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Links 5/19/2025

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Decades-long mystery of ginger cats revealed BBC

Climate/Environment

Chicago experiences first dust storm since the Dust Bowl 91 years ago Chicago Sun Times

How Herbicide Drift from Farms Is Harming Trees in Midwest Yale Environment 360

El Paso Is Having Its Dustiest Year Since the Actual Dust Bowl Gizmodo

***

The decline of key Atlantic currents is underway, and it’s been flooding parts of the US for 20 years Live Science

28 dead, half a million without power as deadly storms, tornadoes sweep across central, eastern US Accuweather

Pandemics

Long-term clinical outcome and exercise capacity in SARS-CoV-2-positive elite athletes German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research

Long COVID Brain Fog “Very Well Explained” By Altered Levels Of 2 Key Biomarkers IFL Science

Unum Beats Appeal of Hospital Worker’s Covid Disability Suit Bloomberg

China?

Global supply chains threatened by lack of Chinese rare earths FT

Nvidia Plans To Expand Presence in China With Shanghai R&D Center, Report Says Investopedia

The US–China AI race is forcing countries to reconsider who owns their digital infrastructure Chatham House

The Middle East Swings to American AI Kevin Xu, Interconnected

China-US Trade Truce Prompts Nations to Consider Tougher Tactics Bloomberg

****

China’s retail sales disappoint as stimulus fails to spur demand; industrial output defies tariffs CNBC

China’s humanoid robots will not replace human workers: Official Channel News Asia

Terrifying attraction lets tourists sleep while suspended over 320-foot cliff New York Post. Something more to this trend than just getting the social media photos?

Syraqistan

Israel announces ‘extensive’ ground invasion of Gaza amid high stakes ceasefire talks The New Arab

Leaked map shows Israeli proposal to force Gazans into strips of land The Times

Only Military Action Against Israel Can Save The Palestinians Do Not Panic

Destroying Gaza ‘With Love’: Israel’s New YogiNazis Haaretz

Netanyahu Announces Israel Will Allow a ‘Basic’ Amount of Food To Enter Gaza Antiwar

Private US-backed foundation to start Gaza aid deliveries despite UN warnings France 24

***

Nuclear deal with US possible if intimidation tactics stop: Pezeshkian Al Mayadeen

Witkoff says US ‘red line’ in Iran talks is any ability for Tehran to enrich uranium Times of Israel

***

The New Dark Age Chris Hedges

European Disunion

Pro-EU moderate Nicușor Dan wins Romanian presidential election stunner Politico. I’d say the real stunner was when Romania, with support from the EU, nullified the previous election and then removed the winning candidate from the ballot, but that’s just me.

Reactions:

The liberal favourite stumbles in Poland’s presidential election The Economist

Ruling party tops Portugal polls marked by far-right surge AFP

Italy’s Meloni hosts Vance, EU chief for trade talks, hails ‘new’ era Straits Times

Old Blighty

WHY WE NEED A STRONG LEFT Stumbling and Mumbling

Starmer’s post-Brexit deal under threat from EU fishing demands The Times

Starmer’s Big Tech lobbying problem Democracy for Sale

New Not-So-Cold War

EU, UK leaders speak with Trump before his Putin call as Ukraine hit Al Jazeera

Rubio warns of new US sanctions if Russia stalls Ukraine ceasefire talks Ukrainska Pravda

Putin heads into Trump call confident Russia has upper hand against Ukraine Bloomberg

Brief frontline summary – May 18, 2025 Marat Khairullin Substack

TRUMP, THE EUROPEANS AND ZELENSKY DON’T KNOW THE LESSON OF THE ARROGANT KING AND THE BURNING OF THE ORACLES John Helmer

Baltic Provocations Heat Up: Estonia Again Plays with Fire, This Time Gets Burned Simplicius

Estonian PM Vows To Keep Up Checks On Russia’s ‘Shadow Fleet’ Reuters

Ukrainian neo-Nazis to sign deal with Russian separatists RT

Another Look at Root Causes of the War in Ukraine Larry Johnson

Spook Country

CIA to name veteran Middle East case officer as head of covert operations FT

FDD Uncovers Likely Chinese Intelligence Operation Targeting Recently Laid-Off U.S. Government Employees Foundation for Defense of Democracies. From a neocon outfit always aiming to drum up support for confrontation with China, but worth noting.

Biden

Former President Joe Biden diagnosed with aggressive form of prostate cancer NBC News. The tributes are already pouring in from Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Hillary, Kamala, etc. Here are some other reactions:

“Liberation Day”

Bessent warns tariffs will return to ‘Liberation Day’ rates if negotiations aren’t in good faith The Hill

Scott Bessent says tariff uncertainty is a tactic — otherwise countries ‘would play us in the negotiations’ Fortune

The secretive US factory that lays bare the contradiction in Trump’s America First plan BBC

Trump 2.0

Behind Trump and DOGE’s Reckless Destruction Is a Determination to Crush Workers Truthout 

Vucic Says No Halt To Kushner’s Trump Hotel Project In Belgrade Despite Forged Document RFE/RL

Trump Drops Southwest Airlines $2.1 Million Lawsuit Over Flight Delays Aviation A2Z

GOP Funhouse

Republicans advance Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ in unusual late-night vote The Hill

Concerns rise over medical coverage losses from ‘big, beautiful bill’ The Hill

How Biden set the stage for GOP budget cuts Stephen Semler. From February, still germane.

Police State Watch

The Group Behind Project 2025 Has a Plan to Crush the Pro-Palestinian Movement New York Times

TRUMP IS BUILDING A GLOBAL GULAG FOR IMMIGRANTS CAPTURED BY ICE The Intercept

AI

Worst Interview Ever Slate

Healthcare?

What makes a hospital room ‘intelligent’? Becker’s Health IT. Clean air?

More hospitals will get dangerously overcrowded, researchers project Association of Healthcare Journalists

Abortion

Women who suffer stillbirths could face police searches The Telegraph

Suspect identified in ‘intentional act of terrorism’ near Palm Springs fertility clinic LAist

Sports Desk

Paralympic gold medal-winning judoka Shahana Hajiyeva handed life ban for faking blindness, claims report First Post

Class Warfare

A World on Fire Los Angeles Review of Books

Font activations Internal exile

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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150 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    ‘Mairav Zonszein מרב זונשיין
    @MairavZ
    Haaretz is reporting that due to a shortage of reservists who will show up for duty, the IDF is calling up soldiers suffering PTSD, two have already commits suicide’

    I can well believe that this is true but to bring up a point that I have mentioned before – how are they going to put together a viable occupation army. Do they have the troops necessary anymore to be able to do this with enough slack so that exhausted troops can go home on rotation. After all this time they are still not really drafting ultra-orthodox candidates because they are too busy praying or something which means that all this is falling on those still in the ranks – apart from those that refuse to be called back or those that jumped aboard a jet to some other country. And on top of this they need more troops for occupation duty in parts of Lebanon and also Syria. Something’s gotta give.

    1. JohnA

      I suspect that the IOF and Bibi are aiming to empty the Gaza strip of all Palestinians still alive. As such, they wont need an occupation force, only a security force to prevent any refugees from re-entering.

    2. Afro

      Are they going to occupy Gaza or are they just going to move in after there are zero Palestinians left?

      Perhaps the plan is to send maybe 3,000 Palestinians to Libya, and then tell the world they sent 1.9 million Palestinians to Libya, and not care about who notices a difference and who doesn’t.

      In Lebanon and Syria they can rely on their ally, Al-Jolani.

      1. mrsyk

        It’s got to be “zero Palestinians left”. Gaza is a real estate deal, and is to be completely bulldozed.
        This is IMO of course, but how is one to draw any other conclusion based on action to date?

        1. The Rev Kev

          Of course it should be pointed out that Gaza will be contaminated with all sorts of chemicals and materials for decades to come. Forever chemicals anybody? And then there is all that unexploded ordinance that will have to be found and destroyed in place. Finally there is the hazard of thousands of buried bodies that will have to be dealt with. Maybe the Israelis can set up ovens to deal with them or something. As the Israelis will be loath to pay the tens of billions of dollars for any of that themselves, are they going to hit up the Don, aka the US, for a “loan” or will they float Gaza Reconstruction Bonds on the international market?

          1. mrsyk

            I’d hazard a “yes” on those reconstruction bonds, dollar denominated of course. As for the toxicity, no more so than your average golf course, lol.

