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Sun, 31 May 2026 16:15:00 +0000 Congress Quietly Moves To Intertwine US, Israeli Militaries On Formal Level
Congress Quietly Moves To Intertwine US, Israeli Militaries On Formal Level
There are some stealth moves afoot by the Trump administration and Congress, which are poised to formalize the long-standing close US-Israel relationship, <
Read more.....
Congress Quietly Moves To Intertwine US, Israeli Militaries On Formal Level
There are some stealth moves afoot by the Trump administration and Congress, which are poised to formalize the long-standing close US-Israel relationship, on the level of a formal defense pact .
A sweeping new legislative proposal in Congress is moving to more deeply intertwine and combine the two countries' military arsenals. The House of Representatives' version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) released this past week contains Section 224 , devoted to military integration with the name "United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative."
The section lays out that the Untied States has already historically contributed an inflation-adjusted $200 billion in military assistance to Israel since 1948, and seeks to more permanently solidify this relationship on a legal basis.
Responsible Statecraft has reported that "Section 224 lays the groundwork for bilateral research and development, co-production of weapons, joint ventures, licensing agreements, and seemingly every manner of US-Israeli military-industrial complex cooperation."
via Flickr
The report said the new congressional provision "would greatly expand coordination to seemingly every area of defense tech, including AI, quantum, autonomous systems, directed energy, cyber, biotech" while further proposing "network integration" and "data fusion."
Crucially, this would in effect combine both countries' military data, and further formalize intelligence-sharing. While all of these things already happen to a large degree, it is at the moment still subject to the policies and direction of whatever US administration happens to be in office .
If passed, the new legislation would make this automatic and basically irreversible - again, akin to a formal defense pact or treaty.
What follows is some fuller reporting from Responsible Statecraft , which warms that "the result could well be a US political system even more susceptible to the whims of an Israeli government that seemingly has no qualms about drawing the US into military conflicts in the Middle East "...
Section 224 lays the groundwork for bilateral research and development, co-production of weapons, joint ventures, licensing agreements, and seemingly every manner of US-Israeli military-industrial complex cooperation. The US and Israel already work together heavily on missile defense, but this provision would greatly expand coordination to seemingly every area of defense tech, including AI, quantum, autonomous systems, directed energy, cyber, biotech, and many more . It also proposes “network integration” and “data fusion.” In other words, the US military’s data could soon be the Israeli military’s data.
If fully enacted, this proposal would provide a higher level of military-industrial integration than the US has with any other country in the world. To be sure, the US has worked closely with its NATO partners on co-production and shared supply chains, most notably via the Defence Production Action Plan . And, as the number one arms dealer in the world, the US provides weapons to militaries across the globe. But that is mostly a one-way street, with the US providing weapons to foreign buyers who only occasionally make parts for those weapons themselves, as in the case of the F-35’s global supply chain .
Section 224 would be a different beast entirely. It would fuse the US and Israeli defense sectors in multiple areas vital to the battlefields of the future, like autonomous systems and cyber. It would also bring extraordinary Israeli influence to the US beyond what it already has through the Israel lobby and its robust network of social media influencers . It would give the Israeli government the opportunity to greatly expand one of the most powerful levers of influence in US politics: jobs in the US By expanding or starting new co-production facilities like it already has in Mississippi and Arkansas , the Israeli government could boast of providing jobs on US soil, thereby securing allies among members of Congress who represent the districts where those jobs lie.
The ambitious scheme is unlikely to be met with much resistance from either the mainstream of the Republican or Democratic parties; however, the Dems have tended to vote against giving President Trump free reign regarding Operation Epic Fury. War Powers votes tend to break down along party lines, with the GOP typically shooting down these efforts of Congressional oversight.
But this could sail through with little or nothing in the way of public debate, or even knowledge, at all. It means future generations of taxpayers could find themselves even more deeply on the hook for the permanent defense of a foreign nation.
Tyler Durden
Sun, 05/31/2026 - 12:15 Close
Sun, 31 May 2026 15:40:00 +0000 Gold Waits As Global Markets Tempt The Unprepared
Gold Waits As Global Markets Tempt The Unprepared
Gold Waits As Global Markets Tempt The Unprepared
Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via VonGreyerz.gold,
2026 is screaming “Uh-Oh” signals from nearly every sector and asset class with alarming yet eerily ignored clarity. This explains why the longer-term case for gold couldn’t be more obvious, regardless of natural price retracements in the near-term.
In fact, if global financial conditions were not otherwise so disturbing, this historical moment in time would be fascinating.
But rather than just say this, let me show you.
Rising Yields: The Most Misunderstood/Important Signal of 2026?
For example, the $145T global bond market, which is $20T greater in size than the global stock market, remains less understood yet far more significant as an indicator .
Specifically, this “boring” bond market is foretelling an historical sovereign debt crisis which is already playing out before way too many closed eyes.
Yields on sovereign IOUs (British, American, German, Italian, Japanese, etc.) are climbing to the highest levels seen in decades.
Three Reasons/Warnings for Rising Yields
These yields rise when demand, price and, of course, TRUST in government bonds tank.
This dying trust has a lot to do with global debt levels at over $360T and U.S. public debt levels reaching an embarrassing $40T marker, which effectively makes America one big “bad credit.”
(1) Lenders Demand a Risk Premium
Those with bad credit, of course, are charged a higher risk premium or “yield” by lenders, which explains why the yield on the U.S. 10Y has risen by 75 basis points in a matter of months despite a Fed which has yet to raise rates in 2026.
The Fed, alas, is openly losing control of its bond market. This matters, because rising yields mean rising debt costs, which debt-addicted and debt-driven nations like the USA simply can’t control or afford anymore.
(2) More Buyers than Sellers of USTs
In addition to its fall from credit grace, the home of the world reserve currency and once sacred “return-free-risk” 10Y UST is watching helplessly as former buyers of its critical IOUs are rapidly becoming sellers—a force which just sends those fatal yields even higher.
China, for example, once held over $1.3T in USTs. Today it holds less than $650B. Japan, the world’s largest holder of U.S. debt, just sold more USTs in Q1 of 2026 than it has sold in the last four years.
(3) The Brutal Math of Debt
But the most obvious reason for the dumping of American bonds boils down to just brutal math.
Uncle Sam, which is now running an unsustainable 7% current account deficit, is adding $2.5T of new debt to its banana republic balance sheet per year. America spends 50% of its annual tax revenue just to pay interest on its outstanding debt.
Trillions more in unfunded liabilities are also owed, for which the USA simply does not have the funds.
To fill this income vs expense “gap,” it’s no great mystery that this can only be done with trillions more debased, “mouse-clicked” fiat dollars.
This extraordinary (and increasing) dollar-dilution direction explains why the DXY can’t break 100 despite spiking yields.
Gold and a Little Bit of History Repeating Itself
The slow yet steadily increasing death spiral of fiat currencies is fascinating, obvious and yet totally ignored by current stock chasers—at least for now.
It is also a perfect set-up for gold, which the world continues to ignore based on recent and short-term price action rather than longer-term preparation or historical understanding.
The fake liquidity now and to come to “solve” the above bond crisis is an almost mirror image of the 1970-1980 era, when the Dollar lost 50% of its purchasing power, and gold went from $35 to $850 an ounce.
