Links 7/13/2025

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1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2025 at 7:08 am

   “Elon Musk says even if AI ultimately proves bad for humanity he still wants to be there to see it”

   ‘They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn’ – Alfred Pennyworth

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   1. Socal Rhino July 13, 2025 at 9:51 am

      The predictions of AI doom are part of the con. Note Musk is currently funding his AI company.

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      1. Mikel July 13, 2025 at 1:47 pm

         It’s possible those seeing the $$$ have to convince themselves that people will be stupid enough to fall for the most hyped aspects. It’s easier on their egos if they can have that be the MSM record than the fact that as much as possible is being done to try to force much of the crappification into people’s lives.

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   2. homeroid July 13, 2025 at 12:30 pm

      WHAT is a unit of time. Let the thoughts flow.

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      1. Stephen V July 13, 2025 at 1:51 pm

         Why it’s one eternity, of course.

         Click to Edit – 

         

         Why it's one eternity, of course.

         SaveCancelDelete

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2. Henry Moon Pie July 13, 2025 at 7:37 am

   Re: last antidote–

   Birds are free.
   They love each other.
   Why can’t people be
   sister and brother?

   “Why is Now?” Music: Les McCann Lyrics: Rev B (aka Betty Grove Eisner)

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3. leaf July 13, 2025 at 7:54 am

   In case anyone had a sort of morbid curiosity, the most diehard MSGA people from the former the donald community are deeply upset about the entire attempt at handwaving the Epstein files away
   Wonder how much this will affect the mid terms
   https://patriots.win/p/19BZyzOrN0

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   1. Arby July 13, 2025 at 8:28 am

      There were only 37 US House seats decided by less than 5% of the vote in 2024. Everything else is safe as kittens for either of the parties because of cooperative gerrymandering. In those 37 seats, the not GOP but ‘give Trump a chance because my life sucks’ vote was worth 5 or 6 points. That vote has very little reason to turn out for higher prices, more wars and protecting the powerful. GOP House majority in great danger, Will Robinson.

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   2. Trees&Trunks July 13, 2025 at 8:32 am

      I don‘t understand the rules: if you are rich, you are allowed to be a paedophile? Or is it if you strive to becomemrich and powerful you can be a paedophile?
      In every other situation I hear screams for harshwr sentences for paedophiles but… not here.
      Paging Lamberts rule of neoliberalism? Or just the eternal ruling-class depravity (paging de Sade)?

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      1. Wukchumni July 13, 2025 at 8:36 am

         Paging Lamberts rule of neoliberalism? Or just the eternal ruling-class depravity (paging de Savile)?

         Changed a word~

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      2. Ken Murphy July 13, 2025 at 8:49 am

         I think it’s more “if you allow us to compromise you for blackmail material we will help you get ahead with access to more money and power, which can be taken away and your reputation destroyed if you don’t do what you’re told.”
         So those compromised toe the line and enjoy a privileged lifestyle. Who’s the puppet master pulling the strings? Well that’s the real question, isn’t it? A lot of folks can make a lot of assumptions (myself included), but without actual facts and data there’s no way to turn that think into know.

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      3. Neutrino July 13, 2025 at 9:32 am

         New public-private investment opportunity in millstone manufacturing coming soon?

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      4. camelotkidd July 13, 2025 at 10:57 am

         It’s like a slow motion Jackpot

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      5. lyman alpha blob July 13, 2025 at 11:14 am

         Yes, those are the rules and have been for thousands of years.

         https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Nero*.html

         “He castrated the boy Sporus and actually tried to make a woman of him; and he married him with all the usual ceremonies, including a dowry and a bridal veil, took him to his house attended by a great throng, and treated him as his wife. And the witty jest that someone made is still current, that it would have been well for the world if Nero’s father Domitius had had that kind of wife. This Sporus, decked out with the finery of the empresses and riding in a litter, he took with him to the assizes and marts of Greece, and later at Rome through the Street of the Images,⁠ fondly kissing him from time to time.”

