I lit up the track on the starting grid, right before the race kicked off 🔥 pic.twitter.com/wL0JLQlsIC
— Sarah Lezito (@sarahlezito) June 9, 2025
Largest-ever supernova catalog provides further evidence dark energy is weakening Space.com
Quantum Scientists Have Built a New Math of Cryptography Quanta Magazine
Scapegoating the Algorithm Asteriskmag.com
COVID-19/Pandemics
Other nations had a pandemic reckoning. Why hasn’t the US? Christian Science Monitor
Physicians Leaving Medicare Remains High After the Pandemic, Raising Concerns About Workforce Stability Managed Healthcare Executive
Trends in obesity defined by body mass index among adults before and during the COVID-19 pandemic Canadian Medical Association Journal
Climate/Environment
Air pollution raises risk of dementia, say Cambridge scientists The Guardian
Climate chaos is threatening Pakistan’s food security. Can it adapt in time? SCMP
Boykoff: In the time of global climate cooperation, the US stands out as a pariah Daily Camera
China?
China offered a “huge” bus for the whole EU delegation. For the first time, they were not greeted by any high ranking officials, the lowest diplomatic protocol ever.
Compare that with the highest level of ceremony to welcome the General Secretary & President of Vietnam in 2024 https://t.co/Y18OZrggko pic.twitter.com/VCPFKUiopz
— wrenevans (@wrenevans217208) July 25, 2025
China’s Maglev train just hit 404 mph in under 7 seconds and it’s not even at full speed
pic.twitter.com/XygJJyCZRE— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) July 26, 2025
Taiwanese voters reject a bid to remove lawmakers from a China-friendly party NPR
China’s Baby Bonus: Can Cash Incentives Convince Young Chinese to Have Kids? Barron’s
This cliff side swing in China.
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) July 13, 2025
South of the Border
Mexico issues warning telling citizens it is now UNSAFE to travel to popular US state Daily Mail
Brazil scrambles as U.S. tariff deadline looms, talks stall Reuters
Milei tames inflation, but Argentines still struggle to afford basics Al Jazeera
Africa
The Surprising Durability Of Africa’s Colonial Borders Noema
Ancient Migration Routes That Were Swallowed by the Sea Once Led Ancient Humans Outside of Africa Discover
Africa Becomes A Premier Destination For UltraLuxury Tourism Travel and Tour World
European Disunion
Hungary’s Orban says he will not back EU budget unless funds released Reuters
European Union-China summit: sharp tensions between Beijing and Brussels World Socialist Web Site
Europe is significantly boosting its defense spending. Can the continent become a military superpower? Northeastern Global News
Old Blighty
The Ulsterisation of English politics Unherd
A UK Government Order Threatens the Privacy and Security of All Internet Users Internet Society
The children of Gaza are starving.
Not because the world couldn’t help, but because the world refused to help. pic.twitter.com/cogopcMAMB
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) July 26, 2025
Israel v. Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iran
Israeli children caught on camera stomping on Gaza-bound aid
A disturbing act that symbolizes the dehumanization of an entire population. Food for the starving, treated with contempt. pic.twitter.com/zkv83Txpdr
— Zohran Mamdani (@zohranmamdani) July 26, 2025
Gaza is true test of humanity.
What’s happening is sooo brutal.
A whole nation is locked up and deprived of everything.
Governments instead of taking action to stop it, they push it further, supply arms, funding and extend time by bla bla speeches.
Move to end the GEN0C!D pic.twitter.com/8JNO7lrdTm— Faris Ali (@FarisMhdAli) July 26, 2025
Israel Is Changing the Legal System Governing the West Bank To Accelerate Annexation: Report ScheerPost
Trump team rethinks Gaza strategy after six months of failure Axios
Syria, Israel hold talks in Paris over conflict in southern Syria’s Suwayda Al Jazeera
New Not-So-Cold War
No NATO for Ukraine is key to jumpstarting stalled talks Responsible Statecraft
US, China confront each other on Ukraine at United Nations Reuters
The incessant noise of the Shahed drone is driving Ukraine to despair El Pais
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
UK Online Age Verification Triggers Chaos, Site Bans, VPN Surge Reclaim the Net
Microsoft Faces Backlash Over Windows Ads, Privacy Issues, Unwanted AI WebProNews
Altman warns of privacy issues while using ChatGPT for certain purposes Cryptopolitan
Imperial Collapse Watch
Trump vs. homelessness LAist
Nashville mother seeks justice for son who died from fentanyl overdose in private prison News Channel 5 Nashville
Trump 2.0
Trump bids to release Epstein grand jury files – what secrets might they hold? The Guardian
Trump plays golf in Scotland while protesters take to the streets and decry his visit AP
Wall Street analysts believe Trump’s trade deals are going to be ruled illegal by the SCOTUS Cryptopolitan
Trump wins again: Columbia’s $200 million fine will reshape higher education | Opinion USA Today
Musk Matters
Elon Musk is threatening to put third-party candidates on the ballot. Democrats are giddy. Politico
Tesla investors are growing wary of Elon Musk’s futuristic promises CNBC
Elon Musk fires back at Trump’s claim that his companies will still enjoy subsidies Business Insider
Democrat Death Watch
Democrats tumble in new poll Politico
Ousted DNC Vice-Chair David Hogg’s Plans To Remake Dem Party Are Falling Flat Tampa Free Press
Immigration
In rush for immigration arrests, a shift by ICE to ‘incredibly aggressive’ tactics, advocates say Maryland Matters
More immigrants will fight deportations alone as Trump ramps up enforcement Axios
Our No Longer Free Press
The FCC’s Paramount/Skydance Decision Aims To Reshape Broadcast Journalism by Bureaucratic Fiat Reason
Fired ABC Reporter Terry Moran Claims Trump Plans to End Press Freedom and Must Be ‘Stopped’ Breitbart
Mr. Market Is Moody
Would a weaker dollar be a good thing for the US? The Hill
Famed market bear Albert Edwards warns of an ‘everything bubble’ in US stocks and home prices that could soon pop Business Insider
Apollo’s Torsten Sløk warns of continued deterioration in quality of CPI data Seeking Alpha
AI
Watch: A themed event focused on the development of the AI industry was held in Shanghai on July 26 when the World Artificial intelligence Conference kicked off. During this event, the “2025 AI Persons of the Year” were announced. This gathering, which combines technology and… pic.twitter.com/r8BIY9EgxW
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) July 26, 2025
China proposes global AI cooperation body to guide tech development Andolu AgencyTech companies building massive AI data centers should pay to power them The Hill
Would you ever swap human artists for AI in your playlist Fox News
Huawei shows off AI computing system to rival Nvidia’s top product Reuters
The Bezzle
AI-fueled crypto scams are booming, up 456% — and no one is safe, expert warns NY Post
UnitedHealth says it’s under federal investigation for civil fraud AP
Guillotine Watch
This is the Sultan of Brunei.
He owns 600 Rolls-Royces, and his palace has 1,788 rooms.
Here are 6 ridiculous facts about the world’s most expensive lifestyle: pic.twitter.com/lLggCnGbQx
— The Forex Complex (@TheForexComplex) April 2, 2025
The stunning $310,000,000 Jubilee superyacht – built for the late Emir of Qatar and now for sale 💦😮 pic.twitter.com/nTnLvUpLgL
— Earl Karanja (@Earlsimxx) June 12, 2018
Antidote du jour (via)
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here
183 comments
Comments are closed.
‘Science girl
@gunsnrosesgirl3
This cliff side swing in China.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QE5DEQjmoQ
I concur. Nope, never (to what kind of accelerations and decelerations is one subject in that contraption, anyway?)
Which leads me to the next thought. After seeing all those oversized swings, hyperfast maglev trains, giant dams, colossal bridges, futuristic-looking new cities, electronics-endowed everything, and so on and so forth, I have that uneasy feeling that in one or two generations, China will face a daunting maintenance task. Not just because of the sheer amount of infrastructure, but also the fact that it will have been built and set up in a very concentrated time frame (i.e. much of it will age and start breaking down approximately at the same time).
I keep thinking of 1970’s/80’s Japan when I see those clips. I’m old enough to remember the ‘holy crap, the future is here, it’s Japan’ tone of every TV/newspaper report from Japan in those days.
If you read someone like Alex Kerr’s rant ‘Dogs and Demons’, or the now defunct but brilliant Spike Japan Blog you’ll see one potential future. The abandoned theme park is of course a near constant in dystopian manga/anime/cinema from Japan. The Japanese countryside is littered with the remains of boom day dreams.
