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Links 6/28/2025

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Dear patient readers.

Sorry for the links overload. A lot going on between Iran-Israel aftermath, Supreme Court decisions, and catchup on important stories that fell below the radar when the conflict was hot. Since this is a Saturday, perhaps you’ll be able to digest a big informational meal.

* * *

Runaway bear in runway ‘stalemate’ with Japanese airport officials Guardian (resilc)

I adore old tech and hate giving up things that can still be used:

Roman gravestones hint that ancient economies still shape the present Science (resilc)

Shadow of a Doubt: How OCD came to haunt American life Harper’s (Anthony L)

SCIENTIST BEHIND OZEMPIC WARNS THAT THERE’S A “PRICE” Futurism

Meet the ‘doomsday preppers’ who say they’re ready for World War III Daily Mail

Climate/Environment

Unborn dolphin calves have toxic metals in their blood, revealing horrific ocean pollution Earth

Scientists Pitch $117 Trillion Wind-Solar Super Network OilPrice

Floods Swamp Cities in Southwest China, And More Storms Due Asian Financial

Over 150 people sick in ‘mass casualty’ event at graduations amid US heatwave Metro

French vineyards face growing pressure to adapt irrigation rules as climate change intensifies drought and threatens wine production Vinteur

China?

China Hosts Iranian, Russian Defense Ministers Against Backdrop of ‘Momentous Change’ Defense Post

Huang and Nvidia, Musk and Tesla, Altman and OpenAI — and their China-sized robot problem Kevin Walmsey

Africa

Sudan Accuses Kenya of Funneling Arms to Paramilitaries The Defense Post

Who are JNIM, the jihadist ‘ghost enemy’ gaining momentum in the Sahel? Guardian

At least 16 people killed and 400 injured in Kenyan protests Guardian

O Canada

Trump Turns on ‘Nice’ Carney With Canadian Tech Tax Ultimatum Bloomberg

European Disunion

Ursula von der Leyen faces no-confidence vote Thomas Fazi

* * *

Euphoria grips Europe’s defence industry as the world prepares for war Telegraph

How rare earths could make or break the EU’s defence ambitions Euractiv

“Must be credible in every millimeter to keep war away” Aftonbladet via machine translation (Micael T)

Micael T: “Manufacturing consent about Iran – ROFLMAO”. We kept the UK entry since the EU and UK are joined at the hip on this issue:

Iranian agents are already exploring possible targets in Europe Seddeuctsche Zeizung via machine translation

Iran : menace sur la France ? Le Point

Information: Iran is planning attacks in Sweden Expressen via machine translation

Targets Iran-backed terrorists could pick in UK amid ‘substantial’ threat Mirror

Old Blighty

Heavy Power London Review of Books (guurst). “If Parliament votes in favour of proscription, it will be a criminal offence to belong to or show support for Palestine Action.’ As in spray-painters of RAF planes.

Starmer still faces Labour anger over risk of ‘two-tier’ disability benefits Guardian (Kevin W)

MI6 distances its new chief from Nazi grandfather BBC (Kevin W). You heard a LOT about that grandfather as soon as the appointment was announced, at least if you read comments, from Colonel Smithers.

Israel v. Iran

* * *

Trump suspends possible Iran sanctions relief RT (Kevin W)

* * *

Israel-Iran: The Denouement Simplicius

* * *

Update on Iran’s Targeting of Israel’s Defense Industry Larry Johnson

* * *

Did the Attacks on Iran Succeed? Foreign Affairs

Why the Strongest Bombs Can’t Crack Performance Military Concrete Popular Mechanics (resilc)

“Midnight Hammer” – a Fordow’s Bunker Buster or just Busted Mike Mihajlovic

Check if you have a stay of exit order preventing you from leaving Israel Gov.il (resilc)

Israel v. the Rest of the Resistance

Israel issues expulsion order for Palestinians in Gaza Anadolu Agency

‘It’s a Killing Field’: IDF Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Deliberately at Unarmed Gazans Waiting for Humanitarian Aid Haaretz (resilc)

Israel closes the most direct route for aid to Palestinians in Gaza Guardian (Kevin W)

Doctors warn flour sacks entering Gaza laced with Oxycodone: Report The Cradle (Chuck L). The Zionists are proving to be as imaginative and cruel in their depravity as Banderites.

New Not-So-Cold War

Russia Has Launched a Massive Offensive in the Zaporizhzhia Direction🚨 Military Summary 2025.06.27 YouTube

Trump will look at giving Ukraine more Patriot missiles as he calls on Putin to end war Independent

Syraqistan

Syria Today: From the Fall of a Centralised Government to the Al Qaeda Junta UK Column

Imperial Collapse Watch

NATO threatens China and Russia and endorses crystal clear international law violations Pascal Lottaz

There were toe-curling displays of affection towards ‘Daddy’ Trump at the NATO summit – but like it or not, it worked Sky

In NATO Visit, Trump Casts Himself as a Global Peacemaker New York Times. resilc: “How funny is this?”

GAO: USCG Faces Deferred Maintenance, Obsolete Cutters and Staff Shortage Maritime Executive (Kevin W)

Trump 2.0

Trump’s disapproval rating at highest since taking office, 52% of voters say US on wrong track: poll Just the News

* * *

Senate Blocks War Powers Resolution to Limit Trump’s Ability to Strike Iran Again New York Times

* * *

How a GOP accounting maneuver hides $3.8 trillion in red ink from Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ Yahoo! Finance (Kevin W)

Republicans scramble to save Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ The Hill

* * *

Trump’s Vocational Education Con Washington Monthly

Two major ways the Trump administration is making hurricane evacuations more difficult Yale Climate Connections

DOGE

‘Big Balls’ Is Now at the Social Security Administration Wired

Immigration

ICE, ICE Baby: Denver City Council Ends Car Theft Tracking System to Protect Illegal Immigrants Jonathan Turley (Li)

Supremes

Supreme Court limits nationwide injunctions in birthright citizenship order NPR

Sotomayor joined by Jackson, Kagan on fiery birthright citizenship dissent The Hill

Supreme Court Requires Schools to Allow Opting Out From L.G.B.T.Q. Stories New York Times

Supreme Court rejects challenge to free preventive care, bolsters RFK Jr.’s power STAT

Democrat Death Wish

Zohran Can Happen Anywhere (But Having an Opponent Like Cuomo Helps) Intercept (resilc)

Police State Watch

Mr. Market is Moody

Systemic risks in the leveraged U.S. loan market may herald new financial crisis – study University of Bath

US current account gap clocks pre-2008 crash milestone Reuters

AI

A.I. Is Starting to Wear Down Democracy New York Times

Denmark to tackle deepfakes by giving people copyright to their own features Guardian (resilc)

The Bezzle

Intellectual Property within the Quantum Innovation Value Chain Just Security

The First Week of Tesla’s Robotaxis Has Been a Disaster Futurism (Kevin W)

Stablecoins Fall Short as Cornerstone of Monetary System, Central Banks Say Wall Street Journal

The Week In Musk: Robotaxis gone wild Musk Watch

Guillotine Watch

Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos’ A-list guests run for cover as pre-wedding party is hit by huge freak thunderstorm Daily Mail. Li: “Signs of celestial displeasure.”

Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez mannequins float through Venice canal in wedding protest New York Post, YouTube (DLG)

Class Warfare

From Private Profit to Public Power: Financing Development, Not Oligarchy Oxfam

Summer’s class struggle on the highway: French road workers call strike against exploitation Riktpunkt via machine translation

Antidote du jour (via):

And a bonus:

A second bonus:

And a third (Chuck L):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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166 comments

    1. The Rev Kev

      Well obviously the fertilizers she was using for her garden could have been repurposed as explosives material. /sarc

      Hey, can’t we tell ICE that the Kardashians actually come from Iran and not Armenia?

