Jaws at 50: Was the Terrifying Movie Really to Blame for Worldwide Shark Declines? The Revelator
Religious Leaders Who Tried Psilocybin Say It Made Them Better at Their Jobs StudyFinds
Cannibal Crusaders History Today
The heresy of Americanism The Drift
Climate/Environment
Scientists Uncover Flaw in Climate Models: Clouds Are Supercharging Arctic Warming SciTech Daily
Fitch Warns of Rising Mortgage-Bond Risk Due to Extreme Weather Bloomberg
Insurers Retreat as 2025 Wildfire Risk Reaches Dangerous Levels AP
Hunger already an issue in post-Helene Western NC. Signs it could get much worse. Carolina Public Press
Pandemics
It looks like everyone is going to be getting older sooner – see fascinating thread below.
Because while immune response lasts a whole lifetime, the length of our life isn’t the driving factor; it’s how soon our immune response is used up. Because that’s when our lifetime ends. https://t.co/OgB4JbeY7B
— Alan Barnard (@alanbarnard1) June 10, 2025
China?
Don’t think Xi is feeling that much pressure from Trump’s trade war. Exports to the US dipped, but exports to the rest of the world largely offset. The overall monthly goods surplus still topped $100b/ is on track to hit $1.2 trillion (gulp)
— Brad Setser (@Brad_Setser) June 9, 2025
***
Chinese Aircraft Carrier Seen Operating Deeper Into Pacific Bloomberg
Congress Passes Maritime Security and Cargo Preference Bills to Bolster U.S. Ports and Fleet gCaptain
Old Blighty
Unclear Keir will keep stealing money from us for things we don’t want and which make us less safe Ian Proud
This clip is the essence of Starmer, a man who said he doesn’t have a favourite book, and doesn’t dream. Walking aimlessly through a dark, seemingly empty house, rubber-stamping contracts some shady multinational has written for him, trying to project Seriousness and Importance. https://t.co/XZk0Jm29ZC
— Hon. PolProf of Agile Ceremonies (@CeilNoyle) June 9, 2025
Syraqistan
‘BREAKING: Israelis opened fire today at thousands of Palestinian civilians including women, children, elders and youth who were gathering to receive small amounts of food aid, near the American “GHF”—also known as the “food death trap” in the Netzarim axis, in Gaza.’… pic.twitter.com/C6l3BXvc3C
— Sana Saeed (@SanaSaeed) June 10, 2025
An extremely vile tactic to delay real action and give Israel more time to fully exterminate the Palestinians
–
Western governments are Zionist whores https://t.co/rfHXBpxSbt— Alon Mizrahi (@alon_mizrahi) June 10, 2025
Israel Is Putting More Women on the Front Line to Help Fix Its Manpower Problem WSJ
***
IAEA an ‘instrument for Israel,’ secret documents seized by Iran reveal The Cradle. “…several top Iranian nuclear scientists ended up getting assassinated due to their names being disclosed by the IAEA.”
UN’s Nuclear Watchdog Poised to Declare Iran in Violation of Nonproliferation Treaty Haaretz
Israel Making Preparations for Iran Strike as Trump Tells Netanyahu to Forego an Offensive Haaretz
New Not-So-Cold War
Yes, Russia is Escalating the War with Ukraine Larry Johnson
Break Down of Russia’s Most Powerful Strikes In SMO: Advances In Dnepro, Sumy, Donetsk/Reason Moscow’s Dnepro Entry Spells Doom For Ukraine- Higher Loses, Russia New Regions The Real Politick with Mark Sleboda (Video)
Operation Spiderweb fails to ‘Trump-proof’ the Ukraine war M.K. Bhadrakumar, New Indian Express
WAITING FOR TRUMPO John Helmer
***
‘Israel’ confirms Patriot missile transfer to Ukraine Al Mayadeen
Israel denies ambassador’s claim of Patriot missile transfer to Ukraine Ynet
***
Realism Is Not Enough: Russia, Realism, and Historical Constructivism Gordon Hahn
New Evidence Exposes The Maidan Massacre False Flag. The Dissident
South of the Border
US troops deploy to Panama for canal exercises amid sovereignty protests Intellinews
Spook Country
“Liberation Day”
Bancor Michael Roberts blog
90 Trade Deals In 90 Days Tracker:
Day 64: Still Zero.
— Maine (@TheMaineWonk) June 10, 2025
Trump 2.0
THE “ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL ACT” ELIMINATES THE OFFICE OF FINANCIAL RESEARCH—THREATENING THE STABILITY OF THE TREASURY MARKET Notes on the Crises
***
Hegseth aide upended Pentagon leak inquiry with false wiretap claims The Guardian
***
States, sheriffs puzzle over Trump’s error-filled list of immigration sanctuaries Ohio Capital Journal
The Big Beautiful Bill Will Bring ICE Raids to Your City David Dayen, The American Prospect
DOGE
Musk’s administration allies become targets Semafor
The DOGE 100: Musk Is Out, but More Than 100 of His Followers Remain to Implement Trump’s Blueprint ProPublica
Can Anyone Replace Elon Musk? New York Times. Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia and investment banker Anthony Armstrong are expected to be part of a new leadership team.
Trump Just Quietly Teed Up $20 Billion In Starlink Contracts The Lever
Hegseth Says DOGE Found $6 Billion in Pentagon Budget Cuts Bloomberg. Out of a trillion.
MAHA
Trump’s First Surgeon General: RFK Jr. Purging the CDC Advisory Committee Will Put Lives at Risk Jerome Adams, TIME
F.D.A. Looks to A.I. to Enhance Efficiency New York Times. The deck: “With a Trump-driven reduction of nearly 2,000 employees, agency officials view artificial intelligence as a way to speed drugs to the market.”
