations before you—the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you— and when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy. [sound familiar?] Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for that would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. But this is how you must deal with them: break down their altars, smash their pillars, cut down their sacred poles, and burn their idols with fire. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

      Deuteronomy 7:1-6 (NRSVU)

      These verses restate the principle that appears at the very beginning of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:

      I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.

      Exodus 20:2-3 (NRSVU)

      Both these passages betray the henotheistic worldview common in the Ancient Near East. It was assumed that there were many gods, and nations and gods were paired off the way couples form at the eighth grade dance. Marduk chooses Babylon. Assur chooses Assyria. YHWH, who apparently was too shy to get involved when all the cool nations were still in play, ends up with pitiful little Israel. Well, at least he can command complete and total loyalty from his scruffy band of sheepherders and farmers. After all, he is self-admittedly a jealous sort.

      Over the years, it was a rocky relationship. The prophet Hosea likens YHWH’s situation to being married to a former prostitute who can’t get “the life” out of her system, something with which Hosea had personal experience. Israel’s was always “whoring after other gods” (Judges 2:17) like Ba’al, the hero of the Ugaritic polytheistic system. Still, YHWH’s followers do manage to build a house/temple for YHWH in Jerusalem where they believe he dwells in the Holy of Holies.

      Things roll along until one day Nebuchadnezzar shows up at Jerusalem’s gates with the mighty neo-Babylonian army, for which little Judah, all that’s left of Israel after the Assyrians destroyed the northern kingdom, can offer hardly any defense. The Babylonians conquer Jerusalem and destroy YHWH’s house (and presumably him with it), and take Jerusalem’s political and religious elites, such as they were, into exile in Babylon.

      The religous elites are not ready to give up their religion and their nationhood. Ezekiel has a vision where he sees YHWH’s Shekinah depart from the temple before it’s destroyed: “He’s alive!.” (Ezekiel 10). Then Second Isaiah has an amazing revelation. YHWH wasn’t just some national god like Marduk or Assur. YHWH wasn’t killed or at least rendered irrelevant by the destruction of the temple. Instead, he is and always has been the God of the Universe, the Creator of All, the one and only God. Monotheism is born.

      Years later, exile Ezra takes these monotheistic ideas back to Jerusalem, and rebuilds the YHWH national cult into a religion that claims to be universal–but he holds onto the henotheistic idea that the Jews are the “chosen people.” But this time, it’s far different from the claim in Deuteronomy 7. Behind that passage lay the idea that every nation was “chosen” by some god. In Ezra’s formulation, the Jews are the only “chosen people,” not of some minor god like YHWH, but of the Creator and Ruler of the universe.

      That’s how an historical accident produced the foundation for Jewish supremacism. It is why Judaism is alone among monotheistic religions in not being universal and open equally to all, regardless of ethnicity.

      For historical background on how the YHWH national cult became Second Temple Judaism, there’s no better source than John Collins.

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      1. Laughingsong June 2, 2026 at 11:01 am

         HMP,

         Thank you for this rundown. Mostly this was my impression from reading the Bible myself several times without religious “guidance”. Except for a small quibble, depending upon your definition of monotheism… my understanding is that there were other monotheistic religions, however the Jews seemed to have been the first people to claim that all other gods didn’t even exist.

         Is that what you mean by monotheistic belief? Denying the existence of any other gods?

         (I wonder about how they square that later belief with the phrase “you will have no other gods before me” if there are no other gods? 🤔)

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         1. hunkerdown June 2, 2026 at 11:38 am

            IIRC, Jewish henotheism (not monotheism) held that other gods exist, but that Yahweh was theirs and therefore ontologically privileged. Monotheism (one “world” ruled by one spirit) developed almost a millennium later through Plato.

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         2. AG June 2, 2026 at 12:19 pm

            ditto, thanks for both posts and the lead link

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         3. Henry Moon Pie June 2, 2026 at 1:45 pm

            I’m not aware of other monotheistic religions, at least one large enough to have a spot in the historical record, that existed before Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55), written mid-6th century BCE.

            And yes, monotheism includes denying that there are any gods other than God. Ancient Near Eastern nations often had a national god, but they didn’t deny the existence of the other gods. When nations fought, it was thought the battle took place on two levels: on Earth between men; and in the heavens between the gods. Those are all henotheistic, not monotheistic, concepts.

            The process of putting together the various literary and oral traditions that comprise the Hebrew bible is something we can only speculate about, but the final product does reveal some principles. There seems to be a reluctance to discard traditions. For example, there are two separate versions of a story where Abraham denies that Sarah is his wife to save his own skin. One is found in Genesis 12 where Abraham is afraid of Pharaoh and his men in Egypt. Another is found in Genesis 20 and takes place in the Negev with King Abimelech. Neither was discarded by Ezra and the boys. Instead, they were both plopped into the narrative with puzzling results.

            Texts that run counter to the main narrative were also preserved. The story of Tamar and Judah is a good example. Judah is one of the giants of the Torah. It is his name that becomes the name of the kingdom surrounding Jerusalem, Judah, and eventually the source of the Jewish ethnic group itself. Yet Tamar, the widowed daughter-in-law of Judah, desperate to have children that would be her social security in old age, managed to outsmart Judah. It’s a great story, found in Genesis 38. But how in the world did it end up making the editorial cut when it cast Judah in such a bad light? The story of Deborah (Judges 4), a woman who served as judge of Israel, is another “subversive” story that found its way into the Torah.