      Reply ↓
      1. ambrit

        Sorry Rev., Kardashian has “kash” in it. Money is sacred in America. They are the “Low Priests” of Mammon for millions. Besides, everyone who watches much streaming content, (steaming content?,) knows that they are trans-dimensional beings. Just ask Caitlyn, a relative of said Kardashians. Then there is the family “reptilian” morphology.
        Too much to unpack.
        Stay safe.

        Reply ↓
    2. ilsm

      EU propaganda setting up false flag attacks to be called Iran attacks, same in US.

      IDF/CIA/Mossad assets should be “working” in Kiev!

      Reply ↓
  2. The Rev Kev

    ‘Zionism Observer
    @receipts_lol
    Australian police beat an opposition politician so badly that she might lose an eye. For being at an anti-genocide protest.
    She was at the protest acting as a legal observer. The protest was permitted.’

    This is really bad. The NSW police have really screwed the pooch here and you can bet that the Greens will not let this go away. Somebody is going to be hung out to dry. Now she has had to undergo facial surgery. ‘But NSW Police has not classified the incident as a critical incident – that is, an incident involving a member of the police force that results in the death of, or serious injury to, a person, and which requires NSW Police to investigate.’ Yeah, that’s gunna change.

    Things are getting weird here in oz. Just found out today that 100 Australian soldiers have been sent into the Ukraine because, uhh, Poland asked us? What. The. Family-Blog. The Russians have long said that any foreign troops are fair game and now Albanese thinks it a good idea that some of them might come back in body bags? This is not the US or Poland or France where you can hide a coupla dozen dead soldiers. Was he trying to suck up to Trump here?

    Reply ↓
    1. Carolinian

      If Gallipoli comes up again this time say no.

      One could point out that Murdoch and Fox News seemingly control Trump so maybe you guys are running us at the moment. But to be sure the Ukraine war was mostly a Biden/Dem project. Blame it on Rachel Maddow.

      In his latest Mad King Don says he allowed Khamenei to live therefore Iran should do what Trump wants. Paging Robert Graves.

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        The question arises if he actually believes that Iran lost the war or whether he is just saying it to establish his own “narrative”. Even Steve Bannon says that Israel was getting crushed and Trump had to go in to save them before they lost the war. Personally I am convinced that a legend will arise in Israel how they were just about to destroy Iran when Trump stopped them which Trump hinted at in a Truth social post.

        Reply ↓
        1. Bugs

          Perhaps Trump preempted them from using an A Bomb. Or he was responding to Israeli blackmail including that threat. My thought was that this possibility was behind Tulsi Gabbard’s very serious video tweet wrt to nuclear war, a week or so before the attack.

          Reply ↓
            1. ambrit

              Don’t quit. Demon Haunted Don exflatulates enough “fundamentally produced flammable gasses” to blow up multiple underground bases a day. It is an F bomb, but this is another four letter “F” word.

              Reply ↓
        2. Carolinian

          Stabbed in the back?

          And Trump is a legend in his own mind. However sounds like there are enough “facts on the ground” in Israel to contradict the “we shoulda won” narrative there.

          Instead they’ll take their frustrations out on–who else?–the Palestinians. Blame it all on Amalek.

          Reply ↓
          1. The Rev Kev

            Yeah, ‘stabbed in the back’. Otherwise they would have to admit that they were losing this war and would have ended up looking like Gaza. Too much hubris to admit that.

            Reply ↓
        3. Wukchumni

          Who knows what goes on up there?

          A few months after the LA Infernos, Trump orders a shitlode of water to be released from Lake Kaweah and Lake Success, south of us.

          At the LA press conference after he became President, he said he’d get the military to get water to LA and this would have never happened, etc.’

          The US Army Corps of Engineers runs the dams, and a few months later is when they release valuable water meant for August, not really worth anything in March, none of it making its way to LA, anyhow.

          It wasn’t as if the press was clamoring for him to show just how he was going find this water, frankly nobody cared, it was just another bloviation uttered and soon forgotten, but not to him.

          Farmers depend on the water he had released, and they are very much his constituents here, and if that wasn’t a (family blog) you! to them, what else could it be construed as?

          Donald is a petty man, beware humanity.

          Reply ↓
      2. ilsm

        Iran nuke sites obliterated!

        Trump, lusting for a peace prize, would attack Iran and Russia again like Caligula attacked the sea!

        Trump is the “darling” of Germanicus’ legionaries! Caligula’s top war department appointees are a civilian fox news host with a reserve commission and a former Maryland National Guard F-16 pilot who came out of retirement to be CJCS, was promoted by Caligula to 4 stars by passing hundreds of qualified regular commissioned officers!

        Caligula “raizin” Caine indeed!

        Such a CJCS can read absurdities before lunch.

        Reply ↓
        1. The Rev Kev

          America has gone through the Looking Glass where ‘sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’

          Not so much the White Queen here as the Orange John McCain as one person put it.

          Reply ↓
          1. ambrit

            I’m beginning to wonder if “Red Queen” Hillary won that election after all. Her postulants, toadys, and other bum lickers seem to be controlling the Orange Haired Demon’s cabinet.

            Reply ↓
    2. Es s Ce Tera

      Why join the armed forces of a peaceful country, such as Australia, if at any moment you’ll find yourself shipped to a war which isn’t even yours. Murdered by your own government, so to speak.

      Reply ↓
  3. Wukchumni

    Gooooooood Moooooooooooorning Fiatnam!

    It was all about the kill-ratio back in the world away from the fetid jungle conditions here on the front 40, how many of the President’s cockamamie edicts get shot down by courts, Kangaroo or otherwise?

    Reply ↓
  4. Bugs

    “Unborn dolphin calves have toxic metals in their blood, revealing horrific ocean pollution”

    It’s also sort of horrifying how even nominally scientific publications have adopted the newspeak of the antiabortion movement.

    These are dolphin fetuses, not “unborn” calves.

    Reply ↓
  5. William Beyer

    OBLITERATION
    Lyrics by me; Music by Carly Simon

    We can never know about Israeli nukes,
    But we’re stuck with them anyway-ay-ay,
    And I wonder, why Don and Bibi pull these stunts,
    Bombing their way to end-of-days.

    Obliteration, Oblit-er-a-a-tion,
    Let’s Donnie castrate,
    Keep Bibi busy fellating him.

    And I tell you, how corrupt these a**holes are,
    And how strong, this Bibi-Trump crap stinks,
    Just dreamed about, a double-decap escapade,
    Thinking about how right that just might be.

    Obliteration, Oblit-er-a-a-tion,
    Let’s Donnie castrate,
    Keep Bibi busy fellating him.

    And tomorrow, it might be nuclear winter,
    Not prophetic, can’t predict war crim’nals’ play-ay-ays,
    While the Senate, craven to its sleazy core,
    Will bless this sh*t,
    ‘Cause these are the morons’ ways.

    Reply ↓
    2. ilsm

      The historic accomplishment was (if you believe the national guard retiree CJCS) 14 B-2’s took off in one day!

      The secondary miracle was none were lost to mechanical failure and only one was acknowledged to abort to Hawaii. It probably landed in plain sight at Hickam.

      There is no photo evidence that the massive ordnance penetrators (MOP) were released. Well, maybe all 14 flew down vent shafts and blew up so far beneath the surface as to leave no trace…..

      Queen of Hearts (believe six before breakfast) level absurdity.

      Between Hegspeth and Caine who expects any more than polished delivery of scripts from the pentagon?

