CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Roaming Charges: Data My Eyes

Cover art [detail] for Jean-Michel Jarre’s album, Equinoxe, by Michel Granger. CC BY 4.0

“Optimism is the philosophy of the past.” – Marcel Proust, The Fugitive

“Optimism is the philosophy of the past.”

– Marcel Proust, The Fugitive

Dante himself couldn’t have found a better spot in Hell to deposit James Dolan, maybe the worst owner in all of professional sports (and that’s really saying something), than to lock him in a box next to a farting, snoring, grunting Donald Trump as  24,000 Knicks fans jeer and boo them both, while watching his team lose to the young San Antonio Spurs, over and over again, night after night for all eternity…

Call it the revenge of Charles Oakley, one of the Knicks’ most legendary players, who Dolan, in true Trump-style, ordered armed security guards to haul out of MSG during a Knicks game, arrested, charged with assault and banished from the arena because he couldn’t handle Oakley’s spot-on critiques of Dolan’s incompetent management of the team.

Ann Coulter on Trump’s MSG escapade:

Of all the selfish, narcissistic things Trump has done, attending MSG to see the Knicks play in person Monday night is the absolute worst.  20,000 attendees will be MASSIVELY inconvenienced for all the extra security, the Knicks Watch Party at the Garden is canceled, thousands of extra law enforcement officers will be required (paid for by taxpayers), traffic will be a disaster — all so he can sit in the Garden rather than watch the game on TV. Presidents ought to be willing to sacrifice once in a while.

Of all the selfish, narcissistic things Trump has done, attending MSG to see the Knicks play in person Monday night is the absolute worst.  20,000 attendees will be MASSIVELY inconvenienced for all the extra security, the Knicks Watch Party at the Garden is canceled, thousands of extra law enforcement officers will be required (paid for by taxpayers), traffic will be a disaster — all so he can sit in the Garden rather than watch the game on TV. Presidents ought to be willing to sacrifice once in a while.

The New York Knicks last won the NBA championship in 1973, the same year Donald Trump made his debut appearance in the New York Times: “Major Landlord Accused of Antiblack Bias in New York City.”

97% of the country could be “busted-flat in Baton Rouge,” and Knicks tickets in the nosebleed section of MSG would still be selling for $12,000 a seat…

As ESPN’s Dan Wetzel pointed out, “In many cities these numbers would be a Zillow Listing.”

I checked home prices in Buffalo. Wetzel wasn’t joking…

Trump’s never been an “NBA guy.” Basketball is now a black sport and by definition political in its very nature. Trump: “Look at the basketball ratings. They’re down to very, very low numbers. People are angry about it. They don’t realize. They have enough politics with guys like me. They don’t need more as they’re driving down, going up for the shot. They don’t need it. There was a nastiness about the NBA the way it was done, too, so I think the NBA’s in trouble. I think it’s in big trouble, bigger trouble than they understand, and frankly, ice hockey, which is doing very well, they didn’t do that. They respected the mores. They respected what they’re supposed to be doing.”

As for who is really watching what…

Stanley Cup NHL Finals (2026) viewership: 5.05 million (Game 3) NBA Finals (2026) viewership: 28.7 million (Game 4)

Stanley Cup NHL Finals (2026) viewership: 5.05 million (Game 3)

NBA Finals (2026) viewership: 28.7 million (Game 4)

  The guy with the inflated ego, waistline and net worth loves the inflation!

Sen. Tim Scott took the bait:

Inflation ticked up to 4.2%, the highest in 3 years. The trend is not going in the right direction. But one of the things it signals is resiliency in our economy, which is, in fact, good news. Because of Donald Trump, we have more Americans with more money in their pockets.

Inflation ticked up to 4.2%, the highest in 3 years. The trend is not going in the right direction. But one of the things it signals is resiliency in our economy, which is, in fact, good news. Because of Donald Trump, we have more Americans with more money in their pockets.

Inflation hits 4.2 percent. Trump: “I love the inflation.” MAGA: “We love the inflation. Biden didn’t give us enough of the inflation! Only Trump gave us the inflation we need. Please give us more of the inflation! ” 30 percent of the country is living in their Own Private Jonestown, willing to swallow en masse whatever toxic nonsense Trump tells them.

Inflation is now officially ahead of wage growth (it’s been this way for most of us for a while now, since like, I don’t know, the 1970s…?)

Around 48% of Americans said their financial situation was worse in May than a year ago, the most since January 2023, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Survey of Consumer Expectations. Only half?

  Bank of America reported that 70% of its bear-market indicators have now been triggered.

