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1. The Rev Kev June 6, 2026 at 7:37 am

   “Ostracism in the Ancient World”

   It’s an interesting idea. People in ancient Athens who were ostracized had ten days to leave the city and could not return for ten years upon pain of death. Their property was safe and there was no loss of status. It was just that the city thought it best that you go away for a coupla years. But of course you could not bring it back because how would you organize it? How would voting be done and what about legal challenges? This process may have worked for a city state but won’t for any size country. Still, it would be nice to tell people like Elon Musk and Sam Altman to go take a hike-

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

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   1. Carolinian June 6, 2026 at 8:28 am

      In the American version the media and the controlling CEOs do the ostracizing. Susan Sarandon says she can’t get work in Hollywood now because she objects to Gaza.

      Actual physical expulsion will come later if Trump endures.

      Of course ancient Greece was a democracy for fighting males only and not the women or slaves so they had their own Carlin “club” that only some were in.

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      1. earthling June 6, 2026 at 10:34 am

         Here we are in history. Pelley and Sarandon, courageous enough to speak out, and getting unemployed.

         The United States Senate, who lack courage to toss out an insane grifter, instead dither about how much more they will double down on his wrecking the country. And only then because their precious re-election is finally in danger.

         Profiles in Courage.

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         1. Carolinian June 6, 2026 at 11:06 am

            Sorry but Pelley is the political opposite of Sarandon and spent his too long career pulling 60 Min to the right.

            CBS News has been going downhill for a long time. Going by some very limited exposure I’d say ABC and NBC are not particularly better.

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            1. tegnost June 6, 2026 at 11:51 am

               Agreed, Sarandon has pretty impeccable cred.

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               1. Carla June 6, 2026 at 1:22 pm

                  It may be true that Sarandon is being censored, but it is also true that Hollywood has long dismissed aging female actors without regard for their talent or their politics.

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               2. wol June 6, 2026 at 1:25 pm

                  She said Hi to us in the parking lot of a sushi bar before we realized who she was. Inside my s-i-l said SS started a conversation with her.

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                  1. Jonathan Holland Becnel June 6, 2026 at 5:26 pm

                     I was a big fan in high school NOT BECAUSE OF THELMA & LOUISE oddly enough, but Dead Man Walking where she played Sister Helen Prejean.

                     And now we got TOM HARDY with us?!!!!

                     And the Onion Knight???

                     LETS GEAUX, TEAM HUMANITY!

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            2. earthling June 6, 2026 at 8:31 pm

               Few other ‘names’ have put their jobs on the line to stand up to these fascisti, so I’ll take him on the team for right now.

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   2. Michaelmas June 6, 2026 at 8:39 am

      Still, it would be nice to tell people like Elon Musk and Sam Altman to go take a hike-

      Some great SF stories on this theme of ostracism, including Robert Silverberg’s ‘To See The Invisible Man,’ but most notably Damon Knight’s ‘The Country of the Kind,’ which is explicitly about ‘What Do We Do With The Psychopaths?’

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

      ‘The story is set in a future world in which violence and crime have been almost entirely eradicated. The main character is a man who is capable of antisocial behavior and considers himself “the king of the world.” He is allowed to do what he wishes, take what he wants and go where he pleases without reprisal, so long as he does no violence to another human being. The “humane, permissive” society in which he lives has adopted a threefold solution for someone who is, by their standards, insane.

      ‘The first is excommunication – no one is to interact with him or even acknowledge his existence, other than by the apparent worldwide directive identifying him and calling for this punishment. Secondly, he is thrown into an epileptic seizure whenever he attempts to commit violence against another human. Thirdly, his body and waste give off a highly offensive odor, undetectable by him, to identify him, warn others of his presence and drive them away.

      ‘The story ends with a desperate plea from the protagonist for someone, anyone to join him in his rebellion against what he perceives to be a wholly passive society, which has lost any spark of creativity or will to achieve greatness.

      ‘The story links violence to artistic expression. The protagonist “invents” drawing and sculpture, only later realizing, from old books, that these things had existed in the past, and notes that all great artists had lived in especially violent times.’

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      1. hemeantwell June 6, 2026 at 10:39 am

         Huh, x 2. Those measures are the ingredients of the recent Apple production Pluribus. It’s worth a look, so to avoid spoilers I’ll just say complete freedom of action, being left alone and other elements are there in altered form. Rhea Seehorn does a good job portraying exasperated accommodation to the system.

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   3. Trees&Trunks June 6, 2026 at 8:54 am

      Ostracizing Musk and Altman should happen but you have to add expropriation of all assets too. Otherwise they will wreak havoc on countries. Think Soros.

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      1. Carla June 6, 2026 at 1:27 pm

         When, as in the case of Musk, Altman (and many others) they stole the money by repeatedly lying in the first place, is it really appropriation, or more realistically the repayment of a debt owed to society?

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   4. jonboinAR June 6, 2026 at 9:49 am

      One presumes they’d have to be convicted of some crime, first, that it couldn’t be just because “we” think they’re a##h#les. It might be an interesting form of punishment, I suppose, somewhat civilized if you will.

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      1. The Rev Kev June 6, 2026 at 10:00 am

         Actually they weren’t typically convicted of a crime in order to be ostracized. From that Wikipedia article-

         ‘While some instances clearly expressed popular anger at the citizen, ostracism was often used preemptively as a way of neutralizing someone thought to be a threat to the state or a potential tyrant.’

         It was a mechanism to short-circuit some guy getting too far ahead of himself.

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   5. none June 6, 2026 at 3:27 pm

      Still, it would be nice to tell people like Elon Musk and Sam Altman to go take a hike-

      Mars needs women techbros!

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2. Carolinian June 6, 2026 at 8:20 am

   Trump says Iran US retains only 21%-22% of missile stockpile

   Fixed it.

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3. The Rev Kev June 6, 2026 at 8:31 am

   “The Butlerian Jihad Has Begun”

   It just occurred to me in reading this post that when you stop to think about it, wasn’t the future depicted in the “Terminator” series a form of Butlerian Jihad? Men and women doing battle with machines controlled by Skynet, a thinking computer? In fact, I saw a brief clip from a “Dune” film showing scenes from the Butlerian Jihad and it looks like it was modeled on the “Terminator” future-

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB99NdaVgNg (3:36 mins)

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   1. leaf June 6, 2026 at 10:46 am

      The Terminator approach was something that Frank Herbert’s money grubbing son came up in his his books which can only be described as the equivalent of pissing on his father’s grave. I believe he (Brian Herbert) was listed as some kind of consultant or the other on the Dune films and the spin off TV prequel shows which is why they went with that.