On a more mundane level, every country tends to look a little grubby 2-4 decades after a construction boom (if it’s a boom in concrete, of course stone and brick age better). South Korea towns and cities can look very dingy and poor because of this, despite the wealth and success of the economy. Many Celtic Tiger developments in Ireland now look really horrible, even when they are still structurally sound (sometimes of course, they are not).
You might be interested in this upcoming book:
https://danwang.co/breakneck/
Thanks, yes, Wang is a very interesting and insightful writer, his annual newsletter used to be essential reading.
I loved Spike Japan. Nice to be reminded of it, PK.
Is there any country that has mastered the art of infrastructure maintenance?
Because I’ve only been to countries wich were expanding infrastructure or where it was declining. So far I’ve not been to any place that has shown the capability to maintain infrastructure over the long term.
Italy?
You mean the Romans, no? Their concrete grows stronger with time…
That’s a bad business model. In the USA empire, even concrete has planned obsolescence.
Switzerland? Netherlands?
That video needs a trigger warning! My palms are sweating lol
I tried to click the link only to be redirected and told by Google that “To view this page, sign in with your Google Workspace account you use for work”. Wow. Google won’t even let me watch a video without demands to have me tracked further. I don’t even have a Google Workspace account.
This page worked for me, on Firefox, private mode, with Javascripts activated only for “google.com” and “youtube.com”.
I did retail foreign exchange in LA for many years and it was a good adjunct to the aged round metal disc biz, in that the retail banks in the City of Angles were terrified of different colored other peoples money, and it also brought into the store a different kind of customer, typically more well heeled than the usual rabble, plus it was profitable-whats not to like?
Around 1990 I’d get calls from a female voice wanting to know what i’d pay for a $10,000 Brunei banknote?
The first vision of beauty and grace walked through the door and a deal was made, and over the course of a year or 2, maybe a dozen beyond beautiful women all sold me one of these, and after a few of them I got curious, what was going on here?
All the Sultan’s men had been scouring nightclubs and hangouts, looking for gorgeous women to impress and entice with a no obligation US $8k windfall…
The story emerged later about what went down…
SHANNON MARKETIC FLEW TO BRUNEI last year to do some “”promotional” work for the sultan. She’d done a lot of that kind of thing–inspirational speeches, ribbon cuttings–since being crowned Miss USA from California in 1992. But when she and six other women arrived in the oil-rich strip on the South China Sea, Marketic says, she soon discovered that her billionaire host wasn’t interested in her salesmanship–at least not the kind she’s used at car-dealership openings. First the women had their passports confiscated. Then they were taken to the 1,788-room palace. On their first night, she and the others were drugged, she says; when she awoke, her clothes were “”disheveled.” After being tested for sexually transmitted diseases, she claims, she was forced to entertain men at party after party. “”We were advised that if we were told we were going to “tea,’ or not to wear makeup, that meant the person we were going to visit was going to have sexual relations with us,” Marketic said in a complaint filed in federal court in Los Angeles. The 26-year-old beauty queen says she wasn’t allowed to leave for 32 days.
Her Wikipedia entry says the following-
‘After 18 months of litigation, a judge dismissed the suit on the grounds that the Sultan had sovereign immunity as head of state.’
It’s good to be the king.
p.s.
One of my favorite forex tales was a call on the phone wanting a quote on a frankly large amount of Irish Punts and Japanese Yen, and at first I thought it was a joke, as you never get extreme amounts of 2 completely different currencies, and then half an hour later a Rolls Royce parks in front of the store and out walks one of the original cast members for the original Star Trek tv series, whom you’d all know.
The monies were from Star Trek conventions in Tokyo and Dublin, and it was their piece of the action~
And it all went down in cash? That sort of circumvents cash import duties doesn’t it? Heavens Wuk. I never suspected you counted “fence” among your accomplishments. Good for you I say.
As long as you fill out Form 8300 on such transactions, you’re golden.
Set accountants on “stun?”
Meanwhile, in modern-day Dubai…
https://nypost.com/2025/03/26/world-news/ukrainian-model-maria-kovalchuk-missing-for-10-days-after-dubai-sex-party-found-broken-bloodied-on-side-of-road/#!
The wealthy do want their “toys.” Just ask Jeffrey.
Is the Sultan of Brunei running his own sex blackmail ring? And if so, for whose benefit?
I used to think that there were some things people would not do for money. I guess that I was wrong.
You cannot be cynical enough.
I remember to have read about similar kind of parties, taking place variously in New York and organized for stock exchange yuppies; in luxurious Moroccan riads for the scions of well-connected French and North African businessmen; in Central America for drug cartel members. Strippers and prostitutes were the “entertainers”, sometimes children. And all that was happening decades ago.
The rich and powerful practice the same kinds of depravation everywhere.
i know ive told this story before, here, but is is quite timely, given the recent resurgence in epstien stuff:
35+ years ago, in my last gig w my band back home(before i left forever),we were asked to play a birthday party at a rich dudes indoor swimming pool. he was a frog of a man, owned a buncha strip clubs around houston, and his limo and entourage of lingerie clad girls would stop by the beerjoint where we were the house band, on his way home.
so we set up the pallets and plyboard stage in the corner they had provided, and drank from our very own keg, and watched, as judges, justice of peace, school superintendants, mayors preachers and on and on of the local bougie set snorted coke from the pubic mounds of painted naked girls in feathers, while professional photographers wandered around snapping pics.
once we realised what was happening(i believe the russian term is ‘compromat’), we were ready to leave,lol.
i was already being chased by the law for shit i didnt do to a daughter of that set, as well as living in a van, behind that bar.
so i skedaddled soon after, with my cut from that party(large, for the time and place).
as above, so below. The rot extends from the highest halls of power, all the way down to yer tiny town’s lordships.
Long ago, I saw a TV documentary about the Sultan of Brunei. It’s a tiny country of less than 500,000 people, basically a petro-fiefdom with Brunei Shell Petroleum taking half of the revenue.
At one point, the interviewer asked the Sultan: “Is there anything you don’t have that you want?”
The Sultan paused for a really long time, and then finally answered: “No”, and it was almost like he said this only because he snapped out of some rêverie and slowly realized what the obvious expected answer would be.
Regarding the character of the oligarch class, I think it was Michael Hudson, citing Aristotle, who once said: “their greed is infinite”.
‘Sarah Lezito
@sarahlezito
I lit up the track on the starting grid, right before the race kicked off 🔥’
Had to look up who Sarah Lezito was and was surprised to see that she is only 32 years old. She is reckoned to be the best female stuntwoman in the world and was Scarlett Johansson’s double in the motorcycling scenes in The Avengers 2. She’s got some skills-
https://www.bmw-motorrad.co.za/en/experience/stories/roadster/madame-freestyler.html
Went to the Riata Ranch International Wild West Show and dinner last night here in Tiny Town, and if you like young girls turning tricks, wow-they’re good.
Not in the same realm as Sarah’s ride, as their mounts all have exactly 1 horsepower.
Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEQ85hpg8xs
Not being a motorcycle fan’ I’ll take the Cowboy girls any day. A couple of these moves were fantastic.
I’ve fallen off a horse before.
I’ve been riding a motorcycle (the same one) for 35 years now, maybe because I am a super-conservative rider to whom it would never occur to haul the bike over very far in a turn, let alone the other more spectacular stunts this young woman achieves.
But it is impressive!
re: Trump team rethinks Gaza strategy after six months of failure Axios
Archive link for those blocked by the subscribe wall
4-6 months ago my Israeli colleagues were emphatic that the ultimate outcome was to be a ‘Palestinian State’ negotiated by Netanyahu as part of his ‘get out of jail package’ (“he is the only one who can make it happen without getting murdered”). Scare quotes around ‘Palestinian State’ because they were indirectly clear that this would not be a fully equal and sovereign state but a state-in-name-only as part of a transitional state between the current status and what comes next. However due to the increasingly fragile nature of Netanyahu’s ruling coalition I do not think this is something he can allow to happen given it is the Ben Gvir/Smotrich faction holding his government together. The turning point was probably the reinvasion of Gaza in April; before then it was probably possible.
Actually, the whole Palestinian state idea was mooted by the establishment of the Zionist Theocratic Colonial Settler State back in 1948. The original Nakba was the template for all future Israeli expansions.
Poor Palestine. So far from Allah, so close to Israel.
I objected at the headline level (and unable to apply a BS detector as it is blocked):
Trump team reTHINKs Gaza….
No evidence of THINKing in my view. That would imply a strategy, not just the noise of tactics.
