Originally published May 29, 2026 for our weekly Issue of Mindful Intelligence Advisor. Subscribe to get weekly issues.
Dates: 26-05-01 to 26-05-29
By BWI STAFF
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
We have selected four bellwether trends in U.S. Politics, Geopolitics, Culture, and Sci-Tech news for the month of May 2026. This report analyzes the four selected bellwether trends in each major category. It also includes a general analysis of that category.
We provide a general analysis of the markets, with a primarily American focus. We end our report with an overall assessment of the past month.
In our quarterly Situation Report, we also include a RECOMMENDED ACTION and PREDICTIVE ANALYSIS section. Our next Quarterly Situation Report is scheduled for July 10, 2026.
For updates on the 2026 election and gerrymandering wars, read our Deep Dive, Midterm is Coming, on pg. 2.
BACKGROUND – The White House shooting that left the shooter dead and one bystander injured was hardly a ripple in the news reporting world compared to what such an event might have been in the recent past. It seems Americans are getting so inured to violence that a man opening fire on the White House is hardly a surprise to many people anymore.
The rhetoric across America from both the “left” and the “right” is only getting more pitched, and the versions of reality each side presents is getting increasingly disconnected from one another.
What we have yet to see is any significant American movement aimed at replacing both major political parties.
1.1. PROGRESSIVE US – The Left is bifurcating along gentle transformation and radical transformation lines, with the radical transformationists becoming increasingly disenfranchised while the gentle transformationists are simply becoming feckless. Perhaps not coincidentally, the divisions are reflected in their positions on Israel and the Iran War.
The gentle transformationists support Israel and at least don’t condemning the Iran War, and the radical transformationists hate Israel and support the mullahs in Iran (more on this in our geopolitical section).
1.2. CONSERVATIVE US – The conservatives have also been dividing over Israel and the Iran War, but neither camp is attempting to create alternatives to the GOP. They seem to be either competing for GOP power or becoming disenfranchised.
Generally, the camp growing skeptical of Trump tend to be anti-Israel. While they don’t go so far as to support the mullahs, they don’t support the decision by Trump to attack Iran in the first place. MAGA still strongly supports both Israel and the Iran War (again, more on this in our geopolitical section).
The Anti-Trump contingent took a serious beating in the midterm primaries, with more anti-Trumpers potentially at risk in the remaining primaries to come. Yet even as Trump’s faction wins elections, they lose House and Senate battles in large part thanks to that diminishing anti-Trump faction.
1.3. PROGRESSIVE MEDIA – Corporate cultural production power is continuing to aggressively undermine President Trump’s foreign and domestic policies even appearing often to sound the same as America’s enemies, including China and Iran.
They do appear to be turning back from the “woke” ideology in part, but not the “conservatives are all racists” narrative, which continues to dominate their reporting and continues to trigger violent actions by their progressive audience.
1.4. TRUMP DEPORTATIONS – While the deportations continue, so too do the Anti-Ice actions by the Democrats’ de facto street fighter army.
Conservatives are questioning the resolve of the new DHS head Markwayne Mullin after a Newark, NJ battle with street fighters that seemed to resolve in surrender by the ICE facility under attack.
The progressive media supported the assault, even supporting the participation of elected Democratic politicians in the assault, one of which got pepper sprayed. This story continues to develop and may yet lead to a future Deep Dive or special report.
The progressive media has aggressively used agit prop to fuel violence against ICE officials, though even the DOJ has failed to directly recognize the crimes that we assert are being executed everyday by the likes of CBS, NBC, and the New York Times.
The Trump administration has done little to address the use of corporate news media for illegal political activity in direct opposition to American Rule of Law, even as it directly incites violence against Federal officials, ICE agents.
They are, however, zeroing in on another branch of the Democrats’ military, the judges and the lawyers, lawfare assassins.
The Department of Homeland Security is going to start aggressively investigating “immigration attorneys” who use fraud as a means of winning cases for their clients. It’s a significant move, but hardly as significant as confronting the progressive media’s continued aggressive actions, acts of war against the American republic.
ASSESSMENT – Most Americans continue to view the political landscape through the lens of the 1990s, with the Democrats representing the poor and the disenfranchised and the Republicans representing the patriots, the hard workers, and the entrepreneurs.
Political activists, however, do not view the world through those lenses at all, but they continue to market to the non-activist Americans in the same way. Furthermore, the political reality of power has long left those paradigms.
The two major factions are now dividing and at risk of permanent balkanization, which would be good for Americans in the long run.
The capture of human political action by two institutions who have long left true American rule of law standards has prevented Americans from plainly seeing the true political reality of power in this land today.
BACKGROUND
1.1. IRAN WAR – So far, the economic impact of the Iran War on America has been minimal, but cuts in Chinese oil imports, along with increased U.S. oil exports have helped mitigate that impact. Chinese oil import cuts aren’t going to continue, so the current scheme to offset the effect of the war is not expected to last.