            1. The Rev Kev

              At least most golf courses don’t have unexploded 155mm shells just below the surfaces of those greens. Hit your club too deep and that will ruin your golf score for the rest of the day. :)

              1. Wukchumni

                An established 18 hole golf course in the USA closes for good every 4 days, as interest dies back and is more valuable being just regular old real estate.

                A course in Fresno that had been around since 1952 is in the process of closing.

                I never really associate golfing with Israelis, it’d be similar to Mexican fighter pilots, they may exist.

                1. ambrit

                  Hey now Wukgringo. Los Luchadores del Aire.
                  Besides, those Super Southrons have had years of practice guiding drones loaded with “agricultural export items” up to El Norte.

          2. vao

            There will be no reconstruction.

            Too expensive. Too long. Soil heavily contaminated. Underground water irremediably polluted. Too much rubble to vacate.

            A part of Gaza at the end of the Netzarim corridor will be cleared, a small harbour will be built, a gas terminal installed, some prefabricated housing put in place — all to service the gas fields offshore Gaza. The rest of the devastated territory will be fenced in and left as is. Nobody will inhabit the place after the Palestinians have been exterminated or expelled. Settlers will move to Syria instead.

              1. The Rev Kev

                ‘They are the only people on earth to covet wealth and poverty with equal craving. They plunder, they butcher, they ravish, and call it by the lying name of ’empire’. They make a desert and call it ‘peace'” ‘ – Calgacus

                1. ArvidMartensen

                  One of these days, as is the way in the world, whether it is 5 or 50 or 500 years from now, Israel will come under existential attack from somebody or other.

                  And the world will see and then play a nano-sized violin

            2. Old Jake

              So even if the IDF went home today, the remaining Palestinians may want to find a new home so that their children will grow in a safe environment, without fear of mines, unexploded ordnance, poisons and other hazards. Should we now recognize the real situation and advocate for something more than “just stop?” Which is, of course, a necessary first step, but inadequate.

              1. vao

                Since a large part of the population of Gaza are refugees from the 1948 Nakba, or descendents thereof, the logical place to move them is to Israel…

          3. Emma

            Other than beach villas and the gas terminal, they can just settle Ethiopian and North African Jews in the footprint.

          4. steppenwolf fetchit

            If the TrumpAdmin still intends to take and keep Gaza for itself , including the offshore gas, the TrumpAdmin may think that the offshore gas will pay for cleanup and Riviera construction costs with some gas profit left over.

            If that is what the TrumpAdmin is thinking, then at some point it will have to disappoint Netanyahu by telling him that Israel doesn’t get Gaza, America gets Gaza. Including the offshore gas and the profits.

  2. Henry Moon Pie

    Chicago dust storm–

    What’s old is new again. I have remembered the dust storm scene from the 1970s Woody Guthrie biopic, “Bound for Glory,” since I first saw it nearly 50 years ago. It was especially powerful when the parents are desperately trying to cover their children’s faces to keep the dirt out of their kids’ lungs in the family living room.

    Woody wrote a song about a particularly bad storm called “Great Dust Storm Disaster.”

    Some lyrics:

    Our relatives were huddled into their oil boom shacks,
    And the children they was cryin’ as it whistled through the cracks.
    And the family it was crowded into their little room,
    They thought the world had ended, and they thought it was their doom.

    1. Wukchumni

      My mom related tales of dust storms that hit the farm where she grew up 20 miles south of Calgary in the 1930’s, in one vicious instance there were about a dozen First Nations Indians on horse that asked her dad if they could sleep in the barn, and he allowed them to do so. It left quite an impression on her, being around 10 years old at the time.

      1. earthling

        In my travels in South Dakota the locals talked about the ‘dirty thirties’ as if not long ago. Pretty gripping to hear about it direct from families affected. Now I’m living in the southwest, where the epic string of dust storms this year has me thinking we may well be heading into a new Dust Bowl time.

    2. The Rev Kev

      If all that dust was picked up on farms in central Illinois, wouldn’t they be contaminated with chemical fertilizers and pesticides? Might be a good idea to wear a N95 mask while all that dust is blowing about.

      1. Henry Moon Pie

        Good point, Rev. And I neglected to note in my original comment that Gabe Brown, whom we all know about through Lambert, must be weeping. Hey there, Illinois farmers turn those plowshares into planters or metal sculptures.

    3. Lieaibolmmai

      I love how history is repeating itself. We would have already had the second Grate Depression if the U.S. was still on the gold standard. Tariffs, pandemics, wealth inequality, an “anarchist” uprising. All there but all off the timeline just a bit.

      2. Adam Eran

        Let’s not forget the Coolidge and Hoover administrations’ reduction of national debt.

      3. flora

        Ah, the “Grate Depression”, as in “To reduce to fragments, shreds, or powder by rubbing against an abrasive surface.” Unlike the ” Great Depression,” aka “Very large in size, extent, or intensity. ”

        Apologies for the pedantry, and yet I think the difference in meaning makes a point. For farmers in the US it was a Great Depression:for Wall Street it might have only seemed like a “Grate Depression”, at the time. / ;) And we know how that worked out.

  3. DJG, Reality Czar

    Private US-backed foundation to start Gaza aid deliveries despite UN warnings France 24

    Damn, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is whiffy, to be polite.

    The bare-bones board and the understaffed staff guarantee that this project won’t work.

    So who benefits?

    Who benefits from privatizing aid all of a sudden to 2 million people? It is easy to claim Israel does, but what seems more important is the public acknowledgment that the U S of A is firmly in control of the genocide, down to the fake feeding of meals at 1.30 USD apiece.

    Such specificity about starvation. It’s the U.S. business class engulfing itself in the banality of its own evil.

    And where is the money coming from?

    Note this board. Four people, with a big mistake, one of many in the incompetently written prospectus.

    • Nate Mook – Former CEO of World Central Kitchen, Special Advisor on Ukraine to the Howard G Buffett Foundation
    ● Raisa Sheynberg – Vice President, Government Affairs and Policy at Mastercard.
    >> ● Former U.S. National Security Council Director for International Trade & Investment. Also worked as senior advisor at the Department of Treasury, Office of Terrorist Financing. [This turns out to be more of Sheynberg’s distinguished résumé. So, a major typo in a prospectus. Confidence building! DJG]
    ● Jonathan Foster – Founder and Managing Director of Current Capital. Has been on the
    Board of over 50 companies and has been chair of two Fortune 500 Audit committees.
    ● Loik Henderson – Lawyer with decades of experience to include Fortune 500 companies specializing in business structuring and governance.

    https://ynet-pic1.yit.co.il/picserver6/wcm_upload_files/2025/05/08/BJbxp4cgel/Gaza_Humanitarian_Foundation_Overview__1_.pdf

    And the Swiss branch makes no sense to me. Money laundering? To quote, “The Swiss GHF has a verbal commitment from Goldman Sachs to establish a bank account for this affiliate which should be completed shortly.”

    From up top in the prospectus: “GHF was established to restore that vital lifeline through an independent, rigorously-audited model that gets assistance directly— and only— to those in need.”

    Ahhh, whenever USonians start talking about “only to those in need,” watch out. It means that no one will benefit. Ask black Americans how this “only to those in need” standard has worked out.

    Finally, and pettily, but then I have been an editor for many a year, the logo is just damn ugly. It’s what a former colleague of mine used to call Clowns in a Blender.

  4. The Rev Kev

    “Estonian PM Vows To Keep Up Checks On Russia’s ‘Shadow Fleet’’

    Play stupid games, win stupid prizes…

    ‘Russia detained a Greek-owned oil tanker on Sunday after it left an Estonian Baltic Sea port, the Estonian Foreign Ministry said, adding it had alerted NATO allies to the incident. The Liberia-flagged ship Green Admire was leaving Sillamae port using a designated navigation channel that crosses Russian territorial waters, the ministry said in a statement.’

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/estonia-says-russia-detained-tanker-baltic-sea-2025-05-18/

    I was reading elsewhere that that ‘designated navigation channel’ was established in a deal between Russia, Estonia and Finland. Since the later decided to play funny buggers and tried to hijack a ship in international waters – also known as piracy – that agreement is now dead and void.

    1. .Tom

      Simplicius mentioned this tit-for-tat too. He wrote that heavy ships use this deeper channel through Russian waters, according to that prior agreement, but also that Estonian officials said that from now on, since this incident, ships will avoid it and the Russian waters and pass through more dangerous shallower channels entirely in Estonian waters.