The point they didn’t make in comparing Huawei’s CloudMatrix 384 system and Nvidia’s GB200 NVLink 72. Huawei’s Cloud Matrix 384 system will play well in China, but not in the rest of the world where power constraints are a consideration. In the rest of the world, NVIDIA’s GB200/NVLink72 system will continue to be a system of choice because of its efficiency. For comparison Huawei system uses 560 kW—four times Nvidia’s ~140 kW—making it less efficient at 0.54 PFLOPS/kW vs. Nvidia’s 1.29.
Well, Huawei’s system uses 5 times the processors, which I believe was the take-home-message; they developed an architecture (unified bus) that allows 384 chips from 2018 to outperform 70+ chips from 2024. So, what happens when they use 500 chips from 2025, for example?
Of course China has power constraints – it imports most of it’s energy – more significantly it has serious sanction constraints which force it to use anything else than NVIDIA for HPC. And apparently that is possible.
You’re correct about Huawei’s scaling prowess—the Cloud Matrix 384 leverages a unified all-optical bus to make 384 older Ascend 910C chips (from ~2019 tech) deliver ~1.7x the dense BF16 FLOPS of Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72 with just 72 Blackwell GPUs. It’s a clever workaround for sanctions, proving domestic HPC is viable. Scaling to 500+ next-gen chips could widen that gap, especially with Huawei’s Atlas 910 Pro B hitting near-Blackwell per-chip performance.
But on power constraints: China doesn’t import “most” of its energy for electricity. Coal powers ~60% of generation and is ~89% domestic (imports fell to ~11% in 2024). Oil (<1% of electricity) is ~70-75% imported, and gas (~3-4%) ~40-45%, but overall production tops 10,000 TWh annually—more than the US, EU, and India combined—with renewables surging to meet rising demand without shortages. Sanctions are the real bind, pushing innovation like this, but abundant domestic energy lets them afford power-hungry systems where the West prioritizes efficiency.
Entries above for the Guillotine Watch. Prospective Bond villain shown with his stacks of gold and his “epically” secretive yet massive yacht / warship. I say epically as such a ship would be kinda hard to lose by a US intelligence or MI6 intelligence…I kid of course.
That yacht must include a futures contract on fuel. I just can’t imagine the upkeep and expenses, just to keep the machinery all running.
And he might be riding a camel and living in a tent were it not for our addiction to oil.
Last I heard there are no camels in the tropical rainforests of Brunei.
If there are any “camel loving” ultra wealthy sultans or effendi in Brunei, there will be camels. You can bet on that.
I immediately had three thoughts as I took in today’s Guillotine Watch entries. The first was that these ultimate examples of the worst aspects of humanity are the type of geopolitical “allies” most desired by the capitalist West. That they represent the exact opposite of our expressed Western “ideals” says it all. They are allowed to exist because they serve a purpose. From that observation, my second thought was that given our own accelerating trajectory toward financial-techno feudalism, this is where we ourselves are headed: 600 Rolls-Royces and yachts worth a third of a billion dollars for our own fintech Overlords while the rest of us are steadily dispossessed.
Given those two observations, my third thought, more of a fantasy really, is pretty much captured in the title of this section: Guillotine Watch.
Guillotines are so 18th century. We’re now in the Age of Drones.
This is going to date me but … I’ve been kind of partial to the solution in Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm (1979): “the sphere”, being a flying chrome ball with knife blades and a power drill. Kind of a Gothic-tech killer drone piloted by telekinesis.
The first entry shows how bad is AI at “drawing” gold bars.
The second entry show what US Navy would call a bargain. Brand new, cheap, and seaworthy vessel.
Take my word for it. That floating palace will end up as an Admiral’s Barge somewhere out in the Pacific.
Re; Tech companies building massive AI data centers should pay to power them
How your electric bill may be paying for big data centers’ energy use
…our analysis finds that the public has been forced to pay billions of dollars for data center growth.
Privatize the profits, socialize the costs.
What’s mind-blowing are the secret agreements that many public utilities have with large businesses– sweetheart deals or special rates unavailable to you and I that we get to pay for: more taxation by another name.
Not quite. Taxation is something that a government levies on you. Paying the electricity bill for AI data centers for people like Bezos & Zuckerberg so that they don’t have to pay it is just a rort.
If the utilities are public, just how do they justify the secret agreements?
I’m sure that they would claim that such information was ‘proprietary’ and would risk commercial secrets being released if publicly known.
Take it from someone who knows: that is exactly what’s happening.
They get away with it because, at present, no one is “liquidating” errant electricity company managers.
Sometimes, stockholder equity is expressed in “mayhem futures.”
Being involved with opposing these projects, here’s how it works. The data company seeks out areas with land and municipal utilities. Getting permits for water appropriation and power generation takes too much time (they also might not get them), so they find power and water utilities with excess permit capacity, get strict NDAs, and have them do the work under their existing permits. This has the added benefit of leaving the locals holding the bag for O&M cost.
For power, they include a contract stipulation that they have first use. If an outage occurs the local residents and business are literally left in the dark. They also build expensive “backup” generation units, often diesel and/or gas powered, that (quelle surprise) are constantly running. Noise and pollution limits are often not considered for backup systems for local permits, and the data folks blame the incessant use on the utility for not providing the contracted kWH.
Regarding water, the concept is diabolical IMO. I’m working in Minnesota which does not have water rights. Regulation is by use, with power generation and cooling both being at the bottom of the priority list. Municipal use is second, only behind personal domestic use. By using municipal water, the data folks not only leave O&M up to the water utility and get a priority supply agreement, but they jump to municipal use category- essentially top of the list. There’s literally no way they would get water permits to evaporate millions of gallons per year if they applied as “cooling” use.
All of the above are covered by NDAs, so when the utilities amend their permits, they can’t disclose why they need huge increases for rates, water volume, discharges, etc.
Data will be the death of us unless they can be stopped.
DC’s “grid” load could double in Gigawatts base in the next 10 to 15 years, Seems security state wants a lot of big data centers close to watch over……. A lot of new generation and a lot of new transmission.
In addition to billions and billions for AI “tech” there are more billions and billions for “power”.
Big equity for more “security”.
That’s a very significant “could”. People in MD, parts of VA, and Pennsylvania, are all not happy about the drive for more expansion to feed data centers. Loudon County is a mecca for data centers. The people with nice country houses don’t want the power plants and electric lines near them, so they are asking farmers and families in other states to take the hit. I’m not sure how this will go because there are so many moving parts it is very easy for NIMBYism to gum up the works.
A short bus is a perfect fit for the special bunch.
Maybe they found it exciting to sit on a bus for the first time ever. A whole bunch of heads of state probably had that feeling at the funeral of QE2 when the logistics and costs that the UK couldn’t (or wouldn’t) pay meant loads of them had to be bussed to the Abbey! ;)
Funny you should say that. I was once in Switzerland and us skiers had to get aboard a bus to transport us due to a breakdown. There was this athletic middle-aged English guy near me and I heard him saying bemusedly to his companion that this was the first time that he had ever been aboard a bus. He must have dined out on that story for weeks afterwards.
Thus the old American Civil Rights Movement saying, “Get on the bus?” I hadn’t considered that version
‘Feedom Riders’
Thus, the motto of the Wall Street Guild of Guillotineers: “Clipping Coupon Clippers.”
Or maybe a nearby short pier?
Special needs leaders.
I guess an actual clown car would be the bottom rung then
Re “AI-fueled crypto scams are booming, up 456% — and no one is safe, expert warns”
Well, no one foolish enough to use electronic gambling tokens is safe.
I averted my inclination to vomit so early in the day. From above, the Terry Moran take on freedoms and such came forth during a podcast interview with Chris “tingle in his pants” Matthews. Matthews maybe the OG anchor for MSNBC, when it gets to the topic of that channel and covering their two term “love fest” for the Obama administration.
I had once thought that Moran was your basic lifer, as a generally unbiased reporter for a major news media channel. Guess I had that pegged wrong.
A perfect place for “Press X to Doubt” meme.
Doubt not – even US china bad media shows there is an actual news story underlying the AI graphics:
https://www.newsweek.com/china-maglev-high-speed-rail-2097232
Well, either they are bad at “China bad”, or the clickbait takes the priority with them too. :) The article says “1.1-ton Maglev train”. LOL, that’s not a train*. 1.1-ton could be an oversized draisine, but a train would have extra zeros there.