         Suetonius is a very entertaining read. Lots of the more prurient accusations against the various emperors have the feel of an ancient version of the “pee tapes” – at times Suetonius basically says “I don’t now if this is true but I’m going to repeat it anyway”. I highlighted this example since there appear to have been many eyewitnesses. The snarky comment about Nero’s father making the rounds at the time is also very fitting for the vast majority of today’s political class.

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         1. Trees&Trunks July 13, 2025 at 11:41 am

            To sum it up: ”I am not a whore but I do like money.”

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      6. vao July 13, 2025 at 11:46 am

         “Or just the eternal ruling-class depravity (paging de Sade)?”

         The marquis de Sade is a curious example, because his depravity was so extreme that despite all the protections he could afford with his relatives and friends pulling all the stops (he was the scion of a very prominent, very influential aristocratic family), he was eventually thrown into jail.

         French nobility was degenerate and blasé, and revelled in debauchery and perversion, but organizing wild orgies with prostitutes that desecrated religious symbols and ended with the death of some participants went decidedly too far and could hardly be covered up.

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         1. vao July 13, 2025 at 12:32 pm

            My memory was hazy, but one of the orgies by de Sade did not actually end up killing people — but caused them to get sick (a consequence of having them ingest an extract from Spanish fly).

            In one of his latest “adventures”, a prostitute filed a complaint against him for “outrageous debauchery”…

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   3. The Rev Kev July 13, 2025 at 8:52 am

      He can bluster, he can threaten and insult reporters, he can try to ignore it but it all has the effect of a cat trying to cover up its mess on a tile floor.

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   4. gf July 13, 2025 at 8:58 am

      It won’t, it will blow over well before the mid terms.
      The right will manufacture a tidal wave of lies on other issues.

      It will be long forgotten.

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      1. JMH July 13, 2025 at 10:08 am

         1)Whistling past the graveyard? 2) Hard evidence 3) Hopium. Other options?

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         1. mrsyk July 13, 2025 at 10:43 am

            Elections? We don’t need no stinking’ elections.
            Lol, what’s even the point? It’s one friggin party.

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   5. Jason Boxman July 13, 2025 at 12:57 pm

      From ‘I don’t like what’s happening’: Trump tries to quell MAGA blowup over Epstein

      “What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’” Trump posted to Truth Social, the social media site he owns, on Saturday afternoon. “They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening.”

      Trump, the Father figure, confused about why his MAGA children are not behaving. Not the daddy I’d be wanting to have.

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4. Henry Moon Pie July 13, 2025 at 8:04 am

   Here’s a Jimmy Dore episode that’s not to be missed. Jimmy’s still on the trail to find out “what really happened” in the Texas hill country. He begins by pointing the finger at poor Mr. Doricko and the cloud seeding company, Rainmaker. Dore uses his usual incisive methods of argumentation, making fun of Doricko’s name and haircut, before he brings on his big guest who has all the data to prove this was no “natural” event.

   As you’ll see, Jimmy didn’t do too much prep with this guest , whose first words are to the effect that Doricko is a patsy who had nothing to do with the floods. The guest goes on to explain that the real cause was NEXRAD, a new system of interlocking Doppler radars. The “cover story” is that these radars enable weatherpersons to better track tornadoes and downpours, but this fellow knows their real purpose. Jimmy’s interviewee claims that the NEXRAD system held the storm in place to increase the flooding in that area in order to frighten people about climate change in order to take away our freedumbs. He claims the same system was used to steer Helene to western North Carolina. (Impressive!) Along the way, he attributes the plot to a “cabal” of some undefined composition. (blood-drinking weathercasters?)

   It’s all quite funny, but not in the way Dore intended.

   I think Aaron Mate might reconsider his connection to Dore.

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   1. Carla July 13, 2025 at 10:26 am

      Thanks for this, HMP. It’s sad how Jimmy Dore has gone off the rails… Seems to me there was a time when he was worth watching. From this quarter, not any more.

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      1. Eric Anderson July 13, 2025 at 12:19 pm

         Dore is little more than an inverse Alex Jones. Same playbook … same Amway salesman motivations.