      So Estonia chose, presumably at the political level, to endanger oil tankers using Estonian ports rather than stop escalating with Russia. I wonder how crews, owners and insurers feel about that.

  5. Wukchumni

    Terrifying attraction lets tourists sleep while suspended over 320-foot cliff New York Post.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Saw this from the road in the Sacred Valley in Peru, and it must have been 1,000 foot almost sheer drop from the really spendy digs, which costs $1500 a night, ouch!

    Big wall climbers do this all the time, with what is called a portaledge. I’m content to be in a hammock instead between a couple of trees, with my rear echelon perhaps a foot above the ground.

    https://naturavive.com/web/skylodge-adventure-suites/

    1. Henry Moon Pie

      There was a spot we liked to camp at a place called Cebolla Mesa that sat at the edge of the Rio Grande Gorge at the Red River confluence. We hung our hammock off a couple of pinon trees right at the edge for a great view. The photos we took of either of us in the hammock look as if we were suspended over that 800 feet deep gorge.

      One of the coolest things about that place was watching the moon rise and its light creep down the opposite side of the gorge.

      Twenty years ago, a movie called “Off the Map” was filmed at or near our favorite camping spot, and they had a hammock shot that I cannot find on Youtube.

    2. Bugs

      That’s in Peruvian soles, Wuk. About $400 a night. I don’t understand the attraction. I started suffering from vertigo at about 35 years old (after having loved climbing) and I’ve been trying to get past it by white knuckling height challenges ever since but even looking at those things makes my palms moist.

    3. ChrisPacific

      You can see a via ferrata on the cliff face next to the Chinese one (the iron rungs). They’re a means of making climbing accessible to people with no training or background, and were used to move troops around alpine locations in World War 1, for example. You wear a harness with two straps with clips on the end, which you ‘walk’ up or down the rungs, one at a time so that you are always anchored by at least one if you slip.

      The woman is still wearing the harness in the photos, which appears to still be clipped to the rungs. So as precarious as it looks, she’s probably literally unable to fall – unless she were to release the harness.

  6. .Tom

    Keith Woods tweeted that “Portugal has been dominated by two centre-left parties for half a decade, but today, the nationalist CHEGA party has broken that and finished second in a national election.” 5 years isn’t especially long for a political duopoly to dominate. Maybe he means half a decade, i.e. since the revolution.

    1. The Rev Kev

      I wonder if Trump will bail out farmers again like he was forced to do during his first term. You would think that he would but this time around I am not so sure.

      2. GF

        I will bet the farm he does bail them out. He will end up paying much more in bailouts to affected entities (not only farmers) than he could possibly collect in tariffs. What a country.

        1. Wukchumni

          Trump bailed out Big Soybean in his first term, and then China went with other suppliers.

          Win-Lose

  8. Henry Moon Pie

    I surfed through just a minute of Morning Joe and happened to catch Zeke Emmanuel talking about Joe’s prostate cancer. Like mine, his Gleason score is a whopping 9 with presumably a PET scan showing metastatic spots on two vertebrae (I had one.). Zeke speculated about the course of treatment that included the chemical castration treatment I’ve been getting for a year now and radiation for the spots like I received a few weeks ago. He didn’t mention the radiation on the prostate itself that I received a year and a half ago.

    What will be impossible to explain is how Joe’s cancer has managed to grow and spread while he was President of the United States without us hearing anything about it. I hadn’t seen a doctor for 20 years when my son’s urging brought me to a doctor for worsening rectal cancer after which a PSA revealed the prostate cancer as well. So we have yet another health coverup re: Biden. Ds are the worst.

    Since I brought it up, here’s an update on my situation. In the last month, I’ve had a CT scan, a PSA, a broader cancer antigen test, a normetanephrine test (for the pheochromopcytoma) and a blood test the uses genetic signatures to test for cancer cells in the blood stream. The CT is clear except for the prostate itself. The PSA is undetectable. The broader cancer antigen is normal, as is the normetanephrine test. The Signatura test is clear. So there’s no cancer showing up anywhere except the prostate, and it’s under control for the time being.

    From this point on, my treatment consists of a tri-monthly injection and a daily pill for the prostate that will continue for another year. There will be a CT scan and these same blood tests every 3 months as well.

    That’s the surprisingly good news. The bad news is that treatment has left my body a bit of a wreck. I’m still struggling to recover from the last surgery in October when I was gutted like a fish and sewn back up. My surgeon tells me the unhealed spot is down to less than a centimeter, but the ongoing treatments are quite painful while I’m getting them and for a couple of days after. The 4th and 5th fingers on my left hand have been useless since that surgery as well which may have something to do with being on the table for 9 hours. It makes typing quite slow. And the chemo left me with legs that feel like blocks of wood below the knees. And I almost died two or three times during the course of treatment.

    The trade-off has been the additional time with family, especially the granddaughters, one of whom I see almost daily, and the other two at least once a week. This past week, I went in for another torture session kneeling with my butt in the air while my surgeon cauterizes and applies burning silver nitrate as blood streams down my legs. Before I assumed the position, I told my rectal surgeon the story about my granddaughter and I dancing to Wilson Pickett while waiting in line at a drive-in and thanked her and all the doctors and nurses at UH who had dealt with one challenge after another with surprising success. She had to choke back a few tears, and she’s a pretty tough cookie.

    I’ve also managed to reach two milestones this spring: 50th anniversaries of graduation from college and marriage.

    So the road ahead for old Joe isn’t that bad. The most painful of the prostate treatment process, the biopsy, is behind him (temporally as well as physically). Now it’s just pills and injections, maybe some radiation whose side effects have been pretty minimal for me. It could be at his age that something will kill him first before the prostate cancer. It’s tough to feel much compassion for Genocide Joe, especially since he and those around him were so determined to keep us in the dark about multiple serious health conditions.

    1. ChrisFromGA

      My what a rough road you’ve been through. I’m sorry to hear about it. God bless you and may your recovery be a full one, with many years left.

      I know you’re a Chiefs fan so enjoy another season with Reid/Mahomes. Reid is the best coach in the NFL, IMO.

    2. Unironic Pangloss

      Apologies for shoving advice in your face….read up (or ask around) about intermittent fasting and cancer treatments. (or at least cut down on sugar)

      From my unscientific sample size of 1 in the extended family, it works for stage 4 cancer.

      People can beat cancer, even stage 4

        1. SKM

          yes look at Thomas Seyfried`s work to get a deeper understanding of why and how ketosis can help a lot even if you can`t get to follow his full protocol. The science behind what he`s saying is very convincing… have a look, I think it can only help and certainly not harm… all best wishes

    3. Bugs

      Hang in there friend, it sounds like you’re over the hump for a while. Before you know it, the Royals will be in the playoffs and football season will be upon us. Enjoy your time with the grandkids. Some of us will never have that opportunity.

      I’m going to go see my parents, who are not well, in a couple weeks and check in on life in Wisconsin. I’ll go to the Pride Parade and take the temperature of the counterculture that still shows up there. It should be less corporate this year, I expect. Last year my BFF had to pull me off the sidewalk for screaming at the FBI that they didn’t belong there, lol.

      1. ambrit

        Wait a minute. The FBI most certainly does belong at a Pride parade. I mean, John Edgar Hoover, right?
        Stay safe. Keep a low profile. Enjoy the time with the parents.

    4. outside observer

      From my own experience your grandchildren will cherish the time you’ve spent together for the rest of their lives.

    5. earthling

      Best wishes, Henry.

      Yes, keeping all of this in the dark about what goes on at the White House is so not right. These people lie their way up the ladder of life, and when at the pinnacle of power, they still lie, even when the truth would be both easier and more useful. It should not be legal to do that. This world is complicated enough without heading it up with pathological liars.

      1. Antifa

        An honest man sent to DC
        As a servant and public trustee
        Would come home in a week
        Saying, ‘I’m an antique!’
        ‘That place is for gangsters, not me!!’

        Someday when the hoi polloi tires
        Of electing a Congress of liars
        Of sociopaths
        Fond of wars and bloodbaths
        Doing anything money requires

        We will tax all our billionaires
        For bad manners and putting on airs
        For monopolization
        Of what was our nation
        And charging too much for their wares

    6. Henry Moon Pie

      Thanks at all for the kind thoughts.

