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Links 6/9/2025

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Milky Way-Andromeda crash? There’s now only 50 percent chance of this epic event Interesting Engineering

Waging War in The Cloud: How Data Is The New Weapon Of Mass Destruction Madras Courier

Caffeine Has a Weird Effect on Your Brain While You’re Asleep Science Alert

Ed the zebra captured after running loose for more than a week in Tennessee The Guardian

Climate/Environment

As Arctic ice vanishes, maritime traffic boom fuels the climate crisis France24

Major Cereal Crops Fall Behind Because of Climate Change, Study Shows The Energy Mix

Crop insurance costs taxpayers billions. But it only benefits big farms and companies. Chicago Tribune

Climate change impacts have potentially big repercussions for kids’ education PNAS

Pandemics

Florida schools face alarming rise in student absences since pandemic Tampa Bay Times

An Ominous Combination: A New COVID Variant and the Waning Will to Fight It American Council on Science and Health

No One Has Cancer, Heart Disease, or Accident Fatigue Way Past What the F**K

SARS-COV-2 PERSISTENCE IN SEMEN AS A WINDOW TO STUDY LONG COVID The Journal of Urology

Thread detailing how viruses and pathogens are key drivers of chronic disease:

India

Operation Sindoor: Unpacking the ‘military success, narrative failure’ discourse India Inside Out by Rohan Venkat

China?

Contours of a US-China Tech Grand Bargain Interconnected

Western automakers are closing plants as managers consider moving production to China Inside China / Business

The Top Companies Behind the Rare Earth Industry Wire Screen

***

China Expert Warns Of “Something Worse” Than Covid After US Fungus Smuggling Case NDTV

Experts doubt FBI’s claim that crop fungus smuggled by Chinese students is a threat Reuters

O Canada

G7 summit to take place days after megaproject announcements rejected by Indigenous land defenders, new military spending Peace Brigades International-Canada

Africa

Cholera Surges in Sudan as War-Hit Capital Sees 1,000 New Cases Daily Telesur

Syraqistan

Israeli forces kidnap volunteers on Gaza-bound ship Madleen: Freedom Flotilla Coalition Anadolu Agency

Flotilla activists to watch Oct. 7 ‘horror footage’ in mandatory viewing under defense minister’s instructions Haaretz

Israel kills more aid-seeking civilians after GHF misleads Palestinians into military zones The Cradle

GHF says it will open three aid distribution sites tomorrow Times of Israel

UK and France abandon plans to recognise Palestinian state at conference Middle East Eye. Boy, they really had us going this time.

Smotrich preparing ‘operational plan’ to enforce ‘Israeli sovereignty’ over West Bank The Jewish Chronicle

***

Iran Says No Sanctions Relief In US Nuclear Proposal AFP

Iran says it will soon unveil ‘treasure trove’ of sensitive Israeli documents The New Arab

European Disunion

Chartbook 389: Europe’s zombie armies. Or how to spend $3.1 trillion and have precious little to show for it. Adam Tooze

Germany plans rapid expansion of outdated bunkers amid fears of Russian aggression CNN

Increase pressure or silently acquiesce Brookings Institution. “The critical decisions facing European policymakers on Russian sanctions.”

Weak Myths New Left Review

EU could postpone flagship AI rules, tech chief says Politico. “…amid fierce lobbying over the rules, including from the U.S. administration”

Old Blighty

Sam Altman’s eyeball-scanning identification tech expands to UK Business Times

Revealed: “Shocking” scale of Big Tech’s influence over Labour Democracy for Sale

Homelessness in Northern Ireland more than doubles over past decade Left Foot Forward

New Not-So-Cold War

TELL-AND-CONSEQUENCES IS NOT A WAR GAME, NEITHER IS TURN-THE-OTHER-CHEEK John Helmer

Russian troops advancing in Dnepropetrovsk Region — top brass TASS. First time Russia has pushed into the central Ukraine region.

Fiber Optic Bird’s Nest Heralds A Fiber Drone Summer In Ukraine Forbes

Ukraine’s defence forces report shortage of FPV drones – BBC Ukrainska Pravda

Trump admin diverted 20,000 anti-drone missiles it promised to Ukraine and sent them to US troops, Zelensky says New York Post

Russia Redeploys Scarce Tu-160 Bombers As Far As Possible From Ukraine After Sustained Attacks on Primary Base Military Watch

***

One-Way Missions Tarik Cyril Amar

***

Russian ruble: The curious case of the world’s best-performing currency this year CNBC

Is Russia’s Economy Really Just Spain and Portugal? Let’s Do the Math. Brian Mcdonald

Russia’s opposition talking with Ukraine behind the scenes, top dissident says Politico. Really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

South of the Border

Colombian presidential hopeful’s shooting stirs echoes of past political violence Semafor

Nicaragua and China Break Ground on Landmark Solar Project to Power Water Access and Energy Sovereignty Telesur

“Liberation Day”

Jobs at the Port of Los Angeles are down by half, executive director says Los Angeles Times

Can US ports handle a freight spike or will they be overwhelmed? The Business Times

DOGE

DOGE Is on a Recruiting Spree Wired

GOP Funhouse

CYA, we’re all gonna die Art Cullen’s Notebook

Police State Watch

TRUMP’S DANGEROUS DECISION TO SUPPRESS ANTI-ICE PROTESTS WITH TROOPS Nick Turse, The Intercept

The National Guard in Los Angeles Lawfare

As ICE agents enter LA communities, here’s what the law says about civil rights — regardless of immigration status LAist

ICE: Crossing State Lines to Incite Riots The American Prospect

Some sights and sounds:

***

ICE OFFICIAL REVEALS MISERABLE CONDITIONS FOR U.S. IMMIGRANTS AT DJIBOUTI PRISON The Intercept

‘Some cry all day.’ ICE detainees face harsh conditions in Miami federal facility Miami Herald. The lede: ‘Nearly 50 men spent hours in a small holding cell asking for water, food and medication. Instead, officers dressed in riot gear sprayed the room with rubber bullets and launched “flash bang” grenades.’

Is It OK to Earn Rental Income From an ICE Holding Facility? The New York Times Magazine

AI

Your call is important to us… Archedelia

Our Famously Free Press

ABC suspends correspondent for calling Stephen Miller a “world-class hater” Axios

Imperial Collapse Watch

Funding For Next Batches of F-35 Stealth Fighters Delayed: New Radar Requires Fuselage Redesign Military Watch

Guillotine Watch

A Trillion Dollars in One Year, and No New Taxes Dollars & Sense

Yacht Builder To The World’s Super-Rich Caught Up In Spy Claims Bloomberg

Class Warfare

Capital’s Regime Change and the Neoliberal Monetary DebateHistory & Political Economy Project

The Bezzle

Uber’s New Shuttle Is Basically a Bus, but Worse Gizmodo

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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149 comments

  1. Antifa

    Where Is The Fire?

    The City Of Angels is once more on fire
    With National Guard troops the cops don’t require
    Trump sent them to stand in the streets strapped and masked
    ‘Go there and stir up way more trouble’ he asked

    But Newsom says Trump is a stone cold liar
    And wholly the cause of the flames growing higher
    Folks on the Right say, ‘Throw Newsom in jail’
    At this point who knows which side’s gonna prevail?

