In the late 19th century, an American economist named Henry George released a book that would become a global sensation, outsold in its time only by the Bible. That book, Progress and Poverty, introduced a radical yet simple framework for solving the paradox of advancing civilization and deepening misery. This philosophy, known today as Georgism (or Geoism), argues that while individuals should own the value they produce through their labor and capital, the "economic rent" derived from land and natural resources should belong equally to all members of society.
Spanning history, economics, and social justice, Georgism remains one of the most intellectually resilient "alternative" economic theories in the modern world.
The Core Philosophy: People, Land, and Labor
At the heart of Georgism is a distinction between two types of property. The first is wealth created by human effort—such as a house, a machine, or a software program. Georgists believe that the creator should have absolute rights to this value, meaning that taxes on income, sales, and improvements are viewed as a form of "socialized theft" that discourages productive work.
The second type of property is land and natural resources. Unlike a house, no human being created the earth. Furthermore, the value of a specific plot of land—especially in a city—is not created by the owner’s effort, but by the community around it. If a government builds a new subway station or a entrepreneur opens a popular park nearby, the value of the surrounding land skyrockets. Under current systems, the landowner captures this "unearned increment" as profit. Georgism proposes that this value, known as economic rent, should be recaptured by the public through a Land Value Tax (LVT).
The "Single Tax" and Economic Efficiency
Historically, Georgism was synonymous with the "Single Tax" movement. Henry George argued that if the government captured the full rental value of land, it could eliminate all other taxes. By removing taxes on labor (income) and capital (investment), the economy would be unshackled, while the tax on land would prevent the speculative hoarding of natural opportunities.
Economists across the political spectrum, from the libertarian Milton Friedman to the progressive Joseph Stiglitz, have expressed admiration for the Land Value Tax. Friedman famously called it the "least bad tax." Its primary appeal lies in its efficiency. Most taxes create "deadweight loss"—if you tax windows, people build fewer windows; if you tax income, people may work less. However, the supply of land is "perfectly inelastic"; you cannot "make" more land, and no matter how much you tax its value, the land does not disappear. Consequently, an LVT does not distort economic decisions. Instead, it encourages owners to put land to its "highest and best use" rather than leaving prime urban lots empty while waiting for prices to rise.
A Legacy of Influence
Georgism was not merely a theoretical curiosity; it was a potent political force in the early 20th century. George himself nearly won the race for Mayor of New York City in 1886. His ideas traveled across the Atlantic, influencing the "People's Budget" in the United Kingdom and sparking land reform movements in Denmark, Australia, and New Zealand.
The ideology also left a mark on popular culture. The board game Monopoly was originally invented by Elizabeth Magie as The Landlord's Game. Her intent was not to celebrate the accumulation of property, but to demonstrate how land monopolies inevitably lead to the bankruptcy of everyone except the owner. She hoped that children playing the game would see the inherent unfairness of the system and embrace Georgist principles.
In the United States, several "single tax colonies" were founded to test these ideas. The most famous, Fairhope, Alabama, and Arden, Delaware, still exist today, though they have adapted their structures to coexist within broader state and federal tax systems.
Georgism and the Environment
In recent decades, Georgism has found a new audience among environmentalists and "Green" economists. This branch, sometimes called "Green Geoism," extends George’s logic to pollution and the global commons. Just as land belongs to everyone, so does the atmosphere and the water.
When a corporation pollutes a river or emits carbon into the air, they are effectively using up a common resource for private gain. Georgists advocate for "Pigovian taxes" or carbon taxes that function similarly to a land tax: they charge the user for the privilege of diminishing or monopolizing the commons, with the revenue often returned to the public as a "Citizen’s Dividend" (a form of Universal Basic Income).
Modern Relevance: The Housing Crisis
Today, the most urgent application of Georgism is in the debate over the global housing crisis. In major cities like New York, London, and San Francisco, the "housing" cost is often actually a "land" cost. When a modest home sells for millions, the building materials are a fraction of the price; the true cost is the location.
Critics of current property tax systems argue that they penalize homeowners for making improvements. If you add an extra bedroom or a garden, your taxes go up. Meanwhile, a speculator who owns a derelict, rat-infested building in a prime neighborhood pays very little while the land beneath the building gains value every year. A Georgist shift to LVT would flip this incentive: the speculator would be forced to develop the land or sell it to someone who will, while the homeowner would no longer be punished for improving their dwelling.
Conclusion
Georgism occupies a unique space in political economy, sitting between the traditional left and right. It advocates for a radical socialization of land and resources, yet it is fiercely pro-market and anti-interventionist regarding labor and capital. It seeks a "middle way"—a system where the individual is truly free to keep what they earn, but the community is truly compensated for the use of the shared earth.
As the 21st century grapples with soaring inequality, urban sprawl, and environmental degradation, the "cat" that Henry George invited the world to see over a century ago remains a compelling vision for a fairer, more efficient society. Whether implemented as a full "Single Tax" or as a targeted land value levy, the principles of Georgism continue to offer a profound critique of how we value the world we live in.
Tractor Supply Company, which bills itself as the largest rural lifestyle retailer in the U.S., will eliminate its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) roles, withdraw its carbon emissions goals and stop sponsoring Pride events in response to criticism from conservative activists.
The Brentwood, Tenn.-based company announced the series of sweeping changes in a statement shared to social media on Thursday, bringing a weeks-long, right-wing pressure campaign to a close.
“We work hard to live up to our Mission and Values every day and represent the values of the communities and customers we serve,” it said. “We have heard from customers that we have disappointed them. We have taken this feedback to heart.”
Tractor Supply sells farm supplies, animal feed, tools, fencing and clothing — “everything except tractors” — at more than 2,200 stores across 49 states, according to its website. It says its customers are primarily farmers, horse owners, ranchers, tradesmen and suburban and rural homeowners.
The Fortune 500 company has been nationally recognized as an inclusive and diverse workplace, including last year in Bloomberg’s Gender Equality Index and Newsweek’s inaugural list of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Diversity.
But it recently became the target of conservative ire for that very reason, as the latest in a growing series of retailers to face backlash over — and ultimately walk back — its DEI initiatives.