Michael Burry, one of the economists who predicted the 2008 housing collapse, describes the AI bubble as a “spending Fugazi,” and says that only three customers are responsible for more than 60% of Nvidia’s entire accounts receivable.

The concentration before the collapse…

Whosoever diggeth a pit Shall fall in it, shall fall in itWhosoever diggeth a pitShall bury in it, shall bury in it

Whosoever diggeth a pit Shall fall in it, shall fall in itWhosoever diggeth a pitShall bury in it, shall bury in it

According to the Financial Times, almost all returns from investments in hyperscaler AI are negative. Only Amazon has shown positive returns…

Amazon: 7.1% Microsoft: -9.2% Alphabet: -15.7% Meta: -28.8 Oracle: -35.6%

Amazon: 7.1% Microsoft: -9.2% Alphabet: -15.7% Meta: -28.8 Oracle: -35.6%

The coming crash is going to be the economic equivalent of the Chicxulub asteroid…

According to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, eight of the nation’s 10 largest occupations by employment have below-average wages, ranging from $32,150 for fast food workers to $46,590 for customer service representatives.

Despite the “good” May jobs report, planned job cuts hit the highest total for May since 2020. Most of the blame is attributed to AI.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s, warned this week that the US economy is on the “precipice of a recession.” Zandi said that lower and middle-class Americans are already “living paycheck to paycheck…Real disposable income — that’s after tax, after accounting for inflation — is no higher today than it was a year ago. So, there’s been no growth in purchasing power, and that’s going to get worse and start declining.”

  Reuters: “US consumer sentiment has plunged to a record low, cost of living is a top concern and 57% of consumers cite high prices as the cause of erosion of their personal finances.”

The portion of Americans who said jobs are “plentiful” dropped to 25.5%, the lowest in three years.

Two-thirds of Americans are cutting back on spending.

WSJ: “The summer teen job market is the toughest in decades.”

From the Congressional Budget Office’s (not Thomas Piketty or Michael Hudson) report on income inequality…

Rising housing costs, climate-driven hurricanes, rising sea levels and high insurance prices seem to have killed off Florida’s population boom.  Census data released in March shows net domestic migration shrinking by 93% since 2022, from 310,892 to just 22,517 in 2025. The population flows into Tampa, Orlando, and Miami are all now shrinking.

Update on the Dollar General Stage of Capitalism: “Dollar General says its core customers are ‘financially constrained’ and cutting back on household expenses, including food.”

It’s one of the perversities of our economic system that good jobs reports (if you can believe the numbers, anymore) almost always promote panic on Wall Street…

There’s a reason Faulkner named one of the characters in The Hamlet, his funniest novel (maybe the funniest American novel after all of Twain’s), Wall Street Panic Snopes, a simple man who wanted to make money honestly, which of course really would start a panic on Wall Street…

Wall Street Panic knew where he wanted to go. He knew that he could get there provided he observed a few of the rules of the game, which he did, and he got there. I think that Wall Street Panic wasn’t really a Snopes, that probably, actually, he was not a Snopes, that—that his—his father’s mama may have done a little extra-curricular night work, and that he really wasn’t a Snopes. He was a—a—more of a simple human being than the other Snopes were. But he—he wanted to be independent, wanted to make money, but he had rules about how he was going to do it. He wanted to make money by simple industry, the old rules of working hard and saving your pennies, not by taking advantage of anybody.

Wall Street Panic knew where he wanted to go. He knew that he could get there provided he observed a few of the rules of the game, which he did, and he got there. I think that Wall Street Panic wasn’t really a Snopes, that probably, actually, he was not a Snopes, that—that his—his father’s mama may have done a little extra-curricular night work, and that he really wasn’t a Snopes. He was a—a—more of a simple human being than the other Snopes were. But he—he wanted to be independent, wanted to make money, but he had rules about how he was going to do it. He wanted to make money by simple industry, the old rules of working hard and saving your pennies, not by taking advantage of anybody.

[From Faulkner’s 1958 lecture at the University of Virginia]

Remember when Trump claimed he launched his attack on Iran while feigning negotiations and refusing to give US allies any advance warning because he wanted to preserve the element of surprise (a war crime)? Well, now he’s telegraphing airstrikes and a possible invasion of Kharg Island a day in advance, in a desperate attempt to demonstrate that he’s doing something beyond daydreaming about building a triumphal arch to himself that will cast a sinister shadow across the graves at Arlington.

Trump to Fox News on Thursday morning: “I don’t know if America has the appetite to do what I would really much prefer doing. We’ve lost 13 soldiers in two wars. In Iraq– in Iran, we lost 13. In Vietnam, we lost hundreds of thousands. We didn’t have the right leadership, to be honest. If it were me, I would’ve had that war done in three months. Four months.”

