Patrolman helps baboons cross Simon’s Town road East Coast Radio
Traffic Fatalities Are a Choice Asterisk Mag
Street smarts: Cooper’s hawk uses pedestrian crossing signal to ambush urban prey Phys.org
Dolly Parton Runs a Train Busier Than 27 States The Transit Guy
Climate/Environment
The True Cost of Pretending Climate Change Doesn’t Exist Inside Climate News
Pandemics
WHO TAG-VE Risk Assessment On COVID VUM (Variant Under Monitoring) NB.1.8.1 Avian Flu Diary
China?
US’ 500 military personnel in Taiwan an ‘open test’ of Beijing’s red lines South China Morning Post
Peak repayment: China’s global lending Lowy Institute. “Moving from being a net provider of financing – where it lent more than it received in repayments – to a net drain, with repayments now exceeding loan disbursements.”
Yangzijiang Shipbuilding orders plunge due to US port fees Seatrade Maritime News
Iran, China launch new commercial railway bypassing US sanctions The Cradle
How the Philippines’ Domestic Drama Impacts China-US Competition The Diplomat
Syraqistan
Israeli settlers storm occupied al-Quds in provocative ‘Flag March’ Al Mayadeen
Israel’s claim that ‘Hamas is stealing aid’ is patently a lie. Here’s why Jonathan Cook
Families massacred in their sleep as Israel bombs Gaza school-turned-shelter The New Arab
Video Shows Girl Trying to Escape Inferno as Gaza Family ‘Burned Alive’ in Israeli Massacre Common Dreams
***
No Wheat, Milk, Rice, Medicines: How the U.S. and Israel Are Starving Yemen In These Times
European Disunion
Macron is pushed in the face by his wife, appears startled, quickly recovers, offers his hand to her but she refuses it. Macron said they were just joking.
Do you believe him? Watch, you’ll be the judge: pic.twitter.com/95wdqqzpDZ— Jack (@JacksEsposito) May 26, 2025
EXCLUSIVE: EU countries to slam Hungary over Pride clampdown Euractiv
Old Blighty
Car rams into Liverpool fans celebrating Premier League title in city center Anadolu Agency
Are social media posts investigated more than physical crimes? The Times
New Not-So-Cold War
A Week Long Drone Fight Which Russia Is Winning Moon of Alabama
How Russia Quietly Revolutionised Warfare Kit Klarenberg
Did the Kiev Regime/West Attempt to Assassinate Putin in a Drone Swarm in Kursk? And Russia’s “Hellfire” Retribution The Real Politick with Mark Sleboda (Video)
EU allies drop all restrictions on types of weapons available to Ukraine. Intellinews. Key segment: ‘Merz said the decision had been approved “also by the USA” but so far the Trump administration has made no major commitments to supplying Ukraine with more weapons. The US involvement is important even if it does not send fresh supplies of weapons, as the European missiles rely on US satellite systems to find their targets and need active participation by the US for their use.’
Trump Condemns Putin’s Killings in Ukraine, But Doesn’t Make Him Pay a Price New York Times
Kremlin says Trump’s reaction to latest Russian strikes on Ukraine ‘emotional overload’ Anadolu Agency
Kiev urgently seeks more Patriot missiles; US resists supply Al Mayadeen
🔥 Patriot Death Spasm
This is from the Russian attack on Kiev that Trump is whining about.
At first, several individual Patriot PAC-3 missiles are fired into the sky — with no discernible effect.
Then one of the launchers blows its entire wad, and moments later is blasted. pic.twitter.com/PpSs4py5QY
— Will Schryver (@imetatronink) May 26, 2025
Vice Chancellor walks back Chancellor Merz’s statements:
🇩🇪Germany has denied supplying Tauruses to Ukraine
Germany’s policy regarding the range of German weapons that Ukraine may receive has remained the same, Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil said.
Earlier, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Germany, Great Britain, France and…
— Zlatti71 (@Zlatti_71) May 26, 2025
Expanded Production Facilitates Russia’s Massive New Missile and Drone Strikes: Output Exceeds Use Rate Despite Intensified Attacks Military Watch
***
Finland Reports Russia Has Begun Naval Escorts for Shadow Fleet Tankers Maritime Executive
Residents of the Suwalki corridor are moving out in fear of a Russian invasion — Bild Eurasia Daily
South of the Border
Venezuela: Pro-Government Alliance Wins Big in Legislative and Regional Elections Venezeulanalysis
Spook Country
The CIA Secretly Ran a Star Wars Fan Site 404 Media
U.S. SPY AGENCIES ARE GETTING A ONE-STOP SHOP TO BUY YOUR MOST SENSITIVE PERSONAL DATA The Intercept
Trump 2.0
Trump media group plans to raise $3bn to spend on cryptocurrencies FT
Trump announces full pardon for Virginia sheriff convicted of bribery The Hill
DOGE
THE RIGHT UNDERSTANDS THAT ALL GOVERNANCE IS DATA GOVERNANCE LPE Project
MAHA
Republicans’ New Vaccine Restrictions Codify a False Healthy/Unhealthy Dichotomy The Gauntlet
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Why a new anti-revenge porn law has free speech experts alarmed Tech Crunch
Democrats en Déshabillé
Rahm Emanuel, Teasing a White House Bid, Says Democratic Brand Is Weak WSJ
Police State Watch
Beyond the Ivy League, International Students at Rural Colleges Are Being Detained by ICE Barn Raiser
AI
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry The Verge
Inside Google’s plan to have Hollywood make AI look less doomsday Los Angeles Times
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Newark airport crisis is about to become everyone’s problem The Verge
The End Of America As The Essential Consumer Nation Ian Welsh
Destined for failure – Turning Back the Clock Isn’t a Strategy Warwick Powell’s Substack
“The Quiet American” Has Never Been More Relevant Matt Taibbi, Racket News
This is such a “quiet part out loud” moment, and so illustrative of Western policy right now.
This is Elizabeth Economy, former Senior Advisor for China to the Secretary of Commerce in the Biden administration.