Robby Starbuck, a music video director and Republican who ran unsuccessfully to represent Tennessee's 5th Congressional District in 2022, launched the campaign against Tractor Supply on X (formerly Twitter) earlier this month.
He wrote on June 6 that it was “time to expose Tractor Supply,” which he said was one of conservatives’ most beloved brands but was at odds with their values. He pointed to its DEI hiring practices, in-office Pride Month decorations, climate change activism and “funding sex changes,” among other complaints.
“I take no pleasure in bringing this all to light,” Starbuck added. “I’m a Tennessean who loves to support TN companies but as a proud Tennessean I know these woke priorities don’t align with our state or @TractorSupply’s customer base.”
He urged others to “respectfully” flood Tractor Supply’s corporate offices with calls and emails stating their disapproval and, to the extent possible, start buying products from other stores instead.
Their campaign seems to have worked, with the Financial Times reporting it knocked 5% off the Nasdaq-listed company’s share price in the past month. Tractor Supply reversed course before the end of the month.
“Going forward, we will ensure our activities and giving tie directly to our business,” it said.
The changes are placating one group and losing another
Those changes include: no longer submitting data to the Human Rights Campaign (an LGBTQ advocacy group), withdrawing its carbon emissions goals to focus on land and water conservation efforts, eliminating its DEI roles and retiring its current DEI goals “while still ensuring a respectful environment.”
The company also said it would stop sponsoring “nonbusiness activities” like Pride festivals and voting campaigns, and instead continue its focus on “rural America priorities” such as education, animal welfare and veteran causes.
Its statement on X has gotten more than 71,000 likes and 12,000 comments, many of them from conservative users applauding the company’s decision and calling for the movement to continue.
“We will get rid of DEI one company at a time,” wrote Libs of TikTok, the inflammatory right-wing and anti-LGBTQ account.
Starbuck praised the outcome as a “massive victory for sanity,” and said in an eight-minute video that this is the “first Fortune 300 company in our lifetimes to go backwards on ESG, DEI and all these woke causes and donations, in record speed.”
But that’s not good news for everyone. Many X users expressed their disappointment in the company, even vowing not to shop there anymore and calling on others to do the same.
Several, like Tennessee state Sen. Charlane Oliver, a Democrat, were especially disappointed that the company chose to take this stance during the month of both Pride and Juneteenth.
Groups including the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD and the National Black Farmers Association were also quick to denounce Tractor Supply’s move.
“Tractor Supply’s embarrassing capitulation to the petty whims of anti-LGBTQ extremists puts the company out of touch with the vast majority of Americans who support their LGBTQ friends, family, and neighbors,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis told The Advocate. “It sends an appalling message, during Pride month, to see a rural staple go out of their way to bring harm to their LGBTQ customers and employees.”
A spokesperson for Tractor Supply declined to comment beyond their statement.
Why DEI matters
Shaun Harper, a professor of business at the University of Southern California, says because Tractor Supply stores are primarily located in rural communities, “the case-making for DEI should’ve been differently framed and better customized for those cultural contexts.”
Harper told NPR over email that he knows firsthand how activities like Pride parades are met with opposition in rural communities, like his South Georgia hometown (which has its own Tractor Supply location).
“It therefore doesn’t surprise me at all that ‘disappointed customers’ misunderstood DEI to be only one narrow set of activities that are misaligned with their religious, ideological, and family values,” he wrote.
Frank Dobbin, a Harvard sociology professor who has studied corporate diversity programs for decades, told NPR that the end of DEI programs hurts business in two ways.
“The most important role of DEI programs is that they promise to democratize access to good jobs in the U.S.,” he explains. “Part of it is just, what kind of a society do we want to be? We want to be a society where anyone can succeed — that’s certainly the principle we were founded on.”
Beyond that, he says, a lot of the practices that promote diversity — such as recruiting from HBCUs, implementing mentorship programs and offering management training — are also “just good management” from a business perspective, especially in a tight labor market.
He says it’s a mistake for companies to roll back low-cost efforts aimed at equalizing opportunities for underrepresented groups like Black, Hispanic and LGBTQ+ workers — and to signal so publicly that members of those groups aren’t welcome in their workplace.
“I don’t think it’s inconsequential when a place like Tractor Supply publicly announces that it’s not going to pursue the programs anymore,” Dobbin adds. “I think it’s not good news that companies are so publicly rejecting their own commitments to try to do better.”
Tractor Supply is part of a broader trend
The Tractor Supply saga is an example of a much broader back and forth over corporate DEI initiatives nationwide.
The 2020 police murder of George Floyd and subsequent protests against racial injustice fueled advocates’ calls for companies to do more to hire, retain and promote workers from minority groups.
That led to a nationwide surge in the hiring of chief diversity officers and other positions dedicated to spearheading DEI efforts — and to backlash from DEI’s conservative critics.
“As often happens, there was a counter movement against it,” Dobbin said. “And the conservative activists have been very successful in raising money and in funding think tanks, where the people who come after companies are often located.”
And their boycotts have had some high-profile successes in recent years, from Target scaling back on its LGBTQ+ merchandise this Pride Month to Bud Light’s parent company putting executives on leave after its partnership with a transgender influencer sparked a firestorm last year.
Dobbin says there are also many companies walking back such initiatives with less fanfare, for example, quietly taking “diversity” out of the title of an internship program.
He thinks anti-DEI efforts will continue to see progress, helped in part by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling against affirmative action in higher education. In the long-term, however, Dobbin doesn’t believe “this is the end of progress on promoting diversity in the workforce.”
“We had a moment where the pendulum swung in one direction,” he adds. “It swung back in another direction. Usually we end up somewhere between those two poles.”
LOS ANGELES (AP) — LeBron James gave his 20-year-old son a pep talk before they rose from the Lakers bench. Amid rising cheers, they walked together to the scorer’s table — and then they stepped straight into basketball history.
LeBron and Bronny became the first father and son to play in the NBA together Tuesday night during the Los Angeles Lakers ' season opener, fulfilling a dream set out a few years ago by LeBron, the top scorer in league history.
