Source: UnHerd
by Yanis Varoufakis

“When the bombs began to rain down on Iran, I predicted Donald Trump’s Waterloo. Watching his MAGA coalition, a noxious brew of working-class resentment and tax cuts for billionaires, descend into a civil class war, I paraphrased Churchill on the Battle of El Alamein: in his second term, before Iran, Trump had never faced a serious defeat; after Iran, he will not taste another victory. While I stand by my prediction, a new observation must be grafted upon it: the Iran war has awarded Trump’s plutocratic circle a spectacularly enriching victory. In a republic that has long since mutated into an oligarchy, albeit one with periodic elections, the plutocrats’ expanding fortunes matter disproportionately.” (05/13/26)

https://archive.is/eNV9U

Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye

“Critics are right that a digital dollar could be another surveillance tool, but the Federal Reserve likely needs Congress to authorize it.” (05/13/26)

https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/a-central-bank-digital-currency-isnt

Source: The Findings Substack
by Lauren Rodriguez

“December 19th, 2026 … that was the day that I dropped my husband at a federal prison camp in West Virginia and forced myself to drive away. That moment, far more than the FBI raid on our home, was my experience of devastation. We had been living a quiet life, my husband a developer and me a housewife with family responsibilities. Driving away and leaving him behind meant that our life was not just threatened, but torn irreparably apart. It was real and it had happened. The Federal agents screaming at us was an early morning shock, the laser sights on our chests, the drones flying through our front door … it was almost like being in a movie. Driving away from the prison, on the other hand, tore open a gulf and dismembered every aspect of our lives.” (05/13/26)

https://thefindings.substack.com/p/laser-sights-on-our-chests-wasnt

Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton

“The more power we have, the more we fear losing that power. However little we have. If, for example, we enjoy weekends without having to work at a 9-to-5 job, and have our employer tell us otherwise? (… if we want to keep our job.) The idea of losing power over our own schedule and our daily lives causes worry, even fear. How much more those who have much greater power, whether it is the power of wealth or the power of controlling others.” (05/13/26)

https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/05/13/what-do-they-fear/

Source: TomDispatch
by Frida Berrigan

“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)

https://tomdispatch.com/butter-and-schools-not-guns-and-warfare/

Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman

“Human beings are equipped with pattern recognition software so good that it can find patterns that are not there. That makes sense from an evolutionary point of view. Seeing a hidden tiger that is not actually there is a much less costly mistake than failing to see one that is there, so biasing the software in the direction of more of the first kind of error and fewer of the second, fewer false negatives and more false positives, is good design.” (05/13/26)

https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/false-positives-e1b