Walking on water: Tales of perilous treks across frozen Lake Erie to Canada Erie Times-News
Sebastopol Sharks dive into underwater hockey The Press Democrat
Pandemics
Let’s talk about COVID, brain damage & society.
Specifically, what happens when a neurotropic virus repeatedly infects the population, targeting the frontal lobe & almost nobody talks about the consequences?
This thread is for the skeptics.
I’m a neurologist, stay with me 🧵 pic.twitter.com/fbMIhtObaz
— James Throt MBBS, MD, PhD, FRCPath (@JamesThrot) July 17, 2025
Climate/Environment
Overnight flooding in Kansas City leads to water rescues, power outages and road closures KCUR
Flooding downpours from Gulf tropical rainstorm expanding inland Accuweather
Pakistan monsoon rains death toll rises to 159 after 63 die in one day Al Jazeera
***
Biofuel demand to consume 27% of global cereals by 2034: OECD-FAO report Down to Earth
Have renewables decreased electricity prices? The Climate Brink
AI Is Heading For an Energy Crisis That Has Tech Giants Scrambling Science Alert
He helped Microsoft build AI to help the climate. Then Microsoft sold it to Big Oil. HEATED
China?
US-China in a defining race for quantum supremacy Asia Times
China and Huawei are winning the 6G race: A boon for the BRICS, and very bad for the US and Europe Kevin Walmsley
Remember: ultimately the price of AI will converge to the price of electricity.
And in general, tomorrow’s economy will be powered by electricity to an even far greater extent than today. The whole economy, ultimately, is energy transformed and, more and more, electricity… https://t.co/BWqxTkKcxL
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) July 17, 2025
A new cold war with China won’t help the US FT
TSMC aims to make 30% of high-end chips in US with Arizona fab build out The Register
US Set to Impose 93.5% Duty on China Battery Material Bloomberg
***
China joins US in hunt for ripples in spacetime with new telescope in Tibet South China Morning Post. “One of the few surviving examples of China-US collaboration in basic science.”
A Eulogy to China’s Art Museums Art Review
Old Blighty
The Big Chill Craig Murray
DWP just gave a company a £15m contract to spy on benefit claimants The Canary
Government’s ‘weak’ evacuation plans for disabled high-rise residents ‘fail to learn the lessons of Grenfell’ Disability News Service
Syraqistan
🚨Israel just bombed the very Gazan church Pope Francis used to call daily during the genocide
They injured the very priest, Gabriele Romanelli, who used to update the Pope on the situation.
2 church goers were killed, 6 wounded. pic.twitter.com/P1Pi9YqCIf
— Muhammad Shehada (@muhammadshehad2) July 17, 2025
British Surgeon in Gaza Reports ‘Unprecedented Malnutrition,’ Says IDF Snipers Targeting Aid Seekers Antiwar
“Zionist terrorism in the West Bank.” The Floutist
West Asian Fog Oliver Boyd-Barret
Iran and the Logic of Limited Wars RAND
“I’m From the Mossad, and I’m Here to Help” Séamus Malekafzali
George Abdallah: Europe’s longest-held political prisoner to be freed Al Mayadeen
European Disunion
UK signs treaty on defense, trade and migration with Germany as Europe bolsters security AP
New Not-So-Cold War
EU approves new Russia sanctions with lower oil price cap Reuters
Russia will face 100% tariffs on all its goods exported to US if no deal
Russias exports have fallen to $1.2bn in 2024.
And it’s actually the American companies that pay duties to govt not the Russians.
This is bonkers. https://t.co/bCX9rbwPp9
— BenAris (@bneeditor) July 17, 2025
Case Study of Tariffs/Sanctions Enabling New Market Opportunities Karl Sanchez
Four EU countries bail out of paying for Trump’s weapons for Ukraine Intellinews
Trump says Patriot missiles for Ukraine ‘already being shipped’ from Germany Anadolu Agency
Merz: Germany and US nearing deal on Patriot delivery for Ukraine DPA International
Yep:
Does anyone even realize how exposed the West looks right now?
The largest Western economic powers cannot even manage to scrape together an old air defense system that is already ineffective against Russian ballistic missiles to send it to Ukraine for its final destruction. Could…— Zlatti71 (@Zlatti_71) July 17, 2025
Some of Ukraine’s Last S-300 Air Defences Destroyed in Russian Iskander-M Ballistic Missile Strike Military Watch
Army Europe chief unveils NATO eastern flank defense plan Defense News. ‘For example, Donahue noted, Kaliningrad, Russia, is roughly 47 miles wide and surrounded by NATO on all sides and the Army and its allies now have the capability to “take that down from the ground in a timeframe that is unheard of and faster than we’ve ever been able to do.”’
World War mastermind: Here’s America’s most dangerous person Tarik Cyril Amar. Lindsey.
