It’s 3 a.m. and Private Equity is Extending an Invitation to “The Big Club” Racket News
This Shape-Shifting Parasite Eats Human Cells and Wears Their Proteins as a Disguise ZME Science
Climate/Environment
Smoke to pour into the U.S. as Canada wildfires force large evacuation in Manitoba CNN
Moroccan authorities continue to battle wildfires in Tangier for 4th straight day Anadolu Agency
Climate Change Is Rewriting America’s Gardening Map and Some Plants Can’t Keep Up ZME Science
Why the Rest of the World Can’t Just Work Around U.S. Climate Policy HEATMAP
US woman brings first-ever wrongful death lawsuit against big oil The Guardian
Revealed: Nato rearmament could increase emissions by 200m tonnes a year The Guardian
Pandemics
HHS cancels funding for Moderna’s candidate H5 avian flu and pandemic vaccines CIDRAP
New COVID variant driving up cases in parts of the world, WHO says PBS
Here is an update on this from my critical care team looking after nearly 32 new cases of Covid currently admitted to the hospital.
The presentation is with fever for most, lasting only a few days. Various types of upper respiratory symptoms including hoarse voice and throat… https://t.co/jlJAaWVGTk
— TheLiverDoc (@theliverdr) May 29, 2025
Whew, thankfully there is no testing or data in the US, so this will NEVER happen here (on paper.) When you get the latest variant, no you did not!
When the latest variant disables you, you will hear it’s not Covid, it’s YOU—your weight, age, & immoral lifestyles did that. https://t.co/tVWIzH6zzd
— Laura Miers (@LauraMiers) May 29, 2025
Zoom in to “Gastrointestinal Problems” and “Cold Cough Flu-Influenza”.
Look at that genuinely astonishing rise from *2019* to now. pic.twitter.com/6z3E0aWaNZ
— tern (@1goodtern) May 29, 2025
India-Pakistan
Towards Disaster New Left Review
China?
BERTRAND: ASEAN, GCC countries and China come together, forming the world’s largest economic bloc Intellinews
China’s Hundred Lens War ChinaTalk
Unlike the Nvidia CEO, Xi Jinping does not prefer the American technology stack for China AI Sinocism
China is already a powerhouse in AI for radiology and medical imaging. Next they’re going global. Inside China / Business
China never had free healthcare before its market reforms The East is Read
Why ‘catastrophic’ medical bills are hurting China’s economy FT
Syraqistan
EXCLUSIVE: Inside Trump’s New Gaza “Ceasefire” Proposal Drop Site
Israel’s Netanyahu says he accepts US envoy’s Gaza ceasefire outline Anadolu Agency
Report: PM tells families of hostages he won’t end war before Hamas defeated Times of Israel
Hamas official says it rejects new US Gaza ceasefire plan backed by Israel BBC.
Israel approves construction of 22 settlements in occupied West Bank Middle East Eye
Old Blighty
DWP warned benefit claimants are dying of starvation Big Issue
DWP staff in Jobcentres to use more AI – and your GP will now be your work coach, too The Canary
Britain will increase cyberattacks against Russia and China The Times
UK Plans to Force Nation’s Pensions to Invest in Private Markets Bloomberg
European Disunion
Why EU elites fear Trump’s tariffs Thomas Fazi
New Not-So-Cold War
Russia proposes peace talks with Ukraine next week after Trump threats Axios
GOP leery of approving tougher Russian sanctions without Trump support The Hill
Alleged threats to chief Russian negotiator’s family ‘outrageous’ – Kremlin RT
Western Ignorance on Full Display and Russia & Kiev Regime Exchange Blows in Drone War of Attrition Mark Sleboda (Video)
Ukraine’s AI-powered ‘mother drone’ sees first combat use, minister says Kyiv Independent
So Chosen Company is separating from the Ukrainian military because?
Oh because they’ve been taking an ass beating and the orders coming down the pipe are suicidal. Same reason the battalion commander from the 47th crashed out.
But a reminder that he’s not done killing… pic.twitter.com/dSPCwftGKc
— ayden (@squatsons) May 28, 2025
Immersed with these French people engaged “at the heart of the action” in Ukrainian intelligence Radio France (Machine Translation)
Russia accuses ally Serbia of betrayal for supplying arms to Ukraine AP
How to start a war with Russia in these easy steps: Just ask Merz’s Germany Tarik Cyril Amar
All of Europe Within Range: New Oreshnik Ballistic Missiles Will Be Deployed in Belarus in 2025 Military Watch
Spook Country
FBI will soon release video that proves Jeffrey Epstein was not murdered: ‘Clear as day’ New York Post
“Liberation Day”
Third Federal Court Ruling in Less Than 24 Hours Puts ‘Unlawful’ Trump Tariffs on Path to Supreme Court Common Dreams
A Detailed Look at Trump’s Car Tariffs Apricitas Economics
Analysis-Trump’s tariff tally: $34 billion and counting, global companies say Reuters
Rising continuing claims and falling profits signal labor market strain The Real Economy Blog
Trump 2.0
Palantir’s Trump bonanza continues with Fannie Mae contract to fight fraud The Register
DOGE
WIRED Talked to a Fired DOGE Staffer About Who Was Really in Charge Wired
Musk is gone. But DOGE staffers are still trying to cut through agencies. Politico
MAHA
Which means they used LLM AI to write the report. I see it all the time when anti-science people post AI sources to back their arguments.