After writing a post, I thougt about them maybe using some extra-small test vehicle, probably unmanned. Real trains are massive, and mass is inertia, and intertia means bad acceleration. The electric scooter from the other day would easily beat any train in a drag race. Top speed is another matter. For anything near the advertized acceleration, one would need to book a ticket for a fighter jet to be launched of an aircraft carrier. :)
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GhFlXCnr14
A meg-lev needs something to push against, basically the opposite pole. It also needs traction unless it is also mag propulsion. Let’s say the train provided its own power for its magnets. The track would have to have a source of power for the full distance and be able to turn on and off sections as the train passes. Except for the first picture the rest of the tracks look pretty conventional. The magnetic force falls off with the square of the distance so minimum clearances are necessary and reaction times to maintain the clearance must be extremely quick.
There seems to be a lot of ain’t China extraordinary PR out there lately
Isnt that the truth. almost like ou roverloards are in cahoots?
Re “Apollo’s Torsten Sløk warns of continued deterioration in quality of CPI data”
Garbage in, garbage out.
I’m kind of partial to John Auther’s “anti-core” CPI anyway …
https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-327-from-anti-core-to-felt
Please stop it. Please stop Jon Authers about “core” inflation being about food and energy. He’s on and on about food and energy. Stop please, Jon. Not a single mention of the cost of housing. And yet, what’s the single most expensive thing people must budget for? Housing. Not food or energy. Housing. Ya got that through your numbskull Chartbook economist heads?
That mini-rant done, let’s take a look at the cost of housing in the USA over the past fifteen years. According to this site, prices have doubled in that time. That’s an inflation rate of 5%.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/240991/average-sales-prices-of-new-homes-sold-in-the-us/
Now let’s take a look at rents in the USA over the same period. According to this site, $900/mo to $1700/mo. Again, almost a doubling and almost inflation of 5%.
https://ipropertymanagement.com/research/average-rent-by-year
Having seen those figures, do you still believe in the Fed’s 2% inflation fairy? I don’t. Do you still believe in the rosy forecasts of the “economystics”? I don’t. So stop everybody about the costs of food and energy. Both those are small parts of the average person’s budget and the frugal person can find ways to cut corners on them both. But a roof over their heads? Not so much.
Most people do not buy a home every week. Food & energy are a different story. In the US a significant fraction of the population own their own home. Their costs are taxes and upkeep. If you had bought several years ago when the popular wisdom was rent don’t buy you would be sitting pretty.
The insurance coverage on my cabin went up 304% from last year and its something I pay once a year.
Kinda makes a mockery of ‘our goal is limiting inflation to 2%’ malarkey, don’t it?
True. It is currently around 65%, though as always the devil is in the details. Apologies for a quotation from the Wiki:
Also worth bearing in mind that we had years of easy mortgages, then ZIRP and extremely low interest rates, but that seems to be only barely making up for the other factors as the overall number is slowly slipping.
‘wrenevans
@wrenevans217208
China offered a “huge” bus for the whole EU delegation. For the first time, they were not greeted by any high ranking officials, the lowest diplomatic protocol ever.’
Not just a bus but the airport bus. I think that the Chinese have had a gut-full of the EU by now with all their threats and demands. Kaja Kallas was in China a fortnight ago to meet with her counterpart Foreign Minister Wang Yi and reports are that it degenerated into a shouting match. Don’t know why but Kallas was probably ordering the Chinese to cut off all contact with Russia or some such imperious demand. Vdl seems to think too that she can order the Chinese to force the Russian Federation to stop the war in the Ukraine and just accept the loss. But I have to remind myself that it was VdL that got Kallas into her job so this will be EU foreign policy. You would need a complete change of leadership in the EU before the Chinese stat giving them some respect. Any worse and the next time that VdL or Kallas comes to China, the Chinese will probably just send a taxi to pick them up.
Or make sure that the air-conditioning isn’t working on the next bus. And the suspension is shot. And the driver keeps making bad jokes about white people.
You get the idea.
Terry Southern to the rescue.
On the contrary.
Make it a very comfortable bus, with overhead displays continuously showing a promotional video of China, showing off its numerous achievements, with an enthusiastic declamatory voice-over describing the marvels of Chinese technology, economic development, social accomplishments, cultural vibrancy, and, why not, advances in military hardware.
At a sound level just sufficient to disable private conversations without being overly loud.
Also include a segment touting the bus itself, its performance, and amenities as a marvel of the well-established Chinese vehicle industry. End by thanking the passengers for their visit, hoping they will enjoy their stay in China where modern facilities are combined with age-old traditions, and by displaying contact information of the relevant Chinese ministries and chambers of commerce.
Nah. We are already one foot into “no Ukraine for Ukraine” territory.
US will not give up on doing to Russia what it did to Yugoslavia!
The guy who wrote that was once a staff advisor to Dick Cheney so is suspect by association. He is partly there but not yet. The Ukraine would have to drastically reduce the size of their military as well as their equipment. Unless they do, there is nothing stopping NATO from training them and setting aside equipment for them in NATO countries upon which they could train on so one day they could rapidly become a NATO army. Beebe also says that in return for western “promises” (cough*Minsk 2*cough) that they will not go into NATO, that they be allowed to join the EU. Three years ago the Russians had no problem with that but not anymore. The EU has now become a paramilitary organization with a huge war fund planned so the Russians are now saying nyet to that idea. And if he thinks that millions of Ukrainians want to return to that battered country, I would not be so sure of that. I think that Beebe, like most of DC, is not listening to a word of what the Russians are telling them.
It’s in that context that the interview with Northeastern’s Mai’a Cross is remarkable. What is especially notable is that an early career scholar could repeat so many obviously untrue talking points, beginning with “the EU is still a peace project” to the silliness about budget integration resolving all the problems of military logistical and operational integration, while not saying anything that reveals an iota of independent reflection much less critical thought. Apparently, this is what it takes become a Member of the CFR. All in all, a frightening indication that DC is not only “not listening”, DC — and with it large parts of academia — is moving ever deeper into congratulatory self-delusion mode.
Yes, he is partly there. But he didn’t notice that recently the Russians started saying Nyet about Ukraine getting admitted in the EU.
Something is going to give and if we get a rump Ukraine, that one we’ll first be temporarily occupied by Russian trups, just for shits and giggles.
George Beebe seems a bit slippery, though he is one of those who in 2024 signed an open letter against Ukraine in NATO.
But he’s also on record saying this:
Needless to say, that decision “to make sure the veto was exercised on the battlefield” looks pretty stupid about now.
Meanwhile, I wonder: does the leadership of the West really care if Ukraine gets taken 100% by the Russians and turned into a DMZ with drones picking off the Ukronazi dead-enders? The refugees can do menial labor in Western Europe.
It would provide a perfect raison d’être for NATO, or, the words of Dick Jones: “Renovation program! Spare parts for 25 years! Who cares if it worked or not!”
That´s the very point and why Beebe and virtually everyone who says, nah, stop this NOW, is deeply deeply deeply duplicitous. Since they do not step back out of principle (like “empire is bullshit”) and agreeing that nobody has the right to e.g. in whatever form destroy RU – but because RU killed their attempts! They lost the battle and afterwards argue, ok, lets agree on a draw…how dishonest, how dumb can one be. Just because the robbery and murder failed they now expect to walk away freely? wtf.
Had history had a different outcome, in favour of the US – Beebe would not make a – peep(e).
So they should simply shut up. No to come crawling and play “nice”. These people are insufferable.
It’s the American way. The reason they keep doing all kinds of horrible things is the history of them doing all kinds of horrible things with no repercussions.
or as Wilkerson never tires to say accountability and the lack of it!!!
re: Grace Kelly
VANITY FAIR
Inside the Photoshoot That Forever Changed Grace Kelly’s Image
In April 1955, Grace Kelly was not yet a princess, but she was already an icon. A photoshoot with Howell Conant in Jamaica produced not only indelible images, but a relationship between artist and subject that would last the rest of her life.
By Fabrice Argelas
July 24, 2025
https://archive.is/8DZ4k
Luxury “ecotourism” in Africa. More settler colonialism.
Conspicuously consuming the Earth.