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   2. Glen July 13, 2025 at 10:56 am

      Here’s an article from March of this year that might be a little bit more on point about river flooding and flood warning systems:

      Stream Gaging Capacity Cuts Could Be Devastating for the West
      https://onland.westernlandowners.org/2025/policy-arena/stream-gaging-capacity-cuts-could-be-devastating-for-the-west/

      The current NEXRAD radars have actually been around a while (deployed since 1988, one USN station I was at actually tested and repair the electronics for the radars all the way back in the 1990’s), and I’m just guessing that if these actually demonstrated the ability to CONTROL the weather that the DOD would have long ago weaponized them and deployed them as part of the military. But other than a couple sold overseas to Japan and South Korea, it looks like that hasn’t happen:

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

      And it’s not exactly like radar is cutting edge technology anymore, if such technology could control weather, I’m pretty sure other countries would be doing it too.

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   3. Lee July 13, 2025 at 11:11 am

      Would this mean there is indeed good reason to yell at clouds?

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   4. jsn July 13, 2025 at 12:12 pm

      That river has flooded to that extent now three times in my lifetime. First in the 1970s when my brother was trapped at Rio Vista, the boys camp just up river from Camp Mystic, again in 1987, and then last week.

      The main difference is there are a lot more people there now and people don’t take memories as more significant than commercial pressures. Plus ca change…

      My great great great grandmother bought 1000 acres from one of the Mexican families shortly after the Republic of Texas declared itself. Family lore includes the story of a flood where the first homestead on a high point too close to the river began to flood, and the family fled. But for some horses caught in the flood themselves, my family would have been washed away, instead grabbing onto the horses they were pulled from the flood. (In my imaginary there were a couple of Mexican on Round Mountain (nearby, overlooking the drama) chuckling at the happy outcome, “stupid gringos almost didn’t make it!”)

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   5. Yves Smith July 13, 2025 at 1:08 pm

      I’m sorry, this is bullshit.

      There were PLENTY of warnings of severe flood risk the day before.

      However, the “GTF out of Dodge” alerts went out at 1:14 AM.

      That should have been ample time for 4:00 AM when the big water rise statted.

      But because AM and holiday weekend, and potentially not trained camp personnel (mainly teens), pretty much no one reacted. Not ruining a holiday was more important than taking precautions.

      Thought experiment: where would people have gone who wanted to take the alert of the day before seriously? This was a holiday weekend. Aside from those in RVs, they’d have to go home. Lotta inertia.

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5. Wukchumni July 13, 2025 at 8:07 am

   Welcome back
   Dead men tell know tales, was your ticket out
   Welcome back
   To that same old place that you laughed about

   Well, the names haven’t changed
   Since in that cell you hung around
   But those dreams have remained
   And they’ve turned around

   Who’d have thought they’d lead you
   (Who’d have thought they’d lead you)
   Back here where we need you?
   (Back here where we need you?)

   Yeah, we tease Jeffrey out a lot
   ‘Cause we got him on the spot
   Welcome back

   Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back
   Welcome back, welcome back

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   1. mrsyk July 13, 2025 at 10:39 am

      Thanks for that cultural blast from the past. We did get Travolta out of the deal, plus we got Barney Miller on the back end.
      (I nicked my mom’s copy of Fear of Flying thanks to a Barney Miller episode, for research of course.)

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      1. Wukchumni July 13, 2025 at 11:01 am

         …along with Epstein (Juan Luis Pedro Felipo de Huevos Epstein) and a Horshack

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6. The Rev Kev July 13, 2025 at 8:08 am

   “Family of American citizen killed by Israeli settlers demands US probe”

   I hate to say it but I think that Sayfollah Musallet is fated to become the Gonzalo Lira of Israel. The US State Department will say nothing, do nothing, will apply no pressure on Israel to account for his death, nor will Trump do anything. Then, in about three months, Trump will write on his Truth Social media account-

   “LET THE STATE DEPARTMENT DO THEIR JOB — THEY’RE GREAT! Let’s keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Sayfollah Musallet, somebody that nobody cares about. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

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   1. Carolinian July 13, 2025 at 8:57 am

      Even Tucker Carlson is now talking about dual loyalty and saying those who fight for a foreign country should lose their American passports. This is very threatening to our president who is the essence of a dual loyalist. A photo of his recent confab with Netanyahu was a sea of Israeli and American flags as though they are both the same.

      Israel is not even a democracy since half the people who live there have no right to vote and “all men are created equal’ is the opposite of what they believe. Trump’s crime family, er, business family view of the world may not be WEF but it has nothing to do with patriotism as his embrace of Israel will only take us down with it. Meanwhile at home he insists on a new budget that will hurt Americans who don’t happen to be rich like him.

      And “happen to be” is the essence of who Trump is. He was born rich and is only president because his opponents were so bad. Lately he looks terrible and his unmoored stream of consciousness drift through life and our lives may be catching up with him. How will it all end?

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      1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2025 at 9:08 am

         Wouldn’t it be hilarious if a law was passed that you cannot be a member of the Senate or the House of Reps if you own any other passport than that of an American one? I would imagine a hard scramble for the doors before such a law came into effect. As a side effect, it would mean that they would have to get rid of all those Israeli and Ukrainian flags outside the offices of all those Congress people.

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         1. mrsyk July 13, 2025 at 10:54 am

            We’ve a new flag now which I’ve seen a number of now. It’s a blend of the US and Israeli flags. I saw a number of these proudly displayed in the once quaint town of Port Clyde, Maine earlier this month. I know not what would compel a person to fly one.

            Is “ironclad” synonymous with “clapped in irons”/

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            1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2025 at 11:01 am

               If you are not worried about getting into a spat, you could ask those Israeli/US flag wavers if the Pledge of Allegiance that kids in school give should be changed to include Israel as well. Then tell them that when you went to school, that Americans were only supposed to be loyal to America and not to foreign countries. That back in the day that that was called treason and they put people in prison for that. And at that point you would have to turn and run away as fast as you can. :)

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         2. Pat July 13, 2025 at 11:42 am

            I want that ban to be extended to political donations and donations to PACs. Actually let’s just make it that You hold any passport in addition to your US passport and you are banned from running for any elected office, banned from holding any civil service position from Cabinet on down to small town town hall receptionist, and banned from donating to any political campaign or organization. You can however still vote.
            Frankly the small town receptionist might be overkill, but dual citizenship is inherently indicative of divided loyalty so not by much. Sure I get that Irish passport is unlikely to bring on conflicts of interest, but you never know.

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7. Wukchumni July 13, 2025 at 8:31 am

   Gooooooooood Moooooooorning Fiatnam!

   The order had been given out on high, er from JD’s keepers, create HALigator Alcatraz on Sand Hill Road, a handy location to house coders until we can think of a new occupation to hype, and AI makes them fully redundant.

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8. KidDoc July 13, 2025 at 9:04 am

   Regarding Grok4: “better than PhD’s in every subject, no exceptions…lack common sense”
   So, nonsensical conclusions are not an exception?

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   1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2025 at 9:10 am

      Does it have street smarts? Somehow I doubt it.

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      1. herman_sampson July 13, 2025 at 10:18 am

         So, when do corporations start laying off executive suites and use A.I. instead? Think of the cost savings alone and the improved effectiveness.
         ( I know, always outsource labor, never management, just like in the 1980s.)

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9. TTT July 13, 2025 at 9:21 am

   Regarding the expensive wedding, Russell Brand seems to have put on some weight! /s

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   1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2025 at 9:31 am

      It kinda put me in mind of this double image-

      https://ifunny.co/picture/when-your-son-asks-you-why-he-has-to-study-fBV6Dr539

      And yes, that is a real photo and not just posed models.

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      1. TTT July 13, 2025 at 9:47 am

         Aah! Young love :)

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      2. Michaelmas July 13, 2025 at 9:58 am

         Nice.