She admits that she studied the impact of the first Trump tariffs,… pic.twitter.com/jtANjTdRWk
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) May 27, 2025
Guillotine Watch
Obscene Wealth ZZ’s Blog
Class Warfare
Millions of Americans hit with bad credit after missed student loan payments WaPo
At Amazon, Some Coders Say Their Jobs Have Begun to Resemble Warehouse Work New York Times
Short Staffing Dollars & Sense. “Deliberately hiring too few people—always one of employers’ favorite methods of work intensification—is reaching new extremes.”
Remembering John Young, co-founder of web archive Cryptome The Register
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
124 comments
Comments are closed.
Thank you, Conor.
Further to the Ukraine links, a couple of observations from yesterday and today:
Yesterday lunchtime and evening BBC Radio 4’s World At One and PM interviewed the Sunday Times’ Tony Lloyd and the Economist’s Shashank Joshi, the latter ex Royal United Services Institute. Both were desperate to big up Ukraine’s efforts, but eventually conceded that Russia has the upper hand, including in in production and force generation and rotation, and could overwhelm the overstretched and exhausted Ukrainian forces, but did not give a timescale. The former also conceded, for the first time, that Ukraine has emptied its prisons, except for multiple murderers. Lloyd added that “Ukrainian officers like having convicted killers as they are fearless”.
Overnight the BBC World Service and this morning’s breakfast news had nothing about Ukraine.
Funny guy that Joshi. He used to talk tough and get off on tide turning wonder weapons. My relatives who fought for God, King / Queen and Country are / were not like that. Mmm.
“Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry”
Sounds like a plan to me. What else should you do with an industry whose business plan is to steal everybody’s work, while ignoring the copyright laws, so that they can churn out their own AI-generated slosh to put all those musicians, writers, designers, and journalists out of work. That is the definition of not only a pirate but a parasite as well.
The traditionsl definition of a firm is an organization that combines capital, labor, and consumable resources efficiently to produce goods and services that it can sell on the market leaving a profit after paying for all the inputs.
Apparently, AI cannot be profitable when paying for the resources it consumes, i.e. all the images, text, videos, sounds for training models. It is therefore a sector that makes no economic sense as a private endeavour according to that definition.
More generally, AI illustrates how a decades-long trend is now reaching insane extremes. After all, retail does not pay a living wage to its workforce (Walmart employees having to resort to food stamps to make ends meet); outfits like Lyft and Uber demonstrably do not pay enough for the drivers to have a living wage and cover the depreciation of their cars (and even then, they make enormous losses); industrial firms increasingly do not set up a new factory unless they get a free plot, free water, discounted electricity, and a tax holiday; and the cases where people get to work without a wage (instead getting “exposure”) or even have first to pay in order to work (I remember that at Ryanair, pilots had to pay just to postulate for a job).
Let us not even talk about externalities such as pollution or untrammeled exploitation of natural resources.
If all those for-profit firms can only survive by not paying the inputs they use (labour, capital, and others), then what does it tell us about their economic justification — and about the relevance of a growing part of the current private economic system?
Vao, what you describe also comes under the heading of the monopolization of the US economy. Such firms would not exist except for 40 years of lack of anti-trust enforcement. See Matt Stoller. I cannot put my hands on a concise link.
With “shareholder value ” replacing true profit, we now have personality cuts buoyed by nothing more than hot air. Witness Elon Mush.
1000% agree with both of you. Additionally, AI needs an insane amount of energy for their data centers. No questioning/policy discussion of how that is bad for our environment or monitoring to ensure that residential customers do not end us paying for these commercial customers.
Actually, to the contrary about residential customers footing the bill for Data Center energy gluttons, the legislation governing who pays for electricity goes back to the Great depression and the REA. The idea was that it made no economic sense to extend electricity to isolated rural communities because of cost/benefit calculations. The deal reached was that everyone would share higher electricity costs so that electricity access would become nearly universal.
Today, the Data Center industry has turned the intent of these laws on their head to force residential electricity users to foot the bill for infrastructure costs of DC specific electricity needs. This is especially true in Northern Virginia where I live. Dominion Power has announced a 37% hike in residential rates over the next 5 years primarily due the DC infrastructure needs,
In the same spirit, Good old Ed:
https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-era-of-the-business-idiot/
And definitely a parasitic relationship because so called AI is dependent on outside non-AI generated information to grow its capabilities. Training AI on AI sources is known to cause degradation in it ability to accurately generate results.
Copyright laws seem to be similar to ticket scalping. If you make a little money “borrowing” some intellectual property or reselling a ticket for profit outside a stadium, you risk fines or jail. If you scrape up all the IP or buy up all the tix to resell online, and you stand to make billions, well then your not a thief but an “entrepreneur” and a USian hero.
Adding, by Clegg’s logic, apparently I no longer need to ask permission before driving off with his presumably expensive automobile and reselling it for my own personal profit. Used car sales has been an industry far longer than AI. Maybe he has some Cambridge pals who would also like to donate to my cause.
Loot locally and you’re a pirate or a thief.
Loot globally and you’re an emperor.
In the space between (Whitey Bulger, Operation Gladio, universal surveillance), to the extent you serve the emperor, you’re okay if you survive the risks you take personally. This is the gray zone where the Mob and Silicon Valley serve imperial interests and mint fortunes and has been integral to the Anglo American Imperial Project since Elizabeth I.
If you harm enough people, it’s just capitalism, no worries. Lesson, if you’re going to commit a crime, go big!
Gotta keep those electrons flowing to LNG export terminals and petrochemical plants. Residential customers can swelter in the dark. It was a hot day at 90F, but it ain’t summer yet and 105F.
Nearly 100,000 affected by power outage across metro New Orleans due to forced ‘load shed’ Nola.com
“Hamas and U.S. Reach Gaza Ceasefire “Understanding”—Israel Rejects It, U.S. Envoy Publicly Blames Hamas”
Rule # 1 – It is always the fault of Hamas.
Rule # 2 – If in doubt, see Rule # 1.