That lady riding the superbike is seriously talented. For those unaware, the small block of wolfram mounted to the tip of the rear fender is what’s sparking. It’s there for the purpose of ‘show’ as a piece of steel would serve the same function (sacrificial protective surface) sans the attention grabbing shower of sparks. Anyway, nice clip!
re: Israel Is Changing the Legal System Governing the West Bank To Accelerate Annexation: Report ScheerPost
Gaza (rightfully) gets all the attention but I think this is just as much of a factor in the ongoing open question of when and how Netanyahu will fall. Ben Gvir and Smotrich are holding Netanyahu’s ruling coalition together and as long as that is the case they can extract what they want from him, and what they want is more land for the settlers as the settlers form the majority of their own voting bloc. Because Netanyahu has politically destroyed all potential rivals to his place I believe Ben Gvir is aiming to replace him when he has the numbers. I think that can only happen if enough secular Israelis are driven out and replaced by settlers or other Jewish supremacists. I think that is the real point you might see a true collapse of the state as it will likely align with Iran taking off the gloves for a protracted period.
I don’t have a feel for how long before we reach that point, I think we have to wait and see how the next round of hostilities goes. The JDAM kits the US sent after the strikes on Fordow/Isfahan are like Chekov’s gun. After that, after the US midterms, it feels like the US will probably stop backing Israel to the hilt (especially if Netanyahu is out) – I think that is when things will get truly scary with respect to some of the more eschatological possibilities (nukes, destruction of desalinization plants).
it feels like the US will probably stop backing Israel to the hilt
I see no evidence that the coming bout (midterms) will effect any change whatsoever.
It’s become impossible to determine which party is the lesser of two evils, but one thing can be agreed upon, they’re unified in their intent to be evil.
With what weapons will the US back Israel should they decide to go full speed against Iran? How will they continue to intercept after a couple of weeks? It’s not like there are secret factories where the US is pumping out massive amounts of missiles. The ability to back Israel’s insanity is finite, it was probably breached in June. They can talk and threaten but they cannot shield and protect and that means it is effectively over. When Israel goes off leash again against Iran they’ll get one more chance, that’s primarily at their risk using the JDAMs and whatever Rafael/Elbit can pull together, and a short interval of US intercept capability. Two weeks, tops. If they can’t bring down the Iranian leadership during that time they won’t get another chance and Netanyahu will be out. If Ben Gvir gets in there is very little to endear him to the US populace, even fully-owned-by-AIPAC congress critters won’t be able to do much to sell his activities as soon as they are made public.
If – and this is a big if – Netanyahu can cobble together a coalition that isn’t dependent on Ben Gvir/Smotrich by early next year it might be possible to drag out US support for Israel another few years. But even then the clock is ticking. Another possibility, smaller even than Netanyahu hanging on, is someone from the pre-2022 regime returning to power, someone with US name recognition (maybe Ehud Barak) on an explicit platform of undoing the damage. But this would require the settler voting bloc to somehow become neutered without a huge loss of their lives, so I don’t see it.
I agree that forces other than the midterms will determine the course of events
Here’s how we pull it off…
American Infrastructure Political Action Committee of course never gets called by that name, its always AIPAC.
Careless Congressmen bow to what they think is the Kosher Nostra, and highways, bridges and everything else gets fixed in a jiffy.
Ted Postol says that Iran must now be considered a nuclear armed state, since the surviving 60% enriched uranium can be made weapons grade with only a relatively small additional effort. Fabrication of a simple uranium bomb is straightforward, and it will fit in the warhead of Iranian missiles. Israel now no longer has the option of a nuclear strike on Iran because Iran could respond in kind.
https://youtu.be/-wLZWE2pC7c
HH your link points to a Ukrainian musician turned soldier I believe this is link you meant, I linked to it a couple of days ago it is worth watching in full
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkcS3FQfjKI
“Other nations had a pandemic reckoning. Why hasn’t the US?”
is a bit of a muddle. No mention that Covid is airborne (and that it’s very much still around) and the typical foolishness that closing schools was about the health threat posed to the children themselves — NO, it’s because children live with all kinds of people who are themselves more vulnerable to the disease and hence a vector for its transmission. The whole “protect the vulnerable” premise is a nonsense from the outset given that they cannot be segregated from the rest of the population. Also, zero acknowledgement in the article of long Covid and its ongoing consequences.
Yes, the American response to Covid was an epic fail as they acknowledge via the per capita death totals alone, but if the half-baked assessment they offer is any indication, the US is nowhere near ready for the sort of evaluation they lament has not taken place.
Trump vs. homelessness LAist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An LA site uses a photo of a homeless jungle in Fresno, ha!
Interesting how Newsom and Trump are on the same page in a lot of respects in regards to the homeless situation, with the latter being more vindictive in his approach-which comes as no surprise.
In theory an awful lot of homeless experiencing mental health issues will be remedied by Benedict Donald’s kind rhetoric, but you get the feeling he just wants them out of sight-out of mind, think Alligator Alcatraz, but more like Mojave Morass.
How about Greenland instead? That way, they could become the labour force needed to build the infrastructure for the new Colony there. And if they don’t survive the winter there, well, such things happen.
Ha ha
I see the scenario more along the lines of the Canadian ‘Relief Camps’ of the 1930’s where unemployed single men were basically shunted out of cities and earned a whole 20¢ a day, earning them the nickname ‘Royal Twenty Centers’.
Canada was unfortunate to have R.B. Bennett as PM during the early years of the Great Depression
It was in mark contrast to the CCC camps where American boys earned a buck a day and did useful work.
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/unemployment-relief-camps
It might be easier if you let all the ice melt first. Don’t worry. You won’t have to wait that long.
“Hungary’s Orban says he will not back EU budget unless funds released”
It seems that Victor Orban has a few tools of his own. If he can get those funds released, that will give his chances of winning the next election a big boost against the EU/globalist candidate.
The Guardian continues its threats of becoming a worthwhile outlet again.
Edinburgh University could unadopt antisemitism definition after report into its colonial links
A longer read with a lot of good stuff.
Edinburgh had Balfour (he of the declaration) as Chancellor and the article covers some of his effect. Even includes the Nabka.
Sample:
The report’s authors argue Balfour espoused openly racist views that explained his attitudes towards the Middle East, and had a record of supporting settler colonialism in Ireland, South Africa and Canada. In 1913, he became honorary vice-president of the British Eugenics Education Society. Some historians also say he was an antisemite who had backed the 1905 Aliens Act, which severely restricted Jewish immigration to Britain.
Balfour led a government that enacted a law to restrict Jews coming to Great Britain.
Balfour was the minister who made the declaration promoting the establishment of a Jewish homestead outside Great Britain.
He did not want the Jews to come to the UK, and was ready to do everything so that they leave the UK. Obviously, he was very averse to the Jews.
Edwin Montagu was the only Jewish cabinet member at the time, yet he opposed the Balfour Declaration.
“Scapegoating the Algorithm” is hilarious. I don’t know about the author but it’s a bit coincidental that Asterix operates through a grant from Open Philanthropy Project which is funded by Good Ventures. Good Ventures is primarily funded by Dustin Moskovitz (co-founder of Facebook and Asana) and his wife, Cari Tuna. The article has that fishy smell of a red herring ;)
Thanks for checking out the source of that fishy smell. I noticed it too. It was like an article funded by the oil companies that’s whining, “But what about cow farts and 8 billion people exhaling CO2.”
“US, China confront each other on Ukraine at United Nations”
Kinda funny when you think about it. The US, who has sent the Ukraine perhaps $350 billion, depleted their armouries in the US and around the world, forced their allies to do the same – are accusing China of being a party to the war in the Ukraine.
I’m waiting for America to begin to blame the Ukraine fiasco on the space aliens.
We can take the oblique approach and question just how much Chinese provided materials (REEs) are critical to the weapons America supplies to Ukraine, and what you find is the majority of the “high tech” systems have REEs. This is from 2004:
RARE EARTHS IN SELECTED U.S. DEFENSE APPLICATIONS
http://www.usmagneticmaterials.com/documents/RARE-EARTHS-IN-US-DEFENSE-APPS-Hendrick.pdf
So with the restrictions China has placed on REEs, one has to wonder if the MIC can even replace what has already been sent.
That’s nothing. The other day some Israeli diplomat complained about Russian attacks on civillians in the Ukraine.
What happened in Oz will be happening next month in Las Vegas. Actually this arena entertainment venue sounds incredible and this would be a spectacle to see. I have heard several anecdotes, that a show there is memorable.
The Wizard of Oz, apparently the box office flopped when it was released but some 20 to 30 years later, a time filling slot for CBS to run the movie brought it a new life.
https://www.rgj.com/story/life/things-to-do/2025/06/11/las-vegas-spheres-immersive-wizard-of-oz-show-how-to-get-tickets/84148283007/
re: Russiagate
Director Ratcliffe Previews Sleuth News Report
https://www.sleuth.news/p/director-ratcliffe-previews-sleuth
“(…)
We’ll take a small victory lap here at Sleuth News and then get back to work, with additional exclusive stories in the works. Our work won’t get the fanfare of major media, but I am proud of our track record for accurate reporting.