🇵🇱 will love this: Zelensky signed a decree naming 🇺🇦’s 31st Mechanized Brigade after Leonid Stupnytsky, a general in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the 1940s armed wing of the OUN “Banderite” faction that butchered Poles & Jews during the Holocaust. https://t.co/k8AUDbazvD pic.twitter.com/BE95dBKVWK
— Moss Robeson 🇵🇸 (@mossrobeson__) July 17, 2025
Caucasus
Georgia explores switching to China’s CIPS amid SWIFT alternatives AzerNews
L’affaire Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein’s Friends Sent Him Bawdy Letters for a 50th Birthday Album. One Was From Donald Trump. WSJ. Ruh-roh.
Trump directs AG to release Epstein case grand jury transcripts Axios. But not the evidence from the trial nor the sealed files from 2008 “completely unprecedented” plea deal.
Trump Was Attempting to Block Publication of Embarrassing WSJ Jeffrey Epstein Story Variety
You don’t say. https://t.co/6In4E5yxHS pic.twitter.com/AlAr48FYrK
— TARNISHED GOLDEN SUNFLOWER (@_gothlorien) July 17, 2025
“Liberation Day”
The (Muted) Impact of Tariffs on Inflation Barry Ritholtz
Trump 2.0
Trump Diagnosed With Blood Vessel Disease MedPage Today
Democrats en déshabillé
102 House Democrats, Including Jeffries, Help GOP Send Crypto Bill to Trump’s Desk Common Dreams
Tens of thousands in US set to join ‘Good Trouble’ anti-Trump protests honoring John Lewis The Guardian
Is It Time To Revoke John Lewis’s Lifetime Civil Rights Hero Pass? Black Agenda Report. From 2017, still germane.
Sanders Proposes ‘Pensions for All’ as Trump Aims to Open 401(k)s to Private Equity Vultures Common Dreams
Mamdani
What Bernie Sanders told Zohran Mamdani about antisemitism and pushing back on Democratic leaders CNN
A Typology of Socialisms in the 21st Century Left Notes
The Shocking Rise of One of the Tech Right’s Favorite Posters Mother Jones. The individual who provided the New York Times with hacked data showing Mamdani identified as both Asian and African American on his app to Columbia U.
Realignment and Legitimacy
Is ‘Toxic Empathy’ Pulling Christians to the Left? Ross Douthat, New York Times
Imperial Collapse Watch
🇺🇸🇮🇷 Wow, the US Unveiled “Lucas” – a copy of Iran’s Shahed-136 Drone
Yes a COPY – it has the EXACT size, shape and payload as the Shahed
Arizona based developer SpektreWorks describes LUCAS as reliable and cost-effective
And soon the US will accuse Iran of being a copycat 🙄 pic.twitter.com/3zPo9nCh5u
— David Roth-Lindberg (@RothLindberg) July 17, 2025
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Smart toilets measuring stool’s colour, hardness on sale in Japan, targeting health-conscious users Straits Times
Police State Watch
Trump administration hands over Medicaid recipients’ personal data, including addresses, to ICE AP
Meet the Disaster Capitalists Behind Alligator Alcatraz Maureen Tkacik, The American Prospect. “Incompetent and militarized ‘emergency response’ is on track to be a trillion-dollar industry by the end of Trump’s second term.” Well worth a read.
ICE Again Gives The Law The Finger, Denies Member Of Congress Access To Detention Facility Tech Dirt
National Guard came to L.A. to fight unrest. Troops ended up fighting boredom Los Angeles Times
In Distraction From Epstein Files Uproar, AG Pam Bondi Comes to SF to Tour Alcatraz SFist
Trump Justice Department seeks one day in prison for ex-officer in Breonna Taylor case NBC News. Were the allegations that Taylor’s killing was part of a Louisville PD operation to clear out a block for a major development project ever settled?
MLBPA urges players to carry docs amid immigration raids Sports Business Journal
The Bezzle
House Passes CLARITY Act Defining Crypto Regulation Coin World. Gives the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) more regulatory oversight over crypto, and wait for it…
Class Warfare
AWS sheds more jobs as Jassy’s automation layoff prophecy comes true The Register
Opaque Algorithms Are Setting Prices Just For You Boondoggle
How to ‘Drop Out of Society’ Hickman’s Hinterlands
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
“Army Europe chief unveils NATO eastern flank defense plan”
‘For example, Donahue noted, Kaliningrad, Russia, is roughly 47 miles wide and surrounded by NATO on all sides and the Army and its allies now have the capability to “take that down from the ground in a timeframe that is unheard of and faster than we’ve ever been able to do.” ‘
When asked what would happen after NATO seized the Russian territory of Kaliningrad, General Christopher Donahue admitted that every NATO base surrounding Kaliningrad would be slammed with a volley fire of Oreshnik ballistic missiles along with Ramstein Air Base for good measure but hey, you take your wins where you can.
They have the capability to take themselves down in a timeframe that is unheard of and faster than they’ve ever been able to do, indeed.
https://imgflip.com/memetemplate/375409799/Monkey-with-stick-hitting-lion
The Lucas drone, a copy of the Iranian drone. Except for the price tag which will be 3 to 10 times the cost of the Iranian drone ex service contracts
As I said in a comment yesterday, Trump will claim that Iran stole the blueprints for the Shahed drone from the US when Obama was President. If they were going to copy something, couldn’t it have been an X-Wing? At least it would have looked cool. This Lucas drone is just plain embarrassing. Iran should sue for copyright infringement.