The on-again, off-again Peace Treaty is right where it was a month ago, residing between Trump claiming a deal is all but done and Iran feigning ignorance of the whole affair. Trump wants no nukes guarantees and Iran wants to keep the nuke dream alive and get back $24 billion.
The “ceasefire” continues to hold, which appears, at this point, to be code for “allow Iran to lash out at a small scale and the U.S. to respond afterwards.” In other words, the “ceasefire” is just cessation of offensive action, for the most part.
1.2. UKRAINE WAR – The month began with a brief peace truce that both sides accused the other side of violating. The war is showing no signs of revealing a decisive victor. Drone warfare is becoming the prevailing reality, as even drone strikes are now targeting drone factories and any point of drone production, be it direct or indirect.
With Russia recently “accidently” hitting an apartment building in Romania with a drone strike that injured one person, Ukraine is hoping to instigate an expansion while the EU is attempting to pull Romania back from the brink of decisive, consequential action.
1.3. CHINA WATCH – A mine disaster in China that left at least 82 reported dead has not helped Chairman Xi quiet the roiling dissent throughout the country that seems to only be building up. A summit with President Trump yielded no significant policy shifts from either party.
China continues to grow deeper relations with European allies, with Serbia perhaps leading the way, though the citizens don’t seem to be fully onboard with that alliance. Canada is facing a CCP scandal from within. Opponents to the current government accuse it of being unduly “influenced” by the Chinese Communist Party.
China is growing increasingly wary of its AI technology being shared with others. It has ended potential foreign collaborations with Chinese AI companies, and now it is mandating stricter travel controls over its homegrown AI experts.
1.4. CUBA WATCH – After indicting the current President of Cuba, Raul Castro, the Trump administration appears poised for another Venezuela-styled invasion. Progressive live streamer Hasan Piker went to Cuba with what might be a CCP-funded progressive group called Code Pink, led by Madea Benjamin. That group, along with Hasan, is now under investigation.
Cuba’s lack of military credibility has reduced Castro’s defiance to claims he will leave the island before the U.S. can take him. While Cuba called the U.S. oil embargo an act of war through its representative in the UN, Trump is rumored to be going over the final touches of his Cuba Invasion plan.
Cuba is an essential part of China’s plan to establish a deep presence in America’s backyard.
Now that Venezuela is gone, a previous seat of backyard power for China, Cuba remains the next logical seat of backyard power for the U.S. to attempt to remove. Venezuela kept Cuba afloat with free gas, and now that pipeline has been cut off.
ASSESSMENT – Iran and Israel seem to have become foils that have created strange bedfellows worldwide, though we will use what’s happening in America as a bellwether for the dynamic being felt in almost every western nation.
In America, Iran is a growing wedge issue in both the Progressive and Conservative camp. We do want to stress, however, that MAGA is still firmly behind both the war in Iran and Trump.
For both Iran and Israel, we believe we see two groups diametrically opposed to one another who BOTH oppose the Iran War and are strongly anti-Israel.
We believe, on the conservative side, the group opposing the Iran War and Israel tends to be more strongly focused on the nationalism aspect of conservatism.
This is not to say they are nationalists, but that they view Israel and Iran as symbols of global interest being forced upon the American nation because of foreign influence over American politicians.
Some of them are former MAGA who hoped Trump would be as America First as they were, but most were already at least skeptical of Trump before he ever took office.
On the progressive side, we see the opposite, we see the more radical ecumenical nationalists (our term for progressive globalism) reading into the potential overthrow of the Iranian regime as a major blow to global order power.
That global order power is the same power they’ve relied on to build power from within America. It is the same power they’re banking on to create their ecumenical progressive nationalist state.
To the progressive, Israel is offensive for two reasons, it gives historical credence to the “Judeo-Christian story,” which is a story of an individual relationship with God, not a collective salvation story the progressive tells.
Israel also represents the best argument for an ethnic nation-state, since it was created as a safe haven for Jews following the Holocaust, the extermination of millions of Jews. So long as it thrives it continues to be an apologist for the ethnic nation-state. It preserves national sovereignties just through the model its existence upholds.
For the progressive, the only state is the global state, the only nationalism (and there will be nationalism, forced public worship of the state) is global nationalism. The only true nation-state is the global nation-state.
BACKGROUND
1.1. ABORTION WATCH – The abortion drug, Mifepristone, has become the tool of choice for women choosing to terminate their fetus before birth. The SCOTUS ruling this month allowing the drug to be sold through the mail preserves access to the drug even as concerns over its side effects grows.
The abortion industry is fighting hard to preserve easy access to the drug, which essentially starves the unborn fetus to death. So far, the American people continue to support the drug’s use, as well as its continued sale through the mail.