            Why was “no other gods before me” preserved when the overall narrative was monotheistic? Ezra probably had some early version of Deuteronomy, a text that is still identified by scholars with the text found by Chief Priest Hilkiah in the temple during the reign of Josiah. (2 Kings 22). That text, as shown in the Deuteronomy 7 passage quoted in my original comment, is clearly henotheistic. Yet, out of respect for the integrity of the text, it is preserved in its henotheistic form by the monotheist, Ezra.

            The Hebrew bible is a fascinating historical document, full of contradictions and competing narratives. Thanks to the editorial approach, we have access to minority views, like Third Isaiah, a contemporary of Ezra, who argued for universalism rather than “chosen tribe,” a view that was rejected by later Judaism.

            If the topic interests you, I recommend Collins’s Youtube interview.

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            1. Laughingsong June 2, 2026 at 2:26 pm

               “I’m not aware of other monotheistic religions, at least one large enough to have a spot in the historical record”

               I was thinking specifically of Zoroastrian religion, but I don’t know if it was extant when Second Isiah was penned, so I really can’t comment before I do some research.

               “And yes, monotheism includes denying that there are any gods other than God.”

               Thank you for clarifying. And all this time I thought that it simply referred to religions that had only one god as opposed to a pantheon but not necessarily a denial of other gods existing.

               “Ancient Near Eastern nations often had a national god, but they didn’t deny the existence of the other gods. When nations fought, it was thought the battle took place on two levels: on Earth between men; and in the heavens between the gods.”

               This concept I am fortunately familiar with. I think that it was a concept that was not limited to the Near East as well.

               “There seems to be a reluctance to discard traditions. For example, there are two separate versions of a story where Abraham denies that Sarah is his wife to save his own skin.”

               Hah! That’s for sure! There are also 2 Creation stories, and the story of Noah almost seems like two stories that were blended together, almost like they were interleaving sentence by sentence.

               “The Hebrew bible is a fascinating historical document, full of contradictions and competing narratives.”

               This! It’s why, although I am not an adherent of any religion, I keep reading it as a historical document cover to cover (well, I skip the long list of ‘begats’ as mostly filler to get the timeline square). I also have the Nag Hammadi texts and the Apocrypha, trying to understand the history that informs and influences the culture I grew up in. And books of other cultural traditions for comparison. But self study has its limits so I very much appreciate the link. Thank you!

               I’ve enjoyed your posts about it too.

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               1. Henry Moon Pie June 2, 2026 at 5:04 pm

                  And thank you as well.

                  My suggestion for anyone who wants to learn more about the Bible is to use the Revised Common Lectionary. It’s an ecumenical Christian series that takes you through a 3-year cycle of important readings (from the standpoint of Christian theology from the Old Testament, the Psalms, the Gospels and the Epistles. The book was never written to be read cover to cover.

                  Alternatively, you could focus on an historical period of particular interest, using scholarly resources to learn the age of the different writings.

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               2. Henry Moon Pie June 2, 2026 at 5:23 pm

                  I forgot to note that I’ve never thought of Zoroastrianism as monotheistic because it’s so radically dualistic.

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            2. J. June 3, 2026 at 3:59 pm

               In Egypt, Akhenaten was promoting monotheism around 1350 BCE, but his history was suppressed after his reign ended. However it seems like the idea of monotheism was out there.

               https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhenaten

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               1. Henry Moon Pie June 3, 2026 at 4:14 pm

                  Very interesting. I did notice this from the link you provided:

                  The views of Egyptologists differ as to whether the religious policy was absolutely monotheistic, or whether it was monolatristic, syncretistic, or henotheistic.

                  Focusing worship on one god is not enough to constitute monotheism. There needs to be a claim that no other gods exist, like this:

                  Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel,
                  and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
                  I am the first, and I am the last;
                  besides me there is no god.

                  Isaiah 44:6

                  I wouldn’t claim that no one had ever conceived of monotheism before Second Isaiah, but the test is whether a monotheistic religion, actually practiced for some non-trivial length of time, arises from the concept.

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      2. Not Qualified to Comment June 2, 2026 at 4:03 pm

         The religous elites are not ready to give up their religion and their nationhood.

         I’d suggest religion and nationhood were necessary constructs to support their livelihoods.

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         1. Henry Moon Pie June 2, 2026 at 5:26 pm

            Remember they were in exile with no prospect of return until Cyrus conquered the Babylonians. In the Collins interview I linked, he says some Babylonian records show some of the exiles went into banking.

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   2. motorslug June 2, 2026 at 3:52 pm

      It’s amazing how truly stupid people are, basing their murderous desires on some magical, mythical fairy tale.
      Or maybe it’s genius since natural logic dictates that working together (socialism) and not spending 70% of productive capacity on death and destruction is much more beneficial to all creatures and their planet.

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6. DJG, Reality Czar June 2, 2026 at 7:49 am

   Grifters gotta grift, episode 400 000

   The U.S. consulate in Milano is getting a new building, which in typical imperial style, is bigger than ever. It will be 40 000 square meters (400 000 square feet), with a current budget (soon to be blown) of 351 million US dollars.

   And yet, the Turkish construction manager was just arrested at the airport at Bergamo as he made a hasty retreat toward Istanbul. The slave labor, you see, was coming from India. The magistrates estimate that some workers were paid as little as 2 euro / hour.

   What’s especially stupid about this is that a real-estate scandal has been brewing and bubbling in Milano for some two years — mutual back scratching, projects greenlighted without due diligence, improbably large buildings illegally sited on small plots of land. Yet the masters in Washington, D.C., probably can’t read Italian newspapers.

   Behold the splendor of globalization and of the notoriously corrupt U.S. foreign-policy apparatus:

   https://www.ilpost.it/2026/06/01/indagini-consolato-stati-uniti-milano-procura-caporalato-sfruttamento/

   I keep thinking, Four hundred thousand square feet? Do the U.S. interlocking elites think that Milano is Baghdad?