    Trump’s certainly stretching the laws of the land
    Yelling ‘rebellion’ and taking command
    But Governors call out the Guard—Title 10
    Says Newsom can send them all home again

    So Donald’s next move, as a matter of fact
    Is invoking Ye Olde Insurrection Act
    Once habeas corpus no longer exists
    Trump’s enemies all get twist ties on their wrists

    ‘Move fast and break things’ will shatter what was
    Trump says the Guard’s there for protecting the fuzz
    But LAPD says they don’t need the Guard
    Those warriors make calming the protests too hard

    What Trump wants and needs is total control
    Only that feeds the ravening pit in his soul
    Plus these days dementia unfetters his ghouls
    So no, Donald will not observe any rules

    On the streets of LA people act out a play
    From the mind of demented old Donald each day
    Proving he’s not a loser with nothing to show
    A sad sack, a failure, with nowhere to go

    Trump never matured past the age of thirteen
    Lying and cheating is his whole routine
    He can’t stop himself from going too far
    Other people must stop him—and that’s where we are

  2. The Rev Kev

    “Iran Says No Sanctions Relief In US Nuclear Proposal’

    The US negotiating strategy – ‘You give us everything that we want, we give you nothing that you want, and then you find a way to be OK with all that. So is it a deal?’

    1. AG

      “The US negotiating strategy”
      That´s virtually the only one they ever had since the ontological moment of Trinity…copying what Brits did before.

    2. Vandemonian

      “The United States’ Negotiating Strategy”

      Three oxymorons in one short phrase: “United”, “negotiating”, and “strategy”.

  3. AG

    re: Israeli forces kidnap volunteers on Gaza-bound ship Madleen: Freedom Flotilla Coalition Anadolu Agency

    If anybody wants to study the embarrassing newspeak by German media take e.g. this item by TAZ

    Palestine aid ship stopped off Gaza
    Israel fishes Thunberg out of the sea
    Israel has intercepted the Gaza aid ship “Madleen.” Greta Thunberg and the other activists are to be sent home.

    June 9, 2025
    https://archive.is/S41ZF

    (yeah the same paper that had this insane interview yesterday about abducted Ukrainian kids. Interesting how differently TAZ operates with vocabulary in both theses cases)

    original
    https://taz.de/Palaestina-Hilfsschiff-vor-Gaza-gestoppt/!6093348/

      1. JohnA

        What is most remarkable about the coverage is that most mainstream media (including Swedish media) have adopted the IDF line of trying to ridicule Thunberg and the rest of the boat members. Clearly the IDF figured better not to murder her as she would become a martyr of Zionist inhumanity so, sneeringly describe the voyage as a selfie trip instead. Apparently ahead of being arrested, the members threw their smartphones overboard, and now Greta is being accused of environmental pollution by the Zionists. Adn the MSM repeat it unchanged.
        And still western governments sit on their hands. Never can there have been such a disconnect between the horror felt by the vast majority of the general public and the politicians who simply repeat the mantra of Israel has the right to defend itself and effectively do whatever it likes, in the full knowledge that the most they will suffer is a weak scolding by such indulgent parents allowing their bratty offspring to behave appallingly with little if any punishment.

        1. Vandemonian

          “ Never can there have been such a disconnect between the horror felt by the vast majority of the general public and the politicians…”

          The Bread Riots in Paris might have run close. That didn’t end well.

    2. Jason Boxman

      It hadn’t occurred to me, but Israel is a terrorist state. It’s so self evident I never thought of it.

  4. Terry Flynn

    Caffeine does stuff to adenosine? Well, I never. My only significant experience of adenosine was in the ED when after a 2 hour SVT it was clear I was on fast track to total heart failure and so they injected me with adenosine. It’s the equivalent of “turning the PC off and on again and hoping it restarts normally and there is no BSOD”.

    I was told some people see weird things when “dead”…..I was rather looking forward to seeing if there was a door and a “come towards the light” thing but sadly my experience was very mundane. Just sudden relief to a degree that beats (ahem) any other type of relief.

    1. Kurtismayfield

      Caffeine has been known for a long time to be a mutagen in certain situations. I believe in the 70s they discovered that in damaged or repairing DNA, caffeine can play a part in dimerization. E Coli DNA have also been shown to be changed by caffeine in high concentrations.

    2. .Tom

      The article mentions brain scientists’ concept of brains being in a critical state. “This criticality refers to the brain being balanced between structure and flexibility, thought to be the most efficient state for processing information, learning, and making decisions.” I wonder if this relates to the idea of criticality of minds and thinking machines that Turing discussed(*), by analogy to criticality of chain reactions in an atomic pile: “An idea presented to such a [sub-critical] mind will on average give rise to less than one idea in reply. … An idea presented to such a [super-critical] mind may give rise to a whole theory consisting of secondary, tertiary and more remote ideas.”

      I find achieving a sub-critical mental state necessary to falling asleep. Caffeine certainly doesn’t help.

      (*) See Section 7 here https://archive.org/details/MIND–COMPUTING-MACHINERY-AND-INTELLIGENCE/page/n21/mode/2up

  5. mrsyk

    This from Operation Sindoor: Unpacking the ‘military success, narrative failure’ discourse sounds familiar.
    “Push outrageous lies out at the public through the news media, knowing that the narrative can easily be reframed whenever needed, given that tough questions directed at the government are a thing of the past.”

    I wonder where they learned that?

      1. ForFawkesSake

        You’re a child. People can have nuanced opinions. Grown adults used to understand this.

        Do better.

      2. gf

        No, she has been hounded by little nazi provocateurs (fake journalists) for a very long time now.

      3. mrsyk

        I have never cheered for Greta being disappeared. You might try reading other comments carefully before you make your own.

        1. bob

          Copy that, you just pick on her, her youth and naivete. Like a bully.

          https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/06/links-6-2-2025.html#comment-4223875

          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.

          1. mrsyk

            Read the whole thread, please.
            Also, the reliably statement was a criticism, albeit with a rationalization.
            I have reliably defended her since day one.
            I will stand by my comment, thanks.

              1. mrsyk

                He wrote one good LP on war and somehow is taken for an authority on it? Low hanging fruit, admittedly. Peace.

                1. uncle

                  A girl is much better organized, because she had time for “pimping the ukraine war”, and protesting in Georgia, and for regatta.

  6. OIFVet

    Re Europe’s zombie armies, Adam Tooze. That has got to be peak US imperial thinking right there: European military Keynsianism for the US MIC, because it’s efficient and makes for good progressive politics. It boggles the mind, mostly because I’ve come to have such high opinion of the EU establishment that I can see trillions flowing from Europe to Northrop, General Dynamics and Boeing.

    That’s not to say that his diagnosis is incorrect, it’s the prescription which is highly objectionable and shameless in the face of more Europeans experiencing economic difficulties and the continuing rise of the far right. Of course, we can add the further problem of the EU currently lacking any conceivable path toward federalization, which would solve certain military-related issues.

    Yet most conspicuous by its absence is the most effective security solution for Europe – raproachment. That would require to stop antagonizing Russia and pretending that it has no right to have its own security concerns, and apparently that outweighs such benefits as peace and economic cooperation.

    Worst of all is that this reality no longer boggles the rational mind.

    1. Clock Strikes 13

      It is truly amazing how many of these big-brain professors have atrocious skills of critical thinking and analysis when it comes to the system that coddles them. Poor Adam is so deeply ensconced in the warm, cuddly embrace of Mother Natostania that it has sent him to Slumberland.

      The irrationality and unworkability of NATO is exemplified by the fact that Greece maintains a massive military force because it so fears its fellow NATO member Turkey! The idea that this rag-tag group of Euro loser states are going to willingly die for each other is hilarious. America needs to withdraw its legions like Rome pulled back from Dacia and later Britain. It is still a powerful force but the ‘barbarians’ are ascendant.

      Finally, if you depend on a third party for your fighting capability, well… you don’t possess a fighting capability.