      As for Biden, it’s hard for me to imagine the Vice President and then the President not getting a PSA every year. I hadn’t gone to a doctor in 20 years, and had never had a PSA. That’s how you end up with a Gleason 9 and metastasis to the bone as both Biden and I have. Were they just doing a Trump and not testing to avoid possible bad news? Why hasn’t Biden been put under treatment much sooner? I have to wonder if the guy’s health hasn’t been undermined either by his own or somebody else’s ambition. There are some doctors who need to provide some answers.

      1. IM Doc

        Just hang in there. I see people who do amazingly well with prostate cancer. All the indignities as you describe above can be overwhelming; however, it may not be as bad as what our minds can make up in the fateful moments.

        1. Henry Moon Pie

          Thanks, IM Doc. This past week, in that session with my surgeon, I didn’t include the part of the story where she thanked ME for thanking her. She said many patients didn’t do that, and that it meant a lot when some did.

          I’m getting by with a little help from friends and family, and some Tylenol and state-sanctioned cannabis after those sessions. No opioids throughout this process.

          1. Twylah

            Our very best wishes to you HMP, and thank you for describing your trek … my father has just received a diagnosis of rectal and prostate cancer, he’s been a swimmer all his life and until last week has been a healthy 89-yr-old. Just starting our journey … would appreciate your prayers.

  9. duckies

    Joe Biden have been an aggressive form of cancer long before he became a president.

    1. Neutrino

      Palliative care, hospice or that beach in Delaware?
      Timing of announcement reeks of more Biden lies, or from his handlers.
      Nobody suffering from prostate cancer, or having had any diagnoses or treatments, believes the timeline.

      1. Screwball

        Some team blue members are outraged at people who don’t believe the timeline. How dare they question Biden at a time like this – those classless scoundrels. In the next breath they tell us it’s too bad this didn’t happen to Trump.

        Trump broke the world. It may never return to sanity.

  11. CanCyn

    Re hospital over crowding – they are a problem here in Ontario too. I have a friend who, last February, spent 4 days being treated for sepsis (after a poorly treated Strep infection) on a gurney in ER because there were no rooms available. My sister-in-law is currently in a different hospital, different community, recovering from a perforated bowel (she almost died, 3 emergency surgeries, sepsis, 8 days in medically induced coma, 4 weeks in ICU). Once moved to a regular ward she was in a room intended for 2 that has 3 beds in it, 2 women and 1 man. The room is over crowded with equipment such that it is difficult to visit and also difficult for nurses to move around the bed, to change bedding, give sponge baths, medication, check vitals, etc. There is equipment and soiled laundry bins in the hallways such it makes it difficult to move a stretcher or wheelchair or walker through around.
    Staff are clearly overworked and unenthusiastic about their jobs. While in ICU, where you generally have 1 dedicated nurse, my SIL asked a nurse for some water, she hadn’t seen her own nurse for awhile, he told her that her nurse was ‘on break’ and she would have to wait. At one point there was a problem with her colostomy bag and 3 different nurses, one of whom was a manager, yelled at her and accused her of deliberately tampering with it.
    Visiting both hospitals was like being transported to a third world country. My own efforts at self-care and staying fit are greatly motivated- the old cliché that a hospital is no place for a sick person seems totally true.
    And really none of this is new. My mother-in-law died from COPD complications in 2016 and even back then her doctor tried very hard to keep her out of the hospital because of risks like infection, etc. I know someone whose father who had dementia – he fell and broke his hip. He spent 3 days in ER laying on his back – he got pneumonia and died – yes this happened in an Ontario hospital and it was a number of years ago. These problems are not new and, like the risks of COVID, everyone just seems to accept that the problems are insurmountable and that we just have to learn to accept it all – TINA

    1. Roland

      Every time I visit someone in a Canadian hospital, things seem worse than the time before. Dirty, smelly, dim, and cluttered–a stark contrast from the antiseptic sparkle and purposeful activity that I remember from my boyhood years in the ’70’s and ’80’s. I’m not being nostalgic: the differences are visible and tangible.

      A few months ago, my mother had a minor outpatient procedure at the Royal Columbian (a major hospital in the Vancouver area.) Afterwards, they left this 80-year old woman standing in a crowded hallway, with blood trickling down from her scalp, while indifferent staff literally pushed her aside.

      At the same time, numerous staff were at computer terminals or on tablets, busy with the micromanagement of every mere alcohol pad or capsule of acetominophen. No wonder they’re surly and burned out.

      But as you say, it’s weird how accepting everyone seems to be of the situation, whether staff, patients, or public. Planet Canada, the home of resignation, where people still seem to think we get good health care.

      1. CanCyn

        Thanks for this Roland. I agree that the differences are tangible and noticeable. My Mom was ill through the 90’s, she died in 2001, things were not perfect then but I remember cleaner, less crowded hospitals and more cheerful staff. I have much sympathy for health care workers in hospitals, I wouldn’t want to work in the either of the hospitals (Ottawa and Kingston) that I have visited recently – in any capacity. They’re very depressing places to be.
        I recently met a social worker who is friends with a guy whose job is basically to figure out a way to cheer up nursing staff in a hospital network. He offers dance workshops and they’re surprised that no one comes. (She stops typing to slap her forehead) I’d say that the nursing I’ve met and observed recently need basic mental health counselling and some signs that hospital management cares more for their staff and patients than their spreadsheets and check boxes.

  12. The Rev Kev

    ‘Michael Tracey
    @mtracey
    As the apocalyptic end-game Israeli offensive in Gaza gets underway, Witkoff says: “I don’t think there is any daylight between President Trump’s position and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s position.” With Netanyahu’s position being the final “conquest” of Gaza. So there you have it’

    And it just came out that Witkoff personally promised Hamas on behalf of the Trump regime to make Israel lift the blockade to allow humanitarian aid to starving Palestinians in exchange for that Israeli-American hostage. But as soon as he was freed, Witkoff reneged on the deal-

    https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/witkoff-hamas-trump-deal-edan-alexander-lift-blockade-israel

    1. John Wright

      It is not clear that Witkoff, personally, reneged on the deal.

      He may have simply demonstrated his lack of real power to make any agreement.

      And one can suggest the world noticed.

      Witkoff is damaged goods now.

      If so, Witkoff could show his disgust at being undercut by resigning.

      Trump will find it even more difficult to make any sort of deal after this event.

      And allowing humanitarian aid would have elevated Trump’s sorry image around the world.

  13. TomDority

    The New Dark Age – Chris Hedges
    Thumbs -up
    let the realist theorists of international politics take notes

    1. vao

      While the general tenor of the article is good, I have some reservations.

      “The fall of the Roman Empire led to immiseration and repression throughout Europe during the Dark Ages, roughly from the sixth through the 13th century.”

      This looks like the commonplace descriptions that used to be provided in the past (and possibly still are) in MSM and history books for schools.

      The fact is that the Roman Empire itself was one of vast immiseration and ruthless repression: bread and circuses, slavery, compulsory inheritance of professions and duties, protests drowned in blood or crucifixon, etc. The Pax Romana was one of constant wars, coups d’état, riots, and insurrections. Apparently, in quite a number of cases populations welcomed the “barbarians” who got them rid of Roman tax collectors, slave-owning latifundists, prosecutors, and garrisons.

      “The Belgian monarch King Leopold in the late 19th century occupied the Congo in the name of Western civilization and anti-slavery, but plundered the country, resulting in the death — by disease, starvation and murder — of some 10 million Congolese.”

      This is the prime example of colonialist horror, but this large tree hides the forest: overall, during the “scramble for Africa”, the continent lost a third of its population. This is the overall figure, and there were variations: Algeria under the French lost 30%, Congo under the Belgians 50%. This gives the scale of the massacre essentially during the last quarter of the 19th century.

      “We cannot, having provided billions of dollars in weapons and persecuted those who decry the genocide, make moral claims anymore that will be taken seriously.”

      The West will of course make such claims, and they will be taken seriously, as a justification, a cover, a precedent — by other governments that wish to inflict a similar treatment to their foe of predilection.

      1. Daniil Adamov

        re: Rome, that’s really the issue I take with the view of history expressed in that post. While renouncing the inevitability of progress, it still keeps it linear, wobbling back and forth along the same line. Reality is much more complicated. A lot of valuable things were lost with the fall of the Roman Empire in the West (speaking of depopulation, populations don’t collapse from sheer joy at being liberated from their previous rulers), but so were the increasingly intolerable things you list. Judging whether any such drastic transformation was a net positive or negative is difficult, which is why it tends to be so contentious. Likewise the Renaissance, which Hedges seems to approve of, had many dark sides as far as immiserations and repressions are concerned. Harmful innovations (like the witch hunts, to give just one largely uncontroversial example) abound in times of high civilisation. Frankly our time makes me think more of an age of harmful innovations than of the destruction of civilisation (although that may come later).