   Purtroppo, I suspect that they do.

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   1. gk June 2, 2026 at 10:59 am

      Of course they can’t read Italian papers, as they are written in Italian…

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      1. 'Murican Saviour June 2, 2026 at 4:32 pm

         If English was good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for the Italians.

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   2. AG June 2, 2026 at 12:21 pm

      thanks!
      (Munich full of folks from Milano as usually this time of year)

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7. DJG, Reality Czar June 2, 2026 at 7:59 am

   Scientists discover inherited traits sometimes have variation. Breaking Mendel’s law! Let’s get click-bait-y for science:

   Overstated and confused. First, has anyone every claimed that Mendel’s law of inheritance of genes is somehow ironclad and infallible? Every Punnet square for genes takes into account variations in outcomes.

   But scientists think that they have to “give good quote”: To wit >>

   I

   n one example, two mice lacking methylation on a specific allele produced offspring in which both copies of that allele carried methylation.

   “The methylation seemingly appeared out of nowhere,” says Feinberg.

   These findings suggest that some epigenetic traits may emerge in descendants through mechanisms that remain poorly understood.

   Scientists~! Hint: Nothing appears out of nowhere. There is some as-yet-unperceived cause, like randomness, variation, other proteins, interaction of molecules, temperature, or The Swerve, as described by Lucretius. Melodrama, though, is not likely to be one of the causes.

   Sorry to disappoint: I suspect that the variations that they discovered are within tolerances.

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   1. KLG June 2, 2026 at 10:12 am

      Andy Feinberg, whom I knew at a distance in a previous life, might be the biggest Bigfoot in this epigenetic world. But “The methylation seemingly appeared out of nowhere” means only that they don’t understand their observations, yet, as you point out. The earliest work on phosphorylation and regulation of the cell cycle was not publishable because the authors had no ready explanation for their data, which were correct. They received no credit. I downloaded this paper. It would take me a week of work just to follow their methods and interpret their figures, so I will pass for now.

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   2. t June 2, 2026 at 10:41 am

      Glad to see someone with more smarts than me weigh in on this.

      I have minor education and in my public high school we learned that Mendel fudged a bit (or was unconsciously inaccurate in his recording) and that epigenetic effects and random mutations can lead to unexpected outcomes.

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   3. Christian B June 2, 2026 at 11:20 am

      The theory that is being thrown around in my circles is that gene methylation is the driver of adaptation.

      So, a mother is exposed to lower amounts of sunlight (ie, migrating out of Africa). As a result, the body shuts of melanin producing genes through methylation. Methylation changes gene expression without changing the gene.

      This methylation is passed on to the child, not risking the child to a permanent gene change to what might be a temporary environmental change. Now, if the child and their children are through generations expsoed to less sunlight, the methylation marker is incorporated into the genome. (During early embryonic development, specialized enzymes known as de novo DNA methyltransferases (specifically DNMT3a and DNMT3b) introduce new methylation marks to the genome.)

      This makes survival not random at all, but based on a slow and intelligent adaptation to a new environment.

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      1. kriptid June 2, 2026 at 6:29 pm

         I think this is a fair take, and while you’re at it, you can add methylation of RNA to the mix as well.

         It increasingly makes sense to me to think of DNA polymorphism as changes in the hardware inherited at the moment of creation; DNA and RNA methylation creates a software layer on top of the hardware that can be more responsive to environmental adaptations over time.

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8. Quentin June 2, 2026 at 8:12 am

   Does the article that reports the marvellous storage disc fail to state who developed it, even where? I must have missed something: ‘scientists say’.

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   1. John Wright June 2, 2026 at 9:58 am

      But the issue with readback of the data remains.

      Currently information stored on dvd, floppies, mag tape is not always accessible because the reading hardware is unavailable or broken.

      In thousands of years, how are the discovers of the media supposed to access the stored data?

      In the 1970s the Signetics semiconductor company had a humor campaign featuring the “write only memory” aka the WOM.

      This new storage mechanism may be a true, functional, WOM in that valid information is written, but can’t be read.

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      1. Not Qualified to Comment June 2, 2026 at 3:38 pm

         Well, there’s always the Write Only Memory Backup to fall back on.

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      2. jonboinAR June 2, 2026 at 8:52 pm

         I still have a boot disk for Windows 98 in a drawer. What was the last computer I had with a floppy drive? Can’t remember.

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   2. jefemt June 2, 2026 at 10:25 am

      I wonder how it holds up to the chains of a disc golf basket?

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9. flora June 2, 2026 at 8:15 am

   re: Graham Platner Loses Washington’s Vote – Ken Klippenstein

   Klippenstein left out one telling fact: Platner, a Marine Corps veteran, has been direct about refusing to bending the knee to Isr., a foreign country. Collins is attacking him for his stance on Isr. So is the Dem estab.

   From Due Dissidence. I start the clip at the point they talk about the Platner “scandal” at ~ minute 54.

   Levin BEGS TRUMP For MORE WAR, Platner HIT With ANOTHER “Scandal,” Artists BAIL on 250th Celebration

   https://youtu.be/a5zkSZvXgl4?t=3241

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   1. Mark Gisleson June 2, 2026 at 9:47 am

      The big issues will drown out the sexting scandal, especially if Platner deals with it properly.]

      The gold standard for not getting bogged down in personal scandal was Iowa’s Harold Hughes. He was an alcoholic truck driver who refound religion, stopped drinking, won the governorship and then became an anti-war U.S. Senator (served one term and then walked away).

