Water Tornadoes? Flamingos Use This Clever Trick To Trap Prey SciTech Daily
Middle America’s indie perfume boom Dirt
Letting Kids Be Kids Zvi Mowshowitz
Climate/Environment
Canada facing nearly 100 out of control wildfires triggering evacuations, emergency declarations Wildfire Today
Smoke from Canadian wildfires triggers air quality alerts in Midwest and Plains NBC News
When Air Quality’s Bad, Which Mask Should I Wear for Wildfire Smoke? KQED
Weakened Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation causes the historical North Atlantic Warming Hole Communications Earth & Environment
Can We Afford Large-scale Solar PV? Construction Physics
The bad science behind expensive nuclear Works in Progress
Water
Imagine Water Otherwise: Robert Macfarlane on the Personhood of Rivers and the Meaning of Aliveness The Marginalian
Pandemics
Rising excess deaths, Summer waves, Laying blame, Banning mask bans, and more The Covid-Is-Not-Over Newsletter
Spillovers from Public Health Policies in Schools: Evidence from COVID Mask Mandates NBER. Estimates that the removal of school mask mandates following the CDC rescinding guidance recommending masking in schools contributed to 21,800 COVID deaths through the rest of 2022, 9% of the U.S. total that year.
Sick Kids Are Actually Healthier Than Healthy Kids, Says Study Made Up By AI pic.twitter.com/IILaTKnQsM
— The Vertlartnic (@TheVertlartnic) May 29, 2025
China?
Hegseth Says US Ready to ‘Fight and Win’ a War With China Over Taiwan Antiwar
Treasury Secy Bessent: China holding back products essential for industrial supply chains Seeking Alpha
The Cold War History of Export Controls China Talk
BYD is deploying ships now? The Battery Chronicle
Old Blighty
Britain to build a dozen nuclear submarines as forces arm for war The Times
How to Solve a Problem Like Productivity Tribune
US anti‑abortion cash floods UK free speech frontlines Democracy for Sale
European Disunion
PiS-backed Karol Nawrocki wins Poland’s presidential election Intellinews
Patrick Lawrence: War in Our Time Scheerpost
Google Maps falsely told drivers in Germany that roads across the country were closed Engagdet
DIANA JOHNSTONE: Serbia’s Organized Chaos Consortium News. Missed this last week, but Johnstone is always worth a read.
Eurovision: NATO Psychological Warfare Tool Kit Klarenberg
The Dirty Industrial Deal FAQs Part I: Competitiveness Corporate Europe Observatory
Syraqistan
Nearly 230 killed or wounded as Israel carries out largest massacre since new aid mechanism was enforced in Gaza Euro-Med Monitor
Israeli Army Chief Orders Expansion of Gaza Offensive, Establishment of More Aid Centers Haaretz
Israel blocks entry of over 3,000 medical aid trucks into Gaza: Health Ministry Anadolu Agency
Siege Starvation: A War Crime of Societal Torture Chicago Journal of International Law
Hope Greta and her friends can swim!https://t.co/Noab4QyJtV
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) June 1, 2025
Hamas Seeks U.S. Guarantees War Won’t Resume as Trump Pushes for Gaza Deal Haaretz
Witkoff Says Hamas’s Response To Gaza Ceasefire Proposal Is ‘Totally Unacceptable’ Antiwar
How six months in the West Bank undid a lifetime of Zionist indoctrination +972 Magazine
New Not-So-Cold War
Lavrov and Rubio discuss Ukrainian attacks on Russia RT
Inside Operation Spider’s Web: Ukraine ‘destroys 40 Russian bombers’ The Times
Ukrainian strike on Russian airfields: What we know so far RT.
Yves also has a rundown in yesterday’s post, but here are more takes:
ATTENTION!
So, it appears Zelenskyy gave the go ahead to attack parked Russian nuclear capable bombers without informing @realDonaldTrump (if true that our President was not consulted nor informed, this isn’t simply a breach of protocol. It’s a geopolitical insult and a warning… pic.twitter.com/L976NhwFy6
— General Mike Flynn (@GenFlynn) June 1, 2025
Ukraine Launches Terrorist Offensive with Western Assistance on Eve of Negotiations in Istanbul Larry Johnson, Sonar21. Johnson believes Western intel and NATO were necessary for drone activation and navigation. Andrei Martyanov agrees.
Ukraine’s ‘Unprecedented’ Operation Spiderweb: Russia’s ‘Pearl Harbor’? Or Just More Soggy Silk? Simplicius
Ukraine’s unprecedented drone strike on Russia offers glimpse into the future of war Semafor
From a Ukraine cheerleader account, but wouldn’t be surprising, and helps provide a glimpse of what this type of warfare might do to the future of trade:
Problems with logistics have begun in the #Russian Federation; all trucks on the roads are being checked for drones. Traffic is paralyzed. pic.twitter.com/U6mNKdwd6A
— Olena_Wave🇺🇦 (@OlenaWave) June 1, 2025
Spook Country
Chinese Students Do Pose Security Threat, Former Top CIA Counterspy Says Spy Talk
Trump 2.0
Obscure provision in House bill threatens enforcement of court rulings on Trump USA Today
The House Bill is Neither Big Nor Beautiful Stephanie Kelton
Against all odds, Joni Ernst has made it worse pic.twitter.com/aElIudNmZG
— Keith Edwards (@keithedwards) May 31, 2025
See Saturday’s Links for Ernst’s original comments.
The Federalist Society claims it’s just a debating club Programmable Mutter
DOGE
On the Campaign Trail, Elon Musk Juggled Drugs and Family Drama New York Times. “…his drug use was more intense than previously known.”
A Message of Hope: “We Wrestle Not Against Flesh and Blood, but Against Crackheads in High Places” Dougald Lamont’s Substack
Immigration
Probably just a matter of time before one of these turns really ugly:
Heavily armed ICE agents in tactical gear were confronted by restaurant customers and neighborhood residents as they conducted a worksite raid at a popular restaurant in the South Park neighborhood of San Diego. pic.twitter.com/61PBJZ4kAx
— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) May 31, 2025
Wars Come Home
Suspect used a flamethrower and yelled ‘Free Palestine’ in Colorado attack, FBI says CNN
Suspect in Boulder terror attack determined to be Egyptian man in US illegally: FBI Fox News
Imperial Collapse Watch
Shareholder Payouts, Underinvestment and the Productivity Slowdown Policy Tensor
America’s Braudelian Autumn Phenomenal World
Millions of US children have parents with substance use disorder, and the consequences are staggering − new research The Conversation
Police State Watch
MIT bans class president from graduation commencement after pro-Palestinian speech NBC News
Former Hannity guest turned DOJ employee confirms he’s working on a government response to an American student’s commencement speech critical of a foreign country. pic.twitter.com/ilk031XOqI
— a newsman (@a_newsman) May 31, 2025
‘Shadow’ police force removing homeless from downtown Nashville, state trooper says WSMV4
Noor Abdalla’s First Month of Motherhood New York Magazine
Groves of Academe
Resurrecting the Academy Anti-Empire Project
AI
AI, indulgences, and the false promise of salvation Edward Ongweso Jr
‘One day I overheard my boss saying: just put it in ChatGPT’: the workers who lost their jobs to AI The Guardian
MAHA
What MAHA and Public Health Experts Actually Agree On HEALTH CARE un-covered
Loan plan in Republican bill could worsen doctor shortage, experts warn The Guardian
Tech
The Reenchanted World Harper’s
In a world first, Brazilians will soon be able to sell their digital data Rest of World
Technology Does Not Solve Political Problems How Things Work
The Bezzle
Czech justice minister resigns over $45M Bitcoin gift from convict Coin Telegraph. One of the best uses of crypto remains political corruption.