“That moment, us being at the scorer’s table together and checking in together, it’s a moment I’m never going to forget,” LeBron said. “No matter how old I get, no matter how my memory may fade as I get older or whatever, I will never forget that moment.”
Father and son checked into the game against Minnesota simultaneously with four minutes left in the second quarter, prompting a big ovation from a home crowd aware of the enormity of the milestone. The 39-year-old LeBron had already started the game and played 13 minutes before he teamed up with his 20-year-old son for about 2 1/2 minutes of action.
LeBron James is one of the greatest players in NBA history, a four-time champion and 20-time All-Star, while LeBron James Jr. was a second-round pick by the Lakers last summer. They are the first father and son to play in the world’s top basketball league at the same time, let alone on the same team.
“Y’all ready? You see the intensity, right? Just play carefree, though,” father told son on the bench before they checked in, an exchange captured by the TNT cameras and microphones. “Don’t worry about mistakes. Just go out and play hard.”
Their time on court together was fast and furious, just as LeBron promised.
LeBron, who finished the night with 16 points, missed two perimeter shots before making a dunk. Bronny had an early offensive rebound and missed a tip-in, and his first NBA jump shot moments later was a 3-pointer that came up just short. He checked out one possession later with 1:19 left in the second quarter, getting another ovation.
Bronny didn’t play again in the Lakers’ 110-103 victory over the Timberwolves.
“(I) tried not to focus on everything that’s going on around me, and tried to focus on going in as a rookie and not trying to mess up,” Bronny said. “But yeah, I totally did feel the energy, and I appreciate Laker Nation for showing the support for me and my dad.”
After the final whistle on the Lakers’ first opening-night victory in LeBron’s seven seasons with the team, father and son also headed to the locker room together — but not before stopping in the tunnel to hug Savannah James, LeBron’s wife and Bronny’s mother. The entire family was in attendance to watch history — on little sister Zhuri’s 10th birthday, no less.
Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. also were courtside at the Lakers’ downtown arena to witness the same history they made in Major League Baseball. The two sluggers played 51 games together for the Seattle Mariners in 1990 and 1991 as baseball’s first father-son duo.
The Jameses and the Griffeys met during pregame warmups for some photos and a warm chat between two remarkable family lines.
LeBron first spoke about his dream to play alongside Bronny a few years ago, while his oldest son was still in high school. The dream became real after Bronny entered the draft as a teenager following one collegiate season, and the Lakers grabbed him with the 55th overall pick.
“I talked about it years and years ago, and for this moment to come, it’s pretty cool,” LeBron said. “I don’t know if it’s going to actually hit the both of us for a little minute, but when we really get to sit back and take it in, it’s pretty crazy. … But in the moment, we still had a job to do when we checked in. We wasn’t trying to make it a circus. We wasn’t trying to make it about us. We wanted to make it about the team.”
LeBron and Bronny joined a small club of father-son professional athletes who played together. The Griffeys made history 34 years ago, and they even homered in the same game on Sept. 14, 1990.
Baseball Hall of Famer Tim Raines and his namesake son also accomplished the feat with the Baltimore Orioles in 2001.
In hockey, Gordie Howe played alongside his two sons, Mark and Marty, with the WHA’s Houston Aeros and Team Canada before one NHL season together on the Hartford Whalers in 1979-80, when Gordie was 51.
While the other family pairings on this list happened late in the fathers’ careers, LeBron shows no signs of slowing down or regressing as he begins his NBA record-tying 22nd season.
LeBron averaged more than 25 points per game last year for his 20th consecutive season, and he remains the most important player on the Lakers alongside Anthony Davis as they attempt to recapture the form that won a championship in 2020 and got them to the Western Conference finals in 2023.
Bronny survived cardiac arrest and open heart surgery in the summer of 2023, and he went on to play a truncated freshman season at the University of Southern California. He declared for the draft anyway, and the Lakers eagerly used the fourth-to-last pick in the draft on the 6-foot-2 guard.
LeBron spent the summer in Europe with the gold medal-winning U.S. team at the Paris Olympics, while Bronny played for the Lakers in summer league. They started practicing together with the Lakers before training camp.
The duo first played together in the preseason, logging four minutes during a game against Phoenix just outside Palm Springs earlier this month.
“It’s been a treat,” LeBron said at Tuesday’s morning shootaround. “In preseason, the practices, just every day ... bringing him up to speed of what this professional life is all about, and how to prepare every day as a professional.”
The Lakers were fully aware of the history they would make with this pairing, and coach JJ Redick spoke with the Jameses recently about a plan to make it happen early in the regular season.
The presence of the Griffeys likely made it an inevitability for opening night, even though Redick said the Lakers still wanted it “to happen naturally, in the flow of the game.”
The Lakers have declined to speculate on how long Bronny will stay on their NBA roster. Los Angeles already has three other small guards on its roster, and Bronny likely needs regular playing time to raise his game to a consistent NBA standard.
Those factors add up to indicate Bronny is likely to join the affiliate South Bay Lakers of the G League at some point soon. LeBron and Redick have both spoken positively about the South Bay team, saying that player development is a key part of the Lakers organization.
Miami forward Kevin Love, who knew all the James children — Bronny, Bryce and Zhuri — from his time as LeBron’s teammate in Cleveland, said it was “an unbelievable moment” to see father and son playing together.
“I grew up a Mariners fan, so I got to see Griffey and then Griffey Sr. But this is different, because LeBron is still a top-five player in the league,” Love said. “This game, man. It’s why we have that ($76 billion) TV deal. The storylines and the things that happen like this, it’s an unbelievable story. This is really cool to see.”
For decades, the immune system was largely viewed as an autonomous defense force—a complex network of white blood cells and signaling molecules patrolling the body, identifying invaders, and launching counter-attacks without needing a "central command." However, a groundbreaking study published in Nature (May 2024), titled "A body–brain circuit that regulates body inflammatory responses," has fundamentally shifted this paradigm. Led by Dr. Hao Jin and Dr. Charles S. Zuker at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute, the research reveals that the brain acts as a sophisticated arbiter of immunity, possessing a "biological rheostat" that can detect, amplify, or suppress inflammation with surgical precision.