— Jonathan Laxton MD, FRCPC 🇨🇦🇨🇦 (@dr_jon_l) May 29, 2025
The MAHA Report Has Been Updated to Replace Citations That Didn’t Exist NOTUS
The Republican Plot to Let People Die of Heatstroke The New Republic
“Make America Healthy Again” Aims to Make Public Health Your Responsibility Truthout
Democrats en Déshabillé
Senate GOP Gives Dems a Chance to Tank Trump’s Budget Bill—Will They Take It? Common Dreams
“Abundance? No thanks.” Unpopular Front
The Supremes
An unexpected shift to the right: the conservative justices’ recent embrace of law review articles SCOTUS Blog
Reclaiming the Courts from Corporate Capture The Economic Populist
Antitrust
Competition Policy Must be a Fundamental Component of Industrial Policy Law and Power
Wars Come Home
NYT Assumed Antisemitism in DC Embassy Attack FAIR
A Letter to My Fellow Jewish Americans Yasha Levine
Immigration
John Deere addresses farm labor shortages with autonomous tractors Fox News
Small farms bet on foreign labor, as USDA’s New ‘Farmer First’ plan aims to fix workforce woes Rural Radio Network
Well-connected students use propaganda troupes to dodge N. Korean farm labor Daily NK
Imperial Collapse Watch
Trump’s new ‘gold standard’ rule will destroy American science as we know it The Guardian
Demand for American degrees has already hit covid-era lows Economist
The Global AI Talent Tracker 2.0 Paulson Institute
Trump isn’t beating his nickname 😏https://t.co/KaZe4pkvmM
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) May 29, 2025
Lockheed CEO Announces Option For Unmanned F-35 Operations: Pitches ‘5+ Generation’ Stealth Upgrades Military Watch
Healthcare?
Beyond the Asylum The New York Review
Silicon Valley
How social media influencers impact FOMO in young consumers Phys.org
Guillotine Watch
The Bezzle
Crypto kidnappings leave investors, executives on edge Semafor
“It Was So Weird” – These Monkeys Have Started a Bizarre Kidnapping Fad SciTech Daily
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Dementia Takes Its Toll
(melody borrowed from The Heart Of Rock & Roll written by Huey Lewis and John Victor Colla, as performed by Huey Lewis & The News in 1984.)
Pitchfork and torch—we might go out that a way
Economy is staggering
Here’s Vance and Trump who both want to be kings
In the land of the free
When Donald isn’t snoozing things can get confusing
He lies just like a little child
And the bunch of us we nod right with him
That adds more crazy to the pile
And Trump’s dementia grows at each meeting
He can’t remember when we try to brief him
His mind is gone but he’s still breathing
And our whole rigamarole—whole rigamarole is we’re cheatin’
They say that we should show some statesmanship
The kind we always used to see
Not trade fights with all countries of this world
Supply chain jubilee
Donald Trump is losing—big and bigger losing
He’s truly lost the ruling class
Only half his MAGA folks stick with him
He should be kicked out on his . . .
And Trump’s dementia grows at each meeting
He can’t remember when we try to brief him
His mind is gone but he’s still breathing
And our whole rigamarole—whole rigamarole is we’re cheatin’
(musical interlude)
We see on the phone that the Prez is breaking down, saying every win is huge
Bragging, scoffing, never showing pity, sounding addled—not a word is true
None of us would choose this—none of us refuse this
Greet him with enormous smiles
But we’re counting every trial that he loses
And everyone keeps secret files
Dit-dit-dit-dit and Trump’s dementia grows at each meeting
He can’t remember when we try to brief him
His mind is gone but he’s still breathing
And our whole rigamarole—whole rigamarole is we’re cheatin’, (yeah)
We’re dealin’ . . .
Exploit!
The man’s out of control . . .
Donald ” TACO Don” Trump isn’t showing any signs of dementia. He is just utterly free and unrestrained to reveal his innermost truest self. He is finally Being All He Can Be.
“Smoke to pour into the U.S. as Canada wildfires force large evacuation in Manitoba”
US President Trump was asked for his views on all the smoke blowing into the US from Canada and his White House statement says-
‘I’m not happy with Canada. I don’t know what’s wrong with them. What the hell happened with them? Right? They’re blowing a lot of smoke across our borders. A lot of smoke. It has to stop. I’m not happy about that. Always gotten along with Canada, but they’re sending smoke into our cities and making people cough, and I don’t like it at all. I don’t like it at all! Unless they stop that smoke crossing our borders illegally I will sanction them. They are playing with fire and it has to stop.’