      Hughes was an ex-drunk who swore constantly off-camera I don’t think he ever gave a speech without reminding his audience of his past sinful ways. Iowa voters didn’t all agree with him, but all agreed he was a good man.

      Voters love a reformed sinner, especially after a steady diet of faux concern. Platner can survive almost any scandal so long as it’s in his past and he publicly regrets it. What the Heathers media keeps forgetting is that average voters look at most of these scandals and their first thought is never “how horrible!” No, their first thought is usually, “Well, I guess I can’t ever run for office!”

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      1. hunkerdown June 2, 2026 at 11:31 am

         Maybe it’s time to start telling respectability advocates to do things to themselves that make the fertility cults bawl.

         https://x.com/john1rudio/status/2061567421148754032

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      2. Darthbobber June 2, 2026 at 12:32 pm

         I was underwhelmed by 5he sexting “scandal”. If the handful released are a fair sample, its largely in the category of off-color banter, devoid of any effort to give it actual erotic content.

         8n my day, the game was played in person, and if you did restaurant work or you were in the service you encountered it a lot. An escalating slang-off with each person topping the one before if they could. You had to be pretty precious to read it as having much to do with actual sex, or much of anything besides passing the time.

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         1. amfortas June 2, 2026 at 4:07 pm

            aye. off color sport flirting was a thing in all the better kitchens i worked in.
            waitresses vs cooks, with the dish crew providing weird ass tangents.
            every time i look at a broom, i remember one of my many, many waitresses(long dead from ALS, now) coming past the kitchen with a broom, and i asked her,” you goin home?”
            took her five minutes to get it and come back and chide me.

            that was what made the chaos fun.

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            1. ambrit June 2, 2026 at 7:30 pm

               She didn’t turn you into a newt, did she?

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   2. Glen June 2, 2026 at 4:46 pm

      Losing Washington’s vote is probably a plus for Platner’s campaign at this point.

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10. eg June 2, 2026 at 8:21 am

    “China’s court just ruled companies can’t fire workers only to replace them with AI”

    Unlike the idiot tribe of neoliberalism, someone understands what an economy is “for” …🤨

    Reply ↓
11. DJG, Reality Czar June 2, 2026 at 8:24 am

    Dear Yves Smith:

    Regarding Ian Welsh.

    This is his central idea: “Americans were given the best hand in the world: the industrial and tech lead, and they pissed it away.”

    Which is true. I recall Obama pissing away his congressional majorities and his moral authority, all so that he could get along with the Big Boys and Girls and get those four (count ‘em) houses.

    Let’s talk about you. You write:

    It is much worse than that. When people ask where I am from (and I should lie and say I am Canadian), I tell them and immediately say how ashamed I am to be an American, with particulars.

    Now, I realize that you are in a different situation than I am. I was given the gift of Italian citizenship as recognized by the ultrawonderlicious comune of Palermo, where my grandmother was born. I speak Italian. I vote in elections here and I regularly demonstrate with the other lefties and commies.

    From your writing here at the site you founded, I know that both you and I have extensive backgrounds in U.S. culture and history. We know Whitman and Dickinson, Tony Kushner and Arthur Miller, Marianne Moore and Elizabeth Bishop. Let alone FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt and Fannie Lou Hamer. Or the Civil Rights Act of 1966. With such intimate knowledge, I am still somewhat Usonian (although it is on the decline). As are you.

    Living in Italy, an ancient culture, I find the Italians tolerant and highly skeptical of the U S of A. After all, so many of them have cousins in New Jersey, New York, Chicago (and Brazil). Yet the one hundred years of U.S. imperial power might as well be last week in Italy. Usonians have no sense of their place in spacetime and no feeling for what it is like to be non-Usonian.

    But shame? Not yet.

    Better: Anger, annoyance, skepticism, impatience. As Gramsci supposedly said, We must live without illusions.

    But I am lucky. Piedmont truly is a rather tranquil, slightly nutty place.

    So: Lead from your many strengths. Keep the lessons of U.S. culture in mind. (I didn’t even mention Edward Hopper or Marilyn Monroe or Thomas Eakins — or Camille Paglia). Avoid the U.S. tendency to go apocalyptic. Yes, yes, yes, the U.S. of A. and individual Usonians are in a thoroughly shitty place, but things can change without the horrors of violence.

    And now I am off to have a second cup of espresso to celebrate the Founding of the Italian Republic. The holiday is today, 2 June.

    Viva la Repubblica, fondata sul lavoro!

    DJG.

    Reply ↓
    1. gk June 2, 2026 at 8:49 am

       You should call it “No King” day, so that the Americans will know what you are talking about…

       Reply ↓
    2. Robert Gray June 2, 2026 at 9:28 am

       > … the one hundred years of U.S. imperial power might as well be last week in Italy.

       ‘In America, 100 years is a long time and 100 miles is nearby. In Europe, the opposite is true.’
       — Unknown

       Reply ↓
    3. Trees&Trunks June 2, 2026 at 11:43 am

       I am watching in horror how the current Swedish misleaders are pissing away the great reputation Olof Palme and Sweden have had. Warmongering, backing genocide and being stupid are everything that Palme fought against.

       Reply ↓
       1. paul June 2, 2026 at 11:25 pm

          …until he was whacked.

          The it was back to bidness as usual.

          I’m not aware of any department of assassination studies in the, all too many, leaning towers of academe.

          Maybe it’s just too commonplace to bother with.