Democrats en déshabillé
“It Blows My Mind That There’s No Opposition”: When ICE Allies Run Unchallenged Bolts
Police State Watch
Nationwide protests erupt in the US over ICE raids as Trump deploys troops, plans military parade The Economic Times
Trump to ramp up transfers to Guantánamo, including citizens of allies WaPo
Overnight curfew declared for downtown LA after ICE protests bring looting and vandalism LAist
Trump endorses arrest of Gavin Newsom KTLA
***
Martial Flaw in LA Ken Klippenstein
No one made any plans for the NG beyond sending them to LA, including what they’d eat and where they’d sleep. pic.twitter.com/z3bYTKrH1J
— Eric Nelson (@literaryeric) June 10, 2025
How Do You Measure Corporate Power? Count the Marines in LA America’s Undoing
‘Whose National Guard?’ by Ben Page from New Masses. Vol. 14 No. 11. March 12, 1935. Revolution’s Newsstand
The weaponization of Waymo Blood in the Machine. “How protestors turned torched Waymos into icons of the anti-ICE demonstrations.”
***
NYCLU Slams Mayor Adams Order Adopting IHRA Antisemitism Definition NYCLU
Panel: Public can’t know cost, details of ‘critical’ security project at Michigan Capitol Bridge Michigan
***
Border Patrol arrested a Detroit student on a field trip. He now faces deportation. Detroit Free Press
The NYPD and ICE ‘mistakenly’ arrest a Chilean woman on vacation in New York City, leaving her 12-year-old daughter (who was with her) on the street alone. pic.twitter.com/HZkxbQ5lOz
— EssenViews (@essenviews) June 9, 2025
Groves of Academe
University of Michigan drops private security after reports of surveillance Bridge Michigan
Wars Come Home
Hexagons aren’t always MQ-9s, but in this case, yes, there are two MQ-9 Reapers over LA today. Just ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/tMsUAbIeL4
— John Wiseman (@lemonodor) June 9, 2025
Imperial boomerang: when tactics of colonial rule exported abroad are imported back home pic.twitter.com/EGbGFBhqkZ
— Stephen Semler (@stephensemler) June 10, 2025
Obama Legacy
A lot of our present discontent is downstream from the fact that Obama broke a lot of people’s hearts. He promised hope and change, didn’t deliver all that much of it, then retreated to a quiet life of opulence and golfing. Ever since we’ve had a politics dominated by cynicism. https://t.co/yjhZ8szbCo
— Tyler Austin Harper (@Tyler_A_Harper) June 8, 2025
Our Famously Free Press
CNN is claiming that these small objects are being thrown by protesters and explode, scaring police. Those are rubber bullets fired by police at civilians, they do not explode when thrown. CNN is doing agitprop for LAPD.
clip from @CinemarxismBret pic.twitter.com/9DM6waFRg4
— Austin MacNamara – Gremloe (@gremloe) June 10, 2025
The Friendly Skies
Airlines Don’t Want You to Know They Sold Your Flight Data to DHS 404 Media
Look for These 7 New Technologies at the Airport IEEE Spectrum
AI
NEWS: Opposition to AI moratorium grows. Sens Ron Johnson and Rick Scott said they oppose restricting states regulating AI
Them plus Hawley and Blackburn that’s 4 who oppose it. House conservatives also oppose it. And several GOP Sens have also rejected endorsing the move
— Diego Areas Munhoz (@Dareasmunhoz) June 10, 2025
The Storm Clouds Looming Past the State Moratorium: Weak Regulation is as Bad as None Tech Policy Press
Antitrust
Deere must face FTC’s antitrust lawsuit over repair costs, US judge rules Reuters
The Bezzle
You will have shitcoin ETFs in your retirement account and you will be happy https://t.co/jknZ7brAQZ
— Jacob Silverman (@SilvermanJacob) June 10, 2025
Class Warfare
Guest Post: Head Start is Helping Whole Families Working Class Storytelling
The contradictions of capitalism explained Class Consciousness Project
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Desperate Donald
Desperate Donald—his OBBA won’t pass
The Senate is giving him all kinds of sass
His wars overseas are an endless morass
Back home he gives shite to the whole working class
Once his budget won’t pass, once his tax cuts don’t fly,
Once his tech bros don’t get relief for their AI,
Once these ICE riots spread with a great hue and cry
We can sing the Trump Project its last lullaby
Desperate Donald is losing his donors
His backers, his funders, his masters, his owners
They’re weary of Donald and all of his boners
Especially DOGE and those code writing stoners
So Donald spins ’round in a descending loop
He’s lost over half of his MAGA cult troupe
His Cabinet is an incompetent group
Handpicked by America’s Chief Nincompoop
He sees his own father in Vladimir Putin
He pays full attention, he bows, he’s salutin’
It’s perfectly clear for which side Donald’s rootin’
The Deep State won’t ever let Donald stop shootin’
In Washington, Donald hires numbskulls and thugs
With loads of corruption swept under their rugs
Lets Elon run wild on his favorite drugs
And with each flaming scandal Trump grins and he shrugs
But everyone’s adding up what this will cost
And counting the red lines this cretin has crossed
The midterms are already over and lost
But Desperate Donald’s still spewing exhaust
He’s the moron who thinks our insides can be bleached
With five months in office our limit’s been reached
Desperate Donald’s a whale that’s been beached
A matter of time till he’s charged and impeached
To know him is to know Tony Soprano
Though Donald could never go mano a mano
No, he’d use a wire from an upright piano
He tears families apart; no es un hermano
He’s got us sliding to World War Three
And he’s not building bunkers for you and for me
So if nuclear winter’s not your cup of tea
It’s time to fight hard for our democracy
‘Sana Saeed
@SanaSaeed
‘BREAKING: Israelis opened fire today at thousands of Palestinian civilians including women, children, elders and youth who were gathering to receive small amounts of food aid, near the American “GHF”—also known as the “food death trap” in the Netzarim axis, in Gaza.’’