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      3. moog July 13, 2025 at 10:59 am

         That looks like Flavio Briatore. Not the best role model for educational path. :)
         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavio_Briatore#Early_life,_convictions,_and_exile

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   2. Deluxe July 13, 2025 at 10:51 am

      Regarding the expensive wedding, it’s not the money spent that make it Guillotine Watch material, but the guest list.

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      1. Jokerstein July 13, 2025 at 12:47 pm

         Red Wedding, please…

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10. Richard H Caldwell July 13, 2025 at 9:22 am

    “Florida lawmakers allowed into ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ say detainees packed into cages”. Bedcause of course they are, to enact the maximum dramatic effect for immigration enforcement theater. Gotta show the folks at home how rough and tough we are… That’s probably why they didn’t allow the Congresscritters in — the cages weren’t ready yet.

    And can we just drop the bureaucratic bafflegab and get back to calling them prisoners, at least?

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11. Michaelmas July 13, 2025 at 9:55 am

    Re: How Hot Can It Get? Scientists Are Struggling to Find an Answer Financial Post

    This really isn’t that hard to answer. This hot —

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian-Triassic_extinction_event

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12. lyman alpha blob July 13, 2025 at 10:06 am

    RE: The awkward truth behind Mexico City’s ‘Anti-gentrification”‘ protests

    That’s only a “truth” if you are a white Westerner trying to absolve yourself of any responsibility for gentrification by white Westerners. The author fully admits that she gets a US salary while paying a Mexican cost of living, which her Mexican neighbors can’t do. Were she to work a Mexican job she wouldn’t be able to be “comfortable” there. But gentrification isn’t her fault – there are other neighborhoods way more expensive than the one she inhabits, and the rich white people who live there are being overcharged by greedy Mexicans, so it’s capitalisms fault. This is really galling –

    “And wile this is, let’s be honest, an inherently unfair system, it’s of course not the fault of any one individual. Building and maintaining a system is one thing; taking advantage of it as a worker is another, very human by the way, thing.”

    She’s just being a human being and a worker bee you see, and in no way a capitalist taking advantage of labor arbitrage, and because she doesn’t live in the absolute richest neighborhood, it’s not her fault. No mention is made of how much the rents in the neighborhood where she lives have gone up due to the presence of people like her.

    Its the same dynamic in the neighborhood I live and so many others. Due to the influx of people making NYC salaries who can work remotely in Maine, housing prices have skyrocketed. $750K for a tiny crapbox(!) seems cheap to the urbanites. It has occurred to me that I could sell my grossly overpriced suburban house and move to a more rural area with a lower housing costs, but then I’d be contributing to the problem in my neighborhood while also driving up the prices somewhere else, putting housing out of reach for those in the rural area.

    I wish I had an answer for all this other than waiting for the capitalist system to collapse. But maybe understanding how capitalism works, realizing when you personally are becoming part of the problem, and not taking actions that harm others just so you can live a more luxurious life would be a start.

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    1. Jhallc July 13, 2025 at 11:20 am

       LAB- I get that the idea of selling your overly priced home seems like you are selling out your neighborhood. But, it seems inevitable to me that in time you’ll be surrounded by new folks/homes that may or may not, represent the character of the old ones. Finding another home in a more rural area doesn’t necessarily make you the bad person for raising everyone’s taxes. Particularly if you can find a place that otherwise has been neglected and can be saved before it falls into the cellar hole or is scraped off by an developer and replaced with something less in character with the neighborhood. You can try circling the wagons but at some point your wagon will be the last one standing.
       I held out for 15 years after my kids had moved on in my 1907 Colonial home West of Boston. Eventually all the little capes and ranches on my cul de sac had been turned into McMansions and I decided it was time to leave. Bought a bungalow in the next town over that needed to be gutted and redone. Developers were eying it to scrape away but, the family estate that owned it were happy to see me keep it more or less as is.

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       1. lyman alpha blob July 13, 2025 at 1:24 pm

          Thank you for the encouragement. Trying to do the right thing in this economic system can be paralyzing.