Is this a joke?
I went looking for a link. No success. Help?
Under Trump, satire is now dead.
Looks like Poe’s law strikes again:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law
The only valid use for the :) emoji.
:)
I can already smell the smoke here in the MSP suburbs.
It looks like Minneapolis will be in the worst of it around 4:00pm today.
“Mark Carney has gone absolutely CRAZY! He’s doing his Country no favors by sending smoke into Cities in America, for no reason whatsoever. It will lead to the downfall of Canada!”
Imitating the random capitalization style of Trump somehow captures his intellectual level more clearly. It certainly says something when the first response to The Rev Kev’s comment is to try to confirm if Trump actually said this, or if it is a joke…
I’ve noticed that he mostly does it with nouns, like in German, but more important nouns. There’s no consistent use. It’s probably some spelling rule about proper nouns stuck in a childhood neuron in his frontal lobe, disfunctionally zapping away during tweeting.
Trump was making Carney an offer out of the generosity of his heart. He said that Canada must pay about $61 billion to take part in the Golden Dome for the protection that they will receive – which is about a third of what the Golden Dome will cost. But he said that if Canada becomes the 51st State, then they will have it for free-
‘In a post on TruthSocial, Trump claimed Canada “very much wants to be part of our fabulous Golden Dome System” and would gain free access if it joins with the US.
Participating in the proposed defence system would cost Canada “ZERO DOLLARS if they become our cherished 51st State”, Trump said, adding, “They are considering the offer!”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/28/trump-says-canada-will-pay-61bn-for-golden-dome-or-become-51st-state
Not to be confused with a shake-down.
If that is a serious Trump proposal, then Canada just has to counterpropose closing all US surveillance bases everywhere in Canada, this rendering the detection part of Golden Dome blind to everything coming straight over the pole.
I was briefly in Washington State during the Canadian British Columbia wildfires in summer 2018.
Some USA based radio personalities jokingly suggested that Americans should take out their fans and blow the smoke back to Canada.
Maybe we’ll find some USA politicians who will advocate for this plan.
Time will tell.
I just flew Vancouver to Toronto, flight was at 37,000 ft. Was like flying through fog over prairies. Never seen it like that.
Play with fire, get smoked?
I’ll just see myself out now….
Thank you, Conor.
Further to the Blighty links, readers may also be interested in: https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05/30/leave-pensioners-money-alone/.
I have been in meetings between the City and the then Labour opposition when the politicians lapped up nonsense about removing such restrictions to get Britain booming. Not one politician appeared to wonder if that had anything to do with lining the pockets of the City.
Further fuel for the fire that will soon consume Blighty will be in the form of removing the firewall between retail banking and infrastructure and trading.
Speaking of Labour, last week, backbench MPs met Starmer before the recess. 27 questions were listed to be addressed. The first was planted, a soft ball for Starmer. His answers to the rest found no support. They are worried by the surge in support for Reform. Streeting, Reeves, Jones, Cooper and Rayner are mobilising as it is increasingly felt that Starmer won’t lead Labour in the next election.
With regard to the Tories, Jenrick, Philp, Stride and Johnson*, fresh from siring a fourth child* with his current wife, are organising. A leadership challenge is considered a matter of time.
*It’s not clear how many clear how many children Johnson has sired. He has four with his second wife (and former mistress) and four with his current wife (and former mistress when with his second wife). He has a child with a former colleague. Another is rumoured to have been adopted soon after birth by a Tory MP. One mistress, whose father defected from Labour to the Tories, ran the Tote and wrote a column for the News of the Screws called the Voice Of Reason, miscarried one and aborted another. Someone I know who knows Johnson’s current wife and her mother from the London Irish circuit reckons there’s another child. One wonders if Johnson follows the Jimmy Goldsmith rule with regard to wives and mistresses.
Thank you, Colonel. Regarding Starmer, the guys at The Duran were guessing that Starmer may not be long for the Prime Ministership as he has done the job expected of him as regards the Ukraine and slowly re-entering the EU. And as his replacement, it may be Wes Streeting who would not be an improvement from what I hear-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wes_Streeting
To clarify the Colonel’s hint about the Goldsmith rule: ‘when a man marries his mistress, he creates a vacancy’. I would suspect Johnson is very much an adherent to that maxim.
I confess to total wonderment at what possible attraction Johnson has to women. He is an overweight, badly dressed slob, consistent liar and serial adulterer, not half as intelligent as he and his admirers would have the world believe, and not by any stretch of the imagination seriously rich in the Goldsmith sense.
But what do I know?