It actually turns out the basic design dates back to a German anti-radar loitering munition (Dornier DAR).
Later Israel copied it as IAI Harpy (and it may have gone through a South African iteration too in between), then Iran made the Shahed.
But if the US is now copying the Shahed, it is two generations behind the curve. What the Russians are flying now is a whole zoo of advanced derivatives that share with the Shahed only the shape, but are otherwise their own developments shaped by the experience of the war
Given the robust market for Switchblade™︎ drones, it’s difficult to understand why the U.S. would want to imitate Iranian drones.
Don’t forget that it will need a subscription license to the software and support package or it won’t be able to take off any more.
Will Kaliningrad be the Alamo or Bastogne?
More likely Rorke’s Drift.
For the Commonwealth adjacent.
Lucas the copy another exception will perhaps be quantity which will be a fraction of East Block production
More likely this Empire’s Teutoburg Forest disaster. Who will be NATO’s Varus?
TBH the “setting prices just for you” is 20 years late. It long predates AI etc. Choice modellers whose “home field” was academic marketing were ALWAYS about willingness to pay (WTP).
Giving you different prices for a flight on repeated requests has a very statistically valid (if unethical) aim: to quantify your “lost lambda” as Yves so pithily summarised my article about discrete choice models. (Wish I had thought of that byline!)
Plus stated preferences don’t usually match revealed preferences (except THE PATTERNS, hence the different prices on repeat searches). The latter carry much more weight for the Ryanairs of this world. Ultimately, what did the potential customer DO? Mapping their demand curve was around long before AI. AI merely makes it easier. O’Leary knew a LOT about you already before AI came along.
I was working on demand mapping software (which was used by airlines) 26 years ago. Personalized pricing can be seen as an extension of demand curve mapping but it’s a customer-specific evolution: related but not fundamentally the same, because of its application at the micro level.
Yeah my mentor got his big break in early 1980s by promising Qantas better pricing strategies for Trans-pacific routes. He had little to back up his assertions but faked it till he made it.
Not sure if we’ve talked at cross purposes but we definitely do everything at the micro level. The most recent developments in best-worst Scaling enabled us to feed back people’s preferences immediately after they did the survey…… in areas like personality assessment they LOVED this. It’s all part of the current fad for online surveys feeding results back to you….. except ours are actually based on proper theoretical and statistical principles, not some guff that so many online apps use ;)
PS for anyone keeping score who remembers me saying AI ain’t a threat to my old field, here’s the explanation. Aviation is a mature industry and AI absolutely can scrape information to aid in modelling the demand curve…..and for YOU the individual.
“New products” (like the original iPhone when launched) could not have had demand predictions from AI. AI relies on existing datasets of actual purchases (revealed preferences) and/or discrete choice experiments producing stated preferences. We had neither for the iPhone. Think of it as the demand equivalent of the supply “production probability frontier”. Revolutionary products lie beyond the frontier so nothing to scrape from. Gotta do the legwork.
Interestingly our Sydney unit advised both Nokia and Motorola around time of the iPhone launch…. we helped them perfect their existing “brick” and “flip phone” respectively but also we told both touchscreens were coming…… they ignored us.
Re: Syria
Continuing a discussion with raspberry jam from yesterday’s links, it seems Ben-Gvir and Bibi are going for broke. I read DDGeopolitics TG channel feed, and they are saying Al-Julani has fled to Idlib, probably a good career move. They also claim that Mossad is already in Damascus and if true, for all intents and purposes, the new government of Syria has already fallen.
Any links from outside Telegram yet? Today is not a working day in IL so I cannot ask colleagues in IL what they think until I get to our meetings on Sunday.
I haven’t seen any – I refuse to install the app and rely on the browser based site, which is spotty at best.
MoA has a Palestine Open thread, and a commenter linked to an Al Manar article that sites over 200 airstrikes by Israel inside Syria since Tuesday, with “most of them against targets unrelated to the events in Sweida”
MoA Link
Too much fog currently to conclude Al-Jolani has fled or this is ultimately about anything other than Netanyahu needing to stall on his trial and maintain his governing coalition until the Knesset breaks at the end of the month for 3 months IMHO although note that Smotrich has delivered speeches showing his map of “Greater Israel” includes Syria and Jordan which is maximalist by the “normal” revanchist view. So aside from stalling this smells more like bait to keep the Ben Gvir/Smotrich hardliners on side in the face of other developments regarding Gaza which I discussed more yesterday.
We’ll have to wait to see how events unfold. Just caught this on DDGeopolitics:
DD Geopolitics
DD Geopolitics
🇸🇾 BREAKING! We have received information from reliable sources that Al-Julani allegedly fled Damascus and is in Idlib at the moment. 🔴 @DDGeopolitics | Socials | Donate | Advertising
🇸🇾 Al Mayadeen confirms that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has left Damascus with his family—just hours after an alleged Israeli assassination operation targeted three top officials in the Transitional Administration, including Defense Minister Marhaf Abu Qasra.