      Reply ↓
      1. AndrewJ

        I’m highly skeptical that any B2’s or the MOP’s only they can carry flew over Iran in the first place. First off, there’s the credible claims that post strike satellite imagery doesn’t show craters consistent with MOP use. Has that been debunked yet?
        Then there’s the seemingly pre-arranged quid-pro-quo strikes on US airbases. That implies these nuclear facility strikes were for show, not effect. If that’s true, why would the the US risk any loss of a B2 in the first place? Or, why give the Iranians a chance to collect radar reflectivity and tracking data that they can (and should) share with other US “adversaries”? The B2 is not new, stealth and radar technology has progressed quite a bit, and it’s highly likely the planes are far from invulnerable to modern air defense.
        I’m not seeing this perspective too much, but I’ve seen a mention of it a couple times through NC links. Chime in if you think there’s reasonable evidence that B2 bombers did actually enter Iranian airspace. Maybe there’s something I’m missing.

        Reply ↓
        1. ilsm

          The B-2 is invisible to radar so you can never tell if it is there or not, Schrodinger’s bomber.

          Most of the aircraft were appropriated in 1988, that is the year congress spent the money to buy 20 aircraft, they have an average age over 24 years. Per GAO 23-106217.

          GAO relates that B-2 met “availability” requirements zero of 11 years reviewed, it met mission capable requirements 6 of 11 years. Availability is total hours ready for mission divided by total hours possessed by the flying unit. If an airplane was off in the depot the hours possessed are subtracted etc. Usually it is the % chance you walk up to a random B-2 and it is flyable. B-2 is very important to STRATCOM nuclear war and Global Strike Com for bombing sand in Yemen and Iran its requirements are classified!

          In FY 2023 it suffered from supply chain issues, old, parts can’t find new buys, etc. It suffered from maintenance problems: delayed pass through scheduled maintenance, tech data deficiencies, trained support personnel, and longer/larger than expected (low reliability) unscheduled maintenance.

          Two years later things are likely no better and they expect us to believe they flew 13 (one aborted to Hawaii) though long mission cycle in same day!

          The problem with MOP is it tested few times, we do not know if it tried penetrating granite to what depth if it tried. That said what is the detonation mode? Shaped charge of volume?

          To achieve any kind of accuracy the mission was flown by GPS and computer, the pilots “along for the ride”….

          The image of flying it down vent shafts is “looking glass” odd!

          Reply ↓
        2. jonboinAR

          What if, really crudely, it works something like this: You take the tragedy, turn it into a farce, then you can both quit? If that were the plan, it sort of seemed to work.

          Reply ↓
          1. ambrit

            The trouble is that one of the combatants has form in declaring a cease fire and then carrying on low level attacks anyway. The other combatant knows this and I surmise is planning accordingly.
            This “cease-fire” is the eye of the hurricane.

            Reply ↓
            1. jonboinAR

              I’m still hoping both sides have been convinced to lay off completely. Iran, because they didn’t particularly want a war in the first place, Israel, because they were on the verge of suffering extreme damage to their national infrastructure, damage bad enough to get their attention having just occurred.

              Reply ↓
      2. Maxwell Johnston

        Simplicius raises an interesting point, quoting the chairman of the JCS: “The pilot who hit Fordow told me it was the brightest explosion he’d ever seen.” And yet we’ve seen no corroboration, let alone photo/video evidence from any Iran-based witness, even though there are plenty of cell phones in Iran. Fordow is not “mere miles from Tehran” as per Simplicius (it’s about 200 km from Tehran) but much closer to Qom (population 1.4m or so), so one would expect that someone would have seen/heard or even possibly taken a shot of this supposedly huge fireball.

        So far, crickets. Odd, that.

        Label me skeptical, as usual.

        Reply ↓
        1. Antagonist

          I just finished watching Nima’s latest interview with Ted Postol, while I was looking for an interview Yves mentioned about Larry Johnson. Postol is similarly skeptical. He discusses the Space-based Infrared Satellite (SBIRS), which should be plenty capable in identifying signature infrared signals from exploded bombs, missiles, etc. SBIRS apparently had an initial price of $2 billion but then ballooned to $20 billion. Ka-ching! Postol goes into great detail about the difficulty in “obliterating” an underground nuclear facility that was purposely designed to withstand an offensive strike and the ease in which Iran could move enriched uranium without anybody noticing. According to Postol, Congress should be very upset that they splurged on a fancy IR satellite that could certainly help to verify the effectiveness of the supposed American military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

          Considering the duplicity in American and Israeli “diplomacy”, the Iranians should have asked the Russians for anti-aircraft missiles long ago and should have double crossed the Americans with their kabuki stealth air show. Do we even have any eyewitness accounts from Iranians about seven (six? One stopped in Hawaii?) B-2 bombers flying into Iran? Gathering together a squadron of multi-billion dollar aircraft and telling Iran where they will be dropping bombs seems like an awfully convenient time to destroy all of them. Of course, a stunning loss like this would encourage launching nukes.

          Reply ↓
    3. Lefty Godot

      Did the Attacks on Iran Succeed? As Zhou En-lai said about the long-term effects of the French Revolution, “It’s too soon to tell.” The fog of war may take a long time to clear in this case. Israel said they had killed Ismail Qaani but that turned out not to be true, and Iran said they killed David Barnea but that also was not the case. And the Trump claims about B-2s obliterating reactors are not even accepted by US propaganda rags, yet a couple of Iranian spokespersons are playing along with him on that score. Two things we learned are that Israeli intelligence assets in Iran were much more numerous and ready to wreak havoc than Iran expected, and Iran finally proved the Resistance could damage or outright destroy real strategic targets with missiles, something that had been in doubt before. What will tell the full tale of who succeeded in this brawl is what the two countries do next after taking stock of what they experienced.

      Reply ↓
  7. Wukchumni

    Meet the ‘doomsday preppers’ who say they’re ready for World War III Daily Mail
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    You can never be too safe these days, so I 3D printed old German Paris Guns and 88’s and have them mounted around the periphery of the all cats and no cattle ranch. Sourcing shells has been problematic, although i’m sure it’ll be alleviated by game time.

    Pixley could be in real peril with the reach of the Paris Gun, ‘jus saying~

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      Say, I could be the first person in my neighbourhood to get a 88. Then pretty soon I could be the only person in my neighbourhood.

      Reply ↓
        1. ambrit

          Did you also get a backorder message from Ali Baba for the atomic shells like I did? I thought that China made everything one needed. Evidently not.

          Reply ↓
            1. LY

              Was looking for a BFG9000, but they’re only available only when the literal gates to hell(s) open, not figurative gates.

              Reply ↓
                1. ambrit

                  What? Another Musk/DARPA co-production?
                  This needs to be written up as a grant application to some Federal Department.
                  Development prospectus: The IQ-36 ESM Mark One.

                  Reply ↓
            1. ambrit

              I was intrigued by their IQ-36 ESM Mark One.
              Field tested in the Caucuscus.
              “They Chech-in, but they don’t Chech-out.”

              Reply ↓
    2. LilD

      I live in San Luis Obispo county. Due to the proximity of Diablo Canyon, the public health department provides our potassium iodide free!

      Due to the proximity of Vandenburg, it’s not going to help in a shooting war…

      Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        Luckily for us, we are in close enough proximity to Fresno that I think we’ll be safe from a nuclear maelstrom, as who would waste a perfectly good weapon on Fresno?

        Reply ↓
  8. Martin Oline

    Thanks for all the links and the antidotes. It is great and I’ll be back after my laptop recharges. A lot of them link seemlessly to each other. I especially liked the quote by German FM Wadephul “We didn’t choose this situation ourselves.” I guess that memory hole has become a black hole, sucking all thoughts and morality into it, collapsing and crushing them, and shooting them off somewhere far, far away. Too funny.

    They are victims of fate with large off-shore accounts. What was that Flip Wilson used to say? “The Devil made me do it!”