But like the current bull run in gold, the template of the 1970s didn’t happen in a straight line, as midway through that infamous decade, gold saw sell-offs which shook out speculators yet made longer-term investors generational wealth.
The recent price declines in gold are thus no surprise within a secular bull cycle.
As explained elsewhere , gold’s value, liquidity and prominence have been confirmed by forced sales (from sovereigns to fund managers) to create needed liquidity in times of stress.
Such behavior confirms rather than detracts from gold’s rising profile and prominence in the years and cycles to come.
Nevertheless, many are understandably following traditional thinking that a “yield-less pet rock” is less impressive than a high-yielding sovereign bond.
But bonds are only “high-yielding” because they are unloved, distrusted and broken; the only way to “fix” them, moreover, is by debasing the very currency used to measure their so-called “higher” yields.
Such logic misses the currency-weak forest for the higher-yielding trees.
But as figures like Charles Mackay or John Hussman have so often reminded us , “logic” goes out the window when tech stocks and market meme manias replace basic common sense, sound valuation or even a mediocre grasp of history.
Meanwhile: Stocks Defy Sanity, Valuation and Common Sense
Looking at the current U.S. stock market is like looking at a bad, surrealist film with a cheap laugh-track.
By literally every metric, the S&P is grotesquely overvalued:
Investors are currently paying maximum prices for unprecedented valuation risk and historically minimal dividend income.
That’s not logic. It’s madness. As consumer sentiment tanks to the lowest levels recorded at the University of Michigan, and as U.S. credit card delinquency rates climb past 12%, the S&P smiles…
Lead to Temptation
As usual, the Wall Street whales and their Sirens on the rocky shores of the equity and credit trap are seducing the retail plankton to their cyclical doom—pumping stocks on the backs of suckers before the big boys take profits on the eve of a fall .
Of course, the infamous “Buffett Indicator” , which measures equity market cap against GDP, has never been clearer (or higher) in confirming such risk:
But the far more telling “Buffett Indicator,” in my mind, lies in the simple fact that Berkshire Hathaway is sitting wisely in nearly $400B in cash.
Alas, the Oracle of Omaha is openly getting out of harm’s way as legions of retail investors march toward an equity cliff.
The tragedy of the so-called S&P 500 (led by 10 stocks) is that it is really no stock market at all. Instead, it lives and breathes off the moral hazard notion that bad news is good news, as there is always a firehose of Fed liquidity (printed dollars) waiting to “accommodate it.”
Every dip is now perceived as a prelude to a V-shaped recovery compliments of the Federal Reserve, which is neither “Federal” nor a “reserve.”
From Temptation to Lying
But such a dishonest title is no match for the dishonest wordsmithing for which the Fed is now so infamous, whether in denying a “non-recessionary recession,” a growing rather “transitory” inflation trend, “non-QE QE” or just flat out lying about actual vs “reported” inflation .
In fact, the Fed’s desperate yet consistent policy of using dishonest words to buy time, markets and votes while hiding honest math will only continue under Kevin Warsh, a trend which he has all but openly confessed.
In case you haven’t noticed, Warsh intends to measure PCE inflation under a new metric called “trimmed mean PCE,” which effectively removes all the bad inflationary data to create a fictitious notion that inflation is under control.
This is duplicity at its finest. After all, even a witch can look pretty if you take away the warts, which is all Warsh’s new Fed policy boils down to.
In fact, what Warsh is doing is nothing surprising nor anything new.
The Oldest & Only Trick Left: Inflate Away Debt
While the rest of us endure the invisible theft of compounding inflation , the policy makers in DC will secretly welcome it as a means to inflate away their sovereign bar tab on the backs of your purchasing power and wealth.
This is called “negative real rates” or “financial repression,” and it’s the oldest trick in the book of desperately broke nations, namely: Let inflation rip higher than interest rates, but then lie about the embarrassing inflation.
When Even the Official Math is Bad
What’s as disturbing, however, is that even the “official” inflation data, as dishonest and downplayed as it is, is still alarming evidence of open monetary policy failure.
Current U.S. CPI inflation (the cost of consumer goods) is racing past 3.8%, and current U.S. PPI inflation (the business cost of making goods) is already at an embarrassing 6%–well beyond the Fed’s 2% “targets.”
But this is just the beginning. Since the Strait of Hormuz closed, the cost of fertilizer has risen by 20%, gasoline by 52%, European natural gas by 54%, jet fuel by 58%, and WTI crude oil by 60%.
Yet how can U.S. CPI and PPI inflation be in the single digits when everything else has risen by massive double digits?
Well, be patient, because the inflationary lag effect of this “conflict” in Iran (whatever you think of it) is racing toward your shores at an increasing wave height.
From Inflation to Gold: Keep it Simple
These inflation signals, as well as the bond signals above, and the stock mania already covered, are all just flashing neon-indicators of surreal “Uh-Oh” in the risk asset markets and an historical moment of currency debasement in your wallets and homes.
This is not fable but tragic fact.
Gold, whatever its current price, is positioning itself for a lengthy, secular and historical move north. It has a finite supply and infinite duration and is thus far more honest than the unlimited supply and finite duration of sovereign bonds and paper currencies.
For those who still think gold has not done enough, compare its recent history here:
…to the same history of global paper currencies here:
It’s really just that simple.
Gold will continue to climb because a global paper currency system distorted by decades of debt, dishonesty, desperation and debasement has nowhere to go but down.
For wealth preservation investors who understand the math of bonds and the history of debt , this simplicity provides for clarity in a time of fog, sanity in a time of madness, and wealth protection in a time of wealth destruction.
Tyler Durden
Sun, 05/31/2026 - 11:40 Close
Sun, 31 May 2026 15:05:00 +0000 Non-English-Speaking Bus Driver Faces Manslaughter Charges After Horror Virginia Crash Kills Entire Family
Non-English-Speaking Bus Driver Faces Manslaughter Charges After Horror Virginia Crash Kills Entire Family
A commercial bus driver, who federal officials say could not speak English, faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter, wit
Read more.....
Non-English-Speaking Bus Driver Faces Manslaughter Charges After Horror Virginia Crash Kills Entire Family
A commercial bus driver, who federal officials say could not speak English, faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter, with additional charges likely, after his charter bus plowed into vehicles on a Virginia highway Friday morning, killing five people, including an entire Greenfield, Massachusetts, family of four.
The New York Post reports that Virginia State Police revealed the 48-year-old bus driver, Jing S. Dong, was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter and will likely face additional charges after killing five people, including an entire family of four from Massachusetts: Dmitri Doncev, 45; his wife, Ecterina, 44; their 13-year-old daughter, Emily; and their 7-year-old son, Mark.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed on X that Dong, "a man from China who became a U.S. citizen — doesn't speak English. He received his commercial driver's license from New York State in 2024."
"Unacceptable. This is exactly why we are holding states accountable, enforcing the rules of the road, and cracking down on drivers who can't speak English," Duffy said.
X sleuths have begun digging into the bus operator, allegedly E&P Travel Inc., and claim corporate records list the company's registered address as an apartment unit in Kings Mountain, North Carolina.
There has been a shocking uptick in non-English-speaking migrant truckers involved in horrific highway crashes. Some of these truckers entered the country under the Biden-Harris regime's nation-killing open border policies.