          I do like going to NYC and Boston and have lots of friends there, I just chose not to live there myself. When the big city starts coming to me and that’s not what I want, maybe there’s eventually a time to move on.

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13. The Rev Kev July 13, 2025 at 10:26 am

    “US demands clarity from allies on their role in potential war over Taiwan, FT reports”

    ‘The Pentagon is urging Japan and Australia to clarify what role they would play if the U.S. and China went to war over Taiwan, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.’

    That needs a bit of translation that. What people like Colby are demanding is a commitment by Australia and Japan to go to war against China if the US decides to do so. So if Trump wakes up one fine morning and decides to shoot down a Chinese plane or some other idiot move, then we and Japan would have to declare war against China. To hell with that. To make it worse for the Aussie PM, you had “reporters” asking him loaded questions about this – just as he arrived in fricking China for a 6 day visit.

    We’ve been here before when Oz was part of the British empire. When Britain declared war on Germany, the PM at the time went onto radio and said-

    ‘Fellow Australians, it is my melancholy duty to inform you officially that in consequence of a persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war upon her and that, as a result, Australia is also at war.’

    The thought that we could end up in a full scale war depending on how Trump feels any particular day is not one to contemplate. I’m sure that Colby will say no nuke boats for Oz unless we give the US a war commitment but I know what Colby can do with those nuke boats and where he can put them.

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    1. ilsm July 13, 2025 at 10:48 am

       Pentagon should ask DPRK , the same questions.

       Watch the other crises: Epstein, Zelenski, genocide.

       Diversion!

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    2. bertl July 13, 2025 at 12:02 pm

       Maybe the crazies see Taiwan as the US’s very own Tech Gaza which they will crush the minute there is any attempt by the Chinese, or the Chinese and Taiwanese citizens of Taiwan to become in reality what it is formally: a part of the PRC.

       The US does not seem to realise that both Australia and Japan can only benefit from good relations with China whereas the US, under whatever President or party is just a scorpion doing as a scorpion does, and it will treat them as it has treated Ukraine and Europe, ostensibly as friends but actually as subservient gofers watchful of their masters moods and attempting to keep him happy like by rolling over on their stomach, tails wagging in fear whilst trying to act pleased to see him as they hold back the vomit because it is their misfortune that this master has always been very careless with his vassals.

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    3. Jeremy Grimm July 13, 2025 at 12:02 pm

       Those of us who live in the u.s. feel your pain and then some.

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    4. ciroc July 13, 2025 at 1:17 pm

       Since neither Australia nor Japan recognizes Taiwan as a sovereign state, it’s unclear why they would need to protect it. Furthermore, the Australian military appears reluctant to cooperate with Japan because of its implementation of the death penalty.

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14. lyman alpha blob July 13, 2025 at 10:29 am

    RE: The Elgin Marbles

    There is absolutely no reason they should not be returned to Greece. A few decades ago, the argument for keeping them was that Athens was a very polluted city and the statuary would corrode there, while it could be better preserved at the British Museum. That may have ben true at the time, but no longer. The original Caryatids from the Erechtheion are already housed in a modern museum in Athens (the ones you see on the Acropolis are replicas), and the rest of the sculptures now could be, too.

    I think the term “cultural appropriation” is often misused, but in this case it’s 100% accurate. Time to give back the colonialist plunder.

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    1. The Rev Kev July 13, 2025 at 10:39 am

       I suspect that most British do not care about them and if told the situation, would say send ’em back. The elite on the other hand are really wrapped up with those marbles. How far? If the Elgin marbles were originally from Kiev in the Ukraine and not Athens, they would still not hand them over even though they are shipping 5 billions pounds per year there which is about the size of the deficit in the UK’s budget.

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       1. JohnA July 13, 2025 at 12:26 pm

          Erstwhile 40-day British PM and all round idiot Liz Truss, seems to think the marbles came from Elgin, a town in Scotland and therefore part of Britain’s national culture.

