The 10,000-mile march through fire that made dinosaurs possible ScienceDaily (Kevin W)
Episode 25 of Kilauea's ongoing eruption 😍
With sound!
📹 USGSpic.twitter.com/cIxgio5YDl
— Volcaholic 🌋 (@volcaholic1) June 12, 2025
Black box found at Air India crash site as families wait for answers BBC (Kevin W)
#COVID/Pandemics
Weekly Flu vs. COVID update
May 2025:
239 Influenza deaths
850 COVID deaths (4x flu)In May of 2025 fewer people died of COVID than in any prior month of the pandemic (GOOD)
While COVID is on-track to kill more people than flu in 2025, the gap is nowhere what it was in past… pic.twitter.com/0BOPNWLTOZ
— Gregory Travis. @gregorytravis.com on Bsky (@greg_travis) June 13, 2025
The confirmed* #measles count in the US so far in 2025 (*undoubtedly an underestimate) stands at 1197 as of 6/12, per #CDC. Another 78 cases would surpass the 2019 count, which is currently the highest yearly total since measles elimination in the US in 2000 — & we're not yet 6… pic.twitter.com/Y3fzCLd4Hg
— Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 (@HelenBranswell) June 13, 2025
Nursing turnover (actually a shortage now) shows how fragile the health care systems are. Imagine what will happen when H5N1 goes human-to-human 😳 https://t.co/JmjdUNIzh7 pic.twitter.com/Xfu0WUsXWo
— jellyrollblues #CovidIsNotOver #LongCovidAwareness (@jlerollblues) June 13, 2025
Climate/Environment
Ticking time bomb’ of ocean acidification has already crossed planetary boundary, threatening marine ecosystems: Study MR Online (Anthony L). Today’s must read. We first wrote about ocean acidification and how serious its implications were in 2007.
Rivers are exhaling ancient carbon — and climate math just changed ScienceDaily (Kevin W)
Warning over ‘dirty secret’ of toxic chemicals on farmers’ fields BBC (Kevin W)
China?
Meanwhile, China just recruited the entire African continent Arnaud Bertrand
This is an absolutely astonishing interview by “the Boss”, Taiwans most notorious YouTuber. He recently went to China to stream his impressions.
“I used to be a professional soldier. Let me tell you…if China invades it’s all over. Bye. The US is planning to use the Ukraine… https://t.co/U0KhkjfoA9
— Angelica 🌐⚛️🇹🇼🇨🇳🇺🇸 (@AngelicaOung) June 12, 2025
China strikes cautious tone after Trump claims trade deal is ‘done’ Sky
Car Wars: The battle between Tesla and China’s BYD is already over Kevin Walmsley
Africa
UN says 1.5M in urgent need of clean water as Chad faces breaking point Anadolu Agency
Sudan’s war spreads to the borders of Libya and Egypt 3ayin
Tigray can’t afford another war, and the world can’t afford to do nothing Lowy Institute
European Disunion
Forging a European third pole in the Indo-Pacific Asia Times (Kevin W)
No government, no plan: Brussels braces for credit downgrade. Brussels Times
Carl Bildt wants to establish a “Swedish CIA” Aftonbladet via machine translation (Micael T)
Old Blighty
UK economy contracts – with record fall in exports to the US after Trump tariff hikes Sky
Israel v. the Resistance
Israeli Strikes in Iran Ongoing; Netanyahu: Counterattack May ‘Come in Very Heavy Waves’ Haaretz
86 killed, 341 injured in Israeli strikes on Iran Anadolu Agency
🇮🇱🇮🇷 NEW: Israeli Air Force hit more Iranian ballistic missiles and launchers today, IDF says, releasing strike footage.
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) June 13, 2025
Air defenses have been activated in central and northeastern Tehran.
Iranian air defenses opened fire minutes ago in central and northeastern Tehran. pic.twitter.com/TlcwE3BF7c
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) June 13, 2025
Mohammed Marandi & Larry C. Johnson: Israel Strikes Iran — Iran to HIT BACK HARD! Dialogue Works. Marandi and Johnson debunk Israeli claims of the extent of damage.
Iran’s extraordinary retaliation amidst reports of Netanyahu fleeing to Athens Janta Ka Reporter, YouTube
Big if true:
"Pakistan announces its readiness to support Iran: Pakistani warplanes are ready to assist Iran and destroy Israeli missiles and drones.
Pakistani fighter jets have entered Iranian airspace to support Iran." pic.twitter.com/6RjfXligTE
— SilencedSirs◼️ (@SilentlySirs) June 13, 2025
JUST IN: UK HELPED ISRAEL WITH ATTACK ON IRAN
Russia informs the UN Security Council that there was “likely coordination between Israel and British special services” in the attacks on Iran
“Immediately after the Israeli strikes, they sheltered the Israeli aviation which… pic.twitter.com/gfscYIcaZ4
— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) June 14, 2025
COL. Lawrence Wilkerson : Foreign Policy in Chaos. Judge Napolitano, YouTube. Brutal. Listen at least to Wilkerson’s opening remarks.
Trump Embraces Israel’s Aggression Daniel Larison
Trump Confirms He’s Just The Front Man Mark Wauck
Israel’s Netanyahu banks on TACO Trump as he Launches War on Iran to disrupt Negotiations Juan Cole. Calling them negotiations is charitable. No overlap in bargaining positons.
This Is Not Our War American Conservative (resilc)
Israel-Iran latest: Netanyahu says US was told of coming attacks ‘through many meetings’ Financial Times
* * * Conflict between Israel and Iran would ‘most certainly’ close the Strait of Hormuz Lloyds List
Iran Could Use Oil To Urge The U.S. To Sue For Peace Moon of Alabama. Unfortunately, the US is the scorpion in the scorpion and the frog tale. I don’t see it as able to deviate from its nature even when overwhelmingly in its interest.
Mapping US troops and military bases in the Middle East Aljazeera (resilc)
Netanyahu family will hide in bunker should Iran attack Israel Jerusalem Post (resilc)
* * * How Israel is engineering Gaza’s social collapse +972
* * * Telephone conversations with President of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian and Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu President of Russia
New Not-So-Cold War
"Why won't Russia agree to a ceasefire?" https://t.co/bZPyxjGBSH pic.twitter.com/Yc1pUxiSGx
— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) June 13, 2025
Secret British plans to ‘defeat entire Russian Black Fleet’ revealed in leaks The Grayzone (Kevin W)
Why a terrible war is better than EU membership for Ukraine Ian Proud
Putin forced to send wounded back to fight and offer huge military salaries as Russia suffers a million casualties The Conversation (Kevin W). The messaging, it burns.
Imperial Collapse Watch
The collapse of the modern air defense system TopWar (Micael T)
YOU CAN TELL WHEN WAR IS BREAKING OUT BECAUSE THE PENTAGON’S PIZZA ORDERS SPIKE DRASTICALLY Futurism
Trump 2.0
THE FDA IS ALREADY OUTSOURCING DRUG AND FOOD ANALYSIS TO ERROR-PLAGUED AI CHATBOT Futurism (Micael T)
Trump’s tax-cut bill could hold back US critical minerals projects Reuters
The EPA Wants to Roll Back Emissions Controls on Power Plants Wired
* * It might rain on President Trump’s parade Axios
🔺 EXCLUSIVE: Trump’s birthday parade may be cancelled over thunderstorms
Army spokesman tells The Times of safety fears as president hopes to mark 250 years of the US military with event in Washington on Saturday https://t.co/BdoeohufNv
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) June 12, 2025
Tariffs
We shot ourselves in the foot in ways that no one even imagined with these tariffs.
The United States, as the biggest importer in the region, used to be a major logistics hub for raw materials, components, and finished goods transiting from China to Canada and Central America.… pic.twitter.com/l4AJYlYWSG
— molson 🧠⚙️ (@Molson_Hart) June 11, 2025
Tuna, beans, Spam: Trump’s tariffs threaten the canned foods millions rely on to survive Guardian
Immigration
ICE agents mistakenly detain U.S. marshal in Arizona NBC (resilc)
TACO Trump Backs Down on Farm and Hotel Worker Deportations Michael Shedlock
Police State Watch
America Is Losing Sight of Its Political Culture Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal (resilc)
If that’s what they do to a United States Senator with a question, imagine what they do to farm workers, day laborers, cooks, and the other nonviolent immigrants they are targeting in California and across the country. Or any American that dares to speak up.
I will not stop… pic.twitter.com/TUgT060yx2
— Alex Padilla (@AlexPadilla4CA) June 12, 2025
Trump’s “Shock Troops” Forcibly Remove CA Senator From Noem Presser Deadline
The Secret Police Are Here The Bulwark (resilc). From earlier in the month, still germane
Democrat Death Wish
Newsom becomes a fighter, and Democrats beyond California are cheering The Hill. Wake me when this gets beyond the “fighting for you” level of action.
Big Insurance Bet on the Wrong Horse Wendell Potter (Chuck L)
Our No Longer Free Press
Bari Weiss: Toady Queen of Substack Yasha Levine
Bluesky is backfiring. Mark Cuban says the ‘lack of diversity of thought’ is actually pushing users back to X Fortune (Kevin W)
Mr. Market is Moody
Recession Watch: My Favorite Recession Indicator, Mid-June Update Wolf Richter
Central banks are beginning to fret about dollar swap lines Gillian Tett, Financial Times. Important.
Dollar back on the ropes as Trump goes tariff wild Asia Times (Kevin W)
Vance joins Trump in bashing Powell, says Fed committing ‘monetary malpractice’ by not cutting rates CNBC (Kevin W)
Antitrust
Monopoly Round-Up: The Best and the Brightest Under Pressure Matt Stoller. Chuck L: “A must read”
AI
Disney, Universal File First Major Studio Lawsuit Against AI Company, Sue Midjourney for Copyright Infringement: ‘This Is Theft’ Variety. Micael T: “I believe that OpenAI will escape lawsuits because it is connected to CIA and NSA and is a part of the cybernetic warfare. How else could they get away with the massive theft of training material? Competitors will be crushed though to ensure monopoly.”
In Texas, AI Gold Rush Helps Spur Demand for Over 100 New Gas Plants DeSmog
The Bezzle
TESLA DRIVERS SUE ELON MUSK FOR TURNING THEIR CARS INTO “EXTREME” RIGHT-WING SYMBOLS Futurism. This may look silly, but the point is to get to discovery on communications between Musk and the Administration.
Guillotine Watch
POLO TRAGEDY Prince William’s polo pal dies ‘after swallowing bee’ during match as tributes flood in The Sun. Micael T: “One billionaire down. How many are left?”
Class Warfare
Aging in America Is About to Get Worse The Atlantic (resilc)
‘Buy now, pay later:’ a replacement for the millennial lifestyle subsidy? NPR (Kevin W)
Antidote du jour (via):
A bonus:
The face of zero regrets.. 😂 pic.twitter.com/AzxDAgpka3
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) June 12, 2025
A second bonus. Do not try at home:
Face to face with a bear, the man politely kicks him out. pic.twitter.com/4Q2knG6Zeh
— Learn Something (@cooltechtipz) June 13, 2025
A third bonus:
A girl had just adopted that stray kitten and when she brought him home she met her pet bird, this was the reaction. pic.twitter.com/PWBVhyvFkJ
— wholesome moments (@creaturefind) June 12, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
‘Merica!
(melody borrowed from Erika written by Herms Niel in 1938, which quickly became the Wehrmacht’s favorite marching song throughout World War Two. New lyrics now in honor of Donald Trump’s big military parade today, consecrating him as our Savior and King. Let it rain, inshallah!)
Trump is marching lots of soldiers in a line!
Fascist shite, ‘Merica!
He’s a narcissist obsessed with dollar signs!
Old and fat, ‘Merica!
He will take away our Bill of Rights!
Follow him, and we will suicide!
His dementia leaves him lost with half a mind!
He’s not right, ‘Merica!
All the freedoms that you thought were yours and mine!
Say goodnight, ‘Merica!
There is nothing honest in his twisted mind!
He spells doom, ‘Merica!
He prefers each soldier marching like a goose!
Find a room for him at Walter Reed!
Trump is marching lots of soldiers in a line!
Fascist shite, ‘Merica!
Martial law is always on Trump’s failing mind!
We must fight, ‘Merica!
Stephen Miller is his favorite wunderkind!
Donald’s man, ‘Merica!
Time for us to throw these fascists out!
There are no laws that these men won’t flout!
Trump’s the Fourth Reich’s God and King in his own mind!
Stand and fight, ‘Merica!
A a a a n d . . . YouTube has removed the account that posted this song.
Here’s another one.
A bee isn’t in the song! It’s a fly, followed by a spider etc.
Good point. Has anyone seen his horse?
For our non-American readers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Was_an_Old_Lady_Who_Swallowed_a_Fly
CIA´s Spytalk sometimes really manages to piss me off.
Their latest proof of idiocy without borders is this insulting attack on Gabbard´s video where she was simply saying nukes are bad (I mean she didn´t even say out loud that that Hiroshima thing was dropped by a certain US of A).
WTF is going on in the mind of a Jeff Stein? I am aware he hates her guts but I really would like to ask him that. Is he actually aware of some ethos in blogging? (Truth or facts certainly do not matter to him, but I got used to that.)
“(…)Now, this week Gabbard made and distributed a weird video warning that “the political elite and warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers.”
We guess the Russia-friendly DNI was referring to pro-Ukraine Democrats (and a few Republicans). In any event, it was too much for even some Republicans. “She obviously needs to change her meds,” cracked Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy(…)”
Maybe Stein should consider taking meds too with WWIII obviously being an admirable thing to him.
‘Sulaiman Ahmed
@ShaykhSulaiman
JUST IN: UK HELPED ISRAEL WITH ATTACK ON IRAN
Russia informs the UN Security Council that there was “likely coordination between Israel and British special services” in the attacks on Iran
“Immediately after the Israeli strikes, they sheltered the Israeli aviation which participated in the strikes in their bases in Cyprus.”’
Israel must have know that they could not protect their planes on the ground properly and so flew them to that British base in Cyprus so that they would be out of reach of Iranian missiles. I wonder if the British bothered telling the Cypriot government first? So does that mean that Israeli jets will be refueled, re-armed and maintained in Cyprus as their home base and only flying back to Israel to attack Iran again – after refueling in the air – or to bomb a bunch of refugees in some Gazan camp? Cyprus is now part of this war.
I seem to remember that Zelenskiye won elections with a peace with Russia-agenda. But in practice enabled war. And now Trump – wafting peace as a candidate, but in action wars are happening here and there, ostensibly without his knowledge, even. A convenient fig-leaf to keep us feedlot-folks entertained. With this kind of politics, talking about democracy is deluded. As to this feint within feint within feint – is this really the direction that humanity must take? Ostensibly democratic leaders yapping about negotiations while applying murderous schemes, hollering existential this and existential that, while fattening their bank accounts. Not a good time to be human.
Trump’s MAGA base seems to be seriously unimpressed and you just had people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson ripping shreds off him for trying to get the US into yet another war. Maybe Trump figures that Israel can win this war in a fortnight or so and then there will be glorious regime change in Iran and he will be a “winner.” But people like Carlson and MGT have seen this movie before and know it never ends well-
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/14/drop-israel-how-military-escalation-with-iran-divides-trumps
Good thing that this will have no effect on the mid-terms.
Rev Kev: Trump’s MAGA base seems to be seriously unimpressed and you just had people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson ripping shreds off him
Like it matters in the least to him now he’s in power?