Support for the drug could gain you votes in white suburbia, while not supporting the drug could lose you votes.
Abortion continues to be a winning issue for the progressives in Suburban America, which contributes significantly to its ability to not run as what it actually is, an anti-American party, but one that allows women the “choice” to be burdened with the consequences of consensual sex, or not.
1.2. EUTHANASIA WATCH – Canada has crossed the 100K mark in its euthanasia tally after only 10 years of its legalization. Michigan is still pushing to pass a euthanasia legalization bill, but so far it still doesn’t have enough votes. The ones pushing euthanasia, worldwide, are consistently on the progressive side of the political spectrum.
1.3. TEEN TAKEOVER – The spreading of teen takeovers looks more and more like a coordinated effort to further destabilize the republic. This is not to suggest the teens are in on the conspiracy. They are teens offered an opportunity to thug, which is one many teens, of all races, might take up if given the chance.
The DC U.S. Attorney is threatening to prosecute the parents of the teens. A teen takeover in Chicago left 5 cops injured, though the Mayor refused to outright condemn the actions, and there is doubt any effective prosecution of the perpetrators will take place.
So far, we have seen no credible investigations into what might be behind the Teen Takeover trend. It is also possible it is an emergent consequence of progressive culture now asserting its “right” to take from the inventors of evil, the colonizers, the “white nation.”
We are not being hyperbolic or rhetorical. This is the type of language regularly used by Progressives youths.
It is also the rhetoric of college and public school “educators” for the last 20-plus years.
1.4. TRANSGENDER IDEOLOGY – Planned Parenthood is looking to get into the transgender business, and it allegedly already has. The progressives seem to be doubling down on their insistence that government and corporate power can be used to force Americans to publicly support gender fluidity over the gender binary.
The plight of the transgendered person has become the tip of the progressive spear aimed at the 1st Amendment to the constitution, the ideational anchor that is backed by the concrete anchor, the 2nd Amendment.
California’s decision to take a child away from a parent who refused to accept the gender fluid ideology has made it clear that progressives recognize conceding on this point will undermine their whole project.
The “need” to protect the transgendered child from the tyranny of binary gender absolutism is a justification of thought control by the state. Thought control is needed to assure the weak and vulnerable are not suicided with offensive thoughts. If the 1st Amendment triumphs over the suicidal transgendered child, the progressive project is lost.
ASSESSMENT – We continue to observe that the heart of America is for abortion. While Trump promises to Make America Great Again and executes real action that existentially harms anti-American forces like the Chinese, the European global order, and the “American” progressives, his reforms never touch the core of what’s broken in America, our loss of the sense of the sacredness of the individual.
Abortion continues to be the bellwether of our nation. As our spirit goes with abortion, so too will go the fate of our nation, for a nation that can sub-humanize the unborn can sub-humanize anyone, as this nation is surely doing, from both the progressive and conservative camps of this country.
BACKGROUND
1.1. AI WATCH – It appears there is minimal care being given to create safeguards as we continue our worldwide rollout of AI machines. Industry reports have raised concerning red flags. The industry itself is fighting over whether there will or will not be an AI job apocalypse.
Around the world, the battle against the rapid deployment of the memory centers of AI Machines, the AI Data Centers, is only ratcheting up. In America, progressives have adopted a hard-anti-AI Data Center stance, while conservatives seem mostly cautious, but not overtly against them.
Conservatives are accusing the anti-DATA Center movement of being AstroTurfed by foreign influence, from China to Russia. There’s probably a fair degree of truth to that, but the organic resistance to Data Centers in America appears very real, and at the street level, outside of political activists, the resistance crosses political lines.
1.2. SOCIAL MEDIA WATCH – Worldwide, the use of children’s safety as an opportunity to replace restrictions on children is only growing. Even in America, various states are attempting similar actions, to force adults to confirm their real identity before they can go online. This continues to be the bellwether of social media freedom or social media state control.
1.3. DEFENSE TECH – The future in defense tech is AI and drones. What drones will look like, how they will function will most likely be radically different 10 years from now than they are today. By then, we may begin to see some basic archetypal drone forms emerge that offer more long-term stability in our understanding of potential future development.
1.4. SUSTAINABLE FLOURISHING – Diabetes was successfully reversed in mice with lab-grown insulin cells. Young gut bacteria was successfully used in a mouse to reverse liver aging. Long-life genes of moles could theoretically help mice live longer, a study finds. A brain spray could reverse aging while biological age can be reversed with a special diet.
ASSESSMENT – Integrating AI with drones is the most important task for any serious power in the world today. It is pushing the hastier development of AI that many predicted would happen as a result of emerging in the nation-state model of human governance.
It is only a matter of time before the supercarrier’s importance is ended. At that point, it’s a whole new worldwide military reality of power, one that we think will still heavily favor America, but in the end it might not favor humanity as a whole.