Duffy and the Trump administration have been cracking down on this through federal and state actions, especially CDL enforcement, English-proficiency rules, and licensing audits.
In recent weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that freight brokers can be sued under state law for negligent hiring when they hire unsafe trucking firms that later cause crashes. This could be an extinction event for non-English-speaking migrant truckers because no freight broker wants to carry that liability.
Back to the bus driver, Dong: How did he receive citizenship without being able to speak English ?
Tyler Durden
Sun, 05/31/2026 - 11:05 Close
Sun, 31 May 2026 14:30:00 +0000 Parabolic Semiconductor Rally: What Breaks The Trade?
Parabolic Semiconductor Rally: What Breaks The Trade?
Parabolic Semiconductor Rally: What Breaks The Trade?
Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,
AI Validation Fuels A Ninth Weekly Advance
The headline tape made fresh history. The S&P 500 closed Friday at 7,580.06 , finishing up 1.43% on the week and posting its ninth consecutive weekly gain. That’s the longest weekly winning streak since 2024, and only the 5th time since 1965 that has occurred. While markets previously saw weakness following such streaks, the 24- and 52-week outcomes were primarily positive, except in 1989.
However, the Russell 2000 actually fell 0.59% to 2,919, a reminder that the small-cap participation everyone hoped for in March still hasn’t shown up despite the megacap rip. Underneath the headline, the dispersion that’s defined this rally has only widened. Technology and financials carried Friday’s tape while energy lagged on falling crude.
Two macro stories collided midweek, and the market chose to celebrate one and shrug at the other. First, the April PCE inflation print landed Thursday morning with the highest headline reading in nearly three years at 3.8% year-over-year, with core PCE at 3.3%. However, the monthly core reading came in at 0.2%, below the 0.3% consensus, and that softer monthly tone gave the Fed-cut camp something to work with. Second, Axios reported Thursday that the US and Iran had reached a tentative 60-day Memorandum of Understanding to extend the ceasefire framework. Oil promptly slid to a six-week low near $89 WTI, the VIX collapsed to its lowest reading since January, ending the week at 15.32, and the rally accelerated. The combination of a softer core PCE and a reduced geopolitical premium handed equity bulls everything they wanted in two sessions.
The dominant micro story came after the bell on Thursday. Dell Technologies reported fiscal Q1 results that were, by any measure, extraordinary, with revenue hitting a record $43.8 billion , up 88% year-over-year, $24.4 billion in AI orders booked, and $16.1 billion in AI server revenue recognized. That is simply astonishing. However, what really drove the price on Friday was management raising the FY27 AI server revenue target to $60 billion, along with full-year revenue at the midpoint of $167 billion, a 50% annual increase. Dell’s report validated the AI capex thesis at exactly the moment the market was beginning to question how far the parabolic move could extend. The bull case strengthened alongside the asymmetry.
Cross-asset moves followed the same script. Treasury yields eased modestly on the cooler core PCE, the dollar softened slightly, and gold extended to roughly $4,576. Bitcoin remains in a bear market and has slid below $73,700. Beneath the AI exuberance, however, a separate undercurrent of institutional skepticism is building around AI infrastructure overcapacity. Several portfolio managers flagged commercial budget fatigue as a near-term risk, with reports surfacing that Microsoft trimmed its code license spending. The narrative isn’t unbroken, but it is being questioned.
??Technical Backdrop – New Highs, Thinner Air
The trend is unambiguous. The S&P 500 closed Friday at 7,580.06 , posting fresh all-time highs on three of the last five sessions and clearing the prior closing record by roughly 1.4% on the week. The index sits firmly above its 50-day moving average at 7,058 and 200-day moving average at 6,830 , putting price roughly 7% above the 50-DMA and nearly 11% above the 200-DMA. On the momentum side, the 14-day RSI has climbed above 70 and is back in overbought territory. Additionally, the MACD has expanded with the new highs and is crossing back above its signal line.
By the standard measures, the bull trend that resumed after the April 7 Iran ceasefire is fully intact and accelerating. A retracement to the previous all-time highs, where the market broke out after the April correction is about 7.5% lower. While such a correction should be expected, given the high levels of complacency during the advance, such a decline will fell far worse that it actually is.
However, the warning signs underneath the surface are getting louder, not quieter. Breadth continues to deteriorate. The percentage of S&P 500 members trading above their 200-day moving average is still hovering near 57%, essentially unchanged from a week ago despite the index hitting new records. Equal-weight is now lagging cap-weight by a meaningful margin over the trailing month, and the cumulative advance-decline line has been making lower highs even as the index makes higher ones. Notably, that’s a textbook bearish divergence. The Nasdaq remains the standout, but the lift is being delivered by a handful of AI-linked mega-caps doing the heavy lifting.
The technical setup for next week makes adding more to equity exposure at current levels uncomfortable. Above the close, resistance sits at the round-number psychological level of 7,700, followed by the consensus year-end target zone near 7,800. Below, the rapidly trailing 5-day moving average around 7,550 is now the first short-term floor, and the prior Wednesday close at 7,520 acts as immediate support. Importantly, a break of 7,520 opens significant room before the next major support. The upside to consensus year-end targets is 2% to 3%. The downside to a routine test of the 200-DMA is 10%.
For positioning, the indicated trade is to use these new highs to harvest gains, not to chase them. Specifically, we continue to suggest trimming positions that have run materially above target weight. Tighten trailing stops on the most extended names, semis especially. Hold new cash deployments back until breadth confirms or a technical break invalidates the trend. With the VIX at 15.32, near its lowest level since January, downside protection is unusually cheap right now.
?? Key Catalysts Next Week
The week of June 1 is the heaviest catalyst calendar of the quarter with three threads colliding all at once. First, jobs and inflation data dominate the macro side, with ISM Manufacturing kicking off Monday and Nonfarm Payrolls closing Friday. Second, Broadcom (AVGO) reports Wednesday after the close. After Dell’s blowout Thursday night, the bar Hock Tan needs to clear has been raised significantly. Third, the Iran 60-day Memorandum of Understanding announced Thursday still needs formal ratification within the next two weeks, and any breakdown in those talks would reverse the volatility compression that fueled this past week’s rally.
On the macro side, the order matters. Monday’s ISM Manufacturing print will frame the week and the consensus expects 49.8, a hair below the expansion line. A surprise above 50 would confirm the manufacturing reset narrative and reinforce the bull case for industrials and cyclicals. Conversely, a miss below 49 would reawaken the late-cycle slowdown worry given that Q1 GDP was just revised down to 1.6%. Tuesday brings JOLTS plus Factory Orders, followed on Wednesday by ADP private payrolls and ISM Services, the more important of the two PMIs given that services dominate US output. Friday’s NFP is the data the Fed actually weighs and consensus sits at 145,000 with the unemployment rate at 4.2%. Notably, the asymmetry favors a downside surprise and a print below 100,000 would put September cuts squarely back on the table.
What investors should watch most is the Broadcom (AVGO) setup as mentioned above. The options markets are pricing an implied move of roughly 7% on the print, well above the historical average and the most asymmetric outcome would be a beat with cautious forward guidance. AVGO is priced for management to extend its “$100 billion in AI chip revenue by 2027” line of sight into a hard number, but anything short of that, combined with hyperscaler capex moderation in the commentary, would trigger the kind of broad semiconductor de-risking that the technicals already flag as overdue. The macro releases matter. However, Broadcom Wednesday is the trade the entire tape is built around right now.