      Europe has always had a reality-acceptance problem, probably why we love myths, coupled with a powerful death-drive. I have just accepted that we Westoids will always take the illogical, fantastical dream offerings of an ideology (ie fascism, neoliberalism, manifest destiny, exceptionalism) instead of the cool draught of reality.

    2. Aurelien

      Extra spending on defence will go on European equipment, as it largely does now. As Tooze says, this is an economic inefficiency, but it’s also a sovereignty issue. With US forces in Europe reduced almost to nothing, it’s unacceptable for an absent state to have any more leverage over Europe than it already has. And military Keynesianism is not about equipment, it’s historically been effective in injecting demand into the domestic economy by providing jobs for the unemployed and demand for ordinary goods like boots and uniforms, cars and trucks, food and fuel, as well as building and construction work. Unfortunately, there isn’t going to be any conscription, and almost everything is made in China, or can’t be done at all.

      But this is to mistake the nature of the issue. There is no “threat”, even a hypothetical one, that unites Greece, Portugal and Belgium, and looking at numbers of tanks and defence budgets is really not the issue. As I’ve argued elsewhere, the real task is to work out a modus vivendi with an angry and powerful Russia, in the effective absence of the United States. The best way to do this is through non-provocative defence of sovereignty, which means aircraft and ships to patrol airspace and maritime borders, and enough of a military capability to avoid being taken for granted. I would like to think our political leaders had the subtlety and intelligence to understand such things. I would like to.

      1. The Rev Kev

        Otto von Bismark once said ‘The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia’ and he was right. Ominously, he also said the following-

        ‘Do not expect that once taking advantage of Russia’s weakness, you will receive dividends forever. Russian has always come for their money. And when they come – do not rely on an agreement signed by you, you are supposed to justify. They are not worth the paper it is written. Therefore, with the Russian is to play fair, or do not play.’

      2. vao

        “Extra spending on defence will go on European equipment, as it largely does now.”

        Very doubtful.

        Some figures:

        52% of spending on military equipment by European NATO states goes to European manufacturers. 34% to the USA, 14% to Israel, Brazil, South Korea.

        European NATO states have considerably increased their imports of military equipment in the past years (2020-2024). 64% of these represent imports from the USA, a significant increase from the USA share of 52% in the period 2015-2019.

        The fact that Europe no longer has the capacity to produce military equipment at scale, to the point that it cannot even fulfil its — relatively modest — delivery promises to Ukraine, has been amply discussed in this forum.

        Conclusions:

        1) European NATO countries acquire just about (not “largely”) a majority of their military equipment from European suppliers;

        2) because of a lack of industrial capacity, extra spending will be affected to imports, and those will come to a vast majority from the USA.

        Therefore, I do not think that your assessment about Europe’s sovereignty in the military realm is warranted, at least in the short to medium term.

        1. Aurelien

          This is basically the F35 programme, as it was with the F16 several generations ago, and the percentage will reduce sharply in time. Ironically, of course a non-negligible percentage of that programme is imported into the US before being re-exported (the UK alone provides about 15% of the F35 by value). It’s also partly a matter of timing: European aircraft (Typhoon, Rafale) have essentially been delivered, whereas the F35 is a continuing programme. US import penetration is much less in other areas.
          European arms factories are generally operating below, or well below, capacity (at one point Dassault was making one Rafale per month) so in the short term they can theoretically expand production substantially. Whether they can actually do so we’ll have to see, but then it’s doubtful whether the US can do so, either.

        2. Ignacio

          As i see it that list is not complete. About 1/3 of the military budgets goes to salaries and other internal expenses of the military. the other 2/3 of spending may vary very much though but if roughly 1/3 of the whole budget goes to EU suppliers and the rest (1/3) is spent outside these are different figures. Yet I suspect that purchases from the US will reduce their share given things. In any case there are probably wide differences between EU countries. Poland is spending a lot in the US.

          1. vao

            “As i see it that list is not complete.”

            The discussion is about equipment, and those statistics specifically refer to that — not to salaries and consumables.

            1. Ignacio

              I thought it was about military Keynesianism. So, not only equipment purchases, IMO.

    3. Carolinian

      We are busy being boggled by our own government but take some cold comfort in knowing it’s not just us.

      As Ambrit likes to say, stay safe!!

  7. The Rev Kev

    ‘Clash Report
    @clashreport
    American police shot 9News Australia reporter Lauren Tomasi in the leg with a rubber bullet at close range while she was covering the ongoing protests in Los Angeles.’

    Shooting a journalist at point blank range and not being worried that he had a video camera pointed his way? Boy, I see that all that Israeli training of American police is really paying off. But as we say down here, it was a dog act. Pro tip. If you are a news reporter going to the US, make sure that you are wearing padding all under your clothes. Come to think of it, something similar happened when Trump was Prez last time when he cleared all those people in front of the White House so he could do a photo op in front of that shut down church. An Aussie news crew were doing coverage live when this cop started to beat her with a billy stick. I’m sure that his mother must be very proud of him.

    1. aleric

      They don’t just shoot journalists in the leg – Linda Tirado died in 2024 after being deliberately shot in the face by police while covering the 2020 protests in Minneapolis. Racket MN link

      1. bradford

        She is in hospice as a result of the brain injury, but did not die, and according to rumor is recently making improvements.

        1. Bsn

          Yep, those police (many X-military) go through serious trainings on the use of guns. Protesters being shot in the eye, happens all the time. Not many getting shot in the back of the hand, the elbow, the thigh…… so often the eyes. Hmmm, ’tis a mystery. That reporter is lucky as heck.

        2. bertl

          Does the Second Amendment giving people the right to bear arms to resist oppression and to defend one’s person not apply in California, or are the Cal liberals too laid back and nice to make use of their rights against an oppressive government quite happy to gun down them down?

  9. Unironic Pangloss

    >>>> But Trump sends troops — for the 1st time since 65, over objections of state/city.

    So that Twitter-er is on the side of the Arkansas governor and against Eisenhower’s 82nd Airborne?

    Cracks me up that Mayor Bass literally cited “state sovereignty.”

    Everyone is for/against-XYZ lawfare, until that tool is used right against them by the other side.

  10. Unironic Pangloss

    talking about Little Rock in the 50’s…and ya the 1965 LA riots were rough. and ya, maybe had the National Guard been activated earlier, there wouldn’t be Korean rooftop vigilantes.

    (Not defending Trump) just find it hilarious Dem. clutch state rights pearls now, like it’s 1968….over a situation that are just as helped create—not enforcing federal law versus overturning the laws that they don’t like

    1. Unironic Pangloss

      mea culpa. i see that at least one casualty of the mostly peaceful protests is a Waymo.

      excuse me as I grab Cosette and join the revolution. I volunteer to be Spartacus.

      1. turtle

        They burned down at least 5 Waymo taxis all near each other. I watched them starting to burn live on TV, one by one, slowly.

        Supposedly the crowd called them, but I’m not sure if that’s true.

        This morning I saw news coverage from the same location, and the Waymos had burned down to almost nothing. I could only discern the wheels and the “B” columns (between the front and rear doors). It made me wonder if those things are made almost entirely out of plastic.

        2. juno mas

          The modern passenger car is plastic on the exterior from the headlights/brakelights down. The interior is mostly synthetic as well. The stamped interior metal body is covered by thin-metal doors and other panels that hold their shape through creases in the metal or back-folds at the edges (wheel wells). Essentially a flimsy beer can with wheels. Those wheels, if magnesium, will melt into a puddle with intense flames (generated from igniting lithium battery).

    2. Unironic Pangloss

      Just like abortion, Democrats have had multiple windows to legislate a new immigration system. but they never do, or even have the courage to go on the record for a bill that the GOP has to vote down.

      The national Democrats are just as in the wrong as the GOP. just for different reasons.