Well he is very rich and connected to British high society. There is that. I suspect that one reason why he is rich is because of all the money that he saved on barbers. I’m reminded of the old story of this chap in England who went to party with this girl. Later on he saw here talking to this older guy and she was firmly rebuffing him. Just after, she came back to him and complained about the older guy and his dandruff. Our chap mentioned that the guy was actual so-and-so, the very famous composer. The girl then rounded on our chap and said ‘Why didn’t you tell me how attractive he was!’
Thank you, Gents.
The Johnsons are not seriously rich, but they are well connected and can open society, media and government doors.
A day or two ago, Ambrit and I exchanged comments about Johnson’s droit de seigneur at the Spectator. That did not faze the women at the magazine. Mrs Dominic Cummings, a cousin of broadcaster and professional upper class victim Alexander Armstrong, went out with editor Johnson, first, and then columnist Taki. It’s very transactional.
Is Taki still alive?
Look, he’s crawling up a vagina wall
Blonde and hairy, very small
Now he’s a family head
Hanging by a little thread
Boris the sire
Boris the sire
Now he’s dropped on to the floor
Heading for the bathroom door
Maybe he’s as scared as she
Where’s he gone now, I can’t see
Boris the sire
Boris the sire
Creepy, crawly
Creepy, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
There he is long after his PM fall
Doesn’t seem to move at all
Perhaps he’s comatose, I’ll just make sure
Pick his clothes up off the floor
Boris the sire
Boris the sire
Creepy, crawly
Creepy, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
He’s come to a sticky end
Don’t think he will ever mend
Forever more will his progeny crawl ’round
When he’s embedded in the ground
Boris the sire
Boris the sire
Boris the Spider, by the Who
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvFuUaCe8eY
Heh heh, gross. I guess satire isn’t dead after all.
(Dong Wang) which means “king of understanding”, a satirical take on his “know-it-all” persona
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The idea that Dong Wang sounds like ‘John Wayne’ ought to make Benedict Donald embrace the suck, no?
“Whoa, take ‘er easy there, pilgrim!”
Classic quote of John Wayne and the pilgrims-
‘I’m not gonna hit ya! ….. I’m not gonna hit ya! …. The Hell I’m NOT!’
KAPOW!
The first rule about Fight Club:
You do not TACO ’bout Fight Club.
I think this nickname is gonna stick.
Thank you, dear China, for your fun humor.
Benedict Trump – lamé duck
Your quip in comments on Yves’ tariffs article yesterday deserves repeating, so I did.
Possible song parody material, Wuk? A great old tune from the Pointer Sisters;
Wang, Dang, Doodle (Very, very live)
In Korean, it sounds like “sh*t king” (you have to put emphasis on the “dong” (heh!))…
Just sayin’.
Add this to Syraqistan…
How a Spyware App Compromised Assad’s Army antiwar.com
Handing out small amounts of cash, requiring military information and details to sign up. After the exploding pagers, this is very plausible.
Devices are always listening. Total Information Awareness.
One for the class warfare department – https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2025/05/28/market-basket-executive-arthur-t-demoulas-placed-on-paid-leave-for-allegedly-planning-work-stoppage/
You don’t often see a CEO under fire for trying to initiate a strike. About ten years ago, Market Basket workers went to the mat to keep Arthur T Demoulas as the head of the company his family owns after other family members tried to oust him. The problem they had with him is that he actually wanted to provide concrete material benefits for all the company’s employees. Over a decade later and Market Basket is still in operation after treating employees well, and what kind of example is that setting? Looks like the rest of his family is now trying to take him out again.
Again?
I thought these shenanigans were
all over, after last time.
For those unfamiliar, this is grocery
chain with low prices, high profit
margins, that pays and treats their
employees well. Of course “they”
want to blow it up to cash out.
I’m sure just the real estate is worth
a spectacular amount, and would be
sold or spun out under any new
management.
J.
———————————————–
I never watched the documentary
film about the 2014 walkout/boycott.
(Or were there two of those?)
Market Basket in Somerville was always a great place to shop for food. Like an ethnic market but combined with a regular grocery store. Glad they’re still in business.
Bugs,
Hey, that one’s “mine”!
J.
Re: Epstein video footage, I think we are past the Rubicon where video evidence can be taken at face value to prove anything. Why not release it immediately (back in ye olden days of circa 2019 when AI generated video was not so readily accessible)?
> Why not release it immediately …
Point well taken.
> … (back in ye olden days of circa 2019 when AI generated video was not so readily accessible)?
AI is just the latest, more sophisticated tool at their disposal. Even in the ancient mists of 1997 (Wag the Dog) it was apparent what ‘they’ could plausibly do, with the underlying concept itself clearly pointed out all the way back in Nineteeen Eighty-Four:
“‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'”
“FBI will soon release video that proves Jeffrey Epstein was not murdered: ‘Clear as day’”
Cool story, bro. Years too late, and it has to be cleaned up and “enhanced.” The article also states that the video does not show “the actual act.” If it does not show the actual act, then it is worthless.