Shouldn’t be surprised. Hamas is trying to negotiate with both the US and Israel who are both agreement-incapable. And Witkoff comes off as a back-stabbing scum bag who says one thing to your face but will renege on any agreement in public. He has been doing the same with Iran too and is not to be trusted. It’s too bad that China or Russia cannot be brought in to do the negotiations but when you get down to it, neither of those countries are supplying Israel with all those bombs for their genocide.
Somebody should secretly record/film Witkoff when makes this promises and release them to the world.
A curious datum: Jake Wood resigns from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Something here is nonsense on stilts.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/head-gaza-humanitarian-foundation-jake-wood-resignation-hours-before-launch
Yet people in Gaza are starving to death. We get to watch even more of the banality of evil.
‘Will Schryver
@imetatronink
🔥 Patriot Death Spasm
This is from the Russian attack on Kiev that Trump is whining about.
At first, several individual Patriot PAC-3 missiles are fired into the sky — with no discernible effect.
Then one of the launchers blows its entire wad, and moments later is blasted.’
They baited them. I think that the Russians baited them. They provided enough targets for those Patriot batteries to shoot off their missiles like crazy. And probably there were drones out of range identifying where they were and feeding the coordinates to incoming missiles. It looks like they hit them hard enough to take out the launchers, the control station and the radar systems. One billion dollars later.
no hope for the human race as people can’t comprehend recording events in widescreen. lol
flip those phones 90 degrees people, if you are a witness to spectacle…eapecially if that spectacle takes place across your entire field of vision
Martyanov’s take: An incoming Iskander is still hypersonic as it approaches the target. The Patriot operators detect a very fast incoming object, attempt to intercept it, and then launch everything in desperation before being hit.
In his view, US air defenses are at least two generations behind the curve and offer effectively no defense to modern weapons. They can not defend themselves.
It’s all ok, no worries, CNN reports Russia is unleashing aerial terror against Ukrainian civilians to make it seem like it is winning, experts say. The “experts” are Institute for the Study of War.
Long overdue the realization that the Patriot defense system is nothing more than an RTX taxpayer welfare queen money stream that produces nothing more than paper umbrellas. I guess it’s somewhat better than nothing, but that’s not saying much when facing the reality of the bombs that make it through.
the patriot volleys are so slow compared to the iskanders, how can anyone who sees that think they are anything but outdated tech
I’m very late again to post, hope some do read this.
I watched a lot of live war porn on TV during the 1st Gulf War. I, like many, had a ring-side seat for much of what was happening, presented on my TV. One time I was watching a wide night view of Israel and the dark skys above the land.
So in the upper-right of my screen I watched a missile trace coming down toward the center ground. No doubt an incoming SCUD missile. As this entered the screen I saw, coming up from the ground in the lower-right another missile leaving a trail heading up toward what must have been the SCUD path. No doubt this was a Patriot missile.
The Patriot seemed to head accurately toward the SCUD trace but when I expected where the two trajectories seemed to cross on the TV screen I was viewing, **nothing happened**.
I don’t recall if I saw an explosion on the ground where the SCUD was heading, but I do recall thinking about my imagined parabolic path of the unexploded Patriot and seconds later I saw a big flash on the ground in the distance around where that Patriot coming down might have been expected.
So since that time, where my eyes saw this event captured on TV, I have assumed that the stories of what the Patriots were doing to stop SCUDs was largely bullshit.
Now, 30-plus years later, maybe the Patriots have had many improvements. Or, maybe they still suck.
Until proven otherwise I shall retain my early 90s expectations.
Hey, “Let’s go gold dome!”
Your hope was not in vain, because someone has read it. :)
Patriots have probably had many improvements, and would probably do much better against Scuds, and maybe even Tochkas.
Always a good plan to shoot – all – your ammo [full auto/empty clip] then be completely defenseless e.g. 1B in equip and trained operators are sitting ducks.
I think the thing missing here is the lack of acknowledgement about a much more important aspect than a few weapons deployed. Shades of the noise over the Pak/India experience, planes/missiles and kill ratios.
The huge implication is who Mfg/supplied/trained everything that supports the ***Kill Chain*** its the thing some in the West don’t want to publicly talk about. Its the Kill Chain that is the monster under the bed as it questions the Western PR/Marketing about military dominance.
You never give me your money
You only give me your funny crypto coins
And in the middle of tariff negotiations
You break down
I never give you much consideration
I only wonder about the situation
And in the middle of investigation
Things break down
Out of college, loans spent
See no future, pay high rent
All the money’s gone, nowhere to go
Any Federal employee got the sack
Monday morning quarterback
Job market slow, nowhere to go
But oh, that tragic feeling, nowhere to go
Oh, that tragic feeling
Nowhere to go
Our sweet DOGE dream
Pick up the bags and get in the limousine
Soon we’ll be away from here
Step on the gas and wipe that tear away
One sweet dream came true today
Came true today
Came true today (yes it did)
One two three four five six seven eight
Nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen
All good Elon children go to Heaven
Ahhhh
Here comes the Sum King
Here comes the Sum King
Everybody’s laughing
Everybody’s happy
Here come the Sum King
Quando para mucho moolah mi amore de felice corazon
Mundo paparazzi mi amore chica ferdi parasol
Questo obrigado tanta mucho que can eat it carousel
Mean Mister Musk works in the dark
Shaves jobs in the National Parks trying to save paper
Sleeps in a Cybertruck off the road
Saving up to have some more kids
Keeps the economy on the skids
Such a mean old man
Such a mean old man
Attorney General Pam works in the Trump shop
She never stops, she’s a go-getter
Takes him out to look at the Qatari plane op
Only gift horse in the mouth that has ever been
Always shouts out something obscene
Such a dirty old man
Dirty old man
Well, you should see AG Pam
She’s so good-looking but she looks like a bottle blonde hag
Well, you should see her in a fake tan, that’s her bag
Yes, you should see AG Pam
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Get a dose of her in crucifix and silk
She’s killer-diller when she took plastic surgery to the hilt
She’s the kind of a girl that makes the “News of the World”
Yes, you could say she was attractively built
Yeah, yeah, yeah
She came in through the administration window
Protected by a silver spoon
But now she sucks her thumb and wonders
By the banks of her own lagoon
Didn’t anybody tell her?
Didn’t anybody see?
Rubio’s on the road to ruin
Floridians on the make to me
She said she’d always been an attorney
She worked on his first impeachment trial back in the day
And though she thought she knew the answer
Well, I knew what she could not say
And so after Gaetz quit the politics department
And got himself a steady job
And though she tried her best to help him
He could steal kisses, but he could not rob
Didn’t anybody tell her?
Didn’t anybody see?
Donald’s on the phone to Stephen Miller
Kristi is on the phone too you see, oh yeah
Once, there was a way
To get back homeward
Once, there was a way
To get back home
Sleep, pretty darling, do not cry
And I will sing a lullaby
Golden bumblers fill your eyes
Smiles lie to you, to get a rise
Sleep, pretty darling, do not cry
And I will sing a lullaby
Once, there was a way
To get back homeward
Once, there was a way
To get back home
Sleep, pretty darling, do not cry
And I will sing a lullaby
Boy, you’re gonna carry that weight,
Carry that weight a long time
Boy, you’re gonna carry that weight
Carry that weight a long time
I never give you much consideration
I only send you my lyrical vocation
And in the middle of mock celebration
I break down
Boy, you’re gonna carry that weight
Carry that weight a long time
Boy, you’re gonna carry that weight
Carry that weight a long time
Oh yeah, all right
Are you going to be in my nightmares
Tonight?
And in the end
The power you take
Is equal to the loss
You make
ICE Barbie is a pretty nice girl
But she doesn’t have a lot to say
ICE Barbie is a pretty nice girl
But she changes wardrobes throughout the day
I wanna tell her that I loathe her a lot
But I gotta get a belly full of whine
ICE Barbie is a pretty nice girl
Someday she’s gonna make it as a mime, oh yeah
Someday she’s gonna make it as a mime
Medley from Abbey Road, by the Beatles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CVsBOjeDzk
This is great Wuk! Cheers to you!
Thanks for the kudos grâce!
Bravo!
Nice. Makes me want to review the original, looking for snark I might have missed due to youthful ignorance.
With editing this could rank as
the river is wide
it has deep tributaries
it has shallow tributaries that distract its depth
it has complex shoals, with diverted inlets
they bring its length
if the river grew as with extractions
its depth could increase
Thanks for putting up so many links today. Had already seen the Kit Klarenberg which is definitely worth a look.
Hard to overstate how important this is. Chinese loans have been very important for many developing countries over the past 2 decades. There seems to be a deliberate policy in Beijing to reduce external loans in favour of focusing on domestic investment. It couldn’t happen at a worse time for many of those countries. We can expect to see a lot of defaults – a very large proportion of those investments are almost certainly not generating sufficient returns. This is where we find out what was in the fine print of those loans.
Perhaps China is beginning to play a long game here. If a global South country faces default on loans from western banks, Beijing could offer its support If the borrower refuses to accept the IMF’s terms for resolution, and instead repudiates the repayment obligation. Two or three countries doing this could start a movement that spreads like wildfire, leading to havoc in western financial institutions.
China is playing the long game here. According to the World Bank (not some Sinophobic think tank) about 60% of Chinese loans to foreign countries are already People’s Bank of China’s bilateral credit swaps for countries having difficulties serving their loans, a.k.a. “rescue lending”.
For some years now China has been more involved in saving Global South nations than investing in new projects. Even if some of the loans are zero-interest, the all-mighty dollar has wrecked many a national economies lately. So, China has had to change strategy to keep these countries a) from defaulting and b) in bilateral dollar-free trade.
The primary creditor is now China, not Western countries or banks. It’s Chinese loans that are at greatest risk of default.
Yet unlike the West after the WW China has no dramas with memory holing debt that cannot be payed – administered Jubilee. Second its not a equity market driven economy, see India/US/UK.
We’ll see.
They have done it several times now, nothing new. Also equity driven markets are more vulnerable to shocks/recessions to liquidate the mopes.
Yes they have, but to my knowledge not as a foreign policy.
Given the long term Geopol FP desired outcome of BRICKS one would think some sort of restructuring is desirable for all concerned. As I noted above, why would China want to repeat what the West has done since WWI or Argentina per se.
Especially since Trumps antics and UK/EU devolution is apparent for the world to see.
“Developing Countries Paid Record $1.4 Trillion on Foreign Debt in 2023”
https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2024/12/03/developing-countries-paid-record-1-4-trillion-on-foreign-debt-in-2023#:~:text=Developing%20Countries%20Paid%20Record%20%241.4%20Trillion%20on%20Foreign%20Debt%20in%202023
I assumed loans increase as a project is built, then eventually payback exceeds the original amount as the loan is repaid with interest. But I also assume that the completed project pays dividends during the payback period.
“EXCLUSIVE: EU countries to slam Hungary over Pride clampdown”
From what I can tell from the story, they are not cracking down on the country’s LGBTQ community but only on them having Pride parades which is not the same. But this over-reaction may be related more with Hungary not buckling down to demands that they give Zelensky money and weapons. In addition, Hungary has indicated that they will not vote later this year on the continued holding of Russia’s $300 billion but to let it go. As so many different “loans” have been made based on the interest from that money as acting as collateral, all those EU countries would then be on the hook for that money. This may be Hungary’s way to tell the EU to back off and to give them the money owed to then and to cut out the continuous fines for not allowing masses of refugees into their country. Then they may vote yes instead.
It’s related to cracking down on NGOs and foreign meddling in internal matters of the country, which does fall into ‘Hungary’s “serious” breaches of EU values’.
Not being allowed to freely gather is oppression and an abridgment of democratic rights, made all the more obvious when a particular group is singled out. It’d be absurd to say: “They are not cracking down on the Christians, only forbidding them to gather at church” or “They are not cracking down on the communists, only not allowing them to march against the government.”
Very clearly, Hungary–like Putin’s administration in Russia–is running a red-state-style reactionary strategy to increase social tensions and benefit from the wedge. Russia’s also regressing toward the creaky old orthodox church to brand Russia as some mystical-spiritual-woo-woo civilization, this despite the fact that regular church-goership in Russia is not very high last I checked (the region’s real mystical civilization is Romania). Having moved on from gays and lesbians, the same strategy of tension in the cultural sphere is being dusted off for trans issues in the United States.
Eventually–like with gays and lesbians–trans people in the United States will become such a locus of capital accumulation that this strengthening bourgeois faction, wishing to expand their lucrative market, will successfully break the bourgeois consensus around this strategy of tension. Suddenly Americans will scratch their heads when you bring up the trans controversy as they strain to remember what all the fuss was about.
At least, for trans-people’s sake, that’s what I hope will happen, here and for LGBTQ people in Russia and Hungary. The other course is toward increasing repression, in othering so intense as to widen the social basis for barbaric persecution.
Thank you for saying this. One can hate the imperialist Western proxy war on Russia and at the same time be very much opposed to the antihumanist politics of the European far right and United Russia.
Bazarov and Bugs: I agree with both of you that oppression is oppression is oppression. For that reason, I am opposed to the NATO proxy genocides in Palestine and Ukraine. As you both indicated, that doesn’t mean that I think of the Hamas government and the Russian Federation’s government as somehow not having strong authoritarian tendencies. They have good reasons for their military strategies and bad ways of governing the populace. Likewise, the governments of Ukraine and Israel, both thoroughly addled by nationalism and corruption. Likewise, Iran, which isn’t going to soften up internally so long as US/Israel keep hounding it and giving its elites an excuse to maintain their semi-religiously sanctioned semi-legitimacy — yet I’m not going to advocate bombing the hell out of Isfahan.
I’m a tad skeptical of this assertion, though: “Eventually–like with gays and lesbians–trans people in the United States will become such a locus of capital accumulation that this strengthening bourgeois faction, wishing to expand their lucrative market, will successfully break the bourgeois consensus around this strategy of tension.”
As the late, wonderful Urvashi Vaid pointed out, marriage equality deflated gay liberation by giving gay men a kind of bougie legitimacy while still leaving lesbians suffering from economic discrimination. So I don’t see market solutions to human-rights issues. It certainly hasn’t been the case for black USonions.
“Gay marriage”–the cultural means by which the bourgeois expanded the “gay” market–integrated gay people fully into western capitalism by giving them complete economic and social rights. The struggle to achieve these rights was part of, let’s be honest probably the majority of, the “gay liberation” movement as it developed toward the end of the 1990s into the 2000s. So once that portion of the movement, which was bourgeois in outlook, got what it wanted, it demobilized.
The remainder of that movement–much the smaller portion–radical in outlook, dare I say “red” even, remains. It did not go away at all. It was used by the bourgeois faction and then discarded. The media players pay no attention to them because the whole point was to get their fellow Yale graduates who happened to be gay the same rights that their straight peers had.
A similar dynamic occurred with civil rights in the 60s. But let’s not pretend black people in the United States are worse off with the democratic rights that they achieved, limited and bourgeois as they are.
Any further progress must be won by the red radical faction of these movements, factions whose aims were never fulfilled and which continue to struggle on the margins. The only hope for them is to coalesce into a party with a correct revolutionary political line, much easier said than done.
“Not being allowed to freely gather is oppression and an abridgment of democratic rights, made all the more obvious when a particular group is singled out.” Pædophiles, grooming gangs, terrorists demanding the freedom to bomband kill as the fancy takes them, students protesting the Gaza genocide, or students supporting the Gaza genocide? Don’t the democratic rights of any group in any given society rely on a basis in law and culture and the consent of the people expressed in open and faithful elections? And does any limitatation of these “democratic” rights, which have not been posed to the people of Europe in any referendum, incline, “toward increasing repression, in othering so intense as to widen the social basis for barbaric persecution.” And how do the much vaunted but recently invented European “values” – whatever the f*ck they are – lauded by the grandchildren of Nazis really have to do with the fundamental purpose of the EU which is, as is often said, to enjoy increased individual prosperity through mutual trade?
EU didn’t complained and did not asked for Bibi to be handed over to ICC at the Hague when came to visit Hungary this year.
Tells one evrything needed to know about EU values…
Re Dollywood and those Dollywood trains–have never been but NC has an even older steam train attraction and I believe the steam train from Durango, Colorado to Silverton still runs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tweetsie_Railroad
The NC mtns had a tradition of narrow gauge railroads to haul away the trees so not an entirely sunny tradition. Evemtually this was stopped in the large tract that became Great Smoky Mtns National Park. Perhaps in part because of Dollywood this is now the country’s most visited Nat. Park. The trees survived but these days the tourists can seem almost as numerous.
I found the question that he posed to be significant-
“What does it say about the state of our country’s infrastructure when the most ridden train in a $432.2B economy is DollyWood’s heritage steam train?”
But damn, after reading that article I want to ride it myself.
I’ve seen but not ridden the one in Durango. Impressive. Apparently it takes a huge effort to keep these things running. There used to be one to take tourists up to the Grand Canyon but they’ve now switched to diesel.
Had a ride on this one last summer:
Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad https://cumbrestoltec.com/
The Durango and Cumbres &Toltec used to all be part of the Rio Grande narrow gauge system.
But there’s some rather unique narrow gauge steam engines much closer to you:
Parade of Steam, 2021, Cass Scenic Railroad, Climax & Shay Train Engines https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDEQBj5YLhY
Shays and Climaxes are geared engines that were used to haul very heavy loads like coal or huge logs around tight curves on narrow gauge lines.
Although I feel certain Newark is an outlier when it comes to our airports, good thing we have Dollywood as a backup.
Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris & Linda Ronstadt – The Blue Train
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cez79C9CNrg
p.s.
It’s all going according to Bizarro World USSR/USA collapse plan, ,rades.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, they had excellent public transport and little in the way of personal cars, we did it the other way around.
When there were political battles in France in the early 1970’s over a new payroll tax funding the Paris Metro, the Socialists were the strongest advocates for public transport, the Communists the most vociferous advocates for not adopting the new tax, and instead spending on highways around and through Paris. De Gaulle sided with the socialists on this.
Maybe we have excellent personal cars, but at least in my neck of the woods, the roads are borderline impassable in places. Sometimes someone comes and puts some blacktop on the holes and a few months later, they’re back and worse.
Agree about the posed question in the article but I have another question…where does the coal come from? I can’t find an article but it is my understanding that Dollywood pays a decent wage and that Dolly herself feels some ethical concern for the workforce. Does that extend to coal extraction and shipping? Not assigning anyone work here – just wondering aloud. I did a quick search and didn’t find anything useful about where the coal comes from or how it gets there.
Probably from one of the following states
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/coal/where-our-coal-comes-from.php
Most likely the engine burns anthracite, as anything else would leave the passengers with a nice layer of dirt and grime. So far as i’m aware, the only remaining anthracite mines in the US are in the Pennsylvania northeast.
I rode that train last summer at Dollywood.
It is grimy and everyone ends up with a sprinkling of coal dust and tiny pebbles of coal all over them.
In the seventies, the Silverton train was also dusty and ashy. I am sure that hasn’t changed in the fifties years since I was last on it.
I still highly recommend that you take the trip. And not just for the train, it is a lovely journey. And rather awe inspiring, for all aspects of the engineering of both the route and the hardware.
yeah, thats where my good blacksmithing coal came from.
but usually, i can only get the dirty texas bitumenous, from somewhere the other side of austin.
pita to coke.
anthracite came already coked.
…and thats the extent of my coal knowledge,lol.
last few heats we did(not often since beginning of cancertime), we used hickory charcoal to decent effect…but it took a lot more forced air…and it was small knives we were messing with.
IMHO, the West Virginia Cass Scenic Railroad State Park is the best heritage railroad of them all. It is a restored logging railroad with geared steam locomotives, a “company town” and beautiful scenery. It is NOT theme park. Cumbres and Toltec in NM & CO is another outstanding heritage operation.
Having said all that passenger rail (long distance, intercity and commuter) and public transit seem to be in terminal decline in the US. Massive capital spending and operating subsidies from governments are not forthcoming. Automobiles facilitate sprawl, big box retail and fuel the FIRE sector; it wouldn’t be possible otherwise.
All this time I had thought the Dollywood location there had come into fruition after the former amusement park had closed in the middle 80s. The park had been Silver Dollar City. Meh not that it really matters all that much in retrospect.
Pigeon Forge, Sevierville and Gatlinburg, welcome to tourist trap hell in these summer months…\sarc
RE: Traffic Fatalities Are a Choice
I agree with the premise, but I find it very hard to believe that US traffic fatalities are double what they are in Greece. I’ve spent most of my time in Greece on Crete though, where they operate a little differently than the rest of the country. Mainland Greeks seem to consider Cretans a little on the wild side, and friends on Crete have told me all those yellow and white lines on the road are merely suggestions. There are also an abundance of makeshift roadside shrines, indicating those suggestions should have been followed a little more closely.
Problem is density (lack thereof) and speed.
relatively uncrowded roads = higher pre-crash velocities = much, much higher kinetic energy. then throw in alcohol use, distracted driving, huge disparity between semis and passenger vehicles and large passenger vehicles (body on frame SUV) and small passenger cars as the gravy.
If I lived in rural, exurban roads…I too would surround myself with as much steel as I could afford as well (preferably with a modestly higher center of gravity)
yeah. if you drive at night around here, a grillguard is a must.
deer are the number one road hazard in this county…followed closely by asleep/drunk drivers in one car rollovers.
I read somewhere that safety belts in Greece are also regarded as mere suggestions. I definitely saw that in Romania… As somebody mentioned above, it is the European locus of mysticism…
“Inside Google’s plan to have Hollywood make AI look less doomsday”
If Google rally believed in AI, then why don’t they fire actors like Michael Keaton and just have an AI generate the whole thing from start to finish. The actors, the voices, the sets – everything. It is after all the final aim of AI isn’t it? To just “create” content upon demand. Nothing to worry about, right?
Why, I think this reverend has executive material!!
What would be the computational power needs? And the associated energy consumption? Multiply that with all the successfull books ever written…
Computational power needs are infinite monkeys.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem
The insatiable hunger for computational power means that they are still more-or-less brute-forcing it.
My buddy who runs sightseeing tours in Sequoia NP related that he has had 18 black bear sightings in the past month, which is a ton and he’s been doing tours for 25 years now, so has a great baseline to work from, and this is a big number, including a few repeats, i’m sure.
Last year was my weakest ever for bear encounters which typically come on the road, a grand total of 2.
My friend’s numbers weren’t great either, in the low 20’s for the summer and fall in 2024, and being on the Generals Highway 5 days a week for a 5 hour tour-a 5 hour tour, he’s got vastly more opportunities.
Does it mean that the bears are particularly hungry this year and are more conspicuous because they are taking more risks to try to find food?
Or has the last brood been very numerous, and therefore many more bears are roaming around trying to find a territory?
2022-23 was the winter of record in the Southern Sierra for the past 125 years, passing the previous holder of 1968-69.
I was out on a backpack trip on the High Sierra Trail in the summer of 2023 and Mother Nature was exploding in front of my very eyes, with 4 to 5 foot tall Elderberry bush-trees that sprang up all of the sudden and wildflowers up the wazoo!
You’d think such as everything else, the bruins would be in their dens with Barry White playing as they were getting it on, after all they’d got the signal that abundance was upon them once again…
Re the Google/H’wood AI PR push–next they can do self driving cars. They could call it Cars but that’s been taken.
Re: Finland Reports Russia Has Begun Naval Escorts for Shadow Fleet Tankers
Hmm, at some point, just for clarity, can the MSM start saying “Russian Tankers”? So that we all have a clear understanding that we’re harassing or attacking ships of a nuclear armed foreign nation?
Because judging by the photo in the article, it’s being escorted by a Russian guided missile corvette:
Steregushchiy-class corvette https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steregushchiy-class_corvette
And I think by that point the MSM can figure out whose ship it is, and more accurately report just what and who is being threatened, and what the possible outcome will be.
‘Finland Reports Russia Has Begun Naval Escorts for Shadow Fleet Tankers’
Finland: ‘Wait, can they do that?’
Finnish Navy reports that the Baltic Sea water is wet, while Finnish scientists added that Newton must have been onto something when he wrote about action and reaction.
Usually these are not Russian tankers, but Liberian, Bahamian or Panamian tankers that are insured in Russia, China or India. Not doing anything illegal, just avoiding Lloyd’s due to the G7 anti-market shenanigans.
And sanctioning so many of all those deserving people who derive a generous low risk income as Lloyd’s Names. Very tricky dogs, these foreigners!
Thanks, good to know.
I also avoided Lloyd’s when I insured my boat.
Hopefully you are avoiding Baltic waters too. :)
The Finns are also complaining that Russia is beefing up big time its military stance on the Finnish border… Do stupid things, get stupid prizes…
“The CIA Secretly Ran a Star Wars Fan Site”
Hmm. I thought that I noticed a tend in recent years to make the white-clad Storm Troopers to be actually the good guys-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g43lgCJ_D6o (5:22 mins)
Star Wars turned out to be the quintessential metaphor of the US in that the Rebels – the Alliance and the Evil Empire are actually the same guys.
Well, they were put in power by a color revolution against an authoritarian theocracy basicallt run by unelected clerics (Jedi, they were called, I think), right?
Here I am thinking that the 501st Legion was Spook Adjacent.
See: https://www.501st.com/
The behavior of both the USA and The EU toward Russia is objectively insane.
It ignores reality and it harms the “Citizens” of these Countries while only providing a benefit to a tiny slice of their populations at the risk of WW3 and the end of all life on earth.
a reasonable hypothesis, based in good documentation, is that the US acquired its rabid insitutional hatred of Russia/USSR following the OSS-CIA assimilation of ex-NatSoc German intel operations in Occupied Germany, see the Gehlen Organization.
16 min. video essay, summary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXu1b_mUs-A
the US animosity toward Russia goes back to even before the revolution – in “The Imperial Cruise” by James Bradley, when Teddy Roosevelt was secretly creating treaties and alliances without Congress, he assigned as ‘Honorary Aryans’ the Japanese people and had this to say about Russians -“Roosevelt loathed the Slav: “No human beings,” he declared, black, yellow or white could be quite as untruthful, as insincere, as arrogant–in short, as untrustworthy in every way–as the Russians.” – through the use of the press echoing the sentiment and in clandestinely instigating the Russo-Japanese War, Roosevelt succeeded in cleverly suggesting and silently supporting a ‘Japanese Monroe Doctrine’ for reasons mentioned in the book – which would all come back to haunt and lay the groundwork for WWII in the Pacific – the loss to Japan by the Russians was one of instigating components that provided fertile ground for the revolution in Russia that overthrew the Czar –
The USA/Russia relationship has had its ups and downs. Perhaps the highest point was during the Civil War when Tsar Alexander II deployed Russian fleets on both the USA’s Pacific and Atlantic Coast in order to deter Great Britain from blockading American ports.
Another high point may have been in 1953 when Nikita Khrushchev reached out to Dwight Eisenhower to try to cool things down. Supposedly nixed by Allen Dulles.
No! No!! It’s a dastardly Russian plot to take over the world which has been brewing for centuries! THEY provoked US into sanctioning OURSELVES!!! The tricky bastards!
“… Israel and Ukraine are deeply and inextricably linked with each other. Ukraine is the source of the Zionist beliefs that drive Israeli imperialism. In many ways, they are a united ideological, political, theological, and militaristic force, with connections of blood and ambition going back centuries.” – Ukraine and Israel — A United Force? – ukcolumn.org
Very interesting, and seemingly informed historical discussion that attempts to explain why many influential Jews appear to get along with Nazis; a phenomenon which, of course, reinforces the idea there are no Nazis. Ever the contrarian, I had once assumed Zelensky was Christian, but was perplexed to discover his heritage. This discussion illuminates that paradox in some interesting ways, and exposes these imperial conflicts as sister wars, in foundation and substance. I’d observed the relationships in passing, with breadcrumbs from Links over the years, but never seen it expressed in such a concise and coherent thesis. Enjoy.
Acts of King Trump to eliminate the costs of climate change costs described in The True Cost of Pretending Climate Change Doesn’t Exist, are detailed in:
https://cleantechnica.com/2025/05/27/epa-administrator-wants-to-destroy-climate-change-religion/
“Here is a list of the wondrous things the EPA has in mind:
Reconsideration of regulations on power plants
Reconsideration of regulations throttling the oil and gas industry
Reconsideration of Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that improperly targeted coal-fired power plants
Reconsideration of mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program that imposed significant costs on the American energy supply
Reconsideration of limitations, guidelines and standards for the Steam Electric Power Generating Industry to ensure low-cost electricity while protecting water resources
Reconsideration of wastewater regulations for oil and gas development to help unleash American energy
Reconsideration of Biden-Harris Administration Risk Management Program rule that made America’s oil and natural gas refineries and chemical facilities less safe
Here is the list of items the EPA says will lower cost of living for Americans:
Reconsideration of light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty vehicle regulations that provided the foundation for the Biden-Harris electric vehicle mandate
Reconsideration of the 2009 Endangerment Finding and regulations and actions that rely on that Finding
Reconsideration of technology transition rule that forces companies to use certain technologies that increased costs on food at grocery stores and semiconductor manufacturing
Reconsideration of Particulate Matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards that shut down opportunities for American manufacturing and small businesses
Reconsideration of multiple National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for American energy and manufacturing sectors
Restructuring the Regional Haze Program that threatened the supply of affordable energy for American families
Redirecting enforcement resources to EPA’s core mission to relieve the economy of unnecessary bureaucratic burdens that drive up costs for American consumers
Terminating Biden’s Environmental Justice and DEI arms of the agency”
Somebody has to rebalance all the improvements China has achieved on this matter, no?!
Take that China!
Richard Murphy on the threat posed to banks by issues in the reinsurance industry related to climate change. His focus is on the extensive flood threats in Britain, even in London. (< 15 mins)
As a way of follow-up, here’s a recent study done by the UK’s University of Exeter and the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries that found that:
Link to Appendix of report showing range of outcomes
Degrowth is coming with enormous challenges that cannot be met without drastic changes in governing, political economy and cultural values. Will we try to meet these challenges, or will we let the Oligarchs drive us all the way over the cliff?
DN today, this may have been noted previously but let us not forget:
Israel Bombs Home of Gaza Pediatrician, Killing 9 of Her 10 Kids, in Latest Attack on Health Workers
The Zionist Entity cannot cease to persist/exist too soon.
And from Novara Media yesterday:
https://novaramedia.com/2025/05/26/israel-kills-dozens-of-palestinians-in-attack-on-gaza-shelter/
I curse the Israeli State and their apologists.
I suggest you start a new hashtag: #IsraelBloodLibel
I don’t know what that means.
The 1000 years old accusation that Jews were doing blood sacrifices with Christain children has become true and fully recorded with all those children killed by bombs, sharpshooters, and famine and diseases.
If you replace the previous victim’s profession with the anew, but even so, it doesn’t need that title. The facts and the videos speak for themselves.
#genocide is probably already taken. If it makes the necessary point, it should be.
Given the trend, my expectation is that Israel will vanquish Gaza first… I am just preparing mentally for it. Probably the majority of humans don’t even know it is hapenning, and 99.9% of those that know don’t do anything, or anything meaningful.
I dispute your numbers. The Zionists have flattened Gaza but the traumatized remain and there is still resistance. The history will not be kind to the perpetrators and it is being written in the minds of many.
Their numbers will grow. My outrage endures.
“The history will not be kind to the perpetrators and it is being written in the minds of many.”
I am not at all sure about that. There are precedents:
“Wer redet heute noch von der Vernichtung der Armenier?” (Who nowadays still talks about the annihilation of the Armenians?) A.Hit*er, 1939.
Is Turkey a pariah nowadays? Was it ever? Apart from Armenians, who cares about a genocide that ended a century ago?
I agree, Gaza will be crushed first. What could not be achieved by bombs in 18 months is now being attempted by starvation. And the “international community” will only express some dismay long after it is too late.
Ahso, but the Internet is forever and this is a live-streamed Genocide. It will be replayed. And replayed.
I have the pictures in my mind, and on my computer.
yeah. i think thats the real difference, here.
its in everybody on the planet’s pocket, unless they actively choose to ignore it.
i have had to step away from Bearing Witness, of late…its just too damned disgusting.
and to think that i once thought that the Aliyah was heroic,lol…until i met and became friends, with a buncha Palestinians in Huntsville, and Austin,TX.
only tension i had with all them was one time, at Abdul’s house in the big back yard fora feast(literally), I wanted to go see how all this promised food was being made.
But Abdul was more conservative than his brothers and cousins, and objected(the women cloistered thing)…so Machmuud and Mohammad, and Yusif(sp-20, thoughout) toook him aside, and they rattled in arabic for a time, and Abdul took me into the kitchen with the womyn, himself.
and left me there,lol.
patted me on the back.
i cant say i remember much about the cooking, as i was pretty overwhelmed with the exotic nature of the myriad things happening.
and most of the womyn either didnt speak english, or spoke it poorly.
they seemed excited that a man was so interested in what they were doing, though…and i was invited back, many times.
totally different, as a people, than the usual hasbara zionist BS about them.
those folks gave me my second and third copies of the Quran(eng translation by that british explorer, cant remember his name, offhand)….encouraged me to read it(i did)
The only thing you can do as a person is to harass forever your representative, not buy Israeli or from companies that are nice to Israel, and spit at them when you meet them in person (unless you deal with somebody like Gideon Levi or Ilan Pape). They (orthodox) spit on tourists in Jerusalem…
One more thing you can do: NEVER be a tourist in Israel.
They spit on christian priests and monks as well – though one time it did not work when an ultra-orthodox spat on a monk not knowing that he was a former quarterback. Boy, didn’t he get a surprise.
From Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
Once again illustrates our multi-tier system of justice. Not so long ago, the RIAA was trying to put grandmas in jail for using Napster and its successors. Ruining people financially, for downloading music in violation of copyrights, for individual use!
And these past 3 years, we’ve had criminal tech CEOs and their charges hoover up the entire Internet, for commercial use, and not only is no one in jail, but we aren’t even hearing about jail time or prosecution. And there’s ample documentation of this in their own words! This isn’t the case of a whdonit, we know who the perpetrators are!
America is not a serious country.
The Democrats’ brand is weak because of people like you, Rahm. Give it up! The thought of them running another of these neoliberal privatizers and scolds of deplorable proletarians makes the blood run cold.
The AI article about Nick Clegg and the Obscene Wealth article cause me to think that we do NOT live in a new Gilded Age. During the Gilded Age of 1890 USA there was land available, there were opportunities in a growing economy. USA and Europe circa 2025 are not expanding and growing. For me, this is a time of the Warlords grabbing what they can.
It doesn’t matter how much is available when there are a few that want it all and want to be exalted.
On Macron. His wife 25 years his senior. Was his school teacher. Apparently the affair started when he was just 16. This is jerry springer/cops reality tv type stuff. I doubt the relationship is psychologically healthy.
“Developing Countries Paid Record $1.4 Trillion on Foreign Debt in 2023”
https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2024/12/03/developing-countries-paid-record-1-4-trillion-on-foreign-debt-in-2023#:~:text=Developing%20Countries%20Paid%20Record%20%241.4%20Trillion%20on%20Foreign%20Debt%20in%202023
From Study Finds a Steep Drop in Mothers’ Mental Health
What have we got?
So “lockdowns” are still breaking people, into 2023.
(bold mine)
What “effects”? The story doesn’t say, but I suspect they’re talking about the trauma of missing indoor dining for a couple of months, having to wear respirators in hospitals (really the baggy blues handed out, worn under the chin), and having kids do remote learning for at most half a school year.
Sigh.
And
For women in particular, long-COVID symptoms are frequently classified as “mental health”, because health care providers often do not believe women know their own bodies.
That NYT article about Amazon and robo-programming had a beautiful about-face paragraph:
The managers will tell you, so truthfully, that the workers are just fine. And this is considered journalism?