  11. farmboy

    2 good articles on ag, 1st crop insurance, it became essential for grain farmers to carry crop ins, banks often require it, yields can be individually tracked so a farms history can be used to adjust coverage. the trick now is to gauge the amount of risk in any one year as full coverage (85%) is spread through different databases and USDA FSA programs. Gotta be a student! Rainfall and weather are possible coverage policies, lots to consider. My policy did allow me to convert completely to organic for the last 5 years with price per bushel (yield) over twice what conventional was, huge opportunity here!. there is a discovery period for the next years price that is typically at harvest so will be the lowest prices of the year, easy for the underwriting companies to short futures to hold prices down (says the conspiracy theorist in me).
    the other article detailing how climate change is lowering yields, you can bet every single plant breeder is well aware and looking closely at how to adapt. Wheat is the most drought hearty of the major grains so it is worth watching and who responds with breakthroughs and what takes place

    2. The Rev Kev

      Time was that the biggest thing that farmers could never predict was rainfall. It is erratic, can be different from one day to the next, sometimes too little and sometimes too much, sometimes it gusts into a tornado and wrecks everything in sight and destroys farmer’s plans. Well that was then. Now farmers have to worry about rainfall and Trump which is kinda the same thing.

      1. lyman alpha blob

        Excellent article – thanks flora!

        VT does have a short growing season, but if you grow crops appropriate to the climate, you can still feed a lot of people. When my grandfather ran the farm, he had more diversified operations. Over the years, the family concentrated on dairy above other things, which probably wasn’t the best decision – regular members of the commentariat know the dairy herd was sold a couple years ago. But even so, they still raised some beef cattle and vegetables for family consumption, and still do. There is a root cellar in the farmhouse basement that stores squash, beets, and other vegetables with long shelf (or cellar) lives that can be eaten all winter. Others can be canned and eaten year round. When my grandfather died, there were veggies in mason jars that had been there on the basement shelf for decades. We opted for putting up some new ones rather than testing the preservation of those from the old jars, which got tossed.

        It can be done, but we need to get away from industrial agriculture. One of the reasons my family sold the dairy herd instead of trying to compete by expanding was that my uncle wanted a farm, and not a factory.

  12. AG

    re: latest German ambassador rotation

    Rarely talked about topic via news source German gmx which I usually ignore as they are ignorant tabloid level. They quote mainly SPIEGEL and DPA:

    New ambassador posts: Hanefeld in the USA – Kahl to the Vatican
    https://archive.is/59XHT

    “(…)
    Bruno Kahl (62), who has served as President of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) since 2016, will become the new German representative to the Holy See in Rome.
    (…)”

    New US Ambassador Hahnefeld:
    “(…)From 2014 to 2024, he was on special leave from Volkswagen AG , where he served as Head of International and European Policy and Trade Policy. This position is likely to be a significant qualification in light of the dispute over auto tariffs with the US. Der Spiegel reported on Hanefeld’s appointment on Thursday.(…)”

    “(…)
    The new NATO ambassador will be Detlef Wächter, previously ambassador in Oslo. He has broad expertise in security policy. From 2005 to 2007, he worked at the Permanent Mission to NATO in Brussels, and from 2007 to 2010, he served as Deputy Head of the Security Policy Division at the Federal Chancellery, responsible for the USA, Canada, Western Europe, and Turkey.
    (…)”
    In between he also was part of DoD.

  13. The Rev Kev

    “China Expert Warns Of “Something Worse” Than Covid After US Fungus Smuggling Case”

    You wonder how much agricultural sabotage actually goes on around the world. So country A is in competition with country B in growing an export crop that makes a lot of money. So maybe country A will send in some “tourists” or put something in a diplomatic bag for distribution after it arrived in country B. It could be a fungus or insect or maybe it is something present in Country A but not country B. Point is, that it will be something that will cause enormous problems for country B with country A having deniability. I bet that it goes on a lot more than governments are willing to admit.

    1. frank

      Something wrong about this report.
      1. It is already in the US https://www.ars.usda.gov/midwest-area/stpaul/cereal-disease-lab/docs/fusarium-head-blight/fusarium-head-blight-in-the-us/
      During the past decade, Fusarium head blight or scab of wheat and barley has been the plant disease with arguably the greatest impact on U.S. agriculture and society. The disease, caused by the fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum, has reached epidemic proportions in the United States causing yield losses and price discounts resulting from reduced seed quality. Over 2.6 billion dollars have been lost to US agriculture during wheat scab epidemics in the 1990s (McMullen et al., 1998) having a devastating effect on farm communities in the upper Midwest (Windels, 2000). Moreover, the disease is increasingly becoming a threat to the world’s food supply due to recent head blight outbreaks in Asia, Canada, Europe and South America (Dubin et al., 1997). The pathogen poses a two-fold threat: first, infested cereals show significant reduction in seed quality and yield due to discolored, shriveled “tombstone” kernels, and secondly, scabby grain is often contaminated with trichothecene and estrogenic mycotoxins (McMullen, et al., 1998), making it unsuitable for food or feed.

      2. A capsule-full of spores in a medicine bottle would be enough to get someone started. I’d say that they had to know who they were looking for and where to look.

      1. Michaelmas

        frank: A capsule-full of spores in a medicine bottle would be enough to get someone started. I’d say that they had to know who they were looking for and where to look.

        Except, of course, to know that with certainty is almost impossible. Two points —

        [1] This sort of thing was done by both sides throughout Cold War 1’s later decades, and in Cold War 2 it’s continuing, alongside vastly more advanced biogenetic tech.

        [2] The necessary programs to know and detect this sort of thing are publicly very sensitive — probably publicly unacceptable. Forex: one such attempt by the US government began with some biodefense programs funded at MIT in 1998 (I knew some personnel involved) which later became the infamous Total Information Awareness program, so when the surveillance technologiess involved created a public uproar, they were shifted into the black, and given to NSA and DIA.

      2. JustAnotherVolunteer

        I had a campus networking colleague in the 90s who always claimed his budget priorities were “lower than wheat rust. It was true – and the late 90s saw a real fire drill around the global spread starting with new strains in Uganda:

        https://www.farmprogress.com/wheat/potentially-devastating-wheat-rust-spreads

        https://www.apsnet.org/publications/phytopathology/backissues/Documents/1978Articles/Phyto68n02_207.pdf

        The global response still in progress – https://bgri.cornell.edu/

        I wouldn’t be surprised to discover a research connection here that inspectors missed.

  14. ChrisFromGA

    Ohio State says every student will become fluent in AI:

    Link

    So Ohio State is saying that they are no longer going to be an institution of higher learning. They’re converting into a technical school, with the goal being to create good little corporate drones who don’t have those pesky critical thinking skills.

    File under “Groves of Academe” or “Pandering to Tech Lords.”

    1. The Rev Kev

      Maybe the idea is to dumb down the students graduating from places like Ohio State so that students graduating from elite universities don’t have to have so much competition. Here’s a NYT article talking how they want to jam this junk into every college – “Inside OpenAI’s Plan to Embed ChatGPT Into College Students’ Lives”

      https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/technology/chatgpt-openai-colleges.html

      Trying to force feed this to students to grow their customer base – at the cost of education.

      2. ChrisFromGA

        I suspect it is more of a money grab.

        Universities face a huge threat from “asynchronous learning” and on-line courses. There are two ways I can see them responding, to create “value-add”:

        1. Run as fast away from AI as possible, go back to proctored blue book exams, bring back pen and pencil. Stick with critical thinking and the classics. Let other institutions chase the tech bezzle.