Did you notice that they are releasing this magical BS video not long after AI generated videos became a thing? Strange that – and good timing. And for years we were told that no videos were working in that section of the jail. And now they have? Where did it come from? And of course they have to ‘enhance’ that video. Those time-stamps aren’t going to delete themselves.
I remember no videos working in the cell. I think this is why their video could not show “the actual act.”
Both guards were also asleep at the time and I have always wondered if they had been secretly drugged.
My theory has always been the guards were bribed and then told they would be killed if they said anything. The elites are just like mobsters, and that’s what mobsters do.
Oh … look … squirrel …
Ilpalazzo
Re: Covid tweet: this describes my symptoms to a t this past week except maybe fever that I only had for one evening. I’d felt that something is brewing for at least a week before that though.
That would be my fourth. Third was last November. I tell my coworkers (primary school), that I don’t expect to reach retirement and that I’m being serious but they think I am only joking.
Schools are the worst by far. I can observe this very closely with my relatives that anyone who attends school is constantly sick while people that stay home are way better. My mother (a teacher) still works despite retirement (she just can’t help it) and is miserable while my stay at home father (72, heart attack survivor) is alright. My beekeeper brother and his wife are alright. My other brother, a computer graphic artist, type I diabetes, works from home and is fine while his teacher wife and two daughters are sick all the time as well. We all live close by and see each other daily that’s how I know exposition time is crucial.
Is wearing a mask on the job an option?
It is in theory and I used to be strict about it. For over a year I was the only one in the building masked. Then I gave up realising the benefits in my particular circumstances are probably marginal.
Re: Democrats have the procedural ability to can the “Big Beautiful Piece of $4@&!”
Why do I have the feeling that the Donkeys aren’t going to take advantage of every procedural trick to send the Big Beautiful Piece of $4@&! to Davey Jones’ locker?
Is it because they’d rather have it become law and then harm real people, so that they can run against it during the midterms?
Or is it just because they’re worthless, useless grifters who are too busy day-trading to act as effective opposition?
(Come to think of it, if the Donkeys were clever, they’d truck in a dump truck full of Elephant manure, and dump it right on Capitol Hill next to Mike Johnson’s office. Then put up a sign pointing to it with “Big, Beautiful Bill” on it.)
They’re playing dead…
Perhaps the democratic party is remaking itself. The democratic party will be adopting the possum as its totem as part of a slow moving re-branding campaign.
No ‘playing’ about it. Waiting for them to save us is waiting for Godoy.
‘Sides, imo dem oligarchs think it’s beautiful. Dems’l do exactly what they’re told.
They’ve been dead for a long time.
They are keeping their powder dry for when the
big donorsthe country really needs it.China as a powerhouse in AI for radiology reminded me of the spate of articles circa 2015 demonstrating that pigeons could be trained to identify breast cancer in mammogram images as well as radiologists.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/pigeons-can-spot-breast-cancer-medical-images-180957323/
Did they use PigeonRank for that task?
https://archive.google/pigeonrank/
Watched a trio of Marmot Cong in the engine compartment of a Suburu the other day in Mineral King. The owner had opted for the obviously no good solution of raising the hood up and allowing light in, supposedly it works-but not really.
You need a ‘car burrito’ to thwart the ‘Cong, otherwise they’re gonna mess with your ride. Supposedly anti-freeze gets them drunk, but wouldn’t you need to mix Prestone with 80 proof gin?
Saw maybe 27 cars wrapped up at the Disney Parking Lot* and 4 that wished they were, easy pickins’.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/hikers-strange-method-stop-vehicle-135405742.html
*in anticipation of being awarded the contract to build a ski resort in Mineral King in the 1960’s, Disney bought about 30 acres of land using as many as 3 or 4 shadow buyers to hide the fact, none of it can be developed as its part of Sequoia NP now. Locals call the Eagle/Mosquito/White Chief trailhead parking lot by the Disney moniker as they own it, and its easily the worst looking Disney public property in their realm, a mixture of broken asphalt, gravel and protruding rocks.
Re Trump’s auto tariffs
At this difficult moment, tariffs will make things worse by adding $6400 to the average price of a new car, increasing the costs of assembling vehicles in the US, and encouraging technological complacency among domestic automakers.
Uh–that’s a lot. Larry Johnson says that Trump’s intelligence people are keeping him in the dark about the real nature of the Ukraine war and perhaps his staff are doing the same across the board. But if inflation was a big factor getting him elected one has to wonder about the political calculation shown in the above quote. His administration’s glass jaw is hanging out there, waiting to be smashed.
A smarter Trump would simply have accepted the trade court verdict and said “never mind.” That’s not the Trump we have, apparently.