(…)”
Indeed.
p.s. It was already linked here which was the reason that I didn´t miss it (thank you) – and I would like to recommend it myself too – Aaron Maté connected the dots very well in his conversation with Glenn Diesen:
Aaron Maté. Russiagate Revelations & the Obama Treason Allegations
Glenn Diesen
Jul 25, 2025
30 min.
https://glenndiesen.substack.com/p/aaron-mate-russiagate-revelations
re: Taiwan
Moon of Alabama
Taiwan’s Voters Reject Anti-Chinese Recall Plot
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/07/taiwans-voters-reject-anti-chinese-recall-plot.html#comments
re: Global South
Vijay Prashad
Can the Poorer Nations Build a New Architecture for Development and Sovereignty?
July 27, 2025
https://scheerpost.com/2025/07/27/can-the-poorer-nations-build-a-new-architecture-for-development-and-sovereignty/
China’s Baby Bonus: Can Cash Incentives Convince Young Chinese to Have Kids? -Barron’s
This makes me think of something else and not only China.
This whole idea that cities and states in the 10s of millions of people are infinitely sustainable is really just a modern experiment.
But I also get the feeling that much of the concern about “more chlidren” can be just as much about concern about the place of women.
Joke of the day. :)
https://x.com/RealPatrickWebb/status/1949248956694933790
BREAKING: Jeffrey Epstein may have been working with Russian or Chinese intelligence, according to CIA officer Mike Baker.
Did Putin weaponize Jeffrey Epstein?
Putin, Epstein and Trump are all on a jet that is going to crash and there are only 2 parachutes in which to escape with, who gets them?
Easy. The pilot and the co-pilot.
I’d want two to go to Putin just to make sure he made it down safely.
He knew that if he said the word “Mossad,” his pager would go off.
Focus on Africa:
Here’s a new video from Glenn Diesen where in he interviews Cyrus Janssen about China’s expanding economic footprint in Africa: https://youtu.be/5ySKZhY3KmI
Two things I would add to this very sunny report: Mr Janssen argues that part of the reason that many young Africans are so pro-Chinese is because they were taught in schools that were built by the Chinese, so they have a positive feeling. Well that’s probably true, but I’ve also heard Africans who are angry that the African Union meeting place and main building was also built by the Chinese and some people argue that this is a bad thing. (It could be a case of any stick to beat to dog, the dog in this case being the African Union.) The second thing is that I remember reading, a month or two ago, about a very bad deal between a Central African country and China regarding mineral extraction. It may have been this article from the incredibly biased Council on Foreign Relations, which talks about the DRC:
https://www.cfr.org/article/china-africa-march-2025
Secondly: Even though the Wagner Group forces left Mali and Africa Corps took over operations there, it appears they remain in other parts of Africa, where a possible scandal has arisen. (Africa Corps, also known as, Russian Expeditionary Corps (REK), is a Russian paramilitary group controlled and managed by the Russian government, whereas Wagner Group is a Russian state-funded PMC private military corporation, according to Wikipedia):
Thirdly: Things are heating up in Togo where there are growing protests against the current president setting himself up to rule indefinitely, by creating a prime minister position for himself and allowing a figurehead president to chosen in elections. Protests are a reoccurring occurrence in several democracies of Africa, while Burkina Faso’s Captain Traoré continues to be much loved as a president that came to power in a popular coup. It’s often referred to in the West as a military coup, but it should also be known as a popular coup. There’s an interesting argument being developed in Africa, that elections only served to divide the people so they could be ruled by outside forces. As usual, the West is ruining everything it built!
VACATION REPORT, AND THE TERRIBLE CONDITION OF A CARIBBEAN REEF: I was in Bogota for 2 weeks, and I absolutely loved it. I stayed in a very safe area and I found the people to be quite friendly. I can’t say the same about the people in Bonaire, a former colony of the Netherlands just north of Venezuela, although I have met two or three that were actually nice. This includes not just the locals but also the tourists, particularly from Europe. The friendliest people I’ve met have been from the United States!!
The reefs here are in really bad shape, with between 80 to 95% of the actual reef dead. After four 45 minute boat dives I have seen very few fish, and only one school of blue tang. I remember such an abundance when I dived in Honduras, but that was 30 years ago. I wonder if it is like this now everywhere in the Caribbean? Maybe other parts of the world still have reefs that are teaming with fish? Perhaps Fiji? Any reply would be appreciated, otherwise this is probably the last time I’m going to dive.
Saludos!
Stayed a week in Fiji last year, on Navini, an island* on its own reef. Twenty strokes off the beach and you’re over coral. Quite a bit of the coral has died, but the locals are having some success with replanting. I was lazily snorkeling along when I realised I was being escorted by a turtle a meter below me. When he’d had enough of my company he just scooted off. Fish aplenty, and they’re happy to take you by fast boat to other reefs nearby if you want more.
*One quiet morning with nothing much to do we decided to walk around the island. Took ten minutes.
Thanks for the report!
Lord Howe Island. As someone who has visited the Great Barrier Reef since the 70’s I say the heat and worsening floods has progressively killed it and the trend will continue. You have to get furthest possible from the Equator.
Raja Ampat Indonesia. Not a convenient trip, but truly wesome, healthy reefs teeming with fish. Unlike anything we’ve ever seen in the Caribbean and limited experience in Hawaii and Australia. Probably other areas in Indonesia as well.
Wall Street analysts believe Trump’s trade deals are going to be ruled illegal by the SCOTUS – Cryptopolitan
While “shock and awe” tariffs only aren’t the way to do it, there would be tariff policy needed to go along with other policies in order to bring back a level of manufacturing necessary to handle shocks and be sustainable.
And others may not see it or care, but not being able to handle shocks makes a country a vassal. And all (not only the one lobby mostly in the news today) of the foreign lobby influence in the Beltway stays in the forefront of my mind.
Trump’s approach could set back any thought of attempting to cut back on the offshoring.
Elon Musk is threatening to put third-party candidates on the ballot. Democrats are giddy – Politico Democrats tumble in new poll – Politico
Ousted DNC Vice-Chair David Hogg’s Plans To Remake Dem Party Are Falling Flat – Tampa Free Press
This isn’t necessarily a musing about only politics…but remember the Democrats whenever tempted to fall into any “demographics is destiny” trope.
America is going great!
ICE Took Half Their Work Force. What Do They Do Now? (NY Times via archive.ph)
Oopsie.
(bold mine)
We’re just getting started with this; it’s gonna decimate multiple industries that make use of undocumented labor, and the pile-on effects shall be legion. Reduced spending in local economies, food rotting in the fields, meat unprocessed, spoiled, lawns unkempt, more absences from work due to lack of home health aids and nannies, fewer women in the workforce as result, reduced tourism and travel into the US, I’m likely leaving out dozens of second and third order effects.
This year is so lit.
Also, it sounds like Trump extended the “pause” with China for another 90 days. So we’ve got ongoing uncertainty about what is gonna be the final tariff rates there. And where they’re at right now is already higher than ever.
We are truly the land of the Taco Man.
The company I used to work for had huge exposure to the recycling industry, and I’d guesstamate at least 50% of the workforce spoke other than English as a primary language. On the line, it’s filthy work in decidedly unsanitary conditions that few would want– vermin, rot, stench, you name it. Many of the Angelos that I did encounter were products of our criminal justice system who didn’t exactly have many employment options available to them. One facility in Michiana stood out as quite literally all of their workers on the sort lines were sent there by the local probation office as often the conditions of their probation included conditions of employment or restitution and many of these persons were otherwise unemployable.
Let’s stop and think about that.
There’s work to be done, but a significant part of the would-be workforce has, is, or will be deported, and there are still shareholders demanding a return on investment from the companies that have used these workers. So what labor pools might they dip into, and does it not make sense to expand these pools of potential labor?
We know where it goes because it’s already going there:
Forced prison labor in the “Land of the Free” https://www.epi.org/publication/rooted-racism-prison-labor/
This particular study leans into Southern states and linkages to slavery, but we all remember how Harris sought to prevent the paroling of prisoners so that they would remain as forced labor:
Despite Orders to Free Prisoners, Officials Cling to Cheap Inmate Firefighters https://www.yahoo.com/news/despite-orders-free-prisoners-officials-cling-cheap-inmate-200148253.html
I’m pretty sure California was not a slave state during the Civil War. But this all ties back into the de-industrialization of America, and the destruction of American labor including (importantly) the dignity of labor or as (for those born too late to remember how we all taught at one point to hate garbage collectors or bus drivers that had good middle class jobs with a pension) we all touted early in covid-19, the essential worker.
