G20 meets today in Asheville, Barbara frames the showdown: Bessent pushing physical growth to conquer the debt mountain, while Lagarde and von der Leyen plot to "redirect" citizens' savings — "lazy money" — into the Ukraine war and the green transition.
Scott Bessent is following the money behind America’s dark money nonprofit network and confronting a political machine more than a century in the making.
Carney walks out and calls it a war — he's right, wrong reasons. Ratcliffe's C-17 lands in Moscow. Warsh smashes the Fed's crystal ball. Nine weeks to November 3. Seven posts inside.
A Memorial Day Note — A Pause, A Thank You, and What's Next
No class this Memorial Day weekend. A short note on the origins of the holiday, a thank you to our supporters, and a look at next Saturday — Bruce Director returns.
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, 2025, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. (Official White House Photo by Emily J. Higgins)
This Memorial Day weekend, a pause — and a thank you.
This weekend we're taking a pause from our usual Saturday Class for Memorial Day. Before we do, a few words.
Memorial Day was born out of the Civil War — the bloodiest chapter in American history, in which more than 600,000 Americans died fighting over whether this republic would survive as a nation founded on the proposition that all men are created equal.
The first official Decoration Day was observed in 1868, when General John Logan called on Americans to decorate the graves of the fallen with flowers each May 30th. But the tradition started earlier than that — in 1865, freed slaves in Charleston, South Carolina gathered to honor Union soldiers buried in unmarked graves on a former plantation.
The holiday has since broadened to honor every American who died in service to the country, from the Revolution to the present. But its origins are worth remembering. Memorial Day exists because real people were willing to die so that the experiment in self-government would not perish from the earth.
That's worth pausing for. Especially now.
Thank you.
We don't say it enough, but we mean it: thank you for being part of this.
Your support — whether you're a paid subscriber, a class attendee, a sharer of our work, or simply someone who reads every Sunday — is what makes this project possible. We aren't backed by a foundation. We aren't chasing virality. We're trying to do something harder: build an informed, organized citizenry capable of meeting this moment.
That work requires you. And you've shown up.
A good week to catch up.
If you've missed a recent class or want to revisit one, the full archive is here:
The classes aren't commentary — they're a real education. The strategic picture, the deeper history behind the present crisis, the ideas that actually move events. If you've been meaning to dig in, the holiday is a good moment.
Next Saturday: Bruce Director returns.
We'll be back next Saturday with Bruce Director leading the class. If you'd like to attend live, you can register here:
If you can't make it live, every class is recorded and added to the archive within a few days, so you won't miss anything.
Take a moment this weekend, if you can. Visit a cemetery. Talk to a veteran. Tell the younger people in your life the actual story of how this country got here, and at what cost.
The republic was paid for in blood. It's still ours to keep — or to lose.
Cable news is arguing eggs, beef, gas, and Iran. Bruce Director spent Saturday night on the real midterm question: American System vs. British System — two flavors of the same entropy, and nine weeks to pick a future.
Chatbots dominate the AI argument. Brian Lantz spent Saturday night on the other kind — robots, machine shops, and factory floors — and why manufacturing, not the data center, is where the country actually gets richer.
Nixon called it “temporary.” 55 years later it’s still policy. Will Wertz reads the paper trail — the secret Kissinger memo, the Volcker Group, Britain’s run on Fort Knox — and the principles of the new Bretton Woods Trump’s Treasury says is underway.
In 1775, Americans and Quebec militiamen fought as brothers to free Canada from the British crown. Bob Ingraham on the lie of the "invasion," Franklin's near-miss at the peace table — and why, 250 years later, the question is open again.