      Frank Herbert’s Butlerian Jihad was really about thinking for yourself and not letting the people who own the thinking machines control it for you. Which brings us to the present day of outsourcing thinking to LLMs…

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   2. Es s Ce Tera June 6, 2026 at 1:48 pm

      And isn’t this also the premise of the Matrix?

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   3. JP June 6, 2026 at 1:59 pm

      Did I miss the genesis of the term Butlerian beyond the reference to Herbert’s writing? Did Herbert connect the idea with Semdly Butler who was opposed to the MIC long before Eisenhower.

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      1. Lefty Godot June 6, 2026 at 3:41 pm

         Samuel Butler. Herbert is more explicit about the reference in Destination Void (about a starship crew trying to create a machine intelligence when their organic biocomputers break down). Herbert was very concerned with the idea of Darwinian evolution as an endless battle of “nature red in tooth and claw” in which the population with the harshest, most brutal environment would become the superior race (hence the Fremen and Dosadi). A wrongheaded notion, but one popular among the Greatest Generation, who grew up with racialist Social Darwinism in their intellectual “air” (along with the Nietzsche superman ideal). Other fantasy/SF writers of Herbert’s generation also took for granted barbarian evolutionary superiority over effete civilized men. On the other hand, Butler included evolution among his satirical targets, tongue-in-cheek predicting machines out-evolving humans, and Herbert felt the need to engage with Butler’s implied critique.

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         1. JP June 6, 2026 at 4:22 pm

            Of course, a SF writer working off the thesis of another SF writer. Thank you.

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4. AG June 6, 2026 at 8:36 am

   re: St. Petersburg Forum yesterday

   80 min. Panel
   Scott Ritter amog others
   As expected rather radical. Essentially Europe is over. Still hope for US.
   TC 40:00-53:00
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTNFLlBLEo4

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5. joey_n June 6, 2026 at 8:42 am

   “Today Europe Is a Rabid Dog”: Scott Ritter Unleashes Stunning Attack on Europe at SPIEF APT, YouTube. Hoo boy.

   What does that make their US and Israeli overlords then?

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6. Isanthrope June 6, 2026 at 8:42 am

   On oversocialization – generational stuff is primarily there to ensure we fight each other for dwindling resources rather than turn our attention to the planetary-sized suck of the obscenely wealthy.

   The “Zomg the GenZers grew up inside social media and therefore are profoundly distinct and cannot be understood by any generation that grew up before” is codswallop. Sure oxytocin depletes as we age and so we may not be quite as optimized to absorb new ways of being as our culture changes around us but seriously, most of GenZ’s parents and grandparents are more online than they are.

   Brains are social organs our entire lives. We both overestimate the impact of culture and technology on developing brains and underestimate their impacts on developed brains.

   “Traditional media could often be understood independently of its medium.” The entire cultural experience of let’s say the series end of the Sopranos (pre-dating the smartphone by 5 years) cannot be experienced now, but can be understood. The same is true of events unfolding on social media in realtime.

   I remember the first time I came across Twitter. It was a Twitpic from the bridge of the bird-strike-downed flight 1549 in 2009 in the Hudson River as the evacuation was unfolding. I thought to myself “well now that changes everything.” And it both did and didn’t.

   Human brains are constructed and reconstructed until death by and with memes. We will always use media as the tool through which we change ourselves and our environments and if you’re alive, no matter how you identify generationally, you’re a part of that experience.

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   1. Carolinian June 6, 2026 at 8:51 am

      Dick Van Dyke says he made it to 100 by means of constant physical activity and working out. Here’s suggesting the same applies to brains. When you get old it’s use it or lose it.

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   2. Lefty Godot June 6, 2026 at 12:13 pm

      Does everyone now live off of “algorithmic feeds” for all their interactions with the internet and the larger world? Does everyone use apps instead of web browsers to access “content”? Reading this argument about how different Z and the Boomers are, I realize that as a Boomer I have no way to evaluate his characterization of Z. In places the author talks about Z as if they are the ones with Boomer parents, but that can’t be right. It would be like Boomers having Lost Generation parents, which very few did–most of them had parents in the two intervening generations. And the distance between the cultural and technological youth experiences of Boomers (TV, radio, rock’n’roll) versus the Lost Generation (no electricity, often no interior plumbing, silent movies only, ragtime) was just as great as the distance between Z and Boomers. Across all the generations since the Gilded Age I can see that technology more and more keeps allowing people to avoid face to face contact and get their information from non-local sources, but I have a hard time seeing any clearcut case of “But this generation is special!” It’s like the author is making an inverted Orwell diagnosis: All generations are unique, but some generations are more unique!

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      1. JP June 6, 2026 at 2:08 pm

         Maybe what separated the boomers in a unique way, from previous generations, was available birth control. What separates the Z’s is being suckled on cell phones

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7. tyaresun June 6, 2026 at 8:44 am

   In forecasting, it has long been known that the errors increase as you go farther away from the time or training data for the statistical models, the so called “trumpet of doom”. LLMs are no exception.

   https://mindandmarket.blogspot.com/2019/01/trumpet-of-doom.html

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   1. The Rev Kev June 6, 2026 at 8:59 am

      Well those LLMs can only be fed the internet once and may not be able to do it again as lots of sites are using security verifications and Capchas now. What will the state be of those LLMs in five years time?

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   2. Spastica Rex June 6, 2026 at 10:42 am

      From this perspective, is the description of a trend equivalent to forecasting?

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   3. ilsm June 6, 2026 at 3:54 pm

      LLM are energy sinks, and not effective.

      Something will improve on LLM and make all those chips obsolete!

      Gary Marcus says hyperscalers went pay by token, because they could not borrow enough to stay open losing so much money on “all you can eat” AI.

      That suggests the IPO’s are dead in the water, except the cumulative hype, which is why Trump would put US funds behind OpenAI and Anthropic!

      Will the Mag 7/AI stocks lose again on Monday?

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8. Cat Fancier June 6, 2026 at 9:03 am

   The link posted under Trump 2.0, to a geopolitical analyst called AJ Jaff (@aj_geo_analysis), regarding the Kushner/Trump Albanian island RE deal, is interesting but it is a lead to an even more interesting (IMHO) and worrisome Substack post on the Lebanon ceasefire, and this person’s view of the larger strategy it involves – goes beyond the usual “Greater Israel” mainstream story.

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   1. Ex-PFC Chuck June 6, 2026 at 6:43 pm

      Which link? There are a bunch of them.