The US lost 58,220 military service members in Vietnam from 1956 to 2006–47,400 from wounds suffered in combat. The US did kill more than 2 million Vietnamese…

Just minutes after making this belligerent boast on Fox News, Trump reversed course. Apparently, he didn’t have the “appetite” for what he wanted to do either. (But the Pentagon and arms-makers might have also informed him that he’d already shot his wad of smart bombs.) Trump claimed that he canceled the planned airstrikes because he’s close to a deal.

39: the number of times Trump has said a deal is imminent to end the Iran war.  Does President False Alarm continue to move the market?

The International Atomic Energy Agency warns that the Iran war has created new nuclear threats that didn’t exist before Trump and Netanyahu began their bombing campaign. One of them that the IAEA probably didn’t anticipate: Trump threatening to nuke Tehran.

Here’s the chilling lede graph from Sy Hersh’s Wednesday column:

Four months into a difficult air war with Iran, President Donald Trump’s popularity is sinking among American voters. I have been told that in a recent secret meeting in the White House, he began speculating, albeit vaguely, about a nuclear option that could perhaps bring a quicker end to the war.

Four months into a difficult air war with Iran, President Donald Trump’s popularity is sinking among American voters. I have been told that in a recent secret meeting in the White House, he began speculating, albeit vaguely, about a nuclear option that could perhaps bring a quicker end to the war.

How would nuking Tehran or one of its nuclear research sites end the war or open the Strait of Hormuz?

Trump having what they used to call on the shock corridor ward of the state mental hospital, an “abreaction”…

First of all, I didn’t guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?…I sent the B2 bombers in about nine, ten months ago. And they obliterated, totally obliterated, the site. And I saved it…Do I want to go along and have a country that’s doing really well, but somebody is going to try and kill us? Or do I want to put out that horrible threat? And I did. It put it out….We took over a very powerful country, Venezuela. Lot of soldiers. Big, strong military. We took over Venezuela in a matter of minutes. We destroyed the capability of Iran in a matter of days. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it…Now, I’m going to put it out permanently. I’m going to do it either through negotiation, where we’re very close to a deal, or I’m going to blow the hell out of them, to be honest with you. And it’s going to be very easy for me to do that. That’s actually the easier path…My red line would be if I think I wasn’t going to make a deal, or if I wasn’t going to make a deal fast enough. We’re having very good negotiations with the people that are leading the country now. It’s the third group that we’ve been dealing with. And they are different. And you could say it’s regime change, actually, because these are very different people. I find them to be more rational, very smart.

First of all, I didn’t guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?…I sent the B2 bombers in about nine, ten months ago. And they obliterated, totally obliterated, the site. And I saved it…Do I want to go along and have a country that’s doing really well, but somebody is going to try and kill us? Or do I want to put out that horrible threat? And I did. It put it out….We took over a very powerful country, Venezuela. Lot of soldiers. Big, strong military. We took over Venezuela in a matter of minutes. We destroyed the capability of Iran in a matter of days. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it…Now, I’m going to put it out permanently. I’m going to do it either through negotiation, where we’re very close to a deal, or I’m going to blow the hell out of them, to be honest with you. And it’s going to be very easy for me to do that. That’s actually the easier path…My red line would be if I think I wasn’t going to make a deal, or if I wasn’t going to make a deal fast enough. We’re having very good negotiations with the people that are leading the country now. It’s the third group that we’ve been dealing with. And they are different. And you could say it’s regime change, actually, because these are very different people. I find them to be more rational, very smart.

Reporter: How do you define a “ceasefire”?

Trump: In that part of the world, a ceasefire is when you’re shooting in a more moderate manner.

Trump describing, accurately for once, the actions of the US Navy as piratical, though not the kind of pirates you’ll find in the work of Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker: “We took over the cargo, took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business. Who would have thought we were doing that? We’re like pirates.”

Trump’s sociopathic response to a question from the normally docile Peter Doocy reveals his complete lack of concern for his family, Khamenei’s or yours…

Trump: If I did meet with the new Ayatollah, I would be honored to meet him. Doocy, Fox News: Do you think because Epic Fury killed his killed his dad and his wife and his kid that he has hard feelings? Trump: I would say I’m not his favorite person, but with that being said, he’s probably a pro—I don’t know him—he’s probably a professional in some circles. He has a very good reputation, actually. You know, sometimes when people say “bad,” but a lot of people say “bad” about me. It’s totally false, of course.

Trump: If I did meet with the new Ayatollah, I would be honored to meet him.

Doocy, Fox News: Do you think because Epic Fury killed his killed his dad and his wife and his kid that he has hard........

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