And why was this done, and continue to be done? So, as David points out below, the Walmart heirs (that literally worked very hard to offshore work to China, and taught their employees how to apply for low, low wage benefits*) can buy super yachts.
*Report: Walmart Workers Cost Taxpayers $6.2 Billion In Public Assistance https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/04/15/report-walmart-workers-cost-taxpayers-6-2-billion-in-public-assistance/
“So what labor pools might they dip into?”
Fox New’s Charlie Hurt insisted that the government’s refusal to use child labor on farms is “mindblowing.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-host-charlie-hurt-wants-child-labor-to-replace-deported-immigrants/
A year after lawmakers relaxed Florida’s child labor laws, a divided state Senate panel on Tuesday gave initial approval to a measure that would further roll back work restrictions for kids as young as 14.
https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/florida-senate-panel-advances-bill-to-further-roll-back-child-labor-restrictions/
Indiana relaxed child labor restrictions. As of Jan. 1st, 16 and 17-year-olds can work the same hours as adults and are no longer restricted by school hours and days. They also can work overnight without an adult and perform hazardous agriculture jobs.
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/investigations/2025/02/19/as-lawmaker-relaxed-regulations-child-labor-violations-spiked-in-indiana-as-regulations-were-relaxed/77512769007/
I’ve long said if the US was serious about illegal immigration, they’d go after the people that hire them rather than (or perhaps in addition to) the immigrants.
It’s seems like maybe it’s coming to this in a round about way. No tears from me that these businesses will struggle because they have no under class to exploit. On the other hand, as suggested in the comments, maybe they’ll just move on to a different under class (prisoners).
To be fair, they did use eVerify but it doesn’t work on legit stolen SSNs.
I don’t know what might be a equitable solution to all of this. Capitalism is evil in general.
Better working conditions, and no one could afford the product. Everyone needs a bigger share of their wage labor. It’s all appropriated by the capitalists.
Prisoners you say? It’ll be right back to 1942. The book Slavery By Another Name is good.
you would almost think he is actively trying to decimate the economy
Just to add to the discussion:
https://www.barrons.com/articles/ice-immigration-raid-horse-racing-businesses-d0c7db78
June 17. Delta Downs Racetrack, Vinton, Louisana. 84 workers detained. Roughly three-quarters of U.S. equine workers are foreign-born, according to industry estimates, and a substantial number are undocumented (per the link)
Oh, that is rich. Will the wealthy owners of race horses pony up to hire Americans and train them? Ya, just kidding.
On a typical race day there are 9 races, 6 or 7 of which will be ‘claiming races’ which means each and every horse in the contest is up for sale.
Low end claiming races in Cali tend to be around $8-10k, more like $2-5k at lesser tracks.
You can’t buy a car that cheap~
The Sport of Kings was on full fade before the ICE capades, and this will only exacerbate things in the ‘oval office’.
NPR labeling the Kuomintang as the ‘China-friendly’ party is going to amuse me for the rest of the day.
Mexico issues warning telling citizens it is now UNSAFE to travel to popular US state -Daily Mail
Talking about Florida.
Reminds me of some years ago when there was a man at an airport in Florida with signs warning tourists not to argue with the locals after a controversy over gun laws and the “stand your ground” rulings.
The former Qatari-owned 110M megayacht Jubilee was purchased for $300M by Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie way back in 2019 and re-christened KAOS, supposedly as an embrace of the design’s crass in-your-face bad taste.
In July of 2023 the vessel was vandalized in Ibiza by the climate-activist group Futuro vegetal, which reportedly cost millions to repair.
Wowzers, that CSM COVID article is garbage. It’s a who’s who of Pandemic denialists and minimizers interviewed, and we get trash like this:
As I recall, Lambert thoroughly debunked the GBD when it emerges from the sewers of humanity.
And there’s of course no recognition that the Pandemic is ongoing.
These people are clueless, and maliciously so.
Something has really gone wrong in the UK: https://x.com/CraigMurrayOrg/status/1949474585524449719
“6 cops arrest & drag wheelchaired disabled man for Palestine Action t-shirt”
I’m waiting to see the law enforcement data centers reach full-maturity… see you in the tomato-fields.
I found Charlie dying on the bottom of the pool. The poor little hermit crab was so stressed that he had left his shell somewhere and was just scrabbling there. I scooped him up and put him in the shade on the pool deck.
As I tried out my new snorkel equipment in the pool, I found his little abandoned shell, so I put that next to him. But twenty minutes later he still hadn’t gotten into the shell, so I put them both in my water bottle with a bit of pool water. I took Charlie down to the rough waves of the beach and got him some ocean water. From my days as a dock-fishing little kid I knew that a hermit crab outside of his shell is a delicious fish snack, so I brought him back to my room. Although, to be honest, I don’t think there’s many fish at the beach edge anyway, not like when I was a little kid. But the destruction of this Dutch Caribbean reef off the coast of Venezuela is another story.
To continue telling about the pool, I was also able to rescue two bees and it got me thinking, human pools are places of death for nature now, but what about after civilization falls? Perhaps they’ll be like oasises, oasi? Probably not in the caribbean, but in where places they would collect and retain rainfall? Creating marshy spaces of the fresh water soaked earth within the concrete casement? What are you guys think?
saludos
The mosquetos will love them.
After the housing crash in 2008, I found out this is why they often dump mosquito fish in all the abandoned swimming pools.
Mosquito control is a serious issue in California especially in the south. If I remember right, malaria was a major problem in California a century ago.
when i was 13, right after the divorce, mom was frazzled and crazy, and sent my brother and i to a “summer camp” on lake conroe, just up the road.
2 camp councilors(sic) took me and another older kid i didnt know on a trek through the depopulated(80’s bust) remains of condos and private parks and marinas…and we walked past a pool…green and filled with algae…but it had fish in it!…
like walking through the ruins of gondor.
our destination, it turned out: one of the older guys managing us for minwage had mowed yards for Farrah Fawcett…knew where she had a condo, and had seen her yellow and white chopper(the “Long Ranger”) fly over us earlier.
she met us at the door of the condo in a yellow bikini and a gauzy white shirt thing, smiled at that guy and welcomed us in. I remember vividly sitting there on the white couch as she served us cold cokes in a bottle on a tray, with those sorta iconic coke glasses.
she was nice, and overlooked the four teenage woodies.
in spite of all the hardship, i have led a remarkable life.
Farrah, Burt Reynolds…as a fairly hairy guy about your age, the change in paragons of desire over the years is kinda interesting if not disadvantageous to myself; glad I am not on the market.
On another topic, sir, did you ever see Ten Hands back in the day?
never even heard of Ten Hands,lol.
i admit that my tales sound thoroughly incredible, and the ravings of a delusional madman…but it all happened as i say it did.
smoked a joint with Willie, played blues w/ Billy Gibbons at Pearl’s Cotton Club, N. Shepherd in houston, cooked for Bullock and Anne Richards, drank beer with Molly Ivins, and so on and so on…never looked for any of these interactions…just in the right/wrong place at the right time.
and all of that, mostly, between the ages of 16 and 26.
one of the hardest things, for me, is that people generally think im making all my stories up.
but it’s all true,lol.
my life contains at least 7 movies(per my Wife), and most of the material for those would come from those ten years of desperation and being on the lam.
Just curious. I know I have seen but don’t recall when you left the 713. I played at Fitz, Rudyards, Rockefeller, Black Forest…wish we had crossed paths back then. You might enjoy Ten Hands, TX funk-rock out of Denton. Hope the de-mold/mildew is going well. I also seriously empathize with your pains; first time in a few years I blew out my back last week and currently using my wife’s expired Baclofen and some IPA to maintain functionality. Tomorrow will be interesting as for some reason alcohol consumption is not looked on favorably at work….
one of the numerous reasons i remain the busiest unemployed cripple i know,lol.
hydrocodone just mitigates it a little.
to sleep through the night(till 4am) it takes beer(and when i have more than four beers, i habitually fail to take the evening vicodin= i am a model pain patient)
i never made it to any of those clubs…molly mcguires, danelectros, pearls, etc were my haunts when i was on the open mike thing.
my professional musician life(1985-1992?–its pretty hazy, and very inconsistent…all a fog of beer and tequila and weed and acid and shrooms) was spent in beer joints/honkeytonks in the far exurbian orbit around mostly northern houston. and all the way to huntsville, madison and even college station a few times( i was on the radio in huntsville and bryan several times).