“China’s Hundred Lens War”
If nothing else, watch the 6:16 min video demonstrating augmented reality. It’s a hot mess and you would have clutter in front of your eyes as long as you wore them. I’d much prefer the glasses from “Free Guy”-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHwdLBxz7E4 (2:08 mins)
Information overload leading to increase stress over overstimulation. This will end up affecting the immune defenses of bodies.
Evolutionary speaking, organisms have in fact developing filtering techniques to remove the “noise” and focus on the “signal” that reaches their decission centers.
Nice way to fuck with that. Or sabotaging the long term fitness in a population…
Did the chap who posted that video even watch it through?
It’s from nine years ago, and pretty much an AR version of full-on dystopia. The AR system goes on the blink, is being hacked, customer service hell ensues, and the user is then asked to provide biometric identification. This turns out to be blood, and check out how it’s drawn.
But sure… wear weird specs, win stupid prizes.
“FBI will soon release video that proves Jeffrey Epstein was not murdered: ‘Clear as day’ ”
Pretty funny now that AI has gotten so good at making realistic videos they are deciding to release this video…
This made me laugh and laugh and laugh….
It’ll be “watermarked” and that watermark assures its “chain of custody”-authenticity.
Trust me bro, cause I have the keys to the watermark, lol. —whether it’s this video or the infinite flow of video in a future of AI-generated media.
A 10min. video essay about AI-generated media’s impact upon the history profession using Biggs Darklighter (“Star Wars”) as a case study… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A7Leaq1R-s
If anyone wants proof that Musk uses a lot of Ketamine (K):
Besides the NMDA receptor blocking properties (same as alcohol by the way) of K, it also stimulates Estrogen receptor alpha (ESR1) at even the lowest doses, and I feel this is why Elon has gynecomastia.
Also, Musk complains about bladder pain which one could say was a rumor but since K also activates the TRPV1 receptor at low doses this makes sense. TRPV1 is a pain sensing receptor, and is implicated in bladder pain syndromes like Interstitial Cystitis/Bladder Pain Syndrome.
I will say, that IMHO, K is just a substitute for alcohol in this newest drug addled oligarchy.
Re FAIR and careless accusations of antisemitism–would it be too much to say that many in our oligarchic establishment–the Congress, the press, the Trump administration–see the Israeli get out of jail free card as a great thing to have and want to appropriate it for themselves? The staff of Penn senator Fetterman said he only spends time on Israeli issues and why not? He doubtless feels that’s what got him elected and will continue to do so. Anyone who objects can be accused of bigotry and Fetterman is off the hook.
Of course killing off all feedback tends to encourage extreme actions by the slayers and it’s likely this gambit can only hold fast for so long–perhaps not much longer. That which cannot continue will not no matter how much the guilt trip promoters try to kid themselves.
A big thanks goes out to the NC community!
Yesterday I went to the cinema and watched Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning.
The first couple of MI movies did steal the thunder from Bond, I think, when it comes to action and technology. Since then I haven‘t really followed the series. There are apparently 8 of them!?!?
Anway, it was the most embarrassing third reheating of left-overs I have ever seen. Every person was a cliché if a cliché. You have seen the fights 1000 times. The stunts and the scenes where they had to do something under timeüressure were also predictable.
One thing made me laugh out loud though. There were scenes with American aircraft carriers. All I could think of were the Houthis forcing American aircraft carriers to make such sharp turns that they lost two F-18s. Thanks to reading up on current events, at least I got a good laugh from this shitty movie. Again thank you to NC!
The bad musical score in the trailer already had given it away.
For the first time 2 TV composer dudes. I guess zero real orchestra.
Dud.
I’m still tripping out on Zimmer. Watched Dune 2 again just for the music (no orchestra there either btw).
I thought MI-7 was good. Cruise works hard for his audience (does his own stunts) and the action sequences were over the top. Which is to say if you are into this sort of thing it was a pretty good thing.
But I thought the Top Gun reboot was bad and the much praised action was lame. Sounds like he is partnering with the Pentagon again. Perhaps DOD’s movie contributions join the Abrams and the F35 in the “oops” bin.
Glad I wasn’t the only one; I relented and watched the new Top Gun, wasn’t sure what that was even about? Characteristically lame. And people in every other country likely wondered why not just use a missile strike; only in America would we sortie a bunch of jets for an airstrike.
https://indi.ca/mission-impossible-selling-war-during-genocide/
Mission Impossible 8 will kick so much ass.
Sorry you didn’t enjoy it.
And what’s this heresy about not enjoying Top Gun 2???
Tom Cruise bringing the wood for movie theaters and all I’m hearing is this complaining?!
Smoke to pour into the U.S. as Canada wildfires force large evacuation in Manitoba CNN
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anybody going to Burning Man(itoba)?
Wildfires will be our constant companion at all times of year for the rest of our lives…
Competent countries would invest largely in firefighting capabilities to deal with The Big Heat®, but we act as if adversaries far far away are our enemy, and waste grandiose amounts of money on the MIC instead.