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      Yeah, not so much German FM Wadephul as German FM What-A-Fool. It’s OK for German grannies to freeze to death because they had their pensions cut and German infrastructure to crumble but at least Zelensky will be able to add some more homes to his real estate portfolio.

      Reply ↓
  9. Nikkikat

    Found the OCD article very interesting reading. I born with an anxiety disorder, I can’t remember when I didn’t have this anxiety. OCD goes with it. Always had that too, from constantly checking my pocket for my lunch money to checking that I turned off the coffee pot 5 times, even though I knew I turned it off. These issues can be time consuming and debilitating. The debate about brain chemicals, all interesting aspects of a common mental disfunction and the issue of people now displaying these same problems by constantly phone scrolling. I’m not so alone now.

    Reply ↓
    1. Mass Driver

      Being someone with OCD, I found that article to be, featured earlier.
      https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/06/links-6-19-2025.html

      If the issues are not time consuming and debilitating, then it’s not a disorder, and hence not an OCD.

      I do not remember having anxiety/OCD as a kid, so it might have been triggered by puberty in my case. The mild/functional autism (or whatever the proper term is) was always there, though.

      Reply ↓
  10. Carolinian

    Looks like most of the Simplicius is paywalled but here’s some info from Tehran.

    https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/515003/Iran-downed-17-advanced-Israeli-drones-in-its-western-skies

    And Larry Johnson goes so far as to suggest the Intel fab in Israel was destroyed. During Trump’s next press avail perhaps someone should ask if he did in fact greenlight the Israeli war–as the Israelis claim–and whether one is entitled to get a peace prize for ending one’s own war.

    Reply ↓
    1. hemeantwell

      Looking at the wiki on one Israeli drone, the Hermes 900, reveals their max speed is 140 mph. Great for pummeling people with no AD, but target practice for those who have anything suitable for downing fighters.

      Reply ↓
    2. Steven A

      “and whether one is entitled to get a peace prize for ending one’s own war.”

      This would be similar to Stalin having been awarded the Noble Peace Prize in 1946 (instead of Emily Greene Balch) for his part in the defeat of Germany, with whom he collaborated to start the war in 1939.

      Reply ↓
  11. The Rev Kev

    “Trump will look at giving Ukraine more Patriot missiles as he calls on Putin to end war”

    More Trump bluster. It seems that they make roughly 600 plus Patriot missiles a year. Now Israel is going to need thousands of them before they go Round 2 with Iran but for argument’s sake, let’s say that Trump sends a full year’s production of them to Zelensky. Since you fire a minimum of two missiles per target, then those 600 missiles mean that they can only deal with maybe 300 targets. So how long would they last in the Ukraine? Maybe a week or so? Providing that they don’t shoot those missiles off like crazy as has been sen in videos and providing that the Russians don’t take the Patriot Battery out with a ballistic missiles.

    That article also mentions the following from Trump-

    ‘He recounted to reporters how he’d rebuked Putin during a recent phone call after the Russian leader offered to mediate an end to hostilities between Israel and Iran, stressing he would rather he brought an end to the conflict in Ukraine.’

    So Putin tried to offer him an off-ramp to the Israel-Iran war and Trump decides to just insult the guy? Seriously? I have heard of him talking about Putin the past few days as if he was the Big Daddy and Putin was just a naughty little boy that needed disciplining. Trump is his own worse enemy and has no idea of the nations that he deals with. He should have stayed in Manhattan.

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni

      They say that all is fair in love and war
      And I of all people believe it
      When Zelensky strayed in Ukraine
      Had a fall or two

      And I’m telling it to you straight
      So you don’t have to hear it in another way
      Oh Vladdy, I’m not your Daddy
      Oh Vladdy, I’m not your Daddy

      They say that out of sight is out of mind
      And a man-child believes it
      Your man was in search of peace
      But all he got was used

      And I’m telling it to your face
      So you don’t have to hear it in another place
      (Break it to me gently now
      Don’t forget, I’m just a man-child)
      Oh Vladdy, I’m not your Daddy

      Annie, I’m Not Your Daddy, by Kid Creole and the Coconuts

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLf6MIdE1BE&list=RDfLf6MIdE1BE

      Reply ↓
    2. Erstwhile

      Would a cure for ‘Trump bluster’ be a couple of big beautiful bluster-busters dropped, oh, just about anywhere, and everywhere, over the usa ?

      Reply ↓
      2. Carolinian

        How about the men in the white coats? In old movies people who go on like they are Napoleon are shown in straitjackets. Presumably those last have fallen out of favor and drugs are now used instead.

        Of course Trump’s “tweets” (or are we supposed to call them Truth Social “truths”?) are merely his low impulse control fooling around. But his actions seem as erratic as his words. Surely he does realize the campaign has been over for months. Some blame it on chief of staff Susie Wiles who is supposed to protect his image.

        Pretend megalomania can be fun. The real thing is scary.

        Reply ↓
        1. The Rev Kev

          Saw that press conference where you had the President of the United States, his Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense but the way that they were acting, I could not tell who was Larry, who was Curly and who was Moe. Stop this timeline – I wanna get off.

          Reply ↓
    3. XXYY

      Apparently Patriot batteries have some kind of fail safe mode where they will just fire off all their remaining missiles at once, perhaps to reduce the amount of high explosive on site if the battery is being targeted.

      This seems like number one priority for Russian researchers. If they can somehow find a way to tickle the Patriot batteries into entering this mode, they can give us all some entertainment while knocking out the battery for good as well.

      Reply ↓
  12. mahna

    “We’ll have to tighten our belts” – German Foreign Minister Wadephu

    “We’ll have to tighten your belts.”

    Reply ↓
      2. griffen

        Unfortunately your beating must be continuing and ongoing. Your wailing about it is not of our concern, necessarily. Buck up comrade!

        Reply ↓
    3. ambrit

      It might be a mistranslation. How about: “We’ll have to frighten our Balts?”
      Königsberg here we come!

      Reply ↓
  14. mrsyk

    It’s like a heatwave….
    The heatwave seems to be challenging the MetroUK’s editorial abilities.
    Temperatures in the area reached and in some cases exceeded the upper 90s Fahrenheit (around 32°C) on Monday, and the heat index got to 224.6 Fahrenheit (107°C), according to The Weather Channel.
    Double down.
    In Paterson, the temperature reached 212 Fahrenheit (100°C), which shattered the previous record of 98°C back in 1965, North Jersey Weather Observers’ Bob Ziff told the Paterson Press.
    We live on Venus.

    Reply ↓
    1. ambrit

      Will we be seeing photos of eggs frying on sidewalks next? (In the Not So Fine Dining section, of course.)

      Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        It’s worse than you know, hens have been getting requests in vitro, typically fried along with the occasional omelette.

        Reply ↓
      2. The Rev Kev

        I have no idea what you guys are talking about. I’m freezing my butt off here and am trying to keep warm while my fingers freeze over the keyboard. :)

        Reply ↓
        1. ambrit

          Stop showing off Rev. We have a heat index of 39C right now here in the Half Horse Town.
          My ancestors had to have been Mammoth hunters. I sweat when the temperature goes above 80F.

          Reply ↓
    3. MaryLand

      Sorry, I’m skeptical about the 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Could be a bug in the software at The Weather Channel website. I’ve seen similar ridiculous temperature readings online from wunderground.com. Both are owned by The Weather Company. When you can go outside and read your own thermometer it’s a decent reality check.

      Reply ↓
      2. johnnyme

        It’s an epic Fahrenheit/Celsius conversion fail — the heat index was 107°F, not 107°C.

        The highest yet-to-be-confirmed heat index recorded on Earth is 180°F:

        A weather station in southern Iran has reported a heat index of 82.2°C (180°F) and a dew point of 36.1°C (97°F), which, if confirmed, would be the highest such readings ever recorded on Earth, meteorologists said on August 28.