It should be coming very clear to the world powers that AI is now the new heart of military power. Battles will be won and lost in AI machines long before we see the drone manifestations of those decisions
The most troubling sign in our economy is the reactivation of inflation. Two inflation indicators, the CPI and the PCE Prince Index show inflation is heating back up. This news is sure to pause any plans by the Fed to lower rates.
While jobs are being created, the growth is not high and appears to be slowing. Consumer spending is reportedly mixed but showing steadiness overall.
The next three months appear primed for relative calm, but no dynamic growth, barring geopolitical developments.
So far, the Iran War has yet to significantly touch the U.S. economy, though the inflation reactivation is most likely being affected by it.
OVERALL ASSESSMENT
The bellwether of the world is America. As America goes, the rest of the world will inevitably follow. If she goes authoritarian, the world will go authoritarian. If she embraces liberty, the world will at least move closer to liberty.
Worldwide, the old justifications for power are gone, not wholly, but overwhelmingly. Among the major powers, the old myths are dead. As we face this loss of the justification for authority, for state power, AI is changing the terms of our engagements in ways we have yet to understand (nor can we fairly predict).
Yet even AI is engaged in the same elemental battle we humans are, the battle for the new justification for state power, for without state power AI will not flourish at the large scale it is heading towards even as we create this report.
How we respond to this justification crisis will largely determine how well we will fare unleashing our new tool, AI.
What’s at stake is the heart of governance, which, under American rule of law, is justified by restraint, not by promises of ending evil or restoring past glories as the two major factions of today seem to have chosen.
Elections are not about WHAT IS but about what is marketed. This is always true to a certain degree, but never has that been truer in American than it is today, for the marketing is not based on the real arguments happening.
We are no longer talking about the poor and the needy, the good and the entrepreneurial, we are talking about much more foundational issues than these.
We are talking about human governance at its root.
There are three questions humans around the world are asking, but America might be the bellwether for how these questions will be answered for the next epoch of human being.
The first question is this: Can humans co-exist flourishingly among real biological ethnic diversity?
The second question is this: Do humans need a nation, a sovereign nation of their unique own, to thrive?
The third question is this: If not God, what is the justification for state power?
We will leave you, the reader, to answer this question for yourselves.
America’s answer has been yes to the first question, though with great contradiction and violation of its own answer.
Whether the founders pictured only white faces with “created equal” or not, the words could not be contained by their own prejudice. The seed of biological ethnic diverse cohabitation was indelibly planted.
While America says yes to the second question, it has no answer to the last question.
America’s justification for state power is the state’s demonstrated restraint in recognition of the self-agency the creator has given to the citizen. This citizen defines his own happiness and his own pursuit of happiness, for that is the agency his creator has given him.
We are not sure this sentiment is shared by even the majority of American citizens anymore. We doubt President Trump understands this, and we are certain progressives violently oppose this principle. To them, tolerance is intolerance.
The progressive also violently opposes America’s second answer, that humans need a nation, a sovereign nation of their unique own. They ostensibly oppose what they call “nationalism,” which is, more often than not simply national sovereignty.
They imagine they are not nationalists, but their ideology is much closer to nationalism than American “nationalism” is.
Nationalism is more than just national sovereignty and pride and patriotism connected to the nation. It’s forced worship of the state, which is everything to everyone all the time. It does not recognize the self-agency of the individual anymore than the progressive does.
Like the nationalists, the progressive also demands worship, worship of either the party or the movement (depending on whether you’re inside progressive institutional power or outside it).
Public action in demonstration of your enthusiastic adherence to the moral code of the party or the movement is demanded, by force, if necessary.
Their nationalism is ecumenical, but it’s still national sovereignty. It simply ends all other national sovereignties. It is the most imperialist ideology of them all.
So far, America’s political battlefields only hint at the true nature of the real battles happening, but yet where we grant power to the ecumenical nationalists/conquerors and the heaven on earth types, we consign the world to an epoch of ecumenical authoritarianism.
These types are found on both sides of America’s political divide, though neither reflect the heart of true American rule of law, for both offer conquest, revenge, heaven on earth and world domination.
It remains to be seen if we are right in assuming the vast majority of Americans reject both calls.
We continue to suspect these Americans are simply either not willing to face a difficult reality, that America’s political parties are no longer American, or are so committed to the ideal American version they have of their non-American party that they have difficulty avoiding plain truths.
They’re not hiding from truth, they’re simply unable to see it.
If we are right, more and more of these Americans will soon be unable to not see the plain reality, and American political movements will finally emerge.
Be sure to read our next Quarterly Situation Report on July 10, 2026, for a Predictive Analysis. Next week, we will feature our next installment in our Transitions series. We will be looking at the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire
