I am convinced that the GOP *wants* government bureaucracy to be horrendous so that they can rail against government.

For future global historians, the central plot line of the 2020s will be the superpower suicide of the United States.

“The result of the Hormuz shock will be demand destruction for fossil fuel energy…. This destruction will be largely state-led: most countries will cut their dependence on oil and gas if they can, although their available choices for doing so will vary.” www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/daw...

Here's how staggering LeBron James's career numbers are: * LeBron now has more career assists (12,016) than Kobe (6306) & Jordan (5633) COMBINED. * LeBron (43,440) also still has more career points than Stef (26,528) & Kawhi (16,546) COMBINED — or than Giannis (21,531) & Jokic (18,009) COMBINED.

Even though you may treat Claude or ChatGPT as a low-cost substitute for your therapist, your lawyer, your doctor, or your spouse, it's crucial to be aware that your interactions with these platforms are not legally privileged in any way & can easily be used against you. www.npr.org/2026/01/30/n...

Nepotism is one of those things that (like filth in your house, political cynicism, moral hypocrisy, or career ambition) is bad, but for which the optimal level is in fact not zero.

What could possibly go wrong?

South Korea's demographic history over the last 2/3rds of a century is wild. In 1960, its total fertility rate was ~6; it fell below replacement (2.1) in 1983; and by now is down to 0.75 — a decline so radical that no mid-20th century demographer anticipated nor would even have considered possible.

China today, at least in its incarnation under President Xi Jinping (and despite the Marxist-Leninist ideology that undergirds its domestic politics), does not in fact have a “universalistic” ideology through which it seeks to impose its own political values and governing system on other countries.

A great discussion of one of The Third Man, one of my three favorite films (along with Pulp Fiction and Blade Runner): podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

"“It’s possible that we’re starting to see the consequences of severe and sudden cuts to global health programs that have eroded surveillance and allowed deadly viruses to spread undetected...” www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/w...

There are many terrible things about 2026, but for me personally one of the worst is having had to learn about things like Clavicular or Chud the Builder

Epistemological systems for determining what is true and what is not are the backbone of modern society. We have annihilated them all in a decade, and replaced them with a digital dreamscape in which anything that is felt strongly enough automatically BECOMES true.

It’s not at all clear how all this is going to turn out from an employment/skills perspective

Dawn of the Electric World Order: Global shockwaves from the war on Iran are accelerating the energy transition “What makes this shock different from the 1970s? As analysts at Ember put it: “this is the first energy shock with a superior alternative.” www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/daw...

Every step taken by the federal government to promote and advance scientific research in the US, which has been the mainstay of US economic growth and strength since roughly 1870, is now being reversed in order to retard or suppress scientific research. This is a conscious policy.

Here’s another thing: because demographic projections aren’t based on data (we have no data on the fertility choices of unborn women), they’re best read as indexes of (ideological) fears &/or hopes about the future. And when it is about fear, it is *always* tied up with racial & gender anxieties.

The “Theory of the Demographic Transition” was the foundation of modernization theory — and it was never based on any evidence, only on the (ideological-teleological) presumption that the Global South would inevitably converge on the conditions then-obtaining in the Global North.

One thing I learned minoring in demography is that demographic projections beyond 25-30 years are bullshit — there is (and can only be) radical Knightian uncertainty concerning the fertility decisions of as-yet-unborn women. Such projections are, however, reliable expressions of ideological anxiety

What version of hell is this where the National Academy of Sciences is being lectured by Lauren Boebert about what constitutes “gold standard” practices?

Impeach and remove Polis. www.offmessage.net/p/impeach-ja...

this should end his career

Imposing real, criminal consequences for the Hegseth/Miller/Trump drug boat murders must be a top priority for the next administration. It would be a catastrophic moral failing to let them go unanswered.

"Wonder is a shock of the mind arising from the incompatibility of a representation... which provokes a doubt as to whether we have rightly seen or rightly judged. Admiration, however, is wonder which ever recurs, despite the disappearance of this doubt." - Kant, The Critique of Judgement, §62

Most of today's visions of the future today feel sterile, optimized, lonely, surveilled, algorithmic, post-human, and spiritually dead. What we need are futures that are beautiful, meaningful, pluralistic, intelligent, alive, culturally rich, ecologically embedded, and socially vibrant.

The Green Entente of electrostates is rapidly consolidating

Today in #PlanetarySapience

Silicon Valley AI researchers “imagine themselves… as people entrusted not only with pushing the frontier of model capabilities, but also with thinking through the fate of humanity. This is what I call the mandate of AI.” open.substack.com/pub/afraw/p/...

I remember the bombing of the MOVE cult well. It was contiguous with the Branch Davidian compound immolation a few years later.

Just as it was reasonable after 70 years to judge socialism not by its theoretical moral claim but rather by its actually existing manifestation in the Soviet Union, so today it is reasonable to assess Zionism not in theory but by its actual manifestation in Israel www.pbs.org/newshour/wor...

Styob is an emblematic form of late Soviet humor, characterized by a dramaturgical over-identification with the person or idea at which it is directed, such that it is impossible to tell if the statements of the speaker represent sincere raving support, parodic ridicule, or a mixture of the two

Thiel’s political theology, Andreessen’s founder libertarianism, Musk’s sovereign improvisation, Karp’s civilisational statecraft & Luckey’s defence-industrial romance don't form a coherent ideology—what they share is a common enemy & style of impatience. thecuttingfloor.substack.com/p/the-map-st...

Trump’s historical significance will depend on how thoroughly he consolidates the view that politics is never anything other than a clownshow & government is never anything other than zero-sum rent-seeking & patronage — in other words, for his evisceration of the very notion of “the public good.”

“This is the first energy shock with a superior alternative” www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/daw...

This would constitute one of the most brazen, most appalling acts of corruption in U.S. history. I know we’re numb to all of this but this is a seven-alarm fire. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/b...

May I propose some better possible trends: Decencymaxxing Integritymaxxing Accountabilitymaxxing Sinceritymaxxing Probitymaxxing Humilitymaxxing Sagacitymaxxing Civilitymaxxing

I’m not in favor of incentivizing citizens to snitch on each other (Stasi vibes) but I’m also wondering why this anti-idling law isn’t being enforced by CCTVs — isn’t most of NYC covered by blanket surveillance? Trolling through footage looking for idlers seems like a good AI assignment for AI.

“For states to thrive & to accumulate & maintain power, the right people have to be in charge. There is no perfect means to achieve this & there is the inevitable tension between the skills needed to rise to the top & those suited to serving the general interest.” open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...

Otto Scharmer identifies the symptoms of the depletion of our "social soil": Anomie: "Erosion of our moral norms" Atomie: "Breakdown of relationship bonds into loneliness, distrust & polarized echo chambers" Atrophy: "Loss of the deeper human capacities needed to create, converse & collaborate"

To paraphrase Mike Davis, we may be about to experience "Late Neoliberal Holocausts" www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2026...

Who is Kevin F. McCumber — and why might he turn out to be the most important person in the United States in 2027? www.theunpopulist.net/p/the-vra-ru...

I have been thinking about how, in Asimov's "Foundation and Empire," the Mule’s empire collapses almost immediately after his death because it was built on a single person rather than a system, revealing his institutional impact as dependent entirely on its leader charismatic force.

Bullshitting & trolling are two sides of the same epistemic-discursive coin. Both treat language as a tool to produce an effect rather than as a way to represent reality. Whereas the desired effect of the bullshitter is to persuade, impress or sell, the troller aims to provoke an adverse reaction.

Coups by sergeants/NCOs: Fulgencio Batista - Cuba Samuel Doe - Liberia Desi Bouterse - Surinam

Astronauts experience the ‘overview effect’ when they see humanity from space. But what do we look like from down below? As the science journalist James Dinneen points out, ‘the great majority of Earth … has no clue humans exists’. Deep Earth, he argues, can change our perspective

We need moral accountability in our politicians, not just procedural accountability

The core bullshit of “free market“ rhetoric is that no market is ever entirely free; any so-called free market economy requires protection from various institutions, including but not limited to state and legal institutions — contracts literally have to be enFORCEd.

"The Axis of Petrostates — Washington, Moscow, Riyadh — has every interest in prolonging hydrocarbon primacy, and every interest in recruiting African nations as both suppliers and ideological cover. But its interests and Africa’s interests are disaligned"

Another dimension of the “refuse to seat ‘illegitimate’ members of Congress” strategy could be to annul any elections from districts that use vote by mail — for example the entire delegation from Oregon, which ONLY votes by mail. www.theunpopulist.net/p/the-vra-ru...

Beijing is developing an “industrial policy of everything” that spans raw materials, mature industries, and frontier technologies like AI & quantum computing — with the aim of further entrenching its position in global value chains. www.uschamber.com/assets/docum...