        1. vao

          “speaking of depopulation, populations don’t collapse from sheer joy at being liberated from their previous rulers”

          Apparently the various plagues — Antonine, Cyprian’s, and Justinian’s — had quite a demographic impact on the territories of the Roman or erstwhile Roman empire; its population was already decreasing, and by quite a lot (I read from about 75 million at its peak to 55 million during the 4th century), before its fall. And when Justinian went on to reconquer the former Western Roman empire and re-establish the imperial dominion, it seems that its Byzantine administration and soldiers were not welcome in Italy.

          But we agree: seeing Rome as an unmitigatedly positive stage of civilization is a stretch.

          1. Giovanni Barca

            Depopulation had already been well underway even aside from the plagues. The land given to the foederati (various Germans mostly) wasn’t exactly teeming with Romans. Debt and repression had already done a number on the European populations of the empire and Dioclețian didnt do it any favors with his taxes.

        2. Roland

          Birthrates had plummeted during the Roman Empire, and infanticide was common. Population was declining irrespective of plagues or wars.

          The so-called “Dark Ages” actually witnessed a rebound of population, expansion of cultivated area, and gradual increase of bodily stature.

          The times were certainly “dark” for people like scholars, merchants, and officials: the sorts of people whose Greek-reading, aqueduct-supplied lifestyle was supported by a more and more crushing burden upon the semi-servile peasantry during the middle and later Empire.

          The twilight of a sophisticated, cosmopolitan Mediterranean culture represents a loss from our perspective, since we crave the books and the sculptures. But the Roman Empire had become inimical to the vital needs of humanity. Ruin is reparable; extinction is not.

          1. Wukchumni

            Money really goes to hell during the Dark Ages, no artistry and often coins look more like lumps of metal for about 500 years.

            It’s a dead period for present day collectors, 5 centuries of blah.

          2. vao

            Indeed. There were those harsh laws punishing Roman citizens who did not have enough children, and Latin authors commenting that despite their severity, those laws did not show much effect.

            When I come to think of it, we are currently living under the neoliberal socio-economic system, which is itself “inimical to the vital needs of humanity”, and see there: a relentless collapse of fertility and birthrates, with pundits, politicians, and grandees of economics and corporations loudly deploring the situation and exhorting people to have more children.

      2. Polar Socialist

        Probably no need to point it out – but I’ll do it anyway – that the Roman Empire fell in 1453. Or maybe even as late as 1566: when Mehmed the Conqueror died, as he had taken the title of caesar and ruled his Ottoman Empire as an emperor of Rome. His great-grandson Suleiman still followed the byzantine rituals and court-manners, and his troops war cry was “For Rome!”. Only around mid 16th century did the Ottoman Empire turn towards more Arabic legacy and legitimacy.

        That said, I’ve got several books* here saying that when the West Rome fell, nobody outside of the city of Rome really noticed. Locals were governed, taxes were collected, order was kept, roads and aqueducts maintained and so on.

        * Europe after Rome – A New Cultural History 500-1000 by Julia M.H. Smith and The Fall of the West: The Death of the Roman Superpower by Adrian Goldsworthy

      3. Henry Moon Pie

        Takers always kill Leavers just like they kill all life around them for the sake of wealth and power, even just comfort and convenience. Daniel Quinn, in Ishmael, recasts the Cain and Abel myth found in Genesis 4 as the echo of the agriculturist Takers’ wars of extermination against the pastoralist Leavers.

    2. Henry Moon Pie

      Related to this, Breaking Points had something today about the Republican Youtuber/influencer known as “Trump’s favorite” influencer and a dinner companion just last week of Ivanka and Jared. Theo Von’s anguished mea culpa for not talking about Gaza, in which he uses the “G” word, may be indicative of a big shift among younger Republicans according to Krystal et al. It’s quite a contract to the recent machinations of Republicans in the Senate re: Iran.

  14. IM Doc

    So Sorry guys, I am getting old – I put this on the thread from yesterday when I meant to do this right now this AM……

    _________________________

    A few thoughts about prostate cancer from someone in the medical profession for 35 years. I feel much more qualified to discuss this than all the armchair MDs online right now. I probably do 3-5 prostate exams every day and I have I would guess 150 or so men who have either had prostate cancer or dealing with it right now.

    If and when I do get around to writing a book about being a PCP, the chapter on prostate exams will be right there among it all. It is when the patient and I get around to doing the exam that I often really learn their personalities. It is very awkward for many men and almost becomes an irreplaceable bonding experience between men and their PCPs. As such, I have literally heard every possible joke, deflection, or gallows humor right before the deed is done. They have been a lifetime of laughs – I have written these down my whole life – and often read over them for a laugh on bad days. For example, the district criminal judge, who right before the finger went in announced – “There are about 600 young men out in the world who would give it all to be in your position right now. I hope you enjoy every second.”

    Prostate cancer, thyroid cancer, and to some degree breast cancer are the three cancers that due to their usual course, make us think that cancer should be a verb. Men, you are “cancering” right now. There are all kinds of moments in your life when you have an active prostate cancer and your immune system just takes care of it. On multiple occasions in my life, I have had postmortem autopsies on men as young as 30 with prostate cancer found on their autopsy. It is very likely that many cases of prostate cancer arise when the immune system can no longer do surveillance correctly.

    In recent years, the federal agencies have decided that regular prostate exams and PSAs ( the tumor marker for them) are not indicated and should be stopped. The data here is quite flimsy and it flies in the face of the 5 or 6 50-70 year olds I find every year that do indeed have an active prostate cancer. They should at least be observed carefully, if not taken care of medically. It must be said that the federal agencies have also declared the entire physical exam to be largely useless thereby facilitating an entire generation of doctors who never actually touch patients – they play on keyboards the whole time they are in the room.

    About half the time, I feel something on their exam – the other half – we detect rising PSA levels. As internists, we look for patterns. I simply cannot recall a single instance in my life when a well-followed man waited until 82 to have a Gleason 9 prostate cancer with bone mets. It just really does not happen that way. What I DO SEE are men who do not get regular physicals, or haphazard ones, or are street people, or do not take care of themselves show up at that age with widely metastatic prostate cancer. But not men who have taken care of themselves. I have no data to confirm, but one would assume the POTUS would be well examined and frequently. There are certainly men who are found to have highly aggressive prostate cancer – those men are younger – in their 50s and 60s – and in my experience are almost always African American. So, this story is just not consistent with a lifetime of giving medical care. But weird things in medicine can ALWAYS happen.

    I have seen all kinds of coverage of the “terminal” nature of this problem of Biden. Well, maybe, maybe not. Prostate cancer is not like all the others – pancreas, lung, etc. When the others are widely metastatic it really is quite terminal. Not so with prostate cancer. I have many men who live for years and years with this same diagnosis of Biden – and live those years fairly free of problems. The hormone therapy like Lupron and Casodex really help here. He may be gone in 2 weeks – but so may I. The doom and gloom being amped up right now about this issue is not based on medical experience or science.

    Again, this entire presentation really beggars belief based on my experience as a PCP. But unusual things happen in medicine all the time.

    2. Unironic Pangloss

      to be cynical, having blood work for the cancer markers is more revenue extraction than the old-fashioned digital exam.

      i was surprised that the prostate blood work showed up in my annual battery of blood tests in my 40s, but relieved that I didn’t get the poke, lol.

      Thanks Quest Diagostics!

    3. earthling

      Thanks for schooling us about this, good to have it explained by someone who really knows how this goes.

      1. Unironic Pangloss

        I’ve always wondered why the random zinc supplements are so much above the US RDA (50mg, >450%)—-but too lazy to investigate myself.

        Looks the dosage is mirroring the studies. (PS, don’t try this at home without thinking it through—-zinc consumption affects copper levels in blood)

        For anyone who doesn’t know….US RDA is based on (for all practical purposes) ancient studies on small samples; often related to WW2 dietary research.

        No money in prevention; so even in 2025, there are lots of holes and unknowns re. vitamin-mineral and health.

      2. SKM

        and don`t forget to maintain optimum levels of vitamin D. Most presenting breat cancer patients have been seen to have low levels. Optiimal levels seem to reduce the rate of recurrence after therapy. Failure of some to respond “normally” to radiation treatment has been discovered to sometimes be down to inadequate D levels. Can`t provide links just now but a search will find these studies. Oncologist Angus Dalgleish has done work on this matter as he discovered the effect when treating his melanoma patients (he`s excellent on his field of expertise, but I don`t listen to his opinions on a series of unrelated topics!)

    5. Es s Ce Tera

      “one would assume the POTUS would be well examined and frequently”

      I was thinking the same. Given that the health of a US president is a matter of national security, given that the president has a specialized medical team (White House Medical Unit), which consists of a Chief Physician to the President and a team of 20ish that includes cardiologists, neurologists, oncologists, etc., and given that an entire hospital is dedicated to the president (Walter Reed National Military Medical Center), how does prostate cancer escape notice for so long until it’s quite advanced? Unless this is a form of cancer which rapidly progressed only after he lost the presidency?

      In retrospect I think the sleepiness and fatigue was probably the earliest and most obvious symptom. And was simply attributed to age and natural decline in mental acuity. Another reason presidents should not be so far advanced in age?

    6. ChrisFromGA

      Thanks for the reply and copy, IMDoc .., as I posted the news on the old links thread.

      The only time I got a DRE I drew a lucky card and got a female doc. It was a bit awkward, for sure.

      Ever since then, they just take my PSA reading in the annual blood work. I remember asking one doctor, why don’t you do that anymore? He just gave me an odd look.

      1. IM Doc

        The specificity ( not having a false negative ) is much improved if you do both at the same time. I simply do not understand things in my profession anymore. As I said above – about 5 or 6 guys a year with actual cancer. Half of them have abnormal exams – the other half have abnormal PSA. It is not rare at all for only one of the above to yield a positive result. I know it is awkward. I try to make it as least awkward as possible. But the alternative is far more awkward.

  15. The Rev Kev

    “Women who suffer stillbirths could face police searches”

    More than that. Have a stillbirth in Salvador and you can find yourself sentenced to thirty years in prison-

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/salvadoran-women-jailed-decades-miscarriages-stillbirths-warn-us-abort-rcna33035

    And it has come to the US as well-

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59214544

    You can bet that there are over eager DAs and prosecutors wanting to get themselves some headlines by throwing some young woman into prison on some dodgy charges.

  16. upstater

    A pound for the guns, a penny for the poor
    A slam poem about Starmer’s policy of war over welfare
    Ian Proud May 19, 2025

    They call it Labour, but who do they labour for?
    Not the hands that build, not the mouths that plead,
    Not the hearts that break under the weight of greed.
    Keir’s banner waves, red painted bold,
    But where’s the justice for the hungry and cold?
    Four billion pounds, they say, to keep borders tight,
    To fuel a war, to fund the fight.
    While homes crumble, while dreams decay,
    They hand the poor a pittance, then snatch it away.
    Overseas aid slashed, the lifeline torn—
    For defence spending, our compassion’s worn.
    What price for the rockets, the tanks, the steel?
    What cost for the souls that they choose to conceal?
    Policies tailored like suits on Savile Row,
    Fitting the wealthy while the poor stay low.
    Promises hollow, like an echoing shell—
    A promise for peace, but it’s war they sell.
    Angry voices rise, yet who hears their roar?
    When the coffers are drained to fund foreign war.
    And those at home, their backs bent double,
    Are told, “Sacrifice more, your hardship’s our rubble.”
    Labour’s banner? A mask for the pain—
    It’s red, but stained by the poor’s disdain.
    Keir Starmer, your policies cut like a knife,
    Taking bread from the table, stealing hope from life.
    A pound for the guns, a penny for the weak,
    Do you hear the cries, or the truths they speak?
    This isn’t justice—this is war by stealth—
    Bleeding the poor to bolster the wealth.

    1. Daniil Adamov

      And secular equivalent New Year Trees in Russia. But not if you get fir trees with sharp needles (not sure if that or an equivalent is a viable option abroad, though). Cats will still attack toys and branches but won’t attempt to climb the tree itself, being no fools when it comes to comfort. Otherwise, climbing attempts are guaranteed and crashes are likely. That has been my experience, anyway; cats will vary.

  18. The Rev Kev

    “Bessent warns tariffs will return to ‘Liberation Day’ rates if negotiations aren’t in good faith”

    I’m pretty sure that the Chinese could say the same thing. What good faith has the Trump regime shown in any negotiation?

  19. The Rev Kev

    “Vucic Says No Halt To Kushner’s Trump Hotel Project In Belgrade Despite Forged Document”

    This is really a war memorial dedicated to those lost in the NATO attacks on their country and the people have never forgotten, no matter how many times that NATO officials tell them to get over it. It’s like there is an effort to destroy all these reminders of that war. As an example, there is a memorial to the 89 children killed in this war in a Belgrade park and that was dedicated back in 2000-

    https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/we-were-just-children-belgrade

    So later on this EU goofball – an official I think – came along and said that they should tear down that children’s memorial and put up a statue of Jeane ‘it was worth the price’ Kirkpatrick instead. Ughh!

    1. Paleobotanist

      Not Kirkpatrick – it was horrible Madelaine Albright who made that comment, may she rot in Hades.

  20. Dr. John Carpenter

    Biden promised us a cure for cancer, but it looks like cancer is giving us a cure for Joe Biden.

    1. Lefty Godot

      If you remember that Jane’s Addiction song, “Ted, Just Admit It…” (about Bundy), someone needs to do a “Joe, Just Admit It…” song for Biden’s role in the Gaza genocide. Preferably before he kicks the bucket and is still around to hear it.

  21. Pat

    A headline I saw this morning was “What you need to know about Biden’s diagnosis”.
    Quite honestly there is very little I personally need to know about his diagnosis. It is largely none of my business, and I have about as much interest in Biden’s well being as he has in mine. I will keep my other highly negative thoughts about him as a person to myself until it really is his funeral.

    But there are some general things that will never be a part of the official narrative in my experience that I would like to know. First the bad things How was this missed by the Doctors busily reassuring the country about the President’s health? Or were there no real physicals during his term? If it wasn’t sudden, why now, what might it be distracting attention from. And the good. What could this mean for the many others who might have undiagnosed prostate cancer? IM Doc mentions above that prostrate exams are not considered necessary, could that be corrected? How can this be used to improve the lives of others?

    1. Jason Boxman

      I have about as much interest in Biden’s well being as he has in mine.

      That was my contribution to whatever I saw on the Twitter. I’m simply beaming with the indifference Biden has shown everyone in America these past 4 years. From doubling childhood poverty to terminating public health, to say nothing of his policies abroad, and this is just his term as president. He’s visited this upon us with as much indifference as I can muster about his health.

  22. JMH

    Is there such a thing as an event that is not a deeper shade of awful? Genocide tops the list. The US and Europe deny what their eyes tell them. That is blood on their hands. Blood to the elbows. Europe with Germany leading the charge is blinded by its irrational hatred of Russia. Better, they say, that we destroy ourselves rather than admit that Russia is defeating us once again. The EU praises the Romanian election of its candidate. Was the election “fair and open” or was the fix in from the moment the first round was canceled the EU wanted it canceled? Russia should continue doing what it has been doing. It should not change a word of its position except perhaps to up its demands with each foolish and stubborn response. I believe this will be the course followed. Iran: Ignore what the US says today as it will change tomorrow. Witkoff seemed to be playing honest broker. He has disabused us of that nonsense. The Don, DJT, is playing by his tired old playbook. The US is proving on all fronts to not be capable of making and honoring an agreement. Here in the US, the Don and his merry men are doing their damnedest to dismantle, degrade, privatize and/or financialize any institution of government that might conceivably benefit anyone not in the donor class including their minions in the PMC. The Don may admire William McKinley but he is, as usual,looking at only those parts of the picture that confirm his beliefs. Or are they the bed rock tenets of the Deep State or the Donors or the “World Wide Bankers cabal or conspiracy or good old boys club?” If such a bunch really is in charge then The Don is nothing more than a useful idiot to be discarded like any worn out and economically unrepairable tool. All I can add is carthago delenda est.

  23. Duarte Guerreiro

    Some context on the Portuguese election and the linked tweet.