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9. hunkerdown June 6, 2026 at 9:09 am

   This “Butlerian Jihad” larping is literally NYC centrist PMC trying to roll back personal technology, presumably so that they can regain their monopoly on design and impose determinations on what can and cannot exist. The destruction of 3D printing: Bloomberg is behind it (Louis Rossmann, YouTube)

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   1. Cat Fancier June 6, 2026 at 11:49 am

      The point of the Substack is not NYC PMC centrist LARPing, with which I am all too painfully familiar, with a couple of relatives who are in that camp and long ago employers – I persisted through all his fanboi explanation of what he means by “Butlerian jihadism” to his real point – that technology is not the enemy – technocracy is.

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      1. Lefty Godot June 6, 2026 at 12:36 pm

         There is no mention in the article of Samuel Butler, Herbert’s inspiration, who offered the droll proposition that if Darwin was right, we could expect machines to evolve to become superior to their makers. So I don’t think the argument that the Jihad was about technocracy is really accurate. The spice-addicted Guild Navigators are a technocratic elite of sorts within Herbert’s space empire, with its vague religion mushing Christianity, Sunni Islam, and Zen Buddhism into an inchoate stew. The result is preventing machines from mimicking humans, but we get classes of humans who mimic machines (the Navigators, the Mentats, the Bene Tleilax, etc.). I think the author is overinterpreting to fit a pet theory.

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   2. cfraenkel June 6, 2026 at 12:57 pm

      Did you get to the end of the article? He literally makes the case that it’s not about the ‘thinking machines’, it’s about the people in power attempting to use the __fill in the blank__ to de-humanize and cement their power over the rest of us. It’s as much about anti-monopolization or anti-PMC as anything else.

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10. The Rev Kev June 6, 2026 at 9:25 am

    “Why Are Men So Bad at Making—and Keeping—Friends?”

    It might have been better for that post to mention the different economic circumstances of years ago when men had more inter-reaction with each other. Not only at work but in union meetings, at clubs and lodges, places to practice hobbies, neighbourhood meets, political meetings, bowling, volunteering, trips with your buddies in the country, etc. But our present economic system has done away with a lot of those places that men could meet face to face and young people are much more time constrained and have to hold multiple jobs now leaving little left over time for such activities unless it is over the internet.

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    1. Alphonse June 6, 2026 at 3:39 pm

       To expand on this, male-only spaces have been eliminated. This matters because mixed spaces (especially workplaces) adopt female-typical styles of interaction that are hostile to male trust and bonding.

       There is a joke that men insult each other and don’t mean it; women compliment each other and don’t mean it. My point is not whether the last bit is fair, but that the female style of communication is explicitly supportive. Insults and aggression are experienced as hurtful. In contrast, men bond through aggression. This can range be playful, but even real violence can foster respect and bonding, even among opponents or enemies.

       There was this boy in high school. The moment we saw each other there was instant dislike. I didn’t know why he hated me, but I could see by his face that he did. I imagine the opposite was also true. I suspect it was all an accident, an expression misinterpreted, but the aversion lasted – until finally, for no reason I can recall, we actually came to blows. Which was surprising as we were both geeky bookish types. As so often the fight was followed by a sheepish feeling. The dark cloud was gone. We were friends for years after. (Today what would happen? Zero tolerance. As a small kid who was bullied in school I found that a hateful policy from the moment it was brought in.)

       Listen to young men when they are with other young men. They casually throw the most politically incorrect epithets at each other. That is how they develop and show trust.

       Women are more likely to wonder about the relational implications of what someone says. Was that a compliment or an insult? Why is he doing that? What does she really mean? They are more likely to ruminate. In my experience women are far more likely to insist that certain topics not be mentioned. Rats, snakes, violence in wars: women I know will say that they cannot even tolerate the thought of these things. Maybe they can’t block out images or feelings, I don’t know. Most men seem to simply choose to block off their emotional response.

       Take that group of young men and add a woman. Unless she known to be “one of the boys” there is a likelihood that she will be offended. The men no longer feel comfortable being themselves or speaking openly. Every word must be measured before being uttered. Intimacy becomes impossible. Friendship is only superficial.

       I am not contradiction claims that female friendships may be deeper. I am saying that male friendship is different. It is said that women are better at talking about their feelings. After reading McGilchrist I’m not sure this is entirely a good thing. To me, putting words to feelings does not expose them: it deforms and conceals them. The male-typical way of being is to simply exist and accept without a need for words. But it does mean that men have no vocabulary for their feeling of claustrophobia when they are unable to speak naturally. Women say our ribbing and insults are toxic and we have no retort.

       The introduction of women into men’s spaces and workplaces, the adoption of female-typical pursuit of harmony, consensus, and non-competition, and the integration of all of this into a political programme of sensitivity, destroys the conditions for male bonding and friendship. For the most part I don’t think it’s deliberate. The argument has been that these spaces were hostile to women. I don’t dispute that. What is not recognized is that the alternative is hostile to men. As I said, it’s not something most men can put into words. But it is soul-destroying.

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       1. wol June 6, 2026 at 11:05 pm

          g*d, I miss the pool room of my adolescence. A Safe Space. Brass spittoons, old kitchen chairs lining the walls. The only time women were allowed in was when Jack Lemmon and Peter Falk took a break from filming on location to play eight-ball. The small-town local paper covered it.

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11. What? No! June 6, 2026 at 9:40 am

    The Butlerian Jihad Has Begun

    And here I thought it was in the spirit of Smedley Butler!

    And another thing, since there’s a bit of AI shading in today’s links …

    That long form X-tweet on Ivanka’s Albanian island highlights 3 irksome things about AI:

    – “Read that again.” This breaking the fourth wall literary thing of telling the reader how to read. There needs to be a ticky box for [x] don’t do that.

    – LLMs appear masterful at synthesis, but because it’s Generative AI the reader actually has to question and validate EVERY stated detail themself – so much more work shoved on the reader. As an interesting example, not once in the entire post does the LLM actually provide the name of the island (Sazan Island). The word Sazan does appear 3 times in the name of one of the holding companies – but a new reader wouldn’t know what that refers to.

    – Finally, a classic standby of an author who doesn’t read their own work: “Three questions deserve formal answers under oath.” which then goes on to list 1…, 2…, 3…, and 4…. The 4th isn’t even one of the questions.

    So people really just: Prompt, Send? Not: Prompt, Read, Send? Maybe the problem is that People aren’t even the ones issuing the prompts these days.

    LLM material is such a grind to read.

    Taleb’s point that “[LLMs]… fail to extrapolate outside the sample set.” is so true, my favourite example to date has been that in late 2026, multiple LLMs denied that 2027 was the upcoming year.