?? The Parabolic Semiconductor Rally
Previously, we laid out the case that market leadership is narrow, increasing summer risk. This week I want to focus the lens on Friday’s Daily Market Commentary topic: “The parabolic semiconductor rally.” That short commentary generated several questions that deserved a more complete response. So, I want to use today’s BullBearReport to expand on my thoughts on the trade: it’s not just leadership; it’s nearly the entire trade.
I mentioned last week that, across the market sectors, roughly $23 billion has flowed into technology ETFs since February; however, almost every other sector has been flat to down since prior to the Iran crisis. Most importantly, it is worth noting that even Energy has failed to rally despite the surge in oil prices and Technology has now surpassed its early year outperformance.
However, that is just the major sectors of the S&P 500. The sector we want to focus on today is the parabolic semiconductor sector, for which we will use the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH), which closed Friday at $598, putting it 168% above its 50-month moving average. That is the most extreme deviation from trend in any major sector ETF on record. The setup is unique, and the asymmetry has turned against holders. Here’s why semis could break first, and how to position accordingly.
The standard measures of stretched are useful, but they understate what’s happening in semiconductors. Bank of America’s technical desk flagged the SMH weekly RSI above 80 for two consecutive weeks, an all-time high reading and only the fifth such instance since 2012. The fund trades roughly 150% above its 200-week moving average, exceeding the prior peaks of 100% to 108% set in 2021 and 2024. Both of those readings preceded drawdowns of more than 30%.
However, the cleanest single picture is the 50-month moving average. The 200-month MA at $88 is too far below the current price to be a useful mean reversion target. The 50-month MA at $224 is the actual trend that has tracked semis through every cycle since 2002.
Today, SMH sits 168% above that line. The prior peak deviation was 95% when the same parabolic semiconductor surge occurred in 2021, and that move resolved in a 49% drawdown over the following twelve months. By comparison, today’s reading nearly doubles the prior record.
The picture is unambiguous. Today’s reading isn’t part of the historical range. It is the historical range plus an additional 70 percentage points of overshoot. Mean reversion to the 50-MMA from $598 to $224 implies a ~63% price decline. That’s not a forecast, just arithmetic.
The question is what would cause such a mean-reverting event?
The Customers Are Five Companies
Every parabolic move eventually runs into a customer concentration problem, and the semiconductor rally has the most extreme version I’ve seen in my career. The entire AI infrastructure thesis rests on five hyperscalers continuing to underwrite the buildout. Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Google, and Oracle account for the overwhelming majority of demand for forward AI chips. Their combined 2026 capital expenditure is projected above $800 billion, and the SMH basket is priced for that number to keep accelerating into 2028.
Importantly, the dependency runs in only one direction. The hyperscalers can throttle capex at will. They have the cash flow, the balance sheet flexibility, and shareholder bases that increasingly want to see returns on the prior years’ spending. Semiconductor names cannot create demand in a reciprocal manner. They are at the mercy of the hyperscalers’ ongoing spending commitments. Therefore, the moment any single hyperscaler tempers forward capex guidance, the bid under Nvidia, Broadcom, AMD, and Micron evaporates instantly.
The customer dependency runs five-to-one, and the supplier dependency is even tighter. Notice in the diagram above that more than half of SMH is exposed to four names that all rely on the same five buyers. There is no diversification inside the basket. If hyperscalers throttle, the entire ETF moves together.
“When 73% of professional money managers sit on the same side of a trade, the marginal buyer is already in . There is no second leg of buyers waiting to bid the dip.” Bank of America’s May Fund Manager Survey identified long global semiconductors as the most crowded trade on Wall Street at a record 73% reading.
The answer to why the parabolic semiconductor move has been so sharp, and why fundamentals do not seem to matter, comes down to a single word: Gamma.
The Gamma Squeeze Is Doing The Work
The fundamental story explains why semis are extended. It doesn’t explain why the move went vertical over the last six weeks. That mechanical acceleration is a textbook gamma squeeze, and understanding the plumbing matters because the same mechanism that drove the move up is what makes the unwind violent on the way down.
The chain of events is straightforward. Retail and momentum traders pile into short-dated call options on Nvidia, Broadcom, and SMH. Dealers who sold those calls are short gamma and must buy the underlying stock to stay delta-neutral as the price rises. Their hedging buys push the stock higher, which forces more hedging, which pushes the stock higher still. The feedback loop runs until call buying stalls or expiration removes the options from the dealers’ books.
The mechanics of this particular parabolic semiconductor advance are symmetric, and that’s the danger. Every share that dealers were forced to buy on the way up becomes a share they’re forced to sell on the way down . The buying and selling aren’t driven by fundamentals. They’re driven by hedging discipline against a derivatives book. When the catalyst hits, whether it’s a guidance disappointment, a hyperscaler capex cut, or simply monthly options expiration removing the gamma support, the loop reverses.
An additional wrinkle makes the unwind worse than the rally. Once stocks start falling, put buying replaces call buying. Dealers are now short put gamma and must sell stock as prices fall to stay hedged. The selling begets more selling, just as the buying begets more buying. We saw this exact pattern in the August 2024 unwind, when SMH dropped 34% in roughly six weeks despite no change in the underlying AI demand thesis. The fundamentals weren’t worse. The gamma was gone.
For positioning, the gamma backdrop changes how you think about hedging. Buying puts after the move starts is expensive because implied volatility has already expanded. The cheap insurance is bought before the unwind. That window is open today, but there is a high probability it will close after Broadcom reports earnings on Thursday if their guidance disappoints.
History Doesn’t Repeat, But It Rhymes Loudly
Every prior parabolic semiconductor move resolved the same way. The 2000 dot-com peak gave back 82%. By 2008, the GFC drawdown cost another 52%. In 2018, the trade war pulled the index back 30%. Then the 2022 rate-shock cycle delivered a 49% peak-to-trough decline, followed by a 34% reset during the 2024 August unwind. None of these were forecast in advance. Each was justified by a “different this time” narrative right up until the moment it wasn’t.
The 2000 entry on the chart matters most. That parabolic semiconductor move featured the same combination of features that defines today’s landscape: a “different this time” narrative built on a real technology transition, and a concentrated trade among professional investors. The post-peak drawdown was 82%, and SMH itself took roughly 9 years to recover to its prior high from the 2008 trough, which compounded the damage. The current setup doesn’t have to deliver that outcome. However, the prior parabolic peaks all delivered something materially worse than the typical correction. The current setup is more extreme than any of them, not less.
What Should Investors Do Now
Here’s the problem with selling a parabolic semiconductor move outright. Parabolic moves run further than anyone thinks possible before they break, and the final leg often delivers the largest gains of the entire move. Outright shorting is a way to get “carried out on a stretcher.” We saw it in 1999, and then the same trap caught short sellers in 2021, and again in early 2024. The discipline is to manage the asymmetry of the move, not to predict the top.
Specifically, here’s the playbook we’re applying in the model portfolios this week.