        2. Reposition as “AI friendly” and pander to the least common denominator – students who could care less about becoming a better version of themselves. They just want a gatekeeper credential and a job as a “prompt jockey” for some corporate tool.

        Door number 2 is an easier path and can attract more low-quality students to cut those tuition checks.

        1. flora

          NBC story from 2023. Maybe colleges want to demonstrate they’re graduating students with degrees and coursework that are useful in the work world. AI as a tech school-type training makes sense in that respect to keep the dollars flowing…I guess.

          New Biden rule will cut funding to college programs, leaving grads with unaffordable loans, low pay

          https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/new-biden-rule-cuts-funds-programs-leaving-college-grads-high-debt-low-rcna117853

          Colleges used to pussh STEM coursework. Is AI a part of STEM? (Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine)

          2. Acacia

            Remember when everyone was going to learn HTML and build web sites?

            Now it’s “prompt engineering” which isn’t even as complicated as HTML.

            Gonna be a lot of bag holder degrees plus student loan debt.

            Win win.

        2. Greg Taylor

          Very few Door #1 institutions would survive – there’s limited demand, less than 20%, even among “high-quality” students.

          1. ChrisFromGA

            Yeah, that’s my take as well. It is all very, very sad. The only measuring stick for the value of these college degrees is the amount of money they can be parlayed into.

            Harvard’s motto is “Veritas”; Cornell’s is “I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.”

            What’s Latin for “show me the filthy lucre?”

            2. mrsyk

              Thanks. I find it highly ironic that the one thing AI might be good for in the university setting is administration. This would be door #3.
              For value, learning and networking come to mind. Mentoring, too.
              Universities have been crappified by adopting corporate structure. I find it sad that the value of an education is paying the price. But here we are.

      3. Anonted

        Assuming a world, where sufficient compute power, bandwidth and connectivity can be achieved to saturate one’s presence on an uninterrupted basis, Ai assistants are certain to become as ubiquitous as the smartphone and could well replace them in some inevitable screen-time boycott and renaissance of social intimacy; whatever form that will take as negotiated by our Ai agents, but embarked on with sincere aspirations for collaboration (with the Ai).

        This is likely to change the ways we think, attendant sociopolitics, and the processes by which we create, share and manipulate reality, heretofore a largely biophysical paradigm, but now with the meta-digital on the rise, attempting to redefine that. So talk of the death of critical thinking may well be true… in that it’s the death of the university as the arbiter of critique (one could argue it was a vegetable long ago).

        ‘Critical thinking’, here framed as the purview of the university curriculum, and how it translates to effecting ‘reality’ as we know it will be ‘lost’, along with the reality we know, and supplanted by the capabilities and circumstances introduced by the new technology. My mother never could quite fathom the internet, and the young people around me can’t navigate a file-directory. I can’t grow crops worth a damn. ‘Critical thinking’ as allegedly taught by universities, may not be relevant in the times to come.

        1. urdsama

          If this does happen, you can say goodbye to the human species as we cannot sustain the energy needed to support such an entrenched AI presence globally.

          As our energy resources decline and climate change gets worse, the whole house of cards will collapse.

          Anyone who is able to survive will most likely be a genetic offshoot better able to exist in the new climate, if it is possible at all.

      4. ArvidMartensen

        The development of AI is mainly a military project, funded by DoD over quite a few years.

        Like most military innovations, the money has gone to commercial outfits to do the work, but the impetus is military. https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3578219/dod-releases-ai-adoption-strategy/

        So the real worry is that software championed by the military is going to be embedded in universities. Imo, as a way to control students and staff and to make sure they all have correct thought, and to report on incorrect thought and have it nipped in the bud. (re-educate/jail/deport).

        The Stasi on steroids.

        1. jobs

          Thanks for this.

          I’ve thought for a while now that the ultimate purpose of “AI” is large scale population surveillance and control. Think “Lavender” meets “Metalhead”.

          I’m coincidentally also reading a book about the Stasi.

    2. Erstwhile

      They want you to say, THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, and to say it with admiration and respect. Get with the program, fella, THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY has a right to defend itself from its enemies, and you don’t want to be one of those now, do you.

    3. tegnost

      Now that ncaa players are getting paid, the football team needs to be robotized so that OSU won’t have to pay the workers…TINA, oh well…

    4. scott s.

      Ohio State is a land grant school intended to provide education in agricultural and mechanical arts, as well as military education. It was created because the Ohio legislature had a standoff between supporters of Ohio U and supporters of Miami U getting the designation.

    5. Wisker

      This has merits. I’m still anti-tech in primary education but there’s no point in pretending college students can’t use it. The do use it of course, so they should be aware of the utility as well as the many limitations.

      I don’t see this as fundamentally different than pursuing “internet literacy” for college students (20 years ago). It’s a good idea if decently and critically implemented.

  15. Wukchumni

    Well, the National Guard got into town about an hour ago
    Took a look around, see which way the wind blow
    Where some protesters live in their Hollywood bungalows
    Are you an Aussie reporter in the city of light
    Or just another stray target? L.A. woman, L.A. woman

    L.A. woman Sunday afternoon
    L.A. woman Sunday afternoon
    L.A. woman Sunday afternoon
    Reporting from your suburbs
    Into your blues, into your blues, yeah
    Into your blue-blue blues
    Into your blues, oh, yeah, city of night
    City of night, city of night, city of night, woo, come on

    I see those Waymos burnin’
    Streets are filled with ire
    If they say I never loved you
    You know they are a liar
    Drivin’ down your freeways
    Midnight alleys roam
    Cops in cars, the National Guard
    Never saw a city
    So alone, so alone
    So alone, so alone

    Home Depot day laborer madness
    Let’s change the mood from glad to sadness

    Mister DoJo risin’, mister DoJo risin’
    Mister DoJo risin’, mister DoJo risin’
    Got to keep on risin’
    Mister DoJo risin’, mister DoJo risin’
    DoJo risin’, gotta DoJo risin’
    Mister DoJo risin’, gotta keep on risin’
    Risin’, risin’
    Gone risin’, risin’
    I’m gone risin’, risin’
    I gotta risin’, risin’
    Well, risin’, risin’
    I gotta, wooo, yeah, risin’
    Woah, ohh yeah

    Well, the National Guard got into town about an hour ago
    Took a look around, see which way the wind blow
    Where some protesters live in their Hollywood bungalows
    Are you an Aussie reporter in the city of light
    Or just another stray target? L.A. woman, L.A. woman

    L.A. woman, L.A. woman
    L.A. woman, you’re my woman
    Little L.A. woman, little L.A. woman
    L.A. L.A. woman woman
    L.A. woman, come on

    LA Woman, by the Doors

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wu9xh71d2g

    1. Steve H.

      Should’ve been Milwaukee, Aug 17 2020.

      Covid knocked out the Democratic Convention. There was supposed to be hippie punching. Instead we got Jan 6.

    2. ChrisFromGA

      Curious on the play on words “DoJo” … is that a reference to the Dow Jones?

      Ye Olde Dow Jones is indeed a-risin’, perhaps a sign that the tariffs are fake, and Wall Street could care less if the entire state of California burns, as long as they get their fake, greasy, fraudulent AI bubble.

    3. mrsyk

      Nice match. The Doors are providing fertile fields. I do hope you are not soon compelled to do Peace Frog.

  16. flora

    re: Experts doubt FBI’s claim that crop fungus smuggled by Chinese students is a threat – Reuters

    If the fungus is already here and widely spread as article claims, why would the students have to smuggle foreign samples into the US? Why not simply collect samples of the existing, widely spread fungus already here?

    1. t

      Same reason you cannot just set live traps and get more mice when you run low.

