Part the First: Is There No Place to Hide, or Just Be Yourself? Caitlin Johnstone points out once again that while we have been snoozing happily in a virtual haze, we are being followed by the latest incarnation of Big Brother to come along. From Today in Dystopia: We Have Cameras Everywhere in that Town: […]
Friday, August 21, 2026
‘Utterly Unsustainable’: Employer-Sponsored Health Care Costs Set to Keep Surging
Health care costs are out of control. Medicare for All would help but is not a sufficient remedy.
The EU Commission’s Secret Plan to Share EU Citizens’ Most Sensitive Data With Israel
For three years the Von der Leyen Commission has been secretly negotiating to hand over its citizens’ data to a state committing a genocide.
Iran War: Bessent Effectively Admits New Ferocious Iran Sanctions Likely to Fizzle as Treasury Intervention Fails; More Evidence of US Military Impotence; Ansar Allah Makes Drone Strikes Into Saudi Arabia
Today’s Iran war news: As Bessent and Trump flail about, a discussion of what the coming crisis might look like.
Why Working‑Class People Account for Around 1% of Lawmakers in the US – and Only 2% in the Average Democracy Around the World
Working-class members are less well represented in politics than most imagine.
An ‘Islamic NATO’ Without Iran Is Symbolic: That’s Its Purpose and Its Problem
The U.S. and Israel achieved what Iranian propaganda never could: they legitimized Iran in the eyes of many Sunni Muslims
Pro-Israel Pressure Group Honest Reporting Received Grant from Knight Foundation
DropSite News exposes how the too-cutely-named Israel front Honest Reporting managed to secure funds from the Knight Foundation
Iran War: Further Admission of Weakness With New Super Duper Trump Sanctions Threat; Israel Moves Against Turkiye Risk Broader Conflagration; Bessent at Odds with Fed in Move to Contain Longer-Dated Treasury Yields
Today’s Iran war news: More proof of Trump impotence via sanctions huffing and puffing, plus Bessent weirdly going to war with the Fed.
Michael Hudson: U.S. War Against Russia Has Blocked Black Sea Grain Transport as Well as the Persian Gulf Oil Trade
Russia’s blockade of Odessa, which will have a global impact on grain supplies, is not getting the attention it warrants.
Personal Bankruptcy Filings Are Soaring in 2026, Signaling Growing Economic Distress
As bankruptcy rates rise, a primer on the process and some strategies that might hold the creditor wolves at bay.
Coffee Break: Stressed Oligarchs at Meta, OpenAI, and the Ellison Empire
Three particularly stressed oligarchs are getting a lot of negative attention this week as Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta faces a $1.4 trillion lawsuit, Sam Altman’s OpenAI is bleeding talent and their IPO seems an ever more remote possibility, and Larry and David Ellison are in a full-on media war with 12 attorneys general over their attempted purchase of Warner Bros Discovery.
More on the Next ‘Super El Niño’
An update on near and longer-term forecasts for the impact of the arriving super El Niño.