Did you ever think that canada is just returning a few of trump’s thoughts, and blowing smoke up america’s collective ass? And wait until our canadian cousins begin complaining about OLD MAN SMELL wafting over their southern border, not smelling like victory, but more like fetid tacos in the morning. IT WILL BE WILD!
Trump will task Musk with inventing water bombs, and make wasting grandiose amounts of money more palatable.
I keep complaining wherever I can that Canada is poised to buy 88 F35 for 15 billion when they should instead, for the same price and likly lower long term costs, buy 150 jumbo water bombers…
Never mind the shitty forest practices they employ. But it is a big country with very sparse population, mind you.
4x Finkelstein:
on PIERS MORGAN UNCENSORED
Benny Morris, Psychopathic Liar (Part 1)
May 29, 2025
https://www.normanfinkelstein.com/benny-morris-psychopathic-liar/
Benny Morris, Psychopathic Liar (Part 2)
May 30, 2025
https://www.normanfinkelstein.com/benny-morris-psychopathic-liar-part-2/
Norman Finkelstein and Briahna Joy Gray
Free Speech, Moral Dilemmas, Academic Freedom and “Woke”: Norman Finkelstein and Briahna Joy Gray
May 29, 2025
https://www.normanfinkelstein.com/free-speech-moral-dilemmas-academic-freedom-and-woke-norman-finkelstein-and-briahna-joy-gray/
Speaking Truth to Power and the Encampments: Norman Finkelstein and Briahna Joy Gray
May 29, 2025
https://www.normanfinkelstein.com/speaking-truth-to-power-and-the-encampments-norman-finkelstein-and-briahna-joy-gray/
America’s leaders create their own reality, and I’m sure there won’t be any adverse consequences for doing so to the people that matter.
Until there are.
In the meantime, unless you matter, go die without stinking the place up.
Re; China?
The ghost of McCarthyism haunts this ‘educational witch hunt’: Global Times editorial
On May 28, local time, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed in a statement that the US would “aggressively revoke” the visas of Chinese students, “including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields…”
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202505/1335136.shtml
Isn’t this the flip-flip side of the party who invokes “woke” and “political correctness” when attacking higher-ed?
Both wings have used the schools as political battlegrounds for as far as I can remember, but the party’s intrusion into academia has never within my lifetime made itself more apparent than within the last decade or so– this is just a sign that this particular problem is accelerating, spiralling towards the shitter.
Our ruling-caste is certainly benefiting from credentialism vis-a-vis the higher-ed admissions and degree process, the pay-to-play entry-fee for positions of power and authority, or for us proles, a chance for a less-indecent job at the expense of your time and at exchange of living in debt-servitude for most of your adult life.
Today, actual education seems less the point than are one’s demonstrations of compliance to the requirements demanded by authorities, with mandatory participation in obedience training for human animals deemed necessary for one to earn their certificates.
I’m still trying to work out what behaviour “aggresively revoke” implies. Shouting, swearing, staming your feet, assaulting – perhaps even shooting – your nearest neighbour..? You Americans… No wonder you fall so easily into long drawn out, very expensive wars you are unable to win with human material like Rubio dealing with foreign policy.
You must be new here: long drawn out, very expensive wars you are unable to win is very profitable for our ruling caste, and by that standard Rubio is doing an excellent job.
That ayahuasca piece was amusing. Thanks for including
Seemed like an awful lot of work in order to find nirvana via vomiting…
Everyone is watching the consumer like a hawk to judge when the recession starts but with the tariff shenanigans so on and off it will be hard to judge what consumers are really up to and the deficit spending will continue by the look of it.
I think that watching single family residential will be better this time. They will have to stop building single family homes soon as sales ( which are being held up by incentives ) are dropping and inventory rising quickly. When the construction job losses start in this sector will be the clearest indicator this time.
What’s the pitch here? “All the cost of an F-35, with all the functionality of a $500 drone?”
Obviously, the makers of very expensive weapons are on the run given what’s going on in Ukraine.
It’s going to be a whole new world for these people.
All the cost of an F-35, and some more cost on top of that. The sales pitch is that you are replacing people with AI, just like all the cool kids are doing it nowdays.
The makers of very expensive weapons are not going anywhere, because there is no such thing as choice in the US run world. Everyone will buy the latest boondoggle, and pretend to like it. Welcome to a whole new world, same as the old one.
AI pains.
I am working on something. I have this data that includes occupation which is recorded in a very sloppy way, still very useful. But somewhat hard to categorize. I am trying the US EEO Classification, following the EEO-1 descriptions.
In time I have done the work manually (after loosing /misplacing/whatever a text parsing code many may thousands of lines long).
I wanted ChatGPT to validate my cathegorisations. After much back and fro and after paying one month subscription for ChatGPT Pro, it admitted that it could never beat a human at such a task, given the amount of “training” (one cannot overspecify such a database with words and rules).