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    1. Anonymous 2 June 6, 2026 at 10:31 am

       I am no expert but am pretty sure that the world of AI knows that LLMs are not the future. Maybe neural network models might be? As I said, I am no expert so if you have follow-up points/questions, I will (truthfully) plead ignorance.

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       1. Alan Sutton June 7, 2026 at 2:57 am

          Thank you Alphonse. I often feel all those things and am often sitting there silent in a group of females wondering whh they need to talk about everything so much.

          Your comment is very well thought through, obviously, and well written.

          Not at all misogynistic but brave because any comments like this are often called that these days.

          Thanks again.

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    2. milquetoast June 6, 2026 at 11:34 am

       Late 2026 doesn’t start until next month at the earliest. So no LLMs have made any statements in late 2026 yet. Sometimes humans don’t check their own writing. Makes comparisons with LLMs hard.

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       1. What? No! June 6, 2026 at 3:50 pm

          Yes, I’m awarding full credit for this one.

          I was too lazy to find the original article and that awkward sentence had been through a couple of edits with only a few seconds left on the submission clock, so I let it go. I was actually thinking it occurred late 2025, but still very appropriate to flag the post given the topic.

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12. The Rev Kev June 6, 2026 at 9:56 am

    “The U.S. Can’t Be Trusted”

    ‘Leaving the nuclear deal with Iran was one of the greatest strategic mistakes of the twenty-first century, and maybe would qualify as one of the biggest of the twentieth century as well, if you were to include it.’

    Personally I would have said that the US fighting both Russia and China the past twenty years forcing those two countries to forget their quarrels and become strategic partners was an even bigger mistake. Instead of being able to play one off against the other, both now are working together and it does not matter how many times that the US and the EU demand of China that they dump Russia and align with western values, it is not going to happen. Not now, not ever.

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    1. John k June 6, 2026 at 12:49 pm

       Imo both kissinger and Carter’s strategic advisor said avoid russia teaming with China at all costs, keeping the world’s mfg from Russia’s minerals seems a no-brainer.
       But taking/controlling russia’s minerals had been so profitable in the 90’s (until that twit putin showed up) they couldn’t resist trying.

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13. Tom Stone June 6, 2026 at 10:05 am

    My oldest friendship dates to @11 AM on Memorial day 1958.
    We talked about what a long strange trip it has been on Memorial Day 2026.

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14. Tom Stone June 6, 2026 at 10:17 am

    It’s going to be a lively Summer and of the more interesting things to watch will be Trump’s continuing mental and physical decline.
    There are a lot of knives being sharpened, think of the 10,000 lawyers who were forced out of the DOJ and other departments.
    And there are are a lot of factions who have temporarily united to back Trump as a way to achieve the various dystopias they yearn for.
    Will they unite behind Vance or will we see overt internecine warfare between the Oligarchs as the Hegemon crumbles?
    The effects of the Epstein War are just beginning to show up, as are the results of the increased efficiency brought about by DOGE…
    I expect a lot of public unhappiness as well as more unneeded evidence that Human Stupidity is Infinite.
    It’s gonna be lit, with a flamethrower.

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    1. erstwhile June 6, 2026 at 11:03 am

       Agree that it will be a lively summer, ‘summer’s here and the time is right for fighting in the street,’ but I don’t think it’s a given that vance will follow trump. That depends on just how trump exits. I still think that this is a revolutionary time in not just the nation, but in the entire western world. Let’s see who grabs the bull(s$$t) by the horns.

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    2. thistlebreath June 6, 2026 at 11:48 am

       Luckily, muskrat-in-chief sold $500 flamethrowers via the ‘Boring Company’ in a state where wild land fires routinely obliterate entire communities with whole cities now on the menu.

       Speaking of menus, here’s a trad recipe steeped in tradition: https://oldcrow.ca/recipe9.htm

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    3. Bugs June 6, 2026 at 5:46 pm

       That America 250 party has big potential to go off the family-blogging rails. Look at what the White House has transformed into. The Triumphal Arch? The blue rubber liner in the Reflecting Pool? The giant posters of Angry Trump all over the joint? The endless freaking wars and graft? It’s got to come to a head at some point and just explode. Maybe literally, if we get lucky.

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15. AG June 6, 2026 at 10:38 am

    re: Penrose vs. machine “thinking”

    via fb-feed

    Roger Penrose believes consciousness may be something no machine can fully reproduce.
    His argument isn’t based on intuition—it’s based on mathematics.
    Using Gödel’s incompleteness theorem, Penrose argues that human understanding can recognize certain truths that no algorithm can derive. If that’s correct, consciousness cannot be reduced to computation alone.
    To explain this, Penrose and Stuart Hameroff proposed that consciousness may emerge from quantum processes inside microscopic structures called microtubules within brain cells.
    Most neuroscientists remain skeptical, and the theory is still highly controversial.
    Yet the question remains unanswered:
    How does subjective experience arise from physical matter?
    Why does a brain produce the feeling of being conscious at all?
    This is the “hard problem” of consciousness—and decades later, it remains one of science’s deepest mysteries.
    What if the mind is doing something computation alone cannot explain?

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    1. JP June 6, 2026 at 2:24 pm

       Why does the brain produce the feeling of being conscious at all?
       How about the feeling of pain and the employment of constant feed back loops to avoid it.

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    2. Taner Edis June 6, 2026 at 3:37 pm

       The math does not say what Penrose thinks. I published a paper on this about thirty years ago, and mine was just one of the many criticisms of Penrose and Hameroff. I’m surprised this idea still surfaces.

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       1. AG June 6, 2026 at 7:13 pm

          Is there a way to explain this to clueless beings like myself?
          Or rather not…

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          1. Paradox of Unrealized Power June 7, 2026 at 1:46 am

             Yes, but not without some effort on your part and the acceptance of some sloppy analogies (sorry–that’s just the way it is)–without a lot of math, we need to hand-waive some parts.

             If you are interested, though:

             1. Are you familiar with set theory (Venn diagrams, etc.)? Are you familiar with Russell’s Paradox?
             2. Have you ever read Godel, Escher, and Bach (not at all a requirement, but it may help)

             And yeah–Taner Edis is correct–I have no idea how Penrose came to the conclusion that he did.