Trump: “This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story.”.
Austin Powers: “This sort of thing ain’t my bag, baby!”
I’m surprised he didn’t go for the easy layup and blame it on fake AI.
I’m probably too optimistic but I think Orange Julius may be fatally wounded. There is one thing you never do in politics and that’s say the quiet part out loud – you don’t need your supporters, which implies they were just tools for him to use on the way to the top.
Been thinking about what you said and maybe he feels that he does not need his supporters. That they can go the way of Obama’s Army as he will be President for the next three and a half years. And that he can force the Repubs to toe his line in the Senate and the House. But I am willing to bet that those Senators and Reps have their phones ringing off the hook & their email inbox overflowing with lots of threats about the midterms. The Zelensky Curse strikes again.
> maybe he feels that he does not need his supporters.
They’ve served their purpose. He rode the populist wave with a counter-elite hostile takeover, but the cankles won’t carry him to the third term he hoots about.
Senators and Congresspeople need them, though. Abortion has been a perfect wedge issue, in part because of the black & white simplicity. Yes/No. Perfect positive assortment for what each side views as co-operators.
But for the evangelical base, children are innocents. The provenance of the evidence can lead to some disturbing conclusions regarding hypocrites, if perception of it can penetrate the protective bubble meant to maintain innocence. Those Senators and Congressfolks voted yes/no on the issue. Feels existential.
The three and a half years seems dubious now. I would bet they pull the plug on him somewhere around the 1 year mark, so Vance can try to recover the base’s deluded loyalty in time for the midterms. There are obvious health problems that can be blamed for his demise (they could also put him in a permanent coma like Ariel Sharon). The deep state is probably running out of use cases for keeping him around at this point.
This is what Biden’s staff and cabinet basically did with him, keeping him cloistered and limiting his appearances and public engagement while they made all the strategic decisions and ran their own pet projects, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Republicans started doing the same with Trump.
Republicans will probably want to keep Trump as the figurehead for at least the start of 2027 if Trump’s health doesn’t get to him first. Their data is likely telling them to anticipate corrections/losses during the mid-terms regardless of whether Trump or Vance are in charge. Dumping Trump afterwards (at the two year mark after Congress reconvenes or by the RNC for 2028) though can make it look like Republicans are actually attentive and/or conciliatory to their base compared to Democrats, who had kept their own constituents in the dark about Biden and didn’t replace him as the candidate until it affected their ability to win the 2024 election. If they replace Trump with Vance after the 2 year mark, then Vance wouldn’t have that time count against him for re-elections, and he could be president for just under 10 years
If he has the self discipline to execute on the clearly unconstitutional budgeting power (spending the budget now being at the president’s discretion) SCOTUS handed him in the context of ICE/Brownshirts (Hawaiianshirts?) disappearing people, and the TechBros are correct in their calculations that AI has reduced the cost of coercion to the point a new slave society is possible, and that we all play along.
Then the idea of a “base” becomes irrelevant, but only then, it seems to me.
I have to go with “too optimistic”. Maybe if there was murder involved in this scandal, even then I say maybe, we might see Trump’s downfall. This may lose him some, maybe even a lot of supporters. But he will deny, deny, deny and carry on with the crazy because he’s got 3 more years and that’s it (she types with one hand while crossings fingers of one hand). Unless things go even more awry, he can’t run again so he doesn’t need those supporters. I’d lean more towards poor health being his ticket out. And in the end, I remind myself that he is but a symptom of what is wrong, yes, doing more damage but the damage started long before he was elected the first time. Also, what will his downfall look like? Anything that removes him and leaves us with Vance is not a better scenario. Hell, a Democrat comeback is not really a better scenario.
The only way Trump gets a boot to the head is if there are compromising photos of him with a trans, and extra bonus points for an underaged darling.
Nah, who am I kidding. This guy is the acknowledged master of nothing sticks to him.
Seems to me that many things stick but they don’t take him out. Few of us believe his lies but it seems to make no difference, certainly not to him. Instead of an aging portrait ala Dorian Grey, I envision Trump’s hidden portrait as ever-growing, showing an expanding aura of sh*t while he carries on, seemingly care free.
Trump is the boy who cried wolf whistle.
Trump Goes Berserk
Melody
In the shuffling madness
Of sanity’s last breath
Runs the all-time poseur
Headlong to his death
Oh, he feels the dopamine fading
Screen breaking on his phone
Old Jeffrey stole the handle
And the train it won’t stop going
No it couldn’t slow down
He sees his minions jumping off
At the station one by one
A card with him and Epstein
In bed and having fun
Oh he’s crawling down the Acela Corridor
On his hands and knees
For Jeffrey stole the handle
And the train it won’t stop going
No way to slow down
Yeah, Yeah!
He hears the sirens howling
Job approval numbers fall
And the Netanyahu
Has got him by the balls!