    Portugal hasn’t been ruled by two center-left parties, it has two neoliberal parties (the Socialist Party and the Social-Democratic Party) with the usual bickering over matters of individual rights policy as you see all over the Western world, while the economy is happily turned into a rentier paradise by both of them. The Socialist Party was directly funded by the CIA as a foil to the Communist Party and the Social-Democratic Party was a rebrand of forces linked to the old regime and the eternally bitter returnees of the colonies. They just have those confusing names because they were established after the Carnation revolution, so they played the part of left-wing parties as needed to get votes.

    Both of these parties have worked tirelessly to keep Portugal “competitive” by incentivizing a low wage economy in tourism, services (call-centers and such) and subcontracting of any knowledge workers (those that don’t emigrate, which is a lot of them) by extremely incompetent and exploitative near-shoring companies.

    Their work to undo the gains of the revolution progressed steadily since their founding, with occasional flashpoints when things accelerate. The GFC was one of these, used as an excuse to suppress salaries and benefits while giving bosses more leverage so that there are a lot of undocumented work hours besides the ones on paper; the selling off and degradation of every public service, using private sector parasites to plug the holes left behind; the housing market turned into a nightmare, with prices exploding (both to buy and rent) because foreign investors flooded in looking for stability and landlords saw an “opportunity” in massively converting to short-term rentals or putting in bunk beds and renting a place to 20 hyper-exploited immigrants that work deliveries, hospitality or cleaning; letting immigration proceed with no plan, turning a blind eye to the stressors being created since landlords and bosses were happy. In a low wage economy, immigrants become a lot more visible as competition for the natives.

    Half of this period was the supposed golden administration of António Costa (now off to bigger and better things in the EU as is usual with our politicians – remember Durão Barroso?), with the Socialist Party, the Communist Party and Left Bloc in a coalition which allowed neoliberatization to continue while getting a couple of miserly concessions to the left-wing. The end result was great for the Socialist Party, which managed to temporarily appear progressive, and disastrous for the left-wing parties, who lost their opposition status (and in this latest election only managed to get 4 people in parliament; 1 for Left Bloc, 3 for the Communists – in fact, a lot of the vote for CHEGA comes from former bastions of the Communist party in the southern half of the country. Here, the latifundia are back, serviced by quasi-indentured servants from Indo-Asia).

    We now have people in the workplace (especially later millennials and Gen-Z, which are a big part of the CHEGA vote) that have never known the stability of a work contract, can’t even dream of one day owning a place, can’t make any future plans beyond a month, don’t enjoy any of the famous perks of European social-democracy like vacations (much less paid vacations), have only known crumbling state services in education and health, and that state constantly preys on them via onerous taxes on labor and uses any slip up in their interactions with its Byzantine bureaucracy to fine them and possibly ruin their lives (many people have now got into the habit of never paying fines and just taking the deduction on their salary while working minimum wage jobs, knowing there is no point to aiming higher because it will only get deducted past a certain amount; others just leave the country for years to wait it out – either way it serves capital by keeping salaries down or turning people into remittance machines).

    During this period, CHEGA began its ascent by absorbing the cast-off of the Social-Democratic Party and Popular Party to populate its structure. These parties were down on their luck electorally after being the post-GFC austerity coalition, and as such with less opportunities on offer for careerists (with the Popular Party actually annihilated electorally after being the face of the housing reform that created the current market). As such, it’s a party leadership constituted of bitter, venal, cunning, opportunistic and either profoundly cynical or ignorant people looking to get theirs.

    Their messaging is the usual new populist right mix of anti-immigrant and anti-gypsy (Portugal is particularly afflicted with that European strain of bigotry), and anti-corruption (which is always in the state, its “moochers” and their political enemies, never the private sector), anti-pedophile, etc. rhetoric to use as a cover for further neoliberalization, even having the privatization of the national health service in their program at one point, before quickly removing it. Never mind that party members have been caught in corruption scandals or outed as pedophiles – that just proves the cult’s point that they are actually the victims of a cabal and on the right track. All this, and the usual alignment with every shitty foreign policy, like unquestioning support for Israel and anti-Russia hysteria.

    Other parties have tried this angle before, but it mostly came off as a clownish attempt at importing foreign political styles when the duopoly parties still had things under control. But now there is nothing left. People feel themselves being sucked into a drain, the slurping noise getting louder and louder. So sure, blame the immigrants, blame the corrupt parties who created this economy (and they are incredibly corrupt), blame cultural Marxism, whatever. As long as someone suffers alongside me, that will do. It now feels like a when, not an if, that they will eventually win, and Portugal will get its own Bolsonaro, Trump and Milei analogue to wreck whatever part of the economy still manages to chug along while engaging in cruelty theater.

      1. mrsyk

        Yes, Thanks. I skipped over this “long read” earlier. I’m glad I came back for it.

  24. Tom Stone

    I’m supposed to say something nice about Joe Biden because he has cancer?
    Really?
    He’s mortal, only 8 decades too late.

  25. Jason Boxman

    From Worst Interview Ever

    The recruiters that are using A.I. are, in one sense, leveling the playing field. After all, some applicants, like Mayfield Phillips, who’ve been interviewed by A.I. bots have themselves used A.I. to boost their chances of landing a job by receiving help in polishing their résumés or tailoring cover letters.

    Some of this might also be a reaction to the aggressive use of “bots” to apply for jobs; Before LinkedIn nerfed the count of applicants per job listing, within hours any tech job would have hundreds of applications. I don’t know how many of these are from auto-apply bots, but it’s probably not negligible. And this is in response to applicants never getting any kind of reply, so you’re forced to apply to as many jobs as you can, whether you’re qualified or not, which is a response to jobs in tech having ridiculous expectations. And on, and on.

    And how many of these are just Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs?

    Neoliberalism is a special kind of hell.

    1. Bazarov

      What’s coming soon is that the job seeker will also enlist a bot for the interview, so it’ll be dueling bots quacking at one another until the datacenter goes into meltdown.

        1. Jason Boxman

          This is actually being done in an adjacent way; in recruiting others to do your interview for you, either by feeding you answers, or I’ve heard recently linked here a case where someone was faking the video call so the interviewee looked like a different person than the one applying.

          So this kind of deception is already very much inflight, although hybrid and on-site work greatly diminishes its effectiveness.

  26. XXYY

    REPORTER: “You said Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide. People don’t believe it.”

    PATEL: “They have a right to their opinion but…you know a suicide when you see one, & that’s what that was.”

    BONGINO: “He killed himself. I’ve seen the whole file. He killed himself.”

    SHADOWY UNDERWORLD HIT SQUAD: “OK, you can take Patel and Bongino off the hit list. “

  27. Revenant

    Starmer’s EU “reset” deal has not had much discussion here.

    I am baffled by it.

    First, all of the pain on agri-food rules has been taken. The farming sector has bigger problems in the shape of taxes (IHT, NI) and subsidy termination. So why stir up Brexit and submit to indefinite dynamic alignment – read ECJ sovereignty – in this sector. It’s literally the one thing nobody is lobbying for (except possibly NI Unionists if it will end the border in the sea for food products).

    Second, why confirm EU fishing rights for twelve years? If we were negotiating, we should have revoked them in their entirety (the EU Exit Treaty is settled business now on all other matters) and then invited a discuss about regulatory alignment.

    Starmer is a fool who wanted a headline for his Remoaner party….

    1. Revenant

      This morning’s papers are full of the deal and I now realise why: the food deal is a fig-leaf and a distraction (although even here the EU got its pound of flesh with the fishing rights extension). The real deal is this defence deal with the EU that is getting glossed over in a single line in every report.

      There had been a previous mention of it in the Telegraph, warning that it would commit the UK to put boots on the ground with the EU in the Ukraine. I hope not!

      Now to see if I can find a text of it anywhere….

    2. Revenant

      Hmm, having found the documents, it is largely all talk. Discuss this, exchange that etc. However:

      – it covers the EU and UK but not, except Jersey and Guernsey and Isle if Man, the Crown Dependencies. I.e. Diego Garcia is exempted.
      – this would include the Ukraine if admitted to EU
      – extension of this definition is anyway contemplated

      In fact, the document goes on and on about UK and EU assistance to “partner countries” and even contemplates voluntary contributions from partner countries. This is presumably the Ukraine, qua recipient, so all of this collaboration can be directed to the speartip, and the contributions will be from the Gulf States and maybe from Israel (which is a contributor to the EU Horizon science programme).

      It is also far wider than defence. It talks about foreign information manipulation and interference, so there will be a concerted propaganda campaign by UK and EU….