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             1. AG June 7, 2026 at 7:34 am

                That´s kind of you.
                With names I can at least research some connections.
                I wouldn´t dare call any of this sloppy for myself, though ;-)
                But I dared ask simply for the obvious gap between what appears to be given or rather not and this Penrose claim. Which does show how intricate math and science have indeed become.
                Even those who might be top of their own field can make erroneous claims.
                I am used to this only from my area which is art and entertainment…

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16. KLG June 6, 2026 at 10:41 am

    The Ocean Observatories Initiative (NSF) cancellation is the exact analog of a poor (i.e., unworthy) person turning up the radio when a strange sound comes from the drive train of his car, as he prays the end won’t finally come when he is stuck in the middle lane of the downtown connector during rush hour on his way to his contingent hourly job. Something that has never been a concern of Russell Vought and the Epstein Class.

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    1. Steve H. June 6, 2026 at 1:54 pm

       As of June 1, the Nino_3.4 band has exited the range of previous record sea-surface temperatures for that date. Subject to verification, the June 5 value is within a hairs-breadth of a half-degree centigrade over the former high.

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    2. ArvidMartensen June 6, 2026 at 8:20 pm

       As regards the scientists being ejected and manhandled from a scientific meeting. And the closing of US climate research centres.

       We’re now in a religious war. A battle for the future of humanity. The enlightenment allowed science and western religion to coexist. That era is over.

       The extremist religions such as zionism and pentecostalism want total control. They now see the way open, via a US president captured by donor money and Epstein goings on, to take over and banish science and scientists and any ideas not controlled by them.

       As the world descends into climate hell, they will see that as confirmation that their god is all powerful and they will allow nothing to stop or derail the descent to hell and the deaths of millions. Completely deranged, the wish to see billions die so that their own sorry asses are saved.

       Every US (and western?) organisation and scientist sounding the alarm through research on the coming climate armagedon will be defunded, demonised, shunned. If we follow it to the conclusion of other times when religious cults were in total control, we move onto more permanent solutions.

       I always wondered what it felt like to ancient peoples to slide into the Dark Ages.

       Reply ↓
17. flora June 6, 2026 at 10:56 am

    File under T 2.0: From Due Dissidence.

    UFC Fighter BANNED From White House Event After CRITICIZING ISR

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqNaV5r_oQI

    Reply ↓
    1. skippy June 6, 2026 at 6:16 pm

       Not just any fighter flora, one of the hardest of the hard, and could never be confused as any sort of leftie/woke/progressive, anythingy …. Strickland.

       Reply ↓
    2. The Rev Kev June 6, 2026 at 7:22 pm

       Trump’s version of freedom of expression. The country that shall not be criticized.

       Reply ↓
       1. skippy June 7, 2026 at 12:01 am

          Yet Trumpo is a huge UFC fan and get ring side with the boys. Strickland is about as red/white/blue blooded as you get, not to mention all the USA USA chants when he fights. Fans will ponder this ….

          Reply ↓
18. jsn June 6, 2026 at 11:18 am

    Machine translation of the Peacock Spider guys strutting their stuff has them saying, “eat me!!”

    Reply ↓
19. flora June 6, 2026 at 11:30 am

    Jimmy Dore short.

    Rabbi vs Zio

    https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ctBmBkPLcPU

    Reply ↓
20. Jason Boxman June 6, 2026 at 11:44 am

    What’s amazing about Trump is how brazen the grifting and looting is, and how little the Republican party cares about this, or the Democrat Party for that matter which never impeached him regarding profiting from his properties during his first term; and you don’t hear a word about it this time around either. Remember when Clinton renting out the Lincoln bedroom was a scandal for Republicans? lol.

    Reply ↓
21. ciroc June 6, 2026 at 11:50 am

    >The Longest Betrayal

    Tagwirei is simultaneously a member of the World Economic Forum, a chairman of the Land Tenure Implementation Committee responsible for the title deeds digitalisation programme under Statutory Instrument 76 of 2025, and a figure whose banks, including CBZ, provide the financial infrastructure through which that programme would operate. The Statutory Instrument establishes a mandatory 24-month window within which Zimbabwean property owners must convert their paper deeds to digital format or risk those deeds becoming legally unenforceable, a mechanism that critics have argued is designed to exploit the reality that thousands of suburban properties remain in the names of deceased grandparents whose descendants cannot afford the estate transfer procedures the scheme requires. In the petroleum sector, Tagwirei’s commercial positioning enabled Glencore and Trafigura to achieve dominance in fuel distribution while the indigenous petroleum industry contracted. The same structural template, applied to immovable property, would transfer the asset base of ordinary Zimbabwean households into the administrative and ultimately financial control of a network aligned with international capital at Davos.

    The Davos crowd certainly knows how to take advantage of the digital age.

    Reply ↓
    1. flora June 6, 2026 at 2:20 pm

       Then there’s the US DOGE scam with Social Security.
       From USA Today:

       Social Security tried to assign fake death dates to 2.7M people: Whistleblower

       https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/06/05/social-security-fake-death-dates-doge-whistleblower/90421431007/

       and from MarketWatch via MSN

       DOGE wanted to declare 2.7 million people dead at Social Security: whistleblower

       https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/doge-wanted-to-declare-27-million-people-dead-at-social-security-whistleblower/ar-AA24VHQL

       NPR’s This American Life program today had a long segment with the whistleblower explaining exactly what happened, how long it went on, how it bent all the rules, and the T admin kept doubling down. It’s worse that the newspaper write-up conveys.

       Brings to mind part of the lyrics to Woody Guthrie’s ballad “Pretty Boy Floyd.”

       “Yes, as through this world I’ve wandered
       I’ve seen lots of funny men
       Some will rob you with a six-gun
       And some with a fountain pen”

       A fountain pen or a computer keyboard. / ;)

       Reply ↓
22. pjay June 6, 2026 at 11:53 am

    – ‘Mapping Qatar’s $400 Billion Footprint in the United States’ – FDD (resilc)

    LOL! This from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, one of the foremost Washington mouthpieces for Israeli interests:

    “In an era of heightened cognitive combat, disinformation, and foreign influence, it is time for the United States government to look not just at China and Russia, but other autocratic states — and maybe democracies, too. Examining foreign capital is especially important when the numbers rise above a certain threshold… The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is a U.S. government body that scrutinizes investments by foreign governments in industries and businesses that could leave America vulnerable. It is time for CFIUS to address concerns about foreign influence in addition to national security risks…”

    The chuztpah of this article is something to behold! Not only are the comments about “foreign influence” on US policy hilarious, but Israel itself has regularly utilized jihadists, Al-Qaeda affiliated groups, and even the Muslim Brotherhood in carrying out its own policies in the Middle East (recall Likud’s role in the early formation of Hamas to undermine the secular PLO). Qatar was fine when they were funding anti-Assad “rebels.” I guess now it is seen as a possible weak link in the attempt to corral the Gulf States for Greater Israel.