Oh, he picks up Clintons bible
Open at page one
I think God he stole the handle
And the train it won’t stop going
No way to slow down
NH will send a democrat to the senate to replace retiring Sen Shaheen.
The two house seats remain democrat.
Re: Trump’s health prospects
Yeah, and check out John Helmer’s article (above).
Thanks for the pointer to the Helmer post. Crikey! When I mentioned his health, I was thinking along the lines of a cardiac event or a stroke based on his current venous woes. A slow descent into dementia is not what we need. We have more than enough past experience with the cover-up that will no doubt take place, er, is taking place. Sigh. I was going to go on about an age limit for presidential candidates but then gave my head a good shake… I can only assume that an aging and demented president works well for those with the real power. Although, one hopes that Trump’s personality is giving those *ssholes some trouble. With or without dementia, Trump is seemingly uncontrollable. And really, is it dementia that is causing his inability to see reality or is it just his normal self-serving, lying personality? Who knows? I’d guess that the larger shoe is to accommodate the swelling from his venous insufficiency. Hoping that IM Doc chimes in on the Helmer piece and the Trump health speculations.
This is what I keep telling my terminally TDS-infected friends, but to no avail. Sigh.
…the DOGE ate my ‘homework’
Dr. Richard Kimble, to the authorities. “It wasn’t me it was the one armed man. You find this man. I did not kill my wife!”
Snarky comment aside. Well someone somewhere found them skeletons after all. Things that make you go…FFS.
Benedict Donald filed a lawsuit every 10 days on average for 30 years before becoming President in 2017. It’s his drug addiction.
The old Streisand Effect for me, was she was better heard than seen, while with the new version Trump is better seen than heard.
The link for “Four EU countries bail out of paying for Trump’s weapons for Ukraine” is dead and the story seems to have been taken down. Regardless, most of the big NATO nations have bailed on this idea and it may have been that they were not told about it before it was announced. I think that Germany is the only major country that has not bailed from this idea. And for that they win second prize – a set of steak knives.
So the crypto bill has passed. Interestingly, at the end of June a new bank charter was filed for “First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A.”. It’s not a depository charter but a bank trust company charter.
OCC charter number 25361
https://apps.occ.gov/CAAS_CATS/CAAS_Details.aspx?FilingTypeID=2&FilingID=342299&FilingSubtypeID=1093
Bitcoin unfazed: https://www.tradingview.com/x/2I0IeBO8/
…but maybe this was already priced in.
What a coincidence!
Passage of this bill really frosts me. I had the opportunity a few years ago to directly ask one of the high ranking members of Congress on the DCCC if they had any contact with Sam Bankman Fried and was told that “maybe they passed him in the hall once”. That person was a yea vote according to the Congressional roll call.
Interesting. My congress critter was a recipient of likely illegal straw-donor scheme FTX donations. She voted nay. I’m not sure what conclusion is to be drawn from that.
My own Congresswoman Chellie Pingree was a nay vote. I’ll chalk that up to her being divorced from a squillionaire and likely having enough real currency on hand not to need to participate in this particular grift. I’m really in a mood about this one.
Re: Alcatraz
In a double feature, I would opt first for Boorman’s Point Blank, with Lee Marvin, and then as a second feature, Escape from Alcatraz with Eastwood.
And if Bondi really wants to Make America Safe Again, she could do worse than to intern Pelosi, Newsom and herself on the island.
When that prison was up and running they had to shut it down because the buildings and infrastructure were being eroded by the salt air from the surrounding bay but more to the point, it cost far more to house those cons than a run of the mill prison on land. And that is why it was shut down but if they open it up again the same factors will still be in play.
As I recall from a tour of Alcatraz, the underlying construction method left the buildings internally structurally vulnerable.
It was far easier to make the construction concrete with the salt water that surrounded Alcatraz Island, rather than bring in fresh water.
Maybe a metaphor for much of USA infrastructure.
Never did the Alcatraz tour, what kind of a lousy excuse for a native son of the golden west, I am.
While I am not native to the state of South Carolina where I currently live, and may indeed live here another 10 to 20 years I am reminded of this timeless, my paraphrasing, quote below. I’m going to add context that indeed I grew up nearby to SC, and spent my first 30 years in North Carolina.
“South Carolina, too small to be a republic yet too large to be an insane asylum.”. I’ll include below the cited source of that quote….
https://www.nps.gov/people/james-l-petigru.htm
This morning, on an interview recapping this story AG Bondi noted that no one had ever escaped. I’d venture it wasn’t for lack of trying but what do you once you hypothetically got out (?). The story went onto tell how antiquated that facility currently is…
Continuing the American Prison theme; I vote for “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss_of_the_Spider_Woman_(1985_film)
So many timely themes it hurts.
Make it a triple feature with The Rock, or a quadruple with Birdman of Alcatraz.
Smart toilets…tracking you when you go poo, yes tracking how often or when we go number two…
Weirdly funny. “What is that new app you downloaded?”. Oh it’s called InstaColoGuard. That box was just impersonal.
Well that app certainly sounds like it has the ring of truth about it.
