“Donald Trump’s America is a scary place in significant part thanks to an unholy alliance of MAGA devotees who don’t believe in science and see intellectuals as public enemy number one, and a gaggle of Silicon Valley militarists who think that they’re the smartest people in the room, if not the universe. Add in White Christian nationalists who abuse religious precepts to sow hatred and division and you have the foundations of the political base that elected Donald Trump (twice!). And worse yet, those groupings are likely to be with us long after our current president has gone off to that great cheeseburger stand in the sky.” (05/28/26)
“Sean Donovan has rented his childhood home in San Francisco on Airbnb for years. Tech workers in town for conferences, and families coming for graduations are common customers, but last month he had a new guest: a robot that he said left a mess. Donovan alleges that a San Francisco startup booked his home on Airbnb last month ‘under false pretenses’ to conduct tests on the ‘robotic prototype,’ and left the place in shambles, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in San Francisco County Superior Court. He’s seeking more than $12,000 for a laundry list of damages from the Bot Company, (identified in court records as ‘Botco’) for personal property damage and unauthorized entry into a locked closet. Donovan told SFGATE that he and his partner had never put more hours into fixing the house after an Airbnb rental.” (05/27/26)
“On the morning of May 18, 2026, on the granite steps of Manhattan’s Criminal Courts Building, three chic women arranged themselves like starlets at Cannes. The heels. The practiced hip-thrust. Weight cocked to one side, chin down, eyes up. With enough mascara between them to repaint Gracie Mansion. But the most revealing part, the part that showed the most skin, was the laminated press credential blessed by the office of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. It certified they were card-carrying members of the working press. Only they were not here to cover a criminal. Luigi’s Angels, or as they call themselves, more affectionately, the Mangionistas, were there to worship a charismatic idol and to defend his violence.” (05/28/26)
“Anti-mafia investigators in Italy have seized cash, companies and other assets worth more than €200m (£175m) in an operation they say targeted the network of notorious late Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro. The funds, described as ‘huge amounts of capital’ by the financial police in Palermo, are said to be proceeds from over four decades of drugs trafficking linked to the presumed former head of the Cosa Nostra group. Announcing their results in Sicily on Thursday, investigators released a video showing masked police officers, some in riot gear, barging down doors and scaling walls to raid a series of vast luxury villas surrounded by palm tree-lined lawns. Messina Denaro spent three decades on the run until his arrest in 2023 as he left a clinic where he was being treated for cancer. He died in custody soon after.” (05/28/26)
“The United States has indicted Cuba’s former president Raúl Castro on murder charges, deployed a carrier strike group to the Caribbean, and issued explicit threats of military intervention. Is the US moving toward another regime change operation in the Western Hemisphere? The rhetoric coming out of Washington suggests very much so. Cuba looks set to see a repeat of the Venezuelan playbook. President Donald Trump has said he will be “the one” to finally act on Cuba. The message from Washington is clear. Cuba is next. Latin America is empire’s favorite backyard, where the United States has consistently moved to remove governments that pursue independent foreign and economic policies not in line with American interests.” (05/28/26)
“A billionaire and insurance mogul with Bay Area ties was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison after he orchestrated an elaborate scheme that defrauded multiple insurance companies out of $2 billion that he used to buy mansions and private jets, the U.S. Department of Justice said. San Mateo native Greg Lindberg, 56, was sentenced on Tuesday in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina on charges related to a multibillion-dollar fraud conspiracy that bankrupted several insurance companies and policyholders, the DOJ announced in a news release. Lindberg, now a Florida resident, was the founder and chairman of North Carolina-based international private equity and financial services firm Eli Global LLC, and Global Bankers Insurance Group, which managed international life insurance and reinsurance companies. Bloomberg Businessweek reported in December 2024 that Lindberg’s net worth had been more than $1 billion.” (05/28/26)
“Amid the fears and concerns about artificial intelligence and emerging online technologies, a statement by the founder of Christian Science – and of this publication – offers reassurance. Referencing the United States’ ringing Declaration of Independence, Mary Baker Eddy wrote, ‘God has endowed man with inalienable rights, among which are self-government, reason, and conscience’. With the promise and exercise of these innate rights, humanity is well placed to take on the challenges – and promise – of AI. Many religious leaders, as well as Silicon Valley innovators and analysts, are weighing in on the role of human creativity and intelligence, as well as workplace skills and relevance. Most recently, Pope Leo XIV delivered a major statement on faith and human progress in the age of AI, titled ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ (Magnificent Humanity).” (05/27/26)
“Most people involved in artificial intelligence can agree on one thing: AI is coming for your job. Anthropic’s CEO predicts Great Depression levels of unemployment in the next five years. Bill Gates says that within ten years humans won’t be needed ‘for most things’. Corporate leaders say AI-driven layoffs are already starting, with Intuit firing thousands just this week, citing AI. Businesses justify their huge investments in AI by committing to spending less on labor, and AI firms sell their products promising to help them do it. Regardless of whether AI is yet good enough to replace workers, their plan is clear: lay off millions of workers, justified by AI. One entity seems totally unaware: the United States government. The only major AI proposal advanced this Congress was a failed effort to prevent states from regulating the industry.” [editor’s note: Create jobs? As in WPA dig ditches and fill them in? If they’re going that route, maybe should just fund UBI that way as a safety net – SAT] (05/28/26)
“It seems modern Democrats can’t object to Nazi-lovers inside the party. Massachusetts Rep. Jake Auchincloss just got major lefty backlash for calling Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s Nazi tatoo (and his pathetic excuses for it) ‘disqualifying.’ ‘I’ve been clear about Graham Platner. I find that tattoo and his commentary about it to be personally disqualifying,’ Auchincloss said Monday on CNN; ‘I hope Maine voters agree with me.’ That brought a storm of progressive social-media fury, accusing Auchincloss of wanting President Donald Trump to have a Republican Senate majority for his last two years in office. Saikat Chakrabarti, the former AOC staff chief now running to replace the retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi, called on Bay State Dems to oust Auchincloss in his coming primary; others demanded Jake get kicked out of the Democratic Party.” (05/26/26)
“For months, the Trump administration has aimed various types of punishing force at the regime in Havana to free the Cuban people: An oil blockade. Criminal charges against the dominant leader, Raúl Castro. The deployment of an aircraft carrier and its strike group in the Caribbean Sea, hinting at an invasion. Much of this strategy has been driven by influential Cuban Americans who have long sought retribution against the island’s communist rulers. ‘It will be difficult to completely control the impulse for revenge that some Cubans may feel during a transition,’ an opposition leader, José Daniel Ferrer, told Cuban news outlet 14ymedio in January. Yet another force might be strengthening among the political opposition, one that could erode the regime from within, official by official. It entails ridding oneself of thoughts of revenge and, as respected dissident and former political prisoner Óscar Elías Biscet puts it, loving one’s adversaries.” (05/26/26)