Doesn’t this happen every single time that there is food being distributed? Did the Israelis make the usual excuse that thought that they saw somebody with a gun a half kilometer away this time?
Is there possibly a message behind today´s antidote???
(NOOOOOOOOO!)
p.s. 20 years ago I met Aussies who told me when vacationing at the seaside in Italy they didn´t even dare to touch the water so afraid of and used to possible shark attacks had they become by then.
There is also this classic.
Then there is this skit from SNL, back when they were funny.
Just put the shark in an ICE uniform and the correspondences are perfect.
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_NS2H55dxI&ab_channel=SaturdayNightLive
indeed, back when they were funny!!!
Didn´t know that one.
🙃👍
It is needed in order to make the whole links section a great white sandwich.
A Hero on Wry.
I heartily recommend spending some time with the work of Canadian painter Chris Austin, especially “There is a Place Within You That is Always at Rest”. I admire his work a great deal.
Not worried about sharks, the salties keep them away
https://animalia.bio/australian-saltwater-crocodile
Where’s Steve Irwin when you need him?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7TH3UuNhIU
Crikey!
From MoA commentariat another absurdity of the NYT:
Now they are trying to prepare the big rift between Russia and China
How We Obtained and Vetted a Russian Intelligence Document
A directive from Russia’s domestic security service was part of a cache that was advertised online by a cybercrime group.
https://archive.is/uOtQM
excerpt as posted by MoA´s comment (my emphasis):
“(…)
June 7, 2025
In November, a crime group known as Ares Leaks announced on Telegram that it was selling classified Russian intelligence documents. The group claimed that the records originated from inside the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B.
The New York Times does not pay its sources or buy stolen documents. But we do accept documents that are provided without cost or strings attached. And it is common practice for sellers like Ares Leaks to share free samples.
In this case, Ares Leaks provided snapshots of Russian intelligence documents and, most important, a complete F.S.B. counterintelligence document about China. More documents were available, the group said, for a negotiable price paid in the cryptocurrency Monero.
The sample document on China appeared to come from the security agency’s Department for Counterintelligence Operations, known as the D.K.R.O. And it offered tantalizing insight into Russia’s relationship with China, one of the most important — and least understood — alliances in modern geopolitics. It described deep concerns in Moscow about Chinese espionage, and it revealed that Russia operates a secretive program to organize and analyze data from the popular Chinese messaging app WeChat.
The document looked consistent with F.S.B. records that have previously been made public. Times reporters who have studied Russian espionage for years analyzed the material and saw nothing immediately suspicious.
We took the document to six Western intelligence agencies. All of them confirmed that it appeared authentic, based on its format and content. A few agencies told us that the content was consistent with intelligence that they had collected independently. One went so far as to say that the content was consistent with what it knew about Russia’s views on China and its penetration of Chinese communications.
The Times also confirmed some details from the document. For instance, we established — independent of the Western intelligence sources we consulted — that the Russian government had in fact been conducting “precautionary briefings” with Russians who travel to China for work.
(…)”
If their aim is to influence whoever the NYT might not be realizing they are nowadays taken seriously only by their own editorial boards and possibly a few mustaches of misunderstanding.
Colour me utterly unsurprised. I can’t see how publication of such a document could cause a “rift” anyway, given that the two countries obviously know what each is doing..
Of course the Russians and the Chinese spy on each other. Everybody, including notional allies, spies on each other. Of course they would be trying to penetrate each others’ communications. Of course Russians travelling to China get a security briefing before they go. Only the incurably naive would imagine anything else.
‘Cannibal Crusaders’ ate the Muslim dead, Israeli crusaders sell them for body parts…
Same behaviour, different techology.
Cannibal Crusader rallying cry:
‘Stand and De-Liver!’
Cannibal Crusaders History Today
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Experts agree, its best not to be associated with long pig luaus, but that dogma will hunt apparently.
The only place in present day USA i’m aware of where cannibalism was rampant, happened after the Anasazi were post peak as a culture and climate change came calling in the face of a very long drought.
They built Chaco Canyon with its Great Houses that had up to 400 rooms each, and were the tallest buildings in the USA until the 1800’s, their ‘skyscrapers’ if you will.
All the pre-Americans had for weaponry was crude implements made out of rock & bow and arrow, their ‘assault weapons’ if you will.
Man Corn: Cannibalism and Violence in the Prehistoric American Southwest by Christy & Jacqueline Turner is a real stomach turner. Christy was an anthropology professor @ Arizona State University, and he and his wife spent decades collecting evidence of what was on the menu
House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest by Craig Childs, is a heck of a read.
D’YE KEN DON TRUMP
D’ye ken Don Trump
With his hair so gay?
D’ye ken Don Trump
As his fake-tan wattles play?
D’ye ken Don Trump
Says keep Muslims far away
With his bull and his lies
In the morning
Twas the sound of his bull
Brought me from my bed
And the cry of his lies
Alas me oftimes misled
For Trump’s lying crap
Would wake up the dead
Or Fox from its lair
In the morning…
‘EssenViews
@essenviews
The NYPD and ICE ‘mistakenly’ arrest a Chilean woman on vacation in New York City, leaving her 12-year-old daughter (who was with her) on the street alone.’
In other news, fewer and fewer foreign tourists are booking flights to the US but federal authorities are not sure what the cause is.
[Snark warning]
Super Special News!!!
12 year old daughter of Chilean woman arrested “by mistake” in New York city to be cared for by highly secretive New York NGO, “Epstein’s List.”
NGO Spokeswoman Frederika Von Shtup tells reporters that:
“Little Lolita will be cared for in the most loving manner. She will be flown to the sunny Caribbean on our own luxurious jet for her safekeeping. In keeping with well-established legal precedents, she will not be available for comment to protect her privacy.”
In a related item, “Epstein’s List” board members Bill and Hillary C were seen to be arguing heatedly as to which of the two would be allowed to comfort the bereft girl on the flight to the NGO’s “rest and recreation” centre in the Virgin Islands.
More as it develops.
News Flash: While Bill and Hillary C were arguing loudly in the airport lounge, the Lolita Express took off with that 12 year-old and Randy Andy was seen in a cabin window waving to Bill and Hillary C below.
Just in!
New York City attorneys to charge Chilean woman arrested “by mistake” with “Child Endangerment” for bringing 12 year-old daughter to New York City.
“We knew there had to be a valid reason for the woman’s arrest” stated New York City Attorney D C Howe. “Now we have one.”
Those two graphs showing how, as America disengaged from the Iraq War, the amount of military equipment going to domestic police forces increased in inverse proportion to the drawdown illustrates starkly how the tactics used against “furriners” are brought “home” to the Heartland. To do such a “militarization” of the Homeland, one needs ‘military’ grade equipment.
The next step will be the full scale “suppression” of domestic dissent by force of arms.
As former ambassador Freeman stated on a podcast recently, he sees America as being in a “pre-revolutionary” state.
The task for those “leftists” still standing in America now is to organize so as to be able to take advantage of the chaos and societal collapse that is coming. The real lesson here for the Elites of America is that there is no such of a thing as an “Exceptional Nation.”
America was born out of a revolution. It could well die in one.
Stay safe.
Or it could be reborn in one. That could happen.
Too true. Or, it could be reborn in two, or three, or four, etc. etc.
People throw around the word “fascist” so much now that it has lost any particular meaning. Like Humpty Dumpty in “Through the Looking Glass” says, the word becomes what is wanted at any particular time or for whatever particular agenda.
Carroll’s words in the character’s mouth are true and to the point:
““When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”
There is the real question posed by a children’s character in a book for children: Who is to be Master and who is to be Slave?
That the Elites see the rest of the world as “theirs to rule” by rights is the true crime being perpetuated.
Stay safe.
The “revolution” could be the plan. They are a great indirect way to eliminate the “useless eaters” who are complaining that the rich are too rich.
The whole immigration crisis is a false flag promoted by every administration.
Which link was that? I read a number of Police State links, but didn’t see the graphs. Thx!
I don’t know how to directly link it, but the Stephen Semmler Twitter (X) link above. [Between the “Octagon” tweet and the T A Harper “Obama the Sell Out” tweet.]
My local Sheriff Search and Rescue got an MRAP (mine resistant armored personnel carrier)
Not sure what they were supposed to do with it…..
Well, those were specificaly designed to be used overseas for policing and terrorizing those considered to be lesser people. Now, it’s not only overseas. An advertisement would say: “As seen on TV, now avaliable at home, call 911 now!”
P.S. MRAP means Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected, because it is expected that those policed by it shoot back.
P.S.2. Alternate use have been charging towards Russian positions, but the results turn out to be nothing to write home about.
.
The article “States, sheriffs puzzle over Trump’s error-filled list of immigration sanctuaries” contains following elements:
““We figure it must be some kind of mix-up. We certainly support our fellow law enforcement agencies,” said James Davel, administrative coordinator for Shawano County, Wisconsin, which was included despite no apparent immigration sanctuary policy. The county voted for President Donald Trump in 2024 by more than 67%.
One possible explanation: The county board passed a resolution in 2021 declaring Shawano a “Second Amendment Sanctuary County” as a sign of “vigorous support of the peoples’ Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.””
And also:
“her list of sanctuary jurisdictions included Watauga based on a June 2024 report from U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement listing it as among hundreds of others as “non-cooperative institutions.””
And more:
“Hagaman alluded to an April Facebook post by U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, calling out Watauga and eight other North Carolina counties as immigration sanctuaries.”
A resolution about a different topic interpreted erroneously; a wishy-washy assessment assumed to have a definite meaning; a Facebook post based on no evidence published by a politician… Yes, it looks suspiciously as if the list of “sanctuary cities” was slop compiled by one of those AI chatbots after scouring the Internet for anything that looked vaguely relevant. No surprise; the RFK Jr. team already did likewise with its MAHA report.
What was the aphorism again? We live in the most stupid times?
‘SASC Watch’
Oh no! Another “Shaggy DOGE” joke?
How about a reboot of a “beloved” “family friendly” film from the Long Ago? Gavin and the Hendersons.
The AI slopfest really does pop up everywhere now. This came up just yesterday from Janel Comeau on twitter: https://x.com/VeryBadLlama/status/1932238432669208613 ( or for the non-twatter users: https://nitter.poast.org/VeryBadLlama/status/1932238432669208613 )
The Beaverton, fyi, is a Canadian satire ‘newspaper’ much like The Onion. The Beaverton article in question: Cape Breton to create new, more annoying time zone between Atlantic and Newfoundland time
Well that AI slopfest is nicely mimicking humans, which I guess was the end goal. I remember a satire ‘newspaper’, much like The Onion, writing an article about a tourist killing a shark, and “real” news outlets running with it.
https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/drunk-serb-dives-into-red-sea-and-kills-shark-the-internet-hoax-of-2010/news-story/7fd10dacc4964dd6eda89bdbe7e574c5
From the LATimes:
Bass enacts curfew in downtown L.A. to stem chaotic protests
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-06-10/mayor-bass-enacts-curfew-local-emergency-downtown-los-angeles
Mayor Bass’s announcement on the news. ABC news report. utube, ~2+ minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiYwShVho4w&list=RDNSqiYwShVho4w&start_radio=1
“Bass also sought to emphasize the fact that the curfew was limited to just a few square miles of the 502 square mile city.”
Several maps and comments have been posted on bluesky comparing LA and LA county to the protest area. See the link below (city map) and some of the replies (county). I’m not familiar with the posters or the area, so maybe someone else can provide additional perspective.
https://bsky.app/profile/noellecook.com/post/3lrcwhkspms2e
Taibbi’s latest, public excerpt:
The “Mostly Peaceful” Revolution
The Los Angeles riots are reviving the revolting homages to Marx and socialist revolution that helped elect Donald Trump in the first place
https://www.racket.news/p/the-mostly-peaceful-revolution
Yeah somehow Taibbi took from living in post-Soviet Russia, where children were prostituting themselves for food, “Marx bad”. That guy should stick with what he knows. Like many of us, lol.
Later in the long article he references Marcuse. I think that’s the “marx” he’s talking about. The sort of “marxism”, (and I put this in air quotes advisedly as it refers to US academia, not actual Marx), a reference to US academics reading Marcuse and and other academic marxists after, 1960 or so.
See for example this description of US academic marxism.
A Contribution to the Critique of Academic Marxism: Or How the Intellectuals Liquidate Class Struggle
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43783343
And also this more accessible essay from Jacobin
https://jacobin.com/2024/12/american-marxism-academia-critical-theory
/ my two cents
I’d add that in the US academic world Foucault’s influence on US academia’s idea of marxism, what some describe as Foucault’s “materialism of the human body”, is less about economic class relations and more about race and gender essentialism. Everyone is either a victim or an oppressor, based not on economic class but on body essentialism. But what do I know? / ;)
Yes flora, some even note that he helped grease neoliberalism insertion into the public mind and then a thousand flowers bloomed. Then like with AET one could not nail anything down post the action axiom, attacking it directly results in being called a deviant, irrational, litany of other pejoratives without showing how its arrived at lmmao ….
Still ongoing IMO ….
Appreciate your posts/responses here, so thank you.(I had a longer comment earlier but I ditched that.)
Instead the original which is so much better:
From Herbert Marcuse´s seminal “The Affirmative Character of Culture” of 1937 revised after the war.
Engl. vers. contained in “Negations Essays in Critical Theory”
“(…)
But the universality of this happiness is immediately canceled, since
the abstract equality of men realizes itself in capitalist production as
concrete inequality. Only a small number of men dispose of the
purchasing power required for the quantity of goods necessary in order
to secure happiness. Equality does not extend to the conditions for
attaining the means. For the strata of the rural and urban proletariat, on
whom the bourgeoisie depended in their struggle against the feudal
powers, abstract equality could have meaning only as real equality. For
the bourgeoisie, when it came to power, abstract equality sufficed for
the flourishing of real individual freedom and real individual happiness,
since it already disposed of the material conditions that could bring
about such satisfaction. Indeed, stopping at the stage of abstract
freedom belonged to the conditions of bourgeois rule, which would
have been endangered by a transition from abstract to concrete
universality. On the other hand, the bourgeoisie could not give up the
general character of its demand (that equality be extended to all men)
without denouncing itself and openly proclaiming to the ruled strata
that, for the majority, everything was still the same with regard to the
improvement of the conditions of life. Such a concession became even
less likely as growing social wealth made the real fulfillment of this
general demand possible while there was in contrast the relatively
increasing poverty of the poor in city and country. Thus the demand
became a postulate, and its object a mere idea. The vocation of man, to
whom general fulfillment is denied in the material world, is hypostatized
as an ideal.
(…)
By making suffering and sorrow into eternal, universal forces, great
bourgeois art has continually shattered in the hearts of men the facile
resignation of everyday life. By painting in the luminous colors of this
world the beauty of men and things and trans-mundane happiness, it
has planted real longing alongside poor consolation and false
consecration in the soil of bourgeois life. This art raised pain and
sorrow, desperation and loneliness, to the level of metaphysical powers
and set individuals against one another and the gods in the nakedness of
physical immediacy, beyond all social mediations.
(…)”
To put it in a nutshell: “There is no subject fit better for narration than unhappy love”.
That is the mechanics of mass culture.
If one reads Marcuse it should be evident that it all roots in class war.
I am never sure today in how far academics have had the opportunity to read the originals or secondary literature only. With the insane surge of content production since digital age that is a noble demand but difficult to live up to.
when i was reading all that french philosophy, it was accepted that the translations were terrible.
my rather newer translations of antioedipus and merleau ponty are almost unreadable.
and my french sucks, among all the latin derived languages(i mean, damn…i can read a newspaper in catalan,lol)
i reckon it falls on judith butlers head how it all turned out with the various gender and ethnic studies…then woke, etc.
and that confusion of tongues was necessary for to castrate the Actual Left, and lump it in with all the drag queen and assorted madness that maga has made so much hay with.
“my rather newer translations of antioedipus and merleau ponty are almost unreadable.”
While posting I was thinking about that very point, translation. Is it even possible? Does it even make sense to post a translation of such a text? And more generally: Does it make sense to choose a short excerpt from such a text? Some argue these texts are “unreadable” in German original. I don´t know the French originals of Ponty, the translations seemed to work for me back in the day. But who is gonna read Adorno today? Sociology professors in German today state clearly they cannot teach any of this. People would not understand it.
Eventually it´s a bit like that saying about Einstein´s relativity, everybody knows it, hardly anyone understands it.
In case of language and politics however that leads to some serious misunderstandings.
But then, none of this matters on the ground.
Heinz Dieterich who I mentioned last year, argued that coming from a working-class family in Bremen or Bremerhaven, I forgot, the then new integration programs enabled him to study sociology in Frankfurt around the same time as Habermas was around.
But once having acquired the “tool-kit” Dieterich looked around the FRG and said, fuck it, this elite shit makes no sense and he figured South America would be the place where you could seriously do something. And left.
Big Don
Big Don
Ev’ry mornin’ at the White House you could see him arrive
He claimed to be six foot three and weigh 225
Kinda broad at the shoulder and loose at the lip
And everybody knew, ya didn’t give no shit to Big Don
Big Bad Don
(Big Don)
Nobody seemed to know where Don called home
He just drifted into town from Mar-a-Lago and drank diet Coke all alone
He’d often say too much, hardly quiet and shy
And if you spoke crypto-you just said buy to Big Don
Somebody said he came from the New York City scene
Where he was born in Queens
And a crashin’ blow from the Freedom Caucus team
Sent a Louisiana fellow to the Speakership, Big Don
Big Bad Don
(Big Don)
Then came the day on January 6th, no lyin’
When a mob attacked the Capitol and policemen started dyin’
Democrats were prayin’ and hearts beat fast
And everybody thought that he’d reached his last, ‘cept Don
Through the tear gas & melee of this man-made hell
Watched a church mouse of a man that the electorate knew well
Grabbed a hold of the GOP, gave out a groan
And like a giant Oak tree, he just stood there alone, Big Don
Big Bad Don
(Big Don)
And with all of his strength he gave justice a mighty shove
Then the GOP yelled out, “There’s a man above the law-show him love”
And a disgrace was sheltered from a would-be political grave
Now there’s only one left down in Mar-a-Lago to save, Big Don
With bluster and patriotism he wouldn’t back down
Then came that rumble on November 5th on the ground
And then because of inept Kamala & the Democrat con
Nobody thought it was the end of the line for Big Don
Big Bad Don
(Big Don)
Now they never went through with a verdict
They just more or less decided to acquit
These few words are written of his stand
“At the bottom of all this skulduggery lies a big, big man, Big Don”
Big Bad Don
(Big Don)
(Big Don)
Big Bad Don
Big Bad John, by Jimmy Dean
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnnHprUGKF0
A trifecta of song and verse roasting our shit-posting prevaricator-in-chief.
Thanks for the yuks, Wuk, Antifa and Jon Cloke. We live in a target-rich environment.
That says a lot about their jobs. Also, I didn’t know they have the methodology for measuring effectiveness of priests.
More donation$?
Fewer accusations?
Accurate divinations?
“Airlines Don’t Want You to Know They Sold Your Flight Data to DHS”
Now this headline really surprised me. Selling people’s data to the DHS? I would have assumed that they would be handing it over for free as a matter of course. But when I think about it, as all those people’s data was always going to go to the DHS, this may be actually a disguised subsidy to airlines. It becomes a revenue stream from the Federal government to airline corporations that can never be questioned and justified as being in the service of “national security”. So do telecommunications corporations also received this sort of disguised subsidy too?
I am the last one to defend CNN (and especially this Zelensky-lusting chick), but some things should be clear. Rubber bullets do not explode, but weapons firing them tend to have the ability to fire different types of “crowd control” rounds.
The ones shown on the video are supposedly:
https://www.defense-technology.com/product/multiple-foam-baton-round-40mm/
On the bottom of the page there are munitions with different effect (that could be described as explosion by a novice).
“IAEA an ‘instrument for Israel,’ secret documents seized by Iran reveal”
Say, do you remember the time that Netanyahu did one of his dog & pony acts at the UN and claimed that Iran had a secret atomic warehouse in Iran and that the Israelis had smuggled all sorts of secrets out of it but which were just random crap?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/27/netanyahu-claims-israel-has-found-irans-secret-atomic-warehouse
Looks like the Iranians have the real deal here instead so you wonder what is in them. Also, which nations will be found culpable for their actions and which political leaders. Here they have already hung the IAEA out to dry and leaves them with some ‘splaining’ to do.
More for the China section:
Trump Says Trade Deal With China ‘Is Done,’ but Offers Few Details
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/10/business/economy/us-china-trade-deal.html
It’s interesting that RE magnets are REQUIRED by the American military equipment given that this is not only law, but just seems real common sense with regard to MIC:
Buy American Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buy_American_Act
It was under Reagan that exemptions to this act became “common”, but back then if you had told me that America’s most expensive military program would require key components from the USSR we all just would have had a good laugh. (Although I do believe most of the titanium in the SR-71’s was sourced from the USSR – I’ll have to check that again.)
US is being put on a perpetual 6 month revolving good behaviour bond by the Chinese, details are still lacking about the named weapons manufacturers licences. Still a framework not filled in until Mr Trump and Mr Xi sit down.
Here’s The Duran’s take on the negotiations so far:
China calls Lindsey Graham’s bluff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cdCRaECQVA
They don’t think Xi gave an inch. And don’t get me wrong, I think China’s actions make all the sense in the world.
I think American elite greed and stupidity make it hard for them to successfully run anything. They spent over forty years running America into the ground, and now are panicked that other world leaders are not as greedy and stupid.
American elite greed and stupidity is what made America great. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
re: Germany new manifesto by SPD-cadres
Cadres of SPD have published a manifesto against the current confrontational course of the German government.
It is benign and naive. But even this is being regarded as treason. Ridiculous.
The title chosen for the publication by the paper – “uprising” – already gives away the level at which we are operating in the FRG in terms of geopolitics and how to handle the upcoming problems.
This country has zero clue.
Here the machine-translation from BERLINER ZEITUNG:
Uprising against Merz: The SPD manifesto in full
For the first time, the SPD is staging massive resistance to Friedrich Merz’s rearmament plans. Numerous leading politicians are calling for dialogue with Russia.
https://archive.is/M5LAe
German
https://archive.is/Dyynb
p.s. The list of signatories in the end is as along as the item. It will achieve absolutely nothing.
Unless of course they would turn really nasty and turn to what – militant resistance?
Because nothing but counterforce – could – achieve anything.
But what are you gonna do? Take Bundestag hostage?
The era of Carlos is over and even he couldn´t have taken control of 700 idiots in suits.
(Would be a nice movie. Although the recent G8 take was messed up by Netflix already.)
I must say that the Trump administration is doing a spectacular job, literally.
Destroying what’s left of civil society this quickly takes real talent and a lot of effort, however the results might not be what our reptilian overlords expect and desire.
RIP Brian Wilson: Brains of the outfit~
Good Vibrations, by the Beach Boys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eab_beh07HU
Possibly the reason a whole new generation even knew who he was:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch84fmOa414
File under China?
https://globalnews.ca/news/11233899/bc-ferries-details-construction-new-major-vessels/
Further evidence that China is taking over the world, economically speaking at least. Nary a Canadian shipyard bidder for the new ferry contract, and I suppose any American shipbuilders that might still exist are currently non grata.
BC Ferries has been in a mess for decades now (40 year-old ships breaking down, delays and cancelled sailings, etc.) Such a mess in fact that a tourist stuck in an hours-long ferry lineup a couple of years ago said, and I quote verbatim: “Don’t come to Vancouver Island unless you have a helicopter or a boat.” A great advertisement for Tourism BC!
And, of course, the media will never ever ever mention the person responsible for this debacle. Well I will. His name is Glen Clark and he was the esteemed (sic) Premier of BC from 1996 to 1999. Glen had a grand plan: Establish a shipbuilding industry in BC while at the same time cutting down on sailing times. He had three so-called “Fast Cats” built locally at a cost of $1 billion (in today’s dollars). That money would have bought twelve of the successfully operating C-Class ferries. Furthermore, according to ferry deckhands, Glen’s dream ships were entirely unsuited to the routes they sailed.
The predictable happened. The “Fast Cats” created unmanageable “wash” on their narrow routes and were unable to handle collision with or ingestion of logs. They were sold for scrap in 2003 for $40 million (again, today’s dollars). Only $960 million down the drain. Thanks Glen!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PacifiCat-class_ferry
Glen Clark, however, managed to land quite comfortably on his feet. He went to work as president of a large corporation and is now the chairman of BC Hydro, both positions well-compensated I am sure. In government, nothing succeeds like failure. And, memories being short and media being friendly, there will be no accountability.
Sorry for the long comment, but living in BC this issue is personal for me. I would like to be able to rely on the ferry service but I can’t. Therefore I can only take away this lesson (and it applies universally): Beware of politicians with grandiose plans. They usually come a cropper—and an expensive one at that.
Regarding “How Do You Measure Corporate Power?” Yglesias demanding people show their “measure” of corporate power is like telling Sam Adams, Ben Franklin, and the Committees of Correspondence that their list of grievances was irrelevant unless they could somehow measure the power of the Board of Trade in London.
But more to the point, measures of corporate power have been published for decades, and Yglesias ignoring them amounts to a bald faced lie. Corporate market domination are well known measures of corporate power used by anti-trust enforcers for decades — well known to anyone but Yglesias, that is,
Similarly, many economists have argued that the skew of share of profits from labor to corporations in the national income accounts shows not just corporate power, but the emergence of an economy domination by rentier extraction.
Yglesias is such a shameless whore.
Ref: Maine
@TheMaineWonk
·
Follow
90 Trade Deals In 90 Days Tracker:
Day 64: Still Zero. Show more
I see on the ticker below in the screen picture the US Army hit its recruitment goal 4 months in advance. Seems the Trump/Elon show of gutting the public sector and sending the economy into a tail spin has fixed that vexing problem.
On that note. I also see the X photo showing the Chilean woman being arrested where the officer has a lot of bad tattoos. Tattoos being a key identifier in deportation one might want to check all ICE/Police for gang affiliations. Who knows maybe they belong to some internal cartel and this is just some State sanctioned purge/takeover/turf war ….
As far as Cops being criminal Gang members the LA County Sheriffs Department has identified 30 separate Gangs its officers belong to.
And that’s not new, it’s been documented for decades.
Oh I know Tom, that and heaps of white collar sorts I know going back to the early 80s/90s. The movie Blow is a Documentary, would have evolved even further since then.
No Words Wednesday:
Caravan, by the Ventures
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnekFd6_ABc
Good Vibrations (instrumental), by the Beach Boys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUxwOKfetK4
Double Happy, by Split Enz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvpShD5hsYE
Frankenstein, by the Edgar Winter Group
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65XSHM3jlAY
Sing, Sing, Sing, by Benny Goodman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzjrj6yUJvk
If everybody had immigrants (ooh)
Across the U.S.A. (ooh)
Then many would be servin’ (ooh)
In Californ-i-a (ooh)
You’d see them wearing their headnets (ooh)
Maybe a mask too (ooh)
A slicked back black hairdo (ooh)
Servin’ U.S.A. (ooh)
You’d catch ’em servin’ at Del Mar (inside, outside, U.S.A.)
Mason-Dixon line (inside, outside, U.S.A.)
Santa Fe and Chicago (inside, outside, U.S.A.)
Florida, by the Caribbean (inside, outside, U.S.A.)
All over Manhattan (inside, outside, U.S.A.)
And down Sherman Way (inside, outside)
Immigrants gone servin’
Servin’ U.S.A.