Santa Monica residents’ battle against Waymo beeping escalates KTLA
Class Warfare
American says it’s crazy campgrounds are now as expensive as staying in hotels
– Historically, 80% of campgrounds involved small “mom-and-pop” operators, but by 2022, 80% OF BUYERS were outside investors, private equity firms
– Private equity firms have shifted to purchasing RV… pic.twitter.com/DxlvmC8drc— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) May 31, 2025
A great big beautiful tomorrow Internal Exile
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
200 comments
Comments are closed.
‘BreakThrough News
@BTnewsroom
Heavily armed ICE agents in tactical gear were confronted by restaurant customers and neighborhood residents as they conducted a worksite raid at a popular restaurant in the South Park neighborhood of San Diego.’
ICE agents to restaurant customers: ‘No brunch for you!’
The footage made me think of what might happen should ICE try their luck in the nearby Fruitvale district of Oakland, CA. Not to mention in the many other bay area communities where the the culinary enjoyments to be had at local Mexican restaurants and of other cuisines from far flung corners of the globe are considered a natural right.
Those ICE raids are taking place primarily in “Liberal” areas where the right to bear arms is reserved for the Gentry.
Don’t believe me?
Look at the cost of obtaining a CCW in SF, NY or LA Vs a rural County in those states, it is an order of magnitude more expensive.
Sonoma County $3K plus, next door Lake County $300.
Kidnapping people off the street using unmarked vans FFS.
I note that the repression is happening largely on behalf of Israel which is conducting genocide, and American Politicians are cheering it on, for Money.
The open depravity and corruption is astounding.
Not to mention the stupidity.
All that you said TS ! We used to live in that neighborhood in the long ago. Effing surreal.
Edifice Wrecks update, courtesy of Wolf Street:
Office CMBS delinquency rate spikes again:
https://wolfstreet.com/2025/05/31/office-cmbs-delinquency-rate-re-spikes-to-10-6-to-worst-levels-of-the-financial-crisis-meltdown/
I was at a conference recently, and the attitude of the finance lawyers was that the massive backlog of un-refinanceable commercial property loans will inevitably have to be foreclosed and written down. I think the lenders are all just waiting for a “hoocoodanode” event to come along so they don’t have to take the blame.
The city streets are empty now
(The lights don’t shine no more)
And so the financials are way down low
(Turning, turning, turning)
A sound that flows into my mind
(The echoes of the daylight)
Of every loan that is alive
(In my blue world)
They turned to home, and now are gone
They turned to home
Returned to home, when you forfeiting loan?
This can’t go on
The dying loans of edifice wrecks
(A fire that slowly fades till dawn)
Still look down upon Wall*Street necks
(Turning, turning, turning)
The tired streets that hide away
(From here to everywhere they go)
Roll past my door into the day
In my blue world
They turned to home, and now are gone
They turned to home
Returned to home, when you forfeiting loan?
This can’t go on
Turned to home, after the pandemic was gone
They turned to home
Yes, I’m returning the loan ’cause you’re working at home
Why ain’t you working in the office, so I’m returning the loan
You’ve been gone for so long and I can’t carry on
Yes, I’m returnin’, I’m returnin’, I’m returnin’ the loan
Turn to Stone, by ELO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDhJU_cNCZE
RE: The Federalist Society claims it’s just a debating club Programmable Mutter
Very Josef Goebbels is head of PR.
If I understand it corrctly Greta Thunberg is a remote controlled asset. If she is heading to Gaza, does that mean that there are now serious interests behind stopping the genocide?
I was thinking that the worse thing that could ever happen to Greta Thunberg is to one day turn into a female version of Bono. It could easily happen.
Has anyone ever heard her sing?
If she does, maybe she can sing a song in tribute to Bono. How about John Paul Young’s song “Yesterday’s Hero”-
https://genius.com/John-paul-young-yesterdays-hero-lyrics
Maybe the other Youngs song, “Sugar Mountain.”
See, an appropriate version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiqCSr0c_V0&ab_channel=jointslayed
That would be a lousy outcome for ms Thunberg. Does anyone care about what Bono says or does these days (decades)? Another poor outcome would be gettin sunk by the Israelis and drowning.
I would remind one and all to have a think before bashing Greta. Must an activist come from the dirt for her message to ring true? This sort of litmus test is going to limit your library, no?
You remember that time that Biden blew up the NS2 and which released over 478,000 tonnes of methane into the atmosphere which was a record release? And how Thunberg as well as Greenpeace went ballistic at this act of environment vandalism happening and the effect that it would have on the environment? No, I don’t either-
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004223028493
It is true that she does not share my views on the Russian smo. Here is an opinion piece that explores this inconsistency.
But, as Lowell George wrote for Little Feat’s “Mercenary Territory”,
Some kind of man who can’t do anything wrong
When I see him I’ll tell him you’re waiting.
The girl is all of twenty two years old.
It wasn’t her views on the Russian smo I was having a go at. It was her silence over the catastrophic release of all that methane. She may be only twenty years old but as she has been putting herself at the forefront of environmentalism for quite a few years now, she kinda gave up a private life.
It’s a fair critique, and I appreciate your ability to state it without punching down, thank you.
What does losing a private life have to do with holding someone to a perfect standard?
What perfect standard? When Biden refused to go to disaster areas that happened on his watch like in east Palestine and Hawaii, I criticized him at the time because being a public figure, it was expected on him. You put yourself at the front of the parade, there are still expectations that have to be met.
I have extremely mixed feelings about Thunberg. Like RevKev, I don’t like or trust her much. However, whatever she “really” is, I am fairly confident that she is a good weathervein for where the European (or even Western in general) liberal elite opinion is and this indicates, at least, how far Israel has fallen in their esteem. In a limited sense, this is a positive development. (I still think it’s not necessarily a “good” thing. Western liberals with “good intentions” but no actual stake in actual problems around the world have a wonderfully long track record of making things worse whenever they get involved. But, as long as this is really just a PR stunt, it won’t do much damage and will embarass the Israelis a bit.)
WHat if she is just going rogue?
There are millions of people more consequential than her, but you picked her to “come out against” publicly…..Brave!
No, Greta gets reliably picked on here because we have a collective distrust of NGOs and narrative. Sometimes it’s less warranted than other times. Rev is correct that public figures are fair game and should be open to criticism when warranted.
What bothers me is when assumptions are made as to her character, which seem to be based on her associations, and which, I imagine is somewhat beyond her control. Greta is 22 years young. There’s a lot of learning yet to be done. She is likely a bit naive in the ways of the world, yet she is trying. One character trait that I’m certain of, she is brave. If she undertakes this current action she is likely to be killed. The Israelis have form when it comes to eliminating their public critics.
The Royal We?
You’re unreal. She should sit down and listen to her elders? What if the elders are NGOs? What if her elders are as dumb and ineffective as a few people on internet comment boards? I can get this same line of lazy backwash at fox.
What is wrong with what she is doing now? ARTICULATE IT!
“she’s young and not and speaking to my specific list of grievances!!”
Wow, she sounds like a brat….
Was it her? Or was it her parents, one being a famous singer and awarded environmentalist. Was it some sort of Munchausen by proxy “Look at me!!!”.
She was an underweight teen with autism when she got thrust into the limelight. I’m pretty sure if one of my kids had gone to picket the local legislative chambers, they would have been ignored or picked up by the cops or the local child protection honchos.
So I would say that she got put onto this path by good ole mom and dad who got lots of publicity as well (golly gosh, who would have thought).
And being autistic (and therefore not given to manipulative thinking) she thought it was all on the up and up, even Branson.
I think she was used at the start. Then she rebelled a couple of years ago and was dropped like a hot potato by Branson et al.
And here she is now. Good luck to her.
When we leave the comfort and safety of our keyboards to actually do something about Gaza and global heating, then I guess we will have more right to comment.
Yup, she was astroturfed right from the get go. As far as actually doing something goes, I have no doubt that I have done more in total, and not only because her media stunts have done nothing (not counting the “entertainment value”, aka. circuses).