          Reply ↓
    4. In Cold Chud June 2, 2026 at 12:45 pm

       I get that Welsh’s emphasis on postwar R&D is a rebuke to neoliberalism and the tech gods, but that’s not where the alleged American Greatness ever lay. America was great because it had a (to this day, humanly unfathomable) amount of land, with the natural resources that, just as a matter of dumb luck, unsurprisingly occupied such a chunk of the Earth, cleared through genocide.* To the extent that the philosophical element mattered–the belly for it, the destruction of nature, as an end in itself, doing it yourself, instead of letting those inefficient, backwards British, French, or Mexicans take their sweet time–it’s unflattering. What this ultimately meant was an historically unprecedented capacity for growth. This was all we ever had to offer the world.** We offered it to Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, by absorbing its excess population, and again during the world wars, by supplying it with weapons, and then afterward, by supplying now-beleaguered Europe and the seemingly ascendant Third World with bulldozers and office chairs. The last part was the one everyone romanticizes, because the masses got enough of the cream to buy garagefuls of shit that ended up in landfills.

       *Greed for known natural resources reinforced the drive for westward expansion, but it had been a major part of the American project since before independence–when what was out there was largely unknown to the colonists–as evidenced by the response to the Proclamation of 1763.

       **After I caused some controversy last week, I will restate that some–probably most–of my favorite artists are American; I should have included Alice Neel and Arthur Dove, as well. We also have jazz and art deco. Aside from the fact that almost everything good in American culture has become calcified if not fossilized, this would be obscene to use in any kind of denial that America has been a net negative to the world.

       Reply ↓
    5. Glen June 3, 2026 at 1:35 pm

       I have to agree with Ian. It’s my lived experiences – my first job was minimum wage of $1.90/hr, my second job was unionized so I earned $6.75/hr. It was the mid 1970’s and I suddenly found myself able to afford an apartment, a car, able to afford going to college. I was 18. So I worked and went thru the University of California earning an engineering degree and graduated with no debt. It’s just not possible to do this anymore. Over the course of my career I watched as both where I worked, and all the companies whose products I used moved manufacturing off shore, and got rid of good American jobs. The industrial base that was, the knowledge in the workforce, it’s largely gone, and our current elites seem determined to somehow replace this with AI. It’s not even a pipe dream, it’s a complete fantasy.

       But what really still amazes me is that America has national politicians that were voted into office in the late 1980’s or early 1990’s that are still in office now. These leaders were handed an American empire, and quite literally ran it into the ground, wrecked it. The failure at that level is astonishing. I hear them complain how the people have elected a reality TV star, and flat refuse to acknowledge what they have done to their country over the multiple decades of their “leadership”.

       Reply ↓
12. The Rev Kev June 2, 2026 at 8:25 am

    ‘The Figen
    @TheFigen_
    A single gram of goodness is worth more than a ton of good intentions.’

    Not all heroes wear capes.

    Reply ↓
13. Rolf June 2, 2026 at 8:28 am

    Yves, thank you as always for all your hard work. I know I, and likely many, many others, are utterly dependent on you and everything you do to maintain this site, and to keep it going, day in, day out. Bless you.

    Reply ↓
    1. FlyoverBoy June 2, 2026 at 7:12 pm

       Just like Rolf said. Exactly like it. Thanks.

       Reply ↓
14. The Rev Kev June 2, 2026 at 8:43 am

    “Sweden ramps up aid to households and businesses to tackle energy crisis”

    Sounds like Sweden is really in a bit of a pickle here. I mean they already have an energy crisis and we know that it is going to get worse. So, I got an idea. The Germans have made clear that they will never, ever use the last remaining NS2 pipeline ever again. OK. So what it Sweden diverts that pipeline to go to Sweden instead. It is not a long distance. After cleaning it out, they could then buy gas directly from Russia which should help them get through this winter. They could even set up a YouTube account showing a gas stove burning and send it to all those long-suffering people of the Merz regime. They just have to take care in case a yacht full of Ukrainians turns up in the Baltic.

    Reply ↓
15. mrsyk June 2, 2026 at 9:12 am

    That’s a terrific quartet of antidotes today, thanks.

    Reply ↓
    1. nycTerrierist June 2, 2026 at 10:24 am

       Agreed, and much-needed!

       Reply ↓
    2. The Rev Kev June 2, 2026 at 10:28 am

       You kinda look forward to seeing them whenever Yves does a Links page.

       Reply ↓
16. mrsyk June 2, 2026 at 9:27 am

    Who’s this Eric Adam’s fellow?
    Heh heh heh, the real question is why did he feel compelled to post that teeet. Does he really believe there’s a future for him in public service? Lordie.

    Reply ↓
17. Colonel Smithers June 2, 2026 at 9:29 am

    Thank you, Yves.

    Further to your link about indoctrination in Israeli schools, it’s the same in Jewish schools in the United Kingdom. In addition to the day to day tuition, IDF soldiers, often, but not always, British, are invited to lecture and meet pupils and promote Aaliyah and IDF service.

    The indoctrination and even instances of child abuse have provoked concern on the part of the authorities, schools inspectors and social services, but the civil servants have been ordered to stand down by politicians, local and Whitehall.

    Reply ↓
18. flora June 2, 2026 at 9:39 am

    Due Dissidence on the US – Isr military fusion bill. They follow the money.

    New Proposal Would FUSE American and Israeli Militaries

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3ALBfeokKg

    Reply ↓
    1. flora June 2, 2026 at 9:48 am

       In the interest of truth-in-advertising, the bill should be named the Jonathon Pollard bill.

       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard

       Reply ↓
19. The Rev Kev June 2, 2026 at 9:43 am

    ‘TheNewPhysics
    @CharlesMullins2
    🚨 SCIENTISTS JUST CREATED A 5D GLASS DISC THAT CAN STORE 360 TERABYTES AND LAST FOR BILLIONS OF YEARS.’