      Same reason why even if some science funding cuts are overturned, the research will have been set back years because labs and freezers full of existing lines and sets will be gone because they couldn’t be maintained.

      This happened about a year ago, btw, which isn’t mentioned in most of the recent news stories.

    2. Ann

      Maybe because the fungus brought in was genetically modified in some way to make it even more virulent?

  17. ambrit

    Re. the Israeli commando raid on the sailboat in international waters off the coast of the Palestine; that is usually called piracy when done by non-state actors.
    The State of Israel is literally employing tactics appropriate to the Bronze Age.
    As dear old Dad used to say; “Give them a gun and a badge and they think they are G–.”

    5. Wukchumni

      I heard the Blue Star jolly rogers demanded that the detained passengers must watch Ishtar… just when you think they’re cruel bastards, they ratchet it up even more.

      1. The Rev Kev

        The video store in hell has hundreds of thousands of cds available – and all of them are Ishtar.

  18. Expat2uruguay

    Bringing Africa into focus, today we look at youth-led protests in Togo.

    Faure Gnassingbé has been the president of Togo since his father died in 2005. Gnassingbé Eyadéma, his father, took power 38 years earlier in a military coup. The legitimacy of the last election in 2020 was widely disputed and there have been a lot of shenanigans before and since, such as changes to the Constitution, outlawing of opposition parties, outlawing of protests, and jailing of political opponents. A review of the Wikipedia pages of the father and son show a lot of corruption and general weirdness.

    A recent change to the constitution created the position of the President of the Council of Ministers of Togo, which would be elected by the parliament, and which has all the powers of the president (and perhaps commander of the military). The role of the president of Togo would be largely ceremonial, but elected by the popular vote. Since Faure Gnassingbé was named the President of the Council of Ministers of Togo in May, the Togolese people have realized that they will never be rid of their ruling family and this is what led to the protest on June 6th. The protesters have said they will return on a weekly basis to continue the protests.

    These issues are well explored in this video, 13 minutes. https://youtu.be/xgu0cqxiPTU

    Print verification of the protests last week in Togo:
    https://www.indopremier.com/ipotnews/newsDetail.php
    https://westafricaweekly.com/youth-led-protests-erupt-in-togo-against-government-corruption-abuse-of-power-and-repression-on-presidents-birthday/#:~:text=On%20June%206%2C%20coinciding%20with,corruption%20and%20abuse%20of%20power

    1. The Rev Kev

      Thanks for that report Expat2uruguay as it look interesting but to be honest, when you said that ‘there have been a lot of shenanigans before and since, such as changes to the Constitution, outlawing of opposition parties, outlawing of protests, and jailing of political opponents’ I was wondering if you were also talking about the EU for a minute. :)

      1. Expat2uruguay

        Thank you Colonel Smithers.
        Togo joining the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) would be particularly important for two reasons. First it would provide a trade link to the ocean for the landlocked countries of the AES. That trade link was cut by ECOWAS, and the organization even threatened to invade Niger when that country was overtaken by a military coup in 2023. These were the events that led to the formation of the AES.
        The second reason is that there is a major enclave of jnim terrorists in the borderland areas between Burkina Faso Togo and Benin, in the forested parklands there.
        https://www.cass-center.org/public/en/blog/jnim-jihadists-train-their-sights-on-togo#:~:text=On%20July%2020%2C%20the%20Front,groups%20in%20neighboring%20Burkina%20Faso.

        1. Colonel Smithers

          Thank you.

          I have long thought that the Sahel alliance needed an outlet to the sea, ideally south or west.

          Morocco has offered, but the ruling family / elite can’t be trusted and they can be put under pressure due to having their wealth in France and managed by French (and dual citizen) people.

    3. Expat2uruguay

      Another video that ties what’s happening in Togo to the overall movement across the Sahel for true sovereignty outside of the constraints of compromised democracies (16:40): https://youtu.be/XHosY1HzYvM

      On the day of the protest I saw a couple of videos about it, but since I couldn’t find anything in front media I assumed it was a hoax. Now it is clear that those early videos were real.
      https://youtu.be/qwB9VE51qSA
      https://youtu.be/0dulNzRHL4E

      It is very difficult to determine the truth in the reporting from Africa. For instance, the widely liked video of Captain Ibrahim Traoré of Burkina Faso speaking in front of the United Nations is fake. He has never spoken in front of the United Nations General Assembly.

    4. .Tom

      Thanks for sharing that video, Expat2uruguay. Looks like Surviver Media is worth our attention.

  19. The Rev Kev

    “Funding For Next Batches of F-35 Stealth Fighters Delayed: New Radar Requires Fuselage Redesign”

    Fortunately because the Chinese are denying processed rare earths to the US, they now have more time to rework those F-35s so win-win?

    1. Wisker

      I have some bad news about what materials are needed to make those radars…

      But on a serious note, this move from China will have a limited impact. How long will it take for alternative processing lines to be developed? 10 years? So if this is a long term move rather than just a warning, why pull the trigger now? China would make rare earths costly for maybe 10-20 years until things stabilize? Interesting time window if it’s intentional. Maybe someone knows more about it or has a clearer theory as to what this does… again, assuming it’s not just a temporary “jerking your chain” warning.

  20. Mass Driver

    Germany plans rapid expansion of outdated bunkers amid fears of Russian aggression CNN

    If they really expect “Russian aggression” they should expand graveyards, because it turned out that Ukrainian bunkers are only used by the few, while the graveyards have capacity problems.

    P.S. Russian Aggression seems to be an antipode of Spanish Inquisition, because everyone expects it.

    1. vao

      During WWII, Germany was full of such bunkers, makeshift or dedicated ones; their name was “Luftschutzraum” — air raid shelter — abbreviated LSR on signposts, entry doors, etc, indicating where to find them.

      The population quickly turned LSR into the moniker “Lernt schnell Russisch” — i.e. “Quickly learn Russian, you all”

      While it is appealing to revive that tradition to mock the frantic exertions of Germany regarding its military preparedness, I am afraid that in our times of “Zeitenwende” and “Kriegstüchtigkeit”, this might also be construed as “Wehrkraftzersetzung” in a perfect historical analogy.

      1. Mass Driver

        In this economy, they should build multifunctional stuff in order to get maximum bang for the Reichsmark. It should be Flaktürme all the way. In one package you get a flak tower, an air-raid shelter, and a monument to repeating the same mistake yet again.

  21. Wukchumni

    From the halls of Montezuma
    To the streets of Los Angeles
    We fight our country’s battles
    As Donald damn well pleases

  22. Skip Kaltenheuser

    Re: ABC’s suspension of Terry Moran for dissing Stephen Miller

    In the March 10th issue of The Nation, David Klion reviewed “Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda” by Jean Guerrero. The book conveys what a weirdo Miller has long been, though skilled at finding patrons as he calculates the country’s lowest common denominators.
    https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/stephen-miller-hatemonger-biography/

    If there are dicey issues on Moran’s post, one has to ponder at what point does a free press start loudly calling out authoritarianism’s henchmen? Meanwhile, we watch Trump’s manipulation of the tensions in Los Angeles, which must have Miller beaming.

    Where is Drew Pearson when you need him?

    2. t

      it is hard to escape the sense that there was something fundamentally malevolent about Miller from the start

      Thanks for the link! Hard to miss that Miller, like many of the current right wing marquee names, doesn’t seem to have ever been involved in political work.