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15. Simeon July 13, 2025 at 10:33 am

    Making history for his country & proving that patience is key ✨
    It took Artur Davtyan three Olympic Games to win Armenia’s first Olympic medal in artistic @gymnastics, and at his fourth, in #Paris2024, he advanced from bronze to silver.
    See you at @LA28, Artur? 😉
    — The Olympic Games (@Olympics) June 26, 2025

    He was under extra pressure once he realized that Pashinyan might be able to make Armenia completly disappear before the next Olympic Games.

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16. Lee July 13, 2025 at 11:02 am

    COVID-19/Pandemics

    For an incisive critique on the homicidally wacko state of play in public health by a virologist and an infectious disease doctor I recommend the following. I am reminded of Lambert Strether’s posts on this topic.

    TWiV 1234: Clinical update with Dr. Daniel Griffin
    Microbe TV, 57 minutes

    In his weekly clinical update, Dr. Griffin with Vincent Racaniello note that history is being rewritten for justification of changes in COVID vaccine guidelines including myocarditis incidence and the Great Barrington Declaration ignoring presentations at the April 2025 ACIP, the response by the medical community to these changed guidelines, before Dr. Griffin discusses how vaccination associates with reduced dementia risk before deep diving into recent statistics on measles epidemic, RSV, influenza and SARS-CoV-2 infections the Wasterwater Scan dashboard, a potential new influenza antiviral durg, whether or not the NB.1.8.1 should be included in the fall 2025 vaccines, immunization recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines, where to find PEMGARDA, provides information for Columbia University Irving Medical Center’s long COVID treatment center, where to go for answers to your long COVID questions, associaton of remesdivir administration and long-term sequelae and contacting your federal government representative to stop the assault on science and biomedical research.

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17. ilsm July 13, 2025 at 11:03 am

    Not so Cold War……

    Russia might not be beat by more materiel sent forward for Kiev to use to defend or attack rear areas which do not effect the attrition at the “front”.

    GMRLS is not a tool, without massive complementary systems such as air interdiction.

    Worse, air defense systems such as Patriot envisioned for air land battle campaigns are not logistically suited for years of on going static defenses. Neither Kiev nor Tel Aviv are using the systems as conceived.

    The stockpiles were not planned for this.

    Presidential drawdown is limited to how much stock is needed for the pentagon’s other 1.5 wars, China and Iran.

    U.S. lacks strategy and logistics.

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18. Wukchumni July 13, 2025 at 11:19 am

    Growing number of homeowners who bought in pandemic boomtowns owe more than homes are worth The Independent
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Damned panic was one hellova motivator (waives away home inspection) although Covid gets an assist.

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19. Alice X July 13, 2025 at 11:20 am

    >The Biggest-Ever Digital Camera Is This Cosmologist’s Magnum Opus

    Dr. Becky (Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford (Christ Church)):

    The FIRST images from the RUBIN observatory!

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    1. Alice X July 13, 2025 at 1:17 pm

       It discovered some 2,000 previously unknown asteroids.

       That’s in seven days.

       News you can use?!

       Now I’ll get back to decrying Gaza.

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20. Afro July 13, 2025 at 11:54 am

    How many parents have their driver’s license suspended for unpaid child support? Jake Solomon substack

    ******

    This article comes off like it’s written by an uninformed white liberal — its sympathy in tone is with the deadbeats. Having had first hand experience with the child support system, what I have seen is not that there is too much enforcement, but too little enforcement. There are parents who fail to pay for anything not because they can’t, but because they don’t want to. The issues are exacerbated by a lot of judges and magistrates who just don’t want to get their hands dirty.

    Interestingly, a lawyer in the comments to the article, who obviously has far more experience, made more or less the same point.

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    1. Jeremy Grimm July 13, 2025 at 12:57 pm

       As a divorced dad who paid child support for two kids for years, I think the idea of suspending driver’s licenses to enforce payment of child support payments is remarkably stupid. If there were better public transit, then I might consider suspending driver’s licenses might be a poor but passable enforcement means. What about garnishing a portion of the offender’s paycheck instead?