ICE will be planning that route (ooh)
They’re gonna take real soon (ooh)
They’re taking out undocumented (ooh)
To be deported this June (ooh)
Immigrants might all be gone for the summer (ooh)
They’re going home to stay (ooh)
Ask the waitress if we have to bus our own tables (ooh)
Servin’ U.S.A. (ooh)
Surfin’ USA, by the Beach Boys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0bhSGfKTs4
Too soon, but characteristically brilliant!
re: Deere must face FTC’s antitrust lawsuit over repair costs, US judge rules
That’s good news for farmers. Deere make very good farming equipment. No doubt. Their push into capturing all repair dollars is a bridge too far, imo. If your tractor or combine breaks down in the middle of planting or harvesting season out on the prairie or Great Plains, waiting days or weeks for a “certified Deere repair” can cost maybe the entire potential profits from a field not planted or harvested in time. Deere grabs too far here. Good on the US judge.
The Invaders was a way cool sci-fi TV series from the 60’s, and no mamby pamby ET extraterrestrials happy to meet you, these interstellar punks wanted to take over the Earth no less.
There is only 1 episode on YouTube, but its a good one, and so topical for 1968, lots of cigarette smoking, giant blinking & beeping computers and cocktail drinking going on.
The Invaders – Inquisition – S 02 E 26 (51 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiA_2QiXhaA
Thomas Frank from Feb, 2025
Thomas Frank Dissects Democrats’ Populism Decline, Trump’s Faux Appeal
https://timesng.com/thomas-frank-dissects/
And more:
https://currentpub.com/2025/02/20/thomas-frank-on-fake-populism/
Read the entire interview here on Current Affairs
Why the Democrats Fear Populism
https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/why-the-democrats-fear-populism.
thanks, flora.
i can never find Franks anywheres.
same here
US reduces the presence of staffers not deemed essential in the Middle East as tensions rise
Here’s a direct link to the UKMTO advisory mentioned in the article: United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Advisory #21
General historic question:
Have US mass protests ever really taken place without any violence?
To me it appears as if the big ones mostly were violent.
Despite all the talk about democracy, are elites ever open to the concept of protest?
Same in Germany and France.
Only when party leaders walk alongside protesters like France against the right or Germany against the right and against Iraq is there some simulation of unity.
In the US especially, unity between the rabble and the government almost never occured.
On the other hand one could argue, at least the criminals are honest in that regard.
Or am I totally mistaken here?
given that our usa! party system consists of a buzzard flying in circles into the ground because it has two right wings, and no left wings…the answer is No.
“They” stopped caring about us little people a long, long time ago.
its just taken a lot of folks a long time to come to accept that state of affairs…and even with the recent(last 30 years) great awakening…that the elites dont care about us’n’s…there are still a whole lot of people who still cant let it go, and cling to that hopeless raft…that the dems or the gop will save us, if we could only defeat the other side!
i predict that those particular people will become less and less influential/relevant as things move backwards.
There was, and still is, a strong coherence on nonviolence in theory and practice. A particular inspiration was Gandhi, and it was well-organized during the civil rights movement. Even Malcolm X was a practitioner.
However, when it extrapolated from civil rights to anti-war, conditions ripened for infiltration and false flags. Techniques of entrapment were refined. And that was before social media.
I’ll suggest that the Occupy movement was institutionalizing some methods with the potential to inoculate against such techniques. That evoked an international administrative immune response.
Oh give me a Home Depot where the day laborers roam
Where the drywall hanger & handyman play
Where seldom is heard an English word
And the parking lot is busy all day
Home, Home Depot on the parking lot range
Where the cement mixer & floor installer play
Where seldom is heard an English word
And the parking lot is busy all day
Where the air is so pure, and the cost of labor so free
The SoCal breezes so balmy and light
That they would not exchange Home Depot on the parking lot range
For all of their home cities so bright
The Mexican man was pressed from this part of the west
He’s likely no more to return
To the banks of the Tijuana River where seldom if ever
Their flickering campfires burn
How often at night when the ICE headlamps are bright
With the light from the SUV cars
Have I stood there amazed and asked as I gazed
If their glory exceeds that of ours
Oh, I love these entrepreneurs in this dear land of ours
The curfew Bass wants to try
And I love the white trucks and labor earning the bucks
That graze on the parking lot day & night
This is their home, my Home Depot on the parking lot range
Where the forklift operator & remodeler play
Where seldom is heard an English word
And the parking lot is busy all day
Why would DHS need to buy airline data on flights taken when DHS already has that data?
Macgregor on deep dive…re l.a. and ipso facto u.s.a.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfEMeOdNcGo
and glenn diesen more of a global perspective
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsjQZHUvg-M
both insightful, not least in the points I disagree with, and I present this as a proponent of the greenwald, taibbi, kirn, alex’s, garland & co. and the whole bunch at napolitano…I value the open opinions, I don’t need to agree with everything…
I have to add brian berletic, because he totally called it, in explicit detail, on day 1
I would put Brian Berletic and Mark Sleboda way above everyone else. Macgregor, and many others, are half crap (which can be problematic for those not capable of distinguishing which half).
re half crap…
Thats why I linked both videos….can’t recall hearing anyone promote shooting the bonus marchers, while the global view is maybe a little less batty
re: Iran vs. Israel
DROPSITENEWS
Iran Claims Historic Espionage Coup Against Israel. Is It a Bluff or Is It Real?
June 11th 2025
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/iran-claims-historic-espionage-coup-israel
“(…)
In the midst of an escalating global standoff over its nuclear program, the Iranian government this week claimed to have scored a major intelligence coup that could transform its relationship with its regional and international rivals. Over the past several days, senior Iranian officials, as well as government-connected journalists, have claimed that Iran is in possession of leaked documents revealing secrets about Israel’s nuclear weapons program and regional espionage network. More salaciously, some sources have also claimed that Iran has embarrassing personal information about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his political rivals, revealing their alleged involvement in blackmail and criminal activity.
Drop Site News journalists Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussain break down what we know about the possible breach, its significance, and the prospect of war in the following 15-minute explainer video.
(…)”