Shit happens and perhaps similar to others, I read into my handiwork when pressing down the lever that sends it to the nether regions.
My favorite is the long Kielbasa floater
I got one of those things delivered to me by UPS, un-solicited. And a string of annoying text messages nagging me about it. So I took out some tape, wrote “return to sender address unknown” on it, and dropped it off at the UPS store.
It came back like a boom-a-rang to my porch the next day.
I thought this was about Putin’s marine fauna weaponization program going beyond mammals.
That a second Austin Powers reference of the mornings fits here seamlessly……
Sharks with lasers
House Passes CLARITY Act Defining Crypto Regulation Coin World.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How funny, an online crypto presence has lifted the name of the oldest weekly (now monthly) numismatic* newspaper: Coin World
Founded around the same time as yours truly in 1960-full of interesting articles, it was the main vehicle to do retail sales via snail mail. An edition from the 1970’s might have 100 pages, and they did this 52 times a year.
Talking to the old guard of aged round metal discs who are still active, there are essentially no young coin collectors-the hobby of kings is on a 1 way street to palookaville, gonna age out.
But young men are the drivers in newmismatics, ha ha!
* numismatics was about 99.87% male dominated, there were a few female coin dealers in the entire world-i’m talking on the order of less than 10 compared to say 1,000 men pushing old metal, and a handful of women coin collectors
RE: A Eulogy to China’s Art Museums
The interesting part was this –
“The Shanghai Himalayas Museum’s decline began with the collapse of Dai Zhikang’s financial empire. In 2019 Dai admitted to creating unauthorised capital pools and misappropriating approximately £1 billion in funds from the public, leading to his arrest along with 40 associates. In December 2022 he was sentenced to 19 years in prison, and his assets, including a dilapidated mansion in Shanghai, were auctioned off to repay creditors. The downfall of Dai and the financial instability of the Zendai Group left the Shanghai Himalayas Museum without its primary benefactor. This loss of funding, coupled with the museum’s integration into Dai’s commercial ventures, led to a significant decline in its operations.”
In China, there are still consequences for financial criminals – imagine that! Meanwhile in the US, we bipartisanly pass the crypto bill, legitimizing the grift.
Sending thoughts and prayers on the Instagrams is where it’s at. He forgot to promise sending his car, though.
Renewable prices.
It’s a good article but things are changing so fast they are behind in the costs.
First we have to understand the US pays the highest prices in the world for solar due to tariffs and the IRA. Domestic assembled solar is close to 40 cents a watt. In China they are 10 cents. When you get to batteries the prices have dropped just in the last year by between 30-40 percent. Again tariffs and rules mean we are not seeing those price decreases but increases.
Because of all that, PPA’s ( power purchase agreements) have been going up the last year or more having nothing to do with trumps policies. And id expect with what Trump has done and probably what we will expect will drive the price up significantly so NG will be cheaper. Renewables have been by far the biggest source of new generation because lower cost and I’m guessing the NG boys are not happy about that, hence the main reason for the Trump to make renewables more expensive.
Meanwhile around the world renewable prices continue to drop
I’m just a sleepy-headed art major, but won’t higher domestic energy costs make US products less competitive? Oopps.
Excellent thread on covid brain by James Throt. IANAD; but I do take issue with his comment that:
Spike protein expression from vaccines is localised and short lived.
Yes, if the injection was done properly (into muscle). But there were millions of jabs and some went accidentally into the circulatory system and embedded on-going protein expression in some random organ. An accounting of that would be prudent.
for non-twitterati:
https://nitter.poast.org/JamesThrot/status/1945802539615572284
“Government’s ‘weak’ evacuation plans for disabled high-rise residents ‘fail to learn the lessons of Grenfell’ ”
‘New post-Grenfell regulations designed to ensure disabled people can safely evacuate from high-rise residential buildings will instead continue to put their lives in grave danger, the government has been told.’
I’m given to understand that the government will issue every high-rise resident a sealed envelope to be opened only in case of a fire. Inside of each envelope will be detailed instructions on how to knot sheets together in order to form a sheet rope to rappel down the side of the blazing building with.
Re the Lindsey in trouble article from RT–not very convincing. The suggestion that Andre Bauer may defeat him in the Repub primary ignores Bauer’s previous political struggles not to mention the fact that he would scarcely be an improvement. Wiki offers this gem.
In January 2010, Bauer came under fire for comparing public school children who receive free lunches to stray animals who should not be fed. “My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals,” Bauer said during a town hall meeting. “You know why? Because they breed. You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t… think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better.” Bauer made the comment as part of an argument that people should lose government benefits if they fail drug tests or don’t attend parent-teacher conferences or Parent-Teacher Association meetings. The Associated Press reported that Bauer was a child of divorce who benefited from free lunches himself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Bauer
The Dems tried to take out Graham last time, spent lots of money against him and he still won. No more Lindsey is devotely to be wished but so far just a wish.
Nice. Sounds like Bauer would fit right in.