This discovery highlights the profound role of the body-brain axis, a communication highway that scientists are increasingly finding to be the principal conductor of organismal physiology. By mapping this circuit, researchers have opened a new window into how we might treat a vast range of conditions, from autoimmune diseases to the deadly "cytokine storms" seen in severe infections.
The Discovery of the Immune "Rheostat"
The research team began by investigating the innate immune system—the body's ancient, rapid-response team that reacts to general signs of infection. To trigger this response, the scientists used lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a bacterial compound known to induce systemic inflammation. They observed that when the immune system was activated by LPS, a specific region in the brainstem—the caudal nucleus of the solitary tract (cNST)—began to glow with activity.
The cNST is well-known as the primary destination for signals traveling via the vagus nerve, a massive bundle of fibers that connects the brain to the heart, lungs, and gut. To prove that this brain activity was a direct response to peripheral inflammation, the team performed a bilateral vagotomy (severing the vagus nerve) and found that the brain no longer "heard" the immune system’s alarm.
Using advanced genetic tools like single-cell RNA sequencing and functional imaging, the researchers identified the specific circuit components of this neuroimmune axis. They discovered that the brain doesn't just passively receive information; it actively participates in a feedback loop. When they genetically silenced the LPS-activated neurons in the cNST, the result was a catastrophic, out-of-control inflammatory response. Levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines tripled, while anti-inflammatory molecules plummeted. Conversely, when they artificially activated the same circuit, they were able to suppress pro-inflammatory signals by nearly 70% and increase anti-inflammatory compound levels tenfold.
The Vagus Nerve: A High-Speed Data Cable
One of the study's most striking findings is the specificity of the communication. The researchers discovered that the vagus nerve contains distinct, non-overlapping populations of neurons that respond to specific immune signals. Some vagal neurons are tuned to "pro-inflammatory" cytokines, while others are dedicated to "anti-inflammatory" markers.
This allows the brain to receive a nuanced, real-time "status report" of the body’s immune state. Once this data reaches the cNST, the brain integrates the information and sends instructions back to the peripheral immune organs to modulate their activity. This suggests that the brain is not merely a witness to illness but a vital regulator tasked with maintaining "inflammatory homeostasis"—the delicate balance between an effective immune response and a self-destructive one.
In a remarkable demonstration of this circuit's power, the researchers showed that activating the cNST could save mice from what would otherwise be a lethal dose of LPS. Approximately 90% of the mice survived the challenge when the brain circuit was engaged to dampen the inflammation. They also found that the circuit could be recruited to treat chronic conditions, such as a mouse model of ulcerative colitis, effectively transforming the course of the disease.
Implications for Human Health
While this study was conducted in mice, the cNST and the vagus nerve are highly conserved across mammals, including humans. The potential applications for human medicine are vast. Currently, most treatments for inflammatory disorders involve systemic drugs that suppress the entire immune system. These can be effective but often carry significant side effects, such as leaving the patient vulnerable to other infections.
Harnessing the brain’s own regulatory circuit offers a more targeted approach. Instead of broadly "turning off" the immune system, clinicians might one day be able to "tune" it using bioelectronic medicine—devices that stimulate the vagus nerve to activate the cNST’s anti-inflammatory pathways. This could provide new hope for patients suffering from:
Autoimmune Diseases: Such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and multiple sclerosis, where the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue.
Cytokine Storms: The rapid, fatal over-production of immune cells often triggered by sepsis or viral infections like COVID-19.
Neurodegenerative Diseases: Increasingly, conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are being linked to chronic neuro-inflammation, which may be modulated via this axis.
Long COVID: A condition characterized by persistent, low-level inflammation that might be "stuck" in a dysregulated state.
A New Frontier in Neuroscience
The work of Jin, Zuker, and their colleagues represents a merging of two fields—immunology and neuroscience—that were once thought to operate largely in isolation. "The brain is the center of our thoughts, emotions, memories, and feelings," noted Dr. Hao Jin, "but thanks to advances in circuit tracking, we now know the brain does far more than that."
This research reinforces the idea that the brain is the ultimate arbiter of body physiology. Just as it regulates heart rate, breathing, and digestion to maintain life, it also serves as a watchful guardian over the immune system, ensuring that the body’s defenses do not become its own downfall. As we continue to map the body-brain axis, we are discovering that the solutions to some of our most complex physical ailments may be located deep within our own heads, waiting for us to learn how to flip the switch.
Summary
Researchers identified a neural circuit in the brainstem (the cNST) that acts as a central control for the immune system, allowing the brain to sense and regulate peripheral inflammation through the vagus nerve.
By manipulating this circuit, scientists were able to either trigger a runaway inflammatory response or dramatically suppress it, offering a potential new pathway for treating autoimmune disorders, sepsis, and chronic inflammatory diseases.
Researchers have identified a specific brainstem circuit that monitors and regulates peripheral inflammation through the vagus nerve, acting as a "biological rheostat" to maintain immune balance. By successfully manipulating this neuro-immune axis to suppress lethal inflammatory responses in animal models, scientists have opened a promising new frontier for treating autoimmune diseases and cytokine storms via bioelectronic medicine.
It took just 24 hours for the ModRetro Chromatic to sell out when it launched December 2024. An unapologetic Game Boy clone packaged in a slick, tough new shell, it delivered the perfect dose of gaming nostalgia alongside a few modern upgrades. Keen to build on that success, ModRetro has revamped production efforts and rejiggered its supply chain to make sure the Chromatic can stand the test of time. Now, the snazzy, geeky gadget is available for sale again—this time with new features, new games and a brand new colorway.
The company, helmed by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, says this time there will be no shortages of the Chromatic. It’ll cost you $199 with no games, or $299 for a version with a beefier sapphire crystal screen. More than that, Luckey wants the device to last, basically forever. Maybe even become the Game Boy’s final form.