Make no mistake. This is not a “doom and gloom” analysis, and none of this is bearish on the secular AI thesis. The AI capex cycle is real, and the long-term demand for compute infrastructure is durable. However, secular themes regularly produce cyclical drawdowns of 30% to 50% on the way to their long-term payoff. Internet adoption was real in 2000, and the underlying secular story has played out across two decades. That truth didn’t save anyone who bought Cisco at the peak. Disciplined exposure management is how we participate in the secular story without owning the worst part of the cyclical drawdown.
Most crucially, trimming exposure is not a market call. It’s risk management at a point where the asymmetry no longer favors holders. The reward for staying long the last 10% of a parabolic semiconductor move is small. Round-tripping the previous 50% is permanent damage to capital. When leadership gets this narrow and this stretched, the rally and the risk are the same trade.
Position accordingly, and stay nimble through next week’s catalyst window.
Tyler Durden
Sun, 05/31/2026 - 10:30 Close
Sun, 31 May 2026 13:55:00 +0000 "Well-Funded" NGO Machine Behind Newark Anti-ICE Chaos; Bessent Signals Nonprofit Crackdown
"Well-Funded" NGO Machine Behind Newark Anti-ICE Chaos; Bessent Signals Nonprofit Crackdown
Anti-ICE demonstrations outside Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, an ICE immigration detention facility, escalated in the overnight hours
Read more.....
"Well-Funded" NGO Machine Behind Newark Anti-ICE Chaos; Bessent Signals Nonprofit Crackdown
Anti-ICE demonstrations outside Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, an ICE immigration detention facility, escalated in the overnight hours as the far-left and well-funded maximum pressure campaign entered its ninth day on Saturday. The continued mobilization only suggests a coordinated pressure operation, with dark-money-funded NGOs appearing to provide organizational and financial support.
Citizen journalist Nick Sortor went undercover at the anti-ICE encampment outside Delaney Hall in Newark on Saturday night, documenting what he described as far-left revolutionaries training their so-called 'woke warriors' to combat ICE agents.
Sortor explained:
I went undercover into a leftist training "class" here outside ICE Newark, where rioters are each handed ~$100 of equipment to pretend to be medic.
These people are basically Antifa's support staff.
They were given goggles, latex gloves, and most notably, 3M P100 respirators with MULTIPLE spare cartridges — all new in the box.
The respirator + spare cartridges cost $75 each. And they were doling them out like candy.
These are NOT organic riots. They're well organized and well-funded. These groups need to be broken up into a million pieces.
Chaos.
Even the globalists at The Atlantic were recently forced to acknowledge ...
Late Saturday evening, Democratic New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said, "We know that people from outside the state have been interfering in the protests and escalating them. 5 of the 6 people arrested last night by state police were from outside New Jersey."
Fox News Digital observed signs from several far-left organizations at the ICE facility, including the Democratic Socialists of America, the Freedom Socialist Party, the Internationalist Group, the Labor Committee to Defend Immigrants, and the CUNY Internationalist Clubs.
Demonstrators carried copies of "Challenge," a newspaper affiliated with the Progressive Labor Party, with headlines including "LONG LIVE COMMUNISM!" and "NO PAPERS, NO BORDERS, NO BOSSES."
Fox News Digital reported that one protester accused Gov. Sherrill and liberal politicians of not spending enough time at the immigration facility, claiming they were there to "protect the racists because racism protects their profits."
That protester told the crowd that the "only thing that's going to save us is a mass militant, multiracial, anti-racist rebellion against this system."
Protesters responded by chanting, "If we don't get it, shut it down!"
Last week, we noted that one of the dark-money-funded NGOs organizing the protest is the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice (NJAIJ).
Influence Watch states on its website that NJAIJ is a coalition of over 50 groups that advocate for left-of-center immigration policy. Its executive committee includes the ACLU of New Jersey, the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the New Jersey Working Families Party, the American Friends Service Committee, and Faith in New Jersey.
Earlier on Saturday, Fox News Digital reporter Michael Dorgan questioned far-left Marxist influencer Hasan Piker about foreign influence and funding connected to China and the Neville Roy Singham network.
Related:
Piker denied having a direct connection with the China-based billionaire who funds far-left movements in the US that are seen merely as CCP influence operations by US federal investigators.
Related:
"I don't know why there's this environment of suspicion or this environment that takes this sinister shape for some reason when we're talking about things that are totally above board and totally legal," Piker said. "I don't have any personal contact with Roy Singham or any of these other people. I mean, I know some of these people. They're wonderful people in general. They are activists."
Piker claimed that the federal government "has been actively trying to target activists and protesters," shifting the blame to President Donald Trump.
"I feel like that's not great, especially considering that Donald Trump said he was going to end cancel culture, he was actually going to end woke-ism, and that he was the free speech president," Piker said. "I feel like there are a lot of people who believe in that message, and now he's betrayed that message."
"People are allowed to believe whatever they want to believe," he continued. "That's the American spirit, baby."
Yet nonprofits were never intended to organize street violence, clash with police, shut down infrastructure, riot, burn down city streets, incite Marxist revolution, or serve as proxies for statecraft operations by foreign governments.
Federal investigators understand that protests during the Trump era are not grassroots protests. These are part of the protest industrial complex paralyzing American infrastructure on demand, financed by left-wing billionaire family foundations through nonprofits, as well as entities based in hostile foreign power, such as the Singham network, which even the New York Times says conducts propaganda operations for the CCP.
That's why Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signaled Thursday that a coming crackdown on dark-money funded NGOs will be seen in the "weeks and months ahead."
It's not just China…
Last October, Seamus Bruner , Director of Research at the Government Accountability Institute, briefed President Trump on television about radical left NGOs and activist networks.
"We have identified dozens of radical organizations, not just the decentralized Antifa organizations, but dozens of radical organizations that have received more than $100 million from the Riot Inc investors," Bruner told Trump.
Source: Government Accountability Institute
This subject is near and dear to Elon Musk, who at the time commented on a video of Seamus briefing Trump.
Hedge fund legend Kyle Bass noted , "SecScottBessent is doing God's work. Imagine if the IRS required a full donor list to be public to maintain the 501 (c) (3) 's tax-exempt status."
Tyler Durden
Sun, 05/31/2026 - 09:55 Close
Sun, 31 May 2026 13:20:00 +0000 Is A New Iron Curtain Inevitable?
Is A New Iron Curtain Inevitable?
Is A New Iron Curtain Inevitable?
Authored by Andrew Korybko,
Russia’s consequent focus on the western front might embolden US-backed NATO member Turkiye to accelerate its power play in the south at the risk of sparking another regional crisis after Ukraine.
Russian Ambassador-at-Large Artyom Bulatov warned in a recent interview that “Westerners, with energy worthy of a better cause, are erecting a new ‘Iron Curtain’, seeking to make irreversible the rupture – provoked by themselves – of socio-economic, trade, transport, interpersonal, cultural, and historical ties that have been built in the region not over years, but over centuries.” He also condemned the weaponization of regional interaction mechanisms like the Council of the Baltic States against Russia.
Truth be told, a new Iron Curtain is inevitable and has been since summer 2024 when the Baltic States and Poland combined their respective border fortification plans along NATO’s Eastern Flank to unveil what they now officially refer to as the “EU Defense Line”, which readers can learn more about here . This initiative will likely be expanded to include Finland too, thus stretching from the Arctic to Central Europe. Even in the event of a Russian-US rapprochement , which is now unlikely, these barriers will still remain.