Because if it comes to the point that it does, Trump can just use that power to silence them, like you’re starting to see in LA. That’s how it’s generally worked historically in human societies — “I/we have the power now — and Trump is nothing if not knuckle-dragging Old School.
I talked to 3 MAGA supporters yesterday who are angry as hell about his support for war on behalf of Israel. 2 said never again would they trust him on anything, nor would they vote Republican in the midterm.
They don’t matter now and they probably won’t matter then.
I’d be surprised if there was any truth in this. It’s just about possible, I suppose, that some aircraft may have touched down briefly at Akrotiri, but actually moving, say, a squadron of F35s is a massive process involving hundred of personnel and probably dozens of flights of transport aircraft. You can’t hide something of that size, not least because Cyprus is a small island, Akrotiri is close to where many Cypriots live and indeed many work at the base. It may be a garbled reference to some kind of agreement whereby Israeli aircraft can use Cyprus in an emergency if they can’t return to their own bases, but the Iranians don’t have the capability to close Israeli airbases other than very briefly, and the aircraft themselves will be in protected hangars, and would be scrambled if they were an immediate threat while they were in the open. I suspect it’s just the Russians stirring it up. Relations between Russia and the UK are so poisonous these days that I never take anything that one says about the other seriously in the absence of actual evidence.
I don’t think that relations between the British and the Russians have been so acrimonious since the Crimean war of the 1850s. Maybe not even then. I cannot see the Russians forgiving the British for helping all the attacks in Russia itself, especially not civilian targets like that passenger train. Too many gung-ho British types trying to repeat “The Guns of Navarrone” and “The Cockleshell Heroes” instead of the bread and butter of modern warfare.
Anglo-Saxons have throughout the history had the short view of things, it’s all about the next quarter, about winning The Game where the only goal actually is just to “score points” somehow somewhere, so that the Good Old Boys can have a bubbly and be all “I’ll say”, “Tally Ho!” and “Splendid!”.
And then the next round begins, even if the rest of the world is not even playing…
You protest the UK’s innocence way too much:
Not that the USA isn’t good at getting itself into messes, but I’m also more and more wary of the countries encouraging the USA to stay in conflicts that are to the USA’s (and the world’s) detriment.
Rev Kev. As I have been writing for months, some party (Russia, Syria, Iran) should love-bomb Dhekelia and Akrotiri into glittering smithereens.
The division of Cyprus can never be resolved with “extraterritorial” relics of colonialism on the island.There is plenty of evidence for support for various Israeli missions in Lebanon, Syria, and even Gaza via these relics.
There is no seemingly benign use for them:
Oh, our Heroes just want to jet in for a slice of tasty galaktoboureko. And I am the Tsar of All the Russias.
PS: Trump can work out the details of the agreed-upon retaliation and smithereenation.
On TACO Trump Backs Down on Farm and Hotel Worker Deportations, LOL. This demonstrates just how correct Yves Smith and others here and elsewhere have been when stating the obvious, that going after illegal employers is the effective approach to reverse immigration. So naturally Trump folds like a wet napkin, yet again.
The EPA Wants to Roll Back Emissions Controls on Power Plants (Wired via archive.ph)
Unlocked Wired story on EPA.
so the West wants to kick sand in the Parthians’ face and we’re being led by Crassus.
Game on—got a good feeling about this!
PS, my bet is Trump didn’t know. His vanity would not allow a global crisis interrupt his birthday, parade and Father’s Day weekend
Nope. He knew and is taking pride in US weapons being used. And why not. The US was such a big part of this attack-
‘We knew everything, and I tried to save Iran humiliation and death. I tried to save them very hard because I would have loved to have seen a deal worked out’
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trump-tells-reuters-its-unclear-if-iran-still-has-nuclear-program-2025-06-13/
And then being magnanimous, he then said ‘They can still work out a deal, however, it’s not too late. ‘ The Iranians however have pulled out of negotiations as them being pointless.
So Trump is always a liar except this time?
No one will know for certainty until Rubio writes a book telling his side.
Like I said, if Trump really was playing 4D chess, he would not have told Bibi to kick things off 1.5 days before his birthday. the world is not full of 4D chessmasters; juat peeps in Plato’s Cave stumbling arounx
YMMV
He talked about negotiations with Iran and had Witkoff go there a coupla times to negotiate one but it look like he was never serious about getting one. It was all window dressing to hide the Israeli attack being organized. Probably thought that he was very cunning for doing so and was being the smartest guy in the room.
Maybe it’s a matter of degrees, but I don’t think England and Ukraine and nato and Israel are all doing this without full us support ( bombs/intel).
Is it possible Trump said just don’t tell me so I have deniability? Sure.
In my view letting it happen when you can stop it is the same as fully supporting it.
He talks like a stereotype of an abusive partner.
Abusive partnership is the only partnership US can offer to non-exceptional nations, which makes him a natural fit for the position of the President.
Israel, nor UK, does not the intel, surveillance, reconn (ISR) assets much less the sat comm (command and control networks) to pull off raids into Iran!
No less than the MI6 raid on Russian bombers relied on US support.
Not only did he know, he claims he briefed Congress. One can only hope the many chickenhawk politicians here and in the UK are ready to suit up and go fight for Israel because I doubt that the voters of the US/UK are willing to sacrifice their children for that cause. The Israelis just attacked a country ten times bigger than they are on the assumption, apparently, that others would save them. The Iranians are fighting back and Trump has suddenly gone silent.
ChatFDA?
ChatGBH
From the Matt Stroller article, today I learned:
“This martial tradition at Harvard stretched back and forward hundreds of years; a third to a half of Harvard graduates in the 1640s went to England to fight for Oliver Cromwell in the English Civil War”
Well, I never! I wish we could have discussed this in the recent comments section where we discussed Harvard. It is startling on so many levels:
– we really were one country (Royalist intepretation)
– we really were one congregation, city on a shining hill etc. (Puritan interpretation)
– ISIS! (my jaded atheist analogy about religiously driven transnational insurrection)
This martial tradition at Harvard stretched back and forward hundreds of years; a third to a half of Harvard graduates in the 1640s went to England to fight for Oliver Cromwell in the English Civil War”
But the Royalist families who lost to Cromwell in the English Civil War, like the Washingtons, Jeffersons, Madisons, and such, fled to the American colonies to recreate their feudal estates in Virginia and Carolina, on the backs of, initially, indentured servants and then imported African slaves.
And it was they who proved to be more significant, since it was from this segment of Colonial society that the slave-owning Founding Fathers emerged in 1776, when faced with the threat of the Somerset verdict and Dunmore’s Proclamation.
Given that context, I’m inclined to like those Harvard graduates who went back to fight for Cromwell somewhat better.
I wonder how many of them stuck around to do Ireland in 1650s…
I am aware of “Albion’s Seed”.
My point – refined for your input, thank you! – is that I had always assumed the traffic was all one way. I was not aware of blowback!
And as HK said, what role did these Harvard men play in Cromwell’s War of the Three Kingdoms and the ravaging of Ireland?
(I am ambivalent about Cromwell. A Commonwealth on egalitarian ideals would be very desirable but how many eggs must one break for that omelette? Also, as I posted before, re Cambridge MA and Cambridge UK, my College supported the wrong side in the Civil War and the puritans at Emmanuel have all our money!)
Revenant:.I am ambivalent about Cromwell. A Commonwealth on egalitarian ideals would be very desirable but how many eggs must one break for that omelette
How many eggs are the ‘right’ number? The English Revolution was a real Revolution: the English were the first European people to execute their king after a public trial and permanently reject the doctrine of the divine right of monarchy. Were those ‘too many eggs’ to break?
Because the rest follows pretty irrevocably from that. This includes the emergence of figures of the stature of John Milton and Isaac Newton.
Revenant: ...as HK said, what role did these Harvard men play in Cromwell’s War of the Three Kingdoms and the ravaging of Ireland?
hk: I wonder how many of them (Harvard men) stuck around to do Ireland in 1650s…
Yet it’s not as if Ireland — or its feudal elites, anyway — were in some way innocent victims, is it?
After all, they had not only harbored the Royalists and the English Papists, and planned with them to invade England, end the Commonwealth, and restore the monarchy and the Catholic Church’s rule there — in the expectation of a payoff once the King and Rome were back in power — but also they’d formed alliances with France and Spain, the great Catholic Powers of Europe and enemies of England, with the aim of enabling those nations’ forces to use Ireland as a staging post to attack the country.
In short, if history rhymes — and it does — Ireland chose to play the role that Ukraine has in our time.
And in Cromwell they encountered the Stalin of their time, who took in his New Model Army and permanently ended the threat to the Commonwealth, not least by transporting 60,000 Irish to the American colonies, where they worked as indentured servants on the estates of the former Royalists there — the Washingtons, Jeffersons, and Madisons — which a contemporary might even have considered appropriate, given that the Irish had so liked monarchy that they wanted to restore it in England.
Thank you, both.
The Washington family moved from the north east of England to the southern tip of Northamptonshire and around Tring, Hertfordshire.
The family made money from sheep like their neighbours, the Spencers. Their ancestral home, Sulgrave, is open to the public.
Royalist colonel John Washington left for Virginia in the 1650s.
That “martial tradition” also included sending students in as state militia strikebreakers in the early twentieth century.
In Ralph Fasanella’s famous painting of the Lawrence textile strike, a detail shows three young boys holding signs saying “Go To School,” in reference to the armed Harvard strikebreakers who were marching through the city.
Fight On, Harvard.
From The EPA Wants to Roll Back Emissions Controls on Power Plants
So Trump is simply rolling back Biden and Obama’s day-late, dollar-short policy goal of greenwashing with dubious carbon capture. Wake me when Democrats actually rise to the Climate challenge. I need a long sleep.
Well, can’t look to Democrats for any solution; As serial stock trader and former House Speaker Pelosi once said of Democrats, to paraphrase, “we’re capitalists”.
Fun fact:
the poison pill embedded in Obama’s failed 2010, word-for-word retread of the Clinton/Bush-era iterations of the McCain/Lieberman failed climate legislation was the mandated 90% reduction in coal plant carbon emissions enabled by cheap, effective, reliable, readily available, permanent carbon capture and storage getting installed on every power plant by…
…[*pauses, checks wristwatch*]…
…2018.
‘molson 🧠⚙️
@Molson_Hart
We shot ourselves in the foot in ways that no one even imagined with these tariffs.
The United States, as the biggest importer in the region, used to be a major logistics hub for raw materials, components, and finished goods transiting from China to Canada and Central America.
Because the 20% fentanyl tariffs from China are non-refundable on export, these imports now no longer can go to the USA first; they go direct to Canada, Mexico, etc to skip the tariff.’
Unmentioned is that fact that even if Trump and Xi signed a deal tomorrow agreeing on zero tariffs, it is too late. All that trade that this guy was talking about is never coming back as in ever. It will now be routed around the US as Trump has made the US an untrustworthy business partner so any trade that can go to countries like Canada and Mexico direct will do so.
Simple. They just downloaded and pirated all of it. As for video material for training, the copy protection on DVDs and BluRays has been cracked long ago, and there are even cracks for many streaming services. All of this content is on the Net and if you believe that training AI constitutes “fair use” of the source material, then what’s to stop a bunch of “information wants to be free” and “better to ask forgiveness than permission” Tech bros?
“This Is Not Our War”
I’d argue the title alone but it makes a great point in that post-
‘And if we were to pursue regime-change, who would replace the ayatollahs? The shah, whose family’s police state was so hated that Khomeini seemed preferable? The MEK’s bizarre mix of Islamism and Marxism? A miraculous, autochthonous secular liberal democracy with Western-style human rights norms? None of these options seems both likely and desirable. Each would demand American support up to and including direct military intervention.’
It looks like the whole point of these attacks is to trigger regime change in Iran. Netanyahu even came out and told the Iranians to overthrow their government saying-
‘The time has come for you to unite around your flag and your historic legacy by standing up for your freedom from an evil and oppressive regime. It has never been weaker’
So has the Shah’s son – who is a good friend of Israel and visited there not long ago. But based on recent history, even if the Iranians did overthrown their government for who knows what, the Israeli bombing of that country would then only intensify.
The US and Israel were active allies of Saddam Hussein throughout his brutal invasion of Iran between 1980 and 1988. A quarter-million Iranians died, mostly men aged 15-24, and including roughly 60,000 civilians. The US and Israel were complicit in Iraq’s repeated battlefield deployment of nerve gas, which killed over 20,000 Iranian soldiers on the battlefield.
I don’t expect the Iranian people to be very interested in civics advice from Trump or Netanyahu.
“It looks like the whole point of these attacks is to trigger regime change in Iran.”
Yes. I’m sure the US and Israel would *like* to have an Iran controlled again by a friendly “Shah.” But they know that won’t happen. So the goal is destabilization and balkanization, to destroy Iran as a state. Same blueprint as was used in Iraq. And Libya. And Syria. And Lebanon. Etc. The many obstacles to “conquering” Iran often pointed out by commentators are irrelevant. The point is, rather, to insure permanent chaos and internal conflict. The West, and especially Israel, are still very good at that.
I am so weary of hearing about how things are just about to change for the better, only for the reality to prove otherwise. Absolute ruthlessness pays.
MEK is child of John McCain and Lindsey Graham, mainly Sunni!
Shah’s son! None of the above is anything like the semi democracy that CIA took out in 1953.
Maybe they can get the Baluchs in the east….. Or Kurds up near MEK little area near Turkiye!
Whoever US would install would be less popular and more corrupt than the installs in Saigon in 1963.
Regime change is neocon funny paper.
MEK use to be on the terrorist list because of their part in killing Americans in the past. But then people like John McCain and Lindsey Graham had them taken off that list to use against Iran. In Iran they are hated as being traitors for helping Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war and there is no place for them in that country..
MEK are officially not terrorists because a UK appeal court said so! Apparently the evidence they had put aside violence was overwhelming so the UK government were forced to de-proscribe them after the court finding. LOL.
Everything about terrorism is political. If the Home Secretary had a duty to proscribe based on objective criteria, we could all write in and get the IDF and settler parties proscribed…. But he has a discretion and it is used to bolster the Rules Based Order.
And on 18th June, Mo Chara of the band Kneecap is on trial in London for s13 terrorism charges of displaying an article of a proscribed organisation (for allegedly picking up a Hezbollah banner thrown on stage) while Loyalist paramilitaries are displaying banned flags and organising pogroms against immigrants in NI with impunity.
Kneecap have engaged a stellar legal team for the trial, of two solicitor firms, one being the partner who represented Assange, *three* King’s Counsel and a junior barrister. All for a magistrate’s court, the lowest in the land, because they will doubtless appeal any conviction and also apply for judicial review of the original charging decision, as selective prosecution incompatible with common-law uniformity of law, ECHR and Good Friday Agreement, all the way up to the Supreme Court. Stand by for legal fireworks!
The central question confronting the court – a political question but the politicians have ducked it – is not the silly s13 charge but which is more important in the UK, peace in Ireland or Zionism…?
Saoirse don Phalaistín!
Kneecap Abú!
When talking about the MEK it shouldn’t be forgotten that they started off as an anti-shah guerilla group. IIRC, they were the People’s Mujahedin, and to their left was the more secular People’s Fedayeen. Both groups were targeted by Khomeini and suffered heavy casualties. The Mujahedin started their deterioration when they decided to accept safe harbor from Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war.
So, maybe a modern day Cyrus will liberate the “Jews” from the new Babylon instead?
So:
1. Bomb Iran!
2. Magic
3. Regime change accomplished!
Reminds me of another ongoing war and what Aurelian wrote about the liberal elites. Shockingly enough, it turns out that the Zionists are just as prone to magical thinking as the liberals.
Zionism is based upon a Theocratic Exceptionalism; the magical thinking is integral.
Since the “stealth” nukes are Israels “secret” guarantee of safety, the fact that Pakistan has sent air assets into Iran to help is ominous. Another powerful “asset” Pakistan has is nukes of their own. Nukes that Pakistan has already offered to Iran if needed. Israel is playing with literal H— fire.
One of the big issues with planning more NG turbines is the wait time. All the companies are many years backlogged. 3-7 from the people who know.
And then you’ve got to get the pipelines in place. Probably not such a big deal for TX but for much of the country it is as the pipelines are getting pretty close to full capacity.
“You Can Tell When War Is Breaking Out Because the Pentagon’s Pizza Orders Spike Drastically”
It’s an interesting idea this and I can see it being true. So the $64,000 question – did pizza orders spike just before the strike on Russia’s nuclear bomber fleet?
For that one, monitoring fish and chips orders at Vauxhall Cross might be more appropriate.
In the “Age of Surveillance Capitalism”, Zuboff discusses how Google figured out (early 2000) how to monetize it’s services. Cue the show Jeopardy, and the traffic spikes resulting from the Carol Brady Moment. Jeopardy asked what Carol Brady’s maiden name was. Google’s servers lit up from the east coast to the west coast as the clock moved from EST to CST, MST, PST. Everybody used Google to get the answer.
The investors were restless at the time, and “Do Know Evil” met it’s match. Some call those “Naked Statistics”. Shedding light on things has gotten us nowhere. Getting Naked is proving fruitful.
Regarding big insurance campaign contributions, a point is how little it costs to influence Congress. It is often claimed that big insurance had an outsized role writing the Obamacare legislation. The looting enabling legislation for Medicare Advantage (Medicare Part C) and Pharmacy Benefit Managers (Medicare Part D) date to 2003 under W. Bush. If I recall correctly the kickback antitrust safe harbor for hospital joint purchasing agreements also dates to 2003. It has taken a generation for these programs to generate scrutiny.
Ross Perot’s favorite economist and fierce Japan critic, Pat Choate wrote a book Agents of Influence including harsh criticism of Congress favoring special interest. An aside was that the entire Congress could be influence by less than the cost of a Tokyo golf club membership.
Just browsing Xitter results for “Tel Aviv” it looks like 80% of the posts approve and support reaching Gaza levels of destruction by Iranian missile barrages.
There are also a number of clips like this (probably AI):
https://x.com/TheSouthUltras/status/1933877370991136955
Israel has promised a two-week campaign, but this feels more like the beginning of a serious war.
Hope I’m wrong.
Definitely an AI clip though I saw an image of a skyscraper whose top floors had been hit. Would you believe that Israel’s defence minister has accused Iran of crossing red lines. Their crime? Firing missiles towards civilian population centers. Do they even listen to themselves?
https://www.rt.com/news/619225-iran-cross-red-lines-israel/
Yeah, I am seeing tons of that on Xitter too. “We precision target their nuclear facilities while they barbarically hit our residential neighborhoods.”
WTF ?
Will we ever be rid of Karl Rove?
Just in case anyone needs a reminder (and you don’t want to be charged with antisemitism):
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/06/13/refresher-on-the-rules-for-discussing-israeli-wars/
According to the NY Post, they hit the headquarters of the IDF.
Yes, I tried to post a video in the big thread yesterday but not sure what happened to it. there are a lot of videos online actually, the kirya is (was?) right in the middle of a very tony part of downtown Tel Aviv and there are videos from several angles. It looks like a failed patriot or arrow intercept from a battery in a courtyard between skyscrapers (the kirya is/was a shorter building surrounded by several residential and office towers, so it was observed from a higher floor looking down) and then a much faster ballistic strike after the intercept/AD failed. Other videos circulating of walking around it on the ground after and a fox news anchor admitting what happened then getting screamed at off screen by IL mil censor before being yanked. The first part of the kirya strike video with the AD firing is being played on CNN but they are cutting it before the ballistic strike.
I haven’t had a chance to talk to my Israeli colleagues much yet about the events but I am sure everything is being censored much heavier there than in the US.
Thanks for link although I had already seen this. It’s hard to find out what is going on.
Acacia: Hope I’m wrong.
Give war a chance. Granted, a new level of awfulness and suffering will be achieved. On the other hand, maybe an even greater and longer term level of atrocity will be avoided if one or both of these theist societies is decisively beaten into the ground or at least deterred.
Though again, of course, it may just lead to WWIII. One thing’s sure: you and I have no say.
‘Angelica 🌐⚛️🇹🇼🇨🇳🇺🇸
@AngelicaOung
Jun 12
This is an absolutely astonishing interview by “the Boss”, Taiwans most notorious YouTuber. He recently went to China to stream his impressions.’
Sounds to me like he is a Taiwanese version of Scott Ritter, but one that for many years has been drinking the kool aid. He may be notorious but is he also popular in that a lot of people watch his channel? He seems to be having the same sort of revelations that a lot of Americans did when last year Red Note became a thing.
This entire genre of up-China-bombastic twitter content I have long been and remain tremendously skeptical of, it’s one of the only subcategories of NC links I feel that way about. Out of context video from China circulated to promote an agenda, whether sinophobic (I used to see endless videos of industrial accidents in China as proof of its paper tiger status) or sinophilic, is by internet standards very old hat, and there’s a massive industry for it now on twitter. It relies on the fact that this stuff is circulating among westerners who don’t speak Chinese, don’t know much about China’s internal politics, and certainly don’t know “Taiwan’s most notorious YouTuber” from Adam – well, guilty as charged for 3/3 in my case, so I won’t take any of this stuff seriously without analysis and context.
One could say the same thing about a lot of things: PK mentioned the other day the overoptimistic views propagated by the friends of the Axis of Resistance types, for example. China, Iran, and Russia are themselves highly constrained in what they can do, both in present and in future (and because of future considerations). The important thing, I think, is to be cognizant of both sets of narratives, that they are both selling copious amounts of hopium to different audiences, and are likely to be extrapolating on things that shouldn’t be taken too seriously…but be aware of why and how things are being misconceived/misnarrated by all sides (although, given that we are being sold one set of hopium by our own side, so to speak, be a bit harder on those).
The sort of rose colored views of the “axis of resistance” are generally only disseminated in articles that actually have something resembling context; I think my issue is almost the breathlessness, the “oh my word look at this here” of the what’s-up-with-China twitter video.
That said I do kind of sigh every time someone describes an axis of resistance as if these non-western powers are somehow anything other than self-interested, calculating actors.
From Kit Knightly:
BritCard: Inside Labour’s “Progressive” Digital ID
https://off-guardian.org/2025/06/10/britcard-inside-labours-progressive-digital-id/
Trailer for a docu film about Netanyahu and corruption, released late 2024. The BiBi Files.
https://www.jigsawprods.com/work/the-bibi-files/
I no longer have the link (and probably shouldn’t post it if I did) but you can find the whole film on some Russian sites. They don’t worry about copyright laws (what are you going to do? Sanction them?)
re: US vs. Iran – Russia – China
Brian Berletic is right – collective deterrent:
https://x.com/BrianJBerletic/status/1933383804196184544
As warned, Trump “Negotiations” with Iran Were Cover for Major US-Israeli Strike
▪️Iran can retaliate and give US the war it desperately seeks to provoke, although will likely continue striking Iran regardless, it’s out of time and all bets are off;
▪️World needs to stop “negotiating” with US and make clear any attack by obvious US proxies will be interpreted as an attack by the US itself or else the US will dismantle each nation, in detail (one at a time/strategic sequencing) – COLLECTIVE deterrence is required BEFORE US acts again;
▪️It is time for those defending Trump to wake up, speak up, and deny him the plausible deniability his administration exists solely to create – this is not what Americans voted for, HOLD THE GOVERNMENT & CORPORATIONS BEHIND THESE POLICES Responsible – but racism and delusion will likely persist or even worsen;
▪️Russia and China are next – it will not stop at Iran, the goal of striking Iran is to create the conditions to further encircle and contain Russia and China;
p.s. which is why I do not share the notion of Israel controlling USA.
It might appear that way only because their interests so far so much coincide.
And now very openly Israel is the King´s First Knight. It never was the other way around.
If Larry Wilkerson – as far as I understood him – suggests that Israel would be wanting to push US into a position US dislikes but then does go along – that´s a misunderstanding of who gives the orders.
I’m going with Hand of the King since the results of our “democracy” more resemble a Game of Thrones roll play party than a government.
As for Russia and China, I’m in wait and see mode, as in the war with Iran might make future aggressions difficult for the US to project with authority. Or the planet goes up in smoke on this turn.
One little twist. Pakistani Air Force assistance would bring Chinese warplanes. There’s something to consider.
“Russia and China are next”
I am not so sure and agree with your comment:
“As for Russia and China, I’m in wait and see mode, as in the war with Iran might make future aggressions difficult for the US to project with authority.”
My own guess is that the USA will take on an adversary much closer to home (shorter logistics chain), flanked by hostile neighbours (nearby launchpads for the offensive), much weaker militarily and economically (easier to defeat), with not allies close by (e.g. no pesky Ansarallah to strike in the rear), and with a juicy booty to grab (making the military operation profitable): Venezuela.
I agree, but there is the admittedly outside chance that our current adventures put an end to our privateering ways altogether.
Or Columbia if the people vote wrong in the next elections…
The country or the District of?
I was about to say, Canada?
Pakistan = China proxy?
It’s also on utube, official trailer for the docu, ~2+ minutes.
THE BIBI FILES (2024) – Official Trailer |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9wSXIvaNKE
More on the corruption charges from Reuters.
Netanyahu corruption trial: What you need to know
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/netanyahu-corruption-trial-divides-israeli-public-2024-12-09
As someone who is nearing retirement, I just want to say:
Screw markets!
I hope these fraudulent, corrupt, gawdawful stocks tank into the abyss. For every suffering child in Gaza.
I want to see Cramer have another meltdown on live TV. I want to see Dow 10k hats make a comeback.
“Bari Weiss: Toady Queen of Substack”
‘How a cynical operative married a California princess, sucked up to power, and found fame and fortune and love.’
Quite a read that and Weiss is quite the hustler. She reminds me a bit like Boris Johnson. That they will be always protected and will be pulled up into elite society. Marrying that California princess I guess means that she will never have to worry about money again. And that’s a good thing. Wouldn’t be surprised to see her in a few years launch her own foundation or something. Who knows? Maybe one day she will be appointed as Ambassador to Israel.
OMG! Light Bulb!
She could open a wine cave with kamala!
I’ve got to get in touch with her agent…
They could call it Diversity’s Cellar!
Ok, now I have the design for the label on their bottle…
It’s a creative pastel line drawing mix of a limbo pole with k and b going to impossible extremes to get under the bar and their slogan?
“How low can you go?”
I mean, I do this stuff for free, I hope they appreciate it…
@Dollar back on the ropes: this article focuses on the Japanese yen trade.
Some context (which always seems to be missing from these articles)
In Feb 2021, the USD to JPY was 105, and in June 2024, it was 158. That’s about a 50% weakening in three years.
Now it’s around 142, which still is a weakening of the yen of about 35% since 2021.
The average rate between Jan 2000 and Jan 2021 has been 106.8 or so.
2021–2024 (Upward): +1.325 JPY/month, +15.1% per year.
2025 (Downward): -1.473 JPY/month, -11.7% per year (using 151.46 starting point).
The 2025 downward trend is slightly steeper in absolute terms (-1.473 vs. +1.325 JPY/month), less steep in annualized terms.
Apologies in advance for errors and omissions: I’m back from a whisky run just now.
If US were to get more involved than shotting down drones with USAF/USMC fighter aircraft from bases in Jordan……. Maybe it would be safe to run a USN CVN up near Cyprus.
Turkiye is loaded with NATO deployment sites left over from plans to fight the Soviets from a “southern” front.
https://efile.fara.gov/docs/5712-Informational-Materials-20201031-20.pdf
In east Turkiye are 3 bases suitable to fighters, a E3TF base, a missile defense radar,
Suppose the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia decides it does not want to see the Hormuz shutdown and joins with Iran? Would they enforce an oil embargo rather than Iran doing it kinetically?
“Trump Embraces Israel’s Aggression”
I think that I can guess what Trump was thinking. Give Israel everything they need to do a massive assault on Iran with some “lucky” happenstances. Like the IAEA board declaring Iran is in breach of non-proliferation obligations – immediately before the attack. And how people in the US are too distracted by the ICE riots and this weekend’s parade to concentrate on Iran being attacked. So he has a window to let the Israelis go for it thinking that Iran will collapse with the murder of their leaders and the bombing. Hopefully even regime change but the point is that he will have leverage over Iran to do what he wants. And then Trump can go in and not only impose his own deal but probably attach other conditions such as Iran getting rid of their missiles program and ending all support to organizations like Hezbollah. You just know that he will do it. But he will never lift sanctions as he would consider that giving up leverage. Of course if Iran does not quit but fights back and gets help from other countries, then all those plans for a quick victory disappear. Guess we will have to wait and see.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz: former House speaker and husband killed in politically motivated shooting
Local news is reporting:
Curiouser and curiouser!
Maybe it was a real police vehicle – perhaps stolen or not…
How difficult is it to steal a police vehicle? Do they have some safety locks that prevent one to start up without, say, authenticating the driver with a police-specific chip-endowed card?
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/brian-wilson-went-silent-became-080000064.html
Brian Wilson ‘went silent’ and ‘became detached’ after battling COVID-19
Assassinations in Minnesota. The wars have come home.
http://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/minnesota-state-lawmakers-shot-search-underway-suspect-local-media-reports-say-2025-06-14/
It didn’t have to be this way.
The killing has finally started. What a debacle.
Luigi Mangione happened just a short while ago.
Earlier, there were two assassination attempts on Trump.
We are still far from getting all the way back to John Wilkes Booth.
Political assassinations are, unfortunately, par for the course in turbulent times. I don’t mean to downplay this, but we shouldn’t jump too readily on “this is unprecedentedly horrible!!!” bandwagon.
True, the late 60s were bloodbath I’ve been told, beyond MLK, the Kennedys and Malcomb X.
Fred Hampton. Orangeburg, South Carolina Massacre. Kent State (1970, but the “60’s continued well into the following decade). Jackson State. Journalist Ruben Salazar… it’s a long list.
This will only accelerate our march to authoritarianism.
The shooter was dressed as a police officer and was driving a “phony” police vehicle. My priors will require some confirmation here else I adopt the “If it walks and talks like a duck…” line of thought.
And, most tellingly, the shooter (if it was only one,) got away. That suggests a degree of planning.
Lots of possible “conspiracy theories” available.
Someone check to see if there was a surge in pizza deliveries to the Office of Homeland Security prior to this.
Silly thought but, were any of these victims on the Epstein flight log?
Knowing a bit about the profession, I’m inclined to agree: what’s to say it wasn’t a real cop? A badge and a gun doesn’t necessarily make for a “good guy.”
Although too early to have certainty, it appears the shooter was a Tim Walz appointee – who was the CEO of some kind of security group in Africa funded by USAID. The police have also indicated that there were NO KINGS flyers in his car.
This is what I am reading online.
With regard to the NO KINGS protest. I was actually very interested in showing up and taking my kids. I have vivid memories as a very young child of my father taking me to go bail out other family members who had been arrested in VietNam war and civil rights protest. This happened on more than one occasion. And of course, I got the lecture all the way there – this is America, son, this is how we express ourselves, etc. So what an opportunity for me to show this same thing to my own kids.
That was until this past weekend. When in my NYT should appear a full page ad from none other than billionaire Christy Walton supporting this and extolling as many as possible to get out. Yet another sign of the absolutely feckless Democratic Party’s trip to the bottom of the barrel……I mean,, seriously, is there a more odious billionaire family in America? Instead of showing my kids the protest – I carefully explained to them when we were discussing that ad that one family had been almost entirely responsible for the complete destruction of their ancestral hometown – and had been responsible for the loss of culture, business, and community that their forebears had worked so hard for. And this same story can be told across the heartland.
I guess Ms. Walton and Wal-Mart are really upset with Trump. He has put a dent in the cheap cost of their goods that are made by slave labor in China……and he is taking a bite of their current market – the slave laborers that we call undocumented workers here in America.
The Republicans have Elon Musk – the Dems have their own group of possibly bigger slime ball billionaires. I am entirely sick of the entire system. When Christy Walton is supporting anything – it is time to run to the hills. That activity by definition has nothing at all to do with the well-being of me, my family, my neighbors or my community.
I guess I am not alone. When I drove by the NO KINGS area today in our little blue city there were just a few dozen there. Absolutely pitiful compared to past protests. I suppose there may be more as the day goes on, but any enthusiasm I had for participating was long gone last weekend when I saw that ad.
I drove through a No Kings this morning myself. Only a couple of dozen people, maybe more, but well equipped with signs. One car honked. I didn’t although I endorse the notion of no kings from either party.
I’m not sure I endorse guilt by Christy Walton association since I know nothing about her. However if Walmart is to blame for lots of slave labor then that would go for Target and just about every retailer in America, not to mention cultural icons like Nike and Apple.
I noticed Sanders said he’d be attending these protests. So it’s a sheepdog show, as well.
Speaking of Sanders-
‘The Forever Shadow Band 🏴☠️
@SpittinVenoms
Replying to @DoctorFishbones
I wish I could go back in time to 2018 and see the look on my face whenever I tell my old self that by 2025, you’ll find yourself agreeing more with Tucker Carlson than Bernie Sanders’
https://xcancel.com/SpittinVenoms/status/1933878840532590998#m
We had about 30-40 thousand in philly. Crowd 90%+ white, pretty upscale. Main speakers a preacher and a Congress critter. No program of action, as such, beyond “standing up” in an undefined way. Much invocation of the founders and regurgitation of filiopietistic history
This being a Democratic production, it was about as milquetoast as could be. Shout out for Zelensky, none for Palestine. At least with genocide control having passed from Biden to Trump the Free Palestine contingent could be visible and vocal without being harassed like they would have been last year.
Here NO KINGS protest coincided with King Kamehameha Day floral parade. Not sure what to make of it.
From what I read, most of the Walton family are trying to distance themselves from Christy Walton. So I am not sure you can equate her actions and the Walmart organization.
The suspected shooter has tentatively been identified as Vance Boelter from Green Isle MN, a town of about 600 people about 40 miles southwest of Minneapolis. He is still at large.
I have been away from the computer all day. I come home to briefly catch up – and now there is some evidence that this individual is involved heavily in evangelical circles. But also very involved in moving Somali immigrants to Minnesota and helping them. And again, some kind of USAID sponsored security company in Africa.
And, of course, stories of this sort in our world are never complete without a “manifesto” which he apparently had in the car, or something. I wonder how long it will take before that is released.
At the same time, he was also appointed to state commissions and positions by two consecutive Dem governors. One of which was Tim Walz. Tim Walz really does seem to be the Elmer Fudd midwit he appears. And among many other aspects of leadership, that seems to hold true as well in vetting. And I will never forget the line in his debate that he actually talks to shooters. Maybe that really was not a slip of the tongue. He really does seem to be as imbecile as he comports himself, giving Dems like me the sick feeling that we actually really had no reasonable choice in this past election – either way we were screwed. Each individual just had to make the decision of what screwing they were most comfortable with. It is why I make zero moral judgements on anyone’s choice or advocacy – we were presented with two disastrous evils.
I really do wonder what my ancestors, New Deal FDR Dems, would make of the fiasco that the modern Dem Party has become. I am so glad they are not around to see this.
I hate to say this – but this looks so much like a psyop that we have grown so accustomed to in this country. Almost assuredly, the alleged perp will soon be found with bullets through the brain.
How desperately we need a media. An unbiased media. That viewed as a sacred responsibility the release of info to the public that was as close to the unvarnished truth as possible. Unfortunately, at this point, after years of Biden is sharp as a tack, 100% safe and 100% effective, Russia Russia Russia, Laptop – What laptop?, and many others, I do not trust them for a minute. What we have now are purely and simply stenographers for the corporate narrative. And we used to laugh at Pravda. It is a very dangerous situation.
> I really do wonder what my ancestors, New Deal FDR Dems, would make of the fiasco that the modern Dem Party has become.
I think all one can do is laugh, bitterly.
I tell myself jokes, such as “JRB was the most progressive Democrat since Richard Nixon.” This joke, IMO, has the great virtue of being true.
Local news in Minneapolis have been showing interviews with a lifelong friend of Vance Boelter (who had been renting a room to him) and a neighbor in Green Isle who never saw any red flags in his behavior.
If people close to him were blindsided by this, I’m not sure how Tim Walz’s vetting process back when Boelter was reappointed to the Governor’s Workforce Development Board in 2019 could have caught this.
In the age of AI, it is hard to know what to trust. That is a caveat. And why we need media hunting down the truth.
There are videos of this guy online now doing sermons long before his appointment by Walz. The videos are incredible. Lunacy on the left and the right side of the aisle.
Sorry, if these videos are real, he has no business being anywhere near the government.
I would assume the videos could be found in a real vetting process.
But again in our world today, with AI, who knows?
Ken Klippenstein’s substack has posted the resume of the alleged shooter in his piece:
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/exclusive-accused-minnesota-assassins
Que a visit by the FBI to Klippenstein accusing him of knowing about these attacks in advance.
Doesn’t seem like he was a cop. Evangelical Christian type, anti-abortion with a kill list of Dems and abortion providers that lines up with anger about abortion as an issue, maybe financial trouble as a contributing factor.
Goooooooood Mooooooooorning Fiatnam!
Oh Hosanna now don’t you cry for thee, as we’ve cast aspersions about damn near everyone, from sea to shining sea.
I’m not comin’ home, I’ve doing time
Now I’ve got to know what is and isn’t mine
If you received my text telling you what I needed to be free
Then you’ll know just what to do if you still want me
If you still want me
Whoa, they tied a plastic zip-tie ’round my hands you see
It’s been four long years, why does Donald still taunt me? (still taunt me)
If I see a plastic ribbon ’round my hands on me
I’ll stay on the arrested bus, forget about us, put the blame on we
If I see a plastic ribbon ’round my hands on me
Bus driver, please look out for me
‘Cause I couldn’t bear to see what I might see
I’m really going to prison and my love, she holds the key
A simple box cutter is what I need to set me free
I texted and told her please
Now the whole damn bus is cheerin’ and I can’t believe I see
A hundred plastic ribbons ’round the entirety
I’m not comin’ home, umm-hmm
(Tie a plastic ribbon ’round the entirety)
(Tie a plastic ribbon ’round the entirety)
(Tie a plastic ribbon ’round the entirety)
(Tie a plastic ribbon ’round the entirety)
(Tie a plastic ribbon ’round the entirety)
(Tie a plastic ribbon ’round the entirety)
Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree, by Tony Orlando & Dawn
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf2a_mQ7xX4)
That volcano with the technicolor yawn in the longer view, quite resembles Delicate Arch in Arches National Park.
It’s one of the things i’ve always wanted to see in person, hot lava spewing forth~
Lava, by the B-52’s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeWoGr5110o
https://capitalpress.com/2025/06/13/specialty-crop-group-praises-senate-committee-budget-action/
specialty crops getting some love in the Senate ag bill
Sonoma County will be hard hit this summer, gas at @$5 per gallon for regular, many of those who work in service jobs and Agriculture are immigrants and Foreign tourists are staying away in droves.
The “French Laundry” will still be busy, the same won’t be true for most restaurants, air BNB, Hotels and the like.
Has anyone else watched the Netflix documentary “Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster”?
I couldn’t help but see it as a metaphor for what is happening to the masses in all parts of the world: A disaster caused by following the whims of a person with a sense of entitlement from a family of wealth and privilege convinced that any rules or regulations don’t apply to them. Those who attempt to check them are threatened.
Everyday we hear a similar popping sound…
I think that is an apt metaphor. Both the bipartisan usa political leadership and billionaire class (who own them) engage in plenty of magical thinking. Yes the rules of nature are different than societies norms or a States Laws. While the oligarchs buy their way out of the later, the former really do apply to everyone.
Yes, also they are forming packs, pacts, and pacs and tell everyone else about the “evils” of collectivism.
I went by the “No Kings” protests in Sebastopol and Santa Rosa, they are the largest I have seen here in 20 years.
The best sign read “Elvis is the King, not Trump”.
Trump is a suppurating pustule on the American body Politic.
From what I’ve read online, a few hundred people showed up in Tiny Town to protest, thats over 10% of the population.
Would vote Elvis.
Re the kitten & pet bird antidote: So far, so good.
I was thinking that as well, but it was the man and the black bear that got my attention. Black bears tend to be goofy, not at all like grizzlies, but it’s still a freaking bear with real large claws and teeth. There is just no way I could be as nonchalant as he was looking like.
Two TweeXts:https://x.com/MonitorX99800/status/1933923511715893752?t=VIDycCSoxfNC6uESbQh1Pg&s=03
And then this:https://x.com/peacemaket71/status/1933956731241152635?t=TTH6Es_l3jPblMEMbh96vw&s=03
I was thinking about another axis leader….
But where will Netanyahu flee to if he targets European capitals?!
If Israel is urging Iran to return to negotiations, it sounds like they are doing this on behalf of Trump. They, and the neocons, had told him that after the attacks that Iran would fold to his demands but instead they said ‘We’re out!’ and this is not what Trump thought. Idjut.
That quotation by Martin van Creveld is said to be from 2002.
So, they are holding a gun to the heads of the EU leadership, while claiming to be victims of unprovoked aggression. I guess that’s just how they roll.
From The collapse of the modern air defense system
Not just military targets. With so much security theater after 9/11, it was always curious to me that anyone could drive up an interstate, stop off across from an airport, like MCO in Orlando, and go nuts with small arms, the nightmare scenario of a manpad, or now just launch a bunch of drones down the runway.
There are plenty of “soft” targets available.
Great interview with Iranian academic (not M. Marandi) by Max Blumenthal, “”Satanic acts”: Iran’s Dr. Foad Izadi on Israel’s new regime change war” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tog35UINyBE
I felt the interview was worth every second of my time, and Izadi is maybe not quite so optimistic as Marandi often is.
Video of Haifa getting missile barrage about 90 min ago starting to circulate, looks like the oil refinery might have been hit?
Great
Later you see it’s a full latex face mask. But still. More fuel to ban lifesaving respirators.
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/minnesota-shootings-manhunt-06-14-25
Looking at the Army Day /DJT-Bday parade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM2k5iakF50
The marching is not very impressive, IMO. 50 years ago, they taught infantry how to march in excellent synchrony for ceremonial purposes.
These people are walking, not marching, IMO. I wonder if DJT will notice.
I suppose I should be encouraged by this — synchronized marching is pointless as a learned skill. If they don’t teach it any more, that is progress.
If DJT was hoping for something like the Russian Victory Day parade, I think he may be disappointed.
Check out the marching (sample, 1:26:30); those people know how to march.
Perhaps there’s something to be said for preserving this ancient skill. It’s pointless on the modern battlefield, but perhaps pride in performance at ceremonies correlates with skill in battle-drill in real combat circumstances.
When a large number of troops need to get somewhere on foot marching in time is the most efficient way of doing so without losing cohesion.
Synchronized marching is big part of close order drill, which is big part of training the new recruits to act together, follow orders, learn the voice of their commanders etc. From there they then “advance” to bigger close drill formations and looser combat drills.
While it’s mostly useless, it can still be used arrange and move a large number of troops quickly and efficiently and it still remains the basis armies are build on.
If they are walking instead of marching, maybe that is a silent protest by the troops about this whole theater and they are not happy.
I also noticed that the walkers are not carrying rifles. Unsynchronized walking probably looks really bad if there are rows of rifle muzzles/bayonets all popping up and down unsynchronized.
I don’t think it’s protest; I think it’s “lack of skill” (not that this is a valuable skill for modern infantry). I noticed that some of the walkers were turning their heads briefly, seemingly to make sure they were still in line. When I learned to march (we joked that we were practicing 17th century combat techniques — actually techniques still used as recently as US Civil War), turning your head was a no-no. You were allowed to briefly turn your eyes to one side or another to assess your alignment with others in your rank. With repeated practice, it was not difficult to maintain excellent alignment; you learned the stride length (and the cadence was like an internal mental metronome) to maintain your alignment with your rank.
We marched in time to a military band, which meant that different company formations (about 10×10 marchers per company) were not synchronized with each other, since the “boom” of the band’s bass drum would not arrive to each formation at the same time, but within each company we were well synchronized.
It was impressive to watch, and kind of thrilling to participate in.
I did read the Gillian Tett article linked above, “Central banks are beginning to fret about dollar swap lines.” She seems to be suggesting that there are now ideological objections to the kind of support for liquidity established in the financial crisis 2008. Well, it has been noticeable in the Trump Administration that ideological objections to established practices often go along with a lack of the sort of competence required to continue to make those practices work. That’s how I see Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s HSS and the CDC, a crisis of competence justified and made righteous by intense ideological passion to show that competent action is not needed, because after all, the world is simpler than all those tiresomely competent people thought it was–on the model of markets being so simple (sarc).
Whatever criticism you might have of the system and the players in the 2008 financial crisis, the principal players understood the linkages between dollar liquidity, American mutual fund money market funds (heavily invested in European banks), repo, and the Credit Default Swap market.
So I am left wondering if Scott Bessent’s Treasury Department, along with the Fed, would now even have the competence to recognize complex financial linkages, or will the next crisis be another “failure is great” moment, in which cluelessness and ideological fervor support each other? I have not heard about purges at Treasury or at the Fed comparable to those in the Social Security Administration and elsewhere.
I drove through downtown Santa Rosa this morning on my way to Sebastopol and the “No Kings day” crowds were the largest I have seen in my 2 decades in Sonoma County.
I took HW 12 to Farmer’s Ln on my way home because I had been warned that Traffic was impossible in downtown SR.
It took me 42 minutes to drive from HWY 12 to Montgomery (2 km) due to the number of protestors, they were not deliberately impeding traffic, there simply was not enough room for them on the sidewalks.
A peaceful crowd, few cops, no apparent “Leaders” and three veterans groups that I counted.
A mixed crowd, mostly white and hispanic ( We have a large hispanic population, some of those families have been here since before California became a State).
These are the largest protests I have seen since the early 70’s.