  23. TomDority

    If protesters can’t wear masks – maybe they should wear Trump hair wigs and orange themselves up a bit.
    As for what appears to me to be Democratic strategy – sit back…don’t propose legislative alternatives laws, taxes, progressivism that would rebalance the economy or help to ensure domestic tranquility and all that preamble stuff or, even uphold the constitution… amazing that a repub has proposed to repeal the patriot act (I am all for that). This sit back strategy in order to take back majority or not? (calculus to not hold bag on global depresion or other catostrophic event) in order to continue the status-quo neoliberal financial order ( debt leveraged vulture capitalism free-to-loot ideology) When the (private) DNC gets in …then what? are we to believe they will stand up for the constitution in action, or, will they simply do as their actions show….put out sounds imitating concern and paying true lip service to the sponsers of their office.
    I think what Trump desires, is some national emergency (it does not matter to him how he forments it- as ‘all options are on the table’ but it seems he projects his own intent by saying it is the oppositions intent or the fault of some ‘other’ ) to, thus, keep himself seated without all this constitutional stuff and voting and other minor hinderences in satiating his unfillable ego pit.
    Trump and his pshycophants (including status-quo neoliberal order..debt leveraged vulture capitalism free-to-loot ideology) are the one and only true threat to the Constitutional order and to democracy itself

    1. The Rev Kev

      ‘If protesters can’t wear masks – maybe they should wear Trump hair wigs and orange themselves up a bit.’

      Ooooo, that is so evil. I love it.

    2. Wukchumni

      You can expect the facial recognition sweeps to come next, as AI shows how useful it is at ferreting out protesters… brave new world, my arse.

    3. Yves Smith

      Other options include fake noses and great big fake mustaches and beards….particularly on women! Lotta facial ID markers around the bottom of the nose and mouth.

    4. tegnost

      the one and only true threat

      Lots of dems support the patriot act, a major threat to the Constitutional order and to democracy itself. The dems entire plan is to be not quite as bad as their opponents…the lesser of two evils is evil, so no, not the one and only.

  24. RookieEMT

    I know they want to be defiant and troll the police but running around downtown LA with Mexican flags seems like bad PR to me. Its plays directly into the ‘its an invasion’ narrative.

    That clip will be played constantly in the next election cycle.

    2. ArvidMartensen

      Looks like sort of an internal colour revolution op to me. Like all the ‘spontaneous’ pussy hats marches, and ‘Me Too’ and BLM and the like in Trump’s first presidency.
      Another way for the DS and Associates to stick it to the Donald.

  25. The Rev Kev

    “Contours of a US-China Tech Grand Bargain”

    The guy may be technically correct in his arguments for a grand deal but it won’t happen. The spanner in the works is Trump himself and his Cabinet who are full of China-haters. Trump himself may just want a divorce from China where they cut trade ties with each other, no matter how rough that it would be. It is part of his dream to re-industrialize the US. But there are too many in the government that would think this not enough and would want to break China and delegate it to permanent second place. The guys at The Duran argue the same as well. They want to box China in with bases and to threaten their trade routes around the world and like they tried to do with Russia, try to put pressure on them until the government implodes and a more “friendly” regime takes their place. Even if Trump did negotiate a grand bargain – which would take years – what are the chances that any US government would honour their half of it? Yeah, I thought not.

    1. Glen

      I’m beginning to think that a way to look at it is that America HAD the Grand Bargain, but now it’s gone, and the more American elites over react and rant/rave, the more they literally demonstrate how weak a “hand” they have.

      The irony is that a large part of American elite over reacting is the further wrecking of America which is what got them into this situation. Yeah, America, take your “cards”, and flush them for some quarterly profit, or to make billionaires a tiny bit more rich.

      President Trump to President Zelenskyy: ‘You don’t have the cards’
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCFMEoRCmEY

      There’s some good advice buried in that.

  27. chuck roast

    Uber’s New Shuttle is Basically a Bus, But Worse

    Khosrowshahi opines that, ‘…the whole thing is “to some extent inspired by the bus.”’ Certainly to the extent that you will see frequent Uber bus service during peak periods. Otherwise known as stripping-off the cream. Try looking for the Uber Bus on week-ends, evenings or between 10AM and 3PM weekdays. You will need to have your walking shoes on.

    After this parasitical form of transportation is widely adopted you will definitely need your walking shoes because your local public transit will be kaput. Recall that even the most efficient public transit systems get only 25% of their revenue from fare boxes and the rest from local, state and federal coffers. Without peak period revenue they are goners. Stamp it out in its infancy.

  29. Wukchumni

    Ed the zebra captured after running loose for more than a week in Tennessee The Guardian
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    A striped horse is a horse, of course, of course
    And no one can talk to a horse of course
    That is, of course, unless the striped horse is the famous Mr. Ed

    Go right to the source and ask the striped horse
    He’ll give you the answer that you’ll endorse
    He’s always on a steady course
    Talk to Mr. Ed

    People yakkity yak a streak and waste your time of day
    But Mister Ed will stay lost until he longer can stray

  30. AG

    re: Germany poverty retirees

    TAZ

    machine-translation:

    Old-age poverty in Germany
    Almost one in four pensioners lives on less than 1,500 euros

    In 2024, 23.4 percent of pensioners lived on 1,500 euros a month. Nearly eight percent had to get by on just 1,100 euros a month.
    June 9
    https://archive.is/4vyuh

    “(…)
    Nearly a quarter of pensioners in Germany had less than 1,500 euros per month at their disposal in 2024. According to an analysis by the Federal Statistical Office for the Sahra Wagenknecht coalition, reported by Bild am Sonntag , this was significantly less than before. Last year, 23.4 percent of pensioners were affected , compared to 29.6 percent in 2022.

    According to statistics, 7.4 percent of pensioners had to make do with less than €1,100 in net equivalent income in 2024. This figure had fallen to 10 percent in 2022. Last year, 24.4 percent of pensioners had between €1,500 and €2,000 at their disposal. 51.8 percent received more than €2,000.
    (…)”

    p.s. And this is in part the boomer generation. From now its gonna go downwards.

    1. Clock Strikes 13

      Every time I visit Germany I am shocked at how visibly worse conditions are. Old people looking in bins for bottles for the Pfand, human excrement on the street (shockingly in downtown Mainz and Köln), Large parts of the Ruhrgebiet and Berlin now look like third world cities, piles of trash and syringes, a transport system that seems to be breaking down and civil servants with very poor standards of education. I could go on.

  31. Tom Stone

    I think it’s time for a prominent Congresscritter to introduce a bill making Donald Trump’s Birthday a National Holiday.
    Perhaps Fetterman?
    Trump would love it, and the reactions from the rest of our beloved representatives would be both revealing and vastly amusing.

    1. GF

      Good idea. Also, a way for PBS/NPR etc. to deal with Trump would be to put his name first when the list of donors is shown at the top of the shows. After all the US government supplies the most money from a single source. DT just neeeeeds to be told how grateful PBS is for all that money, soon to be taken away. The attacked universities could try the same strategy. Just acknowledge how grateful they are for being allowed to exist.

    2. Wukchumni

      I was talking with a high up in NPS in Sequoia NP, and my thought was to assuage the beast by putting in a 18 hole golf course in the Giant Forest, complete with Giant Sequoia hazards, FORE!

      I suggested we call it ‘Trump National National Park’

      …he asked if the golf carts could be coal powered?

  32. Jason Boxman

    From Florida schools face alarming rise in student absences since pandemic

    Whatever it is, it can’t ever be because SARS-CoV-2 is spreading unchecked.

    Rosario explained to Bedwell why Jahlisha had missed three more days of school since their last hearing: a stomach bug going around the family.

    “You can see it in her eyes … she’s not 100% today,” Rosario said to the magistrate.

    Oh, you don’t say?

    Kelly Maldonado, principal of Forsyth Woods Elementary School in Azalea Park, visits four or five of her students at their homes every week, trying to figure out why they’re missing so much school.