Russian experts, who operated for so long under the influence of the wishful thinking fantasy that the EU is challenging Russia at its senior US patron’s behest and not due to its own ideologically driven hatred of Russia (contrary to its objective interests), are finally waking up to reality. New President of the Russian International Affairs Council Dmitriy Trenin, who issued an unprecedented clarion call in April for correcting foreign policy misperceptions , published a relevant piece in parallel with Bulatov’s interview.
Titled “The EU, Like ‘NATO 3.0,’ Will Remain Our Adversaries ”, it dramatically begins by informing readers that “For the first time since 1945, the most pressing military threat to Russia is coming from Europe—European states themselves. This represents the most significant military-political shift for Russia since the victory in the Great Patriotic War.” The goal, Trenin believes, is “to split the Russian Federation into externally controlled components and turn them into semi-colonies of the European Union.”
This will be pursued through indefinitely perpetuating the NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine together with ramping up sanctions and military pressure for undermining domestic political stability.
He shared five suggestions in response to these threats:
1) strengthen the homefront;
2) demonstrate willingness to strike targets in the EU (and actually do so if need be);
3) strengthen ties with China to the point of a de facto global alliance;
4) exploit US-EU divisions; and
5) and capitalize on political shifts in EU states.
Trenin also reaffirmed Russia’s new self-identity as a (Eurasian) civilization-state , the subtext being that Russians en masse are increasingly viewing themselves as different from Europeans for the first time since Russia’s experiment of emulating the West began three centuries ago. All the insight that he shared in his article pairs with what Bulatov shared in his interview and the “EU Defense Line” that’s under construction to ensure that a new Iron Curtain is inevitable. Russians are also finally accepting this too.
In terms of the bigger picture, three trends are self-evident:
1) the EU will independently continue challenging Russia regardless of however Russian-US relations develop;
2) Russia will continue prioritizing the World Majority over the West; and 3) Russian-EU tensions will become the new normal.
With Russia focusing on the western front as a result, US-backed NATO member Turkiye is expected to accelerate its power play in the south, thus sowing the seeds of another regional crisis after Ukraine.
Tyler Durden
Sun, 05/31/2026 - 09:20 Close
Sun, 31 May 2026 12:45:00 +0000 Immigrant Hordes Set Paris Ablaze Because Their Soccer Team Won
Immigrant Hordes Set Paris Ablaze Because Their Soccer Team Won
In case you needed further justification for denying your woman's request for a vacation in Paris, hordes of migrants gave your position another boost over Satu
Read more.....
Immigrant Hordes Set Paris Ablaze Because Their Soccer Team Won
In case you needed further justification for denying your woman's request for a vacation in Paris, hordes of migrants gave your position another boost over Saturday night , as they rampaged across the "City of Light" and other French locales, setting structures and vehicles ablaze, smashing the windows of occupied cars, destroying shops and unleashing other varied forms of mayhem. And they were doing this because they were happy...about a soccer game .
Yes, attacking French society (such as it is) was the outlet for joy they felt over Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) defeating the London-based Arsenal soccer team via a penalty shootout in the Champions League final. After the game, they poured into the streets and began destroying other people's property.
Police deployed tear gas in clashes around Paris. More than 400 people were arrested across France by Sunday's early hours, including at least 280 in Paris, according to the French interior ministry. Seven police officers were injured . Last year's PSG championship also sparked disaster, including the death of a 17-year-old.
"Only in France does a football club's victory spark riots," lamented conservative leader Marine Le Pen. "Only in France does everyone feel compelled to lock themselves in their homes on the evening of a victory to avoid being confronted with violence. The French can no longer stand these scenes of chaos that multiply at the slightest pretext, and this, despite an extraordinary security apparatus." The destruction was visited upon bakeries, restaurants, retail stores, bus shelters and cars.
In perhaps the most disturbing video of the night, rioters were seen shattering the windows of a car occupied by two young women :
While major media won't do it, we're highlighting migrants as the principal offenders because people lacking native French characteristics dominate imagery of the hellish scenes across Paris and France .
"Yay, fellas, our team won!" :
Some of the ugliest scenes played out on Avenue des Champs-Elysees, which was once widely and reasonably nicknamed the "most beautiful avenue in the world." On Saturday night, thanks to a long-running cultural invasion that continues to plumb new dystopian depths, the stretch famous for the Arc de Triomphe, luxurious shops and fine dining was among the world's most alarming.
In a contribution to French society that should live in infamy, leftist Second Vice President of the National Assembly Clemence Guette posted a message before the violence started unfolding, touting the "victory of a collective" (nice Marxist flourish there!), and asking authorities "not to spoil the party once again," and to refrain from "violent repression," saying police should "let Parisians and Francilians have their pride and joy for this evening."
Here's what "pride and joy" looks like to moronic, multicultural Marxists:
And here's what Paris looked like before being blessed by cultural enrichment:
Tyler Durden
Sun, 05/31/2026 - 08:45 Close
Sun, 31 May 2026 12:30:00 +0000 Intercepted Iranian Missile Injures 5 Americans At Kuwaiti Air Base; Tehran Identifies Two Key MOU Sticking Points
Intercepted Iranian Missile Injures 5 Americans At Kuwaiti Air Base; Tehran Identifies Two Key MOU Sticking Points
Summary
Iran is pushing forward legislation formalizing control/management of Hormuz Strai
Read more.....
Intercepted Iranian Missile Injures 5 Americans At Kuwaiti Air Base; Tehran Identifies Two Key MOU Sticking Points
Summary
Iran is pushing forward legislation formalizing control/management of Hormuz Strait shipping , which flies in the face of Trump warnings & conditions.
An Iranian Fateh-110 short-range ballistic missile targeted Kuwait's Ali Al Salem Air Base , a key operational hub for the U.S. Air Force. BBG says missile intercepted, but falling debris struck part of the base, injuring five Americans .
Two more American drones reported destroyed or damaged in the Kuwait base attack (DropSite/BBG).
Iran says two big MOU agreement issues remain & are not finalized: Unfreezing of Assets & Sanctions, Nuclear File
US-Iran nuclear deal by July 31?
Yes 55% · No 45%View full market & trade on Polymarket * * *
Iran Moves to 'Legalize/Formalize' Management Of Hormuz Strait
A Saturday message and warning from Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters via Al Jazeera : "The management of the Strait of Hormuz is exercised with full authority by the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran." It added that "all ships, commercial vessels and tankers are only required to travel through the designated routes and obtain permission from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy."
So despite President Trump's latest warning which declared strict conditions on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran appears to be completely brushing his words aside , and is moving closer to formalizing its authority over vital energy shipping waterway .
State-run Nour News is reporting that a bill outlining Tehran's role in managing passage through the strategic waterway has been finalized and is expected to be brought to a vote soon.
According to Bloomberg , Iranian lawmaker Alireza Salimi did not provide a specific timeline for the vote but said the legislation is on track to become law . Salimi said that "only Iran and Oman can decide on Strait of Hormuz management" - adding that "the Omani side has given preliminary approval" to Tehran's plan. He further emphasized the strategic importance of Hormuz, declaring that "the Strait of Hormuz is more important and more valuable to the Islamic Republic of Iran than dozens of nuclear bombs."