    Reply ↓
23. Cat Fancier June 6, 2026 at 11:54 am

    The point of the Substack is not NYC PMC centrist LARPing, with which I am all too painfully familiar, with a couple of relatives who are in that camp and long ago employers – I persisted through all his fanboi explanation of what he means by “Butlerian jihadism” (he’s no fan of Herbert’s “failson’s” books) to his real point – that technology is not the enemy – technocracy is.

    Reply ↓
24. Jason Boxman June 6, 2026 at 11:57 am

    Gen Z is experiencing a ‘crush recession,’ citing high dating costs and emotional risks as barriers to pursuing romantic interests. Mary Julia Koch from WSJ explains this trend as a risk aversion to rejection and ‘swipe fatigue’ from dating apps.

    Wall Street Journal’s Mary Julia Koch discusses the ‘crush recession’ affecting Gen Z, noting financial pressures and emotional risks associated with dating are prohibitive. Younger generations are exhibiting risk aversion to rejection, leading to ‘swipe fatigue’ from dating apps. Koch highlights the desire for in-person connection over digital interactions.

    I looked at a post about dating on Twitter a few weeks ago and now it is all I see. There’s a lot of noise about men opting out of dating, why bother? I can’t blame them. If you aren’t really tall, Apps are mostly useless for you. It’s a brutalizing experience. And if you do match anyone, you can go on a succession of first dates with people that aren’t interested after. To read it on Twitter, the whole experience is just aggressive, selfish warfare, with different sets of inconsistent expectations about what is even permissible online and off.

    With the Pandemic I finally gave up. I got too old to be able to play. My life worth is asymptomatically approach ing zero romantically. Oh well.

    On the plus side, I got up somewhat hungover today. No obligations. Made French toast waffles. Gonna study chart technical analysis more later, maybe take a nap, do a chore? Curious about Mass Effect Andromeda, which I haven’t started yet.

    I guess life could be a lot worse. My only problems are my own. An extrovert would die living my life though.

    Reply ↓
    1. LawnDart June 6, 2026 at 1:41 pm

       On the dating apps, I’ve known a few people who’ve used them but never have directly heard of a successful, lasting relationship come as a result of their use. Some of the complaints I’ve heard are that reality often doesn’t meet the packaging, that persons were often posting old or photo-shopped images of themselves, making up likes, dislikes, activities, career-status, etc.. It’s not hard to imagine that AI meets dating-profile can only result in disaster.

       I, as a male, personally quit “dating” in any way, shape or form over a decade ago: my lifestyle and career are not conducive to building a long-term romantic relationship, and life-experience has helped to shift my values somewhat outside the modern norm; I will unlikely ever fulfil anyone’s “needs,” such as they are in our culture. It doesn’t help that experience has taught me that while many talk, few are willing to actually walk the walk, so why bother investing any effort into relationships that most likely–at best– will lead to a dead-end?

       That said, I greatly appreciate interactions with other people, the conversations and insights these bring. I have many long-term acquaintances and a few close friends, and I’ve experienced some truly spectacular and rare, once-in-a-lifetime romantic encounters in earlier years: that’s enough for me. As I see it, dating today and in today’s environment would bring nothing positive worth taking the risk for, and Gen-Z is certainly well-aware of the casualties suffered by prior generation’s forays into the dating-scene: it’s a minefield where a single, misplaced step can set you back years if not cripple you for life, so it’s best to stay away and to forge your own path.

       Reply ↓
    2. Bugs June 6, 2026 at 5:55 pm

       My younger and single women friends (40s) complain constantly about the dating apps because apparently the guys just dump them after a hook up or are dating many women at once and having them compete against each other. This seems correlative with women choosing only attractive to highly attractive males above a certain height. My buddy found a great wife on Jdate but that was pure luck and back in the early 2000s. He’s a pretty interesting and nice guy but no Adonis, and well under 6ft.

       Reply ↓
25. Tom Doak June 6, 2026 at 12:03 pm

    I was wondering how The Telegraph was going to spin the sabotage of the NordStream pipeline, in an article about evil Russia wanting to get it running again, which makes it pretty obvious that they weren’t the ones to blow it up as many Western sources initially claimed.

    The new spin, that it was the work of a Ukrainian dive team, against the wishes of Zelenskyy, is precious.

    Reply ↓
    1. John k June 6, 2026 at 12:53 pm

       Against his wishes… so he wants it rebuilt?

       Reply ↓
26. AG June 6, 2026 at 12:05 pm

    re: NATO

    new deterrence plans explained by William Alberque

    FT article on expanding NATO nuclear sharing…
    More nuclear deterrence options for SACEUR, more assurance for Allies
    William Alberque
    Jun 04, 2026
    https://walberque.substack.com/p/ft-article-on-expanding-nato-nuclear

    Reply ↓
27. Jason Boxman June 6, 2026 at 12:10 pm

    From Energy failures are destined to doom Wall Street’s AI euphoria

    The AI revolution is real. The language models are fabulous. The technology will make economic life almost unrecognisable by mid-century.

    Evans-Pritchard is also huffing glue though. This stochastic parrot is very expensive. It’s a fantasy that this is going to replace deterministic interfaces to systems. To desire such is lunacy.

    Reply ↓
    1. cfraenkel June 6, 2026 at 1:23 pm

       Hey, not so fast. If you assume the very unlikely case that the current capex spending frenzy continues to climb along it’s exponential growth, economic life will be almost unrecognizable. Just maybe not in the sense he’s hoping for.

       Reply ↓
28. LawnDart June 6, 2026 at 12:52 pm

    Re; Imperial Collapse Watch

    Mr. Rogue CIA Officer… I don’t really know what to make of him. I generally distain grifters and con-artists but this guy wasn’t exactly robbing ma and pa of their life’s savings or swiping the poor-box from church; he could be a Robin Hood if the money wasn’t intended for self-enrichment, and I’m certainly not opposed to his choice of targets: ya gotta admit, ripping-off the CIA, that took some serious brass!

    And it’d be a mistake to conflated his high-end watch collection with a sign of personal vanity. As a reminder, watches and jewelry are some of the most classic and effective ways of moving wealth across state lines– a hell of a lot easier than moving a suitcase full of gold bars or cash, for sure.

    It’ll be interesting to learn more about this man and the story. Perhaps this is one that’ll resist burial as TPTB attempt CYA and mitigating further embarrassment, as you know writers and film-makers can have a hay-day with this.