Nuclear Blues Rock was my thing with Birdhouse(the members, sans one, are still around there:James Henry, et alia)…when i took over my brother’s band, and got to do songwriting(Hot Wired Dumptruck was the name of the band,lol)…we were on huntsville college radio a lot.
were a staple at Pokey’s Town(big venue) and played all the frat parties.
“made enough money to buy miami, but i pissed it away so fast…”(J. Buffett)
ive never been one for big cities…thy make me jumpy.
Danelectro’s..I remember Beans Barton, open mikes with Teri Green (maybe started in the 90s?). We were more central Houston…Wasted Potential, ’87-’92…started as jazz fusion/prog, eventually got a chick singer and morphed into prog-pop. Did Austin a couple of times, even an early SXSW showcase with Beat Temple; even then my bassist said the 6th street scene was turning to trap. If you ever need to come back here and need a bed, we got you….
appreciate the offer, and backatcha.
i played with Carolynwonderland, a lot, at danelectro’s.
she came out here to our lil theater, a few years ago…and remembered me(I was Joe D’Moe, back then, one of my numerous aliases, due to cop pressure)
i walked up to her after the show, with my wife, and she shouted “Joe Dmoe!” and hugged me(we might have did more back in the day than i am comfortable reportin)
all my danelectro, interior houston days were late 80’s.
Carolyn was a babe & great vocalist. If I ever played with her it was a one-off, maybe even at Dan’s. Small world and hazy memories….
aye to the hazy,lol.
i was on the run from the law, livin in a van behind Sidetrack, there in Pinehurst, and generally keepin low, except for the music playin.
never saw a beer, a joint, or a mushroom that i said no to, in those days.
Carolyn is the real deal.
as is James Henry, look him up tell him Joe D’moe sent you,lol
Can’t reply to you below, maybe exceeded the nesting limit. Found a bit of Mr Henry on utube today; the man knows his s#it. Thanks for the recommendation!
I did not expect that twist in the story!
It seemed to be going in a Ballardian post-civilisation direction until, bam, Boogie Nights! Or at least, Stacy’s Mom.
I’d just like to put this excellent piece on the lesser considered question of India’s response to Trump.
https://rupe-india.org/aspects-no-87/what-explains-indias-response-to-trump/
Thanks for this link. RUPE (The Research Unit for Political Economy) is one of my favorites ever since they published “Behind the Invasion of Iraq” back in 2002. It’s the most spot-on and even prophetic read on the American invasion, the history behind it, and its predicted fallout. Reading it at the time was illuminating (and infuriating as our media was ignoring what RUPE reported and just parroting the Bush Admin lies) but reading it again years later it’s incredible how accurate their analysis was and how much of the fallout from that invasion they accurately predicted.
They also had a great report on Covid a few years back. Truly one of the best resources out there.
Reading about the Geran drones scaring the Kiev residents reminded me of this clip with Poroshenko threatening the Donbas population that their children will live in basements in fear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeSFi7Sia1c
Oh, the cold dish of revenge, feels so filling…
RIP Tom Lehrer, age 97 :(.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/arts/music/tom-lehrer-dead.html
https://apnews.com/article/tom-lehrer-son-satirist-mathematician-dies-9caa7ee01faf4fbfb793d7ba984c179d
MLF Lullaby
Sleep, baby, sleep, in peace may you slumber
No danger lurks, your sleep to encumber
We’ve got the missiles, peace to determine
And one of the fingers on the button will be German
Why shouldn’t they have nuclear warheads?
England says no, but they all are soreheads
I say a bygone should be a bygone
Let’s make peace the way we did in Stanleyville and Saigon
Once all the Germans were warlike and mean
But that couldn’t happen again
We taught them a lesson in 1918
And they’ve hardly bothered us since then
So sleep well, my darling, the sandman can linger
We know our buddies won’t give us the finger
Heil–hail–the Wehrmacht, I mean the Bundeswehr
Hail to our loyal ally!
M-L-F
Will scare Brezhnev
I hope he is half as scared as I
…plus ça change
Damn!
And I thought we’d all go together when we go.
I had heard him on TV when I was younger (Jack Parr?) so when a neighbor in Inverness Park put on an old 8″ record of his there were a few new songs. I read recently he put all his work in the public domain a number of years ago, so since he has passed, I think a posting of the lyrics to When You Are Old And Grey would be appropriate for the youngsters here.
I was just singing “Be Prepared” to some of my friends yesterday. They didn’t think it was funny. We are more closed-minded and have less sense of humor than 1953 Americans.
Larry Wilkerson said the food distribution stations were likely a ploy by Israel to lure starving Gazans to a central place where they could be slaughtered by gunfire and tank fire. And he appears to have been right.
And now, call me a cynic but
I think that Israel will soon swamp the Gazans with rich food. Because starving people who are suddenly fed normal amounts of food collapse and die – refeeding syndrome.
So Israelis will be able to kill even more Gazans while massaging the PR to make them look like they are trying to help. And if called out on refeeding deaths they will raise their hands and say “who could have known”.
The USS Indianapolis delivered Little Boy to Tinian a few days ago-80 years ago, and in a couple days the heavy cruiser will be sunk by a Japanese submarine with a heavy loss of life.
Now imagine if the Indy had been sunk with the atomic bomb on board, 18,000 feet down in Davy Jones Locker?
Funny that guardian story makes no mention of financial transactions….
Re: Microsoft Faces Backlash
One word: Linux.
1. Create Linux live install on USB stick
2. Boot and install Linux
3. Say good-bye forever to Gates’ chocolate
Zorin and most others let you try it out first before installing, and let you keep your Windows install so you can choose which to boot.
Just 2 weeks ago I had a client with a totally compromised Windows 10 laptop and I convinced him the best move was Linux. I have found Zorin is a lot like Windows and people can figure it out easily.
I look forward to the demise of Windows. Honestly the main complaint I get these days is that my copy of Word stopped working and they are asking for money.
Libre Office.
That is a good recommendation, yeah. Keep the existing Windows install to make the transition even easier.
The main thing holding ppl back will be some vague “familiarity” (old habits die hard) and apps. However, most people just use basic productivity apps anyway, and for that, LibreOffice is now very capable (and free!).
I look forward to the death of that annoying af “Why don’t you just use Windows? [whut are you some kind of commie?]” attitude, or it being fully supplanted by “Why don’t you just use Linux?” Lol
Maybe. I have a Fedora KDE-spin and wow is that a dumper fire. I guess the last good version of KDE was really v3.
Might work better on a desktop; to this day, I can’t get Linux on a laptop to fluid suspend/resume when I close the lid. Maybe some other distro does that, I don’t know. Or after 9 years of OS X I’ve come to expect too much from my hardware and software.
The Frame.work modular laptops run Fedora, Ubuntu, and Bazzite:
https://frame.work/laptop13?tab=linux
I assume they have sorted out the sleep/wake functionality so perhaps(?) it’s the model of hardware you’ve got.
This has been the usual rub with Linux — it supports many different PCs but not everything so there can be edge cases with problems. :/
If I wanted a Linux notebook PC, I would probably try the Frame.work offering or some known-to-work hardware + distro combo and start from there.
I began my Linux journey with Fedora some years ago but nowadays I stick to Debian. It’s on several tower PCs not a laptop, tho, so I can’t say whether that would work any better in your case.
Finally a positive COVID test in the family; You do what you can. I’ve been exposed. Foolishly didn’t insist on a negative molecular test, with all the expense and time involved in that. Everyone is always careful as I understand it, and mask everywhere, plus mouth wash, ect. Relatively low risk scenario. Can always ponder what more could have been done, but it changes nothing in the present. I guess over 5 years is a pretty good run, gotta minimize lifetime infection as much as possible.
Stay safe everyone!
Gazprom has emerged victorious against Ukraine in The Hague, unfroze Gaprom export’s assets in the Netherlands and threw out the Ukraine’s claim against them.
Time line:
Ukraine litigation started back in 1997
Ukraine received gas from Russia as barter trade
Gazprom accuses Naftogaz of stealing gas
Naftogaz demands $4 billion from Gazprom
Naftogaz sues over Nord Stream
Naftogaz shuts down gas transit
https://scobricsinsight.com/gazproms-court-win-over-ukraine-in-the-hague
I’ve been reading a bit about the Techno utopias envisioned by Musk and his ilk and it struck me that they are ignoring a few minor issues like where their food, water and reliable electricity will be coming from…perhaps there’s an App for that. ..