Previous comments by Salimi indicate the bill would cover shipping security, the collection of navigation and environmental pollution fees, as well as the creation of a regional development and progress fund - all of which critics have dismissed as but Tehran's ruse to collect what is in effect a "toll". The legislation is expected to undergo review by Iran's Guardian Council , which is responsible for vetting and approving all laws before they take effect.
More Reported US Drones Destroyed
Reports of more MQ-9 Reaper damage or destruction have emerged; however, the Pentagon has not verified this, and is not expected to. This along with the past week of 'live-fire' tit-for-tat incidents suggests an escalating situation, even as the warring sides try to get back to the peace negotiations table. It looks like it could be related to the Saturday missile attack on a US base in Kuwait, but details are murky. Per DropSite:
MOU Holdup: The Sticking Points
Some latest commentary on where things stand via Al Jazeera... the key issues:
Unfreezing of Assets & Sanctions
Nuclear File
"So far, there is no timeframe. However, we know that the negotiations are still continuing. The agreement, according to Iranian officials here, is not finalised yet. Proposals and messages are being exchanged through Pakistani mediators and some other regional players as well," the report says. Per AJ :
The Iranians, while saying that it is not finalised, have largely agreed on many items. However, there are still some sticking points.
Finally, the Iranians are quite clear at this stage. They are saying that they are not discussing the nuclear file or nuclear programme unless confidence-building measures are put in place . Only if the first phase is successful will they be open to discussing their nuclear programme.
These confidence-building measures have been precisely identified as the unfreezing of billions in assets held aborad.
New Iranian Attack on US Base in Kuwait
An Iranian Fateh-110 short-range ballistic missile targeted Kuwait's Ali Al Salem Air Base, a key operational hub for the U.S. Air Force's expeditionary forces in the Gulf region. An initial report from Bloomberg News indicates that Kuwaiti air defenses intercepted the tactical ballistic missile in the last 24 hours, but falling debris struck part of the base, injuring five Americans and damaging one MQ-9 Reaper drone while severely damaging another.
About five people, including both contractors and active duty personnel, suffered minor injuries, the person said. One Reaper was destroyed and at least one other was seriously damaged . -BBG
News of the strike on ASAB, where the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing under U.S. Air Forces Central acts as a forward logistics, airlift, and combat-power gateway for the broader CENTCOM theater, comes as the US and Iran on Friday reached a tentative memorandum of understanding to extend a ceasefire by 60 days and restart nuclear negotiations. However, the proposal still requires final approval from President Trump, according to U.S. officials cited by Fox News.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also indicated yesterday that Washington is maintaining maximum leverage, saying sanctions relief will remain off the table unless Tehran reopens the Hormuz chokepoint, transfers highly enriched uranium, and accepts that it cannot maintain a nuclear program. Meanwhile, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth attended the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore overnight, where he said the US military is prepared to resume strikes against Iran if negotiations over the nuclear program collapse.
"Any deal will be a good one. A great one," Hegseth said Trump told him. "And if Iran doesn't want to make a great deal that ensures they don't get a nuclear weapon, they can deal with the guy on my left," he added, referring to the War Department. "We are more than capable," Hegseth noted in reference to a renewed military strike against Tehran. "Our stockpiles are more than suited for that, both there and around the globe."
Hegseth's remarks came just hours after Trump met with officials in the White House Situation Room to discuss the next phase of negotiations with Iran. "The Situation Room meeting has concluded and lasted approximately two hours. President Trump will only make a deal that is good for America and satisfies his red lines. Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon," a White House official said in a statement issued late Friday.
MOU Not Finalized, Tehran Confirms
Iran's Foreign Ministry commented on the memorandum of understanding between the two nations, stating that nothing has been finalized yet.
News of progress toward a peace deal comes as energy experts warn of an energy cliff that could emerge as soon as next month if the Hormuz chokepoint remains closed. It's clear that inventories, floating storage, rerouted cargoes, emergency substitutions, and rationing have absorbed the initial shock of lost Gulf-area crude, offsetting the roughly 10 million barrels of oil that weren't reaching their intended destinations each day. Additionally, daily headlines have pushed Brent crude futures to $91 per barrel by Friday afternoon.
But as we've warned, if the Hormuz chokepoint doesn't reopen in the near term, crude oil could soon be aggressively repriced higher, as those inventories are being drained at an alarming rate.
Latest on the energy market:
Latest Bloomberg headlines:
US Naval Blockade
The US continues its blockade of Iranian vessels, with the US Central Command attempting to stop Iranian vessels seeking to pass through the blockaded area by issuing warnings along the blockade line.
US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is still in place as of Saturday morning.
Iranian Missile Attacks
An Iranian ballistic missile strike on Kuwait's Ali Al Salem Air Base within the past 24 hours caused minor injuries to several Americans and seriously damaged two MQ-9 Reaper strike drones.
Kuwaiti air defenses intercepted the Fateh-110 missile, but falling debris struck the air base.
Ceasefire Negotiations
The US and Iran have reached a preliminary deal to extend a ceasefire by 60 days and discuss Tehran's nuclear program, but President Trump has yet to agree to the terms.
Trump left a two-hour Situation Room meeting on Friday without deciding on the possible deal, despite earlier suggesting an agreement was near.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Saturday that the US is ready to restart attacks on Iran if a deal cannot be reached.
Strait of Hormuz Transit
Iran state TV reports that 2 ships have crossed the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours.
The US affirmed that deals with Iran to sail through the Strait of Hormuz safely are prohibited, regardless of whether a payment is made.
Several vessels transiting through the Strait of Hormuz have been attacked in recent days, according to the Chevron CEO.
Qatar opposes permanent legal fees for transit through the Strait of Hormuz, but a temporary fee for mine-clearing purposes is negotiable.
Polymarket:
Strait of Hormuz traffic returns to normal by June 15?
Yes 8% · No 93%View full market & trade on Polymarket
US x Iran permanent peace deal by June 7, 2026?
Yes 14% · No 86%View full market & trade on Polymarket The clock is ticking for a deal to avert an energy cliff that top energy experts warn is near.
Tyler Durden
Sun, 05/31/2026 - 08:30 Close
Sun, 31 May 2026 12:10:00 +0000 "It's All So Tiresome": UK's Social Media Ban Trudges Ever Onward
"It's All So Tiresome": UK's Social Media Ban Trudges Ever Onward
"It's All So Tiresome": UK's Social Media Ban Trudges Ever Onward
Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,
The UK government’s “consultation” on social media harm is over, and – brace yourselves – it turns out they’re going to have to do something about it.
I know, I was shocked too.
The main talking point is that “social media is like cigarettes” . Everyone is saying that, it’s the meme of the day .
It’s a sentiment originally taken from a new report submitted to the consultation by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.
Titled “Growing up in an online world” , it contains this hilarious line in the foreword:
…there is, I think, an overwhelming consensus that excessive screen time can harm children and young people and we need to call this out unflinchingly rather than passively wait for someone else to prove causation”.
Which is a pretty neat summary of how our political system works in general, and certainly in this case: We don’t know if there’s even a problem yet, but by God we’re gonna do something about it.
That the something they end up doing makes them rich and powerful is just one of the curious coincidences tyrants can always rely on.