“In theory, you could put this in a box for a hundred years and then pop in a pair of batteries and it would just go,” says Luckey. “If you're saying this is going to be the last Game Boy ever made—that this is the thing that will persist and be the way you experience that whole era of gaming—you better make something to last. It's almost like you have a moral duty to make sure it's something that is going to survive.”
Luckey, Silicon Valley's preeminent Hawaiian-shirt-clad tech bro, is famous—or infamous, depending on how you look at it—for pioneering VR tech and military defense alike. In 2012, he created the Oculus Rift, the product that effectively gave life to the then merely theoretical VR industry. He’s had a controversial journey since then, selling Oculus to Facebook in 2014, then leaving in an acrimonious split three years later. He moved on to start the military industrial tech company Anduril (named after a sword from the Lord of the Rings series) that now makes attack drones, border surveillance tech, and AI-powered weapons.
His right-wing political leanings, while once out of favor in Silicon Valley, are now on display much more freely by the broader tech elite. Luckey has recently been re-embraced by Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta (née Facebook), in his own rightward turn. Another of Luckey's recent endeavors, a crypto-bank called Erebor (after the Lonely Mountain in The Hobbit), is being funded by conservative billionaire and fellow LoTR nomenclature enthusiast Peter Thiel, the CEO of Palantir.
On another front, Luckey is still very into the tech of the past. The name ModRetro comes from a forum Luckey created as a kid to interact with other gadget enthusiasts. The thing that stuck with him the most from his childhood was the Game Boy.
The Chromatic isn’t the only Game Boy replacement out there. Nintendo has a collection of classic Game Boy games available to download (for a price). You can find emulators online. There are devices like Analogue Pocket that aim to recreate the experience of a physical Game Boy and even offer more games to play. Luckey says that while those efforts are all good, they come with compromises that he wants to blow right past.
“If something is worth doing, it's worth someone in the industry doing it right,” Luckey says.
If you can get past that baggage of a fun gadget being tied to an arms dealer, reviews of the first edition of the Chromatic make the device sound very good.
As a handheld gaming device, the ModRetro Chromatic harkens back to nostalgia of the early '90s Game Boy era, albeit housed in a case that is built like a bomb shelter. With the heft of a graphing calculator, the Chromatic leans into the chonkiness of early gaming handhelds, albeit with some much more modern upgrades. The gadgetry within is housed in a lightweight magnesium alloy chassis, assembled in a clamshell format that is meant to be straightforward to take apart. The screens are protected with Gorilla Glass, or you can opt for the scratch-resistant sapphire crystal surface for an extra $100. The buttons are made of satisfyingly clicky metals. The screws, though still the less common tri-wing screws found in early Game Boys, are easy enough to take out and replace.
According to Torin Herndon, the lead engineer at ModRetro who has worked with Luckey at Anduril and Oculus, repairability and the ability to fix or tweak the device were paramount.
“The idea is to preserve it for multiple generations down the line, so what we had to do was make the device as deserving of that as possible,” Herndon says. “And then to architect the device in a way that is really going against the grain of planned obsolescence.”
For that reason, the console exclusively plays cartridge games, just like its progenitor. There are no digital downloads, though game makers can issue bug fixes or updates if connected to the internet. Accessories for the Chromatic include rechargeable battery packs, cables, and a headset range in cost from $15-$50. You can also buy a dedicated modification kit which lets you take apart the device and alter it as you see fit.
On the library front, the Chromatic has launched with 15 games you can buy, and a special version of Tetris created by ModRetro comes packaged with the device. ModRetro has teased future partnerships for games made with industry stalwarts like Ubisoft, Atari, and Argonaut Games. Otherwise, if you want to play a game, you’ll have to find a second-hand Game Boy or Game Boy Color cartridge somewhere. The Chromatic is backwards compatible, so old Game Boy games should work, assuming you’ve blown on the cartridge enough to get the dust out, of course.
Despite the retro-focus, the Chromatic has a few new tricks wired into it as well. A USB-C port can be used for charging or for piping live video directly from the Chromatic to streaming services via Mac, PC, and Discord. That means you can stream directly from the device, which Luckey says will likely delight speedrunners eager to break records on Game Boy games without having to use external cameras to record the feats. (The software that enables streaming capabilities is backwards compatible, meaning it will be work of first-edition Chromatics as well.)
“The goal of Chromatic in a non-technical sense is not to replicate the experience of actually playing a Game Boy or Game Boy Color, it's to replicate the way that you felt playing it when you were younger,” Luckey says. “You want it to be authentic but also to live up to that rose-tinted recollection of how you remember it.”
Aside from all that nostalgia, ModRetro is also trying to make a push to reinforce the concept of ownership. Though the timing isn’t deliberate, Herndon points to recent efforts like Stop Killing Games, a movement of game advocates calling for the preservation of digital and online games so they can’t just be taken down by the provider.
“That is one of the most upsetting things about being a modern gamer,” Herndon says. “The true ownership experience back then is something has really gone by the wayside today, and we wanted to recapture that feeling.”
Ultimately, Luckey hopes the Chromatic isn’t the last stop in ModRetro’s efforts. He has his eyes set on recreating the Game Boy Advance and other retro platforms like the Nintendo 64. Eventually, he hopes the process, drawn out though it can be, will help preserve other aging technologies.
“This all sounds a lot more ridiculous and self masturbatory when you're just making a Game Boy thing,” Luckey says. “But I'm hoping that at some point people will see ModRetro as a portal into the past that is going to live on forever. And then what I'm saying maybe won't seem quite as crazy.”
ORLANDO, Fla. — On a sticky Sunday afternoon in late May, Mark Wendell ambled through Loch Haven Park, a mossy, oak-covered green space wedged between a trio of lakes and the Orlando Science Center.
Among the two dozen food and vendor tents lining the sidewalks at the Orlando Fringe theater and arts festival was People Power for Florida’s table, cluttered with voter registration forms, stickers and about 50 mismatched pens.
As Wendell, wearing flip-flops and a baseball cap, walked by, he noticed the civic engagement group’s purple “Register to Vote” sign.
“Are you registered to vote?” asked Roxanne Perret, one of the four organizers at the white tent, holding a clipboard and raising her voice over a nearby funk band.
