“Guns or butter. Butter or guns. Can we have both? If not, which should come first? Consider it one of those chicken-and-egg conundrums of modern society. ‘Guns’ is the stand-in for a well-funded military and ‘butter’ for all the human goods, comforts, and needs of a society. Economists, politicians, and generals have long considered the balance of guns and butter. Wage too many wars, produce too many arms, and there won’t be enough money to keep a nation decently fed and comfortable. Produce too many consumer goods, meet everyone’s needs, and a nation might find itself ill-prepared and vulnerable in the face of a possible attack or even invasion. Everyone from Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has had something to say about the balance of guns and butter (or, more likely, the lack of it).” (05/14/26)
“A NASA spacecraft chasing a rare metal asteroid swings past Mars this week for a gravity boost, snapping thousands of pictures as practice for the main encounter in 2029. Named Psyche like the asteroid it’s after, the robotic explorer will slingshot past the red planet at 12,333 mph (19,848 kph) on Friday. It will be an especially close flyby, with Psyche passing within 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers) of Mars, equivalent to the distance between the U.S. east and west coasts. Then it will barrel toward the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that is home to its enticing target. All of the spacecraft’s science instruments will be on for the Mars pass. NASA’s two Mars rovers along with a small fleet of U.S. and European orbiters will make surface and atmospheric observations at the same time for comparison..” (05/14/26)
Source: In These Times
by Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg & Ethan Corey
“The Trump administration has doled out billions of taxpayer dollars to corporations tasked with carrying out its mass deportation agenda. Many of these same companies have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to sitting members of Congress, according to an investigation by The Appeal. Using Federal Election Commission records, The Appeal has compiled information on every member of Congress who received campaign contributions from the top contractors for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) either through the company’s Political Action Committee (PAC) or executives during the 2022, 2024 and 2026 election cycles. Over that period, executives at ICE’s biggest contractors donated more than $1.7 million to 168 members of Congress. Palantir CEO Alexander Karp outspent the other executives, donating a total of about $465,000, including nearly $200,000 to Democrats. The Appeal is publishing its findings in a searchable database found below and on a standalone web page.” (05/13/26)
“Two people have been killed and children are among dozens wounded after Russia launched a massive wave of strikes against Ukraine overnight, officials have said. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said it was an ‘especially difficult night for Kyiv,’ where rescuers are searching through the rubble of a residential building after a combined missile and drone attack on the capital. At least 40 people have been injured, including two children, the city’s mayor said. Some 31 of those are being treated in hospital. It marks the third day in a row Ukraine has reported deaths, as Moscow ramps up its assault after a three-day ceasefire expired on Monday.” (05/14/26)
“The Philippine Senate President says that a politician wanted by the International Court (ICC) was no longer in the Senate building where he had been taking refuge, fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald ‘Bato’ dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody ‘war on drugs,’ has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. ‘The sergeant-at-arms has confirmed that he is no longer in the building,’ Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano told reporters on Thursday. The announcement comes a day after gunfire rang out at the Senate, where dela Rosa had been holed up. Confusion and chaos filled the legislature as people inside scrambled for cover on Wednesday, hours after dela Rosa, had appealed to his supporters on social media to mobilise and said law enforcement agents were planning on arresting him.” (05/14/26)
“Attempts to restructure government at the federal level are mostly on the Democrat agenda. Pack the US Supreme Court. Elect presidents via popular vote. Turn Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, into states with two senators each. Implement national mail-in voting, automatic voter registration, legalize ballot harvesting, lower the voting age to 16, let felons vote, let noncitizens vote. And, of course, end the Senate filibuster. If they could, Democrats would do all of this. Meanwhile, however, there is a growing bipartisan movement to implement term limits for members of the House and Senate. A bill has been introduced in the 119th Congress, and President Trump has supported term limits consistently since he first ran for president in 2016. But federal term limits would do more harm than good.” (05/13/26)
“This week’s Africa Forward summit in Nairobi, Kenya, signals both continuity and change – or, to put it differently, continuing change in perceptions of the continent’s opportunities and abilities to decisively shape its future. Co-hosted by Kenya and France, the May 11-12 event has drawn some 30 heads of state and 7,000 government and business representatives to the East African capital city. Discussions are focused on investment (in artificial intelligence, renewable energy, and infrastructure) and on ways to reform international trade and finance systems to address indebtedness and unlock capital flows.” (05/12/26)
“In the USA there are roughly 220,000 commercial aircraft. By 2027, the FAA estimates there will be more than 2.7 million drones. As firefighting aircraft raced to drop retardant on a raging wildfire in Utah’s Provo Canyon last summer, some flights were grounded by a new threat. Private drones, presumably trying to capture dramatic footage of the fire, forced critical support to stand down while flames advanced. This incident was no anomaly. There were hundreds of drone sightings over wildfires in 2025. Such civilian disruptions are only the beginning. Drone warfare and prevalence has come to American soil. Cheap, loosely regulated drones have the capability to disrupt military bases, surveil the homes of Cabinet secretaries and your backyard, threaten aircraft, and even attack the president of the United States. These threats are not hypothetical. It is real, it is now, and it urgently must be addressed.” (05/13/26)
“Nickolay Mladenov, the top diplomat overseeing the U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, said Wednesday the truce hinged on Hamas’ disarmament, a sticking point that has stalled progress on other fronts, including rebuilding the mostly destroyed enclave. The high representative for U.S. President Donald Trump’s International Board of Peace in Gaza, Mladenov, said months without progress implementing the deal benefited neither Israel nor Palestinians. He said the phased deal was paralyzed over Hamas not yet disarming, calling it ‘not negotiable.'” (05/13/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Basically you have two choices: either you believe Israel is a genocidal state that is morally comparable to Nazi Germany, or you believe there’s a giant global conspiracy of mainstream western institutions and media outlets dedicated to making Israel look bad. Believing the second option is the only way to get around believing the first. That’s the only way to believe mainstream outlets like The New York Times are committing antisemitic blood libel with their reporting on the systemic sexual torture of Palestinians in Israeli prisons. It’s the only way to dismiss the fact that every relevant human rights group on earth says Israel is guilty of genocide, while zero comparable human rights groups say it isn’t. You necessarily need to espouse a wild conspiracy theory. You need to believe the conspiracy goes all the way to the top, with its tentacles in mainstream institutions all across the globe.” (05/13/26)