    This brings up an intriguing possibility. Like the Voyager probes, we could send spaceships out to the stars bearing a message from Humanity on one of those discs. It would be in two parts. The first would establish a common language with simple mathematical proofs by first giving prime numbers, geometric relationships, basic physical constants, etc. Having done that, they would be able to read the underlying message which would say that ‘The answer to Life, the Universe and Everything is………42.’ Can you imagine? It would make humanity famous throughout the Galaxy and the message would be as enigmatic as the Mona Lisa’s smile. Generations of alien researchers would devote their lives to understanding it and religions would form around different interpretations. Humanity would never be forgotten.

    Reply ↓
20. Butch June 2, 2026 at 9:55 am

    “What would you choose to preserve on one of these discs for the next 10,000 years?” Punk Rock and Ska. The entire Naked Capitalism.

    Reply ↓
21. pjay June 2, 2026 at 9:56 am

    Re: “UPDATE: Scott Pelley called out Bari Weiss, saying in the meeting: “She’s murdering 60 mins. She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.”

    Of course I am irate that Zionist billionaires like the Ellisons can buy up the media and install lackeys like Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of the “news.” But I have to admit that the raging anger I would have had a few decades ago about such a fate for CBS or 60 Minutes has all but disappeared today. 60 Minutes used to be one of the very few television shows I almost never missed. Now, after witnessing its long decline during which its occasional subtle propaganda pieces became increasingly dominant and blatant, I can barely stand to watch it. Yes, it will become even worse under the Ellisons (well, maybe they’ll go easier on Putin and Russia!). But I find it difficult to muster a lot of sympathy. Pelley may be right about why Weiss was brought in, but for me the show had been dying for quite a while.

    I have similar feelings about the slow death of NPR.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev June 2, 2026 at 10:02 am

       We have a 60 Minutes here in Oz and all too often they are used to spread propaganda. Stopped watching them many years ago for that reason. If the whole show was cancelled, who would really care?

       Reply ↓
    2. Screwball June 2, 2026 at 10:48 am

       Where was Pelley’s rage when he was tossing softball questions to powerful people? Cry me a river Scott.

       None of it is worth watching today.

       Reply ↓
    3. Glen June 2, 2026 at 12:54 pm

       Yes, same here, gave up on shows like 60 Minutes during the run up to W’s stupid wars. Now, Trump makes W look like a genius when it comes to completely stupid wars and the MSM seems fine with it.

       Reply ↓
22. Tom Stone June 2, 2026 at 10:06 am

    It appears that Basura will succeed Noisome as California’s Governor.
    Kamala without the charm, but dumber.

    Reply ↓
23. The Rev Kev June 2, 2026 at 10:15 am

    “AI debt sales reshape global corporate bond markets”

    Saw something a few hours ago connected with this. ‘Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders announced today that he will introduce legislation to give the American public a direct ownership stake in the country’s largest artificial intelligence companies.’ Is he senile or something? If this passed you can bet that it would be a vehicle for AI corporations to load all their debts on the American public. So he might propose ‘a one-time transfer of 50 percent of equity from companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI to the government’ but you can bet that the government would have 100 percent of the debts-

    https://mashable.com/tech/bernie-sanders-nyt-op-ed-pubic-ai-ownership-argument

    Reply ↓
    1. tegnost June 2, 2026 at 10:29 am

       I think “we” (wall st) are going to have to “invest” (steal) the social security trust fund in order to “share” (hand off the bag to) the “benefits”(accruing to almost no one.) in order to”save” (take over) the world.

       Reply ↓
    2. jefemt June 2, 2026 at 10:30 am

       An alternative definition of Reversion to The Mean?

       Reply ↓
    3. hunkerdown June 2, 2026 at 10:34 am

       I ignore all anti-AI propaganda. It was probably generated by AI in the first place…

       https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/06/data-centers-activism-ai-slop/687396/

       Reply ↓
    4. flora June 2, 2026 at 1:44 pm

       Yep. Bernie doesn’t know what he’s doing.

       At this point, AI company promises are much like No Face in the movie Spirited Away: promising easy gold as the bait and then devouring any who take the gold – the ultimate bait and switch.

       If AI was profitable on business terms it wouldn’t need to be looking to loot pension funds and possibly social security as well. As Garland Nixon observes, AI is the woodchipper of money. /;)

       Reply ↓
    5. Objective Ace June 2, 2026 at 3:10 pm

       >you can bet that the government would have 100 percent of the debts-

       Are you so sure they wont end up doing that anyway? See Wallstreet, car manufacturers, and airlines

       Reply ↓
       1. Henry Moon Pie June 2, 2026 at 5:58 pm

          Exactly. And maybe Bernie remembers, as I do, how Paulson handed the big banks all that money and got no equity stake in return. That way, when the bailed-out banks recovered, all the gains went to the 1%, not the taxpayers who bailed them out.

          Reply ↓
24. Anon June 2, 2026 at 11:04 am

    Andy O’Brien, who has a very good Substack on Maine politics, recently tweeted out photos of Susan Collins meeting with members of the Belfast chapter of the Maine Militia, a white supremacist militia with a variety of non-mainstream views on racial politics. Worth checking out, the next time you come across more media hand-wringing about Platner’s tattoo.

    Reply ↓
25. Tom Stone June 2, 2026 at 12:11 pm

    I haven’t seen ant remarks abut how the closure of the Strait of Hormuz will affect the US Auto industry, which seems curious.

