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Links 6/17/2025

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How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020 Pew (Micael T)

Authorship for sale: Nature investigates how paper mills work Nature (Anthony L)

‘Ozempic Babies’: Here’s Why Oral Contraceptives Might Be Failing ScienceAlert (Chuck L)

EXCLUSIVE: Is the ‘tech bro-ification’ of abortion here? Prism

Covid/Pandemics

As Measles Spreads, Docs Stress It’s ‘Not a Rite of Passage’ Medspace

Climate/Environment

Nasa data reveals dramatic rise in intensity of weather events Guardian

Clean energy, dirty secrets: Inside the corruption plaguing california’s solar market Boston University (Paul R)

Britain’s enemies could dim the sun and weaponise weather Telegraph. This comes from watching too many James Bond

China?

G-7 Works to Secure Critical Minerals in Face of China Curbs Bloomberg

China’s automakers aim for cars with 100% domestic chips from 2026 Nikkei

China’s fast-growing high-speed railway network faces reality Asia Times (Kevin W)

US pushes Vietnam to decouple from Chinese tech, sources say Reuters

European Disunion

NATO allies ‘not prepared’ for war, top UK defense adviser warns Politico. Quelle surprise!

Sweden must be able to function with higher interest rates Aftonbladet via machine translation. Micael T: “Sweden has one of the lowest public debt levels in the world relative to the size of our economy, but one of the highest private debt levels.”

Works begin in Ireland to exhume remains of hundreds of babies found at unwed mothers’ home Associated Press

European Disunion

Russia Weaponizes UK Climate Project Moon of Alabama

Old Blighty

Trump signs order confirming parts of UK-US tariff deal BBC

Israel v. Iran

With Its Goals in Iran Out of Reach and Its Endgame Unclear, What’s Next for Israel? Haaretz

* * *

Donald Trump Doubles Down on Crazy Larry Johnson

* * *

Debris falls in Iranian TV studio during live broadcast as Israel strikes state media BBC

Note none of these claimed interceptions have been confirmed:

* * *

Iran asks Gulf states to mediate for ceasefire with Israel, sources say Reuters. resilc: “More like ‘We can fuck up your Gulfie indoor ski resort malls too ez.'”

Analysis – OPEC+ would struggle to cover major Iranian oil supply disruption Finance Yahoo!

Tankers Reportedly Ablaze Near Strait of Hormuz OilPrice (resilc). Supposedly an accident….

Since this is making the rounds, note that Mark Sleboda, in a fresh interview with Jamarl Thomas, takes issue with another claim Dugin made, that Dugin claimed that Russia offered a security agreement to Iran and was rebuffed. He says Dugin is not an insider and he has heard nothing of the kind from Russian officials. This is a separate claim, but the key point is that Dugin has already gone out over his skis, so take this with a fistful of salt:

From yesterday, but still an important overview:

* * *

From yesterday. KLG: “On the WWIII front, this is the equivalent of an attack on MIT and Caltech.” GM: “It indeed got hit hard. But that particular building seems to have been heavily involved in military research, so it is fair game after the assassinations of Iranian university professors.”

Israel v. the Rest of the Resistance

North African convoy for Gaza reports mistreatment in eastern Libya by Haftar forces Middle East Eye

Malaysia announces the “Fleet of a Thousand Ships” initiative to break the siege on Gaza Palestinian Information Center. From two days ago, still germane.

Palestinians in Jaffa denied access to bomb shelter by Israeli neighbours Middle East Eye (Kevin W)

New Not-So-Cold War

SITREP 6/16/25: Slowly Abandoned, Ukraine Gets Squeezed by Russian Pressure Simplicius

US cancels next round of bilateral talks with Russia, says Moscow EFE. John Helmer called this one early, that even these normalization talks were going nowhere. The US was making “the dog ate my homework” level excuses for not returning Russian diplomatic property the US had seized.

The definition of insanity: a neocon think tank’s recommendations for Russia Ian Proud

Universities and colleges ranking by employment: how to decide where to apply? Tass via machine translation. Micael T: “Looking at the list of prioritized economic sectors, Russia seems to have a plan.”

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

New Pope Declassifies Jesus Crucifixion Documents Onion (Paul R)

Minnesota Shooting Suspect Allegedly Used Data Broker Sites to Find Targets’ Addresses Wired

Imperial Collapse Watch

In 2025, US looks less like a dream to some and more like a country to avoid Associated Press

Local Malls Are Sitting Empty, and Becoming a Headache for Small Towns New York Times (resilc)

Majority of Australians think China will be world’s most powerful country by 2035, poll finds Guardian (resilc)

Maniac barges into NYC courthouse and slashes officers in the neck, face in chaotic scene New York Post

Trump 2.0

Trump Backed Israel’s Strike Is Fracturing His Coalition Mediate (Chuck L). Confirming our post yesterday.

Trump Organization Announces Mobile Plan, $499 Smartphone CNBC

Trumps Promote American Bitcoin, a New Crypto Mining Venture New York Times. resilc: “Endless until revolution.”

‘Golden Share’ in U.S. Steel Gives Trump Extraordinary Control New York Times

Why Are Tyrant Trump’s Institutional Critics Remaining Silent? CounterPunch (resilc)

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: From Perpetual Peace to World War Glenn Diesen. Trust me, you must listen starting at 39:00.

Immigration

Trump gets back behind raids in immigration whiplash Axios

Inside Trump’s Extraordinary Turnaround on Immigration Raids New York Times (resilc)

Our No Longer Free Press

Trump Attacks Tucker Carlson Over Opposition to Iran War, Says He Decides What ‘America First’ Means Libertarian Institute (resilc)

The mainstream media has enabled Trump’s war on universities Guardian (resilc)

How Minnesota Police Fueled Insane Conspiracy Theory About Assassin Ken Klippenstein

Campaigners say Saudi Arabia executed prominent journalist for Twitter account Middle East Eye (resilc)

Mr. Market is Moody

Middle East conflict slows tanker bookings, lifts rates Reuters

Central Banks worldwide expected to keep interest rates frozen as nations eye Israel-Iran turmoil, Trump’s trade war LiveMint

Boeing

Southwest Airlines is adding cockpit alerts on all 700 of its Boeing 737s to help prevent runway incidents Yahoo! News (Kevin W)

AI

The launch of ChatGPT polluted the world forever, like the first atomic weapons tests The Register (Kevin W)

The Bezzle

There’s a Good Chance Crypto Is Spreading in Your Retirement Account New York Times

How the obsession with risky assets is putting global finance in peril South China Morning Post

Novo Nordisk Loses Canadian Patent Protection For Blockbuster Diabetes Drug Over Unpaid $450 Fee Science

Class Warfare

Walmart’s Drone Deliveries Expand, Now in Five Different US States CNBC

Now Svantesson thinks you should bargain at the grocery store Aftonbladet via machine translation. Micael T: “Svantesson = the Swedish Finance Minister”

Northland man’s restoration work connects him to famous football brothers Duluth News. Chuck L: “A bit off the beaten in NC path but there’s a human interest and accidental entrepreneurship aspect. I also empathized with the “Which rock do you live under dad?” moment with his daughter. Been there.”

Antidote du jour (via):

A bonus:

A second bonus:

And a third (Chuck L):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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154 comments

  1. .Tom

    At first I thought the whole-cat mitosis might be an AI video but on second and third view I think not.

    1. mrsyk

      Cats don’t need no stinkin’ AI. They are already the undisputed king of internet videos.
      Bold commentary here today!

  2. The Rev Kev

    “Tankers Reportedly Ablaze Near Strait of Hormuz”

    Of course it might be a false flag event by Israel to drag in the US. Or it might be Iran telling the West that there will be a price to pay for their total support in Israel’s attack on Iran. Time will tell.

    1. Unironic Pangloss

      friend, we live in a world where it is a reasonable.claim that paleo-seamanship has atrophied due to GPS, radar, and computers.

      It is more plausible (and easy to infer from the damage pattern) that two ships collide by accident.

      The world is not full of false flagging, 4-D operators. There is plenty of bipartisan manufactured consent for Trump to do whatever he wants.

      Cracks me up for for “a dictatorship” under
      a King”, there is less of an anti-war movement now than 2002/3. the useful idiots haven’t received the orders to swap their anti-ICE placards for the peace sign

      1. mrsyk

        I see “electronic interference” being cited.
        With Iran and Israel firing missiles at each other since Friday, interference has disrupted navigation systems near the vital sea route between Iran and Oman which handles about a fifth of the world’s oil.
        Two Oil Tankers Collide and Catch Fire Near Strait of Hormuz, gCaptain.
        The oilprce article mentions “three” tankers ablaze. Everything else I’m seeing says two.

    2. ilsm

      Reports USAF air refuelers and F-16/F-35 at Saudi air bases near Iraq, those bases were denied by Saudis in 2003!

      Looks like the Wahabbi/al qaida side of the Persian Gulf is all in on attacking Iran!

      How many WW II era mines still in Iran!

  3. Mikerw0

    Where is Judith Miller when the MSM needs her? For a few minutes, here and there, as it was all I could take I turned on CNN to see how they were covering Israel’s attack on Iran. In summary, Israel has Iran on the precipice of collapse, it has been successful, and the experts they had on argue that now is the time for the US to help and finish the job.

    Oy.

    1. Steve H.

      I go to the website versions for silo zeitgeists. Two days ago MSNBC had zero/nothin involving Iran and Israel. Just checked again, only one headline, from 18 hours ago. And also this gem:

      > A Palestinian father’s letter of gratitude to Ms. Rachel

  4. Michaelmas

    Regarding: From yesterday. KLG: “On the WWIII front, this is the equivalent of an attack on MIT and Caltech.” GM: “It indeed got hit hard. But that particular building seems to have been heavily involved in military research, so it is fair game after the assassinations of Iranian university professors.”

    This carries a definite irony as close to two-thirds of MIT’s funding some years in fact comes covertly, from black projects — research paid for by the United States DOD. Certainly, that was the case in the 1998-2016 period when I had interactions with folks there.

    So by the logic cited above, MIT is indeed fair game for US enemies to attack

  5. Carla

    Pew Research article on religion cites the Jewish population of the world as 0.01% in the first table they show. Yet in the text, it states “In percentage terms, Jews were the smallest group in the study, representing about 0.2% of the world’s population.”

    Hhhm. Our local paper of record (The Plain Dealer) now appends to almost every story: “Artificial intelligence was used to help generate this story” and it’s a pretty crummy rag, replete with typos, nonsensical sentences that go nowhere, etc.

    Whether Pew Research avails itself of “the assistance” of AI or just doesn’t copy-edit its pieces seems to be an open question. Suppose it could be both.

    1. DJG, Reality Czar

      Carla: Pew is usually careful with statistics. As an editor at an educational publisher, I used their data and their graphics quite often, although their graphics tend to be overdone. But that is the trend these days, gussying up the histogram.

      This caught my eye: “The U.S. had roughly 101 million religious “nones” in 2020 (up 97% from a decade earlier), while Japan had 73 million (up 8%). However, the unaffiliated category continues to account for a much larger share of the total population in Japan – 57% of all Japanese are religiously unaffiliated – than in the U.S., where 30% identify as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.”

      Their count of Buddhists includes a major misunderstanding of how Buddhists “identify” themselves. In fact, almost all Japanese are nominally Buddhist / Shinto. There is a tradition of Shinto weddings and Buddhist funerals. This article explains:

      https://sugoii-japan.com/why-japanese-are-not-religious

      Likewise, China, which is a major center of Buddhism, but in a mixed form, with Taoism, much as in Japan. Likewise, Vietnam, which the report somehow manages to overlook — 80 or so million Buddhists, mixed with Confucian ethics.

      I tend to doubt that the glitch is artificial intelligence. In cases like these, I tend to blame the staff and editors for not gathering all of the needed data.

      Without dividing “Christians” into their major schools of thought, Roman Catholic, Orthodox plus the Churches of the East, and Protestants, it is hard to parse what is going on. At least Pew managed to include Russia and Ethiopia, both of which are in branches of Orthodoxy — usually, U.S. sources can’t even acknowledge the Eastern churches.

      The report likely shows “trends.” Not much else.

      1. JCC

        True. And when I lived in Korea I spoke with many Koreans over those two years that claimed to be both Buddhist and some Christian denomination or other.

        I would ask them routinely, “Is that possible/OK?”.

        They all said yes, no problem.

        1. Procopius

          Buddhism does not require, but permits, belief in a creator god. It does not claim to answer every question, only those questions about ending suffering, so I suppose in Korea christianity doesn’t regard Buddhism as a competing religion.

    2. hk

      People who belong to just one religion are in fact a rarity around the world. Supposedly, South Korea is more than 100% Protestant in some surveys because so many people belong to multiple churches (This is, presumably, apocryphal, but fits the reality about Western perception of “religion” vs reality in Asia so well.

      Even in the West, Jewishness has gotten messy, in particular. Most Jewish friends I have will identify as Jewish as ethnicity, but atheist as religion–this is typical. But there are some weird examples: late French Cardinal Lustiger, for example, continued to identify himself as Jewish, even when he was a cardinal and archbishop of Paris–this annoyed Jewish religious leaders outside France greatly, but makes sense in a wider “Jewish” context…

  6. Unironic Pangloss

    >>Note none of these claimed interceptions have been confirmed:

    🇮🇷🇮🇱| Iranian State TV announced the interception of a 4th F-35 above Tabriz

    These F-35 interception reports are not coming from the Iranian military, they are coming from the iranian media.

    Most likely someone (likely their social media desk) being uncritical of the AI-generated/photoshopped images generated by rando clickbaiters/engagement harvesters. You think English-speaking social media the Wild West, go down the rabbit hole of Arabic Telegram

    IMO, Israeli claims of air supremacy are a complete fictional farce. Along the same lines as their media blackout over Haifa

    2. mrsyk

      … Israeli claims of air supremacy are a complete fictional farce. Agreed, an opinion backed by nothing but priors and circumstantial bits and pieces. I imagine confirmation is on the way, for good or bad.
      Pretty relieved to not wake up to nuclear war this morning. Every day is gift in this stupid timeline.

      1. Unironic Pangloss

        The IDF are the ones claiming establishment of a clear air corridor to Tehran.

        That claim is easy to demonstrate… airplanes at 30,000 feet dropping cheap JDAMs from 30 miles away the city centre. video of IDF planes would be captured by random suburban Tehranians

        from the publicly available media, looks like IDF is using missiles and drones, and Mossad teams to bomb Iran

          1. Unironic Pangloss

            there is no other context in those videos that it’s Tehran. No 2nd video from a different angle by a different person. No citation re. the original source. No link to the complete video

            Unless someone adds info that they are familiar w/that intersection in Tehran, that streetscape could be any Middle Eastern city that was bombed by the US.

            If that video was of an important target, there would be more than one video

            Most of OSINT accounts (whether pro-Israel or anti-Israel or neutral) indulge in peddling sloppily sourced media scraped from random corners of social media—some of them are really good and only rarely let garbage in.

            None of these accounts should be taken authoritative sources, and the good ones are honest about that and stick to analysis—not breaking “news”.

    1. Wukchumni

      Yep,

      A whole bunch of BLM land in Tiny Town will be for sale apparently, and none of it is near electricity or water, and not much in the way of roads for that matter.

      You’d be buying ‘nature acres’ largely without access~

      1. NakedEmperor

        Think of the data center possibilities. Tech bros have unlimited money, so building necessary infrastructure won’t be a problem. In the SF Bay Area some tech bros have a plan to create a tech city of some kind on the former Alameda Naval Air Station. They reportedly have asked Trump to assist them. Don’t underestimate these people. They are well-funded and well-connected. Dark times are here.

    2. jefemt

      Outrageous.
      And somehow MT delegation talks Mike Lee into Montana being carved out of eligibility for sale?
      Eff That! All for one, one for all, no carveouts: no sale of public lands, ever!
      What makes the west? No water, plenty of nothing that won’t grow half a cow in two years, hence public domain.
      I am apoplectically outraged.

      1. Friendly

        Outrageous indeed. And politically questionable. Support for U.S. public land is strong for many Republican voters which is why President Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act in 2020. And now this??

  8. The Rev Kev

    ‘A New Policy
    @anewpolicyorg
    🚨 Breaking: @anewpolicyorg
    ‘s sources tell us that a meeting yesterday between U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu devolved into a shouting match over Netanyahu’s objections to U.S. plans to evacuate our citizens from Israel and the wider region.
    U.S. officials believe that Netanyahu’s objection was predicated on his desire to hold U.S. citizens at risk in order to increase the likelihood of U.S. entry into Israel’s conflict with Iran.’

    This is amazing this story and would never have appeared on my bingo card. Mike Huckabee is, from his comments, a Zionist’s Zionist. He could be Netanyahu’s brother by another mother. And yet he is having a shouting match with Netanyahu because Netanyahu does not want to lose his human shields – his American human shields. Is Netanyahu hoping that a bunch of them will get killed so that it will make Americans support him? Netanyau is stopping anybody leaving the country so all those people with American passports are now stuck. Guess they chose the wrong country to live in.

    1. ChrisFromGA

      I wonder how many evangs will re-think their plans to travel to the Holy Land after this … nah.

      2. Steve H.

        Christian Expedition resumed in May 2024. For 2025, one listed for July, three for October, one for November. That’s not a lot.

        Our church had done ‘Footsteps of Paul’ in March, that’s Greece and Turkey. Nothing else planned.

    2. Anonted

      Here’s to equal rights and privileges, throughout the Levant! Not how we imagined it, but if you squint, Bibi looks progressive.

    3. DJG, Reality Czar

      Rev Kev: Ahhh, I paused over that TwiXt, too.

      Mike Huckabee, diplomat. I assure you that there is no one else I would rather be caught in a trench with than Mike Huckabee, divinely ordained diplomat.

      I’m sure you are aware that any evacuation of U.S. citizens is not an evacuation of Aunt Hepzibah and her fellow deaconesses taking the bus tour of Galilee to spread the joy of the Methodist Bible Society of Trenton, New Jersey, to the heathenish Arabs of Nazareth.

      Netanyahu is worried about the big slice of the Israeli population with dual citizenship.

      Another irony here is that if, somehow, disorder were to break out in orderly Italy (after our morning coffees, of course), there is no way that I could call the U.S. embassy in Roma and ask for help getting away from the chaos of grissini. You’re on your own.

      PS: Also, Huckabee is here demonstrating that strong streak of candy-assery so evident in America. Hell, if the Apocalypse is going to occur, why evacuate Brother Jedediah and the Utah Society of Mormons for Reverse-Baptizing Jews? Come on! Martyrdom approaches!

      2. thoughtfulperson

        I read the story about Huckabee and followed the link to a quote of an Israeli official saying anyone with Israeli citizenship had to stay.

        Somehow got inspired to give a try on an entry for the Naked Capitalism song book, to the tune of the Eagles “Hotel California”:


        On a dark desert highway
        Cool wind in my hair
        Warm smell of explosives
        Rising up through the air
        Up ahead in the distance
        I saw the shimmering lights
        My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
        I had to stop for the night

        There they stood in the doorway
        I heard the bombs going off
        And I was thinking to myself
        This could be heaven or this could be hell
        Then they put down their rifles
        And they showed me the way
        There were voices down the corridor
        I thought I heard them say

        Welcome to the Hotel Netanyahu
        Such a lovely place (such a lovely place)
        Such a lovely face
        Plenty of room at the Hotel Netanyahu
        Any time of year (any time of year)
        You can find it here

        Their mind is Tiffany-twisted
        They got the usa bombs, uh
        They got a lot of pretty, pretty planes
        That they calls friends
        How they danced in the graveyard
        Sweet summer sweat
        Some dance to remember
        Most dance to forget

        So I called up the captain
        “Please bring me my wine”
        He said, “We haven’t had that spirit here since 1949”
        And still those voices are calling from far away
        Wake you up in the middle of the night
        Just to hear them say

        Welcome to the Hotel Netanyahu
        Such a lovely place (such a lovely place)
        Such a lovely face
        They’re livin’ it up at the Hotel Netanyahu
        What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise)
        Bring your alibis

        Mirrors on the ceiling
        The pink champagne on ice
        And they said, “We are all just prisoners here
        Of our own device”
        And in the master’s chambers
        They gathered for the feast
        They stab it with their steely knives
        But they just can’t kill the beast

        Last thing I remember
        I was running for the door
        I had to find the passage back
        To the place I was before
        “Relax,” said the night man
        “We are programmed to receive
        You can check out any time you like
        But you can never leave”

    4. Mikel

      I’m thinking the attacks in Russia and Israel that resembled one another are only the beginning of prodding towards a goal of regime change.
      Mainly, seeing reports like this, the attacks right now appear to be attempts to increase support for the war by goading Israel and Russia do something really big that rallies more people to war and, most importantly, keep the USA fighting in bigger ways.
      The USA has associates looking at it with Cheshire Cat grins and saying: “Let’s watch you and them fight.”
      And that’s a bit of what goes around comes around…

      1. bertl

        Your first sentence got me thinking, Mikel. I’ve wondered over the weeks where the 18 months preparation for the Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian airfields came when it should have taken, at the most, 3 months to put it together. The logistics were straightforward. The airbases were near relatively easy borders to cross. Even assembling the drones from imported parts would have been a relatively straightforward job, and most likely they were pre-assembled prior to the border crossing.

        And then there was a report that the colonial settler drone attacks in Iran took 18 months to put together and get in place.

        The Ukraine operation was an off the shelf scheme transmitted to the Ukraine by the intervention of, most likely, MI6, and possibly the CIA (less likely), and the Yukkies used the settler colony’s back story to make it sound more interesting than the drab tale of taking out a few no longer key elements in Russia’s nuclear delivery system. I’ve no doubt the Russians figured it out as soon as the drones did their job in Iran. And the Russians, who seem to have a gift for remembering slights, will want payback in spades.

  9. Carolinian

    Re ‘Trump decides’ whether America First really means Israel First, whether Tehran should be leveled (after fair warning to the 15 million) etc.–we have our new interesting hypothetical: what if General Ripper actually became president? Or maybe it’s this guy

    https://responsiblestatecraft.org/kurilla-israel-iran/

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Kurilla

    Or maybe it’s the very large portion of the ruling class that agrees with the above propostions. Trump gained the presidency by claiming to be against foreign adventurism. He lied.

    1. The Rev Kev

      I find it delusional for him to say what the America First movement is really all about as if he was their Great Decider instead of someone who rode the wave of America First supporters into office. Seems that he cannot differentiate American patriotism from Israeli patriotism. That is not what those MAGA voters voted for. Attacking Tucker Carlson is not a good look for him as whatever his other faults, I think that at heart he is patriotic towards America.

      1. mrsyk

        Decider-in-Chief II. We’ve been down this road before, and you know what they say about sequels.

        1. Carolinian

          Indeed we have but back then huge crowds came out to protest Dubya’s Iraq adventure. Elsewhere today in the Counterpunch/Nader the man who once said “not a dime’s worth of difference” now hopes the undifferentiated will come out to protest what increasingly seems like a descent into madness. But the Dems, led by Pelosi, opposed impeachment for George W. and many still prominent web pundits shamefully supported his war of choice in Iraq. Much as we love Ralph his current notion that everything is about Trump is wrong. After all Biden has gotten over a million killed in another war of choice in Ukraine.

          Will the MAGA save America from the R2P-ers and all their many fake excuses? It’s not just Trump who has been lying to us all along.

          1. pjay

            Frankly, I was taken aback by Ralph’s absurd suggestions for “institutional” resistance – from Congressional Democrats, the public health establishment, Bar Associations, “the small business community,” “religious denominations” – a whole list of groups who have earned their public skepticism by complicity with past sins. But his most ridiculous statement was this one:

            “Former Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden are dangerously quiet or barely expressing their displeasure. They have huge constituencies which can be aroused…”

            LOL! Ralph is in his 90s, but c’mon man. Barely expressing their displeasure for a world they all created! I’m afraid if any “huge constituencies” are to be aroused, it will be the result of dissidents like Tucker Carlson or Douglas MacGregor, like it or not.

    2. NakedEmperor

      Tehran will not be leveled. That is Israeli and Trump boasting. Nuclear war will ensue if Israel and the US get too aggressive. Israel will then cease to exist.

  10. thoughtfulperson

    I think there is an open bold up in links at,
    “Israel v. the Rest of the Resistance”

    Thanks for various perspectives as always!

  11. Unironic Pangloss

    given how I woke up and Telegram isn’t full of craters in Tel Aviv, i presume that Iran (once again) held back its planned punches for last night and there must be one last round of frantic phone calls by the Qataris.

    Deterrence isn’t established by being sensible. I’ll never kick and scream on a random house door in Florida at 3am cuz I mjght get AR-ed, lol. just saying. Iran can’t re-establish deterrence until it has its “Dirty Harry” moment

    1. Carolinian

      Iran had said last night’s barrage would be aimed at the occupied territories. Seems to me every morning there’s almost no news about what is going on in Israel. If a tree falls or you are losing a war in the forest and there are no still alive reporters there to notice did it happen?

    2. ex-PFC Chuck

      given how I woke up and Telegram isn’t full of craters in Tel Aviv,

      There was a lot of chatter on X yesterday about how the Israeli government was shutting down live cams on the Internet, and demanding that people not post videos of incoming munitions.

  12. Ben Panga

    Britain’s enemies could dim the sun and weaponise weather (Telegraph)

    How would we know?

    3. Vandemonian

      B over at Moon of Alabama had a post about this a couple of days ago. Snippets:

      Russia Weaponizes UK Climate Project

      When “we” do it:

      UK scientists will attempt to dim the sun in controversial experiment costing taxpayer £800 million – Daily Record, Apr 27 2025
      …
      When others may intend to do it:

      Britain’s enemies could dim the sun and weaponise weather – Telegraph, Jun 15 2025
      …
      The run of headlines is not astonishing to anyone who has seen how Russia is weaponizing everything.

      https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/06/russia-weaponizes-uk-climate-project-.html

    4. lyman alpha blob

      Heh. You’ll have to call Seattle and compare. If it’s sunny there, then you’re probably [family blog]ed. ;)

  13. AG

    re: Iran USA

    “Trump was asked on Tuesday about Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testifying in March in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee, where she said that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon.

    When pressed about Gabbard’s comments, Trump dismissed them.

    “I don’t care what she said, I think they were very close to having one,” Trump said.”

    interesting (this can mean anything, that he indeed doesn´t care or he just says so in public to maintain impression of “pressure” in public.)

    https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-denies-reaching-iran-threatens-hard-tehran-strikes/story?id=122920648

    1. Carolinian

      I’ve read that she has only given him two intelligence briefings since the inauguration. Even Trump’s hero Ronnie Reagan used to get them regularly according to Ray McGovern.

      Instead Trump gets his “intelligence” from Fox News. We are so doomed.

      It’s all dead Roger Ailes’ revenge after a couple of movies portraying him as a villain.

      2. Vandemonian

        “Instead Trump gets his “intelligence” from Fox News.”

        Would that intelligence be secret inside information or advanced mental acuity?

      3. The Rev Kev

        I heard that since being elected, that he has received only about fourteen intelligence briefings which is what, about one a fortnight?

        1. MFB

          Well, the less information a President receives from his intelligence agencies, the more chance he has of doing the right thing.

    2. bertl

      I rather get the impression that the US political élite don’t give a flying f*ck for their own people, nor anyone else’s. Trump and Biden were the only politicians capable of bringing down the US regime in short order so they have proved to be excellent picks if Americans wish to rebuild their republic from the ground up after these unhappy exercises in Ukraine, the Palestinian genocide, the blood drenched settler colonists of Palestine leading the US by the nose to Iran, and the one forthcoming with China reach their natural conclusion with a regime change that will be the bigliest, changeliest EVER, and I put this all down to the collective wisdom of the American people.

      1. CanCyn

        Hopefully you’re not talking about voting and elections? I can only agree if you’re dissing people for not rebelling and holding hug general strikes by now. We all know that voting doesn’t get us anything good (those clear and concrete benefits that Lambert used to talk about) – if it did they would have stopped holding elections a long time ago.

    3. Young

      Any self-respecting DNI would resign after this public humiliation.

      If I were her, I would go on Tucker Carlson’s show and resign on live podcast. Or post the resignation letter on X at 3AM.

      But, she is just another DC creature, being groomed for her next assignment

  14. The Rev Kev

    “New Pope Declassifies Jesus Crucifixion Documents”

    Trial records that have been translated indicate that he was crucified for the crime of preaching without a police permit. Some records, however, remain redacted by the Vatican due to ongoing security issues that effect Roman national security.

    1. DJG, Reality Czar

      Rev Kev: What I found especially interesting in the treasure trove of documents that The Onion got its hands on was the famous note from Claudia Procula (the Missus) to Pontius Pilate:

      Ponty, Darlinghissimus: I had a dream about that long-haired man in trouble with the religious fanatics. Seamless robe, loaves and fishes — give the guy back to the locals, and let them fight about it. Roma wasn’t built on every little squabble. Meanwhile, I made your favorite lasagne for lunch. Hugs.

      PS: Fascinating datum in the Italian and English wiki entries: ‘His praenomen (first name) is unknown;[19] his cognomen Pilatus might mean “skilled with the javelin (pilum)”, but it could also refer to the pileus or Phrygian cap, possibly indicating that one of Pilate’s ancestors was a freedman.[20]
      Hmmm.

    2. Wukchumni

      Apparently there was a stoning in the midst of the crucifixion, as there were ‘Karst For Kids’ donation appeals going on at the time.

  15. Nikkikat

    Enjoyable videos this morning, proving once again that any animal,
    Is smarter than a human. Certainly than the people running things.
    What chaos Trump is stirring up, just incredible. And we thought the dead guy was bad……..Trump just a disaster.

  16. mega

    In the last 72 hours, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Iran when negotiations between Washington and Tehran were still ongoing.
    …
    — Douglas Macgregor (@DougAMacgregor) June 15, 2025

    A preemptive strike, not to be confused with unprovoked war of aggresion.

    1. Yves Smith Post author

      The fact that he said “preemptive strike” right before “when negotiations between Washington and Tehran were still ongoing” = he is Not Happy. Remember Macgregor only does gravitas. This is beyond /sarc terrain.

  17. LawnDart

    Re; China’s fast-growing high-speed railway network faces reality

    Not profitable? Umm, Amtrak? Hello?

    Neoliberalism belief that every enterprise must generate monitary revenues again fails to acknowledge social value.

    How Thatcheresque.

    1. RookieEMT

      Combined with American Exceptionalism where yeah, it’s endless anger and fist shaking over Amtrak but god forbid we pull back on building another highway lane.

    2. Mikel

      “He said the public should focus more on the high-speed railway network’s social value than its commercial value.”

      Hints at concern in China about the commercial value throughout the article.

      Sounds like there are some in China more bitten by the neoliberal economics bug than others and the government is trying to thread the needle.

      1. PlutoniumKun

        The article is poorly constructed, but the issue is not the profitability of the railways, but the debts used to finance them and who ends up with those debts.

        Information is opaque, but it does seem that maybe only half a dozen or so of the main lines are actually able to generate sufficient revenue to pay them down. The main HSR lines were paid for by complex schemes which (probably) means that local governments are ultimately the final destination for the liabilities. The result may end up something like Japan Railways in the 1980’s which had piled up trillions of yen of debt that eventually ended up with central government – the debt in 2009 was estimated at something around 24 trillion yen (200 billion dollars or so). And this was after a major restructuring.

        Nobody outside China really knows the true situation, but the overall internal debts likely dwarf the JR debts, as ridership levels per km are well below Japanese levels, although nobody knows for certain. No doubt these debts can be repackaged and hidden away (as to a large degree happened in Japan), but you can’t wish away this level of debt, particularly when it is a local government debt, not a national one. For obvious reasons, Beijing has been adamant that it will not take over local debts.

        There are of course good reasons why countries should invest in railways without worrying about commercial payback – its very rare for railways to actually make a profit – even in the 19th century most railways ultimately lost money for the investors. The question is whether the debt load outweighs the overall contribution to growth. There are many who suspect that the debt load is now a burden that outweighs the economic and social benefits in many parts of China, but as the article I linked to suggests, outsiders have to make educated guesses about how bad the situation really is.

        1. Mikel

          “have to make educated guesses about how bad the situation really is.”
          Currently, the story of the world…

        2. lyman alpha blob

          But the railways are built. A concrete material benefit. So what if some debt needs to be restructured – people can still get from place to place.

          Very different from the trillions the US government larded on to failing banks. The only thing they produced were dubious financial instruments which were of little benefit to the public. Or, very often, the opposite of beneficial.

          1. skippy

            This is the thing that gets me lyman, as pointed out by econ Richard Wolff, China is a hybrid system where the State controls national concerns and private is allowed to do things where the profit motive[tm] does not screw with the State related industries.

            Not to mention China has more than a few times just memory holed bad debts by putting them in special vehicles off the balance sheet. Then some ponder why China has be able to sustain GDP growth for so long, able to spur innovation/productivity which has a social function. All while the West is diminishing both economically and socially, only war is left.

            1. amfortas the hippie

              the west believes in teh reality of money and finance, while china sees them as human constructed tools to be used as needed.
              thats dr hudson in a tiny lil nutshell, imo.
              and also people like polanyi

              1. skippy

                Yes … right back to the Human Tool User Problem and not the box of tools dilemma … waves at Elites …

        3. bertl

          “A successful railway system can never be judged purely on the basis of it’s own profitability but on the positive externalities it helps create over time.” I wrote that down in my lecture notes during a discussion about the sensibility if the Beeching Reforms in the UK some 60 years ago. And Charlie Murphy was dead right then and now.

          1. mahna

            That applies to all the infrastructure ever built. I doubt the Roman aqueducts and roads brought much profit in the first fiscal year.

  18. William Beyer

    Regarding, “How Minnesota Police Fueled Insane Conspiracy Theory About Assassin” by Ken Klippenstein, this Minnesotan (me) thinks the state police were correct to release the No Kings photo. A tough judgment call, but that is Job No. 1 for all professionals. Blaming the police for not anticipating insane speculation is a bridge too far.

    1. Unironic Pangloss

      given the factual circumstances of the case, the police could never make everyone happy. people on all sides see conspiracies everywhere. some are real conspiracies, most are egregores

      release everything (that is possible without clouding the prosecution), let the chips fall where they may

    2. t

      I literally laughed out loud. “Flyers”? A reem of blank paper and a few with “No Kings” neatly printed in Sharpy?

      Makes no sense. When and where would these be used? By whom? How?

      Why not printed paper flyers with times and locations and information for your fellow No Kings protesters? Or, hand made signs on cardboard or poster board.

      Just the laziest craziest sham. I’ve heard people interpret the papers as a cover to infiltrate protests. Maybe he thought that would work?

      State and local police may be incapable of understanding that right-wing is violent. And convinced “the left,” from Khive to commies, are always burning cities and kicking puppies.

  19. The Rev Kev

    “Donald Trump Doubles Down on Crazy”

    I think that Trump crossed a Rubicon today. He ordered the population of Tehran to evacuate the city – all ten million of them. He didn’t say that Israel will hit them or anything but that these were his orders. In other words, this is now Trump’s War. He owns it now and made it his own – in the same way that old Joe made the Ukraine his war. So, how did that work out for old Joe? When he left the G-7 a day early, Macron tried to cover for him by saying that Trump was off to make a peace deal between Iran and Israel – until Trump harshly slapped him down for even suggesting it. All his past supporters in the media I see like Tucker Carlson and the guys at The Duran are writing him off now and maybe Trump thinks that he no longer needs all those supporter and the MAGA movement anymore. But maybe the Pentagon will be able to talk some sense into him by saying that they do not have sufficient weaponry to take on Iran as most of it was burned in the Ukraine and Gaza. That stocks of anti-air missiles are reaching their Bingo status for not only Israel but for US forces as well. But Trump’s pride is on the line here as he always wants to be seen as the winner but all his scheming with Israel for this attack is going nowhere. After six months the Trump Presidency may be coming to an end.

    1. Carolinian

      But TACO can always change his mind? I’m not sure it’s true, as Alastair Crooke asserts, that Trump has been deceiving all along on this. The real problem is that the poorly informed reality star is in way over his head. It’s impossible to to know what he really wants or thinks and he may not know himself. I’d even go as far as to suggest that Trump himself, deep down, knows he’s in way over his head and that’s the source of his indecisiveness and the kneejerk reaction to any criticism.

      None of which means we aren’t in big trouble with such a person in charge.

      1. The Rev Kev

        I was just wondering today if he is trying to apply the same way that he acted in New York as a real estate hustler to the international scene right now. So he might have thought it fun to stiff his suppliers back in New York as he was the one that had all the leverage but trying to lie and cheat actual major countries like Russia, China and Iran is not working. Thing is, this is his second rodeo so you think that he would have learned those lessons in his first term but apparently not. This time around he seems to be much more treacherous.

        1. NotTimothyGeithner

          I think with Trump legacy shopping is part of the equation.

          Ignoring that, my general theory of Trump’s foreign policy is he is and is surrounded by Karl Rove-esque Republicans who “create their own reality.” They start from the premise Democrats are weak and constantly surrendering and believe “our adversaries” will cower if Americans simply whipped it out. They are also incredibly ignorant and don’t know what Biden and others did before them or practical limits of American power and logistics.

          This is why we had a rush of events in regards to Russia/Ukraine and Yemen. Now, Trump is stumbling every which way. He doesn’t want to have to explain destroyed US bases, but he desperately wants to lay down the law. This is why he is loudly chest thumping but sitting slouched at his parade.

          Trump probably knows a fight with Iran would not go swimmingly, but he is likely terrified about the prospect of widescale destruction inside Israel both physical and economic in regards to the perceptions of his Khristian base. Losing Ukraine and Israel would be a bad look in certain circles.

          1. hk

            Several podcasters and commentators (I want to specifically say Mercoiris, but they are all sort of blending together in my head now) have noted that fear and uncertainty have consistently been the hallmark of Trump foreign policy. He has certain big ideas. He has no idea how to implement them. He is unsure about the international landscape and fearful of missteps. He is, for all his bluster, fearful of political insiders/establishment and what they can do to him. So he relies too much on “established wisdom,” which, in DC, means warmongering.

            This is different from the Biden/Obama/Bush years. Back then, there was a genuine faith in warmongering at the top. Now, there’s a ton of diffidence. I have no idea what’s worse: genuine madmen out to destroy the world or a scared coward pushed around by the madmen drifting towards apocalypse.

    2. vao

      Just a thought: in older times (not so old actually), there was a practice of officially declaring a place to be an “open city”. This meant that the city was not militarily defended and thus was to be spared from military action.

      I wonder whether this is still recognized as a legally binding customary law — the most recent examples I could find date back to WWII.

      Of course, I am pretty sure that the usual suspects would just guffaw at “open city” proclamations from their enemies.

      1. NakedEmperor

        The United States turned the notion of an “open city” on it’s head. “Free Fire Zone” replaced it. Gaza is such a zone.

      2. Vandemonian

        “… legally binding customary law…”

        What a quaint notion. So 20th century.

    3. ilsm

      S&P down 15% or WTI >$110 TACO comes out.

      Wonder what TACO does when Houthi smash some Saudi oil stations

    4. Antifa

      Donald Trump is a malignant narcissist, an empty shell of a human being who places a false persona between his self esteem and the world, and then tries to live up to that shining persona.

      You know . . . the Dealmaker, the Winner, the Best, the Richest, the Stable Genius, etc.

      That’s all that’s there. That’s all he is.

      In a roomful of people discussing nuclear war, Trump will go with whomever makes him feel good about himself in that moment, that makes him feel powerful.

      A lot of clever people in DC know this.

      1. CanCyn

        Almost agree, but really, he doesn’t, to try to live up to anything. Whatever he says is his reality whether or not it contradicts anything he has previously said or done. The worst thing about this man is his complete and utter lack of care for his fellow humans – this coupled with his complete and utter lack of shame are what make him so dangerous IMO. He doesn’t give a dam about anything but himself and being in the limelight, and right now, unfortunately for us, that limelight is the presidency. I hope for the day when he finally realizes he has no clothes but I doubt it will ever come. I have always thought that the best way to take him down would be to ignore him completely – but that needed to happen when he declared his candidacy for 2016. Way too late now.

    5. neutrino23

      “ I think that Trump crossed a Rubicon today.”
      No offense, but after more than 10 years of the most insane nonsense this finally did it for you? It’s good to know we finally found the straw breaking the camel’s back. Launching an insurrection on January 6, pardoning the insurrectionists, advising people to shine laser points up their butts and to inject bleach to fight COVID, …

      1. The Rev Kev

        None of them involved an all out war in the Middle east involving nukes though his helping an attack on Russia’s nuclear triad came close.

      2. tegnost

        Launching an insurrection on January 6, pardoning the insurrectionists, advising people to shine laser points up their butts and to inject bleach to fight COVID, …
        …yawn…

      3. Deluxe

        Launching an insurrection on January 6, pardoning the insurrectionists, advising people to shine laser points up their butts and to inject bleach to fight COVID, …

        No offense, but you don’t sound any better than those you are criticizing for being dumb.

  21. Expat2uruguay

    In case you’re wondering why the 11th covid wave is *unprecedented* here’s the author’s reply to that very question:

    “It annoys the heck out of minimizers who wish to normalize every wave and believe endless covid waves should be tolerated.”

    I truly hate this news environment, but I figured the reason that the 11th wave was *unprecedented* it was because there had only been 10 before.

    1. flora

      Well, there’s been a long understanding prior to covid that one didn’t vax into a viral disease as that would cause unwanted viral variants complexity, aka new variants arising from the initial variant. But what do I know. I only reference my own family doc back in the day.

  22. Ernie

    The lyrics of David Crosby’s song What Are Their Names, stuck in my mind at the time they were first sung in 1971 and never out of date in this warring world, somehow seem worth sharing again this morning.

    I wonder who they are
    The men who really run this land
    And I wonder why they run it
    With such a thoughtless hand
    What are their names and on what streets do they live?
    I’d like to ride right over this afternoon and give
    Them a piece of my mind about peace for mankind
    Peace is not an awful lot to ask

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a0rDLlSGSo

  23. ilsm

    Unreilable aircraft. 3 or 4 F-35’s may have failed to return to home station, the single (point of failure) engine, poor reliability could suggest engine failures, or other safety of flight failures causing loss of the aircraft.

    2. AG

      Can you confirm seriousness of this info “abandoning F-35 5th gen. program?”
      It was only this one phrase that I did catch.

      p.s. If the worst German media outlets start to point out the “limits of Israeli resilience” (I despise every word in that sentence) the shit is really about to hit the fangio.

    3. nyleta

      A lot of the air armada returned to Europe after dropping off fighters in a Saudi air base tonight. Keeping their flank with Russia intact.
      Sea mines no longer float around, they sit on the bottom and pop up on command. Probably more than one country has mines sitting on the bottom of the oil straights waiting. Israeli mines probably the real false flag, everyone will assume they are Iranian.

  24. The Rev Kev

    “Northland man’s restoration work connects him to famous football brothers”

    An interesting story this. I’m picturing him dropping off a restored 1950s fridge to a client and being asked when it may need more work done on it. And the guy replying ‘Oh, I dunno. How about you give me a call in a decade’s time and see how it is still going.’

    1. Mikel

      It’s also possible that the deep state has funded so many terrorists in other countries that they’ve scared themselves.

    2. thoughtfulperson

      At the rate we’re going, pretty soon usaians won’t be able to leave either!

  26. Safety First

    Re: Palestinians in Jaffa denied access to bomb shelter by Israeli neighbours Middle East Eye

    The Iranian state media Telegram channel in Russian (!!) has just recently reposted a TikTok by a Ukrainian (!) blonde in Israel, basically saying that their Israeli neighbors did not let them into their bomb shelter. The girl is speaking unaccented Russian, by the by, so who knows what her actual ethnicity-roots-whatever are.

    Link – https://t.me/parstodayrussian/184441

    Girl: “We’ve just received a notification that the air raid siren will sound soon, and we went to the bomb shelter in the neighboring house. They did not let us in, they shut the doors, when we knocked on the door they came out and said ‘we are not obligated to let you in’. That’s Israeli solidarity for you.”

    Then the camera cuts to the conversation with said neighbors in Hebrew. Which I do not speak, so whatever.

    Sharing.

    Also, too, while Pars Today is, err, PATRIOTIC in its coverage, they do post some interesting videos and tidbits, especially if you run the site through an auto-translator. They’ve just summarized an interview with Iran’s MoD press secretary, by the way, “the back of the Zionist regime will be broken”, and so on.

  27. The Rev Kev

    “Faith, hope , and charity – religion as a public benefit in modern Australia”

    ‘In the Star Wars universe, the Jedi are a group of warriors trained in the mystic ways of “the Force”. Some of you are no doubt also aware that the fictional Jedi have spawned a purported religion, ‘Jediism’, with its ‘philosophy based on the beliefs of the Jedi … in the Star Wars films’. Although initially viewed as a humorous approach to a census question, ‘Jediism’ is said to have grown to encompass 177,000 self-identifying adherents in the United Kingdom. In Australia, 48,000 people identified as Jedis in the latest census.’

    Personally when it comes to the Census forms here in Oz, when they ask about religion I put down ‘Pagan.’ The Census is supposed to be private. But many years ago when my wife put down Catholic as a religion on that form, she was seriously not impressed when a Catholic sky-pilot came a knocking a coupla months later wanting to know why she was a lapsed one.

  28. Mikel

    Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: From Perpetual Peace to World War – Glenn Diesen. “Trust me, you must listen starting at 39:00.”

    Yeah, time for people to stop doing what’s expected (marching up and down the street) and express their resistance in other ways.
    The USA is all about tech this and tech that and social media as a strength. Maybe start doing things like boycotts of certain sites and certain software?

    But also getting into a big war can result in lockdowns.

    1. Wukchumni

      The No Kings protests were strictly ‘see me-dig me’ events, that’s not gonna get Я done.

  29. The Rev Kev

    “SITREP 6/16/25: Slowly Abandoned, Ukraine Gets Squeezed by Russian Pressure”

    ‘Russian aircraft shelters are reportedly finally being built all over, particularly in Khalino airfield in Kursk and several Crimean airfields’

    So no more having nuclear-capable bombers in the open where the other side can count them thus helping ease nuclear tensions. Those days are gone for good. Great job, Trump. Next on the chopping block is any hope of reviving the New START treaty. I’m not sure but I think that the Russians are not going to bother with it any more as negotiations being hopeless with any US regime. Something else going down the gurgler which will leave us less safe-

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_START

    1. ilsm

      US has difficulty getting the failures from United Launch Associates to come up with new ICBM, so it hires the B-2 legacy for 200 manned bombers that look like failed B-2.

      US is falling behind but Boeing pays dividends

  30. Unironic Pangloss

    funny thing about the Twitter rabbit hole is that (re. the Mideast) most of these geopolitics sites just scrape content from the big Hebrew/Arabic/Farsi sites.

    And (versus a few yearsa ago) Google Translate has gotten good enough that you can reasonably rely on machine translation

  31. Jason Boxman

    Hold on to your arse gentlemen:

    Trump’s thinking is shifting toward using US military to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, sources say

    President Donald Trump is growing increasingly warm to using US military assets to strike Iranian nuclear facilities and souring on the idea of a diplomatic solution to end the escalating conflict, two officials familiar with the ongoing discussions tell CNN.

    The new, more hawkish posture represents a significant shift in Trump’s thinking, though the sources said Trump remains open to a diplomatic solution — if Iran makes significant concessions.

    Over the weekend and into Monday, discussions among Trump administration officials had continued to center on trying to find a diplomatic solution to serve as an off ramp, sources familiar with the talks said.

    But Trump signaled early today his patience for diplomacy was wearing thin. “I’m not too much in the mood to negotiate with Iran,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One returning early from the Group of 7 summit in Canada. He added that his objective in Iran was “an end, a real end, not a ceasefire,” or “giving up entirely.”

  32. GrimUpNorth

    “Sweden must be able to function with higher interest rates”

    Very interesting. I didn’t realise that Sweden had deliberately grown a property bubble, I haven’t seen any UK TV property shows encouraging us to go buy there (sorry Spain). At least they have a decent balance of trade (hovering around neutral) .

    It looks bad, ~200% of GDP private debt and hence (because of MMT, no expert here) low government debt of ~40% of GDP. So if the government corrects the problem
    your looking at government borrowing of at least 150% and austerity programs galore. So kicking the can is a safe bet for government policy.

    1. Mikel

      “Very interesting. I didn’t realise that Sweden had deliberately grown a property bubble.”

      One of the more interesting things is that there does not appear to be any country that hasn’t been affected by a property bubble of some kind.

      It’s like a property bubble hegemon.

    2. bertl

      NATO allies ‘not prepared’ for war, top UK defense adviser warns Politico.

      The Europeans appear to be more successful in stoking internal dissent and regime change in their own countries rather than in Russia through a proxy war. Maybe they’re just practising at home first to sharpen their “tools” before attempting to use them on the Big One at some point over the next millenium or so.

      Still, they’ve got an exciting winter to look forward to oop nawth when their populations might well turn up with sharper tools to warm themselves up by ousting them and start the process of negotiating a new European security architecture with Russia and possibly becoming candidates for membership of BRICS under Russia’s guidance and patronage rather than continuing to accept the constraints imposed by the EU and the lunacies of fonda Lyin’ and Estonia’s ‘let’s all hate Russia together’ Dreamweaver.

  33. skippy

    Ref – regressive taxation link:

    “When the accumulation of wealth is no longer of high social importance, there will be great changes in the code of morals.”

    -John Maynard Keynes

  34. Glen

    Will there be a formal award ceremony of the “I Am [Family Blogging] Stupider Than W” Trophy complete with Michele Obama gifting the candy of Democratic Party support after America goes to war with Iran?

    Asking for a friend.

  35. XXYY

    Southwest Airlines is adding cockpit alerts on all 700 of its Boeing 737s to help prevent runway incidents Yahoo! News

    I’m a bit dubious about adding more cockpit alarms and alerts to today’s highly automated flight decks. Obviously, we want to draw a pilot’s attention to something bad happening, but (a) these systems frequently have a high false alarm rate and so pilots quickly learn to disregard them, and (b) having more alarms going off during a crisis often just adds cognitive load and distraction to the pilot, dividing their attention at the precise moment they need a clear and singular focus.

    Any human factors or user experience engineer can give dozens of horror stories along these lines, where well-intentioned alarms end up just making a bad situation worse. I remember that in the Three Mile Island reactor control room, there were hundreds of alarms going off at the height of the meltdown crisis, many of them coming minutes or hours too late as a result of a badly designed alert system.

    (Personal example: I drive a Honda Ridgeline pickup which, when it thinks I am approaching something ahead too quickly, sounds an alert and lights up the dashboard with a big thing screaming BRAKE! Even assuming this is a legitimate warning, though it usually isn’t, it means I have to take my eyes off the road and look down at the control panel to try to figure out what’s happening at the precise moment when I am supposedly about to crash. Terrible idea and implementation by Honda, and what’s worse, you can’t turn it off.)

    1. hk

      There was a story about the Gimli Glider–the Canadian airliner that ran out of fuel midair supposedly because of a mistake in metric-imperial conversion, but that was actually just one of half a dozen problems, some technical, others bureaucrstic/procedural, that all happened at the same time. The pilots recounted thst when the fuel ran out, some strange alarm that they never heard rang out, but they could not figure out what was going on despite going through all the manuals. Turns out that nobody expected something like that (and the consequence, both engines shutting down midair) so they never bothered including this in the documentations.

  36. Jason Boxman

    How Trump Shifted on Iran Under Pressure From Israel (NY Times via archive.ph) ~ 10 minute read

    President Trump spent the first months of his term holding back Israel’s push for an assault on Iran’s nuclear program. With the war underway, his posture has gyrated as he weighs sending in the U.S. military.

    When I said this year was gonna be lit, I was more right than even I knew.

    1. Wukchumni

      Benedict Donald will do anything to save his skin, and i’m not talking about special lotions…

      A sad end is in the offing~

      1. ChrisFromGA

        Rumor has it that it’s TACO Tuesday, and he’s gonna flip like a burger at your local Wendy’s.

        1. Wukchumni

          Americans will do nothing aside from gathering with cutely worded signage held aloft, until this clown wrecks the extraordinary privilege of the almighty buck being all that, and then watch out!

          1. The Rev Kev

            Funny thing is that considering that Trump is on the verge of committing America to a full scale war with Iran which would mean thousands of American dead, that news coverage of this seems to be very, very light compared to the news mania before the Iraqi invasion. No wall to wall news of ‘America Goes To War’ and endless talking heads saying that it will all be a cakewalk.

            1. NakedEmperor

              I suggest that you listen to CNBC. There, the war seems to be of little concern as most of the reporters assure listeners that geopolitical issues have a very short shelf life when it comes to the impact on the economy. In other words, party on. Nothing to see here.

  37. Offtrail

    Sad props to Col. Wilkerson for the last sentence in the interview with Glenn Diesen.

  38. You're soaking in it!

    I see that Trump sent a message to Iran to surrender. He forgot to add the “Dorothy” at the end though.

  39. NakedEmperor

    I don’t know what Russia and China are thinking regarding the Israeli_US_NATO unprovoked attacks on Iran, but I will guess that neither nation fully understands the threat they are both facing. China seems to think that “right thinking” will make a difference. Russia still thinks entering into negotiations with Trump is worthwhile. Iran seems to think so too. The reality that all three nations need to face is that the troika of the US_NATO_Israel wish to destroy them completely. And so they need to prepare accordingly. At this point, taking into account the surprise attacks by the troika on Russia and Iran, both Russia and China need to increase the alert status of their strategic nuclear forces. Further attacks on Iran may also include nuclear strikes on Russia and China. There is precedence for this going back to the Cold War days. A nuclear first strike on both Russia and China by the nuclear armed troika is absolutely not out of the question. These times are far more treacherous than most people imagine.

  40. nyleta

    Starting to look as though Iran has hacked the AI in charge of Israeli air defence…..more self destruction being shown. Fifth Fleet setting sail and what is this about the Homeland Security lady ?

  41. Wukchumni

    I had an allergic reaction to ICE Barbie when she shot her dog in a gravel pit, but didn’t require hospitalization.

    …get well so you can lie to us again with reckless abandon

  44. Jorge

    “Works begin in Ireland to exhume remains of hundreds of babies found at unwed mothers’ home”
    I recently read a claim that someone was excavating the basement of a medieval Italian abbey, and there were an unpleasant quantity of infant skeletons in the sacred dirt. Sorry, no cites.

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