    Reply ↓
29. farmboy June 6, 2026 at 1:18 pm

    pretty good rundown…@admcollingwood
    The Iran War is entering a new phase.

    The first phase was the kinetic war itself.

    This ended in a comprehensive defeat for the US and Donald Trump’s acceptance of Iran’s 10-point plan (which included, per
    @WSJ
    , “Continuation of Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz,” the “Acceptance that Iran can enrich uranium for its nuclear program” and “Compensation payment to Iran for war damage” among other goodies) as the basis of negotiations.

    The second phase was the uneasy ceasefire, which
    @policytensor
    referred to as ‘armed bargaining’, where the US attempted to gain via negotiations and a blockade what it had failed to achieve by armed force.

    It appears we are on the brink of a third phase in which the US attempts to overturn the post-bellum status quo. Iran, on the other hand, is signaling the unacceptability of this through its strikes on US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain: it is demonstrating its escalation dominance and attempting to reestablish deterrence.

    It is unlikely that the US will succeed: it has been revealed to have no solution for Iran’s ability to fire missiles or drones, and until it can suppress them, it cannot reopen the Strait for traffic or protect its allies in the region. It is unlikely to have developed such a solution in the last few weeks.

    Therefore, the same military-strategic realities will reimpose themselves during a renewed exchange of fire. In the meantime, the US continues to run down its magazine and the world inches closer to economic catastrophe.

    The problem is that Iran’s bottom line (and certainly the 10-point plan that Trump already accepted as the basis of negotiations) is politically unacceptable in Washington. Thus, it might take more economic pain, and the final realisation that an armed solution is unavailable, to force it down. That economic pain will be global, and will likely be felt by the US only AFTER it is felt in Europe and in Asia ex-China (which has significant protections).

    We will cover this in greater depth in next week’s Multipolarity Brief. Link next post.
    Quote
    Robert A. Pape
    @ProfessorPape
    ·
    4h
    US- Iran strikes are escalating beyond isolated violations of a ceasefire

    Iran hitting US military bases and their host countries, US trying to blunt the strikes

    Reply ↓
30. pjay June 6, 2026 at 1:21 pm

    – ‘A Billionaire Explains Why American Business Now Feels like the Mafia’ – Matt Stoller

    Excellent insight here. This article should be read alongside today’s post by Yves of Michael Hudson on ‘Geopathology’ and ‘Econopathology.’ In both its domestic and geopolitical manifestations, our current system selects for the most sociopathic “talents” and promotes them to positions of dominance, which in turn accelerates the concentration of wealth, power, and impunity. Our elites have operated as mafioso for quite a while now. But it has only been recently that they have felt secure enough to begin pulling back the curtains to show that brick wall that Frank Zappa warned us about.

    Reply ↓
31. curlydan June 6, 2026 at 1:37 pm

    In case you wanted to look at SpaceX’s SEC prospectus, it touts the “the largest actionable total addressable market (“TAM”) in human history. We estimate that our quantifiable TAM is $28.5 trillion” (note: US GDP is $31.8 trillion) with $22.7 trillion of that TAM in “enterprise applications”. And the SEC S-1 form has lots of pretty rocket photos, too, to help your buying decision.

    https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1181412/000162828026036936/spaceexplorationtechnologi.htm

    Reply ↓
    1. paul June 6, 2026 at 2:51 pm

       The S1 is very close to the new gaza prospectus that went out last year.

       The muskrat’s real innovation has been to de-engineer the markets to raid the tracker funds.

       Reply ↓
32. Ignacio June 6, 2026 at 1:57 pm

    Plenty of good antidotes today. The peacock spider wins the day. Most species from Australia according to this BBC short documentary.

    Dance version here: with Stayin’ alive tune hahaha.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPh_Gi7PCqs

    Reply ↓
33. Cat Burglar June 6, 2026 at 2:10 pm

    The American Diabetes Association media team need to get their story straight.

    Did they have police kick out members leafleting other attendees because they were in violation of a signed agreement? What provision of the agreement was it? Was it just a requirement to conduct themselves “professionally”? How it that not professional?

    Or did the cops boot members because the Feds told the ADA Bhattacharya wouldn’t speak if the leafleting was allowed? The ADA hints at this in their statement, though they maintain a professional discretion by keeping it obscure. Reports are not in agreement on the ADA’s assertion that the offending article was not published in their journal — the NYT says it was.

    Waiting to see the names of the ADA officers that made the decision to have their members thrown out of a public building by Louisiana State Police for First Amendment protected activity! Let’s see them take credit!

    Reply ↓
34. Ann June 6, 2026 at 2:17 pm

    testing, testing, 1,2,3

    Ukrainian drones target St Petersburg in attack Russia calls ‘unprecedented’

    https://bbc.com/news/articles/cg7498kz808o

    Reply ↓
35. We never forget June 6, 2026 at 2:31 pm

    “TomDispatch … many of its authors will continue to hold forth at The Intercept”

    The Intercept? Really? Are you kidding? Does anyone still go there? Too many twists and turns, mostly bad. (Calling Glenn Greenwald …)

    Tom’s heart may be in the right place but he’s essentially a liberal.

    Reply ↓
36. motorslug June 6, 2026 at 2:59 pm

    re; Smegseth cancelling religions

    As if anyone needed more proof he’s a dumbass and knows so little about his own country.
    Amongst the usual suspects one knows he would eliminate – atheists, pagans, wiccans, etc. he also delists Deism, the belief of most of the founding fathers.
    Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, Paine, Madison, Monroe and even the godfather of (real) capitalism Adam Smith.

    Reply ↓
37. Ann June 6, 2026 at 3:38 pm

    Pentagon Sees Growing Espionage Threat From Israel

    https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/06/us/politics/pentagon-sees-growing-espionage-threat-from-israel.html

    Reply ↓
38. Ann June 6, 2026 at 4:52 pm

    A new exchange of fire with Iran in the Gulf tests the fragile ceasefire

    https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-bahrain-kuwait-missiles-drones-df859624fb659cb28cec798200cc85d4

    Israeli strike kills Lebanese army general, two soldiers; IDF says incident under review

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-strike-kills-lebanese-army-general-two-soldiers-idf-says-incident-under-review/

    China & New Zealand Hold Trade Talks to Deepen Cooperation

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-06/china-new-zealand-hold-trade-talks-to-deepen-cooperation

    US strikes Iran radar sites after Iranian drone launch

    https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-strikes-iran-radar-sites-after-iranian-drone-launch-2026-06-05/

    Iran Demands Cash for Peace. That’s a Political Minefield for Trump.

    https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/iran-demands-cash-for-peace-thats-a-political-minefield-for-trump-e1e0b7d5

    Reply ↓
39. In Cold Chud June 6, 2026 at 5:27 pm

    Re: How Antihumanism Turned on Its Authors

    This really took me back. I appreciate its inclusion in today’s links. It probably would have been beyond the scope of the piece (or perhaps just inadmissible by virtue of its subjectivity/messiness), but I think that the path taken by theory in the final third of the 20th century, that Shullenberger (accurately) describes, depended upon a change in attitude toward aesthetics.