Congress is so full of despicable bribed, blackmailed, and/or brainwashed warmongers that it is almost impossible to choose one as the worst. But if I was forced to do so it would have to be Lindsay, for all the reasons noted in the RT article and more. The really frustrating thing is that this miserable neocon front-man seems to be so untouchable, as you say. Part of my own struggle with the “theodicy problem” is asking how a Lindsay Graham is allowed to exist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodicy
I’m sorry. When I read about the “theodicy problem” and Lindsay Graham, I read it as the “idiocracy problem.”
Preparations to deliver Patriot missile systems to Ukraine under way, Nato’s top Europe commander says – as it happened – The Guardian
Looking past the Three-Card Monty with weapons, check out this part of the article:
“UK prime minister Keir Starmer confirmed meanwhile that the proposed peacekeeping force by the so-called Coalition of the Willing will include a land element, as he repeatedly called to increase pressure on Russia’s Vladimir Putin to force him into peace talks with Ukraine.”
Sounds like they think they have the Trump administration by the balls enough to bring that “back stop” idea back to life.
The peacekeeping force will be something for the teenagers to do on their Gap Years. As the Strategic Defence Review said, the Government will deliver more opportunities for young people to engage with the armed forces by introducing a voluntary ‘Gap Year’ scheme.
Why wait for the “teen” years? Child labor laws aren’t under attack for nothing.
Thanks for the link to a piece by Maureen Tkacik. She is wonderful and funny. Always worth reading.
I am Pam
Pam I am
That Pam-I-am!
That Pam-I-am!
I like that Uncle Sam-I-am!
Do you like
Epstein Files rotten eggs?
I do not like them, Pam-I-am.
I do not like
Epstein Files eggs, rotten or otherwise
Would you like them
here or there?
I would not like them
here or there
I would not like them at Alcatraz or anywhere
I do not like
Epstein Files free for all
I do not like them, Pam-I-am.
Would you like to see them @ your house?
Would you like to see them clicking a mouse?
I would not like you to see them
In a house
I do not like you to click on them
With a mouse
I do not like them
Here or there
I do not like them
Anywhere
I do not like
Epstein Files anywhere!
I do not like them,
Pam-I-am
You might add the following stanza:
A plane, a plane, a plane, a plane?
Would you, could you, on a plane?
‘BenAris
@bneeditor
Russia will face 100% tariffs on all its goods exported to US if no deal
Russias exports have fallen to $1.2bn in 2024.
And it’s actually the American companies that pay duties to govt not the Russians.
This is bonkers.’
As Yoda would say-
‘Around, they effed.
Find out, they will.’
– ‘Tens of thousands in US set to join ‘Good Trouble’ anti-Trump protests honoring John Lewis’ – The Guardian
– ‘Is It Time To Revoke John Lewis’s Lifetime Civil Rights Hero Pass?’ – Black Agenda Report. From 2017, still germane.
As the late Bruce Dixon pointed out in this BAR piece, Lewis had long been a central member of the Black Misleadership Class so important to the Democrats. He mentions that Lewis supported Hillary in 2016. But to me his disparaging of Bernie Sanders’ life-long civil rights record (he “couldn’t remember” seeing Sanders at any of the rallies he attended back in the day) while holding up Goldwater Girl Clinton as paragon was the ultimate and final betrayal of what was left of his “legacy.” That Bernie would also go on to do something similar with Russiagate et al. only demonstrates the power of the Machine to co-opt any real resistance. It’s hard to overstate how cynical I am now toward these performative “protests” that I used to take seriously.
Yeah, some days it feels like The Man’s Too Strong. Gotta hang in there though.
Look at what he did to, and did not do for, his District. A lot of talk and coasting.
Colbert cancelled – https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/articles/cbs-cancel-show-stephen-colbert-232153421.html
Perhaps he’ll get a new show somewhere else and go back to being funny again.
Colbert has mocked Trump so many times that CBS probably decided to make nice with Trump and dump Colbert, especially after they had to agreed to a $16 million settlement to end Trump’s lawsuit not long ago. Either that or the last of Colbert’s audience has died of old age.
He was so good in Strangers With Candy and Colbert Report. I could never understand what happened to his edge. CBS really did him a dirty though. All for the ego of the Orange Devil.
There will be a reckoning for all of this madness, though this is just a tiny little piece that doesn’t mean much in the long run.
I’ll be all aroun’ in the dark. I’ll be everywhere — wherever you look. Wherever they’s a fight so people hungry for laughter can guffaw, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a President beatin’ up a country, I’ll be there.
No loss.
His big break was from Jon Stewart and it was all downhill once he went to CBS.
Julie Brown says the video of Epstein’s “cell” isn’t really a video of his cell.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/14/us/video/the-lead-julie-k-brown-epstein-files-president-trump-justice-department-jake-tapper
Transcript:
https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/cg/date/2025-07-14/segment/01
On today’s antidote from 800 years ago but still timely:
The water-bird
Wanders here and there
Leaving no trace
Yet her path
She never forgets.
—-Dogen (Translation by R.H. Blyth)
Thank you, Conor.