        The extreme readings were reported at an airport weather station, with an air temperature of 38.9°C (102°F) and 85% relative humidity producing the unprecedented heat index value.

        Reply ↓
      3. mrsyk

        Could be a bug in the software at The Weather Channel website, not in this case. The WC article is expressed in Fahrenheit only on the relevant part.
        The Metro article flubbed the calculation. It should have been flagged before publication.

        Reply ↓
        1. ambrit

          If said article was AI generated, then we are now officially entering the Hallucinatory Holocene Epoch.

          Reply ↓
      4. Vandemonian

        Could be a bug in the software at The Weather Channel website

        More likely a problem with the wetware (the module between the front of the keyboard and the back of the chair).

        Can you say “reality check” boys and girls?

        Reply ↓
  15. The Rev Kev

    ‘Thomas Keith
    @iwasnevrhere_
    Iran has legally terminated all cooperation with the IAEA.
    Not suspended. Not threatened. Passed through parliament, signed by Qalibaf, delivered to Pezeshkian. The entire NPT inspection theatre is now shut, by law.’

    I guess that this is Iran adopting strategic ambiguity as Macron would put it. To date Grossi and the IAEA have yet to criticize the bombing of nuclear stations that were nominally under their supervision. Sort of like how they could never work out who was bombing the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. At this rate the IAEA may become an irrelevant organization which means hello nuclear proliferation. And now the Tehran Times is reporting that Grossi is suggesting that Iran has hidden it’s nuclear material at one of the World Heritage Sites near Esfahan without any proof. If Israel tries to bomb them on his say so, I wonder which World Heritage Site in Israel that Iran will blow up. Maybe the Masada archaeological fortress where IDF soldiers hold their swearing-in ceremonies?

    https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/514998/Grossi-is-now-justifying-potential-attacks-on-Iran-s-historical

    Reply ↓
    1. ambrit

      I say let someone drop a nuke on Jerusalem and have a Three for One deal. Destroy one of the major sites of worship of Christians, Jews, and Muslims at one go. Equal opportunity pogrom!
      Years ago I asked in the comments at Colonel Lang’s website if Jerusalem could be made into an International City under the jurisdiction of the UN. He replied that such was impossible due to the extreme fanaticism of the Zionists. “They would never allow it,” was his ending observation.

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        Funny you should suggest that. Tom Clancy wrote a novel called “Sum of all Fears” in which a plan is carried out to make Jerusalem a Vatican-like city administered by a tribunal of Jewish, Muslim, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox religious leaders with the Swiss Guard in their armoured infantry roll providing security. Of course that novel was written way back in1991 and too much water has passed under the bridge for it to work-

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sum_of_All_Fears#Plot

        Reply ↓
        1. Polar Socialist

          Pretty much like it was before the Zionists made it their promised land, eh? Except the Swiss Guard, of course.

          Yeah, that was so stupid and not-understanding-the-situation-at-all solution to the situation that I stopped reading Clancy after that.

          Reply ↓
          1. The Rev Kev

            Yeah, it got pretty stupid when in it, an Israeli cop shot a protestor at point blank range and the whole world was shocked and demanded something had to be done.

            Reply ↓
        2. ilsm

          For a guy selling insurance and hanging out in bars frequented by military officers Tom Clancy knew too much.

          Loose lips and Tom wrote books!

          Reply ↓
        3. AG

          As far as the movie adaptation of “Sum of All Fears” is concerned another fun fact is that according to the suggested premise there actually the plot pre-supposes that IDF Airforce 1973 was about to carry a nuke to attack Egypt in order to – of course – prevent Israel from destruction. However that nuke which – of course – is legit – got lost when the plane was downed. Fast forward 20 years now Neonazis have acquired that same nuke – which now of course is a bad one – to terrorize the free world.

          The Zionist undertones are difficult to stomach if you have studied that stuff a bit but the movie is more decent than one might think, artistically in that category of movies at least. (Not the sloppiness of some G8 BS by Mr. & Mrs. Netflix).

          p.s. checkout the DVD of Sum of All Fears, it has an interesting audio commentary with director Phil Alden Robinson, whose breakthrough was “Field of Dreams”, the larger chunk of his work are screenplays I believe. According to imdb he is writing the script for the upcoming Scorsese biopic about Frank Sinatra together with Billy Ray (a cheerleader of the DNC who made the well crafted but insufferable James Comey PR “Comey´s Rule” mini-series). Luckily I was aware of the depth of that PR insanity only after watching.

          Reply ↓
      2. Bugs

        That is actually the official legal status of Jerusalem under UN GA Resolutions 181 and 194 – it was to be under UN supervision and demilitarized. The US voted yes to these resolutions. None of the territorial claims of ‘Israel’ to territories captured have been recognized and various later Security Council resolutions (adopted unanimously) require them to withdraw.

        People seem to forget this stuff.

        Reply ↓
  16. XXYY

    Scientists Pitch $117 Trillion Wind-Solar Super Network Oil Price.

    Irina Slav of Oil Price pisses all over this idea because of the supposed cost and difficulty. All new ideas are expensive and difficult, or someone would have done them already.

    We need bold and imaginative thinking on the scale of the problems we are facing, not back benchers nitpicking everything to death. The US alone now spends a minimum of a trillion dollars a year on weapons and war, something which provides absolutely nothing to anyone except weapons makers. The “problems” Slav points out, the need for international cooperation and mutual collaboration on a public good, are actually good things, not bad.

    The human race is going to need much more of this kind of thing if we plan on living beyond the next decade or so.

    Reply ↓
        1. Grumpy Engineer

          I found a link to the actual technical paper: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12081854/pdf/41467_2025_Article_59879.pdf, and it was definitely worth a read. Thank you for the initial pointer to the Oil Price article.

          Upon reading the study, it’s very apparent that the authors did their homework. They’ve properly taken intermittency and curtailment into account and have even listed TWh of energy storage required. [I’ve seen far too many studies where the focus was on total energy delivered without consideration of when it was delivered. And even on storage, too many studies simply focus on peak power delivered while neglecting run time. This study in “nature communications” properly addresses both, and it’s an impressive effort.]

          But with that said, I think Irina Slav’s conclusions are correct. $117 trillion is a breath-taking price tag, and the plan is overly reliant on a giant network of intercontinental multi-terawatt DC transmission lines that would be terribly vulnerable to political disruption or even sabotage. It might be feasible if everyone were getting along with everybody else, but that’s clearly not the state of the world today, and I don’t know if it will ever be.

          And the cost? For comparison, worldwide power generation capability is currently about 6 TW, and if we built nuclear power stations at South Korean or Chinese prices (~$2500/kW) to provide it all, it would only cost $15 trillion. Even at ridiculously high US prices (~$15000/kW), nuclear would still be slightly cheaper at $90 trillion.

          Reply ↓
  17. lyman alpha blob

    RE: A.I. Is Starting to Wear Down Democracy

    Why is it always those who claim to be the most concerned about the spread of “disinformation” who disseminate it themselves? Perhaps if the NYT wants to remain relevant, it will stop printing garbage like this –

    “In Romania, a Russian influence operation using A.I. tainted the first round of last year’s presidential election, according to government officials. A court there nullified that result, forcing a new vote last month and bringing a new wave of fabrications. It was the first major election in which A.I. played a decisive role in the outcome. It is unlikely to be the last.”

    Except that as informed NC readers know, it wasn’t a “Russian influence operation” at all, it was a Romanian one that spectacularly backfired, according to Romania’s own investigation – https://dailytelegraph.co.nz/world/romanian-election-interference-exposed-as-pro-eu-liberal-party-psy-op/

    It was not easy to find the above link – it took a few different searches which all wanted to give “Russia did it” results, even when I specifically used “Russia NOT responsible” in my search terms.

    Yes, “AI” is an abomination, but not as gross of one as the NYT has become.

    Reply ↓
        1. AG

          I am not a specialist.
          It´s just the fact that I have stopped relying on one.
          Yandex, Qwant, Duck, Google.
          And I assume still a lot escapes me.
          Which is why I usually try to use homepages as a research tool not the search engines. Or only after I have identified very specific search terms.

          Reply ↓
    2. Bsn

      Yes, lots of passing comments by the authors (below some of the examples) that “such videos were linked to Russia”. Real tiring that ‘paper.

      Reply ↓
  19. Jason Boxman

    What’s particularly disturbing about our masked paramilitary DHS strike teams is the masking; what great threat to life and limb do they face if identified? This isn’t Mexico, where an equally well armed and informed cartel might put a hit out on someone’s entire extended family. As far as I know, that isn’t happening in the US yet. So it signals to me that these agents really think the US population is dangerous, it is us versus them. Not a great mindset to have in ones’ security forces.

    Our foreign wars have come home to visit us.

    Reply ↓
      1. Jason Boxman

        Without a doubt, but it’s unfortunate that we’re at that stage of empire decline where its desirable to so obviously terrorize the polity.

        Reply ↓
    2. Kouros

      It is not just a visit. They are here to stay for the long haul…nowehere eles left to go, you see…

      Reply ↓
  20. flora

    Judge Napolitano interviewed Mearsheimer last week about the so-called Isr-Iran ceasefire. Available on utube. Mearsheimer’s opinion is this is only a pause for Isr to re-arm.

    Judge Napolitcano interviewed Craig Murray last week about the so-called ceasefire. Available on utube. Murray is of the same opinion as Mearsheimer, with the added comments there has not been one ceasefire that Isr has honored. In fact, Isr has gone right on bombing and killing in Lebanon no matter how many ceasefire deals it’s agreed to. It’s still bombing Lebanon.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/06/27/israel-lebanon-strike/

    Reply ↓
      1. Vandemonian

        From the reports on round one, I had the feeling that Iran was holding back its more advanced weaponry, relying on older and less powerful kit, and saving the best for later.

        And what have those Chinese EW surveillance ships in the Persian Gulf been collecting?

        Reply ↓
      2. Yves Smith Post author

        It will take time to agree a deal, have the gear delivered, integrate into Iranian operations and train Iranians to use.

        Bare minimum six months. Maybe a year.

        Israel has a decent-sized window if it dumb enough to believe that Iran was running out of missiles, as opposed to holding back its really good stuff.

        Reply ↓
  21. Colonel Smithers

    Thank you, Yves.

    Further to my comment in moderation, it was common for the Saudi authorities to recruit medical staff from the UK armed forces. Metreweli’s radiologist father was ex British army in the UK and Hong Kong. My father was ex RAF and specialised in chemical pathology, toxicology, oncology and tropical medicine. Dad also taught and was involved in public health programmes, education and hospital design. Both worked at the armed forces hospital in Riyadh, but not simultaneously.

    Reply ↓
    1. Terry Flynn

      Thanks, Yves once kindly explained to me that several members of the commentariat in good standing get auto moderation.

      Skynet can take a while “handing over” a comment to NC moderators. I tested this recently: posting on my phone on cellular network definitely goes to NC faster than my home modem/router. Curious.

      Reply ↓
  22. Wukchumni

    Uncle Sugar
    Oh, honey, honey
    You are my candy man
    And you got me wanting you

    Honey
    Oh, meshuggah, Uncle Sugar
    You are my candy man
    And you got me wanting you

    I just can’t believe
    The loveliness of needing you
    I just can’t believe it’s true
    I just can’t believe
    The wonder of this feeling, too
    I just can’t believe it’s true

    Ah, Uncle Sugar
    Oh, honey, honey
    You are my candy man
    And you got me wanting you

    When you dissed your Tulsi girl
    I knew how sweet a diss could be
    (I know how sweet a diss can be)
    Like the summer sunshine
    Pour your sweetness over me
    (Pour your sweetness over me)

    Oh-oh-oh-oh, Uncle Sugar
    Pour a little sugar on it, honey
    Pour a little sugar on it, baby
    Make your life so sweet, yeah, yeah, yeah

    Oh, honey
    Oh, meshuggah, Uncle Sugar
    You are my candy man
    And you got me wanting you

    Sugar, Sugar, by the Archies

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj0pzxGyvUQ&list=RDSj0pzxGyvUQ&start_radio=1

    Reply ↓
  23. Craig H.

    You heard a LOT about that grandfather as soon as the appointment was announced, at least if you read comments, from Colonel Smithers.

    Colonel Smithers’ comments are often subtle and if he pointed out the Soviets wanted grandpa for war crimes and the UK was protecting him I missed that part. I like the part where the BBC says the new MI6 head hoodlum never met or knew her grandpa.

    Reply ↓
  24. Jason Boxman

    Whither FEMA?

    States Fear Critical Funding From FEMA May Be Drying Up

    States need some way to fund this. They can’t magic money into existence.

    A forced weaning off of federal dollars could have an outsize impact in North Carolina and the other states that pass on much of their FEMA grants to county and local agencies. Many rural counties have modest tax bases and are already stretched thin.

    In May, ProPublica published a story detailing the horrors of Hurricane Helene’s impact on one of those counties, Yancey. Home to 19,000 people, it suffered the largest per capita loss of life and damage to property in the storm. Jeff Howell, its emergency manager, was operating with only a part-time employee and said that for years he had been asking the county commission for more help. It wasn’t until after the storm that county commissioners agreed with the need.

    Definitely gonna effect MAGA land out here, and I doubt this is what people thought they were voting for. Trump dismantling entire parts of the government that are actually useful wasn’t in my mind’s eye. Self immolation.

    Reply ↓
  25. Eclair

    My therapy in these times, in-between bouts of reading about the starving Palestinians killed by the IDF as they stand in line for food and scare stories of Iranian sleeper cells in US cities, when all we’ve done is drop a few tons of bombs on their country, for f’s sake, is to hang out with my Amish friend, L.

    Yesterday, L’s sister had an auction to sell off her deceased husband’s tools. He ran a woodworking shop for decades, along with raising chickens, goats, sheep, a few cows and vegetables and fruit. His hickory rocking chairs are local favorites.

    This is the Amish way: the entire contents of his shop were auctioned. The farm and land might be passed down to the eldest son, but all the movables are sold, even to the children.

    About 200+ people attended (adults, there were additional countless kids running about; two year-olds in kerchiefs and pinafores practicing jumping off steps, older girls on the swing hung from a huge maple, serious 10 year old boys, in small sized versions of the straw hats worn by their dad, watching intently as the men discussed the merits of this lathe, or that drill press) streaming down the gravel road starting at 8 AM, in buggies, wagons, and in pickup trucks driven by the local ‘English.’ It was definitely a ‘guy’ auction, but there was a ‘silent auction, on the big covered back porch, where long tables of kitchen ware, stainless pots and pans, sets of dishes, cooler chests, were displayed.

    Lots of food: constant coffee, subs (made during the night by a small army of Amish women), hamburgers, and, of course, trays and trays of homemade donuts, honey glazed ($1.00) and filled and frosted ($1.50). Later in the afternoon, a trio of young women dished out ice cream from big, ice-filled cooler chests. Temperature was in the mid-80’s, and humid, so the ice cream was popular.

    The auctioneer began at 10 AM (9 AM, Amish time; they don’t do Daylight time) and went until every last push lawn-mower and table saw and farm wagon and maple sugar evaporating vat was sold. The women gathered in groups in shady spots, under a canopy, on the porch, in the big living room, and talked. And talked. And talked. And nursed babies and rocked toddlers to sleep in the hot afternoon.

    The day ended with a monster thunder storm, darkness, buckets of rain, wind. But, everything had been sold and moved and only the chickens and a few sheep got wet. The kids were looking frazzled and smeared with chocolate and strawberry jam, but they climbed into the backs of the buggies, arranged themselves around the bucket of screws, wood planes, and assorted sledge hammers that had been purchased, and the horses clip-clopped down the gravel road, frisky and ready for the hour or two it would take to reach their barns and the evening feed.

    Reply ↓
    2. Wukchumni

      What a great tale to tell, thanks~

      I’m dating myself in that I haven’t been to the dead peoples’ auction in LA in over 20 years, but it was a once a month haunt of mine, in that if you died without heirs in the City of Angles, you’re stuff ended up in Pico Rivera, up for auction.

      I was there primarily for coins, and sometimes i’d walk in and spend 10 minutes looking at the goods, and ixnay on the auction later that day.

      Other times there’d be something good, and it was primarily a wholesale buyer kind of audience that was bidding, and especially so before eBay came along.

      To set the millieu for you, imagine 37 TV sets, a like amount of furniture, tables full of kitchen stuff, bankers boxes full of books and LP’s, antiques, cars-you name it!

      Hervé Villechaize’s stuff came through and there was an exercycle for a midget and other junk, along with a rifle-was it the one he committed suicide with, a few in attendance wondered?

      1 time there was a 16th century Japanese samurai suit up for auction, and I knew nothing about such an item, but knew somebody that did, and he drove over and we cut a fat cow on that one.

      Another auction was the contents of safe deposit boxes that had been abandoned and/or no heirs could be found, etc. by the state of California once a year.

      Cash or bearer bonds had been taken out, and it was a mixture of mostly jewelry and coins that were on the schedule of auctioning off around 2,000 lots over 2 days, and that’s after allowing you to look at the lots for 2 days prior to the auction. The lots were mostly in sealed plastic bags and taped to tables so that you couldn’t really get that close to inspect them, and I always deemed it an eye marathon, in that after a couple days of looking intensely at goods you couldn’t see as well as you’d like to, your orbits were beat.

      Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        p.s.

        Favorite one that got away was at the dead peoples’ auction in Pico Rivera in the 90’s, there’s this one lot of foreign coins with an estimate of $15, and its 2 square opaque plastic Nickel tubes meant to hold 40 Jeffersons, but I can see they are full of Swiss 20 Franc gold coins which have about 1/5th of an ounce in content, but how many in each tube?

        I wander off and call a numismatist friend who deals in bullion and ask him how many 20 Franc sized gold coins can you fit in a Nickel tube?

        He asks why i’d want to know that, as he’s ascertaining my request by seeing for himself, and a minute later he spits out, ’58’ I hope you’re happy now!

        There’s 116 of them and that’s $7k at melt value.

        There’s many hours between looking at the goods and when it gets auctioned off and i’m wondering who else saw this holy grail of a lot, it wasn’t that difficult to figure out…

        Up for auction it goes, and there’s a lot of hands up to $1,500 and i’m the last paddle thrust upwards. oh my gosh what a score at the dead people store is my thinking, and then this other paddle gets into the fray and at one point I look back, and she practically screams homeless bag lady in appearance to me as she takes us past $5k and this is getting serious, to the point where I made her pay too much @ $7,500.

        Reply ↓
    3. Alice X

      Thank you Eclair! A simpler, but rich life’s tale well told.

      Alas, I flounder in the woes that are Gaza. I am reduced with their misery and I find no joy.

      Reply ↓
  27. Es s Ce Tera

    re: Supreme Court Requires Schools to Allow Opting Out From L.G.B.T.Q. Stories

    Given that previous rulings have already limited or restricted US schools from pushing creationism or intelligent design, or promoting religious worldviews, and given this more recent SCOTUS ruling means schools must notify parents and allow opt‑outs for materials that conflict with their religious beliefs, and given that US strands of religion tend to be opposed to science, is the logical conclusion going to be that religious students should have their own schools, which they already do? Or that they should be removed from public schools? Opt out of education, go straight to seminary or bible school instead?

    Not long before we see YT videos of glowing US Senators asking small children in classrooms if they’ll grow up to be masters of the slave races?

    Reply ↓
  28. Bill B

    I’m probably missing something but if Trump would absolutely bomb Iran again if it enriches uranium to a point he doesn’t like, how would he know since the IAEA has been banned from Iran? Perhaps the answer is he can tell us anything he wants and go from there.

    Reply ↓
  29. none

    Enshittification / shrinkflation comes to self storage. I rented a “10′ x 10′” storage unit. Seemed ok, clean, secure, competitive price. Fine print on the web site says sizes are for comparison purposes only and actual sizes may vary, or some such. I measured the unit with a tape measure and it’s actually about 9’x9′, i.e. 20% smaller than advertised. I wonder if they all do that.

    Reply ↓
    1. enon

      I recently rented a moving truck advertised online and out front at $19.95 per day. I returned the truck after 5 hours and was charged for 2 days. Small print had language about the price applying to just the first 4 hours. Deceptive advertising for sure. A day has now shrunk to 4 hours.

      Reply ↓
    2. ambrit

      I think that they all do do that. Measuring an average house during construction, we would often see the area of the building expressed as “square feet under roof” which was often ‘tweaked’ to include the roof overhang, ie. outside the living space.
      America is a teaching example of Gresham’s Law in action.

      Reply ↓
    3. AndrewJ

      I’ve found that too. I’ve had a few storage units in one particular building that was built new for one company less than ten years ago, and then sold just a few years ago to another storage unit company. This current company uses the previous one’s inaccurate (or maybe nominal?) measurements, and doesn’t want to update them.
      This doesn’t always work out in their favor, though. I’ve learned to take a tape measure. Some units are bigger than their listed nominal size.
      Also, seems to be industry standard practice to attempt to balloon your rates by 20% every six months. What are you gonna do, move your hoard? (You can, of course! Keep as much as possible on wheels or nicely boxed, and move unit to unit in the same building. Get that sweet sweet first rent free again. Also, get in good with the property manager. Mine happily plays with my dog in the office every time I’m there. To combat the rent increases, you can email the property manager every time you catch it requesting a lower, inflation-based increase. Mine’s always said yes.)

      Reply ↓
    4. Retired Carpenter

      Standard “nominal size” scam. Ever buy dimensional lumber? Here are some rules of thumb for cross-section dimensions: Actual thickness AND width are 1/4″ smaller for nominal dimensions smaller than 1″. For nominal dimensions between 2″ to 8″, actual dimensions are 1/2″ smaller. For nominal dimensions 8″ or larger, actual dimensions are 3/4″ smaller. Lengths are usually 1/4″ longer. Plywood thicknesses can be 1/32 -1/16″ smaller, depending on the manufacturer. Your carpenter’s rule is your friend.

      Reply ↓
  30. Glen

    Re: Roman gravestones hint that ancient economies still shape the present

    Here’s Scott Manley providing an update on how NASA’s SLS program is going:

    NASA’s Future SLS Booster Just Failed Its First Test https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F85bTJLdaTo

    Listen to the end and he goes over how today’s rockets are sized based on Roman war chariots (two horse’s a$$es). Talk about your “sticky” technology, but there’s truth in that old saying that we advance by standing on the shoulders of giants.

    Or maybe it’s defaults to that old saying in physics that it advances one death at a time.

    Not sure there’s an old saying about what happens when your elites just decided to no longer do it anymore because they cannot profit from it. I don’t think engineers or scientists thought elites would ever be that stupid.

    Reply ↓
  31. vao

    Regarding Intellectual Property within the Quantum Innovation Value Chain: what the author (also referring to other studies and documents) proposes to prevent some actors from getting a chokehold on quantum technology developments via their IPR looks like handwaving to me:

    “If quantum actors choose to engage in open innovation, they could still structure their IP strategies to “strategically manage openness” by protecting key inventions whilst still fostering a culture of co-creation.”

    I am surprised not to find any reference or hint whatsoever to how the matter is handled in other fields.

    For instance, the ITU establishes international norms regarding telecommunications, whose technical details have been specified by other standardization bodies such as 3GPP. In those organizations, the participants specifying the standard have to officially declare which of their IPR constitute “essential patents” for the standard being developed.

    To put it simply, an essential patent is one without which it is either impossible to implement the standard, or, if an alternative approach is possible, the implementation becomes so cumbersome, inefficient, and impractical as to be irrelevant technically and commercially.

    The consequence of announcing a patent as essential is that the holder of the IPR is obliged to make it available to all other parties on FRAND terms — Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory — thus ensuring the viability of an international norm while enabling competition. The system is not perfect, but works reasonably satisfactorily.

    It is still to early to have actual standards in quantum technology, but an evolution towards norms cannot be discounted and, who knows?, perhaps somebody is already thinking about it. After all, there will be a need for interfacing quantum-based systems with non-quantum ones, or for ensuring interoperability between various quantum-enabled apparatuses. In such a context, the existing approach based on SEP (Standards-Essential Patents) would be highly relevant. That the author completely ignores it is quite surprising to me.

    Reply ↓
  32. flora

    re: AI, from the Gary Marcus twtr-X

    The paper documents a pattern they called Potemkins, a kind of reasoning inconsistency (see figure below). They show that LLMs – even models like o3 — make these errors frequently.

    You can’t possibly create AGI based on machines that cannot keep consistent with their own assertions. You just can’t.

    —–

    Maybe it should be called Artifical Sophistry. AS. / ;)

    Reply ↓
  33. cfraenkel

    For anyone else interested in the AI hype, here is the arxiv link to the paper mentioned in Gary Marcus tweex:
    https://arxiv.org/html/2506.21521v1

    Just skimmed it, but the gist appears to be that they identify cases where the LLM can correctly define concepts (no surprise), but then when asked followon questions depending on those concepts, the LLMs get it wrong. (again, no surprise, unless you’re an AGI fanboy)

    The paper is mostly about developing a methodology to test for and evaluate LLMs for this behavior, and again, no surprise, they find that all the current crop of LLM suffer from this.

    (no surprise because assuming that LLMs are stochastic parrots, you wouldn’t expect a “concept” to be carried through in “reasoning” about second order situations…. It’s just news because *all* the LLMs are shown to exhibit this limitation. And the hype pretends the opposite.)

    Reply ↓
    1. chris

      Maybe she went back to regime approved protest topics against officially designated cultural enemies she can rebuild her positive cred with her masters?

      Reply ↓
        1. chris

          Protesting against Orban and his anti-trans cultural stance is always approved by NATO and others. What Hungary approves of is irrelevant in this context. People in the enlightened west will try to kill you for protesting for Palestinian rights, but they will sing your praises if you protest against an autocrat like Orban.

          Reply ↓
    2. Alice X

      Thank you.

      Pride stuff is a response to the repression of human rights. Uphold universal human rights and pride stuff would be unnecessary. Greta is courageous. Orban is retrograde.

      Full disclosure, I’m bi. (am I out?) The populations are manipulated by the powerful (not from their social bearings) but because of their material interests. Divide and rule.

      Reply ↓
      1. Jonathan Holland Becnel

        Greta should know that there’s a greater fight for humanity, and yeah Orbans shitty on Identity Politics but who fucking cares if they are all murdered provoking Russia?!

        Like wtf, Greta, you from playing chicken with the Israeli Death Machine, and now you’re running point for the Empires color revolution?!

        Gtfo

        Reply ↓
        1. chris

          Greta is still a kid and she’s been a tool for those in control to use in their manipulation of media for various purposes. Her trying to run the Palestinian blockade was truly courageous. Probably the only reason those accompanying her weren’t blown out of the water. As for her knowing there’s a greater fight for humanity, that’s not her problem. She gets to choose what she wants to do. I’m more interested in watching who supports her when and which media organizations choose to amplify her presence at various events.

          From what I have read and discussions I’ve had with people from the region, which I know is all anecdotal information at best, there is legitimate cultural resistance to LGBT in Hungary. It appears to be a socially conservative place that does not want that concept to take root in the country. The Eurocrats hate Orban. They’d happily put gay people in a public display at risk to embarrass Orban. It is entirely possible that those kind of displays are outside attempts to build support for a color revolution. It’s also possible there is a section of the population that wants change. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.

          Reply ↓
  35. Alice X

    A moving piece at Truthout (an email link so I hope it works):

    Internet Access Is a Lifeline for Us in Gaza — So Israel Attacked It

    Communications blackouts aren’t accidental. They’re strategy. They’re the tool Israel uses to try to erase us quietly.

    By
    Hend Salama Abo Helow

    Hend Salama Abo Helow is a researcher, writer and medical student at Al-Azhar University in Gaza. She is also a writer with We Are Not Numbers and has published in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Institute for Palestinian Studies, Mondoweiss and Al Jazeera. She believes in writing as a form of resistance, a silent witness to atrocities committed against Palestinians, and a way to achieve liberation.

    *****

    Another piece:

    Starvation and Profiteering in Gaza (w/ Francesca Albanese) | The Chris Hedges Report

    *****

    Yet another piece from Middle East Eye:

    Norman Finkelstein on Israel, Zohran Mamdani and the coming class war | The Big Picture

    Much familiar territory with NF but well worthwhile.

    The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

    Reply ↓
  36. Wukchumni

    I can’t see you saving face in my mind
    I can’t see you saving face in my mind

    Carnival dogs
    Consume the lies
    Can’t see you saving face
    In my mind

    Don’t
    You cry
    Bibi, please don’t cry
    And don’t look at me
    With your eyes
    I can’t seem to find the right lie
    I can’t seem to find the right lie
    Insanity’s pale horse
    Adorns the sky
    Can’t seem to find the right lie

    Carnival dogs
    Consume the lines
    Can’t see you saving face in my mind

    Don’t
    You cry
    Bibi, please don’t cry
    I won’t need any closure
    Until we say goodbye

    I Can’t See Your Face in my Mind, by the Doors

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KElzMBKBGZo&list=RDKElzMBKBGZo

    Reply ↓
  37. AG

    re: Iran

    This is an interview by Radio France with Grossi on June 26th.
    https://www.rfi.fr/fr/podcasts/le-grand-invit%C3%A9-international/20250626-aiea-rafael-grossi-programme-nucl%C3%A9aire-iran-%C3%A9normes-d%C3%A9g%C3%A2ts-guerre-israel?utm_slink=rfi.my%2FBn7H

    One could comment on this in so many ways. Pavel Podvig however, on whose NITTER I found it, chose to write this:
    https://nitter.poast.org/russianforces/status/1938357064511672401#m

    Of course you can argue he looks only at certain details as a professional.
    But the double standard within the entire way of thinking has established itself so throroughly even with scientists that their lack of geopolitical understanding (used to be called “apolitical science”) has become a real problem for critical exchange, for serious scrutiny and a threat to informing public opinion in a sensible way.

    In the past someone would have made sane comments about how Grossi already frames the events.
    About the fact that he does not push back against the insinuating nature of the RFI questions and what they don´t even mention.

    The politisation of science especially since 2022 (some will argue it started with Covid on this level) is horrible.

    Reply ↓

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