Yes, she’s putting her young life on the line to fight a genocide. Her activism is not perfect, but I applaud her actions here. And I certainly strongly oppose the dehumanizing posting of our statesman Graham, because if she can’t swim she dies. Not funny.
It’s courageous. She could have gone the Malala route and hugged up to the Clinton family or just started her own rubber stamp greenwashing outfit and made a fortune. But no, she actually has some integrity.
This 100lb girl is attacking my genocidal, multinational, military industrial complex! Make her stop!
I’m glad Greta is opposing the mass murder by the Israelis. A lot better than the majority of the West just looking on. Graham is an ass#@&e.
Must a message be true to ring true? Also, what is the message, and does it need to be delivered by a specific celebrity messenger? If it does, than does the message matter at all?
Thanks, Must a message…, no it doesn’t, but is there a question concerning Gaza or climate change?
You raise a good point on celebrity, and I will be much less enthusiastic on defending her if being a celebrity becomes her priority. I do not see it that way yet.
The only people who care about anyone in U2 are at least five years into being eligible for social security or are running their tax schemes. My boys laugh at them but they love Pearl Jam and Nirvana. 17 and 15.
We did get tickets from Bono for one of their concerts back in the day, because the FO I worked for was a partner in a real estate deal Bono was involved in. It was fine. They have a couple of songs that I would listen to. We rode in the elevator with Bono and one of the other band members up to our hotel room. He was nice.
aye. Unforgettable Fire was an almost perfect album…plenty of other good stuff from them, almost all of it from before they got all godlike.
its like Liveaide ate their brains.
these days, i consider Bono insufferable.
but if i want to remember the 80’s, i listen to them.
as for Greta…whatever her provenance….or where the strings at her back lead to…this is a pretty brave thing, invading Gaza, especially considering who the zionazis have shown themselves to be.
On the same boat with Greta is revered Irish actor Liam Cunningham (The Wind That Shakes the Barley; Game of Thrones) and he is wearing… a Kneecap hat!
And Greta is wearing a Bohemians FC football shirt (club managed by Dan Ksmbert, also Kneecap’s manager).
Doubtful. Bono was a poser from the start.
And when ever did Bono risk his life for anything?
He had a gig in Kiev metro, tried Zelensky’s powder, and did who-knows-what with local sex-workers.
Here’s a man who embraced celebrity (see mahna above).
Somehow, by making one good record about the atrocity that is armed conflict he became an authority on the subject.
À propos the comments about Bono and U2, there was always something “off” about them to me as a child in the 80’s: the bombastic tours, the do-goodery, the fawning press. But I couldn’t quite place it. Then twenty years later I read a New Yorker article and, um… saw the light.
https://archive.is/yrkgt
Spoiler: they are a Christian rock band! That odour was the bang of youth worker and boy scout leader!
I was bizarrely relieved that my antennae had not been wrong even if I hadn’t been able to see the wood for trees. Because nobody ever mentioned it. I suppose it might have hurt sales to the godless!
In fairness, they have written some great music even if they leave me cold as a band. In the late 90’s I was in a disco in Prague beside the Charles river with a busload of Eurocrats (I was a stagiare for my sins) and Sunday Bloody Sunday came on and I was transfixed. I didn’t even know it was by U2 and I had to look it up (just on the cusp of the internet…).
Sunday Bloody Sunday – different artist.
No, she’s real. When she seemed willing to Greenwash nominal center left parties, they dumped her the second she mmsaid with phones you don’t need private planes.
I’ll support Greta over Lindsey Graham, Godzilla over Mothra, etc. What will he say when they do sink that boat?
Lindsey did grow up in a pool hall. “Can’t get above your raisin'” as some Southrons say.
He also wants to kill Putin when not wanting to drown Greta. But then all the trash talk may stem from a subsequent environment as DC politician.
I struggled with this image of Dixie for some time until my mind supplied the missing apostrophe in ” raisin’ “!
Until then I was wrestling with California or pecans/peanuts!
Nah, it’s just for the show. A distraction, if you will. Now everyone will waste time and energy arguing about Greta and Lindsey catfight. In the future episodes we might get Greta vs. The Orange Man, Greta vs. Pope, and maybe even Great vs Godzilla.
Bread and circuses for the 21st Century I suppose. Sheesh.
(sorry, woke up cranky and still working on getting sufficiently caffeinated)
Bread and circuses for the 21st Century, now with less bread and more circuses.
P.S. Now that I think of it, Greta vs. Pope race is already on. The Popemobile-for-Gaza had a headstart (not to mention other advantages of Scuderia Vatican), but it seems like it got lost somewhere along the way. My bet is on the King of Jordan taking the Grand Prix in the last seconds, by doing his signatory daredevil personal airdrops directily on top of heads of those in need.
Scuderia Vatican !! That got me howling – many thanks – you saved my day. McClaren is looking tough this season but ya can’t help but root for the true Scuderia (especially with Hamilton driving ;^) Cheers!
It’s not hard pick between Lindsay and Greta. Not hard at all. How many wars has she fought for in the senate?
She triggers all the right people.
Remote controlled asset? WTF does that mean?
It means a puppet, a plant, controlled opposition, a Zelensky, a Tulsy, a bait for switch, …
How is a remote controlled asset different from a regular asset?
I don’t know. Range maybe, or degrees of freedom, or the degreee of awareness of being an asset (by the public, or an asset).
Who is she supplying intelligence to?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_(intelligence)
Intelligence agencies also do covert operations, beside intelligence. For example, the head headchopper of Syria is sometimes called an asset of someone (Turkey, Israel, etc.), and he is not supplying intelligence but other things.
> A great big beautiful tomorrow Internal Exile
An excellent read, thought-provoking, complete with a self-referencing exemplar. Tho that doesn’t mean I agree with it.
>> the first inkling of a dawning sense that all technological change can really deliver for ordinary people is trivial novelties, conveniences that make life less meaningful, that intensify feelings of alienation and the distance between family members. Progress is just the “same kind of thing” with a new name, a random walk along the endless chain of signifiers.
Janet and I spent the last three weeks in transformation, first the sewer line from the street to the house, and last week a complete redo of all the internal plumbing. When we started living here, part of the iron pipe had been repaired with tar and newspaper, dated to the ’70’s. That was thirty years ago. Different mineral formations had appeared on the corroding pipes, white here, red there. We’ve been bucket-flushing the toilet with water from the tub, which we haven’t used since when? because it had no hot water. Kitchen sink washtub because the pipes out had multiple right angles which would plug without being able to snake. So dump the washtub water in a bucket, generally three times per session, carry the bucket to the bathroom and flush. Rinse and repeat. Can’t fix because everything is so old they don’t make pipes and connectors in that size anymore.
Now we press a lever and the waste disappears, KaZam! No hauling buckets! Can save Chop Wood Carry Water for the Garden!
Janet put it as, everything takes fewer steps now. There is less cognitive load to doing simple things. More time.
That’s real progress.
Serious capital investment, too. No AI to replace skilled trades.
I am always grateful for clean hot running water that disappears without me doing much. It is not something most people have, yet easy to take for granted. Congrats on the improvements.
If I ever make it to heaven, I will gladly forgo my issue of a golden trumpet so long as I get hot shaving water.
Thank you very much. Lux!
Three true steps of technological progress in the 20th century: hot running water (and sewers), central heat and radio. Very little beyond those are really useful.
The Romans could probably add a few more to that list-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7HmhrgTuQ (1:25 mins)
Slavery?
You forget the fridge and the microwave oven.
“Very little beyond those are really useful.“
Having an indoor flush toilet is pretty nifty…
We were lucky when we started on this place 14 years ago. The only vestige of the old plumbing left was a cast iron stack in each house that was easily accessible in houses with no walls. Along the way, we had the supply line from the street spring a leak, and that required a lot of digging and two days of fetching water from the park across the street.
Five bathrooms, two kitchens and two utility rooms later, all is well. And I still have what I call my Jackson Pollock tee shirt with dribbles of PVC cement all over it.
lol. i have lots of ratty tshirts like that.
paint, pipedope, roofing tar, cement, thinset, and so on.
i wear them to town proudly.
if my bad teeth are a class marker, those shirts are another kind of marker:”i can do things”.
’General Mike Flynn
@GenFlynn
ATTENTION!
So, it appears Zelenskyy gave the go ahead to attack parked Russian nuclear capable bombers without informing @realDonaldTrump
(if true that our President was not consulted nor informed, this isn’t simply a breach of protocol. It’s a geopolitical insult and a warning sign. If Ukraine is willing to conduct strikes with strategic consequences without notifying the White House, we are no longer allies with coordination issues—we are co-belligerents flying blind).’
I heard that this operation was 18 months in the works which means that it was a Biden op. Trump would have inherited it and I am absolutely sure that he gave his go-ahead based on one or two points. For one, Trump seems to be absent on comments about this attack and a quick Google News search only says that Trump was not told that it was going to happen (’They would say that’). Considering that this attack occurred on the day before the Istanbul meeting, you reckon that Trump would have hit the roof as he was supposedly responsible for it taking place. This dog is definitely not barking. Instead of making a statement one way or another he went into classic TACO mode. And a brand new article by the Atlantic Council I think says what is really going on and it is called “Dispatch from Kyiv: Ukraine’s daring drone attack gives Trump leverage against Putin”-
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/dispatch-from-kyiv-ukraines-daring-drone-attack-gives-trump-leverage-against-putin/
I said in a comment yesterday that Trump has realized that he has no real leverage against Russia and can’t order them to freeze this conflict. This being the case, he is green-lighting risky operations like the mass drone attacks recently hoping to have something that will give him leverage. Something that he can take to Putin and say if you don’t agree to my terms, I will let the Ukrainians do these sorts of attacks. But the blowback to this op is going to be something. For one, Russia was required to have their bombers in full view as part of an international verification treaty. Russia is probably going to say we’re not going to do that anymore but keep them in concrete bunkers much to the concern of the Pentagon. And if the Russian do this, what is Trump going to do? Threaten to sue them? Lots of people are comparing this attack to that on Pearl Harbour but how many people remember the reputed words of Admiral Yamamoto right after the attack?
’I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.’
Petite terrorism.
Give other terrorists ideas.
“I said in a comment yesterday that Trump has realized that he has no real leverage against Russia and can’t order them to freeze this conflict.”
The sad state of affairs is that Russia can’t get the agreement it wants because the Trump administration and USA and associates do not really care how many die in Ukraine.
It’s not like Russia is in conflict with a certain little country in the Mid-East…
Trump may lack the insight of Richard Nixon’s strategic vision, but he can’t be that stupid. Can he? Whether he knew or not, Trump has given President Putin all the leverage in the world.
Re: Polish presidential elections: calling Nawrocki a populist is a bit of a stretch. He is just a PiS – aligned functionary designated to take the role, without any personal political platform. In this sense he is Duda 2.0 and his influence will be similar (at least as long as Jarosław Kaczyński, PiS leader is alive). As a National Institute for Rememberance functionary he is a professional anti-Russian propagandist that prides himself in destroying Red Army WWII memorials.
Nowadays, the overuse and abuse of such epithets as “populist”, “fascist”, “left-wing”, “antisemitic”, “terrorist”, “radical” — has made them nearly meaningless.
The day before yesterday on the news here in Oz that were virtually calling him a Trumpist while the other candidate was a good guy only seeking to be more closer with the EU. I assume that this was for the benefit of the tens of thousands of Polish voters here in Oz getting ready to cast their vote.
Thank you, Conor.
Further to the link about the British rearmament, readers may be interested in this bit of good news: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/child-poverty-baby-banks-labour-government-b2760799.html.
Why do I think this immiseration is good news? I don’t, but am aware that many in the Labour government, including women ministers like the Reeves sisters* and Kendall** and eugenicist Kim Leadbeater***, and officialdom do. As Badger Lamont said a generation ago, “If it’s not hurting, it’s not working.” Immiseration means people focus on daily survival and have no time to think about, plan for or dream of a better life.
*F’ed up since their parents’ marriage broke down when they were school children. **Sadist married to a financier and likes to show off to her hubby’s City circle how merciless she is. Watch her with the volume down. ***Fitness instructor, keep fit fanatic and darwinist and no other qualification for politics. That Labour government is full of headbangers. It says a lot about the party members.
Thank you, Colonel. The guys at The Duran reckon that the first moves are underway to throw Starmer overboard. From what you say, however, that may not lead to an improvement. Germany thought that all was well with dumping Scholz finally but then in came Merz who is somehow even worse-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dhE56VEBVc (11:48 mins)
sorry, just as a detail, but in Germany nobody serious assumed it would turn better with Merz.
Every adult dreaded the guy since he is no newbie to Berlin. The fact that the most likely rival Markus Söder, PM in Bavaria, and much more of a peoples’ guy did not get into the ring unlike in 2021, is proof of the fears that the economic situation will get worse. So Söder might sit it out until Merz gets demolished and the candidacy is handed to Söder or at least he has serious backing by both parties (CSU/CDU).
Thank you. That’s interesting.
I used to work in Frankfurt regularly, not just for Deutsche Bank, and wondered what was happening to the fellow.
Söder you mean?
Thank you. Yes.
p.s. 2021 Söder and CDU candidate Armin Laschet both were runner-ups for the chancellory race. Laschet as we know got the nomination. (I personally thought that´s a strategic mistake by CDU.)
However Söder and Laschet have been if not friends but close colleagues since they both had worked as journalists for Bavarian State Broadcasting, BAYERISCHER RUNDFUNK in the early 1990s, potentially together. (There was an interview with them before the election where they alluded to this personal connection.) As far as I read the decision who would run 2021 eventually was struck in an old-style conversation “man to man”. It could well be that if the time is ripe in return for stepping back 2021, Söder would get the support of Laschet´s people in the CDU against Merz in the future. Laschet being considered as the more social faction of CDU. He was opposed to harsh Covid measures and demanded an investigation.
Leadbeater sounds a bit like “chief tormentor”.
Thank you. Yes, it does. There are lots like her, wishing to act the part.
BTW, this morning, I was introduced to two people, one English and the other Swedish, who are thinking about emigrating to Mauritius and setting up their own firms.
The whole cabinet (&office) strike me as stereotypical authoritarian followers;
Their legitimate authority is A L Blair’s ‘institute’ and their compassion is reserved solely for the minority of the wealthy.
Thank you, Paul.
I live near the Blair family estates in Buckinghamshire and know what you mean.
I liked Altemeyer’s book so much i actually purchased it.
great big lens to look through at the amurkin Right, down at the gutter level, and right on up.
re: UKRAINE – Jacques Baud – Glenn Diesen
This was May 31st but nonetheless much recommended
Col. Jacques Baud: Russia Pursues Military Solution as Diplomacy Fails
70 min.
https://glenndiesen.substack.com/p/col-jacques-baud-russia-pursues-military
file under The Bezzle: from Jimmy Dore show, utube, ~12+ minutes.
Guess Who’s POCKETING The $100 Million Donated To The LA FireAid Concert!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2hvo-bHj0I
Thanks, the funeral anecdote is hilarious.
Color me unsurprised over the disappearing funds.
A family member staffed several non profits, and met their rich funders. He said “You know 90% of these guys were born on third base, but they all want to act like they hit a triple.”
So…once again marketing (smoke & mirrors, BS and manipulation, the lipstick on the pig) triumphs. The biggest problem I foresee with the CGI and AI fakery (Thanks George Lucas!) is that results will be disguised by the PR. That reminds me: Brad Pitt made a big splash by re-building a neighborhood damaged by Katrina. Later we came to find out the houses were substandard, full of mold, etc. All PR, no substance.
“That reminds me: Brad Pitt made a big splash by re-building a neighborhood damaged by Katrina. Later we came to find out the houses were substandard, full of mold, etc. All PR, no substance.”
The homes were the pits.
re: Israel – Ilan Pappe
JACOBIN GERMANY
excellent interview on the Palestinian question domestically
machine-translation
“Palestinians in Israel are the only ones who can build a bridge”
In his new book, historian Ilan Pappe focuses on the “forgotten” Palestinians in Israel. In this interview, he explains how state policy toward them has changed since 1948 and why they play a key role in a more just future.
28/5/25
https://archive.is/LV5jm
Thank you!
re: Euro vs. Dollar
German-Foreign-Policy-Blog
machine-translation
Euro against dollar
ECB President Lagarde believes a “greater international role” for the euro is possible at the expense of the weakening US dollar. EU Commission President von der Leyen calls for “European independence” from the US.
https://archive.is/4XyVG
re: on CBS 60 Minutes
NEW YORKER interview
Trump’s Playbook to Cripple “60 Minutes” and the Press
The veteran journalist Lesley Stahl on the pressures at CBS News, the history of Presidential attacks on the news media, and how journalists today should respond.
By David Remnick
May 31, 2025
https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/lesley-stahl-on-what-a-settlement-with-donald-trump-would-mean-for-cbs-news
“60 Minutes” is already on its deathbed….its viewers are literally shuffling off this mortal coil with no replacements.
The TV news magazine format is dead.
There was a time when I would have been outraged at such a story. There was also a time when I took the New Yorker seriously.
That time has long passed. “Lessor evil” arguments about competing propaganda outlets don’t work for me these days, any more than “lessor evil” arguments about competing politicians. And looking back at its contributions to important narratives from Saddam to Litvinenko over the years, I now see my earlier support as pretty dumb as well.
Any show that features Scott Pelley can no longer be taken seriously–except by any magazine that features Remnick.
But the Trump 60 Minutes suit is ridiculous and should be thrown out, not settied.
And that’s the rub – The Redstone family that owns the controlling shares of Paramount (which owns CBS) is cash poor and asset rich. They have already mortgaged their ownership stakes to the hilt. They can’t wait for the trial – and Trump is stretching it out as long as possible hoping that forces their hand to pay him so they can sell their stakes, payoff the pawned assets and ride off with a couple hundred million in their pockets.
Otherwise, the loans come due and the Redstones lose everything. Literally. Trump knows this and is playing accordingly.
Your name is so appropriate to the situation at CBS/Paramount……it came from an era in which they were making shows that at least were marginally entertaining.
This Redstone owned company is the very same company that since 2017 has dumped hundreds and hundreds of millions into Star Trek streaming shows that are actually some of the worst TV I have ever seen. Literally none of the people in my life who are Star Trek fans likes any of them. And yet they just keep on bringing them out. This all culminated with a streaming movie loosely based on Star Trek starring Michelle Yeoh which I could not even watch 5 minutes. And they paid her I hear tens of millions of dollars.
I expected Hollywood for a long time to self-immolate. I never dreamed it would be streaming that would do it. (Along with continued spending of hundreds of millions on horrific franchise films). The fact that the owners have been reduced to bending over to Trump to salvage any money at all is absolutely hysterical.
ive been a star wars nut since the first one came out when i was preteen…but yeah…buncha schlock since it got disneyfied.
however, i thought Andor has been pretty good…even somewhat subversive.
its almost a manual for how to run an insurgency.
second season, especially…i kept thinking about War Of the Flea, and the book on guerilla warfare Che wrote.
all that said, Rogue One is the only one i really like since the first 3.
that makes you a Tony Gilroy fan 😉
…speaking of which:
Disney Laying Off Hundreds In TV & Film Entertainment, Corporate Finance
https://deadline.com/2025/06/disney-layoffs-tv-film-entertainment-1236413707/
and here poor executives
https://deadline.com/2025/06/disney-layoffs-tv-development-casting-executives-1236420679/
I guess THE STUDIO would be the “perfect” show for you.
There is one episode where the protagonist an idiot of a new studio executive bombs a charity event of oncologists.
He constantly pushes the argument that movies are more important than medical science and healt care. But neither do the millionaire doctors fare well who are talking about their handicap. I was told it is in existence because Tinseltown in fact believes that´s how their own minds work…Eventually it´s a primitive show. Seth Rogan has never been know for being sublime of course.
that is wild right?…..
yes kids, there was a time when millions of Americans of a range of political viewpoints came together on Sunday or Friday nights to spend an hour watching the same news show about XYZ events and social trends (with only the sporadic fear-mongering)
re: Pentagon and Silicon Valley
LRB review by Laleh Khalili on:
The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief and the Future of the West
by Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska.
Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War
by Raj M. Shah and Christopher Kirchhoff.
with interesting background info on these insane people and their circles:
Collective Property, Private Control
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n10/laleh-khalili/collective-property-private-control
A nationwide outfit called Autocamp has set up shop in Tiny Town, and for $300 you can hide away from what you came to see in a rectangular-ish Airstream trailer. They have 85 ‘campsites’.
Oh no! They don’t have a pinball machine for every ‘customer’ do they?
“Here comes Uncle Elon, to show you to, your very own machine!”
Re campground inflation–a few years back I camped at Myrtle Beach State Park because our family used to camp there and I literally could have gotten a room at one of the nearby motels for much less. State Parks now even have situational pricing like Uber with all run by computer back in the 9 to 5 office which requires online reservations so the rangers don’t have to hang around.
But who said freedom of the road is free?
Edward Abbey would have lots to say about this urge to hang a pricetag on everything. He inspired the Monkeywrenchers, now called terrorists.
It is horrible. As a five year van living homeless person I saw the start of this with HipCamp, the AirBNB for camping. People charging $50 a night to sleep on a plot of land in their backyard. Then I saw private equity come in when they say how stupid people were with their money. Now all I see are RVs with a Starlink antennas with with vacationing seniors that never come out.
I was accosted by another homeless fellow probably suffering the same mental illness I have. New to town, he was parking where I usually park at night. He became paranoid and ran over to my van knocking on my window and started yelling at me because he thought I was parking near him to “steal his signal”. So I am leaving town to stay in a $25 night (half priced for me) national forest campground in Oregon for a while. Just four years ago the campground was $15/night and I bet they raised the prices feeling the pressure of people looking for a cheap vacation.
But the greed of people not only extends to the private equity peiopl who set up the campgrounds, but to the people who go to them as well.
A lot of stories of the homeless today, so thank you Conner and Yves . How you treat the least of us….
35 years ago, when i was on the road in the van, there were still lots of places to hide out, and cook and sleep unmolested.
i cant imagine doing all that, these days.
1. too many people…2. cameras and cops all over the place.
out here, in the wilderness, i could get away with sleeping rough…low population, scattered, when not concentrated into the one town.
but pretty much everywhere else?
hell no.
stay safe out there Liea.
and may the road rise up to meet you.
and, if yer ever near the geographical center of texas….
There’s an awful lot of great free dispersed camping in the west, my favorite recently was perched on top of the San Rafael Swell in Utah last fall, with my tent ten feet away from the edge of an initial drop of 25 feet followed by 1,000 feet more, no sleepwalking allowed.
The summer of 2020 was in hindsight a horror in that everybody and their brother tried out camping in the rough, with many leaving quite a mess.
A popular but doable area before the Pandemic was the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine in the foothills of the eastern Sierra, and then it got so zoo’d out from overuse that all of it is closed to overnight dispersed camping-a shame.
Last one:
re: Germany poverty vs. rearmament
via IMI in Tübingen:
“(…)
There are increasing signs that a new military spending target of 51 percent of gross domestic product is likely to be adopted at the NATO summit at the end of June. In 2024, this would have meant an amount of 215 billion euros instead of 90.6 billion euros(…). Initially, military spending is to be financed primarily through debt, but in the long term, it will be financed through the budget. This will hardly be feasible without massive cuts, particularly in social spending. In this context, reference should be made to an article by the Institute for Socio-Ecological Economic Research (isw) on the 2025 Poverty Report of the Paritätischer Gesamtverband (Paritätischer Gesamtverband): “In Germany, 13 million people live below the poverty line. This represents 15.5% of the population. Overall, around 20.9% of the population (approximately 17.6 million) are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. […] In Germany’s capitalist economic system, poverty is primarily not an individual problem, but a structural one. The gap between rich and poor is growing because access to resources, opportunities, and social participation is unequally distributed.”
(…)”
p.s. make that 25%
At least since the seventies it was a central goal for (at first) american finance capital and later on transnational capital to crush the different european welfare states. In Germany for example the likes of Kurt Biedenkopf (a former high ranking CDU politician) and Meinhard Miegel (an influential CDU aligned social scientist) started propagandizing against the of course too generous medical and pension system which they wanted to privatize.Thirty years later with the progressive Schröder/Fischer government this line of thinking was partly successful. The remnants of the welfare state will be destroyed by the new government of Mr. Blackrock, Fritze Merz, and with more than a little help of the former socialdemocrats under Mr. Klingbeil, a hollow apparatschik who would sell his grandmother for a handful of dollars.
The belgian marxist thinker and politician Peter Mertens put it right in an interview with the leftwing newspaper “young world”: “The armament of the EU states will destroy all social security systems in Europe. Within the next ten years it will be decided whether social security, workers’ rights and other social achievements will continue to exist or whether they will all be sacrificed to a war economy.” (link: https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/501083.partei-der-arbeit-belgiens-mit-krieg-gibt-es-keine-zukunft.html )
thanks
brief but important call… and here for non-German speakers:
“There is no future with war”
https://archive.is/PMeOG
It’s difficult to describe how abhorred I am over all this.
The worst being all hopes shattered with the elite at large failing t.o.t.a.l.l.y.
I really didn’t believe such a thing could happen to me…
Never overprice a politician’s grandmother.
“Google Maps falsely told drivers in Germany that roads across the country were closed”
Meanwhile, a Luddite couple were seen driving down an empty Autobahn remarking to themselves what great run they were having with not a traffic jam in sight considering that it is the holidays.
The couple’s buggy horses echoed that opinion when interviewed.
Personally I have found that I can never get lost as there are more than enough people to tell me where to go. :)
The road to Hobart is paved with good intentions?
Good call, ambrit. Our reality down here is that the road to Hobart is paved —- finally!
Our successive feckless state governments have been “managing” a Midlands Highway upgrade for the last 25 years. Every 200 km trip between Hobart and Launceston included multiple sections of gravel road with 60 km/h or 40km/h speed limits. Typical travel time was 3 hours or more.
Finally the upgrade is complete. A friend made the journey last week in under 2 hours, with a smooth ride all the way.
…remember that retired lady who wanted to drive just around the corner in North-Rhine Westphalia and ended up something like Belgrade because she was listening to her navigation device?
She had a navigation device taken from a German tank, and mistakenly selected Moscow as a final destination instead of Markt. :)
“Markt” adds that special flavour!
At least she didn’t get stopped in Stalingrad…
😂
“Hegseth Says US Ready to ‘Fight and Win’ a War With China Over Taiwan”
Yeah, Hegseth says a lot of s***. He just demanded that ‘Australia lift its defence spending to almost $100 billion a year “as soon as possible”, saying Australia must do more to support the US in the Indo-Pacific.’ This would mean almost doubling the percentage of our GDP to future NATO requirements. It would have helped if he also told us which pensions, education, infrastructure and medicare needed to be cut to buy all that US weaponry that will take years to get delivered here.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-02/us-australia-defence-spend-billions-hegseth-china/105364740
Considering that our budget is strained already and is going to be stressed more by the Trump tariffs, he’s not going to get his wish. Even our gung-ho opposition is muttering about this one.
There is little or no reporting on what ASEAN and others in the area really think and want. I wouldn’t even bet on the Good Australians to join such anAmerican led party, as they are prone to do…
Certainly not. Our recent federal election was effectively a referendum on whether a Trump-aligned party would be a good choice for Australians.
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-cost-conservative-australia-election-takeaway/
tldr: It isn’t
Why hasn’t he suggested to annex Australia btw?
He couldn’t find it on the map.
Right!
And the person he usually paid for showing him accidentally got DOGE-ed.
So now DT has a geography problem.
He uses the Risk map.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Risk_game_board.svg
Greenland is needed for a link to Europe, and connection to Alaska is a necessity before venturing towards Kamchatka.
Ukraine is weak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teSXcJlpMl8
Jodi Ernst starts off saying she won’t mention the Easter Bunny, and then at the very end, she brings up the Easter Bunny /wink
In his or her defense, the Tooth Fairy always came through…
Oh derp! I’m always confusing the Easter Bunny with the Tooth Fairy. And the other guy.
Mea culpa, I wasn’t going to listen to that twice. Bless her heart.
‘Proselytizetute’
Mo’s Bike Shop
Wowsers. Why did I have to watch that clip of her? She’s oozing condescension and nihilism. She’s like Hillary Clinton but without the charm.
Then there’s that testifying at the end: Just in case anyone is wondering, Is God Dead in the United States of America? She’s the face of U.S. religion. The Elect. Looks like the death of god to me.
Nevertheless, and theologically:
As we all know, the Beatitudes say, Blessed are those without health insurance, for they shall see the glories of bankruptcy courts.
But don’t knock the Easter Bunny: Make mine chocolate.
Aside from the fear about my increasingly poor health and possibly losing my Medi-Cal, I fear for the sanity of our ruling class. To show such open contempt for her constituents shows a lack of common sense especially politically, and if she is this foolish on Medicare, what else is she being incompetent on?
You get the idea for End Times Evangs, that being on this good orb is a punishment of sorts~
A Message of Hope: “We Wrestle Not Against Flesh and Blood, but Against Crackheads in High Places” -Dougald Lamont’s Substack
They have to get all of us to fight each other. It’s the only way they have to win.
They have to convince people there has been “a collapse”, when the collapse is actually only when people fully abdicate power to the techno-feudalists.
“Treasury Secy Bessent: China holding back products essential for industrial supply chains”
Bessent discovers in trying to strangle China’s development, that the Chinese have the same power too over the US economy. Thinks that all it will take to solve this problem will be a telephone call between Presidents Trump and Xi. Gawd, where do they find people like this?
“… where do they find people like this?”
The American Enterprise Institute?
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Enterprise_Institute
Look at it this way. They don’t give a rat’s ass.
If they don’t defeat China/Russia, they will settle for the time being with looting the USA.
And China and Russia see this. They are both willing to make a deal for some of that loot, but not compromise their sovereignty.
We are 1990s Russia, and all we have are Yeltsins….
Some days its hard not to think the USA/NATO keeps pushing Russia to go big with wider war because it would provide cover for a global looting. They prefer “state of emergency” situations to do the vilest things.
Treasury Secy Bessent: China holding back products essential for
industrial supply chainswinning war against China”Yeah, it’s hard for Secy Bessent to understand why China would do this since American billionaires do stuff like this to America every day.
I’m curious that Michael Flynn (a former air force general, after all) and Alastair Crooke are repeating the point made yssterday by poster LawnDart about where the bombers were parked and the requirements of arms limitations treaties. One of the Twitter/X “reader contexts” claimed that the information is out of date since Russia supposedly quit START. I have strong suspicion that this is another instance where so-called “reader context” is actually a deliberate lie and misinformation. I wonder what exactly the state of international arms treaties that US and Russia still abide by are, though. Does anyone have any reasonably detailed information on this?
The actual text of the treaty is online and easily consulted. I tried to find the relevant clauses yesterday, to no avail. Public international law is sort of in my wheelhouse but I struck out. There might be specific addenda with provisions for inspection that I missed.
I think, after reading a summary of the Articles in the New START treaty, the place to look for those who are actually interested is in Article X, paragraph 2 or 3 that deals with hiding assets such as ICBMs and heavy bombers. A provision is mentioned in the summary about allowing for protection from bad weather for the bombers so that is a good place to look.
thanks!
was an occasion to check out Pavel Podvig via NITTER:
“Doesn’t New START require that strategic bombers should be exposed (and visible to satellites)? No, it doesn’t. Below is Article X.2. The treaty requires a bomber to be exposed during the elimination process, though (interesting if this attack would legally count as such”:
https://nitter.poast.org/pic/orig/media%2FGscaMpnXgAAjjTN.jpg
On strategic bomber fleet on his blog, status 2021:
https://russianforces.org/aviation/
2021 – rocket forces
https://russianforces.org/missiles/
2021 – strategic fleet
https://russianforces.org/navy/
I wrote a reply a couple hours ago with a link to a site that explained the contents of the treaties involved. Unfortunately this site does not allow links to that site. I have tried before and the links never come through. I can only surmise it is because that site’s moderator is deeply religious so she is frowned upon here. It deals with the SALT treaty, Reagan’s START treaty, Obama’s New START treaty, and Biden signing an extension to the New START treaty in 2021 that runs until 2026. These are agreements between the U.S, and the Soviet Union / Russia that do not necessarily include NATO, but if the White House was aware of this strike before it occurred than it is an act of bad faith. To your point, Russia did not quit START, it expired. There is another to replace it. A Department of Defense press release at the time said it provided regular access to bases that had nuclear weapons. This is the New Start Treaty from the State Department.
Thanks! This is very helpful. (I think the Twitter “reader context” said, or at least strongly implied, that Russia quit the START Treaty, it was not me saying that). So this is actually another instance where the “reader context” thing is actually spreading misinformation, then.
You know what i’m missing so far early in the game of life this summer?
Foreign accents
Got so used to the cosmopolitan feel here, where why bother going to Europe when they come to you, was the feeling.
…they are staying away in droves
Maybe I should hit the road and finally find a parking space at Zion.
Hey we love the Euros. Plus most of them now speak English so as to better navigate our many Walmarts.
Had a day to kill in Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley, and sat down for a small Peruvian pizza which was delish, and ensconced outside in the main square, people watching was simply sublime…
And then a gaggle of 8 or 9 younger adults asked if the table I was hogging could accommodate them as well, and I said sure, hey where are you from?
They were all Slovakians born in 1995 and 1996, who spoke such good English, and I related my mother was of Slovakian heritage and that got the ball rolling.
Talk revolved around to hockey and they asked if I knew of Stan Makita, and I mentioned I probably saw him play the LA Kings maybe a dozen times in the 1970’s, and it was almost as if I was a deity of sorts for having been there.
Another asked if I went to LA Lakers games during Showtime, and again there I was up in the nosebleed seats at the Fabulous Forum on many an occasion in the 1980’s.
Ahoj!
We talked about everything for a few hours and parted ways, they told me I had to go to the Tatras at a certain time of year and a few other must do things when I made it back to the homeland of my grandmother.
Great encounter!
…my great-grandma from Slovakian border town.
What’s a Peruvian pizza?
Ukraine’s ‘Unprecedented’ Operation Spiderweb: Russia’s ‘Pearl Harbor’? Or Just More Soggy Silk? Simplicius
Ukraine’s unprecedented drone strike on Russia offers glimpse into the future of war Semafor
And more on the subject:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAWQka_bEL8/
The first part of this: Col. Jacques Baud explaining how Ukraine’s methods are more about politics than making strategic battlefield wins. (I’m quickly paraphrasing, maybe badly, so check it out).
It’s worse than “politics.” If the presumed ally/puppet/proxy of a nuclear power participating in an arm limitation treaty are actively exploiting its provisions seemingly for the benefit of that power against the other participant in that treaty, then arms limitation treaties become useless. The implications of this in causing distrust go far beyond anything between Ukraine and Russia.
If we want to retain any kind of credibility on this matter (not that we would do anything of this sort), we should offer a dozen B-52’s (possibly with the sensitve parts removed) to Russia to make up for the bombers that had to be written off, with the proviso that arms limitation treaties stay as they are.
It was right on time for Dialog Works to follow later in the day with Col. Larry Wilkerson.
He talked about people lurking around the establishment and they wouldn’t seem to mind nukes set off.
Do you suppose this terrorist attack on Russian Federation bombers will result in any reduction in F-35’s and Eurofighters lined up to intercept RF bombers?
What makes a terrorist attack? Either that it’s against civilians or when against military installations happening in disguise?
This was a terrorist attack if reports of civilian deaths pan out. One that I think Ukraine has owned is of one of the truck drivers being killed when he suspected something was up, tried to inspect the container, and it blew up (not clear if an autodetonate feature or triggered by someone monitoring it). Alexander Mercouris reported a claim (yet to be verified) that another driver had been strangled.
wow
What fanatics.
Well, mafia methods…
Mafia avoids targeting women and children, and those not involved in general.
My father was a teacher and had many friends who taught, and I was exposed from my earliest memories to lively discussions about how to fix issues with schools. Just one example: arguments about a book discussed at a conference entitled “Why Johnny Can’t Read.” Yes, that was concern in the 1950s. So the idea of developing alternative higher education institutions is interesting to me.
Given pervasive credentialism I wonder if this would work best in a new type of monastic setting, where a community practices a trade like brewing, furniture making, or dog breeding, to raise enough cash for necessities while pursuing academic interests and preserving skills like literacy. Sort of channeling “A Canticle for Leibowitz.” Mainly an intuition that the preservation of knowledge probably requires divorcing education from job training.
I love the idea in principle! Not sure how sustainable it would be, though: “universities,” after all, began as a sort of monastic institutions with inward looking communitarian tendencies. (It was also common for students and scholars to join monastic communities for a number of years in Asia, even when they didn’t subscribe to the religion, for peace, quiet, discipline, and community while they studied. How this idea might be put to practice without running afoul of “modern” sentiments in many different dimensions is not very obvious, to me, though.
I just read yesterday that back in the day ( 20’s…help Colonel!) Oxbridge dons weee forbidden to marry! Talk about being committed– in both senses…
We need to find another way.
I don’t think this is correct. Oxford Dons and Cambridge Fellows were originally clerics but CofE clergy can marry. I suspect they were not allowed to live in College if married (because the housing was unsuitable) and many of them were unmarriageably eccentric.
(Quick search!)
I stand corrected, Fellows had to resign to marry until the 1880’s. Only the Master if the College could be married (which explains my mental image of bewhiskered Victorian paterfamiliases / patresfamilias).
https://pemberley.com/cgi-bin/bbs62x/regarc1.pl?md=read;id=17027
From what I hear, the kids are actually into religion again, at least somewhat. We visited some monasteries/nunneries recently and I was surprised that my kid wanted a crucifix necklace. I came to find out later that the younger set consider religious paraphernalia to be a fashion statement. Also noticed that while all the monks I saw were fairly old, quite a few of the nuns were young women. I thought I saw somewhere that religious participation in general was up among the younger cohort, although not drastically so, but I can’t put my finger on it right now.
Given who the US has devolved into soulless consumerism, it’s not all that surprising that people would be seeking something else. Worshipping Mammon isn’t all it’s been cracked up to be.
Before anything else, the American education system must restore rigor. Teachers must not be put into a situation where they lie to students about their aptitude and performance. The moment that begins, the teacher realizes they have no integrity and becomes demoralized, and the student realizes they’re being flattered and becomes cynical.
dern, Rhino…thats what i had envisioned for my part of the place…a secular monastery, with multiple lines of the means of production, and a comprehensive Library.
ive got all that, now…its just in total disarray, due to cancer times, covid times, and…now…me being all by myself in this doomer village ive constructed.
Maybe something like Neal Stephenson described in Anathem –
“Anathem is set on the fictional planet of Arbre. Thousands of years before the events in the novel, the planet’s intellectuals entered concents (monastic communities) to protect their activities from the collapse of society. The avout (intellectuals separated from Sæcular society) are banned from possessing or operating most advanced technology and are supervised by the Inquisition, which answers to the outside world. The avout are normally allowed to communicate with people outside the walls of the concent only once every year, decade, century, or millennium, depending on the particular vows they have taken.”
It sounds a little harsh, but I remember sort of liking the idea of being an avout when I read the book.
oh, yes/i loved that book/so much
turned me on to secular monasticism, in fact
cant finmd my g;asses. soi’m turnin in.
“Mainly an intuition that the preservation of knowledge probably requires divorcing education from job training.”
As it is, many don’t work in the same field for which they received a degree.
re: Chinese Students Do Pose Security Threat, Former Top CIA Counterspy Says
When you’re the obvious bad guy you’re always gonna have this problem that everyone can easily recruit informants against you.
I find it interesting that the establishment has policy papers full of dystopian plans – as if people in other countries can’t read English. I always keep in the back of mind that psyops can move in mysterious ways.
It sounds like more of the same games intelligence agencies have been playing for centuries (Christopher Marlowe comes to mind). Is the U.S. so special that nobody should try them on us? Come on now.
In today’s Clown World,
Germany’s former Foreign Minister Baerbock appointed president of United Nations General Assembly
https://www.euronews.com/2025/06/02/germanys-baerbock-appointed-president-of-united-nations-general-assembly
If you want to laugh, the whole article is great. Some amuse bouches:
”an election in which she ran unopposed”
– what does this say about the position?
” Baerbock said she aimed to lead as “a unifier — with an open ear and an open door.”
– open indeed. Whatever goes in through one ear, leaves immediately through the other. Baerbock even leaves the door open so that any fact can leave the room to forever. It is like a 360 degrees information management: into the room, through one ear out through next exit the room.
” Baerbock’s candidacy “underlines at a high political level Germany’s political commitment to the United Nations and our willingness to assume special responsibility for this multilateral system in difficult times.”
– Baerbock does have special gifts as does the German political elite, so special this year certainly will be.
I defended her 2021 when those claims of cheating on her PhD or something of that sort came up because I was naive and assumed it’s all exaggerated… well turns out she represents the worst in German politics. Uneducated, superficially nice but in fact extremely ambitious and relentless, dishonest, dumb, mediocre to the bone, opportunistic, coward.
Did I forget something.
The fact that UN didn’t oppose left me hopeless. How is that possible?
US and EU backing?
I mean several in the system in Germany hate her for the reasons I mentioned.
re: A. Baerbock, ‘Whatever goes in through one ear, leaves immediately through the other.’
Many years ago, upon hearing the song ‘Open up your heart and let the sun shine in’, a wag of my acquaintance quipped ‘Open up your ears and let the sun shine through’.
It was funny at the time. (I’ll get my coat.) :-)
That’s the story of our international elite – always failing up. This will be material for Alex Christoforou’s Clown World Segment for sure.
jeeze,Louise.
that woman…and the Kalles person…ill pay attention to them when they get on onlyfans, not before.
what would the world be like, if it were run for a few years by a star chamber consisting of this commentariate?
Re: the Guardian article “‘One day I overheard my boss saying: just put it in ChatGPT’: the workers who lost their jobs to AI”.
I can imagine this can be a real Catch 22 situation on the job. If you use AI then your boss can accuse you of being lazy and more easily replaceable. But if you DON’T use AI, you’re not being fully productive and you’re a drain on the bottom line. Another analogy is to be a lab rat with the options of eating either the poisoned cheese or to starve to death.
Maybe AI is being introduced to reduce head counts in another way. It wouldn’t matter if a worker is using or not using AI. Management can just say workers aren’t using AI appropriately and fire them at will. For example, you can fire one worker for using AI, and fire another one for not using it. A slightly more realistic example would be if you accuse employees of not using good judgment in deciding whether or not to use AI. Since you can’t trust them, off they go to the unemployment line.
Sorry but I absolutely disagree with the notion “Russia humiliated” which is now EVERYWHERE.
We apparently seem to still not understand that this is: Ukraine, the, as Martyanov put it well, best proxy NATO ever had + the combined West, i.e. Europe and the US. And to that add a portion of people in Russia proper who are supporting these secret operations out of hatred, or because it´s their job or whatever other reason.
Again it shows how much disregard and hatred there is for the Russian situation and Russian capabilities. It’s always about demeaning them in the eyes of the civilised Western public: see they are weak and they can be defeated after all. In a way it’s all only ad hominems and nothing else, because they have no serious, “adult” arguments/means to prove their point, as in making serious war. Because there, they got their ass whipped very seriously. And this is a bit sickening to witness because it shows how deep it all truly runs.
This hated against Russia goes back a long way-
https://patrickarmstrong.ca/2025/05/20/anti-russia-through-the-years/
Russia was a big supporter of the Union in the first Civil War-as the UK had financed the Confederacy, maybe things come a cropper again, but this time they support the Disunion.
thanks!
You read Figes?
When you read these old things every time you kind of calm down but that doesn’t really help either. Since the shit is now. And missiles are not sabres…
“Russia humiliated” has been an essence of the propaganda effort all along. Moskva sinking, Snake Island shenanigans, Kursk excursion, a Russian tank getting destroyed, you name it. Even winning a battle, like in Bakhmut, is humiliating in some way (too slow, too many shovels and fictional meat waves, etc). Also, Putin is scared/afraid/desperate/whatever. It’s all about emotions. Propaganda 101. And it works, because it tells people what they want to hear.
Nobody has commented on the Rob MacFarlane article about rivers. I would encourage you to read it (and the book is being read in five chapters on the BBC). He is a friend of a friend (last seen at an outward-bound stag do in deepest Wales nearly twenty years ago though), a good fellow and a great writer, whether you agree with his takes or not.
Okay!
thanks.
On the brink of what’s likely to be a busy season, the superintendent of Crater Lake National Park resigned May 30 due to frustrations over staffing shortages.
The Washington Post reported Kevin Heatley, who only recently replaced retiring Superintendent Craig Ackerman in January, was stepping down due to cuts by the Trump administration that dropped the number of rangers at Oregon’s only national park from eight to three.
“It is really not an easy decision and not something I take lightly to walk away from Crater Lake,” Heatley told The Washington Post. “But I’m tired of waking up at 3 in the morning and not being able to fall back asleep because I’m concerned about how I’m going to navigate the latest staffing communiqué.”
https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/travel/outdoors/2025/06/02/crater-lake-park-superintendent-resigns/83996426007/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not all that surprising, every superintendent in the NPS has been handed a shit sandwich by the DOGE deli, omission accomplished!
somebody’s strategic bomber airframe just overflew my location.
sound for 15 minutes.
ergo, it was way up there.
mighty different sound than an airliner
Whenever I hear that military tech sound I shiver and I hate it. Nothing more explicit in reminding that we have post 2021…
Okay if I ever had any doubt we were “governed” by psychopaths and sadistic ones at that, the tweet from Lindsay Graham and the video of Joni Ernst have buried it. What utterly hateful people. It isn’t just Israelis and German leaders who don’t bother to cloak their real intentions and deep disdain for the public good.
If it weren’t so disgusting I might appreciate the lack of posing. There are days I am wearied by the Democrats weakly pretending they are “fighting” for anything but a cushy retirement. But unfortunately there are no consequences for going masked or maskless.
Lindsay’s tweet is a far cry from Madeleine’s half a million of dead Iraqi kids talk. You have been governed by psychopaths and sadistic ones all along, but they did not have smartphones in their hands while sitting on the toilet.
True enough, but it was much easier to delude oneself that there was opposition to the psychopaths, that it wasn’t all for show. Now not so much. Too many years of support or keeping their powder dry depending which factor of the uniparty was in power. It also took time figuring out it was pretty much an uniparty system.