    Reply ↓
26. AG June 2, 2026 at 12:46 pm

    re: Mies van der Rohe

    BERLINER ZEITUNG

    machine-translation

    When Mies van der Rohe created a monument for Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht

    The Revolution Monument in the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery was unveiled to the public 100 years ago. It was and remains an icon of modernity.
    https://archive.is/VKcqI

    Reply ↓
    1. Henry Moon Pie June 2, 2026 at 5:40 pm

       Thanks for that. Rosa was a hero of my youth. I wrote a paper about the Spartacists for a prof named Hans Wehler, who was visiting from Germany. That wasn’t a 100 years ago. ;) Just a little more than half that.

       Reply ↓
       1. AG June 2, 2026 at 8:13 pm

          That´s a great share. Thank you.

          As far as I remember Wehler was an honest old style historian who wouldn´t simply follow this or that simply because it would be convenient. In that era that was still possible.

          I am surprised that as West German conservative he lectured your class on Luxemburg although it is known he did make a case that the assassin of her and Liebknecht was never prosecuted. He wrote about her never shared her views however.

          Perhaps you would remember whether or not he offered a good analysis.

          Fwiw among his peers there were doubts he understood the GDR.

          I would suggest that his five-volume-analysis of Classic German history (with a tilt to the conservative) 1700-1990 is among the really important accounts. The token term magnum opus would probably apply.

          I wasn´t aware that he did this much work about US history.
          I am always a bit wary when Cold War era West German scholars do research on the US.
          But I may well be wrong and this an occasion to look into it.

          p.s. Apparently his postdoctoral theses were rejected twice. #1 about the rise of US Imperialism in the 19th century, the other one about Bismarck and German Imperialism. In hindsight it´s safe to say there is no better recommendation for a true historian.

          And as I now see English Wikipedia omits the “scandalous” part and instead fills in this:

          “(…)His postdoctoral thesis on Bismarck and imperialism, opened the way for an academic career. His habilitation project on “American imperialism between 1865 and 1900”, supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, permitted him to do research in American libraries in 1962–1963 and resulted in two books. In all he spent six years in the US and was strongly influenced by its academic structures and by research in comparative modernization.(…)”

          So one could even speculate you would have never met in the classroom had his early career gone more smooth.

          Reply ↓
27. Henry D June 2, 2026 at 12:55 pm

    New paper shows how spike protein induced autoimmunity derails the RAAS.
    “A paper published in Vaccines (MDPI) on April 16, 2026 entitled: Autoimmune Features of Post-COVID-19 Vaccination Syndrome and Their Impacts on the Renin–Angiotensin System confirms much of what I predicted years ago.

    The authors propose that Post-Acute COVID-19 Vaccination Syndrome (PACVS) is largely driven by autoimmune dysregulation of the RAAS. In their observational cohort study of 17 SARS-CoV-2–uninfected people (13 women, 4 men; mean age 44), who were previously healthy and received 1–3 doses of COVID-19 vaccines (mostly mRNA), the researchers documented the following key immunological findings:

    Elevated IL-1β/IL-8 (IL = interleukin) and reduced T regulatory cells (Tregs) (autoimmune signature)

    Frequent G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) autoantibodies: nearly universal anti-MAS1 (strongly correlated with burning paresthesia) and anti-ACE2 (linked to skin edema/bruising, hypertension, headache)**

    Autoantibodies against several adrenergic and muscarinic receptors (linked to Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), chronic heart failure, and even Chagas cardiomyopathy)

    Elevated Ang-(1–7) in ~67% of cases, despite impaired protective signaling.”

    Reply ↓
28. Jason Boxman June 2, 2026 at 1:04 pm

    This is worth seeing, as well, apparently Facebook uses an automated system for getting into a locked account, and it’s been fooled with generative AI at mass scale.

    Hackers trick Meta AI support bot to infiltrate Obama White House Instagram account (Guardian)

    Hackers used Meta’s AI-powered support chatbot to infiltrate high-profile Instagram accounts, the company has confirmed, saying it resolved the problem after researchers exposed it.

    The targets ranged from Barack Obama’s White House account to the beauty retailer Sephora and the US Space Force chief master sergeant, John Bentivegna, according to reporting from 404 Media. Everyday users complained of similar hijackings on Reddit and X over the weekend.

    Reply ↓
29. johnnyme June 2, 2026 at 2:09 pm

    Trump taps housing regulator Pulte to be acting director of national intelligence

    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has tapped Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to be the acting director of national intelligence — elevating a real estate scion without any clear national security credentials to a key post as the U.S. remains at war with Iran.

    The Republican president cited Pulte’s work at the FHFA and his role as chair of the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as indicating that his real estate work would overlap with the skills needed to coordinate 18 federal agencies tasked with aspects of foreign and domestic security.

    Reply ↓
30. .Tom June 2, 2026 at 2:20 pm

    The Loneliness of the Competitive Quizzer Baffler (Micael T)

    To get a sense of the sheer excitement of the competition the author reports from, and participated in, here’s the live stream of the

    England A v. Croatia – Nations Cup Final | 2025 International Quizzing Championships – IQC

    I teed it up at the segment in which the question about Hermann von Salza arises (~1:20:20)

    https://www.youtube.com/live/wtSI2vV-BvA?t=4823s

    Reply ↓
    1. Henry Moon Pie June 2, 2026 at 6:13 pm

       By the time I tuned in, the Croats were begging to switch the competition to football or tennis.

       I wonder how the British team would do if the contest were conducted in hrvatski?

       Reply ↓
31. ChrisFromGA June 2, 2026 at 2:48 pm

    Here is an obscure but still interesting story, found while perusing the financial news:

    https://archive.ph/KtFKP

    Mastercard Inc. is asking Brazil’s biggest payment processors to help it foot the bill from the failure of Banco Master SA.
    Mastercard has already reimbursed payment processors for about 50% of roughly 5 billion reais of cardholder payments and is proposing to use any money collected from card customers to reimburse itself first.

    Apparently, a Brazilian bank blew chunks, and the fallout hit Mastercard.

    Perhaps evidence that financial stress is mounting, first at the margins? How long until we get FDIC Friday again here in the USA?

    Reply ↓
    1. Henry Moon Pie June 2, 2026 at 4:41 pm

       I’ll call your financial crisis, and raise you a food crisis. A Farm Journal online reporter interviews a crop insurance broker about the drought in the high plains. He said the first sign was claims from irrigated sugar beet farmers who irrigated from surface water sources. Then came the claims from winter wheat farmers. Much of the wheat, he said, is too short for the combines to harvest. Now the farmers who depend on wells for water were running dry. Apparently, this usually happens at some point during the summer, but not at the beginning of June.

       Beets are used for animal feed and biofuels. Winter wheat is made into flour, and all that’s made from flour.

       Reply ↓
32. Jason Boxman June 2, 2026 at 4:25 pm

    I see genocidal lunatic Fetterman is fulfilling his role in the Democrat party:

    Fetterman calls Platner a ‘creep’ after reports of extramarital sexting (CNN)

    Sen. John Fetterman issued a scathing takedown of Graham Platner as the leading Democratic candidate in Maine’s Senate race has become embroiled in a scandal over reports that he sent sexual text messages to women who were not his wife.

    In an interview with CNN Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Democrat also laid into Platner over past social media posts that have haunted Platner’s campaign for months. Fetterman likened Platner to a “Nazi sympathizer” over a now-infamous tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol. Platner has apologized for the past posts and has pleaded ignorance over the meaning of the tattoo, which he has since covered.

    Doubly amusing, given that Fetterman enthusiastically supports a genocide, today, as in right now.

    Reply ↓
    1. Henry Moon Pie June 2, 2026 at 6:18 pm

       It may be that the only thing worse than the little neoliberal, Zionist robots coming out of the Democrats’ candidate factory (“Miss CIA of 1997!”) are the offbeat candidates with lots of baggage who turn out to be even worse than the ‘bots.

       Know the tree by its fruit, said someone once. Everything from the “D” tree is poison. No different with the “Rs.”

       Reply ↓
33. ChrisPacific June 2, 2026 at 8:11 pm

    Detecting some private equity stench about this one:

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360986861/these-are-vulnerable-children-principal-raised-concerns-about-school-transport-provider-boys-death

    Ritchies, the provider, was acquired by KKR in 2021. It took on a large amount of debt in 2025 to fund expansion and KKR began peddling them for sale 2 months later, although it seems they haven’t yet found a buyer.

    Early days and no evidence of wrongdoing as yet, but some of the usual PE alarm bells do seem to be present. Hopefully we’ll find out more as a result of the investigation.

    Reply ↓
34. Ann June 2, 2026 at 9:57 pm

    Brazil’s beloved instant payment system faces scrutiny from the Trump administration

    https://apnews.com/article/brazil-payment-system-pix-investigation-credit-card-fd04428f309a2b329964a3050111e3ec

    Reply ↓
35. AG June 2, 2026 at 10:44 pm

    re: “MELANIA” movie

    One watches the documentary “MELANIA” by Brett Ratner about First Lady M (free on Amazon with a trial subscription) – 10 minutes across the entire timeline is enough – and realizes that the US as country is fucked.

    Not because of Trump but because just by the surfaces, the faces of people, how they move – the lack of anything meaningful – the entire system is revealed to be infinitely corrupt, hollow. Well beyond rescue.

    (I wondered when was the moment of no return in the history of the US.)

    How is this system supposed to be reformed? Changed? I have no clue.

    As an audience you spend most of the time asking yourself questions which Melania and her family certainly did not want you to have when they agreed to this.

    Very simple childish questions like where does all the gold come from. Or driving in those SUVs what do they experience from the real world outside? They are puppets moved around. This is not news. But the level of hermetic seclusion and being kept in the dark is still staggering.

    It´s now indeed perfectly believable that Trump trusted Netanjahu when he made up the claim Iran wanted to kill him. Also the fear that Blumenthal ascribed to the general atmosphere in Mar-a-Lago after the attempts of assassination. These people know basically nothing.
    (Not ruling out that it was all staged without them of course knowing.)

    Or to quote the action movie “AIR FORCE ONE” where a rogue Russian operative hijacks the plane: “It’s not the president who matters, but the office.”

    You could replace Trump with any other person in this movie. Outcome – the feeling emanating – would be the same.

    I haven´t watched any of those other PR pieces for the Obamas or other POTUSES. But this one trying (not very aptly) so hard to put focus on glamour and surface reveals inadvertently the horrible truth. The infinite abyss.

    It would have been interesting how the documentary team of the 1960 piece “PRIMARY” about the campaign JFK vs. Hubert Humphrey would have approached this. Maybe their artistic understanding and eye would have offered much more humanism, much more transparency, less pseudo-control and eventually less “death”.

    Ratner if he attempted to give us a fairy-tale of power failed.

    Most surprising was the mediocre technical level with all the legendary names attached to “MELANIA”.
    But of course documentary film is a completely different animal than Hollywood blockbusters and popcorners.
    (E.g. many less expensive series operate much smarter with drones. It has zero feeling of rhythym. sloppy editing. I expected more.)

    Reply ↓