    Keep trying, I guess.

    Maldonado once visited the family of a first grader who had missed more than 150 days of school since kindergarten. The student’s father had passed away, the mother was struggling with her mental health, and the child had moved in with their grandparents, who weren’t bringing him to school.

    (bold mine)

    COVID, is that you?

    At Central Avenue Elementary School in Kissimmee, Amber Blondman spends her days trying to reach the families of absent students. All the school’s students are from low-income families, and the percentage of chronically absent students hit 44% last year, up from 34% before the pandemic.

    And we know those that work the lowest wage jobs and often at the greatest risk from COVID, with the fewest protections. COVID has made a difficult lot in America even more deadly difficult.

    Meanwhile, out in the real world: Long COVID impacting more than 1 million children: CDC study suggests

    Sigh.

    Which isn’t to say there aren’t other causes of student absences, that very much predate the Pandemic. But they’re fighting a pre-Pandemic battle, and during the Pandemic we’ve got yet another reason kids aren’t showing up. We’re sickening and disabling them.

    Oops.

    1. Bsn

      Thank You. I missed reading the links this afternoon and figured everyone was gone. But there’s breaking news that RFK Jr. is removing all members of the CDC Vaccine Advisory Panel. I think that is a good thing as they clearly were not very effective during the pandemic, nor today. Perhaps I’m an outlier on this but Kennedy is doing some good things, though not all are good. This is good. The CDC panel approved these vaccines saying they were safe and effective (remember that? It has become a joke). I disagree. Here’s one example of what is happening because of their approval and the subsequent horrors: Yale Researchers Find COVID Spike Protein in Blood 709 Days After Vaccination, Positing Millions of Long COVID Patients May Actually Be Vaccine Injured

      The advisory panel told us the vax stays in the muscle tissue of the shoulder and spike from the vaccine does not enter the blood stream. A lie.

      With so many children missing school, it’s no wonder. They were not allowed to attend school unless they were vaxed by products approved by the CDC. I don’t see a need to debate the effectiveness of the vaccines as it’s clear they were not effective and caused many harms. However, people are so blinded and propagandized about RFK Jr. (again if you need links, let me know) but this is one area where he has done the right thing.

      Lastly, skimming the you toob comments of the above linked Bloomberg podcast was playing, a large majority of the comments thought this removal and shake up is a good thing. That, in my opinion, is a good thing. People are becoming aware of the horrors of the Pfizer/Moderna criminality. Not to diminish the complications of actually contracting Covid, but many of these children are sick because of the CDC approved vaccines.

    2. ArvidMartensen

      A 2025 published literature review of long covid in children and adolescents https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11766386/

      “…long COVID can lead to school absenteeism, social withdrawal, and psychological distress, potentially affecting cognitive development…”

      A 2025 UK published study https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaf046/8002322?redirectedFrom=fulltext
      “….Overall, 4% of children and 10%–26% of adults developed long COVID, depending on computable phenotype used...”

      And the human toll is huge: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-16/children-with-long-covid-dismissed-doctors-myth-virus-harmless/103959078

  33. Bob

    Re: “Your Call Is Important To Us”

    What a coincidence that I stumbled on this today!

    “In the year of our Lord 2025, getting things done often requires finding, not the recent hire who just reads through the prompts on his screen and is trapped in the same hall of mirrors as you, but the guy or the gal with enough institutional knowledge to be able to thwart the system.”

    For a couple of months I’ve been trying to get answers about tax-related issues now that I’m doing taxes for my elderly parents. I tried searching online, asking TurboTax “experts”, and posting in their forum, without success.

    My previous call got me to the forms department, where the worker could only answer questions about ordering forms and nothing else. “I can only say that when you get the prompt, don’t say a form number.” She had no idea what I should say.

    On my next call, I got so frustrated after saying things the system didn’t recognize that I inadvertently mentioned a form number and got to the forms department again. But this time, I got a worker who knew the system. She said “Say “account-related question” and that should get you to someone who can answer your question.”

    This morning, I tried that, got a call-back about a half hour later, and got answers. Are they correct answers? It’ll take a couple of months to find out, but if they are, they’ll save me a lot of time and frustration.

    I suspect that it’s only a matter of time before experienced and helpful folks like these are replaced by bots. Heaven help us.

  34. ChrisRUEcon

    #AndromedaMilkyWayCrash

    I was so planning on sticking around! :)

    I wonder what advances in anti-aging tech/research we can expect in the next decade or so. I keep hoping for some #DeusExMachina thing that might just give me a shot at staring up at that night sky in 4500002025.

    1. ChrisRUEcon

      #CaffeineBrain

      It. Me.

      But I also work out at night, so I hope it balances out … LOL

  35. amfortas the hippie

    sitting out here, fans off, at the Wilderness Bar…listening to the tree frogs and crickets(mighty gears of the Universe) do their thing(much rain, of late)…
    havin a hogleg and a few beers after my evening chores(it never ends, really…)
    and suddenly there’s at least ten male quail, at all points of the multifoliate rose, talking…so i’m “talking ” back….”Bob White”…with an upawrd lilt at the end, and with whistling.
    understand, imported fire ants have been a scourge to the quail population(and all the other groundnesting birds: whippoorwills, nightjars, roadrunners, and so on).
    but theres this quail farmer…maybe 4 miles away as the crow flies…who has these big barns where he raises quail for the bird hunting ops around here…more towards Brady, than in Mason, proper.(just learned that him and his super hot(and super nice to me) wife are part of the local bougie swinger clutch,lol)
    and these are pretty small birds…so they get loose.
    and eventually …apparently,lol…find their way to me.
    because i put scratch grain out for my birds…and my side of the place currently has chest high native grass that’s goin to seed, right now(quail are seed eaters, mostly..see: beaks)
    so i’m takin in…or attempting to…escaped quail from local bougie swingers.
    what a strange life i have led.

  36. AG

    Nice piece by Helmer on Trump/Merz/Putin by dissecting the Trump-Merz meeting.
    https://johnhelmer.org/war-again-playing-molotov-to-the-two-ribbentrops-who-think-putin-is-as-weak-as-general-macarthur-said-of-stalin-in-1952/#more-71911

    Most interesting to me however was his hint that MacArthur in 1952 proposed a plan to Eisenhower to rearm Germany (with nukes) to force Russia retreat from Eastern Europe:

    “(…)
    “The plan suggested by MacArthur to President‐elect Eisenhower and John Foster Dulles,” the New York Times has reported from US state archives, “was to threaten Russia with a complete rearmament of Germany and Japan, possibly including nuclear power, unless Stalin agreed to live up to his promise of the self‐determination of the peoples of Poland, East Germany and Central Europe. ‘MacArthur believed and suggested to the President‐elect that Stalin had no alternative but to accept. On the other hand, if Eisenhower waited six months, the lustre of his prestige would wear away in political strife and allied suspicions and his opportunity would be lost forever.”
    (…)”

    Helmer linking to NYT from 1964 revealing this:
    MacArthur’s Plan to End the Cold War Is Recalled
    April 11th, 1964
    https://www.nytimes.com/1964/04/11/archives/macarthurs-plan-to-end-the-cold-war-is-recalled.html

  37. AG

    re: Trump vs. deep state?

    Don´t know if people already saw:

    Larry Johnson from Moscow with Napolitano says that while Trump could come under pressure by a Congress led by Graham in terms of secondary sanctions against China and India for Russia trade Trump has removed 3 Zionist members of the NSC and there is an investigation against Senators who allegedly have received huge amounts of money from Ukraine.

    Larry Johnson : LIVE FROM MOSCOW: What the Russians Are Thinking.

    TC: 20:38
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mZTuOPQjz4

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