    In the early to mid aughts, most people in English departments (at all levels) had good taste. That was just how it worked. (It may still–I have no idea.) Everyone (probably) had guilty pleasures, but very few people really thought that supermarket/airport novels* were just as good as Oscar Wilde. Of course, no one would have ever dreamed of approaching a piece of literature to say, “THIS IS WHY THIS IS GOOD.” (The New Critics of the mid-20th century had, in effect, drifted in this direction, and were regarded with condescension, when they were brought up at all, which, by that point, was not often.) But there seemed to be a fundamental, unspoken split between readers for whom a favorable aesthetic judgment was a precondition for engaging with a text, and those for whom it was not. If you can’t respect a piece of writing (or text of some other kind), why bother writing anything about it?

    For some (not all) students and professors heavily invested in theory, the implicit answer seemed to be: Because it will serve as grist for my theoretical framework of choice. Once this becomes the imperative, not only is a professional wrestling match or a deodorant commercial as good as Oscar Wilde, the never-ending stream of garbage/embodied energy from an LLM is as good as all three.

    *I am not going to make the mistake of naming any particular titles or authors.

    Reply ↓
40. Ben Panga June 6, 2026 at 6:44 pm

    Curious to see this as the top story on NYT

    Pentagon Sees Growing Espionage Threat From Israel (archived)

    Opening section:

    Recent U.S. intelligence reports have raised concerns about Israeli spy agencies eavesdropping on American negotiators working on a peace deal with Iran, amid rising concern over a more general counterintelligence threat by Israel.
    Israel and the United States have long known, and tolerated, that each was spying on the other. But an intensified Israeli effort to learn about U.S. positions in talks with Iran has crossed a line, according to some American officials.

    The reports include concerns that Israel has stepped up its efforts to eavesdrop on senior American officials, including Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s top negotiator, Elbridge A. Colby, the Pentagon’s top policy official, and one of his main deputies, Michael P. DiMino IV.

    Another report, written by the Defense Intelligence Agency and other military intelligence offices and focused on earlier events going back several years, said that the counterintelligence threat level posed by Israel had been increased in recent weeks to the top level, from high to critical. The report, to which the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency contributed, outlines various efforts by Israel to spy on American military personnel and government officials.

    Reply ↓
41. Ann June 6, 2026 at 6:51 pm

    I can’t get any comments to upload if they contain any more than one link.
    I will try again tomorrow.

    Reply ↓
42. Ann June 6, 2026 at 7:57 pm

    US eyes Iranian assets for Gulf allies’ reconstruction, source says

    https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-eyes-iranian-assets-gulf-allies-reconstruction-source-says-2026-06-06/

    Reply ↓
    1. Alice X June 6, 2026 at 11:43 pm

       Thank you! I got a paywall so I’ll shoot from the hip:

       Who would have imagined? The proof in the already hot pudding will be the telling.

       Reply ↓
       1. The Rev Kev June 7, 2026 at 1:04 am

          In part it says the following-

          ‘WASHINGTON/DUBAI, June 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. government will attempt to redirect ​Iranian assets to Gulf states for rebuilding and repairs of damage caused by Iran, a source familiar with the matter said, as Tehran followed up a wave of strikes ‌against Kuwait and Bahrain with further drone launches.

          U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has directed a team to assess costs for damages already inflicted on Gulf allies by Iran, the source said, adding that the U.S. will consider using Iranian assets for repairs of any future destruction as well.’

          That’s a great precedent being established if they go ahead with this idiotic idea. Likely it is an idea floated to put pressure on Iran.

          Reply ↓
          1. Paradox of Unrealized Power June 7, 2026 at 1:58 am

             “That’s a great precedent being established if they go ahead with this idiotic idea. Likely it is an idea floated to put pressure on Iran.”

             How would this pressure Iran? If anything, it is putting the recipient countries in an awkward position of having to piss off Iran even more if they accept. Does the US really think that Iran is going to be quaking in its boots, just begging to relinquish control of Hormuz in exchange for some frozen cash?

             Reply ↓
43. AG June 6, 2026 at 8:07 pm

    re: criticism of Russia & ideology

    Russian Analytical Digest (RAD), No. 341: The Ambiguities of Indoctrination in Russian Universities and Schools

    Author(s): Ivan Fomin, Julia Khairova, Egor Kozhevnikov, Ella Rossman, Nina Zakharkina-Berezner

    Editor(s): Fabian Burkhardt, Vassily Klimentov, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perović, Heiko Pleines, Hans-Henning Schröder

    Series: Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)

    Issue: 341

    Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zürich; Research Centre for East European Studies (FSO), University of Bremen; Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES); Center for Eastern European Studies (CEES), University of Zurich

    Publication Year: 2026

    This issue examines state ideologisation and its implementation in contemporary Russian education and society.

    First, Ivan Fomin et al. analyse the “Foundations of Russian Statehood” university course, arguing that Putinism relies on a “thin statism” rather than a coherent doctrine.

    Next, Ella Rossman explores the strategic incoherence of Russia’s “traditional values” ideology, showing how its ambiguous mix of Orthodox neoconservatism and Soviet legacies struggles with direct youth indoctrination.

    Finally, Nina Zakharkina-Berezner investigates the militarisation of Russian schools, detailing how some teachers employ adaptive strategies to maintain professional autonomy amid ideological pressure.

    pdf:
    https://css.ethz.ch/en/publications/rad/rad-all-issues/details.html?id=/n/o/3/4/no_341_the_ambiguities_of_indoctrination
    more:
    https://css.ethz.ch/en/publications/rad/rad-all-issues.html?batch_name=list&page=0

    Reply ↓
44. Wukchumni June 7, 2026 at 2:29 am

    Hanging out with friends near Aurillac in the south of France and drove around a fair bit yesterday and didn’t see any mention of D-Day whatsoever…

    To be fair, I’m 5 hours drive from the Normandy landing beaches-

    Reply ↓
    1. AG June 7, 2026 at 7:27 am

       Possible that it´s not a thing any more? Most people simply not knowing?

       Reply ↓