      A cynic would say it is a list of talking points between bureaucracies and certainly “with what Army?” is a fair criticism but nevertheless it has been drafted by ruthless authoritarians so presumably the feeble ambitions hide some real ways to screw us all over….

      https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-eu-security-and-defence-partnership

      1. Daniil Adamov

        If they’re smart (in the pursuit of elite self-interest, naturally), then defence or intervention to protect democracy in gallant little countries far away are also fig-leaves and combating foreign interference and misinformation, i.e. anything that undermines the authorities’ position, at home is what they really care about. In that case, “with what Army” doesn’t apply; I think they retain the capacity for repression at home.

        Of course, “are they smart” is a serious question.

  28. ciroc

    >FDD Uncovers Likely Chinese Intelligence Operation Targeting Recently Laid-Off U.S. Government Employees

    FDD discovered a network spanning five companies. One company appears to be an internet services company, and the other four companies variously describe themselves as consulting or headhunting firms based in the United States, Singapore, and Japan:

    ・Smiao Intelligence — smiao.com[.]cn14
    ・Dustrategy — dustrategy[.]com15
    ・RiverMerge Strategies — rivermergestrategies[.]com16
    ・Tsubasa Insight — tsubasainsight[.]com17
    ・Wavemax Innov — wavemaxinnov[.]com18

    These companies are clearly fake, so it’s hard to imagine any job seekers applying to them. It seems to me that they were created by someone looking to exaggerate the threat posed by China.

  29. Tom Stone

    I’m convinced that if you asked Trump whether his EO banning Government participating in censorship was still in effect he would say yes.
    And he would mean it.
    And if you then said “Well, what about” any number of actions, he would become angry and rant about “Fake News” and so on.
    It seems that there are only two rules in TrumpMind.
    Rule # 1, Donald Trump is right.
    Rule #2, Refer to Rule #1.

    And a question for the commentariat, is Vance getting a cut of the grift?

  30. Kouros

    Under the No Proliferation Treaty, Iran IS ALLOWED to conduct enrichment for reasearch and medical purposes.

    US is breaking its own internal laws by providing military support to a rogue nuclear country, which is Israel.

    And even if Iran were to forego enrichment, that would not matter, it will still be sanctioned and demonized and under economic/financial oppression. Israel fears an Iran that can trade with the world, rich, more prosperous, and that can beef its conventional military (i.e. drones, missiles, etc) and as such is not laying prostrate like Syria or Lebanon or Iraq, but is able to hit back and hit hard.

    The nuclear issue is just a ruse to keep Iran down.

    1. vao

      “And even if Iran were to forego enrichment, that would not matter, it will still be sanctioned and demonized”

      In fact, ever since the USA repudiated the JCPOA, the demand has always been not only to shut down Iran’s nuclear programme, but also to put an end to its missile development and production. Basically, become a second Libya that will be much easier to defeat and destroy.

      I am pretty sure the USA will add drones to the list of things that Iran should renounce to — possibly, maybe, perhaps, some day — get sanctions relief.

  33. Wukchumni

    MADRID, May 19 (Reuters) – Spain has ordered Airbnb to withdraw more than 65,000 listings for holiday rentals which it said violated existing rules from its platform as part of a general crackdown on a business blamed for contributing to the housing crisis in the country.

    Most of the Airbnb listings to be blocked do not include their licence number, while others do not specify whether the owner was an individual or a corporation, the Consumer Rights Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/spains-consumer-rights-ministry-blocks-more-than-65000-airbnb-listings-holiday-2025-05-19/
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    On a chilly winter night, a few dozen people gathered inside a graffiti-clad building in the Carabanchel district of Madrid. Nearly everyone was in the midst of a dispute with their landlord, but these weren’t typical gripes about leaky pipes. They had come to commiserate about the American investment banks and private equity funds that controlled their homes.

    Some at this meeting of the Sindicato de Vivienda de Carabanchel (the Carabanchel Housing Union) were fighting eviction orders or skyrocketing rents. Others had lost their homes through mortgage foreclosures. One attendee, Elsa Riquelme, described her yearslong battle to stay in the 600-square-foot apartment where she raised her three sons, which is now owned by Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity firm.

    She was far from alone: Over the past decade, Blackstone has become Madrid’s largest private owner of residential real estate, and the second largest in all of Spain. Ms. Riquelme’s apartment is one of 13,000 that Blackstone currently owns in Madrid, and among 19,600 it owns nationwide.

    Across Spain, around 185,000 rental properties are now owned by large corporations, half of those by firms based in the United States, according to a review of property registries by the nonprofit Civio. Rental prices have increased 57 percent since 2015 and home prices 47 percent, according to PwC, in large part because the country has failed to build enough homes for its growing population, even as more than 4 million homes sit empty. (NYT)

    1. The Rev Kev

      Even if Spain did go on a splurge in building new homes, mobs like Blackstone would still snap them up while they were still under construction before they had a chance to hit the market.

  35. Wukchumni

    Tens of thousands residents in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County will have their outstanding medical debt wiped away thanks to County leaders and a national nonprofit.

    Beginning next week, more than 134,000 L.A. County residents will begin receiving notices in the mail to inform them that their medical debt has been forgiven.

    The effort was spearheaded by County Supervisors Holly Mitchell and Janice Hahn, with unanimous support from the rest of the Board of Supervisors.

    L.A. County has partnered with the nonprofit organization Undue Medical Debt, which provides a way for individuals, organizations and municipalities to purchase unpaid medical debt for pennies on the dollar.

    The county was able to purchase more than $183.5 million in medical debt at an even lower rate, approximately one-half cent on the dollar. That would be less than $1 million total spent.

    https://ktla.com/news/california/l-a-county-wipes-out-medical-debt-for-thousands-of-residents/

    1. Tom Stone

      One half cent on the dollar is more than what my outstanding medical debt is worth, face value is a little less than $2MM if you include interest.
      ICU is not cheap and it is a lot more expensive when you are admitted from an ER owned by private equity.
      Being admitted from a private equity owned ER is substantially more expensive than being admitted directly into a hospital.
      Because markets.

  36. Alice X

    Malcolm X (no relation to me except perhaps in philosophy, my X is a matter of phonetics) was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. He was assassinated on February 21, 1965 in NYC, age 39. There are FBI files which must be released unredacted. DJT, liberate those files.

    1. The Rev Kev

      I wouldn’t hold your breath. Trump promised to release the 60 year old JFK files but reneged. He also promised to release the Epstein files but reneged on that as well. He might promise to release the Malcolm X files but you just know that he will renege on that too.

      1. Alice X

        Well, he did release the JFK files, maybe. My greater point is, maybe there are cracks in the Empire to behold? I don’t hold my breath but I stay attuned.

    2. ambrit

      The henchmen of Elijah Mohammad have a lot to answer for. Some of them are still around. Perhaps the “Officials” are working on the premise that to release the truth would endanger the lives of some of their still living “assets.”
      The real story here is that such data dumps would establish that assassination has been a long-standing preferred tactic of internal American politics, so far generally practiced by the “Right Wing” groups. It would legitimize the use of such “kinetic” policies by the Left as well.
      Welcome to the New Spartacists comrades.
      See: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Spartacus-League

      1. Alice X

        I know the Spartacus League of Rosa L.and I adhere.

        I cannot say that EM et al have/had more answers than deeper elements. We have been an Empire. Since before 1893…

        Words for the martyrs may accumulate.

        1. ambrit

          One pertinent fact about the ‘disturbances’ of that time is that the “kinetic” apparatchiks used by both sides, indeed, all sides, were demobilized World War 1.0 veterans. America has avoided some of that potential problem by incorporating many of today’s demobilized war veterans into the civil gendarmerie. When conditions begin to truly ‘disturb’ the civil peace, there will be plenty of disaffected veterans willing to take up arms on the side of the People. All it will take are a Vanguard and the appropriate political will.
          Stay safe.

  38. Tom Stone

    Wuk, the fuel load here in Sonoma County is the largest I have witnessed in 20 years and we are having winds gusting to 35MPH with low humidity, a “Red Flag” fire warning in May.
    Not July, May.
    I checked to make sure my “Go Bag” is ready yesterday.

    1. Alice X

      I call mine a bounce bag: dental hygiene, a pair of undies, an 11″ Macbook Air and I’m in SE Michigan. No wildfires here, yet, maybe just for a trip to the hospital. Sh!t abounds.

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