{Sidenote: This morning the BBC had “Overwhelimg consensus” in their headline on this story , but at some point the absurdity of that quote was realised, and the headline changed. Now there’s this disclaimer near the end : “There is no consensus among the wider scientific community that screen time overall is harmful to children.” Funny stuff.}
Elsewhere, the report wails about “a wave of radicalized children” who pose “a real risk to society” , and calls social media “an incredibly powerful and uncontrolled commercial detriment to health”.
In a similar vein, The Guardian is warning of a “tsunami of harm” , and has assembled an all-star cast of interested parties to talk up the scariness of social media meanness.
After meeting with “bereaved parents” earlier today, Keir Starmer has “vowed to take action” .
His potential rival for the leadership has been even more vocal. Political eunuch and leadership hopeful Wes Streeting is all over this, campaigning hard to be the next disposable suit full of bugger all to “lead the country”:
He thinks a ban should be “just the start”:
Social media should be treated like tobacco – it’s extremely addictive, bad for our health, and big tech is borrowing the big tobacco playbook to avoid regulation. We’ve got to give our children their childhood back […] A ban for under-16s must be the start, not the end […]We have given the pen to tech moguls to write our future for us. It’s time to take the pen back.”
Streeting is an idiot whose ambition outweighs his intellect by a factor of ten, and who clearly doesn’t understand the rules of the game he’s playing.
Some political handler behind the scenes probably told him to go hard on this issue because it will make him look tough and assertive, but the likely truth is he’s being wheeled out as the extreme option so a “sensible middle ground” option – probably Andy Burnham – can enforce “common sense policies”.
What will those policies be? It doesn’t really matter, but we’ll get to that.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall, notable only for garnering less than 5% of the vote in the 2015 leadership election , is out there promising “action”:
…they haven’t decided what “action” yet, exactly but it’s definitely going to happen.
The Guardian has a handy list to choose from , including but not limited to:
– social media bans
– “digital curfews”
– “function limitations”
– age gating “addictive features”
– protecting children from personalised algorithms
– enforcing screen time limits.
Which one will it be?
Well let me answer that question with another question – Who cares?
The powers that be certainly don’t.
This is very much an “any colour you want so long as it’s black” situation.
Choose an outright ban – “Great, please submit your ID to prove you’re over 16 and exempt from the social media ban.”
Choose screen time limits – “Great, please submit your ID to prove you’re over 16 and exempt from screen time limitations.”
Choose digital curfews – “Great, please submit your ID to prove you’re over 16 and exempt from the digital curfew.”
Since all the proposed measures rely on age verification for enforcement, they all achieve the end goal: No more online anonymity, for kids or adults alike.
Debating the list is pointless, and making a choice counterproductive. It’s like choosing the colour of your electric chair: It makes no difference to the end result, but your entirely cosmetic choice lends tacit approval of the whole process.
We all know where this is going: Age gating everything, everywhere and then – eventually – digital ID.
It’s just…
…and you’re left wondering, who is this even for?
What is the point of this worn-out, unenthusiastic propaganda?
We know what they’re going to do, they have said they’re going to do it, and still they feel the need to play out this performative umming and erring.
Just get on with it.
All the people who don’t believe them will NEVER believe them, and all the poor fools who do believe them will always believe them.
So why carry on this absurd pretense?
It’s like when you’re watching a really dull movie – one that has telegraphed its “clever twist” in the first ten minutes – but is still insisting on dragging out the run time for two more hours of what the writers evidently consider skillful foreshadowing.
Or when you get a call from an unknown number, and some eager breathless voice announces “this is not a sales call”, before launching into a fifteen minute speech about double glazing or solar panels, and you’re just waiting for a pause long enough to say “no thanks”, and hang up.
It is a sales call, and you’ve known that from the beginning, and they know you know, but they can’t stop talking because then you’ll leave. They have to keep talking because they know you’re not listening.
So maybe that’s the answer. Maybe they can’t take a breath because people will hang up.
Tyler Durden
Sun, 05/31/2026 - 08:10 Close
Sun, 31 May 2026 11:35:00 +0000 More Mystery Drone Incidents In EU Skies As Putin Mocks: "The Russians Are Coming!"
More Mystery Drone Incidents In EU Skies As Putin Mocks: "The Russians Are Coming!"
Flights at Germany's Munich Airport were once again temporarily suspended on Saturday after a drone sighting was reported , elicitin
Read more.....
More Mystery Drone Incidents In EU Skies As Putin Mocks: "The Russians Are Coming!"
Flights at Germany's Munich Airport were once again temporarily suspended on Saturday after a drone sighting was reported , eliciting a response from a large number of police and security services personnel.
Euronews reviews in the wake of the incident, which ended with the key European hub resuming regular operations after no UAV was found or identified, "Munich Airport closed twice within 24 hours in October following suspected drone sightings."
This is the latest in a months-long spate of similar air traffic disruptions due to mysterious reported drone incursions , with European officials frequently voicing suspicions of a Russian sabotage and disruption campaign of EU airspace.
Getty Images/Bloomberg
But the biggest incident this week happened in Romania, where local officials described that during the Russian military's assault on Ukraine Thursday night, a Russian drone slammed into the residential building in the southeastern city of Galati - resulting in an explosion and a fire that injured two people .
The Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry condemned the "grave and irresponsible escalation from Russia" while further declaring it has issued formal request for more anti-drone defense measures from NATO.
"Romania has informed allies and NATO's secretary-general about the circumstances and requested measures to accelerate the transfer of anti-drone capabilities to Romania ," the ministry said.
While Romania and other countries which border Ukraine have witnessed 'errant' drones and missiles come across the border before, this was the first time Romania in particular has suffered casualties as a result of a projectile hitting a densely populated city or area.
President Putin himself has weighed in, demanding that forensic proof that this was indeed a Russian drone - and not a Ukrainian one - be handed over to the Kremlin for an investigation.
He also used the opportunity in Friday remarks to highlight that Russia is always blamed for any and all drone incursions into European airspace due to Russiaphobia. Putin said according to TASS :
Ukrainian drones have previously entered the airspace of various countries, and initial reports consistently claimed it was "a Russian attack," President Vladimir Putin said in response to a TASS question about the drone incident in Romania.
"We know that Ukrainian drones have flown into Finland, Poland, and several Baltic states. The initial reaction was exactly the same as it is now in Romania. 'Oh no, the Russians are coming, it’s a Russian attack!'" Putin recalled.
While the Russian leader was being deeply ironic with his 'the Russians are coming' comment, it is true that just earlier this month NATO jets were scrambled over Estonia and shot down an errant Ukrainian-origin drone which had drifted into Baltic/EU airspace.
"We apologize to Estonia and all our Baltic friends for such unintended incidents," a Ukrainian government statement had acknowledged. "We have been and remain in close cooperation through our specialized institutions to get to the heart of the matter in each case and seek ways to prevent them, including through the direct engagement of our expert groups."
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry then deflected, calling attention to Russian actions: "Moscow does this on purpose, together with intensified propaganda," it said.
As for the spate of mystery UAV sightings over Northern and Western Europe, it's anyone's guess as to the origins. Some pundits have suggested these are merely irresponsible hobbyists, or else pranksters. However, the reality of projectiles entering neighboring countries as a result of the Ukraine war is much more serious, and a significant threat to these populations.
Tyler Durden
Sun, 05/31/2026 - 07:35 Close