“I am,” he said, “but in another state. I just moved here.”
After Wendell, 62, finished filling out the form, Perret recited a well-rehearsed disclaimer: She would turn in the paper to Orange County’s supervisor of elections within 10 days. He should get his new voter ID in the mail within 30 days.
Perret also handed him a slip of paper with her name and her group’s state registration number — an official receipt that is now required by law.
Without it, the organization could have been liable for hundreds of dollars in legal penalties under a law that Florida passed last year.
Republican lawmakers here and in Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Missouri, Montana and Texas have enacted a variety of voter registration laws over the past four years. The measures add new requirements around registering and communicating with voters and threaten hefty penalties for violations.
The stated goal of the new laws is to prevent fraud, but some voting rights groups contend their real purpose is to dampen participation by likely Democratic voters.
“It’s a huge chilling effect on the organizations who are doing this work, and on voters,” said Jonathan Diaz, director of voting advocacy and partnerships at the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center, which has led lawsuits on behalf of the League of Women Voters chapters and other groups in Florida, Alabama and Missouri.
Diaz thinks the recent state restrictions are a response to robust registration efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, which contributed to one of the highest turnouts in a presidential election in decades.
For a century, third-party voter registration groups have been a mainstay in broadening participation in the American political system, seeking out potential voters at festivals, parades or outside grocery stores. These efforts date back to the women’s suffrage movement, and many groups played a pivotal role during the Civil Rights Movement.
Over the past five years, more than 350 groups have signed up as third-party voter registration organizations with the Florida Division of Elections, including county political parties, individual residents, candidates, and religious and social groups.
Many whose focus is on young people or historically marginalized communities say they’ve had to change their operations to avoid fines or felony charges. Some have stopped registration drives altogether.
However, not every grassroots group finds the state law burdensome.
Seeing a gap in registration efforts for Republican voters, Barbara Casanova last year launched Citizens First, a Miami-based nonprofit that also helps people run for office.
The state law means extra costs for printing receipts, and she has some concerns about vague language in the statute, but her father — the highest-ranking Cuban American in President Ronald Reagan’s administration, according to her biography — always told her the GOP had two missions: Grow the party and get good people elected.
“It’s one of the prices we pay to be able to carry out our civic duty,” said Casanova, who serves as Citizens First’s president. “I think it’s worthwhile.”
‘Those fees can stack up’
Under the Florida law, third-party voter registration groups that employ noncitizen volunteers are subject to a $50,000 fine for each one — even those with green cards. They also are barred from using volunteers with certain felony convictions on elections-related charges, or for crimes such as fraud, forgery or perjury.
The state can fine groups as much as $2,500 for each voter registration application that is turned in late. There are fines for turning in forms to the incorrect county. Total annual fines could reach $250,000 per organization. It also is a felony to hold on to registrants’ personal information for future outreach or other purposes.
Last month, a federal judge ruled it was unconstitutional for Florida to ban noncitizens from registering people to vote — finding the effort discriminated against Latino outreach — and blocked the state from enforcing the ban. Still, voter registration groups remain under immense pressure, said Democratic state Rep. Anna V. Eskamani, the founder of People Power for Florida.
“Those fees can stack up a lot more aggressively and just bankrupt your organization,” Eskamani said in an interview a week before the Orlando event.
Last year, the state fined her group $2,000 for missing a registration deadline to turn forms in for the August primary. But Eskamani called the fines “silly,” arguing those voters weren’t planning on voting until November. The state also fined People Power for Florida $3,000 for filing forms with the wrong county; the group said the state had made a mistake, and the fine was rescinded.
“Every day, I’m bracing for some sort of incorrect and burdensome fine,” Eskamani said.
Other Florida-based groups have had to reconsider whether it’s worth the fines or possible criminal penalties to conduct voter registration drives anymore.
The nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Florida, for example, decided last year to stop registering voters using paper applications for the first time since the organization began such efforts a century ago.
To avoid legal liability, the league instead directs potential voters to scan a QR code with a smartphone and register on their own. The league has spent thousands of dollars on mobile hot spots so festivalgoers can use the internet at the league’s booths.
“All of these penalties and prohibitions and difficulties and threats to us have just been extremely painful,” said Cecile Scoon, the Florida league’s co-president. “Under the latest set of laws, which are just so ruinous and prohibitive, we’ve had to protect our members and protect the league.”
The state’s new cap, now raised to a quarter of a million dollars in maximum yearly fines, is basically the group’s annual budget, she said.
For 70% of the 110 or so small, grassroots organizations in the state receiving resources and training from the national advocacy group Black Voters Matter, the new law has pushed them to stop voter registration drives, said Jamil Davis, the nonprofit’s Florida state organizing manager. He said the law is working as intended.
“People who support this bill think, ‘We get enough Black and brown voters out of the way for this election, it gives us a better opportunity to continue being in the seats that we’re currently in,’” Davis said.
He pointed to a 2021 report from Daniel Smith, a professor of political science at the University of Florida, which showed that Black and Latino Floridians are five times more likely than white residents to register to vote through a third-party voter registration organization.
Overall, more than 760,000 Floridians had registered to vote through these groups, according to the report. Smith, the chair of the university’s political science department, wrote it on behalf of voting rights groups during a court case over a separate bill Florida Republicans passed in 2021. That law added fines for returning forms late to election offices.
Behind the GOP effort
Republican lawmakers argued that Florida’s 2023 law was necessary to protect voters who trust outside groups to safeguard their personal information and submit their applications on time.
“Every cycle … there’s additional issues that arise with these organizations, which is prompting the additional need for enhanced measures of protection,” Republican state Sen. Danny Burgess, who chairs the Ethics and Elections Committee, told a local NBC affiliate in south Florida in April 2023, after he and his colleagues passed the measure.
Officials in the office of Florida Republican Secretary of State Cord Byrd declined an interview request, and instead pointed to its January report describing problems that “have plagued the state for years.” The report outlines how groups have at times altered political parties on registration forms without consent, registered dead or fake people, or forged application dates to avoid fines.
In April 2023, after the law passed, Byrd announced $34,400 in fines against Hard Knocks Strategies, a Democratic political strategy firm and third-party voter registration organization. Byrd said the firm showed “blatant disregard” for state laws by failing to return voter registration applications on time or to the correct county. The fines coincided with criminal charges against several members of the group on suspicion of turning in fraudulent applications, which have led to prison sentences.
Republicans in other states have cited similar fraud concerns when enacting voter drive restrictions.
In March, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, signed into law a measure that in part makes it illegal for groups to pre-fill a voter’s name or other information on an absentee ballot application. It also is a felony subject to 10 years in prison for someone to be paid by a group to assist voters with absentee ballot applications.
The Campaign Legal Center, along with the League of Women Voters of Alabama and a coalition of other voting rights and disability access groups, sued the state in April to block the law, arguing that it targets Black political engagement. The center also has argued that instances of bad actors submitting faulty forms are rare and have not led to many ineligible voters being registered.
Missouri Republicans in 2022 passed legislation that made it illegal for people to be paid to register voters. The legislation also required any person helping more than 10 residents with their voter registrations to register with the secretary of state.
However, a Cole County Circuit Court judge blocked parts of the law later that year, putting them on hold until the trial, which is set to start in August. The Campaign Legal Center represented the League of Women Voters of Missouri and the NAACP of Missouri in that suit.
‘This is definitely new’
Back at Orlando’s Loch Haven Park, organizers and volunteers with People Power for Florida scanned the lawn full of Adirondack chairs and yard games. The smoky smell of a nearby BBQ pit filled the humid air.
“Hey there, are you registered to vote?” Allison Minnerly, the group’s communications director, asked passersby. “Is your address up to date?” “Do you need help requesting a mail ballot?”
The crowd seemed politically engaged — volunteers only snagged a handful of takers, including local resident Crissie Auguste, 28, who updated the address on her voter registration.
“My parents are telling me I finally need to change my address,” she told Minnerly, signing the form as she clasped an umbrella under the other arm to block the intense sun.
The group updated several other registrations and talked through questions people asked about upcoming elections. They handed out dozens of purple-and-pink pamphlets and stickers.
The registration drive at the festival also gave the group a chance to train new volunteers.
Earlier in the day, Minnerly walked Jackie Stealey through an affidavit, asking her to sign that she attests under penalty of perjury that she is not a felon and is a U.S. citizen. The federal court had just ruled the latter requirement unconstitutional, but the organization had not discussed it with their legal team yet.
The new restrictions have made it difficult to recruit volunteers — not everyone is comfortable giving their personal information to people they help register to vote, Minnerly said. The restrictions also mean it takes more time to train new volunteers.
“This is definitely new,” she said. “We have to do a lot more to not expose ourselves to increased risk.”
At the dawn of the 20th century, the global landscape was defined by the clashing forces of decaying empires and rising industrialization. In the midst of this upheaval, Vladimir Lenin, a Russian Marxist revolutionary, developed a political ideology that would not only reshape the borders of Eurasia but also redefine the trajectory of global politics for nearly a hundred years. Known as Leninism, this body of thought was not merely a theoretical interpretation of Karl Marx’s writings; it was a pragmatic blueprint for revolution designed to leapfrog the traditional stages of economic development.
Leninism emerged as the "revolutionary praxis" of the Bolsheviks, providing the ideological fuel for the October Revolution of 1917. While it remains one of the most debated and controversial subjects in political science, its core tenets—vanguardism, democratic centralism, and the theory of imperialism—offer a window into the mechanics of 20th-century authoritarianism and social transformation.
The Vanguard Party: Orchestrating the Proletariat
The most distinct feature of Leninism is the concept of the vanguard party. According to traditional Marxist theory, the transition from capitalism to socialism would occur naturally in advanced industrial societies as the working class (the proletariat) developed "class consciousness." However, Lenin observed that left to their own devices, workers tended to develop only "trade-union consciousness"—a focus on immediate economic gains like higher wages rather than the total overthrow of the state.
To solve this, Lenin proposed in his 1902 pamphlet What Is To Be Done? that the revolution must be led by a highly disciplined, centralized party of professional revolutionaries. This vanguard would act as the "advanced and resolute" section of the working class, educating and organizing the masses toward a singular political goal: the seizure of state power. This shift moved the engine of revolution from a spontaneous mass movement to a meticulously planned operation directed from the top down.
Democratic Centralism: The Internal Engine
To ensure the effectiveness of this vanguard, Lenin implemented democratic centralism. This principle sought to balance internal freedom with external unity. In theory, party members were free to debate and criticize policies until a consensus or majority vote was reached. However, once a decision was finalized, every member was required to abide by it unconditionally.
Lenin argued that "universal and full freedom to criticize" was essential, provided it did not disrupt the "unity of a definite action." In practice, however, this system often prioritized the "centralism" over the "democratic" aspect. Over time, particularly during the stresses of the Russian Civil War, the suppression of internal factions became the norm, creating a template for the monolithic party structures that would define subsequent communist regimes.
Imperialism: The Global Context
Lenin’s intellectual contributions extended beyond party organization to a grand theory of global economics. In his 1916 work Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, he argued that capitalism had entered a final, predatory phase. Wealthy industrialized nations, he claimed, had exhausted their domestic markets and were forced to export capital to colonies to exploit labor and resources.
This "superexploitation" allowed Western capitalists to bribe their own domestic workers with slightly higher living standards—the "labor aristocracy"—thereby preventing revolution in the West. Consequently, Lenin theorized that the first socialist revolution would not happen in a developed country like Germany, as Marx had predicted, but in the "weakest link" of the imperialist chain: underdeveloped, agrarian Russia. This was a significant departure from orthodox Marxism and provided the justification for a socialist takeover in a country that had not yet fully industrialized.
The Dictatorship of the Proletariat and the State
Following the 1917 revolution, Leninist theory moved into the realm of governance. Lenin advocated for the dictatorship of the proletariat, a transitional period where the working class would use the state’s coercive power to suppress the former ruling bourgeoisie and dismantle the old bureaucratic apparatus.
In his 1917 book The State and Revolution, Lenin described the state as a "special machine for the suppression of one class by another." He argued that true democracy could only be achieved by disenfranchising the "exploiters." In the early Soviet years, this took the form of government by soviets—councils of workers and soldiers. However, the realities of civil war, famine, and foreign intervention led to the rapid concentration of power within the party leadership, effectively replacing the "dictatorship of the proletariat" with the "dictatorship of the party."
The Contested Legacy: Leninism vs. Stalinism
One of the most enduring historical debates is the degree of continuity between Leninism and the subsequent regime of Joseph Stalin. Critics like Richard Pipes argue that Stalinism was the "natural consequence" of Leninism, noting that the foundations of the police state, the use of "Red Terror," and the ban on political factions were all established under Lenin’s watch.
Conversely, many scholars and left-wing critics, including Leon Trotsky, argued that Stalinism was a "counter-revolution" that betrayed Lenin’s vision. They point to the fact that Lenin’s final writings, known as his Testament, warned against Stalin’s growing power and called for his removal. Furthermore, Lenin’s "New Economic Policy" (NEP), which allowed for some limited market activity, stood in stark contrast to Stalin’s later brutal programs of forced collectivization and rapid industrialization.
Conclusion: A Century of Influence
Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Leninism remains a foundational subject for understanding modern political history. Its influence can be seen in the revolutionary movements of the 20th century across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where the "vanguard party" model was adopted by leaders ranging from Mao Zedong to Ho Chi Minh.
At its core, Leninism was an attempt to mold history through sheer political will. It sought to prove that a dedicated minority could seize the levers of power and transform a semi-feudal society into a global superpower. Whether viewed as a successful adaptation of Marxism or a tragic detour into totalitarianism, Leninism stands as a testament to the power—and the peril—of a disciplined ideology in the hands of a determined revolutionary.
The biggest ETF tracking collateralized loan obligations has reached $10 billion in assets, helping Janus Henderson further tighten its grip on the quickly growing niche.
The Janus Henderson AAA CLO exchange-traded fund (ticker JAAA) now commands more than $10 billion in assets, giving it roughly 90% share of the market for top-rated CLO ETFs, according to a Monday press release. Its closest runner-up among the dozen or so CLO funds is the Janus Henderson B-BBB CLO ETF (JBBB), which has amassed about $666 million.
The asset manager has dominated the arena for ETFs holding CLOs, which are bonds backed by leveraged loans that pay floating rates, meaning they generate more income as yields rise. While JAAA is neither the first mover nor the cheapest fund on the market, it’s pretty close to both titles.
It was the second such fund of its kind to launch in October 2020, and offers actively managed exposure to the asset class for 21 basis points. That’s handed Janus Henderson a lead, even with the likes of BlackRock Inc. launching a rival product.
JAAA is also the only CLO ETF that screens as having an institutional use case, such as hedging, according to a Citigroup report published last week. But that dynamic could change in a category that’s estimated to triple in size.
“The CLO category is still in its early innings,” Citi strategists including Drew Pettit wrote. “There is a possibility that more than one product can have an institutional use case, which is common in other credit ETF categories.”
For now, elevated interest rates have been a boon for JAAA, which has nearly doubled in size in the first six months of the year after ending 2023 with about $5.3 billion in assets. The fund has gained about 9% on a total return basis over the past year, compared to roughly 2% for the iShares Core US Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG).
“We believe AAA CLOs are an attractive addition to portfolios due to their diversification benefits, low interest rate volatility, attractive returns and strong credit ratings,” John Kerschner, head of US securitized products at Janus Henderson, said in the release.
GameStop shares jumped more than 72% on Monday after trader Keith Gill, known online as "Roaring Kitty," resurfaced four years after he led an investment frenzy involving the video game retailer.
Gill is a former financial analyst at MassMutual who in late 2020 encouraged amateur retail investors to buy GameStop shares during the meme stock craze. He did this by posting on Reddit discussion boards and creating videos on YouTube about the strategy, gaining a large following in the process. But in 2021, Gill revealed that he had lost $13 million in one day from his investments in GameStop.
Gill was also slapped with a lawsuit in 2021, accusing him of profiting from "deceitful and manipulative conduct" in promoting the GameStop shares. After appearing before Congress to explain the meme stock craze, Gill's social media presence dwindled to nonexistence.
He resurfaced on X, Sunday night, with an image of a sketched man leaning forward in a chair, marking the end of a roughly three-year hiatus. He followed that post with several others featuring various comeback-themed videos featuring movie clips and charged music.
GameStop did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CBS MoneyWatch Monday.
GameStop was one of four struggling companies, including AMC, Bed Bath & Beyond and Blackberry, that retail investors on Reddit financially adopted during the pandemic, in a dual effort to keep the lights on at those companies as well as to put a "short squeeze" on hedge funds that bet against their long-term success.
Hedge funds did indeed suffer during GameStop's meme success. Citron Research, Melvin Capital and other funds lost an estimated $5 billion, the Associated Press reported in 2021, citing data from analytics firm S3 Partners. The firm told CBS MoneyWatch that hedge funds lost more than $1 billion from shorting GameStop on Monday.
GameStop had experienced declining sales amid an industrywide pivot from game cartridges to video game streaming and digital downloads, but with the help from meme stock investors, last March the company turned its first profit in two years. Before then, the company had posted seven straight quarterly losses. This January, GameStop reported its first annual profit since 2018.
Roaring Kitty's post helped bump GameStop's share price to $28.25 on Monday. GameStop's all-time high stock price is $120.75 in January 2021. Shares of AMC and Bed Bath also jumped slightly on Monday.
"Meme stock frenzy buying may be back with AMC up over 78% and DJT up over 1%," Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners said. "Short sellers may be in for a bumpy and bloody ride in these stocks."
Last September, GameStop appointed Chewy founder Ryan Cohen as its new CEO. In its most recent quarterly earnings from March, GameStop said it eliminated an unspecified number of jobs to help reduce costs. The Texas-based company posted $1.79 billion in revenue compared to $2.23 billion a year prior.