But it can help use my work in categorizing subsequent sets.
My first victory in the Butlerian Jihad!
You are hereby awarded the Butlerian Jihad Campaign Badge!
Carry on.
https://www.rt.com/news/618343-kellogg-nato-expansion-ukraine/
“Russia’s long-standing security concerns regarding NATO expansion are reasonable, US presidential envoy Keith Kellogg said Thursday in an interview with ABC News
He was responding to a question about reports that Moscow wants NATO leaders to issue a written commitment halting further enlargement – particularly the inclusion of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia into the US-led military bloc.”
So I wrote a lengthy comment on RT about the inclusion of Moldova there arguing that ultimately Moldova can and might re-unite with Romania after all. What will Russia do? What is this Crimea re-unites Russia good, Moldova re-unites to Romania bad?
With a lot of details and stuff.
They took down the comment…
Not the first time. In fact, because of such comments, maybe two months ago at most, they deleted my whole history of comments (didn’t block me though). Russia really wants to hold on to that little piece of Moldova…
They do not want Moldova to fall into the merciless grip of the notorious election fraudsters Kaller Klueless and Useless fonda Lying. RT’s aims are purely humanitarian and designed to save Moldovans from fearful nightmares. The Modovans thank Russia in their prayers.
While the despondency towards RU is growing all over european countries, that doesn’t mean that the nationalist spirit is diminishing, but increasing.
The candidate in latest Romanian election that lost was a fervent ardent of re-unification.
And like the majority of the world, you likely have no idea there are 2x more Moldovans in Romania (since Principality of Moldova, as was left, was a constituting part of what became the Kingdom of Romania) than in R of Moldova.
I think of Her as “Von Der Looneybin” rather than “Fonda lying”.
Here in the USA we now have “Government by Fox TV Pundit”, RFK Jr doesn’t believe in the germ theory of disease and Kristi Noem doesn’t know what “Habeas Corpus” is, for two examples.
They make their own Reality, get with the program, buy some $Trump Coins, BE HAPPY!
Nah. Church that allows mentioning Russia in prayers will be made illegal, just like in Stepmother Ukraine. In stead, there will be new & improved, and EU approved, Church that allows only thanking Santa Klueless for the coal you will get for Christmas, and The Pope of course. Amen.
Russia really wants to hold on to that little piece of Moldova, and you really want to take it. How about settling it on the battlefield instead of bickering in the comment sections on the Internetz?
I am suggesting a referendum instead. That piece of land was taken in 1812. ANd throu a referendum in 1917 came back to Moldova, now united with Wallachia to form Romania.
If you allow referendums for Russia to claim Crimea and other areas, why not for Moldova?
I don’t allow anything, because no one asks me for permission. Men with guns take lands, while Keyboard warriors just clog the Internet. Johnny get your gun. Ruskies already got theirs. Good luck.
In sad news today, M*A*S*H actress Loretta Swit died aged 87-
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20qzlxz1w0o
Interesting that Scott Ritter’s X account got hacked and now Greenwald has had private video released/leaked to the public. In both cases they were prolific in social[tm] media wrt confronting others and the narrative being offered to the public at large.
Ritter was very direct and fearless in refuting high level individuals on X, very direct, no holes barred, mano a mano, where it seems Greenwald has P.O’ed some elites requiring his personal life be used to negate is arguments.
Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans(NYT)
The Trump administration has expanded Palantir’s work with the government, spreading the company’s technology — which could easily merge data on Americans — throughout agencies.
The Thielites continue their takeover of government.
As in the UK, Palantir is quietly becoming the backbone of government and governance.
thanks!
Did the Times do the same kind of reporting about the preceding administration(s)?
Chortle …
EXCLUSIVE: Elon Musk’s former friend, polymath Philip Low, has committed $250 million to litigating tech bros over mail tampering and false advertising. By Paola Totaro.
Philip Low: The neuroscientist taking on Elon Musk
“On January 24, however, Low was catapulted into the stratosphere of a different kind of fame when he published a skin-blistering, 1900-word takedown of his old friend Elon Musk on Facebook. An abridged version was uploaded to LinkedIn and within hours both posts – and key lines describing Musk as a narcissist with an obsessive “lust for power” and a “total, miserable, self-loathing poser” – went viral.
As Elon Musk reignites a British scandal involving gangs of men who sexually groomed underage girls, there is increasing evidence he is distorting the algorithm of his social media platform to advance his own political views.
“Nazis believed that an entire race was above everyone else,” wrote Low. “Elon believes he is above everyone else. Everything Elon does is about acquiring and consolidating power. That is why he likes far-right parties, because they are easier to control.”
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/law-crime/2025/05/31/the-neuroscientist-taking-elon-musk
Ponder …
Debt: The First 5000 Years
An extract.
https://x.com/Graeber_social/status/1928441841642316260
Waves at Wuk ….