We are cooking on the front burner now.

June 1st, 2026.

Introduction.

I think we should be frank with one another at this point, and just acknowledge that the world is having itself an upheaval.

If this is not the fourth turning that Howe and Strauss wrote about back in the day,

it is bidding fair to approximate some kind of whitewater turning. As the saying goes, first they

ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. But all along that process

is a good deal of churn. Let me put some of the events of the last several months into one paragraph.

Read these signs together with me and then let's see if we can agree that someone needs to tell those

seismologists to get the heck off the side of that volcano. In the UK, labor was shellacked

in an electoral beatdown for the ages. The secessionist of Alberta obtained enough signatures

to get secession on the ballot, but some legal challenges

have been made, naturally, which should calm everybody down.

Albertans are the irate customer at the returns window being told that terms and conditions

may apply.

Trump foe and long-established Republican incumbent Bill Cassidy of Louisiana lost to a primary

challenger, and then in a Hold My Beer follow-up, establishment

Republican John Cornine lost to Ken Paxton.

That race cost almost $100 million.

Paxton was outspent 9 to 1 and won the race anyhow.

He won it walking away, whistling, and with his hands in his pockets, like by almost

30 points.

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