       I do not know about other states, in the state where I was divorced my child support payments were set based on my income at the time of the divorce. As my employment grew ever more shaky I contacted an attorney to find out what I might do to adjust my child support payments if I became unemployed. I was advised that such adjustment would be difficult to impossible. Similarly, if I received a big raise or promotion at another firm it was difficult for my ex-wife to get my child support payments increased — although I have always suspected obtaining an increase might be a little less difficult. My attorney’s advice came as cold comfort in this icy era of iffy employment and iffy wages.

       As a relatively informed white middle class man I would argue the laws and methods for establishing and enforcing child support, and child custody and visitation together with what I perceived as a strong bias against fathers might add at least one reason for the reluctance of young men to get married. As for the lawyer JohnC and his comment, I am afraid the comment by Ethan in response to JohnC is much more in line with my experience with the legal system.

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21. Mikel July 13, 2025 at 12:43 pm

    ‘I don’t like what’s happening’: Trump tries to quell MAGA blowup over Epstein – Politico

    If nothing else, this is a reminder that the “Empire of Misdirection” only shows what it wants people to see.

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22. Expat2uruguay July 13, 2025 at 12:58 pm

    I’m about a third of the way through my two-week vacation in Bogota. I lucked out with an extremely safe place to stay. Not only is it in a very safe part of town, but also it is a gated community of towers that has controlled entry with armed guards who took my photo after they confirmed that I belonged here. These towers are about 20 years old and originally could only be purchased by current and former police or military personnel. So you can imagine the security level here.

    So I’m renting a room in a four-bedroom penthouse apartment with lovely views, that is decorated in an elegant 50’s style with lots of wood paneling, wallpaper and chandeliers. I have the best room, which includes not only an in-suite bathroom but also a jacuzzi! There’s a large painting of Marilyn Monroe applying makeup at one end of the room, but over the bed hanging. a large painting of Jesus Christ!! Lol

    I rented the room from booking.com and the owner lives in the apartment as well. His 9-year-old daughter is currently visiting, but I think she’s only here for today. The only other tenant right now is the Ukraine US dual citizen I’ve already spoken about. I’ve stopped asking him a lot of questions because the guy is really quite damaged. He’s a self-medicating A LOT and he’s also a proudly violent person.

    A former Marine who served in three theaters, he then moved to Odessa, having known Ukraine since birth as he lived between the two countries. Since he had entered Ukraine on a Ukrainian passport he was identified and conscripted into the UAF. But he also fought with heart, because of his close association with the country. He won’t admit it but I guess he left because he realized there was no way to win. He was also an amateur boxer who believes in dominance by strength and through violence. He believes life is full of violence and it must have been quite heartbreaking for him to have given up on Ukraine and snuck out on his US passport after his last tour ended. I asked him why he chose Columbia and he said it was because everybody said not to go there.

    As to today’s links article about Colombian cocaine, my housemate’s self-medication includes quite a bit of the stuff. His idea of fun is hanging out with his Pisanos, doing cocaine and getting in fights. I mostly see him in the evenings then we smoke a couple bowls of weed together and chat. We get along quite well and I don’t feel like I’m any danger from him. When we have walked around together I didn’t feel in any danger at all because of his very characteristic former marine vibe. But I’m interested in going to parks in museums, and that’s not what he’s into, so I go solo.

    He absolutely loves the apartment because of all the security, remember that he’s still recovering from war-induced PTS. He always has a beer in his hand but I haven’t seen him drunk. He says he feels safe enough here in this guarded complex that he’s finally able to sleep well. So, not only for my own personal safety but also in support of his healing journey, I’ve decided to stop asking about Ukraine or discussing current events. He probably doesn’t know what’s going on in Ukraine now or about the possible start of an assassination program by the Russians, and I’m certainly not going to tell him!

    Saludos!

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23. Lovell July 13, 2025 at 1:33 pm

    Quite remarkable that it’s Victor Orban instead of some mature West European diplomat/leader (are there any?) who’s being sensible on how might (or should) the Ukraine war can be concluded.

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