Further to the link about the Israeli targeting of the Catholic church, not for the first time, an increasing amount of the faithful, including my family, are getting fed up with the Vatican / hierarchy’s tolerance of Zionist aggression and fear of Zionists raising the issue of child abuse. They are in no position to cast the first stone at Catholics.
What added insult to injury was this morning’s French government statement, reminding Israel of France’s historic responsibility to protect Christians in Palestine. WTF?! After most Arab Christians, a fifth of the Arab population under the last Ottoman census, have been exiled or killed since Sykes-Picot and France gave Antioch to Turkiye.
This Francophone Catholic and his family, which includes cardinals Jean Margeot and Maurice Piat, if one counts mum’s extended and oligarch family, laugh at such nonsense and arrogance. This is the France that allows Charlie Hebdo to insult Catholics and Muslims in the name of free speech and even entertainment. It’s the France that preached freedom, but had the code noir on the statute books. It’s the France that pretends it won WW2 and ignores the contribution of imperial troops, including my paternal and oligarch cousins Amedee Maingard de la Ville Es Offrans and Suzanne Leclezio. It’s the France that preaches secularism and even ignorance, but wants its children to attend Catholic schools and even universities.
Please excuse my rant about French hypocrisy and ignorance. It’s one of those days. :-).
You may find some comfort with Viganò.
I am just making my opinion known from the many assorted stories related to Epstein and Trump.
Trump is guilty of Statutory Rape and human trafficing at the very least aiding and abetting others. As for other prominents: guilty as well. What do you expect from politicians who run for personal gain and not to uphold their sworn duties… sort of like child preditors drawn to the boy scouts and the catholic church, abusers to police, sadists to mercenary posts and etal ….. what would be the disorder that draws people to commit human rights abuses and genocidal activities??
As for those who have had multiple contacts with Epstein….such as in that florida mansion,in flights, on islands, at clubs chumming around – Two possible scenarios 1) That individuals with multiple contacts claiming not to know what was going are Pathological lying to avoid prosecution or have a Delusional disorder that precludes them telling the truth….. like so many others (fill in all names, use another sheet of paper if their is not enough space provided).
It strikes me that the birthday card could be evidence of an intent to agree with Epstein, along with an agreement to commit a criminal conspiracy to human trafficking. That would raise the stakes to criminal conspiracy, and open the door to liability for any foreseeable crimes that were later committed in furtherance of the conspiracy by Epstein (Pinkerton rule.)
Theoretically, given all the counts, Trump could face life in prison.
Of course none of that will ever be prosecuted. As for the other accomplices, they can try to claim they didn’t know about the conspiracy or never agreed to it, but they still ought to be prosecuted for statutory rape, solicitation, being accessories before or after the fact, or any other crimes they committed. Not getting my hopes up.
Trump knows he’s a felon and only became president to pardon himself.
Any of you guys in Europe had better prepare for higher fuel prices. How so? The EU, in their infinite wisdom, are sanctioning India’s second-largest oil refinery because it is partially 49% owned by a Russian corporation. It’s part of the 18th sanction package. There is only one tiny problem. The EU is a major buyer of the Russian crude that is refined at that refinery. In addition, the EU can now punish any India-flagged ship for transporting Russian oil. I would imagine that as far as India is concerned, the EU can take a running jump-
https://www.rt.com/india/621646-eu-sanction-india-oil-refinery/
No doubt VdL and Kaja Kallas will be popping champagne corks in celebration at these brilliant moves.
The price of residential natural gas from PG&E here in northern California went up 30% in the last 12 months. Perhaps a clue as to why this might be can be found here.
(pinched from ambrit on the nuclear war page)
“Threads” is available on YouTube for free.
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvFu7Z5cc88&t=80s&ab_channel=Retrospective-ClassicMovies
So is “Testament.”
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9cKi6f9nEE&ab_channel=YouTubeMovies
So is “When the Wind Blows.”
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TxrnYBrZME&ab_channel=YouTubeMovies
That should be enough “doom scrolling” for one day.
Stay safe. Don’t forget the potassium iodide tablets.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Watched Testament & Threads yesterday, never having seen them and the latter in particular is so very harrowing and set on a 13 year time frame after the fact, Jack.
Worth the price of admission, but you’ll have to make the popcorn.
Congress approved a bill to cut about $9 billion from Public Broadcasting and Foreign Aid. $1.1 billion will be cancelled for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and $8 billion for foreign aid.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the stations are “not just your news — it is your tsunami alert, it is your landslide alert, it is your volcano alert.” Yet the bill passed anyway.
Casual murder continues
Health Insurers Are Denying More Drug Claims, Data Shows
I can’t tell if things are really worse than they’ve been because of an ongoing Pandemic or if things really have gotten more vicious over the past 5 years.
Data centers eating power–
Another business source has admitted that climate change will bring down capitalism. Gunther Thallinger, a scientist and on the board of Allianz, had this to say on his Linked In page:
There are three rapidly growing sources of CO2 emissions:
1) Data Centers (see today’s link):